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1. On Ravindra Jadeja injury
You know as an opposition, Australia hasn't always had good results with good spinner and India has some fantastic spinners. When you look at the opposition, no matter what the pitch is, you know when Australia has struggled with spin especially with this team there is not much depth in their batting line up, you know with the Aussies you would always have a spinner in your team. When you pick a team, when you pick up a playing eleven, try and take the skills of players who can probably contribute irrespective of what the conditions are. if both the spinners have been injured, then you didn't have an option. Then you would have preferred to say that upfront rather than now. That I don't know why the team management didn't mention Jaddu's injury. But having said that, I have been through shoulder issues and I have taken injections on my shoulder. It does take a little bit of time to settle down but when it is settling down, the last thing I want to be doing is throwing from the deep. That is something I wouldn't want to do if my shoulder is settling down from an injection.
2. On not selecting Kuldeep Yadav at Perth
If both of them (R Ashwin and Jadeja) were not available then you didn't have a choice but to go with four fast bowlers because Kuldeep requires another spinner at the other end. I believe that Kuldeep requires that because he is still young and being the lead spinner is too much of a risk, but ideally you would want someone like a Jadeja or an Ashwin at the other end when Kuldeep is playing but I think Jaddu was fielding on couple of days in Perth Test so I am not sure what the extent of injury was.
3. On the lean patch of KL Rahul
We know what the potential of KL Rahul is. Unfortunately he hasn't turned that into a performance, I mean consistent performances. Last year he was really good in terms of contributing to the Test matches as well. He had some big hundreds but unfortunately he has fallen behind the way side, I think it is just not his technique that he is probably doubting at the moment but also his mind. I think will be good to give him a break and perhaps make him play the longer format in domestic cricket and that is a good option for Rahul. I don't think you would be going with Rahul with this kind of mindset. I believe that Mayank Agarwal has done exceptionally well in domestic cricket, he has flown in, give him an opportunity, straight in. All I can think of is probably he has all these insecurities about not doing well in the recent past, those gremlins are all in your mind, you are constantly thinking about when is my big innings coming through, maybe those thoughts are in your mind and you are not watching the ball as closely enough from the hand. Any batsman whether you are a top-order batsman, or a lower order batsman or a bowler who can just hang on. you need to just watch the ball really really closely from the bowler's hand. If you are not picking from there then you are slightly fraction of a second late. That we know, when the ball is being hurled at you at literally 145 to 150 KMPH you don't have a chance to even put the bat maybe that's why he is missing the ball and getting bowled.
4. On M Vijay's lack of runs
Vijay showed a lot of character in the second innings at Perth. He scored 20, he looked solid, looked comfortable. Maybe I am tempted to go with a Murali Vijay but if you look at the last 15 Test matches that Murali Vijay has been part of he just had one century and that too against Afghanistan. So in that sense...and it is also just not about the openers here you also need to think about the combination. You need to play the five bowlers, because we have seen MCG last year was a flat deck when Australia played England. If it is going to be similar and we have seen that fast bowlers have done an exceptional job in the last two Test matches both in Adelaide and Perth where you didn't have the time to recoup. We have seen the openers in this series have not really contributed so in-fact you would look at this opportunity perhaps looking at Hanuma Vihari opening the batting. And I have been really impressed with his temperament, his skill and his ability with the defence and his technique looks very solid, he looks composed, he doesn't get rattled by the situation nor with the faster bowlers really bowling quick so I think he has it in him to be possibly be looked as a makeshift opener.
