Australians were always favourites

Letrsquos be honestmdashAustralia were always going to win the WTC played in June in England a few weeks after the IPL concluded The odds were always going to favour them not least because the allround strength of their squad looked superior on paper man for manLeaving patriotism and wistful thinking aside if you compared the teams man for man on recent Test form how many Indians make a combined Best XI David Warnerrsquos position would be up for grabs and perhaps Mitchell Starc Personally I would have found room for Ravichandran Ashwin purely because you simply should not even think of leaving out the No 1 ranked bowler in the world regardless of pitch conditions Ashwin for Nathan Lyon is the only place that he could have fitted inKohli not in Top 5There will no doubt be howls of protest at the mere thought of Virat Kohli not making the list but on pure Test batting form alone in earlyseason English conditions whose spot does he take in the Top5 This is not a conversation about the contemporary greats but merely an honest assessment of the best XI based on form and conditionsSunil Gavaskar has already dissected the Ashwin controversy No need to rehash that except to reinforce the view from Australia that Ashwinrsquos nonselection was greeted with a mixture of disbelief and relief With five lefthanders in the Top8 leaving aside his skill against righthanders and his tenacious batting the selection of Umesh Yadav or Shardul Thakur ahead of Ashwin is not justifiable even without the benefit of hindsight Is Lyon not also a threat to righthandersThe injury list probably cancelled each other out No Jasprit Bumrah no Josh Hazlewood One of Indiarsquos biggest losses happened months ago when Rishabh Pant met with his car accident Make no mistakemdashAustralia fear Pant more than any other batsman in India With all due respect to the nuggety KS Bharat his selection throughout the Border Gavaskar series and in this oneoff Test was a win for the Aussies There was no X Factor to fearmdashIshan Kishan may have made them nervousA comprehensive thrashingIndia took the game deeper than the Aussies would have liked but 209 runs is still a comprehensive thrashing Yes Indiarsquos main seamers bowled without luck on the first day but I doubt that if the roles had been reversed India would have been 3273 Thatrsquos probably because Australiarsquos seam attack hit the deck a lot harder relying on movement off the seam banged in from a height Itrsquos a much more natural length for an Aussie to be fairThe low catch controversy needs to be addressed by all international players as a collective Do they agree to take the word of the fielder as a general rule If that is the case it should apply to all countries The Orwellian notion that all catchers tell the truth but some fielders are more trustworthy than others is where the seeds of discontent are sown Likewise this notion of accepting the third umpirersquos decisionmdashit will be interesting to see the reactions of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith if they were the victims of a similar dismissal Would they be as philosophical or would there be the usual ldquowoe is merdquo headshaking that accompanies many of their dismissalsIf Shubman Gillrsquos pockets are lighter after the match referee considers his illadvised Tweet will he also be looking at Labuschagnersquos habit of trying to influence the umpire when he gets rapped on the pads The ghost of Orwell surfaces againhellipthe ICC must not only be neutral but must be seen to be neutralGood sportsmanshipThe upside The game was played in excellent spirit without surrendering a fierce competitiveness Apart from creating a new generation of millionaires what the IPL has done is to take the heat out of the personal conflicts that has blighted previous encounters between these countries It will be fascinating to see if Australia can maintain this excellence without the verbals when they take on England soon I suspect old rivalries will run deep and bad blood will be spilt Call me a cynic but England donrsquot write cheques as big as IndiaMichael Jeh is a Brisbanebased former firstclass cricketerAlso Read Can Indias Big Three redeem themselves after seismic defeat during WTC final