India in England, 2018

[PKBasu]

India heading for a thrashing in the second ODI at Lord's. Kohli let England off the hook by taking Kuldeep off after he picked up the first two wickets cheaply -- and let the Root/Morgan partnership flourish.

[PKBasu]

Dhoni's chasing technique is disastrous more often than not these days. Still knocking it around at a strike rate of 66 while the team's required run rate climbs to 22 per over. Insanity that caused Pandya to hole out too.
Today's match seemed fixed.

[PKBasu]

Siddharth Kaul is completely out of his depth in international cricket. I don’t understand why India haven’t called up someone from the India A side when the Teo main pacers — Bhuvi and Bumrah — are injured.

[Sin Hombre]

Dhoni's chasing technique is disastrous more often than not these days. Still knocking it around at a strike rate of 66 while the team's required run rate climbs to 22 per over. Insanity that caused Pandya to hole out too.
Today's match seemed fixed.

Dhoni doesn't need a match to be fixed to be dismal.

[prasen9]

KL Rahul seems like the early-career Rohit. Great in T20s but floundering in ODIs. He will possibly figure it out eventually. But, given that the WCs are next year and that Kohli is best at #3, with the openers set, I would play Iyer at #4. Try Raina at #5 for a few more matches to see if he still has it. Dhoni needs to come earlier and maybe Iyer can be #5 and Raina at #6. Dhoni is hit or miss at the end overs these days. I do not know what more Iyer has to do to be in the ODI team. I also do not know why Manish Pandey is gone from the middle order when nobody has played well. MP scored a century in Australia and has performed when given a chance. Stupid selections!

Kaul is another one. Just going by the IPLs has caused this nonsense. ODIs are different from IPLs. Shardul did fine in the ODIs he got just like Iyer and Pandey. And, then he is dropped. Why? Nobody knows!

Ishant Sharma played in the first class matches in India. If we don't have bowlers, might as well give him some games as warmup for the tests. He cannot be worse than Kaul and Umesh.

[sanjay8886]

I agree with PKB, that game was fixed. Nobody really tried to win( includes everyone until Dhoni and Pandya). With this team, we also have long tail. Kuldeep, Umesh, Chahal, Kaul cant bat at all. They were not even able to connect the bat and ball, forget about scoring.

[kna]

PKB and sanjay8886 - please stop throwing around terms like "fixed". It is very easy to sit back in an armchair and use damning words like that.

The worst thing a sportsman can be accused of is cheating.

Call it incompetent, sloppy, whatever else.

Unless you have proof, please avoid casually using the word "fixed" to describe unexpected defeats.

We are allowed to have bad days. The opponent is allowed to play well.

[PKBasu]

At a minimum, the decision to take Kuldeep off after he had taken two wickets was bizarre and ill-judged. It gave Root and Morgan an opportunity to regain form, which particularly helped Root (who had been in wretched form in all forms of cricket - underperforming even Pujara for Yorkshire).

[PKBasu]

Terrible start by Rohit Sharma. He played out two maiden overs from Wood, and then holed out to deep mid wicket. Set back the side terribly. Kohli relieves the pressure by cracking the first ball for 4.

[prasen9]

Good that Bhuvi and Thakur are back. Hope Thakur is given a decent run. I don't know why Iyer is out and Karthik and Raina are in. One of them should make way for Iyer.

Dhoni and Bhuvi were too slow. Yes, I understand that if they tried to hit, we may have been out for 238 or whatever but I don't think 250-260 is a competitive score. And, I don't really care if the team loses by 8 wickets or 7. A loss is a loss. I would rather them take a bit more risks but better still, take a book from Kohli and milk no-risk singles as much as they can. Poor batting again

[indiansportsfan]

Right now, if either of Rohit or Kohli does not score big, we are mostly guaranteed of a loss, at least against the better teams. The others are just not impactful or consistent enough. Dhawan only scores 40s-50s, Karthik and Raina are good for 20s-30s, Dhoni is too slow, Rahul plays once in a blue moon. Rohit also needs to improve his consistency. We are in dire need of a batting allrounder, who can give us a few overs of spin if 1 of the regulars has a bad day. Raina's batting is just not good enough. Maybe Kedar will be marginally better.

[prasen9]

And on the bowling side, we do not have any wicket-takers. Bhuvi does not take wickets in ODIs and Hardik is very inconsistent. The spinners can be negated abroad. Thakur is still learning his craft at the international stage. Only Bumrah is consistent and takes wickets. We need him back.

We also need Shami to be fit and back in form. I am starting to think that Mishra may be the best leggie in India still. Chahal is ineffective abroad. Let's see if he can improve. Mishra's fielding is a problem though. Don't know how good or bad a fielder Chahal is but I have not heard too many complaints. So, he may be fine. Anyway, Chahal is not the major problem. The major problem is to find strike bowling pacers.

[indiansportsfan]

Agree, but I think Bhuvi is not fully fit currently. And Bhuvi's fitness is a big concern right now for the Tests. We are burning him and Pandya out, making them play each and every match. Its hard for them to be effective with this much workload.

[prasen9]

Pandya got a series off. Even if Bhuvi is fit, he is not a strike-bowler in ODIs. He is more of a containing bowler with the white ball. So, if we play him, we should have the other bowler as a strike bowler. That is why having Bumrah helps.

[prasen9]

Rohit Sharma averages 23.78 over 20 innnings in the SANE countries, the worst among the current Indian batsmen. And, yet he is being considered for selection! Some people are just born with a silver spoon ... I would rather try out Nair. And, I am done with Dhawan and Pujara overseas too. I'd say try PP Shaw as the backup to get some experience and play the odd match, and put Rahul as the opener with Vijay.

A bold lineup would be:

Shaw, Rahul, Rahane, Kohli, Nair

but I can bet my daughter's college savings that this will not happen I think Rohit, Vijay, Dhawan, and Pujara have failed time and again overseas. It is time to try others. Vijay is hit or miss. So he may be useful but he is getting old and is injured often. It is better to move on, imho.

The three bowlers I would like if Bumrah is injured and he may be for the first three tests would be Bhuvi, Shami, and Ishant.

Ishant in Eng, NZ, and RSA takes wickets at 37.23. Umesh in Australia and Sri Lanka, where he played most of his away matches, averages 42.44. Shami's away average is 34.76. Bhuvi has played only 20 tests total and is not as experienced. Given that he can swing the ball, he deserves chances in England.

With respect to the lone spinner, I may throw in Kuldeep. Ashwin averages 40.97 outside the subcontinent. Jadeja has a better record than him abroad. I may give one test to Jadeja and then throw in Kuldeep. But of course, Ashwin will be the one with the silver spoon