Indian domestic cricket/ players

[prasen9]

Shami shows up what a big liar Agarkar is. He won the game for Bengal taking five wickets on a spinning pitch in the second innings. He has bowled 28 overs in this Ranji game and significant overs in the first Ranji game while looking good. Shami is fit. He can get injured, as can anyone. But, he has been fit. Calling him not is flat out wrong and either Agarkar is ignorant and ill-informed or he is lying. Looks bad either way to have such a clueless chief selector. He even had the galls to keep pushing his lies in a press conference.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

His two claims might be right. One his bowling run up is not looking smooth like previous times, his pace has dropped a bit. But since he is now among wickets, he deserve come back

[prasen9]

That is not the point. Agarkar dropped him or continued dropping him because he did not like Shami. He used the fitness excuse, which is bollocks. If you are dropping him for performance reasons, say that flat out. Have some guts. Don't hide behind lies. The selectors do not have the guts to drop Rohit or Kohli - they are praying that these two retire as they have done for tests etc. I am perfectly fine saying that we are dropping or resting if you want to be politically correct to test out Sai, Yashasvi, Rana, Prasidh, etc. who are the next gen. If they don't pan out, we can go back to the oldies before the WC. The sliminess is because he is duplicitous - he keeps insisting that Shami is unfit or that he does not know whether Shami is fit (how clueless can a selector be if he does not have information about the fitness of a player- it is not that difficult to find out).

[PKBasu]

Shami should have been on the England tour. We might have won the series with him playing.

He has outperformed Akash Deep by a country mile in both Ranji matches they have played together. It will be near impossible to keep him out of the test squad for the first test against SA at the Eden.

[SaniaFan]

Whole BCCI is a sham. It is completely controlled by political bigwigs for commercial gains and they place their puppets at various positions. All financial, power moral and ethical tools are used to suit their wishes. They keep twisting their moral fabric to suit their commercial interest. When they can't avoid playing a country(to pretend they are deshbhakt) due to commercial reason they'll device new tool of not shaking hand as an alternative and then troll come into action to justify the same.

So you don't know from where the instructions may be coming.

[prasen9]

I do not know where the instruction is coming. In the Nuremberg trials, such excuses were deemed not to be valid. If there are instructions to sideline players or players from a certain region of the Board, an upright person would have called it out and resigned. Slimeballs like Agarkar play politics. So, pointing fingers to the top does not work. You are complicit. Besides, if the instructions indeed came from the top, Agarkar would not have tried to justify it. He could have just said that NCA told him not to pick Shami. Or BCCI told him not to pick Shami. He tried to justify his decision with false information.

Leave aside England, PKB, with Shami, maybe we overturn the results in Adelaide where we lost by two wickets and then win the series in Australia too. When we pick our best XI, we usually win or come close. When we politick or some humbug selector thinks they can ignore domestic failures and will them to success, more often than not that does not result in success.

Mukesh is better than Akash Deep. Akash can bat a bit. Maybe that is why he is getting the preference.

[PKBasu]

Currently Mukesh isn't even in the Bengal team, so I presume he is injured. Bengal have an abundance of pace options now. Shami's brother (Kaif) is a good bowler who can't find a place, and Mukesh is injured but Bengal still have a strong 4-pronged pace attack.

[prasen9]

He was injured but may be getting close. If Shami is playing, maybe one or two of the pacers should move states to Jharkhand or whoever is the next top side to get more chances. Ishan Porel is our #4 pacer. If Mukesh comes back fit, Ishan has no place. He is actually a fantastic pacer better than some of the folks who are getting India chances. For example, much better than Khaleel Ahmed with the red ball. But, Khaleel is India material and Ishan is never called upon despite having a fantastic record. Such is life, I suppose. If Shami is not in the national team but wants to keep playing FC, then Porel should move to a neighbor.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

For example, much better than Khaleel Ahmed with the red ball. But, Khaleel is India material and Ishan is never called upon despite having a fantastic record.

Mukesh Choudhary has been impressive in two domestic games, if he plays the whole season, Khaleel's automatic selection as left arm pacer in every duleep trophy & India A squad without any eye catching performance might come to end

[prasen9]

Mukesh Choudhary is better than Khaleel in FC cricket for sure. However, he is not that good either. We should not just pick left-handers for the sake of picking left-handers. Khamboj does not have pace but we need swing bowlers in England and New Zealand (of course, they need to have control). Someone should work with him to get him to put some muscle on without losing his swing if that is possible. And, his batting a bit more - he can bat a bit already. With the red ball, Avesh Khan is a good candidate too. Unfortunately, we are masters of playing people in the wrong format. Avesh should have been given chances in red ball cricket and not limited overs. Kishan is best for ODIs and not T20Is, etc. Sai is good for ODIs, not so for tests. And, so on.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Ploy to destroy Karun Nair's career is getting failed, as he scored second big ton in the ongoing domestic season, whereas 3rd class selectors who fast track IPL glamour boys for India A have failed sgrategy as the team is now in verge of loosing the match

Mahtre, Badoni, Sai, Padikkal, Patidar requires more Ranji & Duleep trophy for atleast 3 season before making it for India A

[prasen9]

Mhatre and Badoni are prospects and may be ready in 1-3 seasons.

Sai, Padikkal, and Patidar need to go back to domestics and score heavily.

I hope Pant plays a special and rests and we have another keeper - Kishan is called up - tried for the next A game. I hope they stop playing Khaleel, who is constantly bad, it seems.

I can guarantee you Karun Nair will not be called back however much runs he scores. Runs are not the yardstick by which the team is chosen anymore. IPL glamour and connections to selectors are the key. These A-team matches are tamasha. That is why they don't give anyone 5-7 games successively and constantly chop and change the A-team every game. This is because if you give someone 5-7 games and they succeed, then you have evidence and you cannot ignore them. Or if your favorites like Sai, Patidar, etc. fail 5-7 games you will not have the cover to keep picking them. So, nobody will get a long chance in India-A except when their favorites fail in tests and they are put in some A-team games on a flat wicket to score some runs, etc.

South Africa is more New Zealand than West Indies including their Indian origin spinners. We need to be prudent in picking our teams. Gill and Rahul and Pant cannot keep reproducing their golden forms that they are in tests and once a few of these fail, we need the next in lines to pick up the gauntlet. I would hope they give chances to Jurel instead of the failures.

[prasen9]

Shams Mulani seems to be a better batter and better bowler than Suthar, imho. Their performances imply that. However, it seems Suthar, who is 23, five years younger than Mulani seems to have the inside track to the spot - why? Do they think that Axar will be replacing Jadeja and maybe in 4-5 years time they will need a left-armer? So, ditch Shams and invest in Suthar? Mulani is a better batter than Suthar or Saurabh Kumar. I hope we give him the first shot because Jadeja will retire and Axar can get injured. It is good to build depth. While the future is important, we have time to hone Suthar or someone younger later on.

[SaniaFan]

Someone(Axar or otherwise) should replace Jadeja with in next couple of years. He is almost 37. At least our planning should be like that.

[prasen9]

I would put Axar in and then Shams Mulani.

Wrt off-spinning allrounder, we are trying Washy. If he does not pan out or is injured, Tanush Kotian.

Wrt leg-spinning allrounder, Shreyas Gopal is 32 but is the best bat among the leggies. If we want a genuine leggie, that would be ex-India player Markande.

In FC cricket, that is.