Indian domestic cricket/ players

[PKBasu]

S Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021 QFs tomorrow:
Tamil Nadu vs Kerala
Bengal vs Karnataka
Rajasthan vs Vidarbha
Gujarat vs Hyderabad

Vidarbha (Plate champions) defeated Maharashtra (A runner-up) in the absence of key man & captain Ruturaj Gaekwad, despite 66 from Rahul Tripathi for the losers.
Debutant Abhinav Manohar top-scored with 70* off 49 balls to take Karnataka to victory over Saurashtra, despite skipper Unadkat's 4/22.
Kerala beat Himachal by 8 wickets.

[karr]

SMAT concluded today with a spectacular finish.
It was a repeat of the final from 2 years back and just like that game, the game was in the balance after 39.5 overs with all results possible of the final ball.
Shahrukh Khan once again emphasized why he is a real talent to be nurtured. On a pitch that was proving hard for other batters to score fluently on, his 33 of 15 balls was the difference. It still came down to requiring a final ball six that he promptly delivered. Wow. This will bode well for him with the Mega auction coming up, but I wonder if he is someone Rohit should take a look at a touch more seriously.
KC Cariappa has been an effective mystery spinner for Karnataka in the tournament and in the final. Sai Kishore has been phenomenal for TN for the past 3 years and in this final as well. Its difficult for him to break into a CSK team with Jaddu, but seems like a good talent to groom.
Congrats to KAR and TN for continuing to be consistent in this format (KAR across all formats) and for TN for defending their title.

[Kumar]

CSK is a death knell for aspiring domestic players. Ruturaj is probably the only exception. Hari Nishanth, Jagadeeshan, Aparajith, Sai Kishore from TN never named to the playing line up inspire of their success in domestic league.

If I remember all Others like M Ashwin, Shahrukh , VijaySankar, sundar and Natrajan all signed up with other teams and got decent opportunities.

[Kumar]

Vijay Hazare trophy has started.

Washington Sundar is back after injury layoff. He gave away 60 runs, but got three wickets. His economy rate was more than Mumbai’s runrate.

Gaikwad is in super form, scoring a century against MP. He needs to be given lot more opportunity in white ball cricket. My guess is that he is way better than Sky or shreyas or Ishan. Could he play middle order to make the indian white ball squad?

[indiansportsfan]

Why does Gaikwad need to play in middle order? Why can't he replace Rahul, who IMO is not that good? I think Shreyas is perfect for ODI middle order spot, and we need some attacking player in middle order for T20s, so SKY/Ishan would be great in that role. If Gaikwad is doing so well at the opener's slot, why do we need to move him? Rohit/Gaikwad would form a perfect pair to start the innings IMO (across formats), as I have been advocating for a while.

[PKBasu]

The Hazare trophy pools/groups are very unbalanced. Mumbai lost by a big margin to Tamil Nadu yesterday, but that group also includes Bengal and Baroda (who played yesterday, Bengal winning) as well as Karnataka. That is a who's who of the best sides from domestic cricket, with only Delhi, Saurashtra and Vidarbha missing. The strong group also includes one really weak team, Puducherry, a promotee from the Plate group -- but this year missing their key players from last year, Sheldon Jackson and Vinay Kumar. I really don't think the Plate group matches should be considered List A, and there should not be automatic promotions from the Plate to the Elite groups. Players' records are getting thoroughly distorted by these Plate matches. Tripura, once a hapless Ranji side capable of beating almost nobody, are lording it over the new Plate teams!

I agree that Ruturaj should be in the ODI and T20I squads (and XIs), but he somehow seems out of favour with the powers that be. Yesterday's 136 by him off 112 balls was against a good attack (including Avesh Khan, Venkatesh Iyer and Mihir Hirwani, who respectively went for 0/60, 1/59 and 1/69) on the batting paradise of Rajkot. Maharashtra's own bowling is pedestrian, and they conceded 328/6 in 50 overs.

[PKBasu]

Some very low scores in today's matches. Karnataka were shot out for 122 by the new power-house of domestic cricket, Tamil Nadu, with a bunch of relatively new bowlers doing the trick (despite Manish Pandey making 40). Saurashtra bowled Haryana out for 127, with Dharmendrasinh Jadeja taking 4/14. Here's the guy who is India's next best left-arm spinner after R Jadeja and Axar Patel, but is never picked for India A (or even for an IPL side).

[Kumar]

Why does Gaikwad need to play in middle order? Why can't he replace Rahul, who IMO is not that good? I think Shreyas is perfect for ODI middle order spot, and we need some attacking player in middle order for T20s, so SKY/Ishan would be great in that role. If Gaikwad is doing so well at the opener's slot, why do we need to move him? Rohit/Gaikwad would form a perfect pair to start the innings IMO (across formats), as I have been advocating for a while.

That would be my preference he open. Unfortunately, team mgmt does not listen to us. We are desperate for middle order bats who are explosive. Gaikwad score another century. If he does not make the Playing 11 in white ball cricket,that is travesty

Some very low scores in today's matches. Karnataka were shot out for 122 by the new power-house of domestic cricket, Tamil Nadu, with a bunch of relatively new bowlers doing the trick (despite Manish Pandey making 40). Saurashtra bowled Haryana out for 127, with Dharmendrasinh Jadeja taking 4/14. Here's the guy who is India's next best left-arm spinner after R Jadeja and Axar Patel, but is never picked for India A (or even for an IPL side).

If u are talking white ballcricket, his averages are way lower than that of Sai Kishore who is languishing behind Jadeja in CSK! Saikishore do not appear to be that good a batsman and is relatively younger.

Also Saurabh kumar playing for India A team has a first class average of 23(bowl) and 29(bat) which is again better than D jadeja 283.3(ball) and 18.7(bat)

[Kumar]

https://wisden.com/stories/who-are-indi ... -and-t20is

List of leg spinners in domestic setup. This article primarily talks about white ball cricket. Mayank Markande seems the most promising of the lot from first class perspective with average of 22 ! Ravi Bishnoi do not have anyfirst class experience, but probably offers the same level of hope in white ball cricket and potentially longer format with experience

On Vijay Hazare, Gaikwad is plundering with three centuries on trot. Hopefully he walks into the playing 11 in white ball cricket.he is better than any of our current crop of Middle orders (sky, shreyas iyer and Kishen). I hope he opens and KL is moved to middle order. I hope One of them can be the big hitter india needs.

Washington sundar is slightly underwhelming as batsman so far. With couple of scores in 30s and a duck, his sojourn to be a top order batsman who can provide some overs in white ball cricket is not going well. I have highhopes of him being a great test cricketer , but not really convinced of his ability in white ball cricket. Still cannot fathom Kohli’s logic that Ashwin cannot be selected, becoz sundar is automatic selection

[Kumar]

Shahrukh khan has been fabulous for TN in Vijay Hazare. His strike rate is around 200 facing just 80 balls. If he can translate this skills to international arena, he would fill one big hole for Indian team in white ball cricket

[stumpsandbail]

I assume he needs to be dropped from the team. Two of the options offered, however, are way over the top! He has performed reasonably nicely once in a while, fields well, and has had sudden fulfillment as a containing bowler.

[Kumar]

Himachal Pradesh upset the fancied TN to win Vijay Hazare trophy. . Just a great allround performance from Rishi Dhawan. He has not shined much in IPl, but has a very good domestic average

Tamilnadu has had a great white ball season. Would have liked to finish it off with a win. Washington sundar had a decent performance with ball, but somewhat lacklustre with bat (had a decent knock in semis to take TN home).

[Kumar]

Ranji trophy postponed.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/bcci ... es-1295426

Was supposed to start on Jan 22nd and end on March 20th. Considering IPL starts first week of April, very likely this means that this tournament will not happen this year. And the monsoon will start after IPL. So very likely this season is cancelled.

Hopefully we can schedule some A tours before IPL start

[prasen9]

Stupid. Dravid certainly knows better. Maybe he should ask for a India-A, B, C tournament that plays three matches or six or so against each other with a final. Plus as many A-team tours as possible.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Ranji Trophy getting postponed twice is a big failure of BCCI