Test series 2016 (in WI; then hosting, BD, NZ, England)

[PKBasu]

What a victory!! Jadeja gets 7/48 as England crumble to defeat by an innings and 75 runs. Sweet indeed!!

I'm sure karr was there today with his dad and son to savour this marvellous victory!

[PKBasu]

Kohli can do little wrong! The decision to let Karun Nair complete his triple century has been fully vindicated.

What a team Kohli now leads. I look forward to this side touring England and Australia for test series soon. And the final frontier: South Africa. We have the bowlers in Shami, Bhuvi, Yadav and Ishant to trouble any test side anywhere. Plus Aaron in reserve.

[sameerph]

Our test side is becoming quite unbeatable at least at home. I guess Australia next in Feb/March will be even easier than England. Kohli's captaincy record is getting better and better. I think time to make him our ODI captain too.

[Varma]

Not region. Precisely the small town. His family is from just a mile away from where I am from. My dad was all elated, though he doesn't know them. His parents left Kerala for work, but apparently they do still visit often. Karun was there recently to do a "vazhipAdu" (offering) at the AranmuLa temple (the same place where I had my "ezhutthinirutthu" - writing the letters for the first time, at a small age).

That's pretty cool, Jay. I can imagine the reasons for your joy!

I have read in his Cricinfo profile page that he had an accident at the boat festival where he was rescued from being drowned.

Karun Nair

He was involved in a boat mishap in Kerala during a temple festival, an incident in which a number of people drowned and several others were reported missing. Nair, who did not know to swim, was rescued by a group of locals.

Thanks to your townsmen who rescued him to let him go on and make records!

- Varma

[arjun2761]

Fantastic win in this test and the series for India! They have been truly invincible at home over the last several years.

Hopefully, they can now turn around their fortunes on the road in Australia, England, SA and NZ where we have lost our last series in each of these counties.

[ssp]

Didn't expect a win at the end of day 3, or even day 4. In fact by lunch n day 5, it looked a certain draw because of the dropped caches and inexplicably defensive field placings by Kohli. But England contrived to collapse spectacularly. It was great to see them do this, especially after our recent beatings by them. 4-0 is an excellent result, given that we had the worst batting conditions in 4 of the 5 tests and the rather poor selections in this test match (Ishant, Mishra and perhaps, Parthiv Patel). Jadeja was incredible on day 5.

The 2 seamers should be selected from Shami, Bhuvi, Umesh with Ishant should be the last resort.

Mishra was disappointing, so I'd rather have Jayant Yadav, who at least provides some control and can bat and field so much better. Parthiv may score the odd 40 or 50, but his keeping could have cost us the win here. I think the selectors should go for a bold choice (Risabh Pant?) for the Bangladesh test at least.

[prasen9]

I'd say play our A-team against Bangla at home.

Dhawan, Mukund, Nair, Kohli, Iyer, Pant, Jayant Yadav, and some next-in-line bowlers.

If we have another opener, then get him instead of Dhawan. Jiwanjot was given some chances. Who else is the next Rahul?

[Sin Hombre]

I'd say play our A-team against Bangla at home.

Dhawan, Mukund, Nair, Kohli, Iyer, Pant, Jayant Yadav, and some next-in-line bowlers.

If we have another opener, then get him instead of Dhawan. Jiwanjot was given some chances. Who else is the next Rahul?

Rahul is potentially our second best all-format batsman and has missed a lot of games due to injuries so I do not see us resting him.

Vijay, Pujara only play in tests and Rahane needs the runs in domestic conditions so all 3 will play as well.

That just leaves Kohli as someone who can be rested amongst the batsman but can't see that happening.

Amongst the bowlers, Shami should definitely be rested. I wouldn't mind resting one of Ashwin and Jadeja and testing out Kuldeep Yadav. Very impressive left-handed chinaman with probably the best strike rate in domestic cricket. Might be the spinner we need for flat tracks in Australia and occasionally in SA and NZ. Maybe also give Bumrah a first test cap though would be wary of overbowling him.

I would go with

Rahul, Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Nair, Pant, Ashwin, Jayant, Kuldeep, Bhuvi, Bumrah.

Ideally you rest Kohli and have Ashwin or Rahane take the reins and give an opportunity to another batsman. Don't think that will be Shreyas Iyer though.

[PKBasu]

The Bangladesh test is in February (starting Feb 8th), so there will be ample opportunity for the selection criteria to be muddied by performances in the ODI series -- and more pertinently in the Ranji SF and final. I don't think we can take Bangladesh lightly: a test is a test, and winning it is important. So I expect Ashwin and Jadeja to play for sure. Third spinner could well be Kuldeep Yadav to add variety and surprise. Pacers would be based on fitness at the time, but Shami, Ishant, Yadav, Bhuvi is probably the pecking order now based on performances in the England tests. We have a surfeit of batsmen to pick from, but I think Rahane has been shown to be relatively weak against spin, and so he should be left out of the Bangladesh test (if any rational decisions are being made).

[prasen9]

Here is an article about dropped catches: Catches dropped. I think Saha and Parthiv at least missed one stumping each. What is noteworthy is that Parthiv has dropped "a lot". Saha dropped one in the first test. I think Parthiv's keeping is still not sustainable outside India where our bowlers will struggle to create chances. The only counterpoint is that Parthiv may be better against the pacers and bad against the spinners. That may be somewhat true. However, Parthiv's movements and technique are clumsy and not natural. Hence, despite his big heart, he will mess things up even when there are pacers, but, maybe not as many. We badly need a keeper who can bat. Try out Naman or Pant and give them the rest of the matches at home before we go to RSA.

[prasen9]

Dhawan dropped. Mukund is back.