India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

Shami is sublime at one end, while Umesh is ridiculously wayward at the other. But SL are 38/3 in response to 487.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

Pandya gets the fourth wicket, bowling quite a lot better than Yadav.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

SL without Sanga, Mahela, Murali and Herath are barely capable of playing first-class cricket, leave alone tests.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by prasen9 »

This is bound to happen to smaller countries. Because their catchment area is smaller, they cannot produce world-class players all the time. You need a certain number of people to produce a certain number of freaks. Twenty odd million people is too small to consistently create freaks every decade or so. Especially when you are not rich countries and cannot afford to polish a lot of people to wring the best of them and increase the yield of superstars, this will happen. See West Indies. Now Sri Lanka. It may happen to Bangladesh too to some extent but their population is eight times that of Sri Lanka. Assuming that they can make some resources available for development, their team should be steadier.

I do not understand why Umesh is a constant in the team and not Bhuvi.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by Omkara »

Yadav has pace and is considered potent on flat docile wickets. Don't agree with it.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by Sin Hombre »

He was our best pacer in the Australia series, arguably the best from either team.

I criticize him a lot as well but ignoring our last competitive series is a bit much.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

Consistency is what Umesh lacks, sadly. He can be brilliant for awhile, then completely awful for the next few tests. He delivered when needed against Australia at home but hasn't taken too well to playing second fiddle to Shami in this series. In the first innings, he was not only wayward, but not even bowling particularly fast (133-135 kph, a touch slower than Pandya).
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by Atithee »

Umesh is a brilliant fielder and any Indian bowler who can provide valuable runs at #11 is worth his weight in gold regardless of their bowling contribution.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

Yes, I would always pick him ahead of Ishant because his fielding (and batting on occasion) is far superior to Ishant. Thankfully the selectors seem to agree at long last. Bhuvi, though, is always mistreated by our selectors. I would contend that he should be playing more often than Umesh.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

SL already 39/4 in the second innings (off 23 overs)! Shami has been unplayable this morning. Mathews was perilously close to being caught behind first ball.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

Yuvi, DK and Rishabh Pant have been dropped from the ODI squad, while the four top test bowlers (Shami, Umesh, Jadeja, Ashwin) have been rested. The squad is: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Ajinkya Rahane, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur.

Indian cricket is in really good shape, oozing with talent.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

Umesh has bowled superbly in the second innings. God knows what happened to him in the post-lunch session yesterday. (and just as I write that, he bowls his first bad ball of this innings, an over pitched ball that goes to the boundary; still nowhere near as bad as his first three overs in the first innings).
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

So India wrap up a clean sweep, winning the final test by an innings and 171 runs. That is the first away series clean sweep for India ever (apart from 1- and 2-test series in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe).
Umesh finishes with 2/21 in 13 overs, Shami 3/32 off 15, and Ashwin 4/68 off 28.3 overs. Ashwin now has 292 wickets in 52 tests.
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by PKBasu »

Shikhar Dhawan is the Man of the Series. Astonishingly, he was not even in the squad (coming in only because Vijay was injured), and then wasn't supposed to play the first test (Mukund being preferred ahead of him), only playing because Rahul was injured. And how he grabbed his chance! Vijay will struggle to regain his test place (I would suggest that he should play county cricket too -- like Pujara, Ishant, Ashwin and Jadeja are planning -- in order to demonstrate his form).
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Re: India in Sri Lanka, July-August 2017

Post by prasen9 »

PKBasu wrote: Mon Aug 14, 2017 5:25 am Indian cricket is in really good shape, oozing with talent.
who are world-beaters in the sub-continent.

They have been abysmal in the EAR (England-Australia-RSA) countries.

On the sub-continent, Dhawan and Rahul are our best bet. Abroad, maybe Vijay should get a look-in (instead of Dhawan) if he regains his form and fitness.
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