India in South Africa, January 2018

[Sin Hombre]

India will lose by that 10-20% again.

No one to blame but themselves.

Decent team finally but poor selections and catching deserves nothing more.

[rajitghosh]

Indian batting today is more over dependent on Kohli than it was say on Gavaskar or Tendulkar (before the advent of the Fab Four)

[Sin Hombre]

Great talent

[ankit1407]

Parthiv lets another one go , man he is an awful keeper ..

[ankit1407]

India had SA 2 down for nothing but let them off the hook..AB just makes it look so easy and reaches another 50...

[rajitghosh]

Send Parthiv back to Under 19. He belongs there.

[PKBasu]

Indian batting today is more over dependent on Kohli than it was say on Gavaskar or Tendulkar (before the advent of the Fab Four)

Only because he keeps Rahane out of the team.

Pujara's run out in this innings was truly asinine too.

[Sin Hombre]

Parthiv lets another one go , man he is an awful keeper ..

And the match is over as a consequence. Another poor avoidable loss.

[prasen9]

And to replace one retread who cannot keep, we get another retread who cannot keep: Karthik.

[Prem]

And to replace one retread who cannot keep, we get another retread who cannot keep: Karthik.

Can’t believe that we have no good keepers and have to go back to Kartik for all solutions. In ODI’s, he plays as pure batsman ahead of of KL Rahul, Rahane, Karun Nair etc. Is he that good???

Where are the keepers who went to SA with the A team? I think Sanju Samson and Rushabh Pant played in the series. Can’t the BCCI plan a parallel A tour of the country we are playing Tests like England does. In such case, we have players ready to step in at short notice.

[VReddy]

And to replace one retread who cannot keep, we get another retread who cannot keep: Karthik.

Can’t believe that we have no good keepers and have to go back to Kartik for all solutions. In ODI’s, he plays as pure batsman ahead of of KL Rahul, Rahane, Karun Nair etc. Is he that good???

Where are the keepers who went to SA with the A team? I think Sanju Samson and Rushabh Pant played in the series. Can’t the BCCI plan a parallel A tour of the country we are playing Tests like England does. In such case, we have players ready to step in at short notice.

Karthik - I think he has been in contention because of the amount of runs he has been getting across all the domestic formats for several seasons now (avg 50+). Unfortunately, we don't have good coverage of wicketkeeping stats i.e., amount of half-chances missed, byes (by bowler type) and so on. He deserves a run purely on batting - but I think his wicket keeping is a blind spot as of now. He was better than Parthiv but very flashy, drops easy ones but taking amazing ones as well. Apt description from Nasser Hussain here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkbMgLhmZEU (0.30+)

Vis-a-vis his batting, he has done reasonably well in the recent stint as a batter. The decider will be his performance in SA/ENG/AUS - I think his batting is ready - I just hope his keeping is upto the mark because he could be that bridge from Dhoni to Samson/Pant/Other new keeper.

[prasen9]

So, two tests are over for the bowling side. Ishant, Bhuvi, and Shami have bowled well. You cannot expect any bowler to get five-fers every time they bowl. So on the whole they have done fine. Ashwin has been okay in foreign conditions. Bumrah has been somewhat of a disappointment and Pandya has been ineffective. If we are looking at short-term performance, in the final test, we should have Bhuvi, Ishant, and Shami especially since Bhuvi strengthens the tail. If we are looking at long-term performance and trying to get a team going for the future, we should choose Bhuvi, Bumrah, and Shami. I would let Bhuvi fail in a few matches and only then dropping him instead of predicting he will fail and damning him a priori based on his ODI performance. His mindset is different in ODIs, the pitches are different, and the game is different.

[ankit1407]

287 to win .... Well it will be a miracle if this batting line up call pull this off..

As I write this Vijay is out , so we are 11/1

[ankit1407]

28/3, another series loss but am sure Kohli and Shastri will sing song of how great our record for last year or so was albeit playing at home ...

[prasen9]

With respect to keepers, I had said that it is pointless to run after Parthiv and Karthik when they were revived on the basis of domestic batting performances. They are domestic batting leaders but useless overseas and their keeping results in lots of runs lost. We cannot afford them especially with a weak-ish bowling or a bowling lot that tires easily. So, we need to move on. The right solution would have been to continue with Ojha as a backup to see if he is good enough or not. He has a Pandya-streak in him in that he is not afraid to hit out. Sometimes that is the only way to survive in the SANE countries. Tendulkar did that as a youngster. If he is not good enough, the selectors should have scouted to find the best keepers who can bat a tad. Goutham of Karnataka? For now, we have invested in Sanju Sampson and Rishabh Pant in the A-teams. We need to invest in them. This series is lost anyway. Was lost to begin with anyway. I doubt that Rahane alone could have made up the 20% difference in the first test. We need to use the slots to find out who can do things and who cannot.

I am increasingly getting disappointed with Pujara. He has the technique and plays a lot of balls. But, if you do not score runs that becomes useless. Because he is not that good to bottle one end up and carry the bat.

For the future series, in the MO, we may need to try Rahane, Kohli, and Nair/Iyer. Vijay has done well in Australia and England. So maybe he can bat. Although he fails in RSA, WI and NZ. But half good is good enough when the others fail everywhere. Rahul needs more chances for us to evaluate him fully. Dhawan does not have the technique and perhaps can never cut it. Although because of his guts he sometimes manages to do better than the stalwarts with technique. So, if we want to replace Dhawan, who is the next opener in line? Fazal? Prithvi Shaw? I would take Vijay, Rahul, and some youngster in a future tour. And, no please no bits and pieces player and stopgap opener such as Parthiv.