India in South Africa, January 2018

[PKBasu]

Excellent scheduling!

[prasen9]

Instead of doing this weird quota business where players such as Duminy who were not that good in tests or Bavuma who is not that great either, South Africa should just say thanks to Morkel and Steyn and play their four African-origin bowlers: Pehlykwayo, Ngidi, Rabada, Philander. That would be a genuinely exciting throwback to the West Indian quartets if the younger ones can develop. Toss in a Maharaj or a sixth bat. And you have Amla, who is of color.

[Sin Hombre]

The quota things isn't as bad as you may think prasen.

It is only used as an average over all opposition, which means SA can and will choose their best xi against India/Australia but can balance it out by playing more players of color against Zim/WI etc

[prasen9]

Oh. I thought it was for every match.

[Prashant]

For international cricket, I believe the "six non-white players, a minimum of two of those being black" is the average across the season for any type of match (i.e. counting tests / ODIs T20s separately). For all first class cricket at any level in S. Africa, it is per match (this includes tour matches that are not tests I think). For all lower levels, it is 7 non-white, 3 black minimum.

[prasen9]

And now they want to play Rahane at #4 in the ODI team. While there may be merits to this choice, we have seen Rahane is a flawed ODI player. He cannot rotate strike at will, he cannot hit out everyday when needed, and he cannot preserve his wicket without sacrificing his SR. We know what we will get from him. On the other hand, we do not know what we can get from Iyer, Manish, and Kedar. I would play Iyer and Kedar. Pandey has done fine too. But, we need Kedar to be the #6 bowler - only finger spinner. And on the balance, I think Iyer is more talented than Manish. If we play Rahane and he gives us a so-so performance then we are neither here nor there. We do not know anything (substantial) about Iyer/Manish/Kedar in the SANE countries. So we should try them so that when we need to choose for the next world cup, we have the data. My team:

Dhawan, Rohit, Kohli, Iyer, Dhoni, Kedar, Hardik, Kuldeep, Chahal, Bumrah.

One more spot. I would like the more attacking option Shami but we will possibly get the more run-saving option in BhuKu.

[PKBasu]

The young wrist-spinners continue to do their job to perfection (especially Kuldeep). The pacers have been disappointing. I would generally prefer to have Bhuvi kept aside for tests.

[Prashant]

I didn't watch, but Rahane seems to have done great.

[PKBasu]

Rahane made 79 off 86 balls, his fifth consecutive 50+ score in ODIs. Whatever the shortcomings prasen9 has noticed in his ODI batting, Rahane appears to have overcome them!
I would prefer to have Pandey playing ahead of Jadhav, but the latter is useful as a sixth bowler.

[prasen9]

Yes, as a pure batsman Manish is better. But, Yadav's bowling has been useful especially since Hardik is flaky on certain days and one bowler can have an off day any day. Dhawan, Rohit, Kohli, Rahane, Manish, Iyer cannot bowl, I think. One of them should start bowling a bit. Kohli as a youngster used to do a bit but now he does not practice obviously. The value of Sehwag's overs, of Yuvraj's overs were immense in the World Cup win. Yuvraj's was certainly. At least, we knew Sehwag, or maybe even SRT, etc. were there to bowl a few overs if needed. Ganguly was quite capable (of course not in the '11 WC team). Kohli and Raina would bowl. In a world-cup winning team, you need backup bowling options. Although being at home we did not need them, but they were there (SRT, Sehwag, Kohli, Raina) if needed.

The problem with Rahane occurs when the run-rate is quite high. If RSA actually made a 325 and India were 50-2, could Rahane bail us out? I think Iyer could be a hit or miss in this case. Rahane has almost always been a failure in such high run-rate situations. Today the pressure was moderate. He indeed did well. Kohli, if you saw, had no sixes. Rahane had two - 12 runs or 10 runs more in 2 balls than Kohli. Yet, Rahane's SR was below Kohli's. Why? Because Kohli is a master of taking singles. Singles wins games. Kohli is the ultimate Wrightian. Wright taught the idiots who thought ODIs were about hitting sixes that it was not. A very scientific approach. I still maintain that Viv Richards was the ultimate ODI batsman I have ever seen. But, maybe I am a romantic fool. Increasingly, that position is being rendered untenable by Kohli's amazing consistency. Back to Rahane. His problem is that he cannot rotate the strike as well as Kohli can --- nobody can do that. But, Rahane used to get bogged down more than the Iyer/Manishes of the world. I hope Rahane has turned a corner because he is the classiest of batsmen abroad among the ones we have (after Kohli). But this game does not prove that. It proves that Rahane is becoming more consistent though. The typical Rahane innings while chasing a big score would be try to pierce the gap to take singles, get bogged down, see the RRR get very high, then try to loft or hit balls that should not be attacked and get out cheaply. For the sake of the team, I hope RSA never gets to 325 but somewhat perversely I want to see that to see if Rahane can bat under RR pressure. I would take a low score from RSA and Rahane scores at over 90 SR without hitting sixes or without lofting. A high singles rate. If we see that consistently, Rahane should be made permanent. Batting is all about risk management. They call it shot selection.

Laxman, with all his classy shots could not pierce the infield and did not make it in ODIs. Rahane suffers from Laxmanitis. Whether he is cured or not, only time will tell.

[Sin Hombre]

Our middle order is fragile on any surface.

There has only been one match in recent times where we have been able to successfully chase without the top 3 contributing heavily.

The selection of Rahane as #4 is to beef it up, at least when the target is a bit lower.

No permutation of Rahane, Pandey, Kedar, Dhoni, Iyer, Hardik is going to help us chase 325 if the top 3 fail. This is not like the 2000s when Dhoni and Yuvi were capable of turning matches around.

We need to get the likes of Shubhman, Krunal and Pant in but clearly, the group will remain unchanged until the 2019 WC.


Also the comparison to Laxman is not fair on Rahane at all; the latter has shown that he is at least competent enough in the shortest format to be picked by IPL teams as a starter. It is not like Pujara and some others.

[prasen9]

The selection of Rahane as #4 is to beef it up, at least when the target is a bit lower.

Yes. And abroad. Here's hoping he figures out how to rotate the strike. Just being picked by IPL teams is not really a big deal. Laxman was an "iconic" player for SRH, I believe and then played another year at least while stepping down. I am not saying Rahane is as bad as Laxman was in ODIs. But he has one of the flaws Laxman had - not rotating strike - at least as much as the top players in the game. But, Rahane is a much better fielder, I believe. The comparison to Pujara and Vijay are not apt because these two never got a decent run in ODIs even though they have very stellar domestic records.

[prasen9]

No permutation of Rahane, Pandey, Kedar, Dhoni, Iyer, Hardik is going to help us chase 325 if the top 3 fail. This is not like the 2000s when Dhoni and Yuvi were capable of turning matches around.

I believe that Iyer, Dhoni, Kedar, Hardik can more times than any other combination.

[VReddy]

To be fair, Manish Pandey won us a match against Aus in Aus chasing 330+ but yes, it was not as if the opening pair failed, so am not sure if it counts.

[Sin Hombre]

India with an epic thrashing of SA in the 2nd ODI. Lowest score ever for them at home and India winning with 9 wickets to spare in just over 20 overs.

That said, SA were without AB and Faf and were playing the full quota of 6 players of "colour".

Also, Kedar again dropped a sitter and Pandya was terrible bowling.