India in England, 2018

[Sin Hombre]

The India A team will include most of the test regulars.

[prasen9]

Who will play Afghanistan then?

[Sin Hombre]

Rohit, Rahane and others who are not regulars of the test team so probably the likes of Karun Nair, PP.

[prasen9]

Make Rohit play. Rahane should be playing in England. And, so should Karun Nair. By your definition, if you leave both Rohit and Rahane out, the only regular bats are Kohli and Pujara. The openers play Russian roulette among themselves. And Rohit and Rahane keep taking each others' place. I would want the full team along with 1-2 backup batsmen Nair+Karthik/Iyer play county cricket. As many we can send, the better it is for us.

[Sin Hombre]

Just going by the horse's mouth here (COA) who said that Rohit or Rahane will lead India vs Afg

Kohli, Pujara and Ashwin are playing county.

I think the rest of the test starters will be part of the India A team so I am guessing Saha, Pandya and the quicks.

[prasen9]

I think they will be trying to save face by not sending everyone. But, I think this is time to be ruthlessly unabashed. Send everyone to England. My team for Afghanistan:

PP Shaw, Dhawan, Rohit, Hanuma, Bawne, Jayant Yadav, Pant, Umesh Yadav, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Chahal, Kuldeep. If you want to send the last two, then put in some spinners who are next in line. (Of course, not going to happen.)

[PKBasu]

Pujara had a poor outing for Yorkshire, making 2 and 18 (run out) in the two innings against Nottinghamshire.

Ishant made a career-best 66 with the bat yesterday, and picked up 2 wickets for Sussex. But today, he hasn't added another wicket, as Leicestershire have piled up 376/6.

[PKBasu]

Pujara failed in his second match too, making scores of 7 and 6 in the two innings. He is clearly struggling in the swinging conditions in the cold of England at this time of the year.

Ishant has had a brighter start, getting 66 and 3/85 in his second match (mentioned earlier), after taking 3/53 and 2/16 in the two innings of his first match (against Warwickshire). He went wicketless (but without giving up many runs) in his third match.

[Sin Hombre]

Kohli confirmed to play 6 matches for Surrey in early summer.

[PKBasu]

Surrey is a good choice. Virat will get to play some tough away games, but will also be able to bolster his confidence with home games at the Oval, where swing bowlers don't thrive as much. Pujara is giving himself a very tough task by playing for Yorkshire.

Some of the Indian test specialists should have done the same thing before the South African tour.

[prasen9]

But why are Rahane, Rahul, Vijay and Dhawan not doing the same? If anything, Rahul perhaps needs more experience there. We don't want another half-baked series and then him to be chucked out. He needs to take and be given opportunities to mature. If Kohli needs more work, certainly these stalwarts need that too. And, while we are at it, why not have Bhuvi, Shami, Bumrah, Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep go there too? At least all of them should make themselves available. Even if all of them may not get bites.

[PKBasu]

Varun Aaron is playing for Leicestershire. He had 1/54 in his first game, against Derbyshire, and has 1/22 in 8 overs (including a wicket in his first over) in his second match today, against Durham.

[PKBasu]

Pujara finally got some runs in a low-scoring match against Essex. He made 9 (the second highest individual score) as Yorkshire were bowled out for 50, and then made 41 in the second innings fight back. The good news is that he outscored England captain Joe Root (0 and 35) in both innings!

[PKBasu]

Ishant seems to have been dropped (or "rested", perhaps because of injury?) for Sussex's current game.

[prasen9]

Shoulder injury Times Report