India in New Zealand ODIs, 2019

[prasen9]

The fact remains that we won because of Rayudu. Vijay Shankar wanted a run. Rayudu initially did not. Then he started running and Vijay reversed his decision. Both were at fault although maybe the protocol may have been that it was Vijay's call. Those mishits of Rayudu went 88m. Pandya's second six off Astle was more of a "mishit". Mishits happen. At the end of the day he won us a match. Without his innings, we lose.

I am not saying that he is the best #4 we can have. But, he is certainly a contender. The knock on him is his slow SR. However, yesterday, his strategy was good. He should have tried to get singles every ball like Vijay was doing.

update: It is funny how things change. PKB and Gautam used to be the ones who were big Rayudu fans in his early days. I was a serious skeptic because his domestic record was not that good. Now, I think he is a contender while a substantial number here including PKB think he is junk. I am a turncoat fan. If people perform, I am for them. If not, I am against.

[PKBasu]

Sorry, we didn't win because of Rayudu. If we won because of any one person, it was because of Pandya.
Award adjudicators are absurdly biased in favour of batsmen. There was absolutely no basis to pick Rayudu as MoM over Hardik Pandya, who scored quickly enough to give India a fighting total (while Rayudu would have lost us the match with the strike rate he achieved) -- and then Pandya also took 2 wickets and fielded superbly as usual. Rayudu ran out the set Vijay Shankar (who had comfortably outscored Rayudu during their partnership), and ended with a strike rate of less than 80 after his long innings. When Rayudu was sixth out, India were 190/6, with a run-rate of 4.4, implying that India would have ended with 220 had Pandya not come in and rattled off the quick runs that took India to 252 and heaped some serious scoreboard pressure on the Kiwis. How the hell does Rayudu become MoM ahead of Pandya (45 off 22 balls, and 2/50)?

[arjun2761]

update: It is funny how things change. PKB and Gautam used to be the ones who were big Rayudu fans in his early days. I was a serious skeptic because his domestic record was not that good. Now, I think he is a contender while a substantial number here including PKB think he is junk. I am a turncoat fan. If people perform, I am for them. If not, I am against.

I don't think this is unusual or particularly funny as players change as they age and generally for the worse after a certain point in their career. A 24 year old Rayudu doing what he is doing now may be considered promising whereas a 34 year old Rayudu doing what he is doing now may be preventing another promising player from blossoming. Perhaps, we are seeing some of the same sentiment with Dhoni.

[prasen9]

The context is that we are trying to get the best team for the WC. We have two slots in the middle order. Planning requires explore and exploit phases. The team values WC 2019 as one of *the* most important events. Therefore, there is not much time to explore and plan for the future. We need to find the best XI now.

Towards this, the team afforded 54 matches to Kedar, 52 to Rayudu, 23 to Pandey, 13 to Rahul, 6 to Iyer and 4 to Shankar. Of these two MO places, we tried to rehabilitate Rahane for a long time. Those were wasted chances and should have been used on someone else. The chances given to Kedar and Rayudu were legitimate because they performed the best. Pandey actually got chances before these folks but could not hold it with consistent performances. Ditto Rahul, though he got chances higher up in the order and not that many. Iyer was not given a fair run. Both Kedar and Rayudu have averaged over 40, a requirement for the modern-day MO. The knock on Rayudu is that he is a bit slow for a #4. Notice that he is being played as a #4. You need someone who can play long innings there and not cameos. Whereas Pandya is a great option for #6 or #7, he is not great as a #4 because I am not sure he can survive the new ball within the first 10 overs. With experience, Rayudu has matured to the point where he can survive --- at least better than any of the other contenders as he showed. So, his selection now is justified.

When he was 24, PKB and Gautam were supporting him based on his "potential". I rarely go by potential especially if the player has been bad in the domestics. Show me that you can do it and I support you. If you cannot do it, you must be out. It is funny to me that people want to reward potential and not performance.

Dhoni is not the same. Dhoni has been bad the last year with the bat. The caveat being that he got to bat in a small number of occasions (small sample size aberration). He has improved this year in a few games. Because of his bad last year or so, I wanted him out. Now that he has shown some signs of revival, I hope he bats very well in the WC for one last hurrah. And given that Dhoni has slowed down, or at least lost some of his four-hitting ability, it may be better to consider him for #4 too and not #5 or #6.

An aging player who performs his role and an aging player who has diminished to the point where he is no better than replacement is not the same.

[Sin Hombre]

update: It is funny how things change. PKB and Gautam used to be the ones who were big Rayudu fans in his early days. I was a serious skeptic because his domestic record was not that good. Now, I think he is a contender while a substantial number here including PKB think he is junk. I am a turncoat fan. If people perform, I am for them. If not, I am against.

Well he hasn't performed.

Also, the knock on Rayadu is not just his terrible S/R. But also that, he cannot field and costs us in every match, and is banned from bowling. And is a terrible runner between the wickets.

His rivals for the middle order spots or at least the ones that have been tried there are all good fielders outside of Kedar. Also the likes of Kedar and Shankar are reasonable bowling options.

These are the competencies required from the #4
- bat long with good s/r if the top order fails
- run well between the wickets
- can hit from ball 1 if the top order clicks and there are <15 overs to go
- can field well
- useful part-time bowling option.

Yuvi at his peak was capable of doing all 5.

How many is Rayadu capable of?

[prasen9]

We cannot make an ideal #4. I am not arguing that he is the ideal #4. I am arguing that he sort of is the only one left by default. The alternatives cannot bat long. That imho is a primary requirement. His fielding is the main problem. Would I have liked Iyer to be given a run? Sure. But we cannot afford a low-average batsman at #4. If Shankar can do it, fine. Let us move him into the 11 and Rayudu as a backup. Essentially, we tried Rayudu vs. Rahane vs. Pandey. And the team selectors chose Rayudu because he can bat longer than the other two. Rahane was also tried as an opener but realistically, he would have to bat in the MO in England. If Pandey had batted at over 45 runs/innings or even 40, he would have been given a longer run.

Kedar is being considered for the #5 position. I do not mind giving Shankar or Iyer a run for #4. But unless they perform consistently in the next five ODIs, there is no other alternative given the time left.

[Sin Hombre]

Saw this on ICF; feels like we will take him in the squad purely as the specialist sub fielder.

Ravindra Jadeja in ODI cricket from January 1, 2015 - Present:
BATTING STATISTICS

Innings: 23

Batting Average: 18.68
Batting Strike Rate: 87.42

Half Centuries: 0

BOWLING STATISTICS
Innings: 37
Wickets: 37
Bowling Average: 46.67
Bowling Strike Rate: 54.3

[Atithee]

Down with Ahmed. He’s useless. I’d rather try Gurbani.

[prasen9]

Given the team, I would try Kaul.

[Atithee]

No, he’s a dud too.

[prasen9]

The other alternative is Siraj Among these three, I would try Kaul in the next one. He, at least, did reasonably in the chances he got.

[Atithee]

Nope. Not him too. I said Gurbani. Or someone from under 19 World Cup winners.

[prasen9]

For the next two matches, your choice is two among Bhuvi, Kaul, Khalil, and Siraj. That is all you have to choose from. Rajneesh Gurbani averages 26.07 at 7.70 in T20s over 14 matches. I am not sure he is ready. I cannot, of course, rule him out either based on these numbers. Mavi bowled at over 9 runs/over in the IPL matches and 6.4 runs/over in List-As. He has a ways to go. Porel has an average of 24.66 at 4.85 runs/over in 9 matches. But all of these guys are rather raw. There is very little chance that they will actually be better than say Kaul. They should be groomed at the A-team tours, etc. and then sprung. Sort of like what we did with Prithvi Shaw, Risabh Pant, and Gill. Or Kuldeep. But randomly picking someone without them doing much or having any experience at all abroad has never resulted in success before. At least I cannot think of one person. Maybe Tendulkar. But that is a once in a generation player.

[Sin Hombre]

All of them are duds, we don't have a lot of white ball fast bowling talent. This was the list I made a few months back.

Most likely red ball - Shivam Mavi

Most likely white ball - Kamlesh Nagarkoti

Potential red ball - Siraj, Avesh Khan

Potential white ball - Navdeep Saini, Ankit Rajpoot, Tushar Deshpande

Potential A/R - Shivam Dubey


Khaleel, Shardul, Unadcutter, Kaul are all junk.

[Atithee]

Yes, I’ll go to one of the potential listed players. Don’t care about what their experience level is. If they’re not in the squad, of course it’s not possible. My comment was to indicate my dissatisfaction with the proven dud dudes. I’d rather get another batsman or a batting all rounder, who can even be a spinner, at least for T20. I think in T20 batting is more important than bowling, so the bowling mode is less critical. I don’t give too much importance to grooming of bowlers. Batting, maybe!