West Indies in India

[prasen9]

If it is meaningless, why not rest Rohit, Shami, and Jadeja too and try a full young team.

[Sin Hombre]

We should.

That said, Rohit Shami and Jadeja are not all-format players for me (obviously team management thinks they are).

[prasen9]

Does not matter. We have a limited number of matches before the T20Is and the next Champions Trophy or whatever. So, if we are exploring, let us explore fully. That is, play all the youngsters. We have a lot of data on Rohit, Shami, and Jadeja. So, we rest them and try the youngsters/newbies. Then, for the real tournaments, we will have data on a lot of people and not be left stranded by dumping Rayudu at the end, which possibly cost us the world cup. For England, we needed batsmen who can bat when the ball is swinging. And, we had very few of them. In the semis that cost us.

[prasen9]

Again, wickets win games. Shami and then Kuldeep carved out the WI. Bad fielding by Rahul in dropping Hope and then Chahar dropping an easy catch at the boundary. Then, Pant fluffed a stumping. There were runs on board. So, we escaped. But the fielding needs to improve.

[Sin Hombre]

Does not matter. We have a limited number of matches before the T20Is and the next Champions Trophy or whatever. So, if we are exploring, let us explore fully. That is, play all the youngsters.

Agree with the principle but let's not make the same mistake as team management which conflates T20s and ODIs. Same players do not necessarily succeed in both.

[Sin Hombre]

Watching the highlights, we have some really bad catchers. KL dropped a sitter in the slips. Chahar dropped a sitter in the deep.

KL did the 90s Indian thing of slowing down for his century. Rohit's acceleration and Pant teeing off from ball 3 together with Iyer destroying the spinner helped us get to an above-par score. Iyer also did his part with a good catch for the 1st wicket and some very good fielding to cause the runout for the 2nd.

We were still in trouble with Pooran and Hope, and Shami broke the partnership with a nasty bouncer.

Agree with prasen, and I have harped on this enough in the past as well, ODIs are won by wicket-takers.

Always need to play Shami. Kuldeep as well if he has exorcised his mental demons. No place for Jadeja as a 4th bowler. No place for trundlers like Thakur. No place for Chahar if there is no swing.


This Windies team bats deep. Keemo Paul coming in at 9 can also hit big.

[sameerph]

This Windies team bats deep. Keemo Paul coming in at 9 can also hit big.

Both Pooran and Hetmeyer appear as brilliantly talented players. Also Shai Hope is so consistent. If these 3 can continue to perform consistently and with lower order of big hitters like Polard, Andre Russell etc. WI can be a formidable force in ODI's and T20's.

[prasen9]

Agree with the principle but let's not make the same mistake as team management which conflates T20s and ODIs. Same players do not necessarily succeed in both.

Absolutely agree. Rahul is an example. He is very much a certainty for T20Is but is a bit too slow for ODIs.

[prasen9]

Painful to watch Pant. Dropped 3 catches in the first 44 overs already. Don't know if it is worth it to have such crappy keeping for his less than 30 runs at a run a ball or a bit more. I am all for building for the future. But, do we not have any better options? If this is our best, he better be told to take his keeping seriously. There has been no improvement technically in the last year or two.

Everyone pretty much lost it in the last 10 overs. Kuldeep pretty much had a pretty bad day.

What Cuttack did and most Indian grounds are doing is horrible. The grounds are so small with so much space left between the boundaries and the end of the ground that it is despicable. What it does is force us to play defensive bowlers such as Jadeja and three pacers when we do not have three good and fit pacers. Why not have a big ground? The bats these days are ginormous! Almost all the mishits were sixes in the WI innings. Who likes watching such cricket? Maybe most people do. But is is indeed shameful.

[Sin Hombre]

KL with another slow-ish 50.

Shardul is not much of a bowler, but he batted like #8s do for other teams showing his ability to hit. If only he was an adequate bowler.

Saini bowled really until he lost it at the death.

Jadeja carried India past the finishing line.

[prasen9]

Interesting match. The bulk of the scoring was done by the top-3 again. Rahul was slow again But if we kept the wickets, we would have won and we did. At the end, his 70+ runs contributed to the difference because it laid the foundation. If he had scored 30 runs less, I do not know if Jadeja and the tail could have scored that much even with balls left. So, he gets a pass.

Our permanent wicket-keeper was sent at #5. Why? I would have sent Jadhav in. Or find a #5. Someone who averages 26 and change should not be batting at #5. I hope he improves his keeping all across and white-ball batting seriously. I thought he was the future and perhaps he still is. And, we do not have anyone yet who can hit like him even though a lot of his hits are a slog to the left-side. But, if dropping him a series makes him take his batting in white-ball cricket and wicket-keeping more seriously then that would be great.

Saini seemed like a wicket-taker but he needs to be more consistent with respect to line and length and think a bit wrt changing things up. For example, bowl a slower ball or a slower bouncer to mix things up. Actually, very few of the Indian pacers used the slower ball. Bad thinking. They were like head-less chicken once the WI bats starting tonking it and the mishits were falling out of the ground, in the hands (and out) of a clanger behind the wickets or were simply hit using stupendous power out of the ground.

I would put Saini before Thakur for now.

[Sin Hombre]

Big fan of Saini as I have said before. Genuinely quick and hurries the batsmen like Shami does. We should slowly start phasing in him with a view to the 2023 WC.

Full strength odi xi shaping up as
Rohit, KL/Dhawan, Kohli, Iyer, ?, Hardik, Jadeja, ?, Shami, ?, Bumrah

Spinner at 9 needs to be a wicket-taking option.
Bowler at 8 needs to be an aggressive option (unlike Hardik and Jadeja) but should be able to tonk a couple like Shardul was able to today.
Pant can't be dropping catches if he wants to be coming at 5.


More importantly, the T20 WC is closer and we have a lot more question marks there.

[prasen9]

So, West Indies is coming back to India again for a LOI series. For the ODIs, I would play:

Ruturaj, Dhawan, Rahul, Iyer, SAY, Kishan, DLC, Thakur, Sundar, RD Chahar, PK

The problem with Sundar is that he does not take wickets. In List-As domestically, he takes wickets at 35 runs a piec. But, I am hoping the others will and we will use his batting. Who else is there? Ashwin maybe. I would like to have Shreyas Gopal in the reserves in case RDC gets hit badly or seems out of form or fitness. Or Markande.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

For WI odis my Playing XI

S Dhawan, R Sharma, V Kohli, KL Rahul (wkb), S Yadav, Shahrukh Khan, R Jadeja, S Thakur, D Chahar, Y Chahal, P Krishna

Extra - W Sundar, R Gaikward, M Siraj, S Samson, V Iyer

For T20Is

S Dhawan,R Sharma, V Kohli, KL Rahul, S Yadav, V Iyer, R Jadeja, W Sundar, D Chahar/ S Thakur, Avesh Khan, H Patel

Extra - Y Chahal, I Kisan, Arsdeep, M Siraj

WI recently got thrashed by Irish team, should'nt give lollipops to our failures this time, if they are given then they will again fail in big matches.

[prasen9]

Is Jadeja fit?