West Indies in India

[prasen9]

WI will visit India for ODIs. We should rest all our test bowlers. If you want, we should try to see if Ishant is any better in ODIs. Then, play Thakur, Kaul, and Khaleel to give them a fair run. I am not a fan of any of them but I am a big fan of process and not dumping people without giving them a fair run. The pace-bowling allrounder should be Dube or Shankar. I would go with Dube. We have enough data on Bhuvi, Shami, and Umesh and there is no need to play any of them. Maybe Bhuvi can be given a few matches if we think testing his fitness is necessary.

In the T20Is. we should test out Saini.

[prasen9]

Ok, boomers and non-boomers,

Here are the teams:

T20I squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

ODI squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

When we have a year's worth of T20Is left, what really is the utility of playing Kohli, Rohit, and the pretty-much failed Dhawan? Why can Bhuvi's fitness not be tested in domestics? Getting Shami in T20Is is a good idea. He has played only 7 matches and looked horrible. So, let us see if he can cut it. I would love a Chahar-Shami-Dube pairing in the first match.

It would be good to see if the Chahal-Kuldeep pairing is back to form or not in T20Is. Batting, I would play Iyer, Manish, Pant, Kohli, Sharma, Dhawan, and Rahul in the T20Is. Rest Rohit and put in Jadeja if you want to see whether he can bat (consistently). For the ODIs, bring Kedar in and rest Kohli.

[PKBasu]

West Indies are a good T20I side, and it isn't worth losing matches to them (thereby undermining our own ranking).
Samson has replaced the injured Shikhar Dhawan. That's fair enough, but I don't understand why Shubman Gill has been deemed a test specialist (and then is kept on the bench), but not good enough for T20Is. He is doing spectacularly in the Mushtaq Ali trophy.
Prithwi Shaw is back, and scoring heavily (and fast). I wonder how long he will be kept in the wilderness.

[prasen9]

In the meantime, West Indies has bamboozled Afghanistan in Lucknow in a test match. It is interesting that Afghanistan chooses to play in India instead of say the Gulf. India has played that card well in trying to make friends with Afghanistan.

It is the age-old debate about exploration versus exploitation. Who cares about some T20I series? While a whole bunch of people care about the T20I world cup. If you want short-term benefits, then play the seniors. If you want longer term benefits, give the juniors enough chances. If we do not give Iyer, Pant, and Samson enough chances, then we will not know whom to take for the 2-3 batting spots where we will need them. I am guessing that in this match we will play the top seven bats. I would rather they played Samson and rested one of Kohli or Rohit.

[prasen9]

West Indies missed some wicket-taking spinners. Badree, Bishoo, and Narine are all good T20I bowlers. What happened to them? Or even Fabien Allen. No Keemo Paul. Bad selection done them in.

India too have Sundar, Jadeja and Kumar, who are defensive bowlers. We need Kuldeep to assist Chahar and Chahal to get some wickets. Dube can be a wicket-taker but he is too raw and was only given one over.

[PKBasu]

Terrific innings from Kohli (indifferent start, stunning finish) and a great start by Rahul saved India the blushes after a poor bowling performance. Washington Sundar got clobbered, Bhuvi was economical, but Jadeja was the bowling star. Chahal did get a couple of wickets, but was expensive too.

[Sin Hombre]

How was Bhuvi economical but Chahal expensive when they both went for the same number of runs?

The guy who was expensive was Deepak Chahar who is a lost cause with the next T20 WC in Australia with flat, firm pitches. Need to move on from him pronto.

Rohit with another dud in T20. We need to promote Pant to opener and get 2 of Samson, Gill, Iyer after Virat. Hardik will replace Dubey.

My current hoped for full-strength Indian T20 xi would be
Pant, KL, Kohli, Samson, Gill/Iyer, Hardik, Spin A/R, Jadeja, Bhuvi, Chahal, Bumrah

with one of Mayank or Shaw as the backup opener.

One has to keep in mind that Jadeja has never been able to accelerate off the bat in T20s.



Just watched the highlights, India's fielding and catching was terrible (Rohit dropped one and Sundar dropping two). Also, Kohli's acceleration was insane, last 50 came off 16 balls.

[prasen9]

And with the batting, Rohit and Rahul both struggled. Kohli was in a rut but we can give him a day off. Rahul could not just carry the team. Carry means score at the required rate, a SR of 175. Rahul's innings was good but not just good enough because his SR of 155 created a deficit of balls instead of covering it. Pant came and hit the ball out and covered the SR to bring it back. But, then he got out and Iyer could not get it going again. It is just that Kohli refused to lose and figured things out eventually. And we kept wickets in hand because of Rahul.

Why drop Chahar? Let him play. He is producing. Bring Saini in instead of Bhuvi. We know Bhuvi is usually economical and in T20Is gets some wickets too. Not enough for my tastes but not as bad as in ODIs. And, in T20Is, he has enough experience to bowl at the end. But we know exactly who he is in T20Is. I would try Chahar, Saini, and Shami to see if they can cut it.

Sundar dropped one off Chahar by not picking it up. Sundar dropped another then. Why is he in the team? I would rather get Kuldeep. Or get Pandey.

[PKBasu]

Terrible batting performance so far. Jadeja has been poor in his short stay at the crease: just 5 runs in the 18th over is abominable. Dube showed what he can do, but Shreyas Iyer seems more suited to ODIs than T20Is.
And Jadeja's horrendous innings comes to an end. 10 off 12 balls, eating up valuable balls in the 18th and 19th over. Jadeja is a terrible T20I batsman -- his batting average of less than 12 in 46 matches makes that abundantly clear. He should bat lower down the order in T20Is, where he has to earn his place as bowler and fielder (as he did in the last match). In 2009, he lost us a crucial match in the T20 world championship with an atrociously slow batting performance against England, and 10 years later we still haven't grasped the fact that he is a POOR T20I batsman!
Washington Sundar goes for a first ball duck. One has to wonder what he is in the team for...

[PKBasu]

This is the match that should have told us that Jadeja is not suited to be a T20I batsman. His bowling and fielding could yet get him into the side, but he should be batting at 9, 10 or 11 in T20Is:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/860 ... nty20-2009

I remember this vividly, because I was in a taxi coming from Heathrow, and was planning to go to the ground (and watch the SF and final later), but Jadeja just plodded and killed our chances in the tournament. (This was the second T20I world championship; we were holders and hot favourites, until this match did us in!).

Our selectors and team managements seem incapable of distinguishing between formats. Just because Jadeja can bat in ODIs and tests, doesn't mean he can do it in T20Is too. His record shows emphatically that he is not a T20I allrounder: a fine bowler, but a terrible T20I batsman.

[PKBasu]

Two catches dropped off Bhuvi's second over, a simple one by Washington Sundar and a tougher one by Pant. Bhuvi has 2-0-7-0, but it should have been 2-0-6-2.

[PKBasu]

Washington Sundar somewhat redeems himself in his fourth over -- 1 wicket for 2 runs, finishing with 1/26 off 4 overs. But his catching is abominable, and his batting non-existent. So it's time to replace him, preferably with Kuldeep.

If we are preparing for a T20I world championship in Australia, why are we persisting with so many spinners? Shouldn't we just play 3 pacers, plus Dube, Jadeja, Chahal/Kuldeep?

[PKBasu]

Spinners getting thrashed! Chahal 0/36 in 3 overs.

[PKBasu]

WI cruising to victory. 15 off the 16th over (bowled by Bhuvi). The two dropped catches earlier in the innings lost us the match.

[ankit1407]

This is a poor T20 team and it’s not surprising to see the struggle .. While Kohli’s brilliance masked all this during first T20.. it’s exposed badly today ..