Australia in India (short tour, Jan 2020)

[PKBasu]

Terrible start to the ODI in Mumbai. India are batting at a leisurely pace, and have more or less lost the match already -- at 162/4 in 32 overs. Scoring at less than 5 an over is simply unacceptable in today's ODI cricket. Messing with Kohli's slot at #3 is criminal. If Rahul has to play, he can bat at #4 or somewhere else.

[PKBasu]

164/5 now. Our bowlers will have their work cut out. But we have Bumrah and Shami today, so perhaps all is not lost.

[ankit1407]

It’s just unbelievable how they keep finding spots to fit Dhawan in T20 and Rahul in ODI team ... playing against a quality bowling attack was always going to expose this team and that’s happening ..#6 for Pant is too high for the quality he has shown so far ..

[Sin Hombre]

Kohli the LOI captain is clueless. He is the greatest #3 in ODI history and should always play there.

Iyer again getting exposed by genuine pace.

[prasen9]

Rohit, Kohli, and Iyer failed badly with the bat. And, Pant and Jadeja do not have it in themselves to recover from that. At least Pant. We have been chasing strike-rates for the #6 but we also have to have a #6 who can actually hit a 50 once in a while and not the short cameo 25. That said, I do not know how to fix this team's batting to make it any better. Make Rahul go back to #4.

We need some bowlers who can bat. Chahal and Kuldeep are fun together but we cannot play them both because they cannot really bat What was the point in giving away Kuldeep's wicket knowing well that Bumrah cannot bat at all? Little things matter.

[Sin Hombre]

The answer is to phase in the likes of Gill and Mayank in the ODI team, not to keep recycling the same ideas.

KL is a terrible ODI player because he is unable to rotate the strike.

[prasen9]

The problem is Gill and Mayank are both top-order players. Top-order batting is easier than lower MO. We do not have a problem at the top of the order.

The problem today was not KL per se. The problem was Rohit, Kohli, Iyer, Pant, and Jadeja failing to bat for a decent time against some good bowling. Some other day KL's strike rotation may be a problem.

We have bigger holes than KL. The keeper is a dud. He really can bat if he does not try to swing everything to mid-wicket. You cannot score centuries in test cricket overseas otherwise. He should be told not to worry about the strike rate but just play cricketing shots based on what the ball deserves. I would still give him a few more series in ODIs but he should be rested from the T20 team so that we have a backup in time for the WC.

Maybe play Gill at #5 and see what he can do.

[Sin Hombre]

Pant can't rotate the strike, same for KL. You can't play in ODIs in the middle order unless you can do so. This is not an impediment in test cricket where there is no S/R pressure and you can wait for the loose ball to hit.

Team management keeps conflating formats.

No idea why Shardul is being preferred either. His 10 ball cameos are not as important as they are in T20s, and he is not a wickettaking option.

Also, we do have a problem at the top of the order. We have one of the worst S/Rs in the powerplay.

[ankit1407]

Selector and coach have no spine to take on Kohli so he will continue to be LOI captain . This all starts at the top when selectors have no clue what they are doing ; wasted 2/3 years before WC trying junk like Rayudu , Rahane and then dumped all of them before WC leaving no time to try young guys... we suddenly thought Likes of Rahul , Vijay Shankar as our savior based on 1/2 matches which was exposed badly in WC .. to top it off Karthik who was doing very well in T20 was selected as pure bat ; Pant who had no ODI credentials was suddenly thought to be our savior in WC SF .. he is getting chances after chances when in ODI where his best performances came in Test ; from where we dumped him coz he was suddenly not good enough ..

Why no earth we don’t get likes of Mayank , Gill and others to test them out is beyond any logic ; we keep trying Rahul , Pant who Have no clue how to construct an inning ; and to top
It Kohli gives away #3 spot ..bizzare at best

[prasen9]

We have to go back to Chahal and Kuldeep in the middle overs to take wickets. There seems to be no solution without good all-rounders. You can overcome slow starts at the top of the order but you cannot overcome a bunch of MO bats who cannot bat consistently. Jadeja is good for #7 or #8 maybe but not much higher.

[PKBasu]

Total annihilation! The pathetic selections getting thoroughly exposed. It is amazing that Mayank is yet to make his ODI debut, despite having a List A batting average of 50.9 and strike rate of 101+. And that record includes the early fallow years too. He and Gill should be shoo-ins for the ODI squad, but have not been properly blooded.

[prasen9]

Rahul should be dropped. Too slow. Move Kohli back to #3. Then, we can get in one of Kedar or Manish. Last year, Kedar averaged over 40 and SR over 90. Now, 90 is slow and we want near 100 for the #5 or #6. But, I do not have much confidence that Manish can be more consistent and faster than Kedar. And, Kedar can bowl a few overs and get wickets. So, I would go back to Kedar for the next match. Saini for Thakur too.

[indiansportsfan]

I think we (as cricket followers) realized Rahul's futility a while back; but somehow the Indian team management has not done so. It will likely take them until the next big event that we lose. Between Kedar and Manish, I would definitely pick Manish, since I believe Kedar is a on a decline. He was good a while back, but his returns since then have been diminishing and he doesn't bowl too anymore. Also our fast bowling, which was being talked about as being the best in the world, got thoroughly exposed. Saini should definitely come in for Thakur, but the rest of the bowling doesn't look great too.

Looking at the current team composition, I think at least one of Rohit or Kohli has to play at his very best to get us a win against Australia.

[Sin Hombre]

KL is fine as an opener in T20s.

In the end, nothing will improve with this Indian team until we strip the LOI captaincy from Kohli. His record both with India and RCB is terrible.

[prasen9]

The problem also is that Kohli does not realize or accept that the different formats require slightly different skills. He talks about "international performance" or whatever to justify Rahul's selection in ODIs. He is one of our best bats in T20Is. But, including him in the ODI and test team becaue of that does not serve any purpose.

It makes sense to include Manish for Kedar except that Manish is not that young himself. For the #5 position, we need someone who can average around 35 (at least) better over 40 and a SR of 100 (or at least 95). Kedar has been batting at over 40 and over 90 for the last 2-3 years. He has not really regressed in the last year per se but there was a dropoff in his SR 2-3 years ago. Maybe he spent too much time with Dhoni, who told him to keep his wicket and go for it at the end But, more than 2-3 years ago, he used to bat at over 100 SR. What happened to that? Lost his skill? Or is it small sample size?