England in India, February-March 2021

[rajitghosh]

I would be seeing if Hardik bowls and how effective he is. With 6 tests coming up in England, if Hardik is able to bowl 10 overs in a day it makes a lot of difference to the balance of the team.

[prasen9]

Yes, but that is 10 overs. Maybe in the ODI phase? And, not the T20I phase?

[rajitghosh]

Let him start bowling in the T20s. At least we'll know if he's got his pace, line and length right or he is bowling rubbish. The stamina can be checked during the ODIs.

[prasen9]

He has already bowled in a T20I. Yes, we can get a bit more data but it will be inconsequential for whether he can bowl in a test match in England in May or whenever. Of course, it could be useful to figure out if he can bowl in an ODI.

On another note, looking at this T20I team with a bunch of youngsters. So, who are they?

Young: Sundar (21), Kishan (22), Pant (23), Iyer (26), Axar, Hardik (27)

And, the oldies are:

Old: Dhawan (35), Rohit (33), Kohli (32), Bhuvi (31), Chahal, Surya (30)

Not terribly old and not terribly young. Of course, this is a world cup year (covid permitting). So, I guess the only real youngsters are Sundar, Kishan, and Pant with the others having significant domestic experience at least.

The really old Dhawan perhaps saved his career with a very good 2020 IPL season. I'd rather see Rahul and Rohit opening though.

[prasen9]

Because of COVID, we have an unusually large team for a home series. However, the news is that Varun Chakravarty and Tewatia have failed their fitness tests and Natarajan is still recovering at the NCA and may miss at least the first T20I. RD Chahar has been brought in. That may settle some of the logjam. And, grapevine is that Rahul may be preferred to Dhawan. Rahul has a better international record while Dhawan had a better last IPL record given his superb SR.

So my preferred 11 will be:

Rahul (c), Kishan, Iyer, Pant, Surya, Hardik, Axar, Chahar, Shardul, Chahar, Saini.

Zero chance of that happening.

[prasen9]

Rohit got some mystery injury again?

Interesting that Kohli thinks Sundar has been successful as a T20I bowler. That shows that he only cares for runs/over. That is very short-sighted. If the opponent has wickets, then no total is safe. Now, we have only two wicket-takers in Thakur, Chahal, and maybe Hardik.

As we say this, KL goes. Pretty bad innings. No feet movement while driving. Kohli tries to be aggressive because Dhawan was slow and KL was too. Gets out. He cannot play slogs from ball one. If we want to pick up the SR early on, we need to send someone who is a natural hitter. KL can hit but was subdued in the last IPL. Maybe someone like Kishan would do. Or send Pant up.

[Kumar]

India’s T20 team is just pathetic!

[PKBasu]

Horrific start for India. India are 3/2 in the third over. Kohli gets yet another duck. This match is as good as over. England picked just one spinner, but used him smartly at the top. Dhawan couldn't find the gaps, even getting a mere single off a rank long-hop that pitched halfway down the pitch. Feeling the pressure, Rahul played a terrible shot -- with a massive gap between bat and pad, and played on. Kohli tried to go for a big shot as his first scoring shot, and was caught. Awful start, but it seems India's top order is getting into the habit of leaving it all for the strong middle order.

[Kumar]

I don’t think Dhawan belongs to T20! He seems very ordinary 4 runs of 11 balls
Not taking singles definitely puts lot of pressure

And he goes! Please get rid of him

England will be huge favorite for T20 wc

[prasen9]

... strong middle order.

Strong middle order? Who? Pant has been a failure in T20Is including today. Iyer is the only one in the MO who can score but has been horribly slow. Hardik is good wrt SR but cannot score enough runs. Washi has been a failure with the bat.

[Kumar]

None of the fans are wearing masks

Yes, Pant has to play in power play to be effective! Shreyas has been much better today

[Sin Hombre]

Another terrible batting line up and this T20 team is being horribly exposed. I hope if this is the case, we lose 5-0 and we see dramatic changes in the LOI setup.

Dhawan is one of the worst players to play as much T20 cricket as he has.

Kohli has now 4 ducks in his last 5 innings. Time for him to give up captaincy and focus on batting since he should be very close to being dropped in normal circumstances.

Pant has to play as an opener if he plays in T20. As prasen said earlier, he is not a good middle order batsman in T20.

I think Hardik has improved as a batsman though.

[Sin Hombre]

This is the team I would go with

Pant / Kishan / Samson
KL
Rohit (c)
Iyer
SKY
Hardik
Tewatia / Sundar
Jadeja
Nattu / Bhuvi
Chahal / Shami / Thakur
Bumrah

There is no winning T20 team with Rohit and Kohli in the same xi.

[Atithee]

It is a part of an experiment. I think it is a good idea, so we need to give it a chance.

India to shed caution for aggression, says Virat Kohli: 'I see us being much more positive from now'

"We want to be a side that plays free cricket, not have any baggage of lack of [batting] depth"

SAURABH SOMANI
11-Mar-2021

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/indi ... li-1254540

[Sin Hombre]

What aggression?

Dhawan is a joke in T20. 3 runs off 12.

All words from Kohli but no action.