India in England, summer of 2021

[Kumar]

U got to absolutely play Pujara in the one off test based on current form in england and his past performance in england. I would choose Vihari over shreyas Iyer considering that Vihari can bowl off spin (very likely that Ashwin will not make the playing 11) and it is useful against left handed line up. i would not mind going with 4 pacers and Vihari and bolster our line up with additional bat like Shreyas Iyer and have him start bowling a lot in nets.

[indiansportsfan]

Current ENG-NZ shows perfectly why you need a strong lower middle order to win in English conditions. You are expected to lose few early wickets because the ball is moving around and the bowlers are fresh. It's up to the lower middle to score the bulk of runs, until the next new ball becomes available, when again you expect to lose a bunch of more wickets.
That's why I would greatly prefer Iyer to Vihari at the#5 spot. Vihari can only be expected to score 30-40 runs at a lethargic pace, which is not good enough. You need to score big and fast at that spot. I would like to see the combo of Iyer- Pant-Ashwin at 5,6,7. Also I have greater confidence in Ashwin to score rather than Jadeja in these conditions, and his bowling is also far better. I would also not replace Ashwin with Vihari, Ashwin can score faster and we will also likely need at least a few overs of his bowling, when the ball is older.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Current ENG-NZ shows perfectly why you need a strong lower middle order to win in English conditions. You are expected to lose few early wickets because the ball is moving around and the bowlers are fresh. It's up to the lower middle to score the bulk of runs, until the next new ball becomes available, when again you expect to lose a bunch of more wickets.
That's why I would greatly prefer Iyer to Vihari at the#5 spot. Vihari can only be expected to score 30-40 runs at a lethargic pace, which is not good enough. You need to score big and fast at that spot. I would like to see the combo of Iyer- Pant-Ashwin at 5,6,7. Also I have greater confidence in Ashwin to score rather than Jadeja in these conditions, and his bowling is also far better. I would also not replace Ashwin with Vihari, Ashwin can score faster and we will also likely need at least a few overs of his bowling, when the ball is older.

This test match is fully the carbon copy of WTC final, where the ball was doing all sorts of nuisance in first 2-3 days and later the pitch became excellent for batting

[Atithee]

And, that’s why we need Ashwin and Jadeja the batsman to be in the XI.

[prasen9]

We need to play four pacers and one spin bowling batting allrounder. Multiple of the pacers need to bat but since we do not have that, we need to play Shardul, Bumrah, Shami plus one. Two spinners would be redundant since they will not get wickets. If you want to strengthen the batting and this is a one off test after a while. So the pacers can go full swing, play six bats, Pant and 4 pacers. Due to his batting and fielding contributions, I would prefer Jadeja but someone pointed out England has lots of left=handers. Which demands Ashwin, but still I think the spinners will not get very many wickets. So that is sort of not much of use anyway.

[Kumar]

I agree, we cannot play two spinners unless both of them can be considered as the top 6 batsman! I am more inclined to give Vihari part time spinner nod over both Jadeja and Ashwin. Jadeja has shown little batting prowess in England. Jadeja and Ashwin score similar amount of runs in England, but Jadeja takes almost 70% more deliveries to score those runs. This is huge especially when playing with top order batsman. So Jadeja probably gets edge over Ashwin.

If we are going with 4 pacers, would u choose someone like Hardik as the allround instead of Thakur? If pandya can bowl like he did in IPL, is he a good enough swing bowler to nake the team as the bowling allrounder over Thakur?

[PKBasu]

Jadeja is much the better option as an all-rounder than Vihari. The latter doesn't even bowl regularly in Ranji cricket. Jadeja was sent in ahead of Rahane (to protect the latter) in the 4th test last year, and did the job well (facing a lot of balls), while getting 2 wickets in each innings to play a key role in India's victory. He made 56 in the first test, 40 in the second, 30 in the third -- and kept getting pushed higher up the order. Jadeja is definitely the man for the all-rounder's slot. I would take Ashwin as fifth bowler. Shardul Thakur of course did very well in the 4th test last year, so he has a good case to keep his spot: it is a toss-up between Thakur and Ashwin.

[Kumar]

Interesting, Ashwin has gotten the most number of wickets among indian bowlers in Edbagston in last 10 years. We just played one test match only

And Nathan Lyon and Moeen Ali have had success here. This may change the equation for Ashwin.

[Kumar]

Looks like India will be hard pressed to win the series in England! Disaster seems to be following this Indian team after that decision to walk away from the final test match. India had all the momentum and very likely would have won the final test match with all of the english pacers exhausted.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

2 spinners & 3 pacers will be the right combination at Edgbaston. So, far two county games have been played here in this season and two ended in draw with massive scores in first innings for each teams

[Kumar]

Also India missed an easy out of the Pant conundrum! They should have tested Pant and Shreyas Iyer so that they can join the Indian team leaving for England! I seriously believe if healthy Hardik is the best captain for WC!
The rest of Indian contingent will leave without this two, who will join them at a later stage! This will reduce their exposure to
English conditions as well

Also KL is expected to be reportedly out for the English test! This means that Gill May get one more chance unless they decide to let Pujara open and play Iyer and Vihari

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Mayank Agarwal to replace KL Rahul
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesn ... 287773/amp

Strange selection. Mayank scored just 194 runs in last 5 test matches. No chance to a domestic performer despite performing.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

England shorter format set up clearly showing 3D players are most valuable in modern day Odis & T20Is. Players like Livingstone, Sam Curran, Moeen Ali, Woakes takes English side in differant mode. They have got batters till 8/9th position who can take the team to respectable total after early wickets and also provide too many bowling option, our template is failing to cope with this modern approach. Playing XI consist of too many keepers & batters who provides just one services. If we see our world cup winning squads we used to have sachin, viru, yuvraj, raina, yousuf who did great jobs in taking out overs when strike bowler went for runs. In present set up we have VK, Shreyas, SKY, Pant who can't give captain bowling options and this things are hurting India in major events.

[SaniaFan]

Rohit, DK and Isahan also. Pant keeps wicket so ...
Although it's a different matter whether he should there in shorter format.

[Kumar]

Rohit, DK and Isahan also. Pant keeps wicket so ...
Although it's a different matter whether he should there in shorter format.

How about Bumrah, Bhuvi, Chahal, Avesh and Shami. Pretty much the entire indian line up is highly specialized! The problem is those specialized batsman are stinking up the joint and not doing their part.

I think we are burdening Pant with all this captaincy talk. He is a free flowing player who invariably fails when he starts thinking. See his interview about being dismissed in Sydney when Pujara told him he is at 97. This means that u cannot expect him to do well in MO in shorter format. He either needs to be tried as opener or be dropped and be given a free rein to play his natural game. I would still play him in Australia WC as he has shown lot more success there. Our selection should be based on their success in Australia rather than the success in indian pitches. It was disheartening to see Harshal Patel openly advocating for slow pitches. We are going to pick players based on their form in indian pitches and going to loose big time.

India 90-5 With kohli and KS Bharath playing. Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer failed to utilize this opportunity.

Bumrah, Prasidh, Pujara and Pant playing for the county squad.