Sri Lanka in India, 2022

[prasen9]

The next test series is against Sri Lanka in India. I am a big fan of horses for courses. The following are the ones with the best averages (in order) averaging at least 50 in India in the last three years.

Sundar, Mayank, Rohit, Jadeja, Kohli, Pant, Iyer

Maybe we throw in Rahul just for the looks and his century in RSA. The other option would be to give Gill more of a chance in India.

Rahul, Mayank, Rohit, Kohli, Iyer, Pant

would be my preferred six. Maybe backup with Prithvi Shaw and Vihari.

Spinners would be: Ashwin, Jadeja, Axar Patel

Backup: Sundar, Jayant

Really need a leggie here. I'd throw in Gopal or Markande.

Pacers (sometimes we should look into playing only one in the team): Bumrah, Shami, Thakur, Ishant, Umesh (in that order). Siraj if fit too.

[Atithee]

A meaningless series. Still, need to get cheap points.

[prasen9]

We do not have domestics. So, we should use this to give chances to as many youngsters as we can while not jeopardizing the points.

[SaniaFan]

The order should be Bumrah, Shami, Umesh .... or Even Bumrah, Umesh, Shami .....

On Indian pitches Umesh's reverse swing is more effective. I have not checked the records though.

[SaniaFan]

A meaningless series. Still, need to get cheap points.

What are you saying? Sri Lanka is currently number 1 in WTC cycle.

[prasen9]

The order should be Bumrah, Shami, Umesh .... or Even Bumrah, Umesh, Shami .....

On Indian pitches Umesh's reverse swing is more effective. I have not checked the records though.

You are right. The records will show this. Umesh has perhaps the best record on Indian pitches with 15 or 17 average, I think. I have not checked it recently but checked last year.

Update: Here are the numbers for the last three years:

Overall figures
Player Span Mat Inns Overs Mdns Runs Wkts BBI BBM AveAscending Econ SR 5 10
Mohammed Shami 2019-2019 5 10 122.2 35 328 22 5/35 7/58 14.90 2.68 33.3 1 0 investigate this query
Mohammed Siraj 2021-2021 3 6 35.0 9 100 6 3/19 3/32 16.66 2.85 35.0 0 0 investigate this query
UT Yadav 2019-2021 6 12 128.4 22 424 25 5/53 8/82 16.96 3.29 30.8 1 0 investigate this query
I Sharma 2019-2021 9 16 167.0 43 469 20 5/22 9/78 23.45 2.80 50.1 1 0 investigate this query
JJ Bumrah 2021-2021 2 3 48.0 10 129 4 3/84 4/110 32.25

Interestingly, the order using this would be Shami, Siraj, Umesh, Sharma, Bumrah. I say rest Bumrah. We will injure him with this load.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Would love to see Navdeep Saini getting some games against Sri Lanka at home after performing well against South Africa A

[prasen9]

This may be rumor, but it seems Rahane, Pujara, Saha, and Ishant have been told bye-bye (for now) with Ishant and Saha being told forever. I think we should give Siraj and Thakur a chance in the India matches. Thakur so that we do not have a horribly long tail. Spinners should be Ashwin, Axar, a leg spinner (or Kuldeep if SL has lots of left-handers).

Batting could be: Rahul, Mayank, Rohit, Kohli, Iyer, Pant.

I'd prefer Iyer to Vihari in India but they may drop Mayank and play both Vihari and Iyer. Let's see.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Abhimanyu Easwaran is very close to a test debut at n.o 3 unless political interference happens.

Not seeing Shreyas Iyer having long test career unless he show some drastic improvement in handling bouncers and short ball.

[prasen9]

Abhimanyu Easwaran is very close to a test debut at n.o 3 unless political interference happens.

Not seeing Shreyas Iyer having long test career unless he show some drastic improvement in handling bouncers and short ball.

No Indian player is really comfortable with bouncers and short balls. Rohit used to be bad. Kohli was fine for a long time, but he is a genius. Rahul still struggles in tests. Yes, he will not have a long test career unless he shows drastic improvement but that is true of all his competitors. Vihari and Gill are the closest and they have huge technical issues that plague them. Young players will need to improve and learn a bit on the game in their first 10-15 games. Those that do will survive. Those that don't will not. I do not see Iyer's technique being so bad that he cannot improve. The worst seems to be Mayank's toes coming up technique that makes him a sitting duck when opening innings in SENA countries. Gill's hole between bat and pad needs to be plugged. Shaw has a bigger hole between bat and pad. Vihari's all-round game needs improvement. Etc. Let us try them and keep the ones that can make the changes and send the rest back to domestics.

[Atithee]

They need to be sent to SENA leagues, not domestics. Domestics don’t do much good for Indian players.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Abhimanyu Easwaran is very close to a test debut at n.o 3 unless political interference happens.

Not seeing Shreyas Iyer having long test career unless he show some drastic improvement in handling bouncers and short ball.

No Indian player is really comfortable with bouncers and short balls. Rohit used to be bad. Kohli was fine for a long time, but he is a genius. Rahul still struggles in tests. Yes, he will not have a long test career unless he shows drastic improvement but that is true of all his competitors. Vihari and Gill are the closest and they have huge technical issues that plague them. Young players will need to improve and learn a bit on the game in their first 10-15 games. Those that do will survive. Those that don't will not. I do not see Iyer's technique being so bad that he cannot improve. The worst seems to be Mayank's toes coming up technique that makes him a sitting duck when opening innings in SENA countries. Gill's hole between bat and pad needs to be plugged. Shaw has a bigger hole between bat and pad. Vihari's all-round game needs improvement. Etc. Let us try them and keep the ones that can make the changes and send the rest back to domestics.

Haven't seen Rohit bad against short bowl. 80% of the ball aimed at his body goes out of the park. In odd day he may get caught at the boundary, but he is one of the best in the world in facing short ball.Batters with sound backfoot doesn't struggle with short ball even Gill also, as a result both performs in bouncy tracks of Australia.Kohli is not good puller of the bowl, but he has that back foot slice with bottomhand had a great success against Jhonson in 2014.Gill because of strong backfoot will get more success then in SENA then in India. Vihari doesn't have technical glinch except few selection of shorts.All he needs to do is to score runs at some good rate, can look odd at times but in test cricket it can happen.

Shaw has a big technical issue gets bowled in front foot, a concern.Infact, Shaw's test selection was dominated by Shastri's supremacy. How can the selector dump performer like Priyank Panchal who has got 24 tons in domestic as an opener
? and feed Shaw. He is 31 now selectors have finished his career just like Sheldon. Doesn't know what more they need to do to proof their worth. MSK Prasad was a puppet as selector. Since Pujara, Ishant, Saha, Rahane are international cricketers issues of ignoring them is trending, none looking at the players getting destroyed in domestic despite performing

Shreyas will score runs in India but when he plays in SENA ,he is 10 out of 10 to get out in short ball, just like Suresh Raina.Gill, Easwaran & Vihari are future for indian test middle order unless Mumbai lobby or Karnataka lobby ditches them.Specially, Easwaran has done well in domestic followed by great show in South Africa, he deserve a chance.

[prasen9]

Haven't seen Rohit bad against short bowl. 80% of the ball aimed at his body goes out of the park.

Rohit Sharma as an opener against the short ball has been a case of false bravado. He certainly is aggressive against the fast ball but not effective.

80% of the short balls going out of the park --- I do not know where you got this number. Maybe it is true, maybe it is not. You are entitled to make up any numbers, of course. As is the media, who often selectively feeds us a partial story. But, in the real world Rohit has been poor against the short ball for stretches. Here is the evidence.

From:
this article

In a classic case of boon being the bane, Rohit’s average against short-pitched stuff in this period has been 27. Given how good he is against such bowling, his natural instincts are to attack a bouncer, as suggested by an exceptional strike rate of 168.8 against this length. But, both Kagiso Rabada and Pat Cummins have lured him into fatal shots once each.

An average of 27 against short-pitched stuff indicates real deficiency. While the SR is exceptional, this shows that he hits a few and then gets out. On the balance, the bowler wins. I'd rather allow a SR of 169 to every batsman if I can get them out for 27. Rohit was worse against the short ball when he started playing is what I was saying. He learned to be pretty good and then again lapsed when he was sent to open perhaps because the short ball bowled with a new ball is more lethal.

But, hey, be my guest. Please make up more stories and myths. Human beings are known for their creativity. Just sticking to facts is utterly boring when we our imagination can have no bounds.

[SaniaFan]

I don't think Shreyas will necessarily have issue with bounce in test cricket. He has problem with bouncing ball but I don't think it is about being afraid of that or having less time to play it. It has more to do with execution in the shorter format where you have to play it to score. In long format you can develop a technique to leave it. We'll see when he gets a chance.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Haven't seen Rohit bad against short bowl. 80% of the ball aimed at his body goes out of the park.

Rohit Sharma as an opener against the short ball has been a case of false bravado. He certainly is aggressive against the fast ball but not effective.

80% of the short balls going out of the park --- I do not know where you got this number. Maybe it is true, maybe it is not. You are entitled to make up any numbers, of course. As is the media, who often selectively feeds us a partial story. But, in the real world Rohit has been poor against the short ball for stretches. Here is the evidence.

From:
this article

In a classic case of boon being the bane, Rohit’s average against short-pitched stuff in this period has been 27. Given how good he is against such bowling, his natural instincts are to attack a bouncer, as suggested by an exceptional strike rate of 168.8 against this length. But, both Kagiso Rabada and Pat Cummins have lured him into fatal shots once each.

An average of 27 against short-pitched stuff indicates real deficiency. While the SR is exceptional, this shows that he hits a few and then gets out. On the balance, the bowler wins. I'd rather allow a SR of 169 to every batsman if I can get them out for 27. Rohit was worse against the short ball when he started playing is what I was saying. He learned to be pretty good and then again lapsed when he was sent to open perhaps because the short ball bowled with a new ball is more lethal.

But, hey, be my guest. Please make up more stories and myths. Human beings are known for their creativity. Just sticking to facts is utterly boring when we our imagination can have no bounds.

Getting out in short ball in one or two innings doesn't proves that he is bad against short ball. Kohli got out of Jhonshon in 2015 wc semis in short ball, even Ponting in odd day can be out in short ball. But success rates are more then failures. With one or two failures many myths and stories can be created. At current indian team no one is better then Rohit when it comes to throwing short ball outside the park

Ranking 5 best batsmen of the pull shot
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