T20 World Cup, 2022

[PKBasu]

This match ought to be investigated for match fixing. Seems like it was being played for the bookies.

Agree! It was bizarre from start to finish. Why was Hooda picked ahead of Axar? Why are Rahul and DK getting picked despite repeated failures? And, most bizarre of all, why did India bat first after winning the toss, given that we chase so well?

[prasen9]

Why was Hooda picked ahead of Axar?

Because he is a better batsman than Axar. He has had a fantastic record and it is a shame that he is not being given a fair run being always dropped due to a failure here and there.

Why are Rahul and DK getting picked despite repeated failures? And, most bizarre of all, why did India bat first after winning the toss, given that we chase so well?

These are fair questions. Bat first? That was quite a stupid decision. Both Rahul and DK have failed. I'd rather drop Rahul and try Pant as an opener as Sin Hombre said.

Here are the numbers in the last 12 months for people who have had at least 8 dismissals sorted by SR.

SA Yadav 32 31 6 1029 117 41.16 576 178.64 1 9 3 93 59 investigate this query
DJ Hooda 13 10 2 293 104 36.62 191 153.40 1 0 1 27 13 investigate this query
HH Pandya 26 22 7 536 71* 35.73 365 146.84 0 2 1 43 26 investigate this query
RG Sharma 33 33 2 945 74 30.48 656 144.05 0 7 3 90 49 investigate this query
KD Karthik 27 21 8 280 55 21.53 198 141.41 0 1 1 28 13 investigate this query
SS Iyer 18 17 4 480 74* 36.92 346 138.72 0 4 1 40 19 investigate this query
V Kohli 21 19 6 652 122* 50.15 475 137.26 1 6 1 52 24 investigate this query
RR Pant 28 22 7 410 52* 27.33 308 133.11 0 1 0 41 14 investigate this query
KL Rahul 19 19 2 599 69 35.23 453 132.22 0 8 1 46 29 investigate this query
Ishan Kishan 16 16 0 463 89 28.93 359 128.96 0 3 0 53 16

Karthik gives you a better SR but worse runs. Pant gives you a better average than Karthik but much slower. KL gives you the most runs but slower than Pant still. The unfortunate part was that we do not have a batter with a good SR. It was stupid not to pick Shreyas Iyer. Our investment in Kishan did not pan out. He gives us slightly more runs than Pant but is slower still.

[prasen9]

Furthermore, we saw in the previous match the pitch was like this. Why did we choose Ashwin? Why not go with an all-round pace attack?

[Atithee]

Sanju Samson should be next in line for openers. Even Gill might have been better. Ditto for Dhawan.

[prasen9]

Dhawan is awful in T20Is. We should have had Samson and Iyer in the team and not Pant and DK. I had said so when the team was announced. Gill, we do not know. I am reluctant to project from IPL. Gill was awful when he played for KKR but it seems he can hit the ball now and score at a faster rate.

Rahul was in awful form. He should be dropped and sent back to the drawing board with instructions to bat faster. Move him to the middle order.

[Sin Hombre]

prasen - with KL, there is enough evidence that he is much worse both in Australia and in multi-nation tournaments





DK on the other hand is a different level of bad in multination tournaments



Pant is not a good T20 player, but at least he plays the same in the big tournaments as bilaterals

[Sin Hombre]

Iyer at the WACA under the lights is Hooda and would be bounced out. We needed Samson and Shaw in the xi. Would have played Shaw as the opener and played Samson in the MO.

[prasen9]

Rahul is indeed bad in multi-nation tournaments. The evidence in Australia is still small sample size. DK's multi-nation tournament is also very small sample size. Any way, all three are pretty much crap. So, I guess you rotate your crap to see who can create a fluke.

Shaw could not save his wicket if his life depended on it, and had a hole in his bat in Australia when he last visited. He would have been a sitting duck in Perth. Maybe on the flatter wickets he could have done something.

Iyer is much maligned. But, when Pant, KL, and Karthik have repeatedly failed over a year, I'd rather try him and let him figure it out. I would have also tried Samson for that matter.

[Sin Hombre]

Everything will be small sample size prasen when it comes to the big tournaments. You can't give somebody 30 chances to know they are poor under pressure (ie choker), that means giving up on 5 big tournaments.

For DK, you can include his ODI performances as well



SR of 66

[Rajkumar Sharma]

70% chance of rain in Bangladesh game at Adelaide, game against Zimbabwe in Melbourne is also under threat. Not taking SA game seriously might give tension to the team. l Team needs to find an approach for weather & fresh pitches of Australia, its getting hard to face that new kokaburra in first 6 overs, even weak team pacers making life difficult

[prasen9]

Everything will be small sample size prasen when it comes to the big tournaments.

Agree. But, that means our assertions will be less solid.

[Atithee]

He is right. We started with a maiden over. In T20 cricket.

[prasen9]

Ditto Atithee. This team talks about showing intent, etc. and then falls back into old habits when the ball does a bit. SAY shows how it is done. He seldom wastes balls. He will hit out or get out. Those wasting balls, when they do not play big innings, which will be more often than not, have wasted precious resources and put the team in a situaiton of disadvantage. The innings Kohli played is a fluke. Not in the sense that he got lucky. But, in the sense that he cannot play that innings regularly. It is at best reproducible once in 20 tries, maybe once in 100. We cannot bank on that type of day everyday.

[Atithee]

It’s criminal for openers to play a maiden over, especially in T20. Even more when you chose to bat first. Power play overs cannot be wasted like that. As simple as that. India played an extra batter too. Just no justification. Why is the out of form KL taking the strike? The captain Rohit should have thought of taking the strike to help his embattled low on confidence partner who was likely to play it safe. Batting first, although I prefer it for India in pressure games, was a bizarre decision too when India is considered master of chases.

Too many holes to poke in this match. But, that’s India for you.

[Sin Hombre]

Another pathetic performance, and like Pakistan where they imploded, we got lucky to beat BD with rain interrupting their fluency and causing Das who was the clear MoM to slip and get run out.

This team will get to the semifinals now but going to get beaten badly.