England in India 2024-25 : The Pataudi Trophy

[Kumar]

So part time wicket keepers Dravid & KL can full time keep & bat at international stage but Jackson, who started as WK can't do it.
Did KL Rahul & Dravid kept for their state team in Ranji trophy before they got picked for national team

KL kept for 3 test matches (and is not keeping in Indian conditions). Rahul Dravid has never kept in test matches. He was the permanent fixture in the team who kept in ODI to provide balance to the team. My argument is primarily for Red ball cricket.

As to white ball cricket, He may have a case over Pant who had a poor list A average of 32, but had a SR of 100 compared to sheldon's 36 and SR of 82.
Dravid had list a average of 42 with SR of 73. KL has list A average of 46 and SR of 83.. At time of Dravid, there were no WKB with Dravid's skills. and KL is clearly better as batsman over Sheldon. Sheldon does not have high average or strike rate to make it difficult to be ignored.. and no IPL success.. After 2008, without IPL success getting into ODI is almost impossible.

[prasen9]

Who cares? Keep KL as the ODI keeper. Maybe even T20I keeper. And, abroad test keeper. With the nutcases batting in our middle order, we need as much batting depth as possible especially since we play with 4 #11s. I am hoping that we play Akash Deep over Siraj and he does okay with the bat. At least worth checking out to see if he can bat better.

If Rahul and Jadeja are both fit, I would rather have:

Yashasvi, Rohit, Gill, Rahul, Patidar, Jadeja, Sarfaraz, Jurel, Axar, Kuldeep, Bumrah.

This would be a good team on a spinning wicket. If you want five bowlers, then drop Gill and get in Akash Deep.

In reality, they will play Bharat for Jurel. And, in reality, they will not get Sarfaraz. And in reality, they will still go with Siraj instead of Akash Deep.

[Kumar]

If Rahul and Jadeja are both fit, I would rather have:

Yashasvi, Rohit, Gill, Rahul, Patidar, Jadeja, Sarfaraz, Jurel, Axar, Kuldeep, Bumrah.

This would be a good team on a spinning wicket. If you want five bowlers, then drop Gill and get in Akash Deep.

In reality, they will play Bharat for Jurel. And, in reality, they will not get Sarfaraz. And in reality, they will still go with Siraj instead of Akash Deep.

If the track is like Vizag and Hyderabad, that team may not be fully okay. Mainly because Axar appears to be totally ineffective as bowler. U will be left with just two spinners in Kuldeep and Jadeja. Considering that we will have 7 batsman, I may have Ashwin in Axar place in this scenario. Ideally if it had been Saurabh in place of Axar, that would have been okay too... but Saurabh is not part of the team.

If it is a square turner, bolster batting by replacing Kuldeep with Ashwin. and play Axar as he can be deadly on those pitches and can bat as well.

[prasen9]

True.

So, if slow turner: Yashasvi, Rohit, Rahul, Patidar, Sarfaraz, Jadeja, Ashwin, Jurel, Axar, Kuldeep, Bumrah.

Fast turner, 3 day pitch, replace Axar or Kuldeep with Gill.

If it has something for the pacers, replace Axar with Siraj.

I checked out Akash Deep. He averages 12 in domestics. Which means he will average about 6-7 in tests. No allrounder.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Who cares? Keep KL as the ODI keeper. Maybe even T20I keeper. And, abroad test keeper. With the nutcases batting in our middle order, we need as much batting depth as possible

Wheather its abroad or at home, lower order now comes to bat under pressure, much earlier then expected. Big partnerships are missing. Saha rarely batted under pressure situation

[prasen9]

Huh? Our batters have been awful abroad and in India for a long time. Saha batted under many pressure situations.

[prasen9]

Overall figures
Player Mat Inns NO Runs HS AveDescending BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s
Ishan Kishan 2 3 2 78 52* 78.00 91 85.71 0 1 0 8 2 investigate this query
YBK Jaiswal 6 11 0 637 209 57.90 1002 63.57 2 2 1 74 13 investigate this query
V Kohli 8 13 0 717 186 55.15 1270 56.45 2 2 0 76 2 investigate this query
AR Patel 5 8 2 313 79 52.16 577 54.24 0 2 0 35 9 investigate this query
AM Rahane 3 4 0 146 89 36.50 284 51.40 0 1 0 18 1 investigate this query
KL Rahul 4 7 0 239 101 34.14 409 58.43 1 1 0 27 7 investigate this query
RG Sharma 10 18 1 570 103 33.52 938 60.76 1 2 1 67 11 investigate this query
Shubman Gill 9 16 1 465 128 31.00 738 63.00 2 0 1 54 3 investigate this query
RA Jadeja 8 11 1 300 87 30.00 692 43.35 0 2 2 28 5 investigate this query
CA Pujara 4 7 1 174 59 29.00 420 41.42 0 1 1 19 1 investigate this query
KS Bharat 6 11 1 213 44 21.30 407 52.33 0 0 0 18 6 investigate this query
RM Patidar 1 2 0 41 32 20.50 91 45.05 0 0 0 4 0 investigate this query
SN Thakur 3 4 0 77 51 19.25 155 49.67 0 1 1 9 0 investigate this query
R Ashwin 8 11 0 205 56 18.63 406 50.49 0 1 1 26 1 investigate this query
SS Iyer 7 12 1 187 35 17.00 329 56.83 0 0 2 18 5

So, as Kumar pointed out, the selectors are basically looking at form and not class. Iyer's form is the worst. These are the last year's numbers.

However, interestingly, Rahane was chucked out despite averaging 36.5. Axar is almost playing as a batsman. He needs to bowl better and get some wickets. But, Rahul with a 34, Rohit with a 33, and Gill with a 31 remain. Jadeja has lost his superb form and is averaging 30 but he is an allrounder, so that should be fine. Pujara was under 30 and thus kicked out. But, replaced by a under-30 Gill and now a barely over 30 Gill. Go figure.

Bharat has been awful as has been Patidar. Several papers said that Patidar batted well. I saw the second innings and he was meek, unsure, ... I hope he plays a more confident and long innings at Rajkot.

Usually, Rajkot is a batter's paradise. I hope this time they make it a bit more sporting, better wicket. Or maybe they will keep it at that because we do not really have classy batters except Yashasvi and Rohit is out of form. So, perhaps a flatter wicket is not a bad idea.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Saha batted under many pressure situations.

Not many, hardly on 2/3 occassions in his 40 match test career

[rajitghosh]

The most (in)famous pressure situation for Saha was in a test in Australia in 2015 when he and Kohli could have taken India to voctory but he threw away his wicket.

[Kumar]

I don’t think any ofnus consider Saha a second coming of Gilchrist. The only question, is Saha a better keeper than any of the available options in Test matches?

Who were the top WKB during Saha’s tenure that probably should have gotten opportunities? Saha got replaced when it was clear that Pant was a superior batsman. So not sure why this acrimony against Saha’s selection

[Kumar]

Padaikkal selected in KL place. Looks like selectora are very much looking at short term form over long term performance.

Padaikkal has a FC average of 42. But has been in blistering form this season. Considering he is a left hander almost tempted to play him ahead of Patidar or Sarfaraz, but it would be unfair to both of them. Looks like there will be another test debut handed out this match.

[prasen9]

Yes, this is a form is golden, class is for old farts selection committee. Except when it comes to their protected quota. Anyway, Padikkal is in form. Maybe we can milk him for a few wins like England is trying with their subpar spinners.

[Kumar]

His average before this season started was 36 in 41 innings.
That is why life is full of those lucky breaks.

I have a feeling that india will go with 4 spinners in this match.. otherwise real chance that Ashwin gets dropped unless Jadeja is not fit on time.

[prasen9]

So I would have:

Yashasvi, Rohit, Gill, Patidar, Sarfaraz, Jadeja, Jurel, Axar, Ashwin, Bumrah, Kuldeep.

If Jadeja is unfit, Washy.

[Atithee]

^^this is probably the weakest Indian batting team I’ve seen in decades. I doubt they’ll last even a full-day when batting. Just don’t have reliable quality batsmen anymore.