General Cricket Thread ...

[Rajiv]

One of the biggest surprise the Paki's have sprung , is naming a 36 year old Tabish Khan in the line up.
Picking a 36 year old Pace bowler with zero International experience is quite a baffling selection.

[prasen9]

Sometimes I think they deploy monkeys throwing a dart on a board and select.

But the luckiest man in the world is Lahiru Thirimanne. Look at his record. He keeps failing and keeps getting chances. The world is weird.

[prasen9]

Now Pakistan debuted Nauman Ali, a 34 year old fast bowler I think! Gone is the 17 year old Nasir Shah. The Pakistani selectors are masters at acing the yo-yo test!

[prasen9]

Sorry, this guy is a left-arm spinner.

[Atithee]

As long as he does not weigh nau man, age shouldn’t because barrier.

[prasen9]

9 tonnes? That is close to what the WIan offie (Rakhim?) weighs. In seriousness, that dude seems quite fit for a das-man-i guy

[Atithee]

One man = 37 kg, I think.

[prasen9]

Thanks. You are right. I initially thought about 40kg. But, then for some reason thought it was 1000kg. Do we have an Indian word for tonne? Maybe 1 man is 40 seers. And, one seer is approximately 1kg but not quite. So about 37kg. Maybe 1 man is approximately 100 lbs?

So our friend Rakheem of WI is char man.

[Atithee]

Yes, 40 seer.

[prasen9]

Ali is batting. They take a single. Few balls left in the over. Still Ali is batting. I thought batsmen alternate after taking a single (or a three).

[prasen9]

Our friend, Nauman, all 350 kgs of him is using all of his 34-year old experience to enjoy some home cooking (pitch) and getting wickets. What a debut! Fairy tale such as the ones by Washi and Siraj and de-facto debut by Sharad. And Saini.

Atithee has added some color to this and made Nauman, who I have no clue how he looks, my favorite outside-India cricketer for a few days at least. I now imagine a huge truck-of-a-man running in (walking in?) and bowling slowly. Heck, now, I have to actually go to youtube and figure out whether Nauman is actually nau man or sare-aat man.

[prasen9]

Our naumani friend has got five wickets in the second innings.

[Atithee]

I watched him bowl. He’s no great shakes and pretty slim; just SAF incompetence. One umpire (Ahsan?, not Aleem Dar) is nau man heavy though.

Anyway, my point that the sidelined players are better than those “having earned the right to call their time” or at least no worse. Often better in countries like India and Pakistan, who have a huge pipeline and sports being a golden ticket to riches.

[prasen9]

I think people who are not certain of their place are more hungry. I am not criticizing Kohli for coming back. But compare him vs Natarajan. Kohli came back for his child being born because he was certain of getting his place back and he did not care to play those tests. For Natarajan, staying back to just be a net bowler and not see his child until two months after he or she was born was worth it. So, clearly, while people will choose what is best for them and their family, and it is their right to make this decision, Natarajan wants that cap a lot more and is more driven. Kohli had also hinted that playing month after month in the bubble is a hard thing mentally and maybe that was the added unspoken reason. He needed a rest. So, I am all for playing young people when the old guys are not performing. But, I want people to be given around 15-17 innings if they are batsmen (based on some analysis by Date of ESPN cricinfo) and I suppose about the same for bowlers to judge their performance by some metric and then chucked out. Otherwise, the youngsters are always anxious and an anxious mind does not think clearly wrt what they should do to counter their opponents.

Man, what a bummer. I am not relegated to being a fan of Rakheem only. Have to be satisfied with char man. Out goes Nauman!

[rajitghosh]

Even Umesh Yadav had a daughter during the same period. He got to go home because he got injured. So Kohli definitely got VVIP treatment. I don't mean to be insensitive but even corporates provide 7-10 days paternity leave not more. Kohli could have easily.played the 2nd test.