India in South Africa, January 2018

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prasen9
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by prasen9 »

We have had Rahul and Rahane before and still we lost. We are going to lose with Rahul and Rahane in the next two tests. Rahul has dropped umpteen catches in slips too. Asinine Kohli gives an interview saying that he went by form to choose Rohit. Stupidity knows no bounds. If these people have not learned that domestic dadas who can thwack and giggle on flat tracks are not that great overseas, he should do well to look at the history of Indian cricket. It is almost a different game abroad. He says that everyone can say in hindsight. On this forum and a large section of India said it even without hindsight. Kohli must be among a handful guys who did not realize that hitting out in India is not a predictor for success overseas. Karun Nair toured with the A-team and I think he played a gutsy innings to get India a victory that helped them draw the series. Or something like that. I do not know why Rohit is even in the 16. Or why he is even near the test team. Nair would have been a better investment as a backup batsman and for the future. If not, then choose Iyer. Or anyone else. Not a proven failure like Rohit.

Rahul is an unknown overseas. He played 4 innings in Australia and scored at 32 runs/innings. That is not bad, certainly but small sample size. Anyway, he is the future. So, invest in him. Rahane averages around 33 in England. Now Rahul and Rahane's averages are certainly better than what we got from Dhawan and Rohit, but I don't know if they would have made up the difference. Note that these averages are on more or less 4-5 day wickets and not on a 3 day wicket/environment as it was in Newlands.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by Sin Hombre »

We haven't Rahane and Rahul in many matches where the bowlers did their job, and in the last such instance at Lords, Rahane did bat us to a win.

In any case, this is all moot.

Kohli continues to make garbage selections. Rahul is back but Rahane continues to sit out for Rohit, Parthiv comes in for Saha and shockingly Bhuvi is dropped for Ishant :puke:
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by PKBasu »

Asinine decision to drop Bhuvi. What else does he need to do with ball and bat to justify being the first bowler picked for India (rather than the first to be dropped at the drop of a hat)?
And Rohit still there ahead of Rahane? Insane!
Saha apparently has a niggle, so Parthiv gets in. We have better batting, but worse ‘keeping. I would have opened with Parthiv, and brought in Rahane to strengthen the middle order. Picked Rahul, and dropped Dhawan and Rohit. I’d have Rahul at 5 and Rahane at 6.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by rajitghosh »

If the 1st test selection was a howler this is worse. Looks like Shastri has managed to transfer all his mediocrity to Kohli. I still remember the chants of "Hai Hai Shastri" at Eden Gardens. The modern generation seems to have forgotten what an useless fellow he was.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by Sin Hombre »

Terrible first hour of bowling by India.

Wake me when Shastri is thrown out and we take the captaincy away from Kohli.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by PKBasu »

90 futile minutes in the absence of wicket-taker Bhuvi.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by ssp »

As expected, we are almost out of contention after 50 overs of the 2nd test. RSA 148/1
Usual stupid selections and ...usual pathetic bowling effort. I expect the opposition bowlers to make this pitch look really difficult.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by Prashant »

I give up. Fire Shastri now.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by ankit1407 »

Wonder why india did not pick 2 spinner just by looking at the track, atleast with our bowling attack this is just pretty boring cricket ...I guess BCCi must have paid CSA to create such a pitch so that we can go to test 3 with a chance to level the series ;) ...
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by PKBasu »

Shami has been ineffective this series (apart from the second innings at Cape Town). It was a horrible error not to have picked Bhuvi for this test.

Ashwin's bowling (on the first day of a test outside India) and Pandya's fielding have brought India back into the match.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by sanjay8886 »

Not sure why Bhuvi did not get picked. That definitely is bizarre decision unless he is not 100% fit.

Gavaskar and Shewag is batting for Dhawan as well. I believe that was the right decision to drop him in favor of Rahul. Having Parthiv instead of Saha (injured) may be a better option to boost batting.

BTW, none of these cricketers are questioning non-inclusion of Rahane. That part I agree with as well. On the current form, a person who cannot demonstrate his effectiveness on batting paradise, would be hard to justify his place in the team. This seems to be a better wicket to bat on. Probably, Rohit will be effective.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by Omkara »

Parthiv dropped a catch... Let's see how many runs he scores
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by prasen9 »

Honestly, I have followed cricket for several decades. I may be overreacting but I have not seen such idiotic selections ever or at least in quite a while. I cannot recall anytime we dropped our best bowler and best batsman overseas. Or any team doing that. My team would have been: Rahul, Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Pandya, WK, Bhuvi, Kuldeep, Umesh, Shami.

So, we have Rohit for Rahane. Nobody but a lunatic would choose otherwise abroad.

WK - this one I am not sure. Parthiv is a lousy keeper. Saha cannot bat overseas. I liked Naman Ojha. He seemed safer than Parthiv as a keeper and a better bat than Saha overseas not technically but gutsy. He could play a Pandya innings once in a while as I expect to play Pandya to play a Pandya innings once in a while (not consistently). But, I expect Rohit to play zero Pandya innings ever because he is mentally and technically weak. Ojha may have hit out and made us win/draw a game in a fluke innings. Rishav is not ready. Gautam? Who else? Saha improves our bowling though by giving it solid defense(fielding support).

Ashwin is a proven failure with the ball. Why not Kuldeep?

Bhuvi and Umesh would be useful in RSA and not Bumrah and Ishant. Ishant has been hopeless for a decade or so. Why do we not learn? I don't mind Bumrah so much because we are trying him out. But Ishant is a proven commodity like Rohit.

Crazy!

The sooner Kohli and Shastri are sacked the better. Ganguly was right. The man has his flaws (technically weak abroad) but I think he knows how to pick/select.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by indiansportsfan »

A lot of you are over-reacting rather wildly. We have only lost 1 match, its not the end of the world. We also won a lot of matches at home, the team got no credit then. They may take some time to get the right composition for the road. Also the team is not constructed badly at all, we are just unfortunate that Shami, who was supposed to be our best bowler, chose just the wrong time to become ineffective. Why do people have such high hopes on Bhuvi, he does not have the bowling to succeed on flat tracks. And who would you have replaced him with: Ishant, who has been arguably our best fast bowler in this Test.
There really is only 1 bad selection: Rohit, instead of Rahane, but I seriously doubt whether that would have made any difference in either the previous Test or this one considering the bad form Rahane is himself in. And this is a proper Test pitch, unlike the previous one which was a lottery (a lot of RSAs themselves described it as "extreme") and Rohit deserves a chance on this one. If he doesn't do adequately here, not only will Rahane be back but Rohit may be out of the test team for a long long time. So just have patience in the process. There are a lot more Test matches to be played abroad.
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Re: India in South Africa, January 2018

Post by prasen9 »

indiansportsfan wrote: Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:11 pm A lot of you are over-reacting rather wildly.
Care to say what is the over-reaction? We have won 2 tests in the SANE countries in the last 10 years or so.
We have only lost 1 match, its not the end of the world.
Now you are the one who is over-reacting to the comments. AFAIK, nobody said it was the end of the world.
We also won a lot of matches at home, the team got no credit then.
Can you let me know the basis of this statement? There were ample amount of credit given to the wins at home.
They may take some time to get the right composition for the road.
And by that time the series will be over. If we are talking long-term, how many decades will go by before we learn to play in the SANE countries?
Why do people have such high hopes on Bhuvi, he does not have the bowling to succeed on flat tracks.
The question is not whether Bhuvi alone would have won us the match. India will lose the series irrespective of whom we play. The question is whether we are utilizing the spots to make progress to find people who can play. The answer to whether the Sharmas can play abroad has been answered conclusively. They can't. We need to find out if Bhuvi can play in diverse pitches. The question is why we think Ishant who is a life-long failure and Bumrah, who has hardly played FC cricket in the last year is considered better than Bhuvi.
And who would you have replaced him with: Ishant, who has been arguably our best fast bowler in this Test.
And still has done diddly squat beyond taking one wicket. So why not play Bhuvi who can at least bat?
There really is only 1 bad selection: Rohit, instead of Rahane, but I seriously doubt whether that would have made any difference in either the previous Test or this one considering the bad form Rahane is himself in.
Rahane has been in bad form in India. Rohit has been in bad form throughout his life abroad. Why did we choose Rohit despite his lifelong bad form?
And this is a proper Test pitch, unlike the previous one which was a lottery (a lot of RSAs themselves described it as "extreme") and Rohit deserves a chance on this one.
Why? Just because he is Mumbai's favorite child does not mean that he should be given umpteen chances despite not performing whereas our best batsman overseas should be made to sit out.
If he doesn't do adequately here, not only will Rahane be back but Rohit may be out of the test team for a long long time.
And by that time the series will be over.
So just have patience in the process.
What process? There is no rhyme or reason in the selections. There is no process. Just madness. There is no rational explanation. Tell me, was Nair allowed a fair run despite averaging around 60 and playing a lead role in the A-team winning a match in RSA. Yes, he failed in a few tests but why does he not deserve a long run and why does Rohit who performed than Nair at home deserve more chances despite failing always abroad. That is not called a process. That is called nepotism. Nepotism is no process. If you see a process here, please lay out the process and let us see whether there exists a "process" at all and if it is being followed impartially. Why is Ashwin playing over Jadeja when Jadeja averages 25 in RSA and Ashwin 44 with the ball? Jadeja was certainly not in bad form in India. Add to that Jadeja's fielding. Ashwin did take 3 wickets here. But we do not know whether Jadeja could have done better. Similarly, Bhuvi vs. Ishant. We need to follow a process. And that process is called "pick performers" and not your favorite players.
There are a lot more Test matches to be played abroad.
Yes, there are. And the faster these idiots Kohli and Shastri are kicked out, the better it is for the team. We will have wasted this series without giving deserving people a chance.
Last edited by prasen9 on Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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