Asia Cup, 2018

[prasen9]

In the limited chances he got, Khaleel seems to be the next in line wrt bowlers. Thakur, Chahar, Kaul have not shown anything yet. They got 5, 1, and 3 matches. Kaul has not got a wicket in 27 overs though! I would rather groom Khaleel. For the WC, I may go back to Shami. He did not do badly in ODIs.

[ankit1407]

Mindless chase with so many stupid shots played and running between wickets .. ends up in a Tie..

[prasen9]

Stupid batting. Dhoni, Pandey, Kedar, and Jadeja all failed. What sort of stupid guy takes a single and gives the bat to a #11 with 2 runs to tie and 3 runs to win and 2/3 balls left! And then he hit a lofted shot to the one player who was outside the circle Brainless! But that is Jadeja, I suppose.

[prasen9]

I do not know if Pandey is automatic backup anymore in future ODI teams. He seems to have fluffed the few chances he got. I would prefer Rayudu, Kedar, and Iyer for the vacant spots and the backup. But, of course, Karthik and Rahul will get chances before Iyer, I suppose.

[ankit1407]

Dhoni’s batting is becoming a serious liability... and it was stupid to see so many people throw away wickets

[indiansportsfan]

If Dhoni cannot score runs against Hong Kong and Afghanistan, how low can he go? C'mon, he is not Sachin or even Ganguly, you can drop him!!

[Sin Hombre]

After a lot of pointless matches where Rohit/Dhawan/Bumrah/spinners kept our fragile underbelly from being exposed, the match against Afg was great as far as our chances at WC '19 go.

The likes of Dhoni, Pandey, Karthik should be binned permanently, especially the first of that trio.

And so we come to the elephant in the room; there is little statistical basis for keeping MS Dhoni in the side. He has scored at 4.92rpo since the start of 2017, despite facing most of his deliveries at the end of the innings, and he has just the eighth highest Average Batting Impact. When he faces less than 20 balls in a match, India win 88% of the time; when he faces more than that, they win 53% of the time.


Keep Rayadu as backup opener.

Play Rahul at 4, or ask Kohli to drop to 4 and play him at 3.

Try Gill & Shaw immediately.

Give Krunal chances and see if he can outperform Jadhav.

Get Shami into some kind of match fitness.

[prasen9]

You pretty much six solid bats and an allrounder. If you have both Krunal and Hardik, then you have two half batsmen in the middle of the order. Given the shakiness of #4, #5, we cannot afford to have half bats at #6 and #7. Maybe they can compete against each other and Jadeja for the #7.

Kedar's bowling seems to be doing fine. Maybe against more solid batting teams, he will be exposed. Let's see.

[Sin Hombre]

Realistically, what you say is what will transpire and our best hope for WC'19 is for Pant to replace Dhoni and Kohli to drop down to 4 to give Rahul (Rayadu) a chance at 3.

Dhawan
Rohit
Rahul
Kohli
Pant
Jadhav
Pandya / Jadeja
Bhuvi
Kuldeep
Shami / Chahal
Bumrah

+ Rayadu and Khaleel and that's your 15-man squad. Rahul as the backup wk.

[PKBasu]

I cannot understand why Pant hasn't yet played an ODI. He was pitchforked into tests, found form as a batsman in his third test but was generally quite poor behind the wickets.
Dhoni seems finished as a batsman. But his 'keeping, despite one catch that he dropped against Pakistan, is still very good. The team management and commentators need to get used to the idea that, at age 37, Dhoni is either a specialist 'keeper (who bats low in the order, at #7 or 8) or will need to be replaced by a better batsman like Pant. The time to do it (ie, test Pant as a 'keeper-batsman) is now. Of course, DK is the other alternative, but I'm not convinced that DK should be in the squad at all.

Sin Hombre's XI looks good, except that playing 3 spinners may not be ideal in England. Jadeja's brain fade at the end yesterday suggests he still doesn't have the temperament to be a full allrounder, which brings Pandya back into contention. I would want to go in with 5 bowlers, plus a toss-up between Jadeja and Jadhav for the sixth bowler's slot. (So I would want to have Bhuvi, Bumrah and Shami/Khaleel as the pacers, Kuldeep or Chahal as one spinner, Jadeja/Jadhav for one spot, and Pandya playing usually in England -- with the batting comprising Rohit, Dhawan, Kohli, Rahul, Pant, H Pandya). Pant, frankly, needs to prove he can bat in ODIs though. I think #4 is settled with Rahul, but the fight for #5 is between Rayudu, Pant and Karthik -- all of whom can 'keep.

[prasen9]

Pakistan lost to Bangladesh. So, we play Bangla in the final.

Pakistan needs more solidity in their middle order. Not flaky hitters. I would have played Azhar Ali. If he is too slow or slow in the field, then get Haris Sohail and Imad Wasim. Actually, Imad Wasim is a handy bat and a handy bowler. He has played well in the chances he got. Why he was dropped, who knows. Sohail averages over 40 in 25 matches, SR 80+. He was in the reserves!

Bangladesh also kept some of their useful batsmen out. But, they figured out their error and brought in Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar. There was too much inexperience in their batting. Imrul played a major role in their win against Afghanistan. Anamul Haque is also a better batting wicket-keeper than Litton Das but is left out! My Bangladesh top-7 would have been (not in order): Anamul, Mdullah, Mossadek, Mushfiqur, Nurul H., Soumya, Kayes. Out of these they do not have Anamul, Mossadek and Nurul Hasan and have some new-comers who are not pulling their weight.

Hopefully, India can win easily in the final.

[ankit1407]

Chahal has to be the worst fielder we have had in long long time...not surprised he drops a catch...I also dont know why we keep winning tosses in such very crucial matches and field first. Our batting is not as strong as others think specially once you get top 2 out....we know what happened in Champions trophy final also...such opportunities should be used to bat out the opposition team like AUS did to us in 2003 WC..

Ban 74-0 after 12 overs..

[ankit1407]

Karthik keeps finding ways to get out, misses a full toss by playing so much cross... hopefully this is the last we have seen of him in this team... 86 needed with Jadhav & Dhoni at crease... another wicket here and we will be in deep deep trouble...

[ankit1407]

oh MS...what the heck....with Jadhav not able to stand properly due to hamstring this is going downhill...

[ankit1407]

Jadeja and his brain fade, Bhuvi after playing well plays a bad short as well...oh boy still 9 runs needed of 11 with 3 wkts in hand...Jadhav is back.

6 of 6 needed...