England in India 2024-25 : The Pataudi Trophy

[prasen9]

Yashasvi, Sarfaraz, Rinku and PRP - we will get two very good batters from this lot, I believe. Couple that with Pant and maybe a fixed Gill and we will be fine. Give them time and matches. Gill goes to domestics, fixes his technique and returns. I think he is talented. I just don't want to lose a bunch allowing him to fix his hands, etc. here. In the meantime, let's use these matches to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

[prasen9]

I want Jurel but it will be Bharat, we know. I would give him maximum these two tests. In Dharmasala, where it will be a pacy wicket, get Rahul, three pacers, etc. and another batter and drop Bharat, that is unless he scores a century or makes several 50s in the rest of the matches.

[Kumar]

I am predicting a back strain for Ashwin and Ashwin rested due to injury.

Likely team
Rohit, Jaiswal, Gill, Pati, Sarfaraz, Jadeja, KSB, Axar, kuldeep, Siraj and Bumrah

[prasen9]

Yet another match with 10 players because of the management's stupidity.

[Kumar]

And with three bowlers if Axar continues on the current trajectory

[Kumar]

u know the funny thing.. I think England is actually making a big mistake by not playing an extra pacer. With India potentially going with another debutant who is probably very comfortable with spin, but not that great against pace I would play both James Anderson and Wood. Drop the offspinner and play Root who is serviceable as offspinner.

[prasen9]

We can handle Wood. Wood is over-rated (well not as overrated as Umraan, but what I mean is that he is an excellent bowler but he is not as good as the more excellent Ollie Robinson). An Anderson and Robinson instead of Bashir would be super for them. Bashir was kinda substandard and also the weakest bat.

[SaniaFan]

I think Kuldeep will be rested and Ashwin will play. Ashwin in on the cusp of a land mark. Kuldeep never gets 2 matches in a row

[prasen9]

I think if we don't have a rank turner, Kuldeep will play.

[Kumar]

I agree with Prasen. Dropping Kuldeep would absolutely be a wrong move especially on a slow turner.

I am a huge fan of Ashwin and i would be sad but not angry if he gets dropped. He either has to get wickets or at leadt be economical if he cannot get wickets . He did neither in the first two test. Again did not watch the game . So not sure how threatening he looked.

But this team has made decisions which are very predictable. They will not remove Ashwin in home grounds hence I suspect that he may end up with a niggle. Would Ashwin co-operate? Moat likely they give Jadeja one more week to rest and this could very well be Ashwin’s last chance

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Seeing the situation all 4 spinners have their performances to play and 4 of them can bat, so team might go with 1 pacer and Ashwin with the new ball. Rajkot has been successful ground for spinners. Jadeja has got excellent domestic record in Rajkot and being fully fit he will definately find a place

Jaiswal, Rohit, Gill, Sarfaraz, Patidar, Jadeja, Jurel, Axar, Ashwin, Kuldeep, Siraj

[Kumar]

We can handle Wood. Wood is over-rated (well not as overrated as Umraan, but what I mean is that he is an excellent bowler but he is not as good as the more excellent Ollie Robinson). An Anderson and Robinson instead of Bashir would be super for them. Bashir was kinda substandard and also the weakest bat.

I agree , Robinson with a bowlinf average of 22 not playing is strange as well.

They are already hinting that they will play two seamers as there is still grass which i expect to be shaved off. Really strange that if they go with two pacers, they will stick with off spinner and jettison the leg spinner. I would have expected the opposite

[prasen9]

So, for Test 3, the old-young distribution:

Old:Ashwin (37), Rohit (36), Jadeja (35), Patidar, Bharat (30)
Young: Yashasvi, Jurel (22), Washy, Gill (24), Sarfaraz (26)

Thre pretty olds: Rohit, Ashwin and Jadeja. We need to think of their replacements too.

And, the three emerging candidates are Yashasvi, Jurel, and Washy. Gill too.

[Kumar]

In another nets, Sarfaraz, another likely debutant, was more relaxed. He wristed Kuldeep and Washington Sundar to the onside, before he got more adventurous. He would walk down the track or sweep; once he even pulled off a no-look late cut which got a few applause. But considering England will be testing him with bouncers, there was no effort to train for such an eventuality. Rohit applauded a sweet stretched-out extra-cover drive from Sarfaraz, who played some of those to spinners.

https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... 9722/lite/

I am thinking that pitch will be slow enough that it may not matter that Sarfarqz is susceptible to short balls

[Kumar]

https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... 3732/lite/

The paper also learned that there was a conversation around Gill that he could have been sent to domestic cricket to work on his flaws with a week’s gap between the second and Third Test tin Rajkot. Had he not fought his critics back with a valuable hundred in the second innings in Visakhapatnam, he could have flown to Mohali, where Punjab are hosting Gujarat from February 9 in the Ranji Trophy.

Simply failure to not let him play the ranji. Another good innings would have boosted his confidence.