Indian Premier League (IPL)

[prasen9]

The IPL is a business. Why do they care about the national team? Shami, Siraj, and Arshdeep will play whatever games they have. They are the best Indian bowlers in the IPL barring the spinners. They will play. If they need rest, the BCCI should rest them after the IPL and play the next gen to see who can cut it in T20Is, etc.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

BCCI under Jay Shah doesn't care about national team performances. They only care how to make money. Previously, a review committee used to be set up for team failure in ICC event and respective actions were taken, nowdays this things are neglected. Chairman of selectors are not addressing the press on selection & team's performance, everything is going on through twitter and our legends have stopped speaking against BCCI as they are offered expert positions in media / mentors in IPL franchise.

[prasen9]

While I do not think we should just take people without experience and put them in the Indian team, I must agree with folks here that we need to try out our juniors more. Why has Hangar been given just two matches? Yudhvir just 3 matches? Suyash got 10 matches and he has bowled fine, worse than Chawla and Chahal but for someone who is bowling in his first IPL done fine. Among the backup pacers, we had Deshpande and Ishant getting a good number of matches. Ishant is possibly not a backup anymore anyway. But he has bowled well. Khaleel Ahmed got 7 matches and did reasonably. Harshal and Mohit, ex-India players got 10-11 matches. And, did so so. As did Harshit Rana. I want to see Hangar, Yudhvir, Harshit and yes, even Khaleel who is not that old get more matches.

[PKBasu]

Karun Nair replaces KL Rahul in LSG. 3 test against England, 320 runs with a triple ton, 3 test against Aussies 54 runs and then dropped. A career whose fortune was decided by just "3" test failure

Well not just 3 test failures, but the failure to score much at all in the other 6 test innings he played apart from the brilliant 303*. He has a total of 374 runs in test cricket, in 7 innings, once not out. Apart from the 303*, he made 71 runs in 6 test innings -- averaging less than 12 runs/innings. (It's true that 2 of the innings were in the tests before his 303*). In the series against Australia, he made 54 runs in 4 completed innings (13.5 runs/innings), not really enough to earn a firm place in the side. It may have been a bit harsh to have never taken him on any test tour. But there was a solid justification for dropping him from the test side when he was simply not making runs after that brilliant triple century against England.

[prasen9]

1 success in 7 innings is not bad. I am sure Rahul or Rahane or even Pujara had many 7 innings spans where they failed. We needed to give him a longer chance.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

One of the worst IPL season when it comes to getting new pace bowlers, really its sad to see upcommimg pace bowling stars of last IPL getting benched.

[prasen9]

Hangar, Yudhvir, and Saini perhaps deserved more chances. Many of the others only have themselves to blame. If you do not know where the wicket is and where fine-leg is, you do not deserve to be given chances. This is a competition and not a charity match. We want the best to play. That said, some of the decisions in not playing Hangar, Yudhvir, Saini more are regrettable and probably wrong. But, dropping a lot of the useless bowlers who were kings of small sample size and had fundamental line and length problems has been largely correct and was bound to happen. Anyway, let us see who the successes were. Gill, Gaikwad, Yashasvi - we need to give them a serious run and not in bits and pieces. I would like to see Prabhsimran given a good run too. The bowling crap? The less said about them the better. Only Bishnoi among the young ones did well. It is also unfortunate NTTV got injured ...

Impact XI in order: Yashasvi, Gill, Siraj, Axar, Piyush, Shami, SkAY, Kohli, Jadeja, Gaikwad, Varun,

Backups: Sikhar, Ashwin, NTTV, Bhuvi

Best Keeper-Bat: Prabhsimran

A more balanced XI: Gaikwad, Gill, Yashasvi, Kohli, SkAY, Jadeja, Axar, Prabhsimran, Bhuvi, Siraj, Shami

If you need to play another allrounder, take out Kohli and put in Ashwin.

So that makes 12. Backup Pacer: Ishant. Backup Spinner: Varun Additional Backup Bat: Dhawan.

I would really want to see Gaikwad, Gill, Yashasvi, and Prabhsimran getting rewarded. Admittedly, the impact/match statistic (ESPN) has a bias towards batters in the top-order. I think Prabhsimran can hit hard if needed but if not then Kishan is the next keeper who did well.

[prasen9]

Sehwag on Umran All the signs were there that he did not have the fundamentals. And, we see it now. Sehwag complains that he cannot bowl a consistent length. Got hammered. 5 wickets in 7 matches at 10-11 runs/over. Someone who cannot lift his team from lastplace somehow magically will win us international cups. Oh, sorry. The get-an-unproven-guy bandwagon has been surprisingly silent on him. Now, it is the next guy who has gotten some wickets at random in a small number of matches who is their favorite. They tolerated his crap for 6-7 matches. This is not a charity. You need to perform. Unfortunately, being foisted in the national team caused him to think too much of himself perhaps and not have the hunger to continue improving. If anything, I think in the T20 version of the game the margins are small. He is perhaps better in the List-A/ODI form of the game now. Anyway, hope he learns to bowl soon and gets back in the Indian team.

One way to look at this would be to say that our young batters are at an advantage because this is a batters game, due to the Impact Player rule, we have had more hitting, etc. That is true. However, let us look at the relative position, and not just absolutes. Maybe 8.5 or so runs/over is fine for fast bowlers now and not 8. That I can accept for this tournament. But, when you look at relative performances, the old guys: Siraj, Shami, Bhuvi, and Ishant are much better than their younger peers. On the other hand, the young batters: Yashasvi, Gill, Gaikwad, and NTTV have all performed better than the old guard. So, we should change the old batters. Prabhsimran and Kishan have performed better than the old keepers. They should be given lots of chances to see if this is a fluke and a sudden good form like Umran's in a few matches last season or actually shows the class of the player. Unfortunately, if we think our pace bowling is weak (in T20Is), then our bench is even weaker than the crap we have in the national team.

Anyway, non-performance should not be rewarded. If you cannot "win" the 2nd last position in the IPL, by that logic you do not deserve to replace the players who failed to "win" in the international competitioins. All this about a player being a winning player is nonsense of course, because cricket is a team game and the best constructed teams win, not individual players. But, I am just playing the "loser" game that some in this forum have played and tagged our senior players and showing you how pathetic a "loser" Umran is using those same ridiculous yardsticks.

To be fair, here is Umran's response: Need more overs This is what happens when a young player is given things he does not deserve. He thinks he is entitled to things. Sorry, sir. If you bowl crap, you don't get even those four overs. This is a competitive league, not an exhibition match. When players earn things by hard work and are not gifted things, they stop taking things for granted. They don't think that they deserve things irrespective of performance. Anyway, if Umran cannot turn it on in two overs he gets, which is a regular spell in T20 cricket, then he should really be moved towards the ODI team, where he did bowl well in some matches. Maybe he needs to warm up, etc. In ODIs too, we cannot afford warm-up junk overs but it can be hidden a bit more easily. Which begs the question as to why he cannot bowl before or during the break or other innings if it is earlier to get into rhythm and be warmed up when given the ball in the game. Anyway, he is a talent. He needs to shape up and realize that without performance, you don't make it. So, stop the excuses and put in the hard work to figure out how to control the ball.

Anyway, hope some of our younger pacers put their hand up and hope the NCA, etc. really start coaching a bunch of these young, promising bowlers so that they can actually bowl (well).

[prasen9]

This Madhwal guy seems to have a very good control on his yorkers. I am actually happy to see a guy being able to control his line and length. Of course, he is 29 or whatever his age is. If he succeeds in the next match or two, I don't mind taking a flyer on him. But, first, he has to show some consistency. Go Madhwal!

[Raju Bhai]

This Madhwal guy seems to have a very good control on his yorkers.

He needs more improvement in pace. Yorkers should be like 150 kph bullet crushing the toes

[prasen9]

Yes, and we should all be eating cake. Of course, if he can improve, I will be very happy. Some pace can be improved by hitting the gym. I hope he does not lose his control then. Or get injured often. Etc.

[Atithee]

What justification on earth is for Rohit to be a part of Mumbai Indians, let alone Indian team? He is only there because he is the captain, and clings on to his place due to unjustified glorification of his captaincy. I’m so glad to see them ousted. I don’t follow IPL because it seems it’s rigged to put CSK and MI in contention no matter what happens in the early days. Die IPL die…. It’s a totally manipulated league fleecing the sheeples.

[Atithee]

Yorkers should be like 150 kph bullet crushing the toes.

Shh… don’t let the secret out.

[Raju Bhai]

Yorkers should be like 150 kph bullet crushing the toes.

Shh… don’t let the secret out.

It will be secret forever for indian "fast" bowlers

[Rajkumar Sharma]

What justification on earth is for Rohit to be a part of Mumbai Indians, let alone Indian team? He is only there because he is the captain, and clings on to his place due to unjustified glorification of his captaincy.

Reason is quite similar to superstar Kohli who was in the team for last 3 years without performance