Indian Premier League (IPL)

[prasen9]

Fantastic innings by Dinesh Karthik. Good for him. Glad that he is making the juniors fight for his place. Freebies to juniors who cannot perform is useless. There are ample spots across many teams for juniors to come through. He proves that he still has it at this level. Glad to see that rather than some nonsensical junior flailing around and failing.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

What an innings by nonsensical junior WKB Anuj Rawat. Thats a hard kick who things juniors are freebies. Hope more nonsensical junior shines and kick out last minute entrance who has been the biggest destroyers of team in WCs.

[prasen9]

Only a moron would call a junior who succeeds a nonsensical junior. Absolutely, that is a hard kick to whoever you are now making up thinks that. I admire you for your creativity in making stuff up. Rawat is not a nonsensical junior. A nonsensical junior is someone who has not performed as well to replace Karthik or another senior as a batter and gets a freebie. Both Rawat and Karthik played very well and showed that they deserved to be in the XI. Rawat played better. Karthik is playing as a batter. So, he is not keeping Rawat or any keeper out. We need keepers. There are possibly about 60 batting positions in the IPL teams. Karthik has one of them. Good for him. I like fighters. I like competition. He should not go away when he can play well. I do not like people who quit and retire.

I hope too that the juniors play very well and kick the oldies out. I do not want Kohli to be in the WC team. And, would be elated if juniors come through to replace Jadeja, Rahul, etc. by sheer performance. I do not want any freebies to juniors. The only junior who is in the nepotism list is Gill. He has performed and earned his slot before Gaikwad. Now, if Gill fails badly and Gaikwad succeeds splendidly, I would not mind a reversal. Oh, and Pant. I hope he is nowhere near the team unless he performs. The rest of the juniors will earn their chops by hard work, if they get selected. I would be fine with that.

For me, performance is the only yardstick for selection. In this match, Kohli and Gaikwad failed badly. Ravindra Jadeja, Rahane, Karthik, Dube did fine among the Indian team players.

[Kumar]

DK should feel some shame, playing the game since 2004, now becomming a big obstacle for talented young player, warming in the bench. Team will again make a big mistake if they include these last minute enteries before WC

Yesterday, Dhoni swung by. He said he had heard of my amazing book cricket skills where i was hitting sixers every ball and that CSK needed a player of that caliber. He wanted me to join the team immediately and would pay me a million dollars to do so. And without any shame I accepted this offer. I am packing up my books to start this wondrous journey

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Only a numb can swap views. After praising show high of DK suddenly Rawat makes entry. Juniors can't be said nonsensical unless he is tested, there lots of quality talent in that RCB bench. DK is playing the game since 2004 and has the habbit of making last minute entry which have proven fatal for the national team in ICC events. In 2019 he failed when the team needed him, in 2022 WC he was benched as he failed to take the team home in high pressure game. Instead of playing DK team would have got advantage by playing Hooda. Fighters like DK should be thrown in garbage, a player who is full time commentator & cricket expert doesn't have the right to snatch a place as he becomes useless in the games which matters most. Dube who is considered another failure has certainly looked good. He should be given the ball to shine his allround skill before WC. Hardik Dube can combinely do the job of 3rd pacer and make that batting order deep.

[prasen9]

Only a numb can swap views. After praising show high of DK suddenly Rawat makes entry.

Of course, he will. I have not commented on all the players in the match. Nor do I need to. Rawat is irrelevant because DK was not taking his place.

Juniors can't be said nonsensical unless he is tested,

Absolutely. Most have been teested in our domestic T20s. Most have a T20 record. Many have not performed as well as Karthik. Some have. Those that have should be played before him. The nonsensical juniors should not.

Instead of playing DK team would have got advantage by playing Hooda.

I do not mind playing Hooda either. He did well when given chances. He is not a junior, much less a nonsensical junior. I do not want nonsensical juniors to be played. Good juniors and good seniors should be played. DK showed his value to Bengaluru by helping them to a good total. They did not win because of the top order failures. Good for him. Good for Bengaluru.

Fighters like DK should be thrown in garbage, a player who is full time commentator & cricket expert doesn't have the right to snatch a place as he becomes useless in the games which matters most.

Nobody with a brain would want to bring players on the basis of failure or success in one game.

Dube who is considered another failure has certainly looked good.

You are the one who considers him a failure. Dube is a very useful batter and he is being used as a batter.

He should be given the ball to shine his allround skill before WC. Hardik Dube can combinely do the job of 3rd pacer and make that batting order deep.

I don't mind Dube being given the ball but that should be based on what Chennai sees in the nets, practice session. If he does well, he should be given the ball. Just by giving the ball does not make an idiot bowler into an allrounder. Hardik was given support and coaching and there was planning, etc.

The main impediment to unearthing allrounders is the substitution rule. This allows people like Siraj to bowl and then get replaced. Or vice-versa. The need for allrounders goes down.

From the IPL standpoint, I like the rule. It makes the product more exciting because we are seeing more skilled players. Now, the BCCI should lobby and get the ICC to accept it too. Or else, maybe we need to not use the rule in the IPL.

[Kumar]

Ramandeep Singh is looking good so far. If he can bat at this level against likes of Cummins and bowl like he did at domestic, definitely a name to watch out for.

Abhishek Porel came in and had a great game for DC. They have three wicket keepers in Pant, Porel and kushagra. They seem to have very ordinary pace attack. So poor allocation of resources. Surprised that Pant is keeping and pushing himself . Worried that he is doing too much too fast. I would waited till end of year and get himself fit for Austrlaia tour

I think Sunrisers could be sneakily good this year

[Kumar]

By the way, why did MI rush to make Hardik a captain? Did Rohit give his buy in? If not, It is a strange dynamics for sure.

Gujarat Titans may be the worst team this year. Will be very difficult for them to replicate last two years performance. And washington sundar rightfully do not even make the SRH teameven with all the left handers KKR has. Is he one of the most overrated prospectin T20?

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Sundar should open for SRH. Mayank is not a T20 material.Avishek & Sundar both should play. Bhopi who at his prime neglected test cricket, now in doldrums, had to play red, white, pink all type of balls in domestic. He was already finished 2-3 years ago because of Rohit's friendly issue and Bumrah's injury he got picked in the name of useless experience. Now he has target Shami's injury for a back door entry in T20 WC. Failure oldies should be harshly treated Good to see Russell tore him apart, SRH should try Nitish Reddy or see how much Umran improved with his special coach.

[Kumar]

Round 1 is almost complete and we will see our wkb prospects have done so far

Pant 18 off 13
P singh 26 off 17
Samson 82 off 52
Jurel 20 off 12
KL rahul 58 off 44
Jitesh 9 off 9

Finisher role WKB Jurel has probably won the first round considering Ishan will be a opener

[Kumar]

Sundar should open for SRH. Mayank is not a T20 material.

SRH should try Nitish Reddy or see how much Umran improved with his special coach.

Sundar was tried in top order and failed for RCB. Cummins captaincy was ordinary. Why did he not finish Bhuvi up early

By the way, Parag did well in that striker role, but would have liked to see him bowl. I wish RR would either drop Ashwin or trade Parag

[prasen9]

The wickcet-keeper who did the best is Samson. But this is one round and he has a bunch of failures in his T20I matches.

[Kumar]

The wickcet-keeper who did the best is Samson. But this is one round and he has a bunch of failures in his T20I matches.

Agree, but they are looking for a finisher and surprisingly Samson has not shown enough in that role. I am big fan of Samson for T20.

MI seems to unearth new players every year. Naman Dhir appears to be a fantastic player.

By the way, i like the rule of two bouncers in one over. Will make it tough for Shreyas Iyers of the world.

[indiansportsfan]

I think Samson only works for #3 spot. I would prefer him over Kohli or Gill at that position. I would have preferred Tilak Verma more since he gives the extra bowling option, however Tilak Verma was a disappointment today.

I like to rate players based on the early IPL form rather than the whole length of the IPL, since IPL is long and gruelling. Players can get jaded with the constant traveling and the late IPL form may not be reflection of their actual ability.

Based on the early IPL form, Bumrah, Arshdeep, Avesh and Mohit seem to be frontrunners for the seamers spots, while Kuldeep, Sai Kishore and Jadeja seem to be so in the spinning department. Rinku and Jurel continue to be best options for #5 and #6 respectively. However it is quite unlikely selectors will consider Mohit since age is an important criteria for them, completely disregarding that Mohit was the best bowler in the previous IPL as well.

[prasen9]

By the way, i like the rule of two bouncers in one over. Will make it tough for Shreyas Iyers of the world.

I like two bouncers in one over. However, any bouncer aimed at a batsman's body should be a no ball. In my eyes, trying to hit a person physically or intimidating them of bodily injury is not ethical. A bouncer that can be easily avoided is fine. They should allow bouncers within reach of the batter anywhere. Or if you want to standardize, anything that is at the head height of a batter standing tall is fine. And, two bouncers an over is good. However, the more variations we allow to the T20I WC rule, the poorer we may be wrt winning the cup. I like the substitution rule but it disincentivizes batters and makes more spots available for pure bowlers. (Or marginal pure batters). This will hurt us in the WC. Similarly, the two bouncer rule will help our pacers cover their inadequacies. Pace-bowling allrounder and pacers are perhaps our weakest links in the team and we are enabling them by helping them and making it tougher for batters. Standalone, these rules are great. But, from the WC perspective, not really good.

People like Rohit Sharma are poorer against the bouncer than otherwise but is that true for T20s? Shreyas has other issued in T20s including not being able to accelerate when needed, etc. He is not possibly in consideration for the national team.

Samson can play anywhere. When he comes in at #3, he is slow at the beginning. I would prefer Gill to Samson at #3. Samson, Rahul, Hardik should not be sent earlier in the innings. They eat up balls. Send them down the innings and if they can hit, they stay. If not, we have enough in the likes of Rinku, etc. Tilak Varma was never bowled in T20Is and he is a much slower batter when it comes to hitting as opposed to Gill, Yashasvi, or Rohit. Possibly at Kohli level. Kohli gives you longer innings. Tilak is young and is very talented. He needs to improve a bit.