Indian Premier League (IPL)

[indiansportsfan]

I am not sure Hardik currently deserves a spot in the first XI, leave aside captaincy. If he can get back to scoring fast, then maybe he would. Including him would actually upset the team balance. We would still play 5 full-time bowlers so we would end up a batsman short.

[sameerph]

Rohit too is not a certainty in T20 team as of now. So, I guess it is better to appoint SKY as captain for world cup T20 as he is a certainty in T20 team. But, going by how our captains get picked by seniority, I expect one of Rohit or Hardik to be captain.

[Sin Hombre]

Rohit too is not a certainty in T20 team as of now. So, I guess it is better to appoint SKY as captain for world cup T20 as he is a certainty in T20 team. But, going by how our captains get picked by seniority, I expect one of Rohit or Hardik to be captain.

Rohit if he plays selflessly like he did at the 50 over WC should be in the team. Kohli does not. Neither do people like Shreyas and KL.

Curious what people's preferred xi for West Indies is.

[indiansportsfan]

I would have Rohit, Jaiswal, Tilak, SKY, Rinku, Jitesh, Axar/Jadeja, DLC, Bumrah, Kuldeep and Siraj. Our bowling is admittedly weak but we don't seem to have better options.

[prasen9]

This seems the most logical team. However, that depends upon Kohli telling the selectors he does not want to be selected. Our selectors have sort of infinite deference to our stars. So, our only hope is that the stars take themselves out.

I like your XI. I would possibly choose Axar over Jadeja. I would be tempted to go for Gill over Rohit too. Selectors love Gill, a bit more than they should. As Raj.. has pointed out. So, I would not be surprised to see Gill in there too. Yes, Rohit was great in the WC playing in T20I mode but I think we can get that performance from someone say like Gill too.

Jitesh is the worry because we have a long tail and he gives you 10-12 runs consistently and a 25+ once in a while. I'd rather go for Rahul. I hope Jitesh bats well and scores some runs and then I will take him instead of Rahul.

I truly hope Gaikwad, Jitesh, Gill, etc. score big in the IPL and the next few T20Is left so that they force their way in and the old guard is out.

[sameerph]

The kind of money going in IPL auctions is crazy. 45 crores combined for Cummins and Starc.

And I do not know if they add that much value in T20 cricket.

[PKBasu]

Australians have too much involvement in the running and management of IPL teams. They are now insiders, and they help themselves as a result. In fact, as insiders, they had a better assessment of the Ahmedabad pitch for the WC final a month ago than the Indians did

[prasen9]

They may be insiders but they still do not have as much time and access as we do for the Ahmedabad pitch. We have idiots. They have smart people running things. That is the difference. I doubt they had more access than our team wrt info about Ahmedabad. They read the pitch correctly. We have people who think they know a lot and ignore modern methods. They are humble and do not think that they are smarter than reality. Our team management thinks their hunch is better than what reality obviously shows them.

Also, at the end of the day, we need a few athletes - people who can bowl, bat, and field well naturally. We had one such in Kapil Dev. After that, we have not come up with one. In ODIs. In tests, in India, we have Jadeja of course but for whatever reason he is not as good with the bat at least and also the ball perhaps in ODIs.

Look at Kallis, De Villiers, Maxwell, Stoinis, Mitch Marsh, Marco Jansen, Ben Stokes, etc. We really need to produce athletes.

[Kumar]

What is the status of Rishabh Pant? Will he be playing in IPL. Considering that DC payed 7cr for Kumar Kushagra exciting prospect from Jharkhand, it would be interesting to see what happens.

Another interesting prospect that DC has selected is Sumit kumar from Haryana . Allrounder who was player of series in Vijay Hazare tournament.

[Kumar]

Very long and insightful article on CSK success

https://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story ... philosophy

Actually on paper, CSK team that won the IPL last year would have been one of the worst. But they absolutely delivered. May be there is a method to their madness. They just had one batsman conway who is part of their country T20 playing 11.. Jadeja, Moeen and Theekshana round up the list. Except for Theekshana, none of them would be considered as truly great.

[Kumar]

Hopes and questions from this IPL

Rishabh Pant showing that he has not lost any of his spark. One of the most fun Indian cricketer to watch in recent years. Hope there are no setbacks in his recovery

Pandya replacement : do we have any one that can replace Hardik? Al rounder who can bowl fast ? Tush Deshpande histrionics in recent ranji gives me hope . Can Tushar replicate his batting at this level? Sumit kumar of DC is another name to watch.

Mohsin Khan : had been absolutely good when healthy. But has not been able to stay healthy. He will need to dominate to take Arshdeep place (and Arshdeep to implode).

Wicket keeper: biggest question mark. Who is going to make that wicket keeper slot their own. Jitesh, Jurel, Kishen… how about kushagra? He will get opportunity at least early. Can he do enough to keep his place when Pant may be ready to take over. DC will be the most interesting team from indian interest perspective. If Pant can lift the trophy, the story line would be amazing

Riyan Parag: can he translate his domestic success to IPL. Indian selectors are absolutely not paying credence to Syed mushtaq trophy. So if he does not perform in IPL, he will not get his chance

Sai Kishore. With Rashid khan and Noor Ahmad , would Sai Kishore even get to playa single game. One of the best T20 players in domestic cricket has been languishing waiting for opportunities in IPL.

And my favorite Tewetia.. will he get to bowl to show that he can be a genuine all rounder?

Which spinner will emerge out of nowhere this year?

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Pandya replacement : do we have any one that can replace Hardik? Al rounder who can bowl fast ? Tush Deshpande histrionics in recent ranji gives me hope . Can Tushar replicate his batting at this level? Sumit kumar of DC is another name to watch.

It doesnt depends on players anymore it depends on how much skipper & team management utilize a player who has allround talent. Hardik got tremendous amount of backing ( both with bat & ball) from Rohit & Ponting in his early days, we hardly see it that happening with Venky Iyer, Raj Bawa, Ramandeep. Shivam Dube has played 51 IPL games in 5 season and has bowled just 17 overs, Venky Iyer has played 36 IPL games and has bowled just 12 overs. Pandya in his first 3 IPL season had played 37 games and bowled 59 overs. After Pandya if any pace bowling allrounders got utilized as allrounder is only Vijay Shankar, rest either got chance to bat or ball, hardly got to do both. New talent to watch is Arshin Kulkarni

[Kumar]

Agree with u partially. Is it question of are we wasting the rice in the pot or case of no rice in the pot?

I may say that Pandya had a talent and was persisted with , while Venkatesh Iyer probably did not have the same talent. More importantly Pandya is listed right arm medium fast while venkatesh is just right arm. Unfortunately,There is always huge bias against bowlers who can bowl fast.

I think Ramandeep Singh and Venkatesh have to be very good with the bat as they don’t bowl fast.

[prasen9]

Iyer has bowled at 38.33@9.20. This is bad. IPL batters love it when he bowls so that they can deposit him out of the park. No T20 champion has used such bowlers to win the cup. Iyer has bowled 12 overs in the IPL. If you bowl at 38.33@9.2, you do not deserve the ball. The captain and coach are not there to run a Venkatesh-charity show. They are there to win the match. It is cut-throat competitive. If Venkatesh had bowled well, I would be the first to ask him to be given more bowling and the captains would have been idiots to lose matches by not bowling him. The fault is his and not the captains'.

Iyer the batter is a very good player of spin, big hitter, bats fast. West Indies may be slow pitches and spinners would be calling the shots in the middle overs. Iyer the bat should be the one we should choose if we think he is better than Rinku, SkAY, etc. If not, his bowling is not going to make a difference in a knockout match. However, the problem with Iyer is that he cannot bat at all against genuine pace. He is crawlingly slow. When we send Iyer in, the opposition has to use up one over of a fast bowler and then Iyer is bottled up and gets out. This is why his career SR is 130. This will not win WCs.

To make the team, Venkatesh needs to a) score lots of runs, and b) score them fast. That may bring him in contention. We have enough slow batters who actually are more useful and accomplished than him. We don't need more 0.5 dimensional players - half a batter, who cannot play fast bowling.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Hardik Pandya had eco of 10,9 in first 2 season of IPL, with bowling average of 176+ and 51, with batting average of 22 & 6, where he played 20 matches and bowled 23+ overs.
https://www.mykhel.com/cricket/players/ ... ipl-p7780/
Any rubbish skipper like Shreyas Iyer could have kicked him, or used him like batter and destroy his allround skills just like he did it to V Iyer.Any statpadders would have asked to throw him out like Dube, V Iyer by claiming as IPL failure. However skipper Rohit & Ponting has other ideas in MI, both gave him huge confidence despite eco of 9/10 the support improved Pandya, later Dhoni & Kohli did the same and ultimately he turned as one of the best allrounder of present time in shorter formats. So its very easy to blame the player then the way he is being handled. Upcomming allrounders should get allround opportunity like Pandya in earlier times in IPL or like V Shankar, then his future should be decided.