India A Series ....

[Kumar]

I think performance as WKB in Zonal system i,e Duleep Trophy is more convenient then State side

It ias easier to make the zonal team as keeper. He kept in Dileep trophy because none of the keepers in NZ were good enough as batsman and they felt that needed more specialist batsman. Further the pitches were all seaming tracks where keeping is probably easier than the spinning tracks. The best average for the wicket keepr from NZ ranji teams was a service keepr who made his FC debut last year with average of 35. Most of the keepers had average of less than 25. It was an easy decision for NZ to accommodate an additional batsman and play P Singh as WKB.


India is already saying KL will not keep in test matches for upcoming series. Which I think is fair. Keeping to spinners in India is no joke. So if P Singh wants to be considered as red ball wicketkeeper, he has to be keep for his state team. This year he kept for Punjab in white ball cricket which bolsters his case for T20 and ODI. Letting him keep directly in indian A team when we have plethora of good wkb is height of stupidity.

As to Jurel, it definitely seems like his wheels are greased well. Totally unknown player until IPL 2023 (and did show some promise in IPL, but did not take it by storm) and now named to test squad. I can easily see Jurel playing as main wicket keeper over Bharath. He better be second coming of Kirmani if he is going to get test cap

[Kumar]

Good innings from Patidar and Sarfaraz. PRP and Eashwaran could not take advantage

As per scorecard, it seems like Jurel kept. If true Interesting that Bharath is a captain, but Jurel kept. There is no reason for Bharath to play as specialist batsman. Even Jurel as specialist batsman do not make sense. He has very limited FC experience

[Kumar]

England scores around 400 runs with loss of three wickets. Narang, Tushar, Saini have been in effective and expensive.. Kaverappa was at least economical, but not effective. Surhar got three wickets

Sai sudharshan playing in Jurel place . He is getting all the opportunities.Hope he is released for Ranji trophy instead of cooling his heels.

Saurabh kumar not being part of this squad is really shocking. Wondering if there was some other reason. Shams Mulani with more experience got shut out as well. Why are our star commentators like Gavaskar, Sanjay , Ravi Shastri question team selection for A teams . There is no even an article that debated or question A team selection.

[Atithee]

^^Because no one cares beyond IPL. Rest is just necessary evil and pretense.

[prasen9]

Maybe after selectors have been crappy over decades, we stop shouting that they are idiots and do that only when things happen at the senior team. Even then, in most cases, we don't see any significant criticism, say of the SkAY selection in the WC, which was outright egregious. Is anybody standing up for how Ishan was treated in the WC and then when he wanted a break? No. Indian media is largely docile and supine, controlled by the authorities. Of course, it is much better than, say the government mouthpiece in China, but on the balance it is only partially healthy.

[Kumar]

Rajat Patidar a lone warrior playing a sparkling innings. After India was down 50-6, he gave some respectability with help of Narang, Deahpande and Saini taking A team to 215-8. Partisan unbeaten with 140

Partnership of 70 runs for 9th wicket in 10 overs with Saini just facing 11 balls.

As to Rest, they failed and failed badly. Sai Sudharshan , Sudhar and PRP did not trouble scorers . If Sai keeps getting selected for red ball and very likely his red ball failures get him kicked to curb for white ball

PRP has blown the opportunity to show that he can bat at this level. Sarfaraz just scored 4 runs

[prasen9]

Again, this is just one game. For Sarfaraz, many but for the rest, just a few failures. PRP and Sarfaraz need a longer run. Some of the rest do not deserve here. We should have had Bawne in the side.

[Kumar]

Sarfaraz and Eashwaran dismissals are fast bowler dream deliveries. I am not 100% convinced, but want to give every opportunity to Sarfaraz .

https://wisden.com/series-stories/india ... ball-spell

PRP looked like soft dismissal. They did not have even single player from the current test squad. And we got dominated. Reflects very poorly on our pace bowlers and batsman.

Most sad part is Jurel would have benefited more from being not selected for the test team and would have had opportunity to be in the playing 11. Instead of warming the bench for the test team


For next match, Sai, Narang, Tushar, Saini, Caveman(may be) and Surhar (may be)should all be dropped.

Will be interesting to see who gets picked as wicket keeper for the A match

[Atithee]

This is one data point, Kumar. It tells us how poor our bowlers are although the tables were turned in the last match. These dismissals show that our India A batsmen are not extraordinary regardless of the peachy bowling. So I hope the sense of injustice being meted out dies out soon. I’d still take a Pujara over these any day.

Here’s the list. Not sure why players from this list are not playing for India A. Could be some of these are considered white ball specialists. Still….

https://www.bcci.tv/articles/2023/news/ ... ype=Latest

India-A should be comprised only of players who have been considered worthy of a prior test squad and are still on the radar. Only 2-3 knocking at the door players should be in the India-A teams. The message needs to be very clear as to who is in contention and who is not. Perhaps only the contracted players should be in these squads as they have been chosen for a reason.

[Sin Hombre]

I thought this was happening in England but this is pathetic.

[prasen9]

Caveman did not do too badly though. He is quite raw and needs a lot of matches. If we have people who are bowling pace at under 25/wicket in Ranjis , by all means, we should try them. But, otherwise, Cave can get a few more matches. Saini is a white-ball player. As is Sai Sudarshan. The selectors are clueless.

There has been a lot of media about the injustice to Sarfaraz, etc. I am a fan of his but I must agree that he has not done much in the A-team chances he got and he has gotten more than a lot of others. For the next match, I want a middle order of PRP, Sarfaraz, Bawne, and Rinku. Can Patidar open? Maybe with Easwaran?

[Kumar]

Athithi, I am always fond of Pujara. I have always insisted that without Pujara , we don’t win and probably loose that AustrAlia series. At the end of that series , Cummins and Hazelwood were so exhausted and Pujara played big part

Pujara last four years average 20, 28, 45, 25
Kohli last 4 years 19,28,26, 55

I do agree that we need to groom replacements for our middle order. But I am not convinced the next gen is ready , kind of like in tennis. Unfortunately our oldies are not as good as djokovic, so we could be in free fall either way.

[Kumar]

Sai Sudharshan seems to finally score runs. Hopefully this does not make team mgmt persist with him. Sarfaraz and PRP scored some runs, but again not really enough to show that this is a guy.

[prasen9]

Overall, people did okay. We must not ignore the wicket. I think we offered another Chennai (v England) wicket. The first two days were flat and then it crumbled. England also struggled in I2. PRP is not ready. Sarfaraz is but I don't know if he is good enough. There is no way to know but to try the younger lot.

After 5 tests, Kohli averaged 22. After 7, 27. After 9, 34. So, he took some time but not too much to learn. First three tests, Pujara averaged 21. Then, he took off. Rohit averaged 31 after 12 tests, 26.57 after 44 tests. So, it is not like these guys came all guns blazing.

Young batters will fail. Nobody will be consistent in A-team tours given the small number of matches we have. We have to choose the best among these and give them 5-10 tests, and then decide whether they are ready or not. We need to play Sarfaraz, Rinku, Bawne, PRP, or whoever has done well in the domestics. Some of them will figure it out. Others will be Gill. We need to move on to the next set. The later we start this replacement the later we will have a stable team. I think with Rohit, Kohli plus three other youngsters we can beat England at home. If we are in dire straits after 4 tests, we can bring back Pujara.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Track is excellent, give them a track which doesnt assist bowlers they will score big. Except Patidar, all are struggling against swing & seam. Credit goes to the curator, this sort of tracks should be provided when SENA A teams visits India. Flat track performers will be exposed.Sai & Jaiswal will launch 200 in flat tracks once batsmanship is tested, they are finding it tough. Indian Pacers are struggling where English Pacers has been dominant. Not a single upcomming fast bowlers looks promishing for India A. It will be hard this time in Aus tour