Australia In India 2022-23

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Australia to tour India for 3 match T20I series before T20I World Cup 22. Mohali will be hosting the first T20 against Australia, followed by Nagpur on September 23 and Hyderabad on September 25.

[prasen9]

Assuming Jadeja is not fit, my XI would be:

Rohit, Rahul, Iyer, SAY, Samson, Hooda, Hardik, Axar, Bhuvi, Bishnoi, Arshdeep

I am not saying that Samson and Hooda are the solution. But, we need to give them five matches against good opponents to see what they can do. They have been up and down in the chances they got while their replacements: Pant, Kishan, and Karthik have failed. Karthik got perhaps 9 outs and scored at 21 runs at a SR of 133 after his return in the last 1.5 years. Pant, maybe scored 28 runs/innings and Kishan possibly around 30 but both were terribly slow around 125-130 range, which is not acceptable.

Hardik is a bit flaky as the 3rd pacer but is a good 4th pacer. If the pitches favor pace, I'd have DLC as the backup pacer. Don't know what to do with Ashwin. He has not really performed badly *in 10 matches in his return 17.4 at 6.1 runs/over, can't complain about that) and can bat, which is more than what one can say about Chahal. Where is Sundar these days?

So, my backups will be DLC and Ashwin. Then, we need a backup batsman and a backup pacer. Don't have strong feelings on these. I suppose Kohli gets in on the basis of his last innings and some pacer. Harshal if he is fit.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Would like to see Tilak Verma in this remaining 6 T20Is against Aus & SA. With Jadeja having no chance and poor performance from Kishan & Pant, Tilak will be the ideal left hander at the middle order and he can bowl too, keeper debate should end, Samson and Karthik should be our two keepers in WC.

Harshal will struggle in Aus as the track doesnt supports slower and cutters but if the games are played in drop in pitches then Harshal will be a lethal weapon.Would like to see Shami or Umran back in the team.Bhuvi is no more a bowler who can defend scores at important phase, same with Deepak Chahar. It would be not good to put burden on Bumrah. Arshdeep is now an automatic choice in T20I best after Bumrah in bowling tough overs. We need third bowler who can bowl lethal yorkers and bouncers in Aus tracks.

[prasen9]

Shami and Umraan have consistently failed. They cannot do half of what Bhuvi, DLC, or even Harshal can do. The faster the rudderless bouncers and yorkers, the faster they travel to the stands. So, I am fine with half-skilled Bhuvi, DLC or Harshal than people who have shown nothing in Shami or Umraan or Avesh. Karthik also has been slow but he has gotten only 10 outs. So, I guess we can give Karthik a few more chances to see if he still has it. Otherwise, we should use Samson and Rahul assuming both show form in the next few games.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Shami and Umraan have consistently failed. They cannot do half of what Bhuvi, DLC, or even Harshal can do. The faster the rudderless bouncers and yorkers, the faster they travel to the stands. So, I am fine with half-skilled Bhuvi, DLC or Harshal than people who have shown nothing in Shami or Umraan or Avesh

Bhuvi is now getting smashed in tight overs.Yorkers have been missing from him for long time now. Becomming too much predictable and hitters will tear him apart under pressure, he & Chahar can give profit to the team in 4 over back to back opening spells.Harshal needs slow tracks to grip is stock deliveries, could have been best in Dubai track. Team definately needs someone who can bowl under pressure after Bumrah & Arshdeep

[prasen9]

Sure. But, when we do not have anyone, we cannot hope and pray that the players who have failed always will succeed and not play the players who succeed sometimes. Bhuvi gets smashed once in a while. The others get smashed all the time. Rewarding the players who are getting smashed all the time is not a very smart tactic. Umraan was arguably the worst among bowlers wrt getting smashed although he got some wickets at a high cost. So, it is just wishful thinking to assume that he will suddenly learn how to bowl tightly just because he has some muscles and can hurl the ball fast. Just to remind you, Umraan Malik has a runs/over of 9.13 in 26 T20 matches in the domestics. That is, every over he bowls he gets smashed and has been not in one or two matches but 26 full matches. Presuming that he will suddenly bowl well magically in the world cup is just that: wishful thinking.

We saw what wishful thinking causes when we saw Avesh being taken to the cleaners time and again in the international matches. Avesh was 8.xx in domestics and 9.1 in international. Umraan will be 10.xx in internationals. We need to pay attention to bowling as a whole and include bowlers. Not just people who can bowl fast yorkers or bouncers, etc. If we do not have good bowlers, we take the best among the imperfect lot we have. I am not a big fan of Harshal either but at least he can bat. When we have players who cannot bowl, let us take the half bowlers who can bat a bit. That is why I am in favor of some of Bhuvi, DLC, and Harshal being taken instead of useless people who cannot bowl *and* cannot bat.

Bhuvi, Bumrah, Arshdeep will be fine. Bumrah and Arshdeep can bowl in the last 5 overs. Bhuvi can bowl in the first six and 1-2 overs in the middle somewhere. That will not be a bad lineup. Hardik is the fifth bowler and we get a spinner. I prefer Bishnoi. But, most possibly they will play Chahal despite his being the most expensive regular spinner in world cricket (T20Is).

Backups in case of injuries: DLC and Harshal.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

India Squad :

Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohd. Shami, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah.

[prasen9]

The strange thing is that Arshdeep is not there in the team but is in the T20I WC team. I'd go with Bhuvi, Bumrah and Harshal/DLC. Why do we want to give Bhuvi more match practice but rest Arshdeep, who needs more matches under his belt? Does he have a niggle?

My XI would be: Rohit, Rahul, Kohli, SAY, Hooda, Karthik, Hardik, Axar, DLC/Harshal, Ashwin, Bumrah.

Then, if Karthik does not fire, we get Pant back in. No point playing Bhuvi and Chahal more. They have gotten enough games. Shami is not really a T20I bowler.

Anyway, good luck to whoever plays.

[Mukherjee Babu]

Australia can include Tim David directly to WC main squad, seeing his league performances, without playing a single international game before for Aus. England can include Jofra Archer directly to WC main squad of 2019 seeing his league & county performances without playing a single international game before for England, then we have blind Chetan Sharma & co.as selector who cant pick a quality indian left hander batter from domestic, other then proven failure Pant with total rubbish logic.( Everytime Gabba Heroics)

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Playing this T20I series at home against Aussies looks quite odd, instead BCCI should have arranged this T20I series downunder, that could have gave the team enough time to get accustomed to the conditions. Before WC, Pak playing tri nation T20series in NZ, WI playing T20I series in Australia, England Playing Odis & T20Is in Australia, and BCCI got this meaningless series at home

[prasen9]

Yes, absolute lack of planning. Stupidity!

[Rajkumar Sharma]

If Pant finds a spot through left hand batter qouta then it will be a disaster we already have SKY who looks poor against top sides, has nothing against top side except a ton against England. In Asia cup we saw how much uneasy he was against Pakistan bowlers and also struggle against Sri Lanka, just one match he look good that against Hong Kong, Pant & SKY can certainly make the middle order more fragile

[prasen9]

Surya has failed against Pakistan in 3 matches and maybe was slightly bad against New Zealand in 3 matches. He was great against England in 5 matches. And, yes, one century every 5 matches is fabulous. No player is consistent more than that. So, he has not failed against top teams. In fact, it is the opposite. He has succeeded against top teams a lot more than others have. I have posted reasonably conclusive numbers that against the top-5 teams, he has the best record in T20Is. If we are not satisfied with that, then we have to find a entirely new set of seven batsmen who can perform well against all-comers. Our worry is not Surya. Our worry is Pant, Karthik, Rahul, and Kohli. Such a large set of the eight batsmen are either out of form or are not really that good anymore. In case of Pant, he never was good in T20Is. With all these people whom we will be carrying, I do not have high hopes for this team.

I expect us to go through the motions this time and then the oldies will be junked and we will rebuild. Hopefully, with a more sane set of selectors after another debacle that is expected with the junk batting lineup we have selected. To be honest, I do not also know if we have better batters. But, the shame is that we did not try. We never gave Samson the full run he deserves, etc.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Surya has failed against Pakistan in 3 matches and maybe was slightly bad against New Zealand in 3 matches. He was great against England in 5 matches. And, yes, one century every 5 matches is fabulous. No player is consistent more than that. So, he has not failed against top teams. In fact, it is the opposite. He has succeeded against top teams a lot more than others have. I have posted reasonably conclusive numbers that against the top-5 teams, he has the best record in T20Is.

So far he has played against 3 top sides [ PAK, NZ, ENG ] failed against NZ & PAK. Except England his average against other top team is very much poor.WI & Sri Lanka might have achievements but they are weak sides, they can surprise with few unbelievable wins but at the end of the day incinsistent side. SKY scores plenty against this weak opponents & associates

[prasen9]

And, he has played 5 matches against England and 6 matches against Pak and NZ combined. So, he has succeeded in about half the matches he played against top-5 teams. At least he has beat the minnows up. His SR against NZ is not bad, his average is a tad low. The good thing about him is that he does not eat up balls. He hits and gets runs or gets out. We need more like him and not more like the Kohlis, Pants, Karthiks and Rahuls who eat up balls.

SAY has the highest SR and a reasonable average against the top-5 nations as I have shown before. No other Indians have done better than him. If we kick him out, we need to get batters from Mars because all others have been worse than him in the Indian team against the top-5 nations in the last 2-3 years.