Australia tests & ODIs vs India in India, Feb-Mar 2023

[prasen9]

We need bowlers. Period. Suyash is indeed a good talent. I have no idea why the team management told Gaikwad to hit out that late. We should have gotten to at least 185-190. This is too easy a total on this flat pitch and not so large a ground again. Basically, when Gaikwad was also taking singles even after over 12 with 3 wickets down, then I knew we would get a subpar total on this ground. Let's hope that the bowlers turn up a miracle and the Aussie newcomers do not succeed. We have too many of these selfish players who just bat out balls. Or the management is telling these guys to play like this. Either way these players need to be replaced. Either by themselves playing faster. Or by players who can. And, the management needs to be changed to have some who take a few more risks. Not stupid risks. But, when you are 3 down in 12 overs, you try to hit every ball. No tuk tuks.

Brilliant batting by Rinku and Jitesh. Great to see Jitesh instead of the abysmally slow Ishan. Hope he gets a long run. We need fearless cricketers. Not those who are afraid of getting out.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Aussies are developing few pace bowling allrounders whereas our team continuing with those, who are playing for 4-5 years still can't put an impact to play an ICC event.

[prasen9]

Great bowling by our spinners. They also complement each other. Bishnoi brings the ball in to the right hander and Axar out.

Totally crappy bowling by Mukesh and a catch where he sort of obstructed Jitesh. But at least Mukesh did not do a Prasidh.

Avesh bowled reasonably well. Aussies also regularly have used a sixth bowler. We have not. We need to give Yashasvi and NTTV overs even if it means losing a match. That may come handy if in the WC someone pulls a muscle and cannot bowl their quota. Or even otherwise. Today, the spinners were all over the Aussies. Give Yashasvi an over in between. And, extend and keep the regular bowlers options open.

DLC was very bad wrt line and length and seemed rusty. But, he got the crucial wickets. The problem with Mukesh is that he gives away runs and does not get wickets either. Not creating pressure in both ways. Without DLC, we perhaps don't win.

Axar, Bishnoi, Rinku, Jitesh, Yashasvi (with two safe catches) were the architects of this win. DLC put in an assist. Avesh did not do any harm. The rest were bad.

In this series, Axar, Bishnoi, Gaikwad, Yashasvi, Rinku and SkAY have been good.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Team can't win this combination. T20 requires depth in batting, atleast 6/7 players in that Playing XI should bowl regularly. Among 3 pacers, one should have good batting ability so that he can hit hard if promoted to n.o 4/5. Leggies are playing every games post WC but are neglected in WC. If Tilak & Jaiswal can ball, its an ideal time for them to get groomed by bowling in every T20I games. Aussies & England are giving proper expose to their batters having bowling ability, Livingstone etc. Abhisekh Sharma & Parag should have been preffered. DLC & Axar aren't match winners.

[prasen9]

Agree fully except the last part. Axar just won us a match. So that is patently false. I suppose in a make-believe world one can say whatever one wants despite the evidence staring at the face but unfortunately, we need to live in a reality-based world. DLC can and has also. The point is not who is a match winner or not. The point is to build a team of players who can collectively win most matches and in the knockouts.

We also should get away from slow starters if we can get people who can either hit or get out and still succeed in enough games. We can't afford slow pokes if you want to win a WC.

That said, the most important thing is to experiment. We need to give people who have gotten few matches all the chances in the world. So, for the last game I would bring in: Mukesh, Prasidh, Jitesh, Rinku, Bishnoi, Dube, Jaiswal, NTTV. DLC, Avesh, Gaikwad.

So: Yashasvi, Gaikwad, NTTV, Rinku, Dube, Jitesh, DLC (c), Bishnoi, Avesh, Mukesh, PK.

[Kumar]

Arshdeep singh in IPL averages 27 with Er of 8.5. Mohsin khan averages 17 and ER of 7 though just 13 games played (less than a season). Looks like Arshdeep in for Deepak chahar in the last t20.

In domestic, Mohsin is 6.92 and 17 in 44 games, while Arshdeep is 23 and 8.38.

Sad story of the team that we are not experimenting with batting allrounders . Tewetia, Jaiswal none of then bowled in the recent smat trophy.

[Kumar]

This team is wedded to their ideals. They stick to the 3 pacers and 5 bowler formula with no flexibility.

Spinners were so good for India, but just bowled 8 overs. They had no guts to try Jaiswal . When will they learn?

[prasen9]

Seems like somebody somewhere decided that we don't need a sixth bowler. Which leads me to think that they plan to play Hardik as a batter who can bowl and not depend upon him for a full quota of four overs.

Axar showed once again that he is not a match winner. lol. Of course.

Fantastic bowling by Mukesh and Arshdeep in the last over. Bishnoi was excellent as usual.

In the series: Axar and Bishnoi bowled very well. I would have given the MoM series to Axar because Bishnoi got hit in the first match and Axar batted well in the last match. Overall, Gaikwad, Iyer, Jitesh, Yashasvi batted quite well. Rinku was fantastic in the first three matches and did fine in the fourth match too.

[prasen9]

Today, terrible batting by Gaikwad, SkAY, and Rinku. Gaikwad seems like a hit or miss batsman. He is very slow to begin with and most of the times he gets out before he scores big. If he scores big, we have a grand innings. I am not a fan of slow starters. I'd rather try NTTV especially since he can bowl. He is in bad form but form is temporary.

Jitesh is fast but can give you a quick 20. Ishan is terribly slow but can give you some runs. I think the sweetspot is still Rahul, who can bat fast and score long if you are all of a sudden 3 down. Or, I'd rather go with Jitesh. Slow will almost always lose us games.

[arjun2761]

Interesting that in all this discussion, there doesn’t seem to be much value to fielding. In baseball, there are certain positions such as shortstop, center fielder, catcher, third base etc. where defensive value plays a significant part in player value beyond their hitting ability.

[prasen9]

We just don't have the data. That is the problem. Only when someone is egregious, then they get chucked out. No reward for those that make the half catches. For example, Gaikwad spilled something that seemed like a half catch. Would another guy have taken it? Did he start a bit late? Tracked things badly? Etc. No data on this. Cricket is evolving much slowly. Only now occassionally, we get things like degree of spin, etc. Statcast like measures of the revolutions on the ball, etc. are not available or not tracked.