New Zealand in India 2023 [ 3 Odis & 3T20Is ]

[Rajkumar Sharma]

As per first 7 T20Is, Umran played 2 games in Ireland & 1 in England, rest were in India whereas Nortje played 1 game in India where he was smashed for 27 runs in 1 over he bowled and his rest 6 games were in SA& WI.

[prasen9]

And, in those games Nortje did much better than Umran. We cannot go back and have Nortje play exactly where Umran did. West Indies wickets are not fast anymore. And, anyway, Umran just got shellacked in England and Ireland too, i.e., everywhere he has played. Nortje was not shellacked on all wickets. By your logic, we cannot compare anyone to anyone unless we have the exact same pitches! The bottomline is that Umran has failed everywhere wrt runs/over worse than any we perhaps have ever seen. That should not be rewarded. And, no cherrypicking the ball where he did not get hit by Ireland for a 4 does not really matter. Overall body of work matters. Umran does not have one. Just like Hardik cannot take wickets, Umran does not have control of his bowling. Hardik keep him for his batting. Umran, give him a few more matches when people are hurt, and then send him back. People pay good money to see good players, not the crappiest bowlers we can provide. Seems like the selectors are hell bent on picking crap like Avesh and Umran, etc.

Mark Wood got 14 wickets in his first 7 matches, which is phenomenal. A wicket every two overs. He averaged 15.64 @ 8.93. Both averages and economy way better than Umran's.

My point is that Nortje, Wood, etc. were continued not because they bowl fast but because they performed well in the first 7 matches they got. None of the countries carried pedestrians such as Umran and these folks demanded their places by their performances. Not because of charity or because of brainless selectors getting swayed by raw speed. They had speed plus some semblance of control. They were bowlers.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Umran should be judged after getting picked in Playing XI in full tour of SENA not by playing in flat tracks of india. According to you, Siraj who should have been thrown away after few matches from his debut is now no. 1 odi bowler.The Village, in Ireland is one of the flattest tracks, stats says spinners enjoys more then pacers in that track, same goes with Trent Bridge .With sweat & saliva fully ban due to COVID, reverse swing is now hard to get for pacers having raw pace. Since, Umran is new it will take time for him to learn variation to get success in indian tracks. When it comes to playing random in india, Umran, Nortje even Lockie Furgueson has nearly same eco in IPL

[prasen9]

Umran should be nowhere near the national team. He has not performed. Every player should be judged all along. Siraj was dropped when he was not bowling well, went back to domestics, fixed his bowling and is #1 now. I have never advocated for a player to be totally junked. You are exactly right in that we should treat Umran the Siraj way. You are also exactly right that Umran is new and he needs time to learn how to bowl on Indian tracks. He has been thrashed even in domestics. So, he should solve that first before being given more international matches.

[Kumar]

I dont see Thakur taking India to a respectable total if team is 5/6 down in odi against best teams. His pace is not enough to clean the tail of any team.Our half allrounders looked fool against Bangladesh in spinning tracks despite they play most their domestic in spinning tracks. Performing in spinning track will definately matter for WC selection.I would prefer 2 allrounder ( Hardik, Jadeja), 3 pure pacers and 1 pure spinner, for doing specialist job, definately no places for half allrounders in WC. Hope Aussies include their full team for odis. NZ didnt had 3 top players, Williamson, Southee, Boult. Most surprising was, NZ didnt included Sodhi the most successful NZ spinner who always troubles Indian batters.

Shardul does not have pace, but he has a knack forward taking wickets. U can call it fluke becoz batsman are getting out to innocuous delivery, but he does this on consistent basis. Even in thr lasy ODi he got a well set batsman who had a century to his name out.

If Umran cannot bowl in indian pitches, play him only on bouncy tracks. His pace is tantalizing, but I agree with Prasen he cannot keep learning in international games and not showing any improvement. Also in the games he has taken wickets it is mainly lower order bats.

I would have expected Raj to not support Umran considering that he does not have domestic experience.

As to Arshdeep, i was hoping we would rope in Mohsin khan, who seems to have both pace and knows how to play. His bowling in 2022 IPL season was off the charts with an average of 14 and Er less than 6.

[prasen9]

Mohsin Khan would be great in T20Is. And, ex-India pacer Kuldeep Sen would be good to try in ODIs and maybe even backup for tests. Meaning, they should be sent to A-team games and we should see how they do. The board has so much money. We should constantly have an A-team playing somewhere. Alternatively, we should schedule multiple series and have one of our teams play in India and the other play abroad. Both called India. One playing tests and the other playing LOIs. And, then alternate. That would make a lot of money. They can be scheduled on different days. Think about it. We will have twice the players getting exposure in bilateral series and we would get data on people abroad and in house and we will get a lot more TV money. Someone should be bold enough to do this.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

There is no answer from the richest cricket board when you ask about certain injured players. What happened to
T Natarajan ? Why he surprisingly become available only in leagues for last 2 years? Mohsin Khan & Yash Dayal has been completely out of picture since IPL. Biggest worry is Prasidh Krishna, he was something else when he joined KKR, bowling constantly at 145+ with open chest action, even Kohli was impressed with him and had a interest in including him for World T20I in Australia, his return from injury reduced his pace and now again he is out of action. Mavi & Nagarkoti also looked as some talent but they are no where from where they started. Plenty of bowlers are now in domestic with raw pace, absence of proper coaches & doctors are hurting the team from getting their services. Board is busy with IPL, women IPL, split captaincy, Virat Rohit T20I career over or not etc useless matters.

[prasen9]

Players will get injured. Open chest action or some such actions such as Bumrah's generate speed but are also more likely to cause injuries. When you fix those actions to more ergonomic ones, then players will lose some speed. The solution would be to build muscle back up and try to get the speed back. Bowlers are afraid of bowling fast once they get a major injury. And they want a sustainable action to extend their careers as much as they can. That is their livelihood, claim to fame. They do not want to bowl at extreme pace and then be out with a back fracture. Worse still, have back problems the rest of their lives. The board needs to nurture these players and have a proper bowling academy. What happened to the MRF Pace Academy? Did the BCCI do something to stop them? Players will be injured. The key is to provide them the best care and training. Even folks with good quality care did not make it. See Tait, Pattinson, Bond, etc.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

BCCI has no straightforward rule regarding treatment to injured players like other boards.BCCI allows players to consult personal doctors, neither there is an ultimatum for the bowlers to practice in MRF Academy as a rehabilitation, despite BCCI have contract with them, only thing they have is fitness test in NCA.Those who goes to academy, once they become a star or have an IPL contract they hardly goes back to MRF Academy.Players like Shami, Jadeja, Hardik were seen having rehab in differant place but not in NCA. Bond, Tait, Lee, Pattinson, Akhtar all had injuries but their speed didn't drop when they made comeback in international cricket, unless board takes a special care and ensures a rule comebacks of injured players will be more delayed.

[Mukherjee Babu]

Hope i am wrong. I dont see India winning this T20I series against New Zealand

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Win or Loose doesnt matter. A change is needed in the team. Will go with : Prithvi Shaw, Deepak Hooda, W Sundar, S Yadav,
H Pandya, R Tripathi, J Sharma, K Yadav, A Singh, U Malik, M Kumar

[prasen9]

Umran was dropped. It is sad how he is being treated though. He does not deserve the India cap but we should also not throw him out for good because he has some talent. He should have been matured before throwing him to the wolves. Now, he will possibly be in the wilderness. Seems like Mavi is now before him in the T20I pecking order.

Hardik learnt only partially. Again on a pitch taking spin, he brought in Mavi. Sundar should have gotten that 19th over. Good that he bowled Hooda for the full quota. I would have bowled Sundar and Chahal their full quota or near full quota untill one of them was hit. Arshdeep is the only quality pace bowler in this lot. Hardik over-bowled himself and Mavi.

[Kumar]

Looks like we will loose this match as well. What a dreadful performance with only sundar and gill scoring more than run a ball

They manage to hang on. Not a convincing show

[prasen9]

Actually very sensible batting from SY and Hardik. We needed a run a ball. Before Hardik came, Surya was playing his usual game trying to hit boundaries. This is not the pitch for that. Especially against spinners. I watched the last eight overs. Apart from Sundar's runout and some bad running between the wickets, they batted fine. Maybe kept the hitting until the very end but you back yourself in the last over if you need 6 off 6.

I think the rest played fine. Kishan put us in a terrible hole. I would love to see the Jitendra guy or whatever his name is picked for the last match.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Batters who played their domestic cricket throughout in spin friendly tracks are struggling against spin, that too in indian tracks. Difficult to take it as excuse to hide their weakness