Afghanistan in India T20I series, 2024

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Till Guru Dravid is there, no chance for Jitesh, Hitesh or Sanju. KL, HP, RA, SI all will be making wild card backdoor entry and will play T20I WC. Even DK can also make a comeback

[prasen9]

Unfortunate. But you are possibly right. Dravid is quite useless.

[Kumar]

agree that KL is the best option as T20 Wk.

Till Guru Dravid is there, no chance for Jitesh, Hitesh or Sanju. KL, HP, RA, SI all will be making wild card backdoor entry and will play T20I WC. Even DK can also make a comeback

Who is Sl?

Agree that this team is too afraid to make changes and bereft of ideas.

[prasen9]

Shreyas Santosh Iyer or Sports Illustrated, I think one of the two? I suppose he does not like being called SS ... for obvious reasons.

[Kumar]

Shreyas Iyer ,,, I doubt he makes the T20 team.

But IPL performance could change lot of this. DK and Ashwin timed their performance just perfectly for last Wc. With kuldip Yadav in good form, Either Ashwin has to be highest wicket taker or Kuldip is not fit to miss out

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Shreyas Iyer ,,, I doubt he makes the T20 team.

But IPL performance could change lot of this. DK and Ashwin timed their performance just perfectly for last Wc. With kuldip Yadav in good form, Either Ashwin has to be highest wicket taker or Kuldip is not fit to miss out

Never doubt till Dravid remains coach. Add Unad cutter in that list he can also make a surprise return by performing in Ranji

[Mukherjee Babu]

Dravidic way of coaching is politics in the name of "free & fair " selections. It holds only for someone whom management likes, comes to end with only few games.

Will put Pakistan ahead of India atleast in this format, as their abams & players considered it as purest format of cricket and lots of their new commers are highly experienced as they plays various T20 leagues around the World. Last 4 T20I games have proved differences are much less between the two teams which is not in Test & Odis

[Kumar]

Are we really that better than pakistan?

https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... n-9102439/

The above article talks about Ishan non selection and below Dravid’s response

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/ ... 18078.html

For the unversed, Kishan had requested the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to be released from the Test series against South Africa citing personal reasons. According to reports, Kishan was not selected for the Afghanistan series on disciplinary grounds. Rubbishing reports about Kishan's non-selection in the press conference, head coach Dravid has revealed the real reason behind the departure of the Indian gloveman from the T20I squad.
‘Ishan requested a break’: Dravid
"No, absolutely not (disciplinary issue). Ishan Kishan was not available for selection. Ishan requested a break, which we agreed on in South Africa. We supported it. He has not yet made himself available. I don't think he has made himself available as yet. When he is available, he will play domestic cricket and make himself available for selection," Dravid told reporters in Mohali.

Based on Dravid’s response , since Ishan requested a break he will not be available for selection until he plays domestic cricket. This seems like a power move. I guess Ishan was pretty miffed that Sky got his chance over him in WC. He probably had a case that he should have been selected.


Wondering if Pandya is also being dropped? Kind of surprising that his ankle has not healed for almost 10 weeks. high ankle sprain can linger, but still surprising.

[prasen9]

Kohli not playing the first match. Good. Dravid said Rohit and Yashasvi will open. So, my XI would be:

Rohit, Yashasvi, Gill, NTTV, Rinku, Jitesh, Axar, Sundar, Bishnoi, Arshdeep, Avesh

Basically, resting Kuldeep to give Bishnoi more exposure. Jitesh over Samson. Don't want 3 #11 pacers.

In reality, the team management will put in Samson. And, a third pacer - most possibly Mukesh and maybe even Kuldeep. And, perhaps Bishnoi over Sundar.

The team management stupid as it is does not care for batting after #7. That is a recipe for disaster and we will have another collapse and be out of the tournament or will have our early batters playing slowly because Dravid thinks it is fine to play with four #11s.

[PKBasu]

Ishan Kishan cited personal issues, but then he is said to have turned up in Dubai at an event featuring Dhoni, and then apparently on Bachchan's KBC. If he has permission to do all this, fine. (Perhaps he has said something about mental health, given that he was unfairly left out of the World Cup matches after doing well against Afghanistan -- and then was informed he would be left out of the test series, despite his success in the West Indies tests). He has been treated rather shabbily -- particularly the decision to pitchfork Rahul into the side as 'keeper when a specialist with real batting ability was available.

[prasen9]

Interestingly, the choice was between Rahul, the best batter averaging 44 in FC, Ishan averaging 39 in FC and Bharat 36 in FC. And, their keeping abilities is perhaps reverse of their batting averages. So, a real call needed to be made. On foreign soil, with pacers ruling the roost, Dravid went for Rahul, which i think is an understandable decision. We did the same with Pant.

If Ishant wanted a break, traveling to some tamashas in Dubai and wherever is perhaps a bit of a break. I am also glad that he was not allowed to just come back into T20 cricket because he is bad in that format.

What is up with Pant? Is he going to be in playing shape soon and play?

[Kumar]

If he was not playing cricket, then it is a break whether stayed in inidia or partied non stop. Using that as an excuse is absolutely ludicrous.

When he was offered a chance to play duleep trophy last year and he refused. Definitely, surprising for a player of his stature(or lack of) to refuse domestic cricket. But then he has been part of all three formats (as a result, is always part of every tour), so i guess his refusal one can be condoned. Just makes me appreciate Ashwin who has been a twelfth man in multiple matches and has never said a single word. He has lot of mental strength.

RahulDravid absolutely is not a great manager and need to work on his people skills. His summary rejection of Saha, Ishant Sharma is almost liable for age discrimination law suit.

What india should do for the home England series is that, except for thr backup wicket keeper, release the remaining substitutes to go playin the ranji trophy. Get 3-4 players as substitutes that are not part of their ranji team (may be even u19 players that can field well). Or even players who are primarily part of white ball cricket.

As to Pant, the fact that DC selected Kushagra for 7 cr means that Pant will probably not keep (potentially play as an impact batsman)?

[prasen9]

If Yashasvi is indeed ill, then not too much to complain. I hope Rohit gives NTTV and Dube some overs but he will not given by past precedence. India does not really think that we need a sixth bowler given how many times we bowl our regular bowlers fully.

The only issue I have is with Mukesh coming before Avesh. Mukesh has bowled loads of crap and does not take wickets in white ball cricket. He is very good in red ball cricket. Similar to Avesh but Avesh seemed to have improved a lot in his second coming into the team and looked better than Mukesh in the games they both played. I feel bad for Avesh. But, such is Indian selection.

Random selections do not win cups. And, then someone will say but we have all the talent. We perhaps have more talent than Australia, England, WI, etc. but we squander the talent by having no consistent policy to develop that talent maximally and utilize it in the best way possible. Australia reads our pitches better than our own idiots because we don't think about the little things carefully. Sad!

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Its Dravidic way of thinking. Tilak & Jaiswal are the batters who can bowl but will never bowl in a match. To sum up Rohit, Virat, SKY, Tilak, Jaiswal all can bowl but in nets.

[prasen9]

Stupid. Dube got the ball for two overs and did well. Washy and Bishnoi were being tonked or at least they did not look threatening. If you let the opposition have many wickets for the last five overs, you cannot contain them. Why not bowl Dube out on a day he is bowling well? Or at least give him over 3 so that you don't have to come back to Washy for over 19! Stupidity, imho.

Patel and Dube bowled very well today. Arshdeep was good and containing but did not get wickets. Mukesh got hit but got wickets. Washy and Bishnoi gave the game away.

I hope the batters bat well and in a measured way to get to this target.