South Africa in India, Nov-Dec 2025

[prasen9]

The big problem though is that there are no good replacements, Krishna/Arshdeep etc are also pretty useless as well.

There are plenty of pacers doing well in four dayers. If IPL is your priority then you will never find any good replacements. If you pick your test squad based on domestic then you will find Gurnoor Brar, Aquib Nabi, Apple Tom, Nideesh, Mukesh Choudhary like skills, if they get chance to play then it can be decided wheather they are close to Rabada, Cummins etc. Without testing them you can't declare that there are no talents in pace bowling category for test matches.

You can't get quality pacers if domestic cricket is played in spin friendly, flat condition. Just see this ranji season stats, so far after Round 3 or 4, only Aquib Nabi is among top wicket takers as pacers in top 10 wicket taker chart, rest all are spinners.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/records/to ... 5-26-17372
Roger Binny and now Minhas not working in domestic pitches, very soon team will give dull performance in SENA

Nabi should be given an A-team slot. He is promising. PK is not useless. He can be a Jansen-type bowler, not that calibre, but Ishant calibre maybe who can hit the deck. In some pitches, these bowlers are useful. The coach should select the team understanding the pitch, etc.

[rocobaroco]

The big problem though is that there are no good replacements, Krishna/Arshdeep etc are also pretty useless as well.

There are plenty of pacers doing well in four dayers. If IPL is your priority then you will never find any good replacements. If you pick your test squad based on domestic then you will find Gurnoor Brar, Aquib Nabi, Apple Tom, Nideesh, Mukesh Choudhary like skills, if they get chance to play then it can be decided wheather they are close to Rabada, Cummins etc. Without testing them you can't declare that there are no talents in pace bowling category for test matches.

You can't get quality pacers if domestic cricket is played in spin friendly, flat condition. Just see this ranji season stats, so far after Round 3 or 4, only Aquib Nabi is among top wicket takers as pacers in top 10 wicket taker chart, rest all are spinners.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/records/to ... 5-26-17372
Roger Binny and now Minhas not working in domestic pitches, very soon team will give dull performance in SENA

Nabi should be given an A-team slot. He is promising. PK is not useless. He can be a Jansen-type bowler, not that calibre, but Ishant calibre maybe who can hit the deck. In some pitches, these bowlers are useful. The coach should select the team understanding the pitch, etc.

Yeah man, I feel the same. Nabi definitely deserves an A-team spot because he keeps showing promise every time he plays. And PK isn’t useless at all. He can grow into that Jansen-type hit-the-deck bowler—maybe not that level, but at least an Ishant-style workhorse who becomes valuable on certain pitches.

[Atithee]

^^Is this new member rocobaroco an AI agent? The posts seem like chatGPT responses. Anyone else thinks so? Apologies if you’re a real person, rocobaroco. Share something about yourself so we can get to know you better. Or answer, chicken came first or the egg?

[PKBasu]

On a placid pitch in Ranchi, Kohli ran rampant to make his 52nd ODI ton. But we need to play some ODIs in South Africa soon to prepare for the 2027 World Cup, and see where our players stand on those types of wickets.

[prasen9]

If Kohli and Rohit are in form, then we should keep them. That is our hope. Along with Rahul, Iyer, and Gill. They have the exerpience of South African Wickets. Samson did very well there too but he will be kept out due to politics.

The youngsters Yashasvi, Gaikwad, Washy are struggling with the bat. Gaikwad has now failed in 7 ODIs. He should be given a few more series because he is ideally suited for ODIs - can bat slowly and can bat fast.

[rocobaroco]

I also feel that when Kohli and Rohit hit form, the whole setup suddenly looks solid. Samson did really well there, but the politics around him honestly gets frustrating. Yashasvi, Gaikwad, and Washy are struggling right now, but I still want to give Gaikwad some time.

[Rajiv]

Robocop, you didn't answer Atithee's queries.

[prasen9]

But he/she/it/they did a good summary! Again ...

[indiansportsfan]

Why is rocobaroco's post talking about Samson? He didn't even play this game. But on the flip side, why would an AI bot be so interested to post here?

Coming back to the game, the youngsters (Jaiswal, Gaikwad, Washy) need to take their chances when they get them. There are other people waiting in the wings (Pant, Axar, etc) and there are only so many opportunities to hand around before the WC.

[Atithee]

^^It just rephrased Prasen’s post. He had mentioned Samson. That’s why I want to have fun with it by posting nonsense and see how it reacts. Like I did by asking if chicken or the egg came first. They never responded even though it was a direct accusation of being a robot.

As to why, they may be training their LLM, NLP, or whatever the technical term is called. I see no other reason. For all we know, it may be a member of this forum itself.

[prasen9]

Why is rocobaroco's post talking about Samson? He didn't even play this game. But on the flip side, why would an AI bot be so interested to post here?

Coming back to the game, the youngsters (Jaiswal, Gaikwad, Washy) need to take their chances when they get them. There are other people waiting in the wings (Pant, Axar, etc) and there are only so many opportunities to hand around before the WC.

Why exactly does Pant deserve more chances after he has been mediocre in ODIs? Yashasvi failed again. This time he was slow. He should play fearlessly. If he scores less, at least he did not waste balls. Today he was terrible. Gaikwad has been terrible in his 7 innings. He needs to play a big one now. Washy has been bad for a long time. He needs to be swapped with Jadeja today but the team management is stupid and will perhaps not do that.

Samson and Kishan have performed better than Pant and Samson should be given the slot at #4 or wherever if Gaikwad, etc. do not pan out. Stop this partiality, nepotism, and politicking. We have had enough undeserved people get chances while good players are sitting out.

[prasen9]

Atrocious innings by Washy. He cannot hit. This is reality and the coach and captain should accept that. Put him at the end and force him to go from ball one.

Terrible innings by Yashasvi as well who gobbled up many balls. I hope we win. Otherwise, these two should get a big part of the blame along with the bowlers.

Jadeja is also a very slow batter in ODIs. So, he could not even score at a run a ball.

These are realities and as soon as the team management realizes that and does not pretend otherwise, it will be good for India.

[prasen9]

On the positive side, what an innings by Rahul. And, Gaikwad. And, Kohli. These three saved us and posted a competitive score. Let us see if the dew ruins it for us.

[prasen9]

Prasidh Krishna is terrible today. Why did he get 8 overs and Jadeja only 7? Yes, Jadeja does not take wickets in ODIs but the extra runs could have created a bit more pressure.

The Yashasvi-Sundar-Jadeja slowdowns are going to get us. That and the dew. And, the bad bowling of Kuldeep. Don't know how much we can blame him or the dew.

[SaniaFan]

More than Kuldeep's bad bowling, it was overall bad fielding that lost us the match. Yashasvi dropped Markram of Kuldeep when he'd had not even reached 50 and it went for six. Then of all the people Jadeja over ran along the boundary and let a ball go to boundary of Kuldeep.kuldeep himself let one boundary of Harshit. There was a comment on cricinfo that said that India made 358 look like 330. That really summed up Indian fielding. Actually Kuldeep created multiple chances but could not get wicket due to bad fielding and luck.