General Cricket Thread ...

[Kumar]

Except for toporder, absolutely pathetic selection.

Mukesh kumar list A average 37.5 with ER of 5,sr 44
Arshdeep singh 35.2 and 4.9 ER,sr 42.7
Aveshkhan 41.0 and 5.45,sr 45.1
Shahbaz ahamad 35 and 4.59,sr 46.3
Bishnoi 33.8 and 4.56 SR 37

Shivam mavi 22 and 4.84,Sr 27
Washington sundar 32, 4.65 and sr 41.3 in list a. (Odi 27, 5.1 and sr 32: better odi than list a)

For reference , above are bowling averages and not batting averages. This teamdoes not have the potent attack to get even a bronze medal forget gold. There is a chance we may not make the semis with this bowling attack and end up losing to afghanistan.

Last year vijay hazare performers career list a stats
Unadkat career 29, 4.76, 36)
V koushik 14.8, 3.42 and 26
Kuldeep sen 23, 5.75, 24
Kaverappa 13, 3.53, 23 (just one aseson)
CT gaja 22, 4.57 and 29.3
Tarzan 23, 5.2, 26

Is selection for this team mean that this players will not play wc?

[prasen9]

I say we send BadKat, Caveman and Tarzan. If West Indies can had a debut to Other Nazi, we can do it too.

[Atithee]

@kumar, I think it’s a great selection. Numbers aren’t always the be all end all. I’m glad to see not even one “senior.” Thought Dhawan would be the captain. Not sure what changed. Also, Jaiswal need not have been chosen.

[Kumar]

I did not want seniors, but bowlers chosen have been absolute duds in VIjay Hazarre. Essentially they are going with players with IPL experience.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

So its clear now the above selected players for Asian games will be missing WC at home.

[prasen9]

Why will they miss WC at home? Asian Games completes before the WC. Maybe you are right but can someone not be in both?

Wrt the bowling, I have no problems with Bishnoi and Arshdeep.

Atithee, numbers are not the be-all and end-all, but, they are short-hands for saying these guys have done nothing. Let's take Avesh Khan. He has been exceptional with the red ball. But, what has he done in the T20 format to deserve selection? Selection should be based on something. Right now, it is just based on hope with no connection to reality. I would be happy to understand a non-statistical reason as to why Avesh Khan should be selected and say not a Kuldeep Sen?

If we are selecting based on random hope, I say we select based on cool names: BadKat, Caveman, and Tarzan. That has as much reality-basis as this selection and perhaps selecting based on cool names is not much worse than hope if we are throwing out the players' whole body of work and selecting based on just our wishes and prayers.

[prasen9]

England is bringing back Anderson. Selectors the world over are biased towards senior players.

[prasen9]

First Scott Boland with his swing puts up the best bowling show in the WTC Finals. Now the England selectors have chosen Broad, Anderson, and Ollie R. and not their beloved Wood. Now Mark Wood is a good, solid test bowler but Broad, Anderson, and Robinson have been better than good. How sad to see the pace fetishists weep uncontrollably at this snub though! The best bowlers should always be chosen and the English selectors do exactly that. Fetishists heads must be exploding.

Mark wood made a huge comeback with 5 for 34 getting some big wickets

Nobody cares for Woakes. We feel compelled to comment about spectacular short-term bowling that bowlers with pace are wont to when the conditions are in their favor.

So, what do we have in this series now?

Bowling: Woakes 19.3 runs/wk, Wood 20.
Batting: Woakes 42, Wood 40

Wood has been great. But, Woakes has been better. No comments from astute threaders on how Woakes should always be in the English side for all the matches (at least in England).

1. Wood may well do better than Woakes. He is a good bowler. But, one among many good bowlers that England have. He is not head and shoulders above the others wrt bowling. You may need sheer pace in some conditions but overall, anyone who can move the ball is also in play. And, bowling is an art that integrates many skills one among which is pace. Pace looks wonderful but is not as effective always at least to the level it looks.

2. Wood also has been a good bowler. He would walk into the Indian side. The reason he is successful is because he and to a better extent Starc can control the ball, move it, and can use his brain to vary things around. In essence, Starc is a complete bowler. Wood is close to that. Umran and Kuldeep are not. Yet. Extreme pace cannot be taught. True. But, a lot of extreme pacers do not learn to bowl line and length. And without that, you are toast. Also, you can have decent pace, which a lot of our current bowlers have, and have better results as Woaks v. Wood shows. If you look at career stats, perhaps Wood is slightly better than Woakes. About the same. Shows that there are many (good) ways to skin the cat(not talking about Badkat). So, instead of just looking for pace, let us look for total bowlers. At the end of the day, the bottom line is what counts.

3. Woakes has not been as spectacular as Wood in that spell quoted above. Yet, Woakes has played better overall. What does that mean? Wood is less consistent. Extreme pace bowlers are less consistent. They can be hit or miss. that is, apart from that innings, Wood has been a lot bad so that his overall record is worse than that of Woakes. Or at least a bit more bad than the Woakes bad innings.

England did well in this innings I think. I still think that they need to bite the bullet and give their promising youngsters in Tongue and Robinson a full go. Bringing back Anderson was not a great selection.

[Kumar]

So England sent Moeen as one down batsman to protect their top order. I have always thought that why don’t we reverse the batting order. It will probably be disastrous with Indian batting lineup.but England had the the good batting depth to do that. Even if he can survive 20 balls, that may make it easier for a better bat to play a longer innings. Test match nowadays is all about surviving new ball and first 20-30 overs

[prasen9]

Mr. Gill seems like a FTB. So, Dravid thinks he is our #3? Or he thinks that Gill can fix his technical deficiencies? Or, does Dravid think?

[prasen9]

Ashes is going to be 2-2 and then we'll see. Australia really missing Lyon and a 3rd bowler. And, Smith/Labu have taken a vacation.

[Kumar]

Ashes is going to be 2-2 and then we'll see. Australia really missing Lyon and a 3rd bowler. And, Smith/Labu have taken a vacation.

Labu has failed especially. Hazelwood bowling has been very ordinary as well.England would be favorite . Australia really gambled by going with just three main bowlers . Cummins probably tired as well. I foresee Australia losing in 5th match as well. Scott Boland may have been a better choice.

[usaindia]

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/a ... 210211.php

[Kumar]

Australia probably escapes with a draw, but they did all the right things. Around 30 overs was bowled yday and they survived it. India had similar opportunity in the WTC final 2021, where our batters had to probably just survive an additional 15 overs to force a draw, but could not do it.

Similarly after losing Nathan Lyon, they came back to win that second match is still an unbelievable victory.

England probably are the better side this series, but the results willnot show that. Stokes declaration in the first test match is the biggest scratch your head moment of the series

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Sri Lankan test team is giving horrible performances. After winning test series in SA, they failed to manage going to the next level. Kusal Mendis has given lots of chances in the name of talent but he has just failed to deliver in big occassion just like Blackwood or Braithwaite scoring runs against minnows followed by one big innings against top opposition. It looked they have only one bowler P Jayasuriya who could take wickets, rest all were useless.