England in India, February-March 2021

[PKBasu]

Bhuvi has been brilliant with the ball. But he does need to figure out how to contribute with the bat in LOIs.

[prasen9]

We did not even last 50 overs. Why are we talking about his SR? He scored 25 runs. From a #7, that is not great shakes but acceptable. Yes, he was too slow but maybe he knew the Bradmans we have from #9-#11 and that is why he was slow. I wish he had scored a few more. But, if anything the biggest failures were Kohli and Rahul, whose responsibility it is to give us a foundation while batting at a run a ball.

Wrt Bhuvi's batting, it may be a mental, preparation thing. He certainly used to be quite skilled with the bat. Maybe he did not practice or even mentally visualize batting because our batting was doing so well. Kumar the bowler is certainly back. He should be in the test team in England. He should be asked to progressively bowl more so that he can take 20 overs a day and work on his batting so that he can bat at #7 in tests if needed. Or #8.

You can only ask the openers to blaze away if you have people who will at least cobble up 30 runs in the last 3 wickets. Not with this tail. Otherwise, this is what happens. You leave balls at the table while asking the top order to bat faster. The problem is that Dhawan is batting at a SR of 90 and then 120. How about both openers try to bat consistently at 110. Or bat at 120 or more in the power play and then slow down when the field spreads to reduce risk and then accelerate at the end if you are still there. Situational batting.

MPK has been bad today. If I were Kohli, I would try to go up to 7 overs with Bhuvi and Thakur to wrap up the tail. If not, then go to Thakur and maybe slip in a few Krunal overs.

[Kumar]

Hardik drops one more catch off Sam Curran!

England still has a chance! Even though they lost 7 wkts their run rate is close to 7! It will come down to england all rounders ? They are showing why their batting line up is feared

[Kumar]

Sorry, Prasen have to disagree with you! He is a batting allrounder! It was not thathe scored only 25 runs, it is how he scored it! His timing was bad thru the innings!

Bhuvi kumar scored 3 runs off 3 balls and once PK was dismissed unable to survive three balls, he did not take single! He was going for a big 4 or 6! In such a scenario it is hit or miss

The way Sam curran is playing, this game is still up in the Ir! It could come down to india just scoring 8 runs for loss of 3 wkts
Thakur strikes again! Kohli takes a good catch to dismiss Rashid

Natu has been very ordinary today
It may come down to 4 overs from Pandya, PK and Natu

Just shows why Engalnd can go bonkers from start

[Kumar]

Game looks over! Thakurs over was disaster
Hardik first drop did not prove expensive! But his second drop is a game changer

What a performance by Sam Curran

Who is going to bowl the last two overs? Hardik, pk and Natu

Just shows how important for Krunal to stay thru the end! Even if they had scored 10 runs , it would have ben enough

Hardik to bowl the 49th over! This game could be over this over!

So the two tailenders for india have not batted well and neither have they bowled well!

Sam curran may hit a century today coming in at 8!
Thakur drops a sitrer

Amd another catch dropper for Curran! Fielding coach needs to go! This time. Natu

Last over 14 runs! Very bad fielding performance! Natu to bowl last over

India wins! Fantastic over from Pandya and Natu! Curran unbeaten at 96

[prasen9]

Hardik dropped 2 catches, held a good one, and had a good runout. He bowled 9 overs and kept the runs down. Batted brilliantly.

MPK horrible batting and bowling. He did not try a catch and misfielded in the second last over. Over the series, he seems like a strike bowler but has no rudder. Not sure he is useful yet.

Nata dropped Curran and was sort of rudderless until he was told to bowl yorkers. Why does he not do that the last 3-4 overs. May be useful as an end-over bowler. But, we cannot have such one-track bowlers. He is significantly worse than our last left-arm bowler KK Ahmed. Worse swing and wicket-taking ability and worse line and length except the yorkers. I would not bring him back until we have tried MPK, who has more upside and maybe Thakur, Bhuvi, Bumrah, and Shami to choose from.

Thakur dropped a crucial catch and did not keep his nerve bowling his last over. Thakur stays because of his batting and wicket-taking ability in the last few matches.

My MoS: Bhuvi.

MoM: Sam Curran. What an innings!

The Indian tail should learn from the English tail. We did not need a 100 runs+ like they did. Just 30 runs is what I am asking from our last 3 batters.

The bowling right now should be: Hardik, Jadeja, Bhuvi, Shami, Bumrah.

Most promising backup: Prasidh Krishna. But someone must work on him so that he can maintain his line and length. And, Kohli should kick his butt so that he shows some effort on the field.

On the batting side the gain has been Pant. He needs more consistency and longer innings. The difference between a 95 and a 70 is 20 runs that makes up for your lean days that will no doubt be coming. But, he is on the right track. He knows how to bat in tests, he may be getting there in ODIs, and he is sort of lost in T20Is. Just bat a bit faster in T20Is and a tad slower in ODIs and he will be fine.

Krunal showed ability with the bat that is useful because the only strikers we have for the MO are Hardik and Pant. We should get the Pandya brothers get to a point where they can bowl containing 5 overs at least every match.

Do you remember the last time India bowled 46 overs using pacers and 4 overs of spin? I cannot remember in my lifetime in ODIs. Certainly not in India. That should tell you about our spin stocks.

[Kumar]

Man of Match between sam Curran and Thakur! I would lean towards Sam Curran! What an exta ordinary performance
For me, we need to find someone who is a top order bat and can bowl 3-4 overs! Jadeja when back will definitely give this team a balance

[prasen9]

Today, Bhuvi got the gamechanger. He did really well. But, I would give the gamechanger to Thakur. And, the MoS to Bhuvi. Unfortunately, due to the bias towards batsmen, Jonny Bairstow got it. He batted fabulously and delightfully well. But, Bhuvi turned up for all three games. Bairstow failed today and India won the series. I would have tipped the MoS to Bhuvi.

[Atithee]

We need every batsman to relearn how to play spin bowling. If we can do that well, we will be fine in general. I wish there were Indian spinners in making. I’m not sure Jadeja is the silver bullet he’s being made to be. And, I say this as a lifelong Jadeja fan.

[PKBasu]

We have more than enough spin stocks, but chose not to use them in this series. Kuldeep was able to stem the run flow, and other bowlers often benefited by picking wickets. He did get hammered later, but I think he showed his value, and a wicket would have redeemed him. He was unlucky on the wicket front, as the English batsmen were on song by the time he came on. More broadly, we have Jadeja, Axar, Ashwin as spin options, of whom Ashwin is probably the weakest with bat and in the field. If he is to play ODIs, he will need to bat up the order (in those middle overs) and be ready to hit out a bit more. Jadeja or Axar should always play. Krunal doesn't quite fit the bill as a bowler, but his batting in 2 of the matches was excellent (unlike his woeful performance today).

[indiansportsfan]

In our A teams, we need to give more chances to young and upcoming spinners like Shivam Sharma (also Solanki maybe) and not keep playing Axar, Krunal etc (which is what we have been doing). That is the only way to discover new talent. Also time to send back Kuldeep, Chahal to the domestics and prove they can still be match winners. Same with Rahul. After Pant's performance, I don't see any reason to keep Rahul.
Also how did suddenly Bhuvi improve so much? I don't remember him being so good pre injury. Did he tweak his action, or add some tricks?

[PKBasu]

Bhuvi has always been an exceptionally good bowler, but he is prone to injuries, and is not quite as good as this in the early series after injury. We saw this here as well: he got better with each T20I, peaking in the final one. By the time the ODIs came along, he was in peak form. The key will be to ensure that he doesn't break down in the IPL (as he has often done). In the last ODI series he played (in the West Indies 2 years ago), he averaged exactly the same as in this series (22.5). In the World Cup 2019, he averaged 26.9 with an economy rate of 5.2 (10 wickets in 6 matches). He was exceptional in this series with an economy rate of 4.65 -- in a series in which the opposition batsmen were absolutely rampaging.

[PKBasu]

Shardul Thakur is a useful 5th bowler in ODIs, especially because his batting is quite reliable. Despite his wicket-taking, he isn't reliable enough to be the first, second or third bowler -- as demonstrated in the 10th over he bowled today, almost single-handedly giving the match away. We have Bhuvi and Bumrah as the classic top-2 bowlers, and Jadeja as the fourth bowler. We need someone to step forward to be the third bowler. Hardik should always bowl in ODIs, at least 4-5 overs.

[PKBasu]

My candidates for 3rd bowler would be Shami, Siraj and (especially in India) Axar Patel. Really surprising that Axar and Siraj didn't get a game despite being available -- but perhaps that was because this was a very short ODI series, and others were being experimented with.

[arjun2761]

Nice win by India in this match and in defeating England in all 3 formats. To me Pant and Pandya with the bat and Bhuvi with the ball were the key players in this win, everyone else that did well also almost lost it for us as well.

I think we are seeing the merits of having younger upcoming players playing. With the IPL and the better pace attacks in India, the days of Indian players taking longer to transition to the international level are clearly in the past. Going forward, it is the average performing vets that should be on the short leash as is the case in most professional sports around the world unless you are truly elite (like a Kohli).