India in England, summer of 2021

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India in England, summer of 2021

Post by PKBasu »

India will be in England this summer for a full 5-match test series, plus (hopefully) the first World Test Championship final.

It will be a very difficult choice picking the XI for the WTC final, given that (even at Lord's) we cannot possibly have more than 2 spinners in the XI. Those two have to be Jadeja and Ashwin, so Axar Patel will sadly have to sit out (except perhaps for the Oval test later in the season) unless there is any injury to the top 2. For the WTC final, the XI should be: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Pant (wk), Jadeja, Ashwin, Shami, Ishant/Siraj, Bumrah. (Since this is Lord's, where Ishant has been deadly several times in the past, he has to be in the XI, but Siraj should come in for the England series).

I don't think there will be any place for Washington Sundar in the test squad, although he should travel as a practice bowler. The squad, apart from the XI plus Siraj would have to include Mayank, Rahul, Saha (second wk), Axar, Shardul Thakur. Umesh probably misses out, but should travel as another "practice bowler". We should travel with a large contingent, like England have done this winter.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by rajitghosh »

I think with 6 test matches there will be a lot of rotation. Mostly I suppose there would be 3 medium pacers, 1 spinner and 1 allrounder (spinner/ pace). So for the 3 pacers rotation would be between Shami, Bumrah, Umesh, Ishant and Siraj. I don't see Bhuvi playing. The spinner would be Ashwin/ Jadeja. If Hardik bowls he may play as the all rounder but if the pitches take turn India would go with 2 spinners. The England tests are in August, September, the last part of spinner. By then the English pitches undergo wear and tear and spart spinning. So I see Ashwin and Jadeja playing together in some of the matches.
The batting I guess is pretty much settled. Saha needs to be there as backup wicketkeeper. Mayank or Rahul may be the backup opener with the ability to play in the middle order if necessary. That pretty much is the squad. I sincerely hope Hardik can start bowling.
India will anyway travel with a large squad. There would be an India vs India A match so Shardul, Washi, Nata, Axar etc. would anyway be part of the tour.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by Atithee »

Is Shaw gone forever?
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by prasen9 »

He just hit Pondicherry for 227 or so in a List-A match. My two teams would be:

India: Rohit, Gill, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Pant, Hardik, Jadeja, Ashwin, Ishant, Bumrah

India-A: Shaw, Mayank, Vihari, Iyer, Sarfaraz, Saha, Washi, Axar, Bhuvi, Shardul, Siraj

They will possibly take Umesh for Bhuvi and Rahul for Shaw. Who is our best next-gen bat for the MO after Iyer? I suppose it could be Anmolpreet Singh. I could take a flyer on Sarfaraz Khan.
Last edited by prasen9 on Fri Feb 26, 2021 7:52 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by rajitghosh »

Pondicherry has no commonality with England. Their commonality is France who don't play cricket. Not sure this counts for much.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by PKBasu »

Pondicherry has a number of good imports from elsewhere, including ex-test player Pankaj Singh and Saurashtra great Sheldon Jackson. So not a completely trifling side. Shaw has made another century in the Hazare trophy this year, so he looks to be in blazing form. Whether his weakness against the swinging ball near and about off stump has been addressed will only be evident during the IPL (where it was uncovered last year).
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by PKBasu »

Ah, yes, India have the excellent plan of sending an India-A side to England at the same time, so a full roster of reserves is available for the tests. I presume India-A will have a full 17-man squad.

So I would go with the following for India-A: Shaw, Easwaran, Mayank, Rahul, Nair, Vihari, Sarfaraz, Saha (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar, Umesh, Bhuvi, Natarajan, (best young pacer in IPL), Nadeem, Jalaj Saxena.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by Atithee »

Sarfraz is not going anywhere. That’s my guess. As much as you feel he deserves it, PKB. :D
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by prasen9 »

Why do you not like him? He seems to be very talented. Now that he has worked hard to get rid of his fat, he may be a good MO bat eventually.

Who is the next-gen then? Anmolpreet?
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by Atithee »

I like him but I’m not sure he is in the reckoning. Was he part of the A-squad in NZ/Australia? If he was, then he will be very much in England too. I think he was in NZ/Australia IIRC. Good for him.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by prasen9 »

No, he has not. But, for everyone, there has to be a first time.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by PKBasu »

Sarfaraz Khan averages 66.5 in first class cricket after 17 matches. It is a pity that no first-class cricket (other than tests) occurred in India over the past 12 months, so we can't get any reminders of his quality. Interestingly, his List A and T20 record is not as impressive (although he scores his first-class runs at a pretty rapid clip); he averages only 38.85 in List A cricket and 22.97 in T20s. If we are going to pick test cricketers based on T20 (IPL) performance, this quality first-class batsman is going to be overlooked. He is far better than Vihari.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by prasen9 »

I think he is in the Sehwag-Pant category of players. Very aggressive players who need the field to be up to have their lofted shot safety and thus do well in tests but when they have to take the singles and clear five fielders in the outfield, they do reasonably but come up short because they take too many risks. These players paradoxically have a better chance in tests than limited over cricket. And the selectors get lured and select them for LOIs and then we see failures. See Pant in ODIs and T20Is and contrast that with his spectacular test batting. To be fair, Sehwag was adequate to good in ODIs but not as devastating as he was in tests.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by PKBasu »

The WTC Final at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton (Hampshire) in the third week of June will definitely favour the pacers (specifically swing bowlers), so it will be Advantage NZ. We will have to play a full roster of our pacers -- Bumrah, Shami/Ishant, Siraj -- and hope that Ashwin and Jadeja can find some purchase in the second innings. (Spinners have struggled at Southampton). If Hardik Pandya is able to bowl, it would be useful to play him, probably ahead of Ashwin. We will need a long batting line-up to counter the impact of the NZ swing bowlers.
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Re: India in England, summer of 2021

Post by prasen9 »

Yep. On another note, Iyer got a gig with Lancashire. Seems like BCCI was preventing Indian players from playing foreign leagues. Stupidity, imho. Iyer joins Lancs He will get some introduction on how to play the swinging ball and maybe there for a call-up to the national team in case of an emergency.
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