South Africa's tour of India - October/December 2015

[PokerAce]

Didn't see the match, but read about the bottle pelting and its shocking. Whatever the reason that kinda behavior is unacceptable and to be honest Cuttak deserves a lengthy ban from hosting any top level games. Only way to teach them to be honest.

 

[grkrama]

But there is no comparison with Steyn and Anderson.

Absolutely one is an alltime great of the world another is of england. For all the stats the only time anderson took wkts in IND was when india was in major transition in 2012 and at its weakest having lost lax , dravid sachin at the end of his line gambhir and sehwag loosing form terminally , if you look at the wkts he got most would be walking wkts or tailenders in that series.

 

[Targaryen]

Once again Ashwin was the man for India. But I wonder what Rayudu is doing in playing Xi. Even experts are suggesting to bring back Yuvi or Yusuf Pathan."Everyday is not sunday", Yuvi should be given one more chance to prove himself.

 

[greymatter776]

We need a big hitter of course.I wouldn't be that interested in bringing back Yuvi or Yusuf.But they remain to be only choices for us in that department.

 

[SaiSrini]

When are we touring abroad again? I wanna see how Ashwin bowls in our next overseas tour. He seems to be hitting the "form of his life". The changes that he has done to his bowling in recent times are working out spectacularly. With a long home season ahead, he could possibly be looking at a wickets marathon.

Frankly with the kind of bowling resources we have in the shorter formats, India better forget about the World T20 next year and start focusing on subsequent editions. It will be purely luck if we make it to the semis of the next year tournament. Most likely, it will be Dhoni's swansong. Hope in a good way...

 

[War]

@stefan @Markkkkk

 

[War]

Numbers Don't Lie: Steyn v Anderson in Asia | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

@War

Had a good idea that the stats would be as they showed in the video from just having watched both bowlers bowl in Asia, but it still interesting to see.

Ye saw this, Steyn as any of the great fast bowlers in history that have performed in Asia. If my memory is correct he has a a 5-wicket haul each in IND/PAK/SRI.

 

[War]

Absolutely one is an alltime great of the world another is of england. For all the stats the only time anderson took wkts in IND was when india was in major transition in 2012 and at its weakest having lost lax , dravid sachin at the end of his line gambhir and sehwag loosing form terminally , if you look at the wkts he got most would be walking wkts or tailenders in that series.

While all of that is true about the wickets Anderson took in India 2012, if he was not a generally improved bowler in s-continent conditions he still would not have taken those wickets. The year before when ENG played in UAE & Sri Lanka against teams that were not ageing - he bowled very good in those conditions so lets put things in proper perspective because this post on face value seems to suggest Anderson is useless in s-continent even though he obviously incomparable to Steyn in Asia.

 

[grkrama]

Anderson is useless in s-continent even though he obviously incomparable to Steyn in Asia

Not at all, im just saying he is not great in SC but good, i would compare his achievements in SC to say a spinner like Ashwin getting 3-4 wkts in seaming overseas conditions than like say a warne running through a side regardless of conditions.

 

[War]

Sidharth Monga: India's T20 line-up problem | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo @PokerAce @grkrama @shravi @SaiSrini @Aalay @aditya123 @Epic

 

[PokerAce]

I think too many, dare I say, undeserving players are getting picked in the T20 side, and its getting annoying to watch the team play. Rayudus and Axars of the world dont belong in the side. They have had enough chances and none of them have done anything extraordinary to stay in the side. At best they have delivered performances that is par. When the best you can do is deliver par, you don't belong in the side.

There is no way Rahane doesn't belong in the strongest XI. Players like a 32 yr old Stuart Binny are not the future.

That being said I do acknowledge that T20 is where you have to experiment with fresher talent coming through and basically teams have a free hand at doing all kinds of things in T20s. The weird thing is that IPL has better performers than Rayudu and Axar and Binny, yet they don't find a place in the side.

Players like Rahane who was the second highest scorer in IPL last year are being left out for the likes of Rayudu and its frustrating to watch the side. There are players like Shreyas Iyer, Uthappa, Gambhir, Pathan who have all done well, and yet they find themselves nowhere near the side. So when you are experimenting, you are not experimenting with the best T20 performers you have. IPL has its critics, but its not an easy league, and the best of the T20 world compete in it. If you are playing well against them, then you are doing something right. Yet these names don't feature in the side.

Having a Yousuf Pathan who can do the same job as Axar with the ball, and there is not even a question of who is the better hitter at the end, and yet he is not in the side, despite doing well for KKR last year.

If you field the best side and lose, fine, but its frustrating when the best side is not being played and losing, because you know you can do better. What is even worse is that if the experimentation was being done with the right people, one would still understand, but playing the likes of Axar (who started well, but we have known for a while now he doesnt have it at the top level) and Rayudu who at best is going to deliver just about par for the course, and Binny is even more frustrating.

Hopefully everyone comes to their sense in the ODIs.

 

[grkrama]

Sidharth Monga: India's T20 line-up problem | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

TBF im not really bothered with the T20 performance dont care what they do. But like Poker says too many players who dont belong in the side are playing.

 

[abhi_jacko]

I really hope Dhoni will go with proper bowlers in the ODIs. He can have all the fun he wants in this T20 series

 

[stefan]

I see the grounds in India are covering themselves in glory this series. First the ground trouble at Cuttack now unable to dry the outfield at Eden Gardens even though they had some 5 hours of no rain.

 

[Aalay]

People need to understand one thing here. That article by Monga is an excellent piece on what is wrong with Indian cricket. Raydu is in the team because he has performed for MI consistently. Similarly Akshar has ben very good for Kings 11. That is the reason they are in the team. As Dhoni said in press conference, all of our batsmen needs to spend some time at the crease before they can attack. Apart from Raina, we don't have anyone in our batting line-up who can start hitting from ball one. And why bring back Yuvi and Yusuf. They are clearly not as good as they were once. Yusuf also is the one who needs couple of overs before he starts hitting big. We need to focus on next generation. As the article mentions, we have very few hitters in India which includes Deepak Hooda and Gurkeerat Singh Mann. I liked the look of Deepak Hooda when I saw him in IPL but he is still very raw and inconsistent. I haven't seen much of Gurkeerat Singh Mann so I don't know if we can classify him as a hitter yet. Let's see how he goes in the ODI series. So, right now we don't have many options to tinker with our T20 batting line-up. One thing we can do is have Kohli open alongside Rohit and have Raina at number 3. This way we have our 3 best batsmen facing the most overs. Dhoni can come in at 4 and then we can have someone like Gurkeerat Singh Mann and Raydu to finish the inning.

For bowling line-up, even though Umesh Yadav is a bit way ward, I would have him over Mohit Sharma. Bhuneshwar's ability to provide early breakthrough has been gone. His swing is gone which is an even bigger concern. He was up in his pace but if is main strength which is swing is not there then there is no point of having him. I am really concerned about who are they going to pick to form the bowling attack for T20's.