[shipnil]

Originally Posted by Geo_Ipe

1. Dinesh Karthik - I wonder what the team management told him when they selected Pant over him!

That you are here because your keeping skills are much better than Pant, so you were a backup wicket keeper. Only if Dhoni is injured/dropped, you'd get a game. But we rate Pant's batting skills higher than yours. See, we didn't give him the gloves in the last match.

[swissknife]

Coming to think of it, we seem to have more wicket keepers in the squad; Dhoni, KL Rahul, DK and now Pant. I don't think any WC squad had this many.

[Saanil]

Yesterday’s defeat was frustrating but I doubt we should blame Dhoni and Jadhav. I think the match was already gone by the time these two batsmen came to crease. I know the slow start to our innings increased pressure on us but our batsmen were not able to play big shots due to the well planned bowling attack by England.

One thing which I noticed was the bad bowling performance by Shami. I know he took a lot of wickets but giving so many full toss balls to English batsmen towards the end was not a good performance. My knowledge about cricket is very limited but back when I was young, the only strategy to give away few runs in the 40-50 over phase was to bowl yorkers. If Shami was trying to do that, he failed miserably. I think we gifted England 15-20 runs towards the end due to bad bowling (Bumrah was brilliant though).

[Santoshbhat]

Game against England exposed our team's weaknesses to opponents to exploit in the knock outs.

• If the wicket is flat, our spinners can be attacked and put under pressure.
• Apart from Bumrah we don't have bowlers who can contain and create pressure in high scoring games
• After Rohit and Kohli, the quality in the batting takes a sharp dive

Given the team's make up right now, a flat track might be our biggest enemy. The team's strength is its bowling. The fast bowlers can be a handful on a spicy deck (We can even go in with 3 seamers in such a case). If the wicket is dry and taking spin, Kuldeep and Chahal will spin their webs. Flat wicket - high scoring match - bowlers nullified : We don't have the fire power in our batting to match the hitters in teams like Aus and Eng.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

Game against England exposed our team's weaknesses to opponents to exploit in the knock outs.

Glad that this awakening happened now (when we hadn't lost a match prior) rather than later. There were some good moments of truth that came out for our bowlers and batsmen and I just hope that we can learn from this and understand what will work better on such pitches (England had all the answers in their batting and bowling so it was like a Q & A session with live demo for us ).

[ninjatalli]

This must be a very tiring week for Pakistan fans considering ever since their NZ match last Friday, all they can do is to see how England plays out vs India and New Zealand. If England wins the next match too, the last match of Pakistan is of no use. However, if England loses, the match on Friday vs Bangladesh is going to be ONE hell'of a match to watch out for!

On a side note, it's a do-or-die situation for Bangladesh tomorrow, and we can surely expect them to come out with their A-team tomorrow. Considering we allowed England to keep their top-4 hopes at the cost of Bangladesh and Pakistan, there's probably some revenge to be expected on that aspect too But we have the benefit of re-playing the same pitch, so it'll be interesting how the spinners plan out against the short boundary.

[SoumenD]

What's happening with Indian team? We are so short of batsmen that an uncapped player(Mayank Agarwal) had to be called directly for world cup squad. Not doubting his talent, but this looks like a desperate measure. God forbid, now if someone like Rohit/Kohli gets severely injured, we will be in serious state of bother(not that we aren't already).

How did Mayank Agarwal come into picture? Wasn't Rayudu part of the reserve players? Its pretty clear the '3D glass' comment killed his chance to represent India in this world-cup.

[Eddy]

KL Rahul has an injured back and hence Aggarwal is covering the opening slot.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Coming to Aggarwal - he is the most like to like replacement for Dhawan. He will open, Rahul will bat at 4.

I really wonder if Shankar's injury is that serious, it could just be a tactical call more than anything else! Surprised Rahane was not considered since he's currently playing County Cricket.

Originally Posted by swissknife

Coming to think of it, we seem to have more wicket keepers in the squad; Dhoni, KL Rahul, DK and now Pant. I don't think any WC squad had this many.

Rahul Dravid was the make-shift Keeper in the 2003 World Cup. How times change!

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by Eddy

KL Rahul has an injured back and hence Aggarwal is covering the opening slot.

Just to add, India need a opener and mayank opens for Karnataka, so he is more or less a proper replacement for Shikhar Dhawan.

[Ithaca]

During the current match between Sri Lanka & West Indies, the commentators made a rather caustic comment.
They said that India gave England a breather by losing the match but it may prove costly to our team in the semi or finals if we have to again play England.

Would our team have fared better against a low confidence Pakistan in the Semis or do members believe we can beat England in the knock out stages.

[pratyush6]

The loss was fine, the attitude wasn't. I am a huge MSD supporter but it seems as if he gave up. I do not think we would have won anyway. Chasing 8 an over for 10 overs is fine, 8 an over for 20-25 overs not so.
There was Rashid to go after where he took only 3 singles. I was scratching my head at that moment. First 10 overs were 28 runs? I mean, you don't chase 340 like that. Then Kohli & Rohit getting out when they got out.

And England really bowled well. Sometimes you just have to tip you hat off to you opposition isn't it? I think was 'looked' bad at the end was MS only going for those hard hits in the last 2 overs. He may have well got out instead of having a net session is what it looked like.

I also feel Rahul is hampering our chances big time. Probably is out of form and looks out of depth. India depends on the top 3, of which only 2 remain now. I still think the way MS is playing, he should come up the order and be the glue that holds it together. If he plays long enough (70-80 balls) he will at least get run a ball, maybe more, can go hard at the end, with others playing the aggressor. MS isn't the ball 1 hitter anymore. It is high time everyone including him realize that.

[jayded]

West Indies yet again chocked at the very end. The unnecessary run-out of Allen proved very costly. Amazing knock by Pooran, but alas, tough luck.

P.S. My ears have started to bleed listening to extended durations of commentary from Sangakkara. His intonation is haywire and is just painful to listen to, for more than couple of minutes. Overall the commentators this time around are terrible and definitely miss the olden days.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by vinit

I really feel that yesterday was a tactical loss than a suffered loss. So many people are blaming Dhoni, but it all started from first ball of the innings actually. Dhoni is excellent at his calculations and he had his calculations absolutely perfect yesterday. He gathered as many runs as possible without throwing any more wickets.

This is a competitive world, there is no soft corner for incompetent people. Dhoni has been struggling from last 3 years, no other cricketer has got such an extended run in Indian cricket. He is a selfish cricketer playing with the sentiments of millions of fans. He himself set a precedent of showing dissent against the greats and compelling them to retire, what did he do in 7 years? He took all the credits when things were going in his favor, but did he ever build a team? What was his calculation when he denied the strike to Kedar in the last over? Atleast one of the selector should tell him to retire gracefully before the semi-finals.

[KK_HakunaMatata]

There is a sure need to change team composition from the next match onward, we cannot win WC with this composition. I feel this would be a good combo - Rohit, DK, Kohli, Pant, MSD, Jadeja, Pandya, Bhuvi, Chahal, Shammi, Bumrah.

DK can give some good hits at opening while Rohit can play stick on game at the beginning. There is depth in batting as well as bowling.

KK