[deathwalkr]

Meanwhile the captain says "But in an ideal scenario, yes, I would prefer if we have 20, 25 days to prepare for a game like this"

My only contention about IPL is mostly about this. The tight scheduling it involves. Jumping straight to a test world final after 2 months of t20 IPL was always going to be a tough piece of work and it showed.

[Bhargav7]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Meanwhile the captain says "But in an ideal scenario, yes, I would prefer if we have 20, 25 days to prepare for a game like this"

This is Rohit Sharma's entire career vs Australia outside India. Which part of this gives us hope that he will perform well with enough practice? We heard enough excuses - time for the top and middle order to start scoring some runs.



I hope BCCI has enough courage to drop Rohit, Kohli, and Pujara from test cricket. They were given enough chances. Try someone new from domestic cricket. Surely, they can't be worse!

[Eddy]

We can bounce back if and only if we start organising the A tours once again. That is the assembly line to pick from. Our domestic cricket is not the most competitive nowadays. 38 teams is a very diluted talent pool.

[Manoj2268]

One more issue that is seen in the last 3 odd years is that the Indian Team has failed to play out long(120-150 overs) in one innings regularly in away/neutral venues. Leave 120, out of the last 36 test innings, the team has played 90+overs only about a dozen times. 120+ Overs? Only 4.

How can one expect the opponents to tire out? The team is all out even before the second new ball is taken, the opposition bowlers remain fresh and fit to run us to the ground again after a brief rest.

None of our batsmen are willing to play the long anchor(250+,300+ balls innings), nor are they willing to play session by session. In this match as well, I was incensed by Pujara and Kohli's stroke play. All they had to do was regroup and play for 30 mins at a time and this match could have been drawn or we could have sneaked a win.

Source Cricinfo:

[PreludeSH]

Its better to lose with younger players than the Rohits, Kohlis and Pujaras. Missed Ashwin in the first innings. Umesh Yadav should never play again for India.

Our fast bowling will have serious issues in a couple of years. We dont have anyone other than Shami and Siraj. Bumrah will be on/off with fitness.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Eddy

I am not too sure of him. I have seen him bat in domestic cricket. Does not look like a compact player who will score big in SENA. I hope I am wrong, but I am not putting any money on Sarfaraz.

He has to be selected in the Squad just on the basis of the runs he's amassed. Whether he succeeds or not is another issue. Shreyas Iyer is more of a certainty I feel in the middle order going ahead. With Rahane's 80 odd in the WTC Final, wonder if he'll be given another chance in WI. Going ahead probably Yashasvi Jaiswal can open & Gill can drop down to no.3 position.

Originally Posted by Bhargav7

I hope BCCI has enough courage to drop Rohit, Kohli, and Pujara from test cricket. They were given enough chances. Try someone new from domestic cricket. Surely, they can't be worse!

Who's supposed to Captain the Team if everyone is dropped? I'm completely in favour of dropping Pujara & Rahane altogether if you want to transition & build a Test team for the future. Virat can also be dropped for this WI tour else how will you try out new blood. Hope the Selectors don't go back to KL Rahul again! Would personally like to see Virat back as Test Match Captain once he has some runs under his belt.

Originally Posted by Manoj2268

One more issue that is seen in the last 3 odd years is that the Indian Team has failed to play out long(120-150 overs) in one innings regularly in away/neutral venues. How can one expect the opponents to tire out?

Forget about away games, Tests in India barely last 3 days! How are our batsman supposed to get some confidence. This whole idea of preparing rank-turners needs to stop. This is also one of the reasons why our batting has been woeful over the past many years.

[TROOPER]

I never expected this team to win the WTC. Especially in the absence of Bumrah and Pant and keeping Ashwin out.

India has been lucky enough thanks to a combination of strong performances of the lower middle order and bowlers. The top 4 used to score a 'now you can't kick us out' 45-49 in support, taking turns at it, and that'd be it.

And looking at the way Pujara played both innings, considering he's been playing in England for the past couple months, only an extreme action by the BCCI would help. That is to target to have a red ball team within the next couple years, with players, especially batsmen* who are banned from T20 and are renumerated handsomely for that.

Sounds extreme, but in a country where cricketers are hailed as Gods the current crop will never have the hunger to go win trophies.

Its been the case in the pre and especially post Dhoni era. And I strongly believe Dhoni probably has the best midas touch in sports history and it helped him win three ICC trophies, two of which on foreign soil. Of course I am not discounting his or the players hard work during the period.

* since bowlers have a very short career duration in comparison to batsmen

[harry10]

Let's be honest.

Didn't we all know what's going to happen. We have seen this movie numerous times now.

Top order won't perform when needed. Bowlers will forget line and length when needed. Lower order batters will do their best to get team to a decent score but it won't be a winning one. After losing the game Captain and Coach will throw everyone under the bus including the umpires and their decisions but won't once mention their ridiculous team selections, their uninspiring strategies and their own pathetic performances. This is a Movie which is on repeat every Tournament India participates in since long. And trust me when I say we are going to see this movie again in 4 months time on home soil.

Like the age old quote by Einstein - “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

BCCI is going to carry on with this insanity.

Aussies deserve to win. Most of them skipped IPL to prepare for WTC and Ashes. Smith was in England for 2 months and it showed the way he batted with resolve. I am looking forward to Ashes which will be a fun watch as a neutral.

[AtheK]

Originally Posted by PPS

Who's supposed to Captain the Team if everyone is dropped? I'm completely in favour of dropping Pujara & Rahane altogether if you want to transition & build a Test team for the future. Virat can also be dropped for this WI tour else how will you try out new blood. Hope the Selectors don't go back to KL Rahul again! Would personally like to see Virat back as Test Match Captain once he has some runs under his belt.

Let's move forward and make Virat captain again, isn't that taking two steps backward. Make Gill the captain who seems to be a certain for next few years, make Pant the captain once he is back (how he performs now is a different story). Iyer can be tried as a captain, they wanted to groom Bumrah, but he is injured way too much.

Pant would have been the ideal choice, miss seeing him play.

[redCherry]

For me, we lost because -

1. This team just turned up to go through the motions - we somehow qualify for the finals [on the back of huge home-series wins with few points wins overseas], and then just turn up for the finals, after completing the more-lucrative IPL series. Their priorities are elsewhere

2. Our top & middle order batting has been a huge let down since a while, just see how ofter the team scores 300+ in an away test match in last 3-4 years

3. It doesn't seem to hurt some players when the test match is lost

Originally Posted by Bhargav7

I hope BCCI has enough courage to drop Rohit, Kohli, and Pujara from test cricket.

Agree about Rohit and Pujara.
Despite his contributions to team's cause, Pujara is well-past his sell-by date.

And Kohli, although I am never a fan of his, I think he can still continue in his test team, just that the board should relegate him from the demi-god status

[PPS]

Originally Posted by TROOPER

And looking at the way Pujara played both innings, considering he's been playing in England for the past couple months, only an extreme action by the BCCI would help.

Pujara may have scored lots of runs at the County circuit but don't think he faced any quality bowling similar to the Aussie setup. In the 2nd Division County level even England International stars don't turn up.

Originally Posted by AtheK

Let's move forward and make Virat captain again, isn't that taking two steps backward. Make Gill the captain who seems to be a certain for next few years, make Pant the captain once he is back (how he performs now is a different story). Iyer can be tried as a captain, they wanted to groom Bumrah, but he is injured way too much.

Gill is the new kid on the block who's in red hot form. First let him score consistently outside of Asia. He doesn't seem to have any Captaincy experience either. We've all seen Pant's captaincy in IPL, the less said the better. Iyer can be a good option but again he's yet to prove himself outside Asian conditions + he's been getting injured frequently off late. Considering we won't be playing any Tests in SENA countries for another 7-8 months, Ashwin is the only reliable stop-gap option the Selectors can look at for the Captaincy role.

[AtheK]

Originally Posted by PPS

Considering we won't be playing any Tests in SENA countries for another 7-8 months, Ashwin is the only reliable stop-gap option the Selectors can look at for the Captaincy role.

So selectors will take easy step out and continue with Mr.Sharma.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by PPS

Pujara may have scored lots of runs at the County circuit but don't think he faced any quality bowling similar to the Aussie setup. In the 2nd Division County level even England International stars don't turn up.


Gill is the new kid on the block who's in red hot form. First let him score consistently outside of Asia. He doesn't seem to have any Captaincy experience either. We've all seen Pant's captaincy in IPL, the less said the better. Iyer can be a good option but again he's yet to prove himself outside Asian conditions + he's been getting injured frequently off late. Considering we won't be playing any Tests in SENA countries for another 7-8 months, Ashwin is the only reliable stop-gap option the Selectors can look at for the Captaincy role.

Pujara is done for. His way of only defending for eternity won't work in this Bazball era which slowly all top teams will adopt. Plus he has been below 30 average since a very long time.

Let's not mix formats.

Dhoni was excellent captain in white ball but a disaster captain in tests. Who can forget what happened to us on Australia and England tours after World cup 2011.

Kohli was a very ordinary captain in white ball and couldn't even win RCB his Ipl team even 1 trophy in so many years he Captained it. But, his Test Captaincy was absolutely Stellar. We stayed no.1 for such a long time with 5 test maces. Our fast bowling was best in the world. We finally had confidence to win in SENA. He really understood how to win matches in tests. Barring his covid after performances he was top performer so many years he Captained. But, it's time he should be dropped from Test team and others given chances.

Rohit is an ordinary captain. He won 5 IPL trophies cos he had absolutely brilliant T20 players at their peak playing together. As a batsman he was a disaster in all those wins and most part of IPL. Look at MI now when all those players have retired or moved to another team. Likewise he is proving to be ab ordinary captain for ICT too. Plus his performances has been absolutely non inspiring. Not a single good performance in knock outs. Plus his fitness issues are a known thing now.

So, Pant can be a good Captain in tests and his IPL captaincy wasn't even that bad with DC making it to playoffs. Sadly, I don't see him coming back to professional cricket until next year and then also we don't know if he can be the Player he was.

Ashwin is logical choice for Test Captaincy. Will play atleast 2 more years or beyond. Brightest mind in the team and the biggest match winner too. But, politics won't make him captain.

This is why I said same movie will keep repeating itself.

Ps- Ganguly due to his ego and Jay shah his friend were instrumental in removing Virat as Captain and making Rohit as Captain. And look where we are with zero accountability.

[Eddy]

Guys, admist all the criticism we also should acknowledge that the team was good enough to reach two finals.

Unlike a one off final, reaching the final takes consistent performances over two years. We could do it twice in a row (4-5 years) so the players deserve credit for that.

- We lost both finals to teams that had the chance to prepare better. NZ and Australia were in England much before than India and had games under their belt.

- What can be done to change that? Nothing, unless we take drastic measures like changing the IPL window time which is near impossible given that the calendars are forzen much in advance.

- So June remains the only time that we can play the final. Asia (heat) & NZ/Australia (cold) have extreme weather so we cannot play there.

As far as the team is concerned, a transition is inevitable but there seems to be a dearth of good players who will replace the current lot. As I said before, lot of scouting needed via the A tours in the next 1-2 years.

[NomadSK]

Match Summary - The only thing which India won in the game was the "TOSS" and everything else went for a "TOSS" !