[PPS]

Originally Posted by harry10

Barring injury this should be the order-

Rohit
Kohli
SKY
Hardik
Rinku
Another batter/all rounder
Keeper
Axar
Kuldeep/bishnoi/Jadeja
Shami/Siraj
Bumrah
.

Its unfortunate that the likes of Jaiswal & Tilak Verma or even Axar won't be able to fit into the XI looking at the way things are going since the Selectors just don't make bold calls. Below is what I feel is the team that will turn up at WT20 in June:

Rohit Sharma
Virat Kohli
SKY
KL Rahul (keeper)
Hardik Pandya
Rinku Singh
Jadeja / (Axar is the better T20 player)
Washington Sundar
Kuldeep
Siraj
Bumrah

Drop-in pitches will be used in USA, so nobody knows what to expect. KL will make a comeback as Kishan seems to have lost favour & Selectors don't seem to have enough confidence in Jitesh, though 1 of them will be in the squad. My ideal XI would be:-
Virat,Yashasvi,SKY,Tilak Verma,Hardik,Rinku,Axar,Washington,Kuldeep,Siraj,B umrah.

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

Dube is presently a better allrounder than him.

It really is a great insult to call Dube an all-rounder! His friendly military medium-pace is alright against Afghans but against half decent team he'll be royally exposed. His batting seems to have improved but he's only better off being played in these inconsequential T20s.

Originally Posted by SidTheChamp

Kohli also need to shine because Shuvman Gill, Tilak Verma and others are contender for that no.3 spot.

SKY has booked the no.3 slot since a while. He's India's best T20 batter. But I trust the Selectors to change his slot to accommodate Virat!

[NammaTBHP]

This would be my playing XI for the World Cup

1. Yashasvi Jaiswal
2. Rohit Sharma
3. Virat Kohli / Shubman Gill
4. SKY
5. Jitesh Sharma / Ishan Kishan
6. Rinku Singh
7. Hardik Pandya
8. Jadeja / Axar P
9. Kuldeep Yadav / Bishnoi
10. Bumrah
11. Arshdeep / Siraj / Shami

[am1m]

What is up with Mr.Maxwell. Third time in the recent past that he's made the news for getting injured on his personal time, off the field. For such a great athlete, he sure slips and falls a lot.

I know that top sportsmen have conditions in their contracts that prevent them from doing risky activities in their off-time. But what does a team do when their star is getting injured during the course of everyday life?!

[nagarjun]

Virat Kohli withdraws from first two Tests citing personal reasons

https://www.bcci.tv/articles/2024/ne...ional&type=men

Prayers with Virat Kohli and his family and hope its not anything major.

From a cricketing perspective, this is going to a big blow. Hope we get a proper middle order batsman as a replacement and it will be a great opportunity for someone.

[hothatchaway]

Originally Posted by nagarjun

Virat Kohli withdraws from first two Tests citing personal reasons

https://www.bcci.tv/articles/2024/ne...ional&type=men

Prayers with Virat Kohli and his family and hope its not anything major.

From a cricketing perspective, this is going to a big blow. Hope we get a proper middle order batsman as a replacement and it will be a great opportunity for someone.

This is unfortunate, hope it's nothing serious.

Have tickets to the 1st and 3rd day of the opening test and was hoping to see Kohli in full flow. The batting lineup will be much poorer without him.

[Shumi_21]

There's space for only one "anchor" batter in T20. It's also a format where higher aggressive intent, rather than higher averages yield better results. We already faced the consequences of conservatism in the previous T20 world cup by playing Rohit, KL & Kohli as our top 3. Keeping that in mind, my World Cup XI will be:

Jaiswal
Gill/Rohit/Kohli
Sky (c)
Pandya/Dube
Rinku
Jitesh (wk)
Axar
Sundar
Bishnoi/Kuldeep
Bumrah
Arshdeep/Siraj

Recency bias aside, Rohit, Kohli and Gill are not known for going from ball 1. Rohit struggles with seam/swing, while Kohli gets bogged down against spin. My pick is Gill, only because he is younger.

Dube is not in the same league as Hardik, hence only plays the "easier" opponents like USA or if Pandya is injured. The injury-proneness also results Hardik losing the captaincy to Sky.

Bishnoi/Kuldeep is a tough one. I'm picking Bishnoi only because he can bowl in the powerplay too.

Siraj can oscillate between Glenn McGrath and Ashok Dinda. Arshdeep gives a left handed option and is a more reliable death bowler. Hence, Siraj is my backup pacer.

But we will inevitably fall into the conservatism trap before the WC and our XI will look something like this:

Rohit (c)
Gill
Kohli
Sky
KL(wk)
Pandya/Dube
Rinku
Jadeja/Axar
Kuldeep/Bishnoi
Bumrah
Siraj/Arshdeep

If we want to play a sixth bowling option, it's definitely at Rinku's expense! Axar will barely get a game and KL will lose the plot in another important match.

All I can say it's going to hurt a lot less when we crash out of the T20 world cup.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by am1m

What is up with Mr.Maxwell. Third time in the recent past that he's made the news for getting injured on his personal time, off the field. For such a great athlete, he sure slips and falls a lot.

I know that top sportsmen have conditions in their contracts that prevent them from doing risky activities in their off-time. But what does a team do when their star is getting injured during the course of everyday life?!

Apparently this time it's a drinking binge gone wrong which had landed him in hospital. I don't understand how a professional international sportsman let alone a father of 2 can behave so irresponsibly on a consistent basis. Beats me.

Originally Posted by nagarjun

Virat Kohli withdraws from first two Tests citing personal reasons

https://www.bcci.tv/articles/2024/ne...ional&type=men

Prayers with Virat Kohli and his family and hope its not anything major.

From a cricketing perspective, this is going to a big blow. Hope we get a proper middle order batsman as a replacement and it will be a great opportunity for someone.

Without getting into details the speculation of a second child on the way has been doing the rounds since sometime. That's why he has missed few matches before too. Makes sense as family always come first.

This makes selection easy for management. I believe now KL and KS bharat both will play the 2 tests Kohli is missing.

[Shumi_21]

So England have announced their XI. They have chosen to play Wood as their only pacer, opting to play 2 inexperienced spinners in Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed. The English media may claim this to be Bazball's latest stunning and brave masterstroke, but in reality they have just copied Australian tactics from the last BGT series!

Australia played with Pat Cummins as their only pacer with their spinners comprising of inexperienced, tall, fire-it-in type bowlers in Murphy & Kuhnemann. England have also picked similarly tall, fire it in type spinners in Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, but their strategy falls apart on two counts, one Jack Leach doesn't have the quality of Nathan Lyon to be able to guide the inexperienced guys. Two, Cummins had Green to help, but Stokes won't be bowling.

Coming to the Indian side, Kohli's big absence means Iyer can get a chance at 4. It also presents a golden chance for Gill to show he can follow the path to being India's next batting great after Gavaskar-Tendulkar-Kohli. Excited to see Jaiswal play tests in India for the first time too.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

Rohit struggles with seam/swing,

Expect nothing of that on drop-in pitches in USA. Though ideally Rohit shouldn't even be in the Squad.

while Kohli gets bogged down against spin.

Thats why Kohli should only open the innings in a T20 game, considering his game against spinners has weakened over a period of time.

My pick is Gill, only because he is younger.

Still feel Gill's best format is ODIs!

I'm picking Bishnoi only because he can bowl in the powerplay too.

Washington Sundar seems to be adept & far more comfortable bowling in the powerplay.

[Shumi_21]

Originally Posted by PPS

Expect nothing of that on drop-in pitches in USA. Though ideally Rohit shouldn't even be in the Squad.

Thats why Kohli should only open the innings in a T20 game, considering his game against spinners has weakened over a period of time.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind anyone from Gill/Kohli/Rohit opening, as long as the other opener is Jaiswal

Gill has the talent to be a reliable all format player for us, it's about time he delivers on his promise.

Originally Posted by PPS

Washington Sundar seems to be adept & far more comfortable bowling in the powerplay.

Agreed. But it's always better to have more options for the power play, isn't it?

Meanwhile, there's another controversy over the visa delay to Pakistani origin English spinner Shoaib Bashir. Ex-England player David Lloyd has already called for the team to abandon the tour and return home. I found his position to be rather hypocritical, as Lloyd himself has publicly apologized for making racist comments against Asian origin cricketers in the past.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

Meanwhile, there's another controversy over the visa delay to Pakistani origin English spinner Shoaib Bashir. Ex-England player David Lloyd has already publicly apologized[/u][/b][/url] for making racist comments against Asian origin cricketers in the past.

As Trevor Noah says, we should have had such strict immigration laws a few.hundred years ago.

Jokes apart, is Anderson not part of the team for the entire series?

[how_you_doing]

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

Meanwhile, there's another controversy over the visa delay to Pakistani origin English spinner Shoaib Bashir. Ex-England player David Lloyd has already called for the team to abandon the tour and return home. I found his position to be rather hypocritical, as Lloyd himself has publicly apologized for making racist comments against Asian origin cricketers in the past.

He is probably just butthurt that he didn't get any commentary gig. Anyway, English players are welcome to boycott the tour, they can pay $100M to the broadcasters and BCCI when they sue them from all the money they stole from India. English players are also welcome to boycott IPL money too.

Let's not hold our breath though.

[Shumi_21]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Jokes apart, is Anderson not part of the team for the entire series?

He is part of the squad. Just didn't make the XI for this game.

Originally Posted by how_you_doing

He is probably just butthurt that he didn't get any commentary gig

A little OT, but it felt like grandstanding to cover up for their racist behaviour. Even Harsha Bhogle mentioned something similar on Ashwin's YouTube channel.

I just tuned in to the game and the first delivery I watched was a beauty from Axar to castle Bairstow. To quote Harsha again, hope Axar's relationship with the stumps continues throughout the day

Edit: Root is gone miscuing a sweep!!!

[harry10]

Highlights for me-

1. Jaiswal did Bazball better than England.

2. Stokes is a real clutch player when team needs him.

3. Axar is still underutilized by Rohit.

4. Bumrah is the best pacer for a reason. Brilliant ball to dismiss Stokes.

5. Rohit throwing wicket away after a start. Has become a pattern irrespective of format.

6. Ash was great as usual. Jaddu though expensive picked wickets.

7. Tomorrow will be great fun. Should look at 150 lead minimum.

8. Somewhere on earth watching Hartley, Bashir feeling good he didn't get Visa on time for this match.

[hothatchaway]

England just threw their wickets away, no application or even a modicum of grit to tough it out. Watching from the stands, I thought Stokes would start hitting out much sooner than he did.

Even Rohit seemed bored with the way he holed out. Liked how Jaiswal changes gears to really get into his groove; he was initially trying to strike every ball to the boundary, then started rotating the strike before really getting his timing and placement going.

India should look to bat once and then really put England under the pump