[RMN]

Originally Posted by redCherry

Or may be the reason for resting Bumrah could be, it indirectly indicates that the pitch at Ranchi will turn right from day 1

tbh, even on rank turners Burmah seems to still be the best Indian bowler

[Shumi_21]

Originally Posted by redCherry

Or may be the reason for resting Bumrah could be, it indirectly indicates that the pitch at Ranchi will turn right from day 1, and there will be limited role for (or no need of) fast bowlers

I don't think India will move away from a 2 seamer tactic. Bumrah is irreplaceable, but Akash Deep has done well in Ranji and the recent India A games against England Lions. He's taller, quicker than Mukesh, can seam the ball both ways and can bat okay too. Backing him to partner Siraj in Ranchi. Also backing Patidar to come good.

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

Don't make rank turners

Come on man, don't you want some variety in the English whinging? They've already moaned about Visa & DRS, for a change let them cry about the pitch.

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

Rank tuners hurt India more than Eng.)

Sheesh. I'm begrudgingly going to agree here. Historically our batters have buried the opposition under a mountain of runs on raging turners, but for the current inexperienced batting line up, pitches that are flat-adjacent make more sense.

[harry10]

Well, here are the Pitch pics from both sides posted in Redditt.
Make what you can by the look of it.
England is playing 2 pacers.
Siraj is a given, i believe India may opt for 2 pacers too. I hope Akashdeep gets a debut as we already know what Mukesh does.

God gifted chance for Rajat again. He can't mess it up this time if he has aspirations of playing red ball for India.

I was expecting Anderson to be rested. Looks like England knows they can't risk losing the series here. Baffled by Rehan drop. He was making more runs than many batters and his leg spin offered variety. Bashir as we saw wasnt good enough as an off spinner. Maybe they don't want Root to bowl much this time and concentrate on his batting.

[PPS]

I wonder what action BCCI will take against Shreyas Iyer now. If BCCI is serious about its diktat then ideally some disciplinary action should be taken. I feel he deserves a demotion in the Central Contract List. Iyer knows there's no chance of him making a comeback in the Test Squad so its best to wait for IPL. Same applies for Ishan Kishan.

https://indianexpress.com/article/sp...-pain-9174141/

Shreyas Iyer informed the Mumbai Cricket Association that he was not available for selection for the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals due to back pain. Nitin Patel, the head of sports science and medicine at the National Cricket Academy, in an email to selectors, confirmed that there was ‘no fresh injury’ reports and he was ‘fit’.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by PPS

I wonder what action BCCI will take against Shreyas Iyer now. If BCCI is serious about its diktat then ideally some disciplinary action should be taken.

Irrespective of Iyer's actual condition, I would take the fitness expert's certificate with a truck load of salt. Wasn't he one of the support staff who couldn't see Yuvraj's discomfort in the whole of 2011 World Cup for what it actually was?

NCA is lately looking like a field hospital in the midst of a battlefield. Its only goal seems to sort the apparent niggles and throw the wounded folks back into the heat of the game. Holistic health - tata bye bye!!!

Is there one recent instance when a player has had a long stay at NCA to come back afresh for the battle? That repeat injuries are being seen ever so frequently is proof enough of the tardiness of these folks.

[Revvatron]

Originally Posted by PPS

Iyer knows there's no chance of him making a comeback in the Test Squad so its best to wait for IPL. Same applies for Ishan Kishan.

https://indianexpress.com/article/sp...-pain-9174141/

I wonder if there is any interest from both of them to play tests. I think we are slowly moving into the phase were Indian players will also go down the route other nation's players are taking. They know once IPL rolls in everyone will forget about this. And they might be trying to prolong their careers in white ball since that's where the money is. There is no incentive for them to worry about tests.

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Irrespective of Iyer's actual condition, I would take the fitness expert's certificate with a truck load of salt. Wasn't he one of the support staff who couldn't see Yuvraj's discomfort in the whole of 2011 World Cup for what it actually was?

NCA is lately looking like a field hospital in the midst of a battlefield. Its only goal seems to sort the apparent niggles and throw the wounded folks back into the heat of the game. Holistic health - tata bye bye!!!

Is there one recent instance when a player has had a long stay at NCA to come back afresh for the battle? That repeat injuries are being seen ever so frequently is proof enough of the tardiness of these folks.

Every injured player goes through NCA. The problem is what happens after that. Added to that the type of batting that lacks timing but uses lot of power. Especially during IPL. Jaiswal, after the fours and sixes had back issues in the last test.

It all looks little un-natural for players to be playing outside of their physical strengths.

Did Sachin or Dravid have any issues ? Did Kapil have any ? They did what they were good at from the beginning to end. They didn't have ripping muscles. Fitness seems something different for the current players.

[hothatchaway]

What a fairy tale start by Akash Deep. Finding his rhythm right from the get go, he consistently hit the back of the length and got the ball to seam into the right hander and away from Duckett. When he sent Crawley's off stump cartwheeling, it was stuff dreams are made of, only to be pulled up by the umpire for overstepping. He did not let that deter him as he kept hitting that length consistently clocking 140+ He was finally rewarded when coming around the wicket with the ball angling in, he got the ball to hold its line and Duckett nicked it behind. Next to go was Pope, also thanks to a brave DRS call by Rohit. Akash Deep had the last laugh with Crawley as got him out to in identical fashion with the ball seaming in a long way from back of length.

Son of a schoolteacher from Sasaram in Bihar, Akash's is a rags to riches story. He lost his father and elder brother almost at the same time and moved to Bengal, to pursue his cricketing dreams. It was on the maidans of Kolkata that his talent was spotted and nurtured. He is one of those who did not play any grade cricket (U16/19 etc) and made it to the Bengal Ranji side via the Vision 2020 program. He has been impressive on the domestic circuit for a while now and his exploits against the English A side, where he had the left handers in trouble, earned him a call up.

Am personally delighted to see another paceman from Bengal donning national colours. Incidentally, Shami's younger brother, Mohd Kaif is also making waves on the domestic circuit turning out for Bengal. I have seen him bowl and he looks a carbon copy of his elder brother. He even bats a bit.

[rx100]

Great test career start from Akash Deep. 3 wickets on debut and counting. In fact, cleaned up Crawly twice, but unfortunately first one was a no ball.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

Did Sachin or Dravid have any issues ? Did Kapil have any ? They did what they were good at from the beginning to end. They didn't have ripping muscles. Fitness seems something different for the current players.

Sachin had a lot of issues throughout his career. I believe he had a severe case of tennis elbow for a long time. And while it is true the overall focus on fitness and this level of fitness focused training wasn't there earlier, the best players always focused on their personal fitness. The Australian team showed the rest of the cricket world the gains to be made by focusing on fitness apart from cricketing skill, for the whole team, and so now all teams do it. Exceptional players like Virat take it to the next level as well.

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by am1m

Sachin had a lot of issues throughout his career. I believe he had a severe case of tennis elbow for a long time. And while it is true the overall focus on fitness and this level of fitness focused training wasn't there earlier, the best players always focused on their personal fitness. The Australian team showed the rest of the cricket world the gains to be made by focusing on fitness apart from cricketing skill, for the whole team, and so now all teams do it. Exceptional players like Virat take it to the next level as well.

Sachin had tennis elbow due to the heavier bat he used. If you look at back, legs, none of them had such issues. Players are losing flexibility doing the weights. Ideally doing advanced yoga, running a lot and eating well is all that is needed for batsmen

[am1m]

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

If you look at back, legs, none of them had such issues. Players are losing flexibility doing the weights.

Both are factually incorrect. There are enough news results on Google for all the various injuries Tendulkar has had. And he was among the fitter cricketers.

Weight training is an essential part of any modern sport. The way modern cricketers think about fitness has moved on a long way from the 90s and early 2000s...and necessarily so. Also because of the sheer amount of cricket they play these days.

[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

Sachin had tennis elbow due to the heavier bat he used. If you look at back, legs, none of them had such issues. Players are losing flexibility doing the weights. Ideally doing advanced yoga, running a lot and eating well is all that is needed for batsmen

Apologies to be pointing out. Sachin did have quite a few back issues as well - check India's loss to Pak at Chennai wherein he waged a lone battle. (a big Sachin fan here).

In fact, right from toe to elbow, he had practically all issues. almost all bowlers from Waqar to Wasim to Dennis Lillee to Jeff Thompson have all been beleaguered by injuries. Just in case you say we are only discussing batsmen, there's an equally illustrious list. Which, in my opinion, is absolutely justifiable due to the nature of the sport and the number of matches we play. There are very few sportsmen who have not had any major injury, that is the nature of professional/ competitive sport.

The above generalisation regarding losing flexibility due to weights is as untrue as it gets and probably points to improper knowledge regarding methods of lifting weights. Strength training is mandatory especially as you enter the thirties. Just in case you want to talk flexibility, look at swimmers/ divers and squash/ tennis players. Their requirements for flexibility are far more than the cricketers and yet, strength training/ weight training is inescapable. It is exactly the above generalisation that puts off people from utilising strength training and the Gym effectively (for something more than Bicep curls)

Yoga/ Stretching and recovery are absolutely mandatory and need to be used in coordination with wight training. Neither can substitute the other. One only needs to look at Saurav Ghosal to see his fitness despite the advancing years, no rippled muscles at all, he's as lithe as a cat.
P.S. -

1. I would know, having been an active competitive player in each of these for quite a while now.
   
2. While one often gives the example of Kapil Dev for his fitness (and rightly so), he never had such a packed calendar/ formats etc. The demands of the game were much lighter those days. Besides, credit where it is due, having seen Kapil on the golf course, the guy is strong as a bull, even to this day - a natural athlete.
   
3. Pardon me, not meaning to sound disrespectful at all, but your solution of 'advanced' Yoga, running a lot and eating well is sounding very similar to what one player complained about Kapil Dev's coaching stint - when I go and ask the coach how to face up to an incoming delivery, all I got was "josh ke sath khelo"

[am1m]

Originally Posted by handsofsteel

Pardon me, not meaning to sound disrespectful at all, but your solution of 'advanced' Yoga, running a lot and eating well is sounding very similar to what one player complained about Kapil Dev's coaching stint - when I go and ask the coach how to face up to an incoming delivery, all I got was "josh ke sath khelo"

Don't be sorry, this is the sorry state of coaching at most levels. I get to watch national junior athletes at another sport practice in the same area I go for a run and I know a few of them. The coaches are nice guys, but stuck in the 90s. Repeat the same thing till you perfect it, and the same set of floor exercises. "Play through the pain".

Their peers in the same sport from other Asian nations are focused on nutrition, weight training, proper rehab, sports psychology, etc. And they outclass our athletes at every international meet. There is no difference in physical attributes or motivation, just scientific training.

Thankfully, with the amount of money cricket brings in, better facilities and methods are being adopted, even at the junior levels.

[rx100]

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

Ideally doing advanced yoga, running a lot and eating well is all that is needed for batsmen

I really hope this is a sarcastic post.