Team-BHP - The Cricket Thread

As things stand, Hardik Pandya might not get a straightforward entry into the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup 2024.

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As per a report in the Indian Express, a meeting was held between India head coach Rahul Dravid, chairman of the selection committee Ajit Agarkar and captain Rohit Sharma at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai last week. In the meeting, the topic of Hardik's selection came up, with the management asserting the need for him to bowl regularly in order to be selected.

Tough luck for him, with a fragile body and handle-with care, it seems his luck is going down the drain.

Link Here

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"Are Indians right to boo Hardik Pandya, a star cricketer?" is the headline above 926 words on the subject that appeared in The Economist on Friday. "Mr Pandya's first sin was to jump ship, moving from the Gujarat Titans to the Mumbai Indians. That move earned Mr Pandya, himself a Gujarati, the ire of his home-state supporters. But as part of the lucrative deal, Mr Pandya allegedly insisted that he replace Rohit Sharma as the captain of his new side. For fans of the Mumbai Indians, that act of opportunism against their hugely successful leader was tantamount to treason."

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"Fans in lots of sports see themselves - not the officials, team owners or players - as upholders of their sport's unwritten moral code. Booing is their go-to way of signalling and punishing any transgressions."

Worth Reading

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Originally Posted by NomadSK (Post 5755108)

As things stand, Hardik Pandya might not get a straightforward entry into the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup 2024.

All these reports are baseless! Unless unfit, he'll easily walk into the XI & not necessarily on merit! The same squad/team will turn up which failed the last time so I have absolutely no hopes of Team India winning the WT20. The likes of Tilak Verma & Rinku Singh will most likely be benched throughout!

Changes similar to the ones that happened between 2007 ODI World Cup and the 2007 T20 World Cup are required.

The team at the time went from first round exit to world champions within the course of a single year! This time around, we have a much stronger team (for 50 overs) but T20 requires a much different mindset.

If Team India keeps playing T20s like RCB does, they will end up where RCB is at. The modern T20 game has changed and this IPL is showing how. The highest team total in the 15 IPLs 2023 has already been breached thrice in 31 games of IPL 2024. The highest ever total in the 2nd innings and the highest ever successful IPL chase also happened this season. Average run rate has increased from a maximum of 8.98 across the past 15 IPLs to 9.49 in this one. No total is safe. But if the team is full of (Sheet Anchor?) batsmen who score at sub 150 strike rates, it only causes wastage of precious resources (deliveries) and helps no one. This style of play barely works in ODIs now but is totally outdated for T20s.

Teams like KKR, SRH and RR are setting the template for the modern T20 game and the IPL table shows that their strategy is working. IPL has showcased enough talent this season to make a world beating India T20 team for the world cup. The question is whether the management has the guts to do the right thing. The right thing that was done back in 2007, our only T20 World Cup triumph.

I trust that Rohit Sharma can show the way towards a world cup win. But a world cup winning team cannot accommodate a Kohli in the role that he is performing for RCB or for that matter KL Rahul for LSG or Shreyas Iyer for KKR. The issue is that these are the guys most likely to make the team.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. There is no place for KL Rahul and for Shreyas Iyer in the T20 team. There can be only one solitary player who can play as the lynchpin, and that is Virat Kohli. And he can score quickly too when needed. Rest of the guys needs be those who can go all out from ball 1.

Pitches in the Windies are not expected to be as flat or one dimensional like they have been this IPL. Still, guys like Rinku Singh and Shivam Dubey have to make the playing 11. The place actually up for grabs is that of the wicketkeeper batsman, and it comes down to a returning Pant and Ishan Kishan.

Role of the senior pros Rohit, Kohli, Bumrah, Jadeja, Kuldeep and Chahal will be crucial on these pitches which are expected to turn a bit. Shami will be badly missed. I am most concerned about the fast bowling options. Apart from JB, the rest of the guys look woefully out of touch. The up and coming guys don’t seem to belong anywhere near the class of Bumrah and Shami.

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Originally Posted by sachinayak (Post 5755324)

I would think this would be the squad/playing eleven

Rohit Sharma
Yashaswi Jaiswal
Virat Kohli / Shubhman Gill
Suryakumar Yadav
Rishabh Pant
Hardik Pandya
Rinku Singh / Shivam Dube
Ravindra Jadeja / Axar Patel
Kuldeep Yadav / Yuzvendra Chahal
Arshdeep Singh
Jasprit Bumrah

Jaiswal should be in squad but as backup. Hardik has no business being in squad with his current form. Can't bowl well and his batting has gone down the drain. If he can't give 4 good overs in the middle he is of no use to the team as we have better only batters available.

Rohit and Kohli should open.
SKY at 3.
Rishabh /Samson at 4 as they both can't play lower down.
Dube at 5. He is perfect spin basher and will come handy on West Indies slow pitches.
Rinku at 6 as a finisher.
Axar at 7. Jadeja has been useless in t20 way too long and Axar has done much better.
Kuldeep at 8.
Bumrah + 2 pacers. Whoever is in form and can bowl in PP and death.
I believe Mohit Sharma should play. His slow bouncers and knuckle balls will be of great use on West Indies pitches.

Avesh and Arshdeep still can't bowl well at death. So that remains a big issue. Let's see if things get better by 30th April.

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Originally Posted by Eddy (Post 5755418)

Not that I have an alternate solution, but Axar at 7 and Kuldeep at 8 is a very thin batting order.

Again, someone from the top will have to "anchor" and they won't play with any kind of freedom.

Things are not looking good, friends. But we all thought it was doomsday when Hardik got injured during the WC and look at how that turned out!

Windies pitches aren't 250 types. A score of 180 is usually good enough there. So, we can afford a little anchoring if needed.

If our top 7 won't do the job then no.8 and below won't matter much. Just need to sort out best 5 bowling options. We can even play Jadeja and Axar both sacrificing 1 pacer. Strengthens batting and Windies pitches can assist spin too. 2 pacers and 3 spinners can work if needed.

Another option can be Shardul Thakur. He is bowling decently and can hit a few with bat when needed.

I think we should do a 2007 kind of team again. Drop both Kohli and Rohit. Or even better if they can both opt out just like Sachin and Dravid did in 2007. They have had their chances and could not win it. Send a team under Bumrah with SKY as vice-captain and all these IPL finds. That way, we will be able to accommodate everyone from Jaiswal, Gill, Rinku, Dube and one among Sanju/Pant. I think Ishan should not get a chance this World Cup for all his antics before the IPL. T20 needs a brand of fearless cricket and these youngsters are the best bet for that kind of attitude. We don't need any anchors. Anchors are not the ones who won us the 2007 cup. It was fearless cricket from Gambhir,Sehwag,Yuvraj and Dhoni. There were no anchors in that team.

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Originally Posted by padmrajravi (Post 5755642)

Unfortunately, I don't think that maybe possible at all. Rohit has been declared the captain already and going by the number of runs both him and Kohli have made in the IPL recently, it would be a tough call. Even if we consider that their presence hasn't had the desired effect in the past, the form matters, and both of them look to be in good form at present if we consider the IPL.

As per many pundits and critics online coming up with their own teams, the question remains about the all-rounder in specific. If you have Dube, he may not bowl but he scores so well that you end up not needing that couple of overs from the extra bowler at all.

Also, having Jadeja/Axar gives us a very quick over-rate along with low economy which can be helpful.

Rohit and Virat surely can play fearless cricket as well along with the anchor role, we have seen that, Rohit most recently vs Afghanistan in the 3rd T20 which was basically a one-man show and Virat's innings from the last t20 world cup.

Of course, one must not select them on basis of 2-3 matches being good in a pool of 10, but the problem is our team has that fear of bundling up really early in the game (for example yesterday's GT innings vs DC) if there's nobody to stay back and put up that defendable score (the 2021 t20 WC match against Pakistan where we ended up scoring around 150 odd runs).

Since No way we can leave out Kohli and Rohit though everyone wants to, I think below can be a team. Pandya and Dube share 4 overs between them. This gives us balance and hitters in Dube and Rinku with still Jadeja to come.

Kohli
Rohit
Samson/Pant
SKY
Pandya
Dube
Rinku
Jadeja/Axar
Kuldeep/Chahal
Bumrah
Siraj

15th Player - Arshdeep Singh

Team we should actually have

Ishan
Jaiswal
Riyan Parag/Samson
SKY
Rishab Pant
Rinku Singh
Shivam Dube/Hardik Pandya
Axar Patel
Jadeja
Bumrah
Mayank Yadav

Substitute

Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep

Squad Announced.

The Cricket Thread-whatsapp-image-20240430-3.46.15-pm.jpeg

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Originally Posted by AtheK (Post 5755951)

So I did choose the team pretty accurately, except I picked Rinku Singh instead of Jaiswal.

So Now the team is announced, should this be playing 11?

Rohit
Jaiswal
Kohli
SKY
Pant
Dube
Pandya
Jadeja
Kuldeep Yadav
Bumrah
Siraj

Or would they be tempted to replace Yadav with Patel to bat till number 9.