[Aakash118]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

He will go down as the worst coach in the Indian cricket history,

Very well said, don’t know why he was picked as coach. He simply doesn’t have that knowledge or vision to be successful. I remember just after becoming the coach, he was mocking MS’s concept of ‘process should be right, results will follow’ by saying that he doesn’t believe in anything such as process.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

He will go down as the worst coach in the Indian cricket history,

I'm surprised people had any expectations from Gambhir in the first place! For the reasons you have already mentioned especially about the Chandrakant Pandit bit at KKR. Gambhir has hardly shown any tactical brilliance or anything remotely close to it in his short stint as Coach. I faintly remember his best move was to open with Narine in the IPL which paid off on many occasions. I feel in T20s he will back youngsters which can be the only silver lining that I can see. Earlier there used to be a Committee setup of distinguished cricketers to select a Coach (probably when SC was running BCCI), they had to give presentation & stuff and now you suddenly have ad-hoc appointments. This all leaking of stories started when Ganguly became the President. And now we have a horrible PR juggernaut unleashed by Rohit Sharma along with his journalist friend & its bound to get even worse from hereon.

[NomadSK]

So the only deadwood Aussies had, is going to be pruned !!

Mitch Marsh has been dropped for the fifth Test against India at the SCG, with Tasmanian all-rounder Beau Webster set to make his debut in Sydney.

When it will be the turn for shameless Indian stars.

[padmrajravi]

At this point, it is almost certain that India will field the same eleven for Sydney test as well. At best they will drop one of the pacers. Rohith and Kohli certainly will play. I am afraid Australia will prepare an absolute batting wicket going for a draw and the two clowns will score some runs in the match helping them extend their run.

For the best of Indian cricket going forward, I hope Cummins go for the kill, beat us 3-1 and there by help us cleanse the team of the freeloaders. This year's WTC is gone, at least we will have a fresh start to WTC next year under Bumrah.

As of now, Cummins is the best captain in world cricket. Bumrah can give him serious competition. They match each other skill to skill. if Bumrah becomes Indian captain, next year WTC will be a treat to watch.

[Eddy]

Akashdeep is injured so he wont play - that is confirmed.

Reports are Pant will be dropped because of "irresponsible batting". I fail to understand this. We have gone bonkers!

[whencut86]

Drop Kohli and Drop Rohit. Need to play Jurel/Padikkal/Gill instead of them. Just for the sake of retirement if Rohit wants to play one more test, there is no point in that with a possible attempt at atleast drawing the series. Kohli irrespective of the Perth hundred is done and dusted. He is no longer able to extract the team out of dire situations like earlier. The likes of Kohli and Rohit have become bigger than the game and BCCI has done nothing to sort out this mess. Can't simply blame Gambhir for this since a coach has lesser power than captain as we have seen how Kohli got Kumble dismissed as a coach by directly talking to the BCCI top brass.

Rohit Sharma has lost his mojo and the art of setting up an innings. In the hindsight, I now understand the way he batted in the ODI WC with all starts but no big innings. Kohli can't play spin nor swing in English conditions nor can stop chasing balls outside offside early on. His focus on pure fitness is not helping either when earlier stalwarts focused on refining their techniques in their mid 30s. But the PR teams of both these players claim as if they are doing yeoman's service to Indian cricket. High time BCCI asked them to sit out of Sydney test and make young folks play. If Jurel or Padikkal we can still take it and they get a chance to face Aus conditions.

Not drawing parallels with Sachin but technique wise Sachin was super sorted even in his late 30s with constant adjustments and refinements to his technique. Lesser bat swing, usage of bowler's pace more for boundaries, paddle sweep to counter spinners and get an easier boundary during spin.

This is not a series we should have lost like this. Aus bowlers are all in late 30s and not at the peak of fitness. Aus batting is even worse compared to Indian line-up. If only we had made the right team selection in this series, we would have been 1-1 still or 2-1 after MCG. We were fighting till the last session on the last day and 30 minutes of madness undid our effort else we would have settled for a draw even with this pathetic team selection.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Reports are Pant will be dropped because of "irresponsible batting". I fail to understand this. We have gone bonkers!

If Pant is already nursing captaincy aspirations that are probably impacting his game then this is indeed a good decision, no one deserves to take their place in the team for granted.

Pant plays his “natural” game and others have now followed suit (or use this as the excuse for not performing). Heck, ultimately this is a team sport and if players are playing their natural game as individuals, the team is suffering and we can see that happening

The art of saving a test, intent to stay at the crease to frustrate and blunt the opposition bowling seem to be completely lost with this Indian test team, had we played out another 10 more overs we could have saved the Melbourne Test! We need to play according to the situation in Tests and if this is what Gambhir is trying to bring in, I’m all for it.

[NomadSK]

So the cookie is crumbling. "Vinashkale vipreet buddhi", so they will axe Akashdeep (on some fake injury) and Pant for some stupid batting when all that was required to calm him down and give him a teardown. Can someone injure Sharmaji too with a beamer, done with his "gully" cricket and the banter he throws on the field.

“If one goes by the team sheets that the team management has released in the last four Test tours, there are players missing out from featuring in the 15 when they were initially picked as the top 15 players to travel to Australia. It clearly shows there’s a lack of clarity between the selectors and the team management."

It must be noted that the selectors gave in to Gambhir’s demand of picking Harshit Rana despite his lack of first-class experience. Merit over nostalgia should be the mantra for picking up the team.

Link

Originally Posted by whencut86

Aus batting is even worse compared to Indian line-up. If only we had made the right team selection in this series, we would have been 1-1 still or 2-1 after MCG. We were fighting till the last session on the last day and 30 minutes of madness undid our effort else we would have settled for a draw even with this pathetic team selection.

I see it with a different eye. Yes their batting looks worst on paper, but their application on the field has been top class. And that's what is required in test cricket, ask Lyon in the last test. We would have been 4-0 by now, if not Bumrah's bowling mixed with incredible captaincy to declare the innings at the right juncture and 3rd test rain interventions. Our cricketing gods were celebrating saving follow on, shows the character/mindset of the unit, I mean what more embarrassing can happen to this team !!

[NomadSK]

It looks like Bumrah would lead the 5th test at SCG. Waiting to see on what reasons, that would be interesting to know. Shows the cracks in the unit.

A captain should be a role model, in either batting, bowling, fielding or managing the team, he's been a debacle on all front. So will GG & Agarkar seek apology from Indian fans to get him on board in the first place, if he’s dropped, speculations till now. They should have simply let him enjoy his time with the new born kid.

Meanwhile this happens when grounded humans play cricket without any chaotic fanfare and godly figures fail to do so.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Reports are Pant will be dropped because of "irresponsible batting". I fail to understand this. We have gone bonkers!

I would be very surprised if Pant is dropped! Though he deserves a demotion to n.6 or 7.

Originally Posted by whencut86

This is not a series we should have lost like this.

I don't think anybody really expected India to win this series, especially after what happened against NZ at home! Yes, some hopes were raised after the Perth Test. But it would have been a great effort just to draw this series, which looks bleak at the moment.

Meanwhile, Gambhir during his presser stated that if someone asked him 45 days back if India would be 1-2 down going into Sydney Test , he'd be happy to be in that position! He's changed his earlier stance of playing to win & being a team which can score 400 in a day & bat out 2 days to save a Test!

[It's Magic]

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

At this point, it is almost certain that India will field the same eleven for Sydney test as well. At best they will drop one of the pacers. Rohith and Kohli certainly will play.

According to the news, not just the current series but most likely they will continue until the Champions Trophy before any decision is made. If in the next match or one of the Champions Trophy matches, both of them perform well, it would certainly extend their run. People will forget everything and support them.

Originally Posted by Eddy

Reports are Pant will be dropped because of "irresponsible batting". I fail to understand this. We have gone bonkers!

It's a good decision, but what about the others? In the last match, we had to survive just one session and had 7 wickets in hand. Pant got out due to his 'irresponsible batting,' but what happened with the others? When Pant got out, we still had 6 wickets in hand. At least Pant and Jaiswal played the entire session, which none of the other batters could do. I guess we can't single out Pant as being responsible since he got out in the last session.

[NomadSK]

As posted earlier, its confirmed, Rohit Sharma has been dropped from the SCG test ! What a sigh of relief. Who else is getting axed, pls Kohli also.

And if Pant is dropped, it will confirm GG has no cricketing acumen and no clue about how to manage the team. Dropping him won't be a bold step, it will be just "stupid" in Gavaskar's words.

Link

[Bhargav7]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

As posted earlier, its confirmed, Rohit Sharma has been dropped from the SCG test ! What a sigh of relief. Who else is getting axed, pls Kohli also.

As it appears, Gill for Rohit is the only change. The other forced change being Akashdeep sitting out because of injury. Prasidh or Harshit will take his place instead.

Kohli, is on borrowed time with his 100*. Probably his last chance to end on a high(?)

[Vinod_nair]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

As posted earlier, its confirmed, Rohit Sharma has been dropped from the SCG test ! What a sigh of relief. Who else is getting axed, pls Kohli also.

And if Pant is dropped, it will confirm GG has no cricketing acumen and no clue about how to manage the team. Dropping him won't be a bold step, it will be just "stupid" in Gavaskar's words.

Link

Very good news, the only other dropout will be Akash due to injury.

Without the monkey on his back, Kohli should perform inshaallah. Bumrah will have his way.

[ike]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

GG brings in players and staff which he thinks are deserving and not the ones who have toiled hard for years and years in different format of games and have shown their mettle over a period of time. Ryan parag, Nitish Rana, Navdeep Saini, his former Kolkata Knight Riders mates, Ryan Ten Doeschate and Abhishek Nayar, NKR, Harshit Rana and probably many more.

I believe it is reasonable to let the head coach recruit his own support staff, else we may end up having divisions within the coaching staff itself. And Jonty Rhodes might have been a good option as fielding coach too.

However, I don't like the idea of GG as head coach and may well go down as one of the worst as you pointed out. Headstrong characters like Chappell and GG will find the going tough in Indian cricket. Both are uncannily similar in their nature I feel, with them coming in and trying to change everything overnight and rubbing the players (especially the senior players) in the wrong way. Both Chappell and GG are very hostile to the media as well(or is it the media that is hostile to them?). Contrast this with the successful coaches we have had like John Wright, Kirsten or Dravid. All of them got along reasonably well with the players, kept a low profile with the media and eased their way into the position rather than come out guns blazing on the first day.

I'm also not sure how much of a say a coach should have in matters of selection. While Reddy and Rana are believed to have been selected due to GG's interference they have fortunately turned out reasonably well. However, the coach's mandate is to work with the squad that he's been given, not select the team. If the coach is allowed to be a selector as well(not saying the coach's input shouldn't be considered at all), that makes him disproportionately powerful.