The Cricket Thread

[kala]

Originally Posted by NPV

What's with the balancing act of mens women's matches played on the same day ?
While our women's team lost to the West Indies, West Indies men lost to Afghanistan. Similarly, earlier when the Indian women lost to Pakistan, the mens team beat Pakistan the same day!

Ah - that explains why India lost to NZ on March 15th. The women's team had beaten Bangladesh earlier on the same day !!

[harry10]

Kohli is now what Sachin was, A genius. He reminds me so much of Sachin. Shot selection, reading of the game, when to defend, when to attack, which bowler to target. The only difference is he gets too aggressive at times which is understandable considering his age and adrenaline rush. Here Dhoni works wonders to calm him down.

He may not have so many runs to show but for me this is Yuvi redeeming himself for his T20 final debacle which costed us the cup. Every match he tries to stay on wicket and create a partnership. Pakistan Match and yesterday we were in same precarious position of losing due to consistent failures of Sharma, Dhawan and Raina. His fielding has been also top class, he stopped a sure shot four runs in the Bangladesh Match which proved decisive in the end. And then his golden arm left arm bowling. He is any day a better asset to us than Raina who can only shine in Ipl.

Can't see any changes for semis or final but we need to let Dhawan go out. He doesn't have what it takes to be a good opener. Give Rahane 10 matches to prove his mettle instead and he may succeed due to his hunger. And instead of Raina give Manish Pandey 10 matches in middle order. Dhoni needs to let his favorite people go cos it's hurting the team. Kohli alone can't win us all matches.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by harry10

Can't see any changes for semis or final but we need to let Dhawan go out. He doesn't have what it takes to be a good opener. Give Rahane 10 matches to prove his mettle instead and he may succeed due to his hunger.

Can't disagree. Rahane is the most talented batsman (don't oppose me ) in India. He may not be the best in limited overs, but the number of opportunities he's got is limited.
If the selectors can give Dhawan a long rope, they surely can give Rahane opportunities. And he'll not fail.
I'm sure Kohli and Rahane are going to be the pillars of Indian batting for the next decade just like Tendulkar and Dravid.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Can't disagree. Rahane is the most talented batsman (don't oppose me ) in India. He may not be the best in limited overs, but the number of opportunities he's got is limited.
If the selectors can give Dhawan a long rope, they surely can give Rahane opportunities. And he'll not fail.

Rahane is the most talented batsman in India? Seriously? The guy is good, top of the order in ODI's. I can even play him in place of Dhawan inT20s but that's it. I have always found him to get out at crucial times and when there is a lot of pressure. He likes to hit his way out of trouble too. Kohli at this present moment is probably among the top 4 batsmen in the world (with Williamson, ABD & Root)

Whenever he has had opportunities he has not capitalized. But I will play him in place of Dhawan any day.

I am deeply disappointed with Dhawan, Rohit and Raina. It's almost come to a stage when any runs scored by them are a bonus - that's what I thought yesterday. It was an absolute blinder from Kohli that won us the game yesterday. How long can he keep doing this at a stretch is a big question. He is bound to have a bad day and then we have no one (maybe MSD) to fall back upon.

Dhawan is a disgrace to Indian batting atleast in ODIs and T20s. He is truly the flat track bully the world keeps talking about. He may produce the odd good innings but he will never be consistent and you simply cannot depend on him.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Rahane is the most talented batsman in India?

Yeah. When Kohli's weakness outside the off stump got found out (he suffered a slump for a couple of months), Rahane resurrected the most number of test innings for us. Credit to Kohli that he's simply working on every weakness and has become unstoppable.

Rahane may not have been the best limited overs batsman at the start of his career, but he's improved in the IPL over the years and become a dependable batsman.

Rahane will perform way better than Dhawan. That's all that matters.

[nkrishnap]

I am very surprised that Dhawan is getting such a long rope. Manish Pandey, Rahane are there to fill this spot and certainly score a few more runs and that too consistently. Rahane and Pandey are much fielders too. So its only a better propostion. Seems like Dhawan and Nohit (oops Rohit) have some god fathers in the selection room, they deserved to be axed sometime back itself.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Yeah. When Kohli's weakness outside the off stump got found out (he suffered a slump for a couple of months), Rahane resurrected the most number of test innings for us.

Rahane may not have been the best limited overs batsman at the start of his career, but he's improved in the IPL over the years and become a dependable batsman.

Rahane will perform way better than Dhawan. That's all that matters.

I am not comparing Rahane to Dhawan - that to me is a no-brainer. Any format, Rahane plays in place of Dhawan for me.

And you aren't you contradicting yourself when you say, Rahane has improved and is dependable in limited overs?
Yes, he has; but is he the best? Absolutely Not. For some time I had my belief that Pujara was our best Test bat, now I don't - simply because Kohli has taken his game to such a level where no Indian batsman is even close to him. He inspires the same confidence what SRT used to - and that is in itself saying alot.

[DWind]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

For some time I had my belief that Pujara was our best Test bat, now I don't - simply because Kohli has taken his game to such a level where no Indian batsman is even close to him. He inspires the same confidence what SRT used to - and that is in itself saying alot.

I think we are getting carried away by Kohli's performance in Limited overs cricket against Tests. I agree that Kohli has performed well in recent past but he is yet to conquer seaming tracks of England and New Zealand. His technique was suspect the last time we played in England but it is too early to judge if he has overcome them until we have a full fledged Test series in any of these 2 places.
Pujara might not have performed well there but his technique might hold him in good stead in these places. Currently, neither Pujara nor Kohli have performed well there. In fact the most accomplished batsman in these conditions is still Vijay.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by DWind

I think we are getting carried away by Kohli's performance in Limited overs cricket against Tests.
In fact the most accomplished batsman in these conditions is still Vijay.

Pujara has been a big let down for me. Irrespective of the scores he rakes up - he looks as if he would get out any time. He is still suspect to the incoming ball and everyone knows it. Pujara had a bad England tour too.

Agree on Kohli's part - he is still to prove himself in England specially. But now it only seems as a matter of time rather than skill. His performance in Australia (yes, true batting wickets I know) was something outlandish, specially the 4th innings century. That was among the best knocks I have seen in Tests off late.

[vamsi.kona]

Along with dhawan, Raina also needs to dropped. He is completely out of form and as he is gaining more experience it seems his ability to play short balls is becoming worse.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Yes, he has; but is he the best? Absolutely Not.

Rahane is the best replacement we have. A replacement who can play way better than the member in the XI (i.e. Shikhar Dhawan)

I'm trying the emphasize that he's extremely talented and his talent shouldn't be wasted by making him carry drinks.

Comparison to Rahane and Kohli are similar to comparison between Dravid and Sachin. Surely, both were the best players, but in difficult conditions, (with due respect) Dravid is better than Tendulkar.

Regarding Kohli playing well in NZ and England: I think he's improved a lot and he'll practice hard and eliminate his weakness. He'll surely dominate the next series in England or NZ.

[nilpat]

Win Predictor: Who will win todays match India vs NZ ?

I bet on NZ being consistent team...

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Rahane is the best replacement we have. A replacement who can play way better than the member in the XI (i.e. Shikhar Dhawan)

I'm trying the emphasize that he's extremely talented and his talent shouldn't be wasted by making him carry drinks.

Comparison to Rahane and Kohli are similar to comparison between Dravid and Sachin. Surely, both were the best players, but in difficult conditions, (with due respect) Dravid is better than Tendulkar.

Regarding Kohli playing well in NZ and England: I think he's improved a lot and he'll practice hard and eliminate his weakness. He'll surely dominate the next series in England or NZ.

In fact the most accomplished batsman in these conditions is still Vijay.

You can Rahane to the top spot to the list. He played well, batted with the lower order and held the innings when most others failed. He may not make as many centuries, but he certainly contribute with the important 80 or 90.

[carwatcher]

MSD has one good quality that he supports his players for a very good amount of time, he himself said once that we don't decide the career of the players on one or two innings.
Rayudu, Pujara, Bhuvi, etc. proved to be duds despite fully supported by MSD.
I think the difference between MSD, Kohli, Sachin, Dravid, etc. and other players is the hunger, dedication and the commitment which can be summarised in one word FITNESS.
Even Ashish Nehra is a good example of how is he performing well mainly due to his fitness.

On a side note, we all know that Cricket is a team game and on that criteria WI, ENG and NZ all deserve to win the cup more than IND, sad but true and that explains why did Sachin couldn't get many trophies for IND and MSD could.

[vamsi.kona]

Originally Posted by carwatcher

MSD has one good quality that he supports his players for a very good amount of time, he himself said once that we don't decide the career of the players on one or two innings.

This is obviously very important for a player to gain confidence and perform. Ganguly did this with the lot of Sehwag, Yuvi, Kaif, Bajji, Zaheer etc. But continuing to hold on to players despite their obvious lack of form would hurt teams performance, especially when there are better replacements.