Team-BHP - The Cricket Thread

Press conference after the fourth test loss:

Kohli's Statement - "A series is not always defined by the scorecard".

Shastri's Statement - "No other Indian team in the last 15-20 years has had the same run as this one".

Dear Kohli, are you now going to repeat Dhoni's words that the process is more important than the results? This is a typical government babu attitude - sign your attendance and take your salary. Who cares about results?

And Shastri, please stop lying through your teeth. We won in WI, England, NZ and drew in Australia and SA in the last 15-20 years. How are this bunch performing better?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oxy (Post 4456766)

Press conference after the fourth test loss:

Shastri's Statement - "No other Indian team in the last 15-20 years has had the same run as this one".

And Shastri, please stop lying through your teeth. We won in WI, England, NZ and drew in Australia and SA in the last 15-20 years. How are this bunch performing better?

But you see Shastri is correct. As a team we didn't experience such insipid and cowardly displays on a continous basis over the last 15 years or so. There might have been collapses but never this consistent. And with regards to dependency on a single batsman, I doubt our batsmen performed this poorly even during the 90's when the team was heavily dependent on Sachin.

If we had such a good pace attack during the years of dravid, sehwag, laxman and of course tendulkar, we might have been amogst amogst the most dominant sides across the globe. Given the way our current crop are playing spin, I dread to think how they would have fared against Warne, Murali and Saqulain on spinning tracks. Probably the innings would have been shorter than T20.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oxy (Post 4456766)

Press conference after the fourth test loss:

The statements are comical to say the least & the English team must be having a hearty laugh about it.:uncontrol I do not know if they actually mean it when they say such things or its only to keep the spirits high in the dressing room.:)

This team, highlights yet again, how it is every-man-for-himself. Stick it out as long as it is easy but when the team needs you to dig in and apply, you'd rather be back in the dressing room. Barring the fast bowlers who bowled their hearts out and sporadic displays by Puraja and Rahane, Kohli seems to be the only guy who really tried/wanted to win. Barely any resolve as a team to win the Test(s).

This should have been 3-1 in India's favor.

Oh, and the arrogance after winning the 3rd test. clap:

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Originally Posted by vamsi.kona (Post 4456783)

But you see Shastri is correct.

Mr. Shastri's mind was on a certain Ms. Kaur considering the intense media reports this week. So, give the man a break. :D

Instead of calling Shastri a coach, he should be officially called Kohli's personal cheerleader. Imagine the kind of players we had before, men of guts and who could fight - Dravid, Laxman or mavericks like Sehwag and Sachin, compare that to flat track bullies like Dhawan, Rahul, Pujara. Whenever its time to fight, they pack up and leave. Even Ishant Sharma seems to put a bigger tag on his wicket than these jokers.

Yes Pujara had one good innings - kudos to him, however, I don't think I'll forget all his failures. I don't care about the loss so much as to the process really. The Management keeps saying that the process will take care of the result - but the process is wrong. We consistently choose players who bash the ball in hopes of making a Test player out of them, instead on investing time in players who have technique to handle themselves in all conditions. That is called a process, this what we do now is just hope.

Gavaskar has also (surprisingly for me) spoken against Shastri's statement of this being the best Indian team in 15-20 years.

The biggest problem is they selected players for the wrong games. For the first match, Pujara was left out; we lost by 30 odd runs. For the second match, Kuldeep was picked on a pitch where the pacers made merry. In the third, we got away with Pandya having a good spell. In the fourth match, they picked Pandya and Ashwin; it should have been Kuldeep and Jadeja. What is Karun Nair doing in the team? If Pandya walks in at no 6, the opposition already feels they are doing well. No wonder we lost in 2 relatively small chases; a classic case of what could have been. Unfortunately this has been the story for us ever since the 2014 losses in Australia/ England. The player who is sitting out of the match suddenly becomes the best player in the team; till he plays and of course end up proving everyone wrong. I think it was Rohit Sharma being spoken about when Dravid was failing there.

And what about letting them off from 86/6 in 2 test matches? Does the bowling coach have no answer for Sam Curran? We lost this match on the day when he dragged England out from there to 240 odd.

The team has the same number of problems as when they toured England in 2014. One good batsman performing well (Dravid then, Kohli now); couple of pacers doing well and everyone else just not turning up.

I think the BCCI has to have specialist players for all three formats. The board needs to look after these players when they are not playing cricket. You can't expect a team to win under the cloudy conditions of England by just playing one practice match, that too curtailed ones.

It is no secret that touring teams struggle in alien conditions, but the way IPL has brought player from all the continents to India, I shall not be surprised to see the Indian team losing matches even in the sub-continent. GTO's one of the signature read, "Retrospect is always genius and its foresight that counts". It's high time the Team India think tank used this principal to bring the best for the country.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vibbs (Post 4457369)

Is Hanuma Vihari an all rounder?
If not, why is he in the team and not Karun Nair? The guy was not even in the squad for initial 3 matches!!

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Originally Posted by hemanth.anand (Post 4457378)

Karun Nair deserved a place too IMO

Gavaskar's comments on Sony Six quoted in espncricinfo:

Quote:

Sunil Gavaskar is fuming on Sony Six. "He is not your favourite player. The selectors seem to have brought him. Don't think the team management likes him. Karun Nair has every right to ask the team management why he is not in the team. He deserves an answer. You didn't pick an extra specialist batsman earlier, but now that you have, Karun Nair deserves an answer."

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Originally Posted by selfdrive (Post 4457136)

What is Karun Nair doing in the team?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AltoLXI (Post 4457382)

Gavaskar's comments on Sony Six quoted in espncricinfo:

From what i can make of it, Karun Nair is only part of the squad because he has a central contract with BCCI ! I do not why he's given a contract in the 1st place, maybe because of that triple hundred some years back. Even in the recent 'A' games, Nair wasn't exactly in cracking form either. Someone like Mayank Agarwal who is in red hot form hasn't even been considered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MDED (Post 4457151)

I shall not be surprised to see the Indian team losing matches even in the sub-continent.

This will happen more frequently once home series resume after a year or so.

It looks like our cheerleader is looking to make an out of the blue pick to show what a great motivator he is.
Considering Karun Nair has been in the original team and has previous test match experience, he should have been picked. If he was good enough to be the backup batsman, he should be good enough to be picked in the first XI