[PPS]

India-Afghanistan game was more worthy of a final! The umpiring howlers ensured it was a tight game.
Few of the key Bangladeshi players are injured so do not know what kind of a fight they'll put up, but you never know the Indian team may just relax & make the final interesting as nowadays they're just happy to compete.

[suhaas307]

As usual, India making a meal out of a fairly straight forward ODI game.

Dhawan infuriates me to know end these days!

[hemanth.anand]

No Rahul even in the finals is just heights. I hate to see BAN win but if that can take our coach RS, so be it.

6off6 and Kuldeep on strike...Match situation perfect to make Jadhav the Hero today.

[kskthere]

Again, so near yet so far, for Bangladesh. Another last over, last ball loss, in the hands of India. That's heartbreaking. But Congratulations India for winning Asian cup 2018!

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Wow, looks like another possibility for a last over finish.

Pandya and Karthik earlier. Who will it be this time? I hope we finish this off clinically (edit: in our favour!).

I told you so

Thankfully Jadhav took us across the line.

Cheerleader repeating to himself in deluded space how well we performed in England. Where is a facepalm icon when you need one

[hemanth.anand]

What is he trying to say? I don't have good IQ or he has completely lost it!

Ravi Shastri - It's a different format, but I think everyone knows how well we played in England, the scorecard really doesn't show it. This is a different format and we needed to start afresh. I liked the intensity with which we played, we were a bit flat against Hong Kong in the first match, but pulled up afterwards. The biggest plus was the fielding, game after game, we saved around 30-35 runs in these oppressive conditions. We took wickets consistently and during the middle-overs, the bowlers were outstanding, we bowled well with the new ball in tough conditions and then the spinners came to the party. Rohit was a calming influence and it showed on his captaincy. To keep his intensity going even after the start they had, showed he was really cool in every aspect of captaincy, the bowling changes he made were really good, to concede just around 100 runs in the last 30 overs, I thought it was brilliant.

Conceding 100 in the last 30 overs was brilliant but needing all of 300 legitimate deliveries to chase down 222 runs was just pathetic

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

What is he trying to say? I don't have good IQ or he has completely lost it!

Conceding 100 in the last 30 overs was brilliant but needing all of 300 legitimate deliveries to chase down 222 runs was just pathetic

Look like he is taking cue from the Government

That middle order look so fragile. The fact that we won this series is a miracle in itself. We struggled against Hong Kong, tied or rather almost lost to Afghanistan and scraped through against Bangladesh. Cheer leader is doing a good job by staying cheerful despite all of this.

[Chetan_Rao]

I was disappointed he didn't claim India are World Cup contenders based on this tournament. Come on, you have one job!

[saket77]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

I was disappointed he didn't claim India are World Cup contenders based on this tournament. Come on, you have one job!

Wait for the upcoming bilateral series.

[karanraheja]

DK dint look that fluent in any of the innings in this Asia Cup. Its necessary to have your top player at No. 3 , but to stabilise the shaky middle order i think Kohli should come to No. 4 . Rahul seems more confident to bat up the order than in the middle order.

This is the perfect Indian XI IMO .

1.Rohit 2. Dhawan 3. KL Rahul 4. Kohli 5. Rayudu 6. Dhoni 7. Jadhav/ Pandya
8. Bhuvi 9. Kuldeep 10. Chahal 11. Bumrah

[Oxy]

Originally Posted by karanraheja

This is the perfect Indian XI IMO .

1.Rohit 2. Dhawan 3. KL Rahul 4. Kohli 5. Rayudu 6. Dhoni 7. Jadhav/ Pandya
8. Bhuvi 9. Kuldeep 10. Chahal 11. Bumrah

Just replace Dhoni with Pant and Chahal with Jadeja above and we have a world cup winning team right there.

Dhoni is a massive problem, will most likely cost us the world cup single handedly.

[harry10]

Indian team for the Windies Tests:*Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.

First time sensible selection keeping in mind not to injure main test players for Australia and giving chances to the worthy.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

No Rahul even in the finals is just heights.

In Asia cup 2018, DK gets 6 games and makes a highest of 44. While KL gets just 1 game and scores 60. Why would somebody leave out KL?
There seems to be an effort to prop up 2nd camp in Indian cricket team, probably by the disentranced folks within BCCI, who want to see beyond Kohli. Rahul has identified himself as Kohli's loyal and paying the price when Kohli isn't around.

[Lij]

Originally Posted by harry10

Indian team for the Windies Tests:*Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.

First time sensible selection keeping in mind not to injure main test players for Australia and giving chances to the worthy.

Why leave out poor Karun Nair? Toured England with the team and didn't get a chance to play instead Vihari getting a nod ahead of him. And now he is left out of the squad itself.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by Oxy

Dhoni is a massive problem, will most likely cost us the world cup single handedly.

Same was said about Yuvraj before the 2011 WC, didn't turn out too well I see.

MS or no MS; no bunch of players in team can guarantee anyone winning a WC. That's just not the way team games and specially cricket works. England (probably the favourite right now) is playing a different brand of cricket right now, India is completely different.

Also where did this new found optimism for Pant arrive from? 1 innings in England in a dead rubber, when there was no pressure? And when he and KL got India in a position to win, didn't he try very hard to get out? Or, maybe he just lost his mind when there was a bit more responsibility?

If it's anyone going who might cost us a knockout game; could be QF, SF or even the Finals, it will invariably be the top order collapse, who fail in such matches. I have written this in the past and I will say this again, India's approach to ODIs has a formula based around the top 3 getting hundreds, taking it easy till 35, then go hard, this will invariably mean the middle order is under-cooked. It is a shame we have't atleast tried the English method.