[redCherry]

Someone wake up Kohli from coma....please

1. Best offspinner of the world warming up the bench while a spin-bowling all-rounder playing in his place who is neither an effective bowler nor a capable batsmen in these conditions. Ashwin would have been far better bowler here and probably wouldn't have done any worse in batting, comparatively speaking.

2. After put in to bat in this test, Kohli says he too would have preferred to bowl first, which means batting would'nt be easy. That means extra batsmen is needed in the team, but you choose to go with 5 bowlers again, despite the middle order being in dire straits since long time

3. No changes made to the middle order, but you send a bowling allrounder ahead of Rahane to bat, that too when it's 3 down for 39 , and in such seaming conditions

4. And Rishabh, oh dear! He's a walking wicket for the slip cordon for balls going across him and pitched on or outside off stump.
He's either a daredevil to try bat like that or he's completely out of ideas how to cope with this kind of bowling, irrespective of the team position. To me it looks like the latter, he doesn't seem to know what to do.
And nobody wants to talk to him, even when he's trying to bat like a millionaire, even when the team is in dire straits.

[SoumenD]

Ashwin's wife Prithi Narayan's tweet

Link

[redCherry]

Another Interesting news article on Ashwin not playing this test -

https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion...n-1026516.html

[whencut86]

Originally Posted by redCherry

Someone wake up Kohli from coma....please

1. Best offspinner of the world warming up the bench while a spin-bowling all-rounder playing in his place who is neither an effective bowler nor a capable batsmen in these conditions. Ashwin would have been far better bowler here and probably wouldn't have done any worse in batting, comparatively speaking.

4. And Rishabh, oh dear! He's a walking wicket for the slip cordon for balls going across him and pitched on or outside off stump.

Have a different perspective here which not many will like. As long as Indian top 5 Indian batsmen don't contribute big, Ashwin will most likely not find place in this team. In these conditions, people like Jadeja, Shardul and Pant can score quickly and turn the game on its head. Jadeja and Shardul have better contributions with the bat compared to Ashwin. Ashwin has only one Sydney test match saving knock to his credit. If our top 5 are in fluent form, then we can include Ashwin in place of Jadeja and go with 4 seamers. But the management is right in this case in not picking Ashwin purely because of our batting woes.

Ashwin is India's best spinner no doubt, but he is nowhere in the leagues of Warne or Muralitharan. Warne and Muralitharan have way too many 5 wickets per innings and 10 wickets per match in away tests. Compare that to Ashwin's record and you can see he has mostly 2 or 3 wickets innings in away tests. To be a champion team, we will need Ashwin in the leagues of Warne and Murali but sadly he is not there yet partly to due to himself, partly due to luck and team selection.

We should have gone with 4 or 5 seamers in the WTC final. When the first day got washed away by rain, the thought process should have been 5 seamers. If we had 5 seamers in WTC final, we could have had a lead of 30 odd runs in the first innings and gone on to draw the test even with our poor batting in the second innings. The NZ tail had a blast against Ashwin and Jadeja scoring runs quickly and getting a lead. With 5 seamers we could have cleaned up the tail with yorkers and short pitch stuff. So conditions dictate team selection and in England where rain, cloud play a part in the outcome we need to pick our team based on the forecast as well.

Can't expect Pant to always rescue us when our top order doesn't put a price to their wickets. He has contributed to more Indian wins of late than any other top order batsmen in this current Indian team. He deserves an extended stay for this and his much improved keeping.

Our management/BCCI needs to have a good hard talk to the top order batsmen. Time to ask them to pack up and give way for youngsters if they don't perform. This includes everyone from Rohit, Rahul, Kohli, Rahane and Pujara. Atleast Pujara played a part in us winning the Aus series. The rest contribute in one test every series and cling on to their positions based on just one knock. Kohli needs to work on him chasing away deliveries and not putting a price to his wicket. If Kohli as the top batsmen in the team can't contribute in away wins, Kohli the captain is always going to look like a loud-mouthed, boorish and overtly aggressive guy.

[NPV]

This match is running away very quickly (it was already an uphill task after a < 200 first innings), but there was some hope when England were at 65/5. After that, runs have come thick and fast with several boundaries from Pope and Bairstow, they've already gone to 139/5.

[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

Today’s play shows what happens when the Captain of the team thinks more of himself and his ego than the team he is representing. It doesn’t help that the coach is the cocky Shastri who feeds off Kohli’s misadventures instead of course correction. It is times like these when an Anil Kumble is missed dearly. But then who cares as long as we keep winning on Indian pitches and IPL makes money !!



We had Kumble doing exactly that and we all know the result, don’t we ??

Exactly !.

ABHI_1512, as always, hits the nail on the head.

To add a couple of points here on Ashwin's omission, Virat never looked at neither Ash or Jaddu as wicket takers in this series. Pace, pace and pace is what he has in mind and 4 of them to take all wickets while a spinner just does the holding up job!. Since both the spinners are quite capable with the bat, lets pick the one who is supposedly the better batsman and definitely the better fielder. Hence, Jaddu ahead of Ash !.

Now we have reached the fourth test and he still does not want to move from his rigidity! Anil Kumble in place of Ravi would have overruled these kind of stupid reasonings, but for that he should be first allowed to stay!.

[Emvi]

Bangladesh's T20I winning spree continues. They defeated New Zealand by 4 runs in second match to go up 2-0 in the 5 match series.

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by NPV

This match is running away very quickly (it was already an uphill task after a < 200 first innings), but there was some hope when England were at 65/5. After that, runs have come thick and fast with several boundaries from Pope and Bairstow, they've already gone to 139/5.

219/6 now. Even a 100 run lead would be good for England to take control of the match. This emphasizes the fact that we need an attacking spinner like Ashwin in the bowling line up. Pitch favouring or not, Ashwin has variations to make the lower middle order like Moen Ali & Woakes uncomfortable.

[Ragavsr]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Now we have reached the fourth test and he still does not want to move from his rigidity! Anil Kumble in place of Ravi would have overruled these kind of stupid reasonings, but for that he should be first allowed to stay!.

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

219/6 now. Even a 100 run lead would be good for England to take control of the match. This emphasizes the fact that we need an attacking spinner like Ashwin in the bowling line up. Pitch favouring or not, Ashwin has variations to make the lower middle order like Moen Ali & Woakes uncomfortable.

If ever there was something Virat has gotten right as a captain, it is playing 4 fast bowlers and one spinner. Playing 2 spinners because they are your best bowlers (they are not, in fact, Bumrah has a far better average) is like taking knives to a gun fight. In the past, the Indian team didn't have good fast bowling options and instead of developing them, they took knives (spinners) to a gun fight.

The reason India is struggling in this test and the previous one is that apart from the abysmal batting, the bowlers really aren't on fire like the last tours of England, Australia and South Africa. The absence of Ishant and Shami is making an impact in this test where Siraj and Thakur aren't able to sustain the pressure created by Bumrah and Siraj.

If I were the captain and this test is lost, I would replace Rahane and Pujara with SKY and Vihari and bring in Mayank instead of Pant and ask Rahul to keep to strengthen the batting. Pant looks like a walking wicket on these kind of surfaces. While Rahul has done well as an opener, I think Gill / Mayank deserve a long run.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by Ragavsr

If I were the captain and this test is lost, I would replace Rahane and Pujara with SKY and Vihari and bring in Mayank instead of Pant and ask Rahul to keep to strengthen the batting. Pant looks like a walking wicket on these kind of surfaces.And Oh ! , Jadeja has been out best batsman over the past 3 years with an average far higher than Kohli , Rahane or Pujara or even any of the openers. Dropping him is out of question.

So, you want Rahul to open the batting, make runs and then keep for 100 plus overs. Rahul must be superman to do this cos in history of cricket not a single wicketkeeper batsman has done this. If Jadeja is our best batsman then why do we need Vihari to replace a Rahane. Just move Jadeja into Rahanes place and play Ashwin in Jadeja's place. You get 6 bowling options and equally good batsman with a long tail.

Let's be honest. Problem is batting. Bowlers are always doing their best. Drop Pujara and Rahane. Play whoever in place of them. Look at England, they dropped Crawley and Lawrence and even Sibley. Brought Malan back who made a 70 last game and pope back and he made a good solid 80 now. Don't know why in Indian cricket it's such a big issue dropping a non performer.

And btw Ashwin has a better batting average than Kohli, Pujara, Rahane and Jadeja in 2021 with a century too just a few months back. He is the best spinner in the world and only a dumb management like this will keep benching him.

[Nalin1]

Well, let's hope that whatever decisions he has taken work out and we win at least the last test, if not this one .

But Rahul keeping wickets? Partime keepers do not keep in test cricket.

[ABHI_1512]

English players deal with pace bowling day in and day out. It’s the top class spin they are not comfortable with and India didn’t play Ashwin at the most spin friendly pitch of England. Conditions remaining equal and considering the batting form of the Indian middle order, it was all the more necessary for playing Ashwin but that was not to be.

I still can’t fathom the fascination with Rishab Pant as a test wicket keeper when we already had Wridhiman Saha as well as Sanju Samson. Samson is technically more sound than Pant by a long mile and yet he doesn’t get a look in. This notion of match winner for a game and then failing for the next 10 matches is just so poor but then if the captain is on your side, what’s the fear !!

Ashwin is too outspoken for a cricketer in this current set up and hence paying the price. Test cricket is a specialised game, players with faulty techniques will always be found out real soon. Rahane and Pujara have been playing under the knives for too long now and they will surely be chucked out after the series for sure. After all, heads should roll for the incapabilities of the team management.

I am so impressed by what Chris Woakes brings to the table in this English side. This game is beyond India now and this 99 run lead will haunt for the rest of the game or whatever is left off it

[NPV]

England end with a 99 run lead and they're very much in control of this test match. India are down on the mat and it's going to be very very difficult to put up a decent total for England to chase down - not that there's anything special in this pitch but all thanks to our shaky and inconsistent batting. Will England go 2-1 up tomorrow on Day 3 of this test ?

Edit:the way India is playing test cricket, I guess they're most suited (and for the fans will be most exciting to watch) in 4 day tests! Can be the right influencer for this format

[VWAllstar]

Will they ask Jadeja to open?

[sayyam.gaur58]

This is hilarious. To be honest, Kohli should accept the fact that he's not made for captaincy. Just look at the field placements and bowling changes during England's tail.