[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by PPS

No Rahul,Rohit,Virat & Pant! Either Shreyas Iyer or Surya Kumar will be handed their debut with Mayank Agarwal making a comeback opening the innings with Gill. I really wonder if the 5 bowler theory will be implemented due to inconsistent form of Pujara & Rahahe! Selectors really messed up Vihari's non-selection. NZ should really fancy themselves provided they're able to tackle our spinners.

More than a mess, they have been unfair to Vihari. Remember he played a Test Series saving innings in his last opportunity. Reasoning behind is that he been flown to SA is to get acclimatized to the cricketing conditions there as we would be touring very soon. Personally, I feel thats lame and unfair to him. With his current form, I woukd rate him better than Rahane.

My Playing XI:

M Agarwal
S Gill
C Pujara
A Rahane
S Iyer
R Jadeja
R Ashwin
A Patel
W Saha (w)
I Sharma
M Siraj

[Venkatesh]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

My Playing XI:

M Agarwal
S Gill
C Pujara
A Rahane
S Iyer
R Jadeja
R Ashwin
A Patel
W Saha (w)
I Sharma
M Siraj

You are spot on, except Umesh Yadav in place of Siraj.

Team India Playing XI for the 1st Test at Kanpur. Shreyas Iyer is all set to make his Test debut.

[landcruiser123]

Sri Lanka dominating West Indies. Looking at the scorecard, it seems like WI spinners were ineffective in Galle.

Should there be relegation in Test cricket?

***
Other news: Experts have pointed out Shubman Gill's technical difficulties. LOL - give the young kid a break; He's just 22.

Rahane is lucky to be playing this series after such horrible form. Consider he's most certainly going to South Africa, I hope he really scores at least 3 centuries across both tours.

In the near term (2-3 year outlook), I think Rohit-Gill should be our opening combination with Rahul at 3, Pujara at 4, and Kohli at 5.

[Venkatesh]

Shreyas Iyer becomes the 16th men’s player to score a century on Test debut for India.



Link

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Shreyas Iyer becomes the 16th men’s player to score a century on Test debut for India.

I hope the new coach will correct the mistake of not playing Karun Nair post his triple century to make place for a 'perceived' good player - A Rahane. For the 2nd Test Match, temporary captain should make way for the permanent one. Another change I would like to see is to play Ashwin above Saha. No offence to Saha, but Ashwin is an able test batter. Jadeja- Ashwin - Saha - Axar would be an idle lower middle order.

Kohli's affection towards Rahane would mean Pujara to be dropped. Hope, Dravid puts his foot down and asks Rahane to go back to domestic cricket and make his way back in the team again by scoring heavily there.

[PPS]

Its time the selectors give Saha a graceful exit, though he's still the best keeper around & very fit! KS Bharat has been knocking on the doors since a while & should be given an opportunity against SL next year. Shreyas Iyer 100 puts immense pressure on Rahane now. Going ahead Gill & Shreyas/Vihari/SuryaKumar are future nos.3 & 5 respectively. Selectors are just not brave enough to make the tough calls, they seem to be happy playing it safe!

[harry10]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

I hope the new coach will correct the mistake of not playing Karun Nair post his triple century to make place for a 'perceived' good player - A Rahane. For the 2nd Test Match, temporary captain should make way for the permanent one. Another change I would like to see is to play Ashwin above Saha. No offence to Saha, but Ashwin is an able test batter. Jadeja- Ashwin - Saha - Axar would be an idle lower middle order.

Kohli's affection towards Rahane would mean Pujara to be dropped. Hope, Dravid puts his foot down and asks Rahane to go back to domestic cricket and make his way back in the team again by scoring heavily there.

I fully expect Shreyas to be dropped next match if we go by how team management works. With Dravid there is a little hope he makes the right call and drop Rahane. However, they can also drop Mayank and ask Pujara to open just to accomodate Rahane. Won't be surprised either way. Vihari has been robbed again by selectors. No way he can play ahead of Shreyas now in SA.

Originally Posted by PPS

Its time the selectors give Saha a graceful exit, though he's still the best keeper around & very fit! KS Bharat has been knocking on the doors since a while & should be given an opportunity against SL next year. Shreyas Iyer 100 puts immense pressure on Rahane now. Going ahead Gill & Shreyas/Vihari/SuryaKumar are future nos.3 & 5 respectively. Selectors are just not brave enough to make the tough calls, they seem to be happy playing it safe!

How does Surya Kumar comes into talks for playing tests is beyond me. He has a bang average First class record. There are far more accomplished batters who should be eligible ahead of him. It's time selectors should see the right players for right formats. Just because someone smashes a white ball doesn't means he is great in red ball too.

As for Saha he hasn't done anything with bat since ages. We should have played Bharat in both tests against NZ to see how he does. Atleast play him next match. Otherwise it becomes quite risky to take Bharat on SA tour with no match practice and Saha will again make the cut as back up keeper.

Going forward Iyer should be a replacement for Rahane, Gill should be a replacement for Pujara in sometime.

Rohit

Rahul

Gill

Kohli

Iyer

Pant

Jadeja

Ashwin

And Pacers

What a line up this can be.

NZ are 121/0 right now. Seems like 345 was a very average total by our team or we are bowling poorly.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by harry10

NZ are 121/0 right now. Seems like 345 was a very average total by our team or we are bowling poorly.

I think we got at least 75-100 runs less on this pitch.
And New Zealand definitely have the upper hand now. This will need some great bowling on day 3 to bring us back. I did expect Williamson to play well, but this opening partnership has been a revelation!

Edit:will India call off the tour to South Africa due to fear of the new variant in South Africa and other African countries ?

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by NPV

Edit:will India call off the tour to South Africa due to fear of the new variant in South Africa and other African countries ?

Netherlands are going back due to the new variant of Corono Virus in South Africa. High chances of BCCI cancelling the tour and will have Srilanka come over instead

[Eddy]

We'll get a cue from what will happen to the A tour which is underway currently in SA.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

Netherlands are going back due to the new variant of Corono Virus in South Africa. High chances of BCCI cancelling the tour and will have Srilanka come over instead

Netherlands are stuck cos no flights till 3rd dec.
SA have asked them to play remaining 2 games as they can't leave. Indian tour is very much in jeopardy and I won't be surprised if it will be called off. If it is called off I hope we give players some off time instead of arranging another meaningless bilateral.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by harry10

How does Surya Kumar comes into talks for playing tests is beyond me. He has a bang average First class record. There are far more accomplished batters who should be eligible ahead of him.

I have no idea about Surya Kumar's domestic record, I assumed him being Mumbai Captain he must have had some runs under his belt & hence got selected. Him & Shaw were in England briefly as cover for some batsman.

Originally Posted by harry10

Indian tour is very much in jeopardy and I won't be surprised if it will be called off. If it is called off I hope we give players some off time instead of arranging another meaningless bilateral.

I like your optimism! For BCCI money takes precedence, they'll go ahead with the SA tour unless there is some diktat from the Government or the players feel terribly uncomfortable in the bubble there. Incase the tour gets cancelled, SL team is sitting idle during that same period!

[Eddy]

Yes, let's invite Sri Lanka and play the A team and fringe players. Provided the broadcasters allow that

[antz.bin]

This is where we have to draw the line. Both Rahane and Pujara need to be dropped from the team.

Since their last match with a 100, these are their scores

Pujara (39 innings): 22, 26, 61, 4, 91, 1, 45, 9, 12*, 4, 15, 8, 17, 0, 7, 21, 15, 73, 56, 25, 77, 50, 3, 17, 0, 43, 24, 54, 11, 11, 55, 54, 0, 58, 81, 6, 27, 6, 25, 2
1116 runs @ 28.61

No hundreds since Jan 2019.

Rahane (21 innings): 4, 35, 0, 14, 10, 18, 61, 1, 5, 15, 49, 27,7,10,67,0,1,24,37,4,22
511 runs @ 24.33

His streak is shorter due to the hundred in Australia but overall he is doing even worse.

Both of them are averaging lower than Sir Jadeja.

Pujara marginally beat R Ashwin in batting average, Rahane didn't even manage that.

[Ananthang]

Originally Posted by antz.bin

This is where we have to draw the line. Both Rahane and Pujara need to be dropped from the team.

Since their last match with a 100, these are their scores

Pujara (39 innings): 22, 26, 61, 4, 91, 1, 45, 9, 12*, 4, 15, 8, 17, 0, 7, 21, 15, 73, 56, 25, 77, 50, 3, 17, 0, 43, 24, 54, 11, 11, 55, 54, 0, 58, 81, 6, 27, 6, 25, 2
1116 runs @ 28.61

No hundreds since Jan 2019.

Rahane (21 innings): 4, 35, 0, 14, 10, 18, 61, 1, 5, 15, 49, 27,7,10,67,0,1,24,37,4,22
511 runs @ 24.33

His streak is shorter due to the hundred in Australia but overall he is doing even worse.

Both of them are averaging lower than Sir Jadeja.

Pujara marginally beat R Ashwin in batting average, Rahane didn't even manage that.

First one should go is Rahane. Pujji atleast kills balls in so many matches taking the new ball shine away. Mayank, Shaw and Gill needs to be given a 5 match series streak to test. Two match series too less and lot of pressure to perform