What India's victory in Sri Lanka tells you.... [UPDATED for ODIs]

[Texan]

1. Importance of Lower Order Runs: Cannot stress how important these are. Too often, we hide behind the excuse that batsmen are supposed to bat, bowlers are supposed to only bowl. Fact is that there are 10 wickets to take for the opposition in every innings and we need to make sure every wicket counts. When opposition bowlers are tired, it is time to make the most of the opportunity and get runs. Lower order really came to the party for us in this series with Ashwin, Jadeja, Pandya and Saha contributing.

 

2. The Seam Bowling All-rounder: Vital cog of many successful teams is having this 5th bowler who can put in some overs of seam bowling and also contribute handsomely with the bat. England have one in Ben Stokes and hope Pandya can come through for India. 

 

3. The "Coach": The role of the coach appears largely ceremonial. Whether it is Anil Kumble or Ravi Shastri, team success does not appear much dependent on the head coach. Perhaps, fielding coach is the one who needs to be more accountable. More important than the senior team coach is the "A" team coach (Rahul Dravid currently) to see if "A" team can deliver finished products to the senior team.

 

4. Ruthlessness: After Australia started white-washing opponents in the late 90s, teams no longer treat dead rubbers as grounds to "spare" opponents embarrassment and many teams since then have looked at white-washing their opponents. India under Kohli and to a certain extent under Dhoni have caught on with this ruthlessness. India were guilty earlier of sparing opponents when they had them by the scruff of their necks.

 

5. Pace Bowlers in Sub-continent: Pace bowlers don't have to just be ceremonial over fillers in the sub-continent and not responsible for taking wickets. Pace bowlers can and should be able to make inroads in the opposition under these conditions. After all, they grew up playing in these conditions.

 

6. Opening Batsmen: It is important to get off to a good start early on when the conditions are perfect for batting. Try to score at a good pace to throw opponent bowlers off their rhythm.

 

Some more may follow if I collect some more thoughts.

 

Edited September 4, 2017 by Texan

[jf1gp_1]

Entire series we were put under pressure once and kohli again looked clueless

[Khota]

I agree with 1,3,4,5 and 6. 

All rounder is a BS concept.

[SK_IH]

that sl has become really ****,one of the articles i read today on cricinfo about a lankan journalist reminiscing about lankas past emphasized how much lanka has plumetted

i dont remember a single series in last 10 years agnst a regular test side where we  were never in trouble or tested like this one.i cant name a player who missed out in this behti ganga,everyone scored,every bowler took wkts ,great for us not complaining

only positive is we are ranked no 1 and we destroyed them like a no.1 side 

[Texan]

19 minutes ago, SK_IH said:

that sl has become really ****,one of the articles i read today on cricinfo about a lankan journalist reminiscing about lankas past emphasized how much lanka has plumetted

i dont remember a single series in last 10 years agnst a regular test side where we  were never in trouble or tested like this one.i cant name a player who missed out in this behti ganga,everyone scored,every bowler took wkts ,great for us not complaining

only positive is we are ranked no 1 and we destroyed them like a no.1 side 

Agreed that Lanka has become a truly cr@ppy team, but the kind of dominance we showed against them has been unseen even at home. Remember that this is the same Sri Lanka that white-washed the Australians just a year ago.

[cowboysfan]

2 hours ago, jf1gp_1 said:

Entire series we were put under pressure once and kohli again looked clueless

This is sarcasm right? It's late so I might have missed it.

[cowboysfan]

I would consider Pandya a all rounder if they actually use him as one, a guy who bowls 1 over a inning is not a bowling threat.

[jf1gp_1]

8 hours ago, cowboysfan said:

This is sarcasm right? It's late so I might have missed it.

It was that or admire russel Arnold on how good a student of game he is when he felt SL was on top at the end of 1st day 3rd test when India were 330+ for 6 

[WC2011INDIA]

nothing. We will back to old ways against Australia, South Africa and England.

[The Dark Horse]

It tells me that we are a team which can regularly take 20 wickets. The important thing is even the pacemen contributed. Granted it's a weak opposition but the quality of bowling is for all to see.

[PBN]

India won all the tosses and batted big after opting to bat

[pnimesh1955]

India often poor in overseas unless vs weaker team there, so too early to say what's happen vs Philly and Andy during SOA test series.

 

Even vs Aus /Nz ODI series our batting will be tested even those matches in India in 2017/18

 

 

[pnimesh1955]

I am dying to see how kohli performing in England or southafrica, he had DBL vs poor WI bowling

In WI.India preferred newer venue to attract more crowd with more ticket selling plan than better or worst cricket.

[jf1gp_1]

Its also shown a fluke win at CT means nothing. Good teams find ways to win and crap team find ways to lose.  

[rtmohanlal]

India has improved as a team while playing in the sub continent  & Srilanka has regressed a lot as a team

[Khota]

It tells me India has a formidable depth and the dumb captain is hurting India by not using it.

[ravishingravi]

More than anything it tells me 

 

India is an average side with potential. Under conditions, against decent opposition they would have lost two games. 

 

Ot tells me that players will become soft by playing weak teams for too long. 

 

It tells me that this team is highly suspect against spin and half decent bowling conditions. 

 

Overall i I guess I learnt nothing new here. 

[Vilander]

56 minutes ago, ravishingravi said:

More than anything it tells me 

 

India is an average side with potential. Under conditions, against decent opposition they would have lost two games. 

 

Ot tells me that players will become soft by playing weak teams for too long. 

 

It tells me that this team is highly suspect against spin and half decent bowling conditions. 

 

Overall i I guess I learnt nothing new here. 

For a side to be called average there has to be as many sides above it as there are below. Besides that i agree on everything you said.

[Vilander]

Cant wait for mr bombastic shastri uncles team to face better teams in alien conditions.

[LordPrabhzy]

these are phattu wins against minnows. They can thump their chest all they want after pointless wins against the likes of WI, SL and Bang.

I will only rate India as a ATG team once they atleast win a series in Aus and SA plus start winning again in England. Till then they are at best an average side only good in subcontinent conditions.

 

PS- Ive seen some BC stupid posters commenting how Bumrah needs to be in the Test team. For the love of God, no wonder we kill our best pacemen with the work load. He is a LOI specialist so lets keep him that way and not induct him in the test team. We have specialist Test bowlers; Umesh and Shami with Bhuvi for swinging conditions. Seriously some posters need to get their grey cells tested