This is India's best chance to win a series overseas.

[Rasgulla]

On side note shouldn't play kuldeep atall on those pitches he ll be bullied in 1st innings left right and center

[King Tendulkar]

This is series is no place for gambling . No debuts on this series very much 

 

only 3 selection issues . Any other theories hogwash 

 

1. Who opens . Raul / vijay / Dhawan 

2. Who bats 6 . Pandya / Rohit 

3. Who is spinner . Ashwin / jadeja 

4 . Who is 3rd seamer . Ishant / yadav 

[King Tendulkar]

India will win series 

[rtmohanlal]

32 minutes ago, sandeep said:

The Kuldeep gamble has potential, but the problem is that the downside risk of playing him is quite high.  Especially given we have the 'safe' option of someone like Jadeja in the side.  I only see Kuldeep having an outside chance of playing a test in SA if the track is a proper flat track, and we are behind in the series.  

Not telling that Kuldeep would be cent percent success there.  Yet , I think he is an unknown whose 'chances of being effective' need to be closely analysed by having his methods compared with those of Warne's   and then taking a decision upon him.This is very important  because of him being highly unorthodox  by being a  chinaman who turns the ball big. And I think Jadeja is a must.Kuldeep or Ashwin or both is the question.

Edited November 30, 2017 by rtmohanlal

[Gollum]

I want Jadeja to start ahead of Ashwin in SA, Ashwin should be the frontrunner in England and Kuldeep in Australia. 

[sandeep]

17 minutes ago, rtmohanlal said:

Not telling that Kuldeep would be cent percent success there.  Yet , I think he is an unknown whose 'chances of being effective' need to be closely analysed by having his methods compared with those of Warne's   and then taking a decision upon him.This is very important  because of him being highly unorthodox  by being a  chinaman who turns the ball big. And I think Jadeja is a must.Kuldeep or Ashwin or both is the question.

I think we are largely on the same page.  And yes, playing Kuldeep as the 2nd spinner is a better bet.  But I think that would only happen if India are down in the series - I see Ash being preferred ahead of Kuldeep by VK - he's a big believer in giving max opportunities to the seniors who have "earned" the right to be there, first.  

[sandeep]

10 minutes ago, Gollum said:

I want Jadeja to start ahead of Ashwin in SA, Ashwin should be the frontrunner in England and Kuldeep in Australia. 

@Cricketics put out a thread on this way ahead of anybody else.  And he has it right I think.   Jadeja is a force-multiplier for the rest of the bowling attack, even when he's not taking wickets.  He can be counted on to bottle an end up, and allow India to play that 6th batsman.   Not to mention ease the pressure of finishing the day's alloted overs on time, since he gets his overs done so quickly.   That allows the pacers that extra bit of time, and not having to hustle and be under the gun to finish their overs quickly.

Edited November 30, 2017 by sandeep

[sandeep]

2 hours ago, bowl_out said:

We we close to winning a match each Johannesburg and Melbourne in 2013-14. We could have at least tied those two series.

J'burg was close until Ab and Faf stole the match from us... and Melbourne was close until Vijay got out..

 

The key is to not lose out on important moments and seize the advantage when we have it.. Easier said than done though

Believe, brother, Believe.  

 

This is happening.  Just need the team to play at a high level relative to their capabilities, and a bit of luck.  If that happens, we are winning a first ever series in SA.  

[Gollum]

6 minutes ago, sandeep said:

@Cricketics put out a thread on this way ahead of anybody else.  And he has it right I think.   Jadeja is a force-multiplier for the rest of the bowling attack, even when he's not taking wickets.  He can be counted on to bottle an end up, and allow India to play that 6th batsman.   Not to mention ease the pressure of finishing the day's alloted overs on time, since he gets his overs done so quickly.   That allows the pacers that extra bit of time, and not having to hustle and be under the gun to finish their overs quickly.

I agree. Let Jaddu play the 1st test, if he does well no problem. If he flunks badly we can think about Ashwin. Kuldeep has no place in the squad (forget XI) IMO, although he should play in Aus where Ash and Jaddu will be easily nullified. 

[Gollum]

6 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Believe, brother, Believe.  

 

This is happening.  Just need the team to play at a high level relative to their capabilities, and a bit of luck.  If that happens, we are winning a first ever series in SA.  

I am sure we will get advantageous positions at various points during the course of the series, but the question will be whether we can close it out this time after the heartbreaks of 2013-2015? Catching must improve, I can easily visualize the old adage of 'catches win matches' hold especially true this time. In India the drops didn't hurt that much because our bowlers created 12-15 chances every innings, won't have that luxury in SA.  

[Vilander]

3 hours ago, Shunya said:

Sachin,Dravid,VVS,Sehwag

actually these guys were not outplayed in 2010. But Kallis outplayed everyone in that last test, it was unreal he just decided India will not win it. And first test loss was pathetic scheduling from BCCI.

 

I think SA should be 5 tests, they would have won the 2010-11 series if it was.

[cricketpitch]

2010/11 was our best chance to win a test series in SA. Our bowling blew it after having SA on the mat. March Boucher who was out of form through the series suddenly strung a partnership with Kallis to pull them out of the woods. After having them 130/5 we should have bowled them out for 200 odd and chased the score. This has been the case with our bowling all the time. 2003/04 1-1 we batted way too long in the first innings (187 overs to score 700 runs) and did not leave enough time to clean up the Aussie line up. Those were the two series which will haunt me to for ever. We could have already won the series in both those countries but failed to do so. It is almost like we are afraid to win series in Australia and SA that we start to choke the moment we get closer to one. 2013 series wasn't bad, we should have ended up 1-1 at least and we should have won 2-0 in NZ. Instead we ended up losing 1-0 in both. Stop blaming the spinners, our pace bowlers choke worse than the spinners. Our pace bowling attack needs to perform similar to how our spinners perform at home for us to have a chance of winning. It is easy to blame Ashwin or Jadeja for all our overseas woes but to be frank our pace bowlers haven't maintained enough pressure for the spinners to attack.

[cricketpitch]

8 minutes ago, khiladi786 said:

MSD  was responsible for Indian defeats when Baz smashed 300 because of ms.s rigid policy NZ were 85 for 5 went in 680 for 8 

MSD wasn't. His field placing was point on when he kept Kohli in kind of straight mid on for Brendon McCullum. Lo and behold, McCullum hits one straight to Kohli and it is as easy as they come and our current captain shells it and rest is history. India's catching through those 2 years was pathetic which was the reason we struggled to compete. Nothing to do with Dhoni's rigid captaincy. Even in England India went into the third test leading 1-0 and  Cook who was in Woeful form, edges when he is still in single digits and it was a straightforward catch, the slip fielder drops it and Cook goes on to get 90 odd. His confidence restored and India get hammered in the rest of the series. It is easy to blame one person for everything that went wrong but that is not entirely true. Dhoni was a bad test captain but all was not his fault.

Edited November 30, 2017 by cricketpitch

[cricketpitch]

10 minutes ago, khiladi786 said:

During last 6 series in Southafrica OUR TEAM LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER ONLY 

we not only win series in Southafrica but not EVEN WIN A SINGLE TEST 

 

we have proud that SL not win single test in India yet but we are not far behind 

As poor team in Southafrica 

India won test in 2006 series and in 2010/11 series in South Africa. Not sure what you are talking about. Even last series India came close to winning the first test in SA. We have been competitive in the last 3 series there.

[SK_IH]

7 hours ago, Laaloo said:

2011 was our best chance. We had a great team. We were in a great position to win the series before captain cool decided to piss on our parade. 

well no ,the best chance was in 06-07 ,we had one the 1st test,so we had our noses in front and then had to play out the last day in Durban but the fabulous four disintegrated and we lost

 

Then again, we were in a good position at the start of 2nd innings in Centurion to give SA a imposing total but again the overhyped batting lineup crumbled,with no one playing a innings worth remembering except DK.Also will never forget Dravid playing Munaf who looked ostensibly unfit 

 

I have my doubts about the batting lineup again ,if the batting crumbles in crucial junctures of the game we will come back with moral victories again

[Vilander]

2 hours ago, khiladi786 said:

During last 6 series in Southafrica OUR TEAM LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER ONLY 

we not only win series in Southafrica but not EVEN WIN A SINGLE TEST 

 

we have proud that SL not win single test in India yet but we are not far behind 

As poor team in Southafrica 

You might be in wrong forum. We are talking about India here. They won a test and almost the series in the truncated last test in SA last tour to SA and in return series in India beat 3 nil.

[Laaloo]

2 hours ago, SK_IH said:

well no ,the best chance was in 06-07 ,we had one the 1st test,so we had our noses in front and then had to play out the last day in Durban but the fabulous four disintegrated and we lost

 

Then again, we were in a good position at the start of 2nd innings in Centurion to give SA a imposing total but again the overhyped batting lineup crumbled,with no one playing a innings worth remembering except DK.Also will never forget Dravid playing Munaf who looked ostensibly unfit 

 

I have my doubts about the batting lineup again ,if the batting crumbles in crucial junctures of the game we will come back with moral victories again

Right I must have forgotten about the 5th day. Sachin and Dravids partnership at Cape Town in the 3rd test also was very bad. So pathetic. It also didnt help the matters that Laxman was run out and Sachin was given out lbw on a ball going down leg by Asad Rauf.  South Africa only had to chase 211 and they did. But considering that we just landed in South Africa and literally played a test match first up in 2011, we actually did very well apart from 1st innings of the 1st test. 

 

In 2006, before the test series, we played a 50 overs tour match, one off t20, 5 odis, and 2 two days tour match before and after the 1st test. In 2011, we played 3 straight tests without any match practice.

[wanted_desi]

- If we hold all the catches

- If we use Dhawan/Rohit for entertainment in dressing room

- If BK/Shami/Umesh can hold SA for less than 300 in first Inning 

 

Edited December 1, 2017 by wanted_desi

[Laaloo]

Just now, wanted_desi said:

- If we hold all the catches

- If we use Dhawan/Rohit for entertainment in dressing room

- If Kuldeep can pick up few wickets 

 

I dont think we will see Kuldeep in the test series.

[Rasgulla]

1 minute ago, wanted_desi said:

- If we hold all the catches

- If we use Dhawan/Rohit for entertainment in dressing room

- If BK/Shami/Umesh can hold SA for less than 300 in first Inning 

 

- Remove kohli from the slips

- As long as they are in the dressing room and not in starting XI

-- If BK/Shami can hold SA for less than 300 in first Inning

 

Quite possible