5th Test might be a dead rubber but it will give us a peek into the future

[maniac]

Well yes great victory...3-0 against a pretty strong English side. Now we go to Chennai for the 5th test a dead rubber....England will play for pride and India will play to keep up the winning momentum,apart from that nothing much earth-shattering at stake here.

 

However,I think the 5th test is super important from an Indian perspective.

 

It will show us if this team will take their foot of the gas or not.....mind you it is not the same as winning 3-0 against New Zealand because a half-complacent Indian side in it's sleep could have beaten that New Zealand side at home. I have absolute faith that in Kohli's side but let us use this as a test to see how much ruthless aggression our team has. People might point out the 3-0 against SA especially the final test where South Africa was dead batting everything,especially their best 2 batsmen in Amla and ABDV.....what was heart warming to see is the way India especially our fast bowlers Umesh and Ishant got fired up,hit their stride and won uis that game.

 

Now this England victory seems like a bigger deal especially given the history between the 2 sides in the last 5 years,so with it can come in a little mental exhaustion and there is a danger that it may creep in...I am choosing my words carefully by saying "might" as it can happen to anyone(have to tread carefully before the Juzbaa Junnon equivalent crowd misses the whole point) .

 

So India teams focus and how Kohli will marshall the team and maintain that killer instinct especially after a big and important series already in the bag will be interesting to see.

 

Next thing we might get a look into is how this team handles its bench strength. One of the criticisms of Dhoni captaincy was regardless of where the team stood 3-0 up or 3-0 down,unless there was an injury,we kept playing the same combo over and over again....This is the best chance to give bench a try....Shardul has been accumulating frequent flier miles more than actual cricketing experience,may be worth a try.....maybe even Manish Pandey instead of one of the middle order...may be give Ashwin a well deserved rest and see how Jayant handles the role of the main bowler and how Jadeja can handle being the leader of the spin attack....These are just various scenarios of trying the bench strength,hopefully at least some players will get a shot.....A dead rubber is pretty much the best time to do this when you have a winning momentum.

 

With Australia,there used to be a time when even bench players likes of Bichel,Lehmann etc would just come out of nowhere and win games and by the time they were actually needed due to an injury,they wouldn't really feel out of place. Can we do that instead of this winning combo superstition?

 

A very exciting future lies ahead for us fans folks!!! so this dead rubber might just give us a peek into how the Indian team will function going forward.

 

I for one am excited ...let us see how it pans out.

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2016 by maniac

[Laaloo]

We've only one 4-0 once right? That was against aussies in 2014?

[fineleg]

BCCI should change the venue asap now.

Cyclone and rains ripping through Madras, will play happen? Cyc has crossed, rains there

Shift to Hyderabad or Bangalore?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-kvQ9t8Qc4

Edited December 12, 2016 by fineleg

[maniac]

29 minutes ago, laaloo said:

We've only one 4-0 once right? That was against aussies in 2014?

Yes...our best margin of win

[maniac]

31 minutes ago, fineleg said:

BCCI should change the venue asap now.

Cyclone and rains ripping through Madras, will play happen? Cyc has crossed, rains there

Shift to Hyderabad or Bangalore?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-kvQ9t8Qc4

Bangalore will be the pick if that is the option

 

On a serious note.....I think we will get a full test match...so far every weather expert is saying it will be fine by the time test match starts.

[sandeep]

Such a long OP that says what exactly?  "we should try to go for 4-0".  I think the frog ate the cricketing acumen.

[Tibarn]

Hopefully  they move the match if the weather will be bad...

 

Assuming we play, Rahul needs to spend time in the middle, he seems way too inconsistent as an opener so far. Starc will be dangerous when he arrives and Vijay needs a stable partner up top. 

 

I wouldn't mind if it was a draw if Rahul and Nair could get some batting practice in the middle. If only Rahane wasn't injured...

[sandeep]

14 minutes ago, Tibarn said:

Hopefully  they move the match if the weather will be bad...

 

Assuming we play, Rahul needs to spend time in the middle, he seems way too inconsistent as an opener so far. Starc will be dangerous when he arrives and Vijay needs a stable partner up top. 

 

I wouldn't mind if it was a draw if Rahul and Nair could get some batting practice in the middle. If only Rahane wasn't injured...

We don't need a draw to get them batting practice.  They can get it in the one innings that we will bat.

[Cricketics]

The situation here though is bit different. We were playing a batting linenup which is struggling other than Pujara and Kohli and yet we won comprehensively, thanks to our lower order batting this series.

 

Also as you mentioned about playing same players all the time under Dhoni, I do not see Kohli doing it, but Kohli must do that here as I would like to see Nair play again. Nair and co have amassed plenty of runs over the years in domestic and he only had one failure so far(run out in the first match) and one failure shouldn't take him out of the team. Nair and people like him deserve better treatment and I am glad Kohli played him in the 4th test even though he did not score in the third test. However, we must look for a replacement for the keeper. Though I do not see them calling Pant so early with just 3 days gap between the test. 

 

Also we need to keep Rahul in check and ensure he knows that he is yet to earn the opening slot as he is not our first choice opener yet for the next series.

[Tibarn]

4 minutes ago, sandeep said:

We don't need a draw to get them batting practice.  They can get it in the one innings that we will bat.

I meant more along the lines of I wouldn't mind if the pitch was flat, rather than a turner , even if it ended in a draw. Obviously a win would be better, but Rahul hasn't had a noteworthy innings since August and Nair has flopped so far. If we win the toss and put up 600 then that would be best, but I just don't want a low scoring turner, like in the SA series, where 30 was a good score.  

[Cricketics]

47 minutes ago, Tibarn said:

Hopefully  they move the match if the weather will be bad...

 

Assuming we play, Rahul needs to spend time in the middle, he seems way too inconsistent as an opener so far. Starc will be dangerous when he arrives and Vijay needs a stable partner up top. 

 

I wouldn't mind if it was a draw if Rahul and Nair could get some batting practice in the middle. If only Rahane wasn't injured...

Batsmen like Rahul might actually struggle more to Hazlewood as Hazlewood has a knack of setting up the batsman. Starc will probably be inconstent on Indian tour. He will bowl some nice spells against our top players like Pujara, Kohli, Rahane because of the natural rush of blood, but Hazlewood will provide that good line and length threat all the time to our batsmen and importantly to our openers like Rahul. 

[Tibarn]

18 minutes ago, Cricketics said:

Batsmen like Rahul might actually struggle more to Hazlewood as Hazlewood has a knack of setting up the batsman. Starc will probably be inconstent on Indian tour. He will bowl some nice spells against our top players like Pujara, Kohli, Rahane because of the natural rush of blood, but Hazlewood will provide that good line and length threat all the time to our batsmen and importantly to our openers like Rahul. 

I'm not sure if Starc will be inconsistent, as Starc was reversing it very well in Sri Lanka. Last time he came to India he didn't really have those skills, but he seems to have really worked on that part of his game. 

 

I'm not sure Hazlewood will be much different than the English pacers. He was forgettable against the Lankans and doesn't have the pace to force a wicket. Although, as you said, Rahul could be in trouble vs him, as Rahul seems to play way too many shots and plays them too early. Hopefully I'm not jinxing us.   

[BeautifulGame]

The Aussies actually used to lose dead rubbers often iirc.

So not sure even the comparison is accurate.

[express bowling]

We will definitely play the match with intensity....not worried about that.

 

But, would like to try Shardul  Thakur in this test. Ideal chance to test our bench strength in the pace department and it has become even more important with Shami injured.....as the spinners will shoulder the main responsibility of taking 20 wickets anyway.

Edited December 13, 2016 by express bowling

[rkt.india]

Pant should have been drafted for this test.

[express bowling]

15 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

Pant should have been drafted for this test.

Yes....ideal chance.

[ShebbySB]

Rahul,Vijay,Pujara,Kohli,Nair(last chances,next one vs Bangladesh),Parthiv,Ashwin,Jayant,Jadeja,BK,Ishant.

Umesh should be rested,we will need fit and refreshed duo of Shami and Umesh in the upcoming matches.

[ShebbySB]

Pant should play some A games before he is considered for the national duty.

[Texan]

A great opportunity wasted since Pant was not fast-tracked into the Test setup for this match. Should have been played. These selectors are way too conservative.

[Cricketics]

11 minutes ago, Texan said:

A great opportunity wasted since Pant was not fast-tracked into the Test setup for this match. Should have been played. These selectors are way too conservative.

We can even try Pant against East Pakistan if they have any sort of brain. We are playing them soon for a game.