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I have waited a long time for this day ! 4 Indian fast bowlers, terrorizing the opposition batters with pace, bounce, accuracy and movement ... and winning a test away from home. 20 wickets were taken for the test, 60 wickets for the series ... opposition batters were hit on the head, body and fingers. Bumrah ... pace, bounce, accuracy and seam movement Shami ... pace, bounce, swing and seam movement Bhuvi ... accuracy, swing and astuteness Ishant ... tall and economical workhorse with decent pace Lots of new fast bowlers coming up ... Saini the best prospect for tests. Good days ahead for Indian fast bowling fans ! Cheers ! A lot of credit goes to Kohli too ... Kohli ko pace pasand hai !

Imad Wasim " This time we will beat India because I am playing". Result - Got murdered by Pandya and got out on golden duck Sarfraz Ahmed "India is afraid of Playing against us". Sarfraz Ahmed - "We have few out of the box idea for India tomorrow " Result - Starts with a left arm spinner under overcast English conditions Ahahahahahahahahahaha

Long time ago before the Border Gavaskar trophy begin we were calm and composed human beings enjoying the beauty of nature. Then a coward kangaroo came from behind and pushed our captain into the sea of humiliation. Turns out kangaroo was using special shoes that did not make any sound while they hopped. Also he was using a mobile GPS referral system controlled from his zoo to give exact location of our captain and take right decisions. This transformed our captain into a wild bear. Dangerous if provoked. Meanwhile the cheating kangaroo transformed into gorilla since his cheating was the talk of the jungle news next morning. A fight ensued between them: But ended up being a draw. Bear is disappointed and livid with the result. He goes back to the place wher he was pushed to take an oath of complete revenge in the next match. Below bear taking his oath : He is ready now and roaring to go against all odds with a need for speed: To be continued after the action days....

Not as world class as Amir's at Lord's.

On 23rd October, ICF will celebrate its 10th year anniversary. For those who may not be aware, ICF was founded by a bunch of like minded people who wanted a platform where discussions (on cricket and other issues) could take place freely without the hammer of moderation raining down. The founders include (in no particular order) Dhondy, King/Ravi, Rajeev, Outsider, Boss, bumper, Varun and myself. Critical to the success of the website and drivers of the growth engine were people like early adopters which included radhika (still going strong), Salil, Predator, Sriram, Lurker, Cricketics and others. ICF quickly became a vibrant community with a large number of active members and wide ranging discussions. It continued to gallop and attract new members who further added to the ICF fabric. The prolific ones that readily come to mind include graphic, BB, ludhianvi, gaurav92, sabby, adi, vvvs, Lord, rkt and sunny. The pinnacle of the community and participation was perhaps around the 2011 world cup where at any point in time there used to be atleast 200 - 300 users on the website. Participation and interest levels have since then waned. There can be several reasons for this - lesser time spent by founders on account of more pressing aspects of their lives, some founders not happy with the shape ICF took, waning interest in cricket as some cricketers retired, the website being plagued by frequent downtime and the medium of an internet forum losing attractiveness as compared to twitter and messaging apps. Whatever the reason for the current condition of ICF today maybe and while some of the founders may rue the decline, I think most of us will agree that we had a great ride and did build something that at one point or another gave us a lot of pride and joy. It remains to be seen whether ICF can survive another year but regardless, it has been a great journey and all of you have played a role. Thank you.

Congratulations to India on a well played and well deserved series win This has been such an interesting series to watch, I went into it with pretty low hopes, but I am very happy with the fight Australia showed, it's nearly an impossible task to win a test series in India but we gave it a good crack. I'm not gonna lie, apart from Smith and the odd one off innings here and there by Renshaw, Marsh, Maxwell & Handscomb our batting was poor, Smith was obviously sensational but the rest of our batsmen are what cost us the series in the end. I am very happy with our bowling effort though, they toiled hard and kept India to some totals that not many bowling attacks can manage. But in the end, the Indian team were too good, even with Kohli not performing they managed to win the series, I seen a lot of people bagging Rahane after the 3rd test but honestly I thought his captaincy was sensational in the final match, his management of the bowlers was perfect. Thanks to the Indian fans on here for the banter over the series, it's been fun! I think honestly the cricket rivalry between Australia and India is nearing the same level for us Aussie fans as Australia v England, which is great for cricket, Twenty 20 cricket is the flagship of the sport these days but test series' like this one really show that test cricket is still the fundamental top form of cricket, at least for me it does anyway. Anyways, thank you all for the hospitality, and congratulations to India, well played indeed! See you all next time we battle Peace!

Mohali is considered to be the most seamer friendly wicket in India. The pitch has a reputation for being lively and supporting pace bowlers, however in recent days it has slowed down and assists spinners as well. Last three Ranji matches held in Mohali were RESULT Delhi v Odisha at Mohali, Oct 27-30, 2016 drawn no standout performance with the ball Punjab v Gujarat at Mohali, Oct 15-18, 2015 drawn S Ladda 5/133, R Bhatt 8/155 Punjab v Railways at Mohali, Oct 1-4, 2015 PB won B Sran 6/61, V Khanna 8/97 Pace vs Spin Pace Spin Total Delhi vs Odisha 11 14 26 Punjab vs Gujarat 3 18 24 Punjab vs Railways 12 11 25 Total 26 43 75 Day wise breakdown of wickets Usually Day 1&2 are considered to be pace friendly and Day 3&4 Spin friendly but data show the pitch is spin friendly but data here shows inconsistency Bowling Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Total Pace 5 4 13 4 26 Spin 8 13 10 12 43 Total 15 18 24 18 75 with the inclusion of Bhuvi there is a selection conundrum now. Should we play 3 pacers or 3 spinners? Should we stick to the winning combination? Hardik or Bhuvi or Jayant? Which All rounder to play? Has Umesh and Jaddu done enough to retain their spot? Please discuss below.

Can we turn the commentators' mics down when Manju is commentating, please?

Dhawan may be lost in the post match analysis after the easy win over Pakistan but IMO I wanted to give kudos to one of the best "big tourney" player we ever had. He gets slated by fans for his inconsistency and if most fans would have it, he wouldn't be there in the in the team and most probably somebody like Rahane would be opening instead of him. But no matter what the guy shows up when it really matters. He won the CT in 2013 and was the best Indian batsman in 2015 WC and showed up against bigger teams. And today he looked the best and most fluent batsman before he got out - should've hit that full toss for a 6 though. He accelerated at the right time when Rohit was struggling a bit and if he had continued, India probably would've put up 350 or thereabouts on the board. What a player and I hope he continues to play the same way the rest of the tourney

It was heartening to see Pandya elevate his game in the final. What really impressed me was his desire to win the game for Ind on his own despite Ind being in a desperate situation. Who knows if not for the unfortunate run out, we may have seen another 175 not out The experience of single handedly taking on an entire team in a final but losing out unfortunately will only make Pandya a stronger cricketer. I am sure he will make this up by achieving many more wins for Ind

Everyone knows that Pakistani management and PCB are the most forgiving people in the entire world. Forgive and forget is their motto. No system in the world would forgive a multiple time offender like Asif but here he is, back for his fifth chance. You can suck so much you are thrown out like Kamran Akmal but you can still make a comeback as soon as the management changes. So, in this spirit, I thought of starting a thread where we can keep a track of this large-heartedness of the foremost board in cricket today. I also thought we can use the thread to track what "benefits" this bringing back of tainted players bring to the team as supposedly, the reason for bringing them back is that Pakistan team will turn overnight into world beaters. However, reality usually ensues giving rise to broken hearts and teeth gnashing. Pakistan's history of "benefits" from unbanning tainted players For example - Akhtar 1) Forgiven after doping Expectations - The fiery, super phast Akhtar will run through sides and make Pakistan world champions again Reality - Akhtar breaks down a lot. Smashes Asif with a bat after being goaded by Afridi PCB Action - Bans Akhtar for 5 years Example 2 - Akhtar forgiven after his previous ban is over-turned Expectations - The fiery, super phast Akhtar will run through sides and make Pakistan world champions again Reality - 35 year old Akhtar breaks down a lot. Announces retirement after 2011 WC and is never picked after his group matches. Releases his biography called "controversially yours" which is apt considering his career. I have not included his other transgressions in his career which are plenty Asif Examples - Too many but I am summarizing here for brevity. Pardoned after doping before world cup. Pardoned after doping in IPL. Jailed in UAE but helped by PCB officials and Pak government. Pardoned after spot fixing as "he has served his time" Expectations - The best swing and seam bowler Asif will run through sides and make Pakistan world champions again Reality - Asif just jumped from one controversy into another. In 12 years he played just 23 tests and committed/was involved in one scandal per 5 matches (ignoring things like the bat fight with Akhtar). As a final "freck you" to the board which helped him so much, he helped Amir get involved in the spot fixing saga too Amir Example - Amir was caught spot fixing, jailed, and banned for 5 years by ICC. PCB fought tooth and nail to try to get his ban reduced and constantly kept saying he is a superstar and will walk into the team post ban (which he did) Expectations - The talented super prodigy Amir will come back and run through sides and make Pakistan world champions again Reality - Amir came back as a trundler and saw Pakistan crash to defeat after defeat. Do remember, the side was actually winning without him, albeit at home. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tracking the upcoming big "unbanning" and "comeback" of more tainted players So basically, my point was, unbanning and supporting tainted players, not only drags Pakistan's name into mud, it has NEVER EVER helped the team at all. Yet they still continue doing this for some, really odd reason. So I am gonna use this thread to keep a track of all such comebacks in the team and then see how they perform for Pakistan. Upcoming on the list next 1) Salman Butt - PCB chairman has just given the go ahead for Salman Butt (the the captain of the team who was the mastermind of spot fixing) to be selected in the national team Expectations - Salman will set the stage on fire across all countries and make Pakistan world champions again Reality - To be seen MTC prediction - Butt will be a shadow of his previous shelf, will struggle and be dropped soon 2) Mohammad Asif - With the insipid Pakistan performance with the ball overseas, stage is set of Asif, who has been doing well in domestics to make his FIFTH comeback into the team Expectations - The best swing and seam bowler Asif will run through sides and make Pakistan world champions again Reality - To be seen MTC prediction - Asif will have a big disagreement with the captain/coach and will be dropped after average performances and lack of fitness 3) Kamran Akmal - Yep, the buck-toothed marvel is all set to make a comeback after domestic performances. This is the same guy who dropped the Syndey test and was abused. Never say never in Pak cricket Expectations - Akmal will be the explosive batsman who Pakistan are looking for. Will play explosive knocks and make Pakistan the world champions again Reality - To be seen MTC prediction - Team will continue to exploit his weakness to the cut shot, will keep fielders there and he will keep getting out cheaply ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And so many more exciting Pak comeback still on the cards. Keep watching this space for updates.

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, it wasn't too easy being an Indian fan. While we had our superstars, and our moments of greatness, we simply seemed incapable of consistently dominating everyone we faced. Especially bad were our struggles in LOI cricket, which demanded aggression, athleticism and agility that very few of our guys had in abundance. And then came the 90s, most of which I missed. Again, but for a few shining stars, we didn't have the firepower to strike fear in the hearts of our opponents, especially the boorish, aggressive, dominating Australians. Fast forward to today and it is exceedingly heartening to see how complete Indian cricket actually is. Some of it has to do with other teams not being as good as they were, but there is no denying that we are fighting-fit unit. Just take these past several months. We have played consistently good cricket across formats - dominating the Windies, demolishing the Kiwis and putting the Poms in their place. We have specialist teams for each format, and have multiple guys who are the best in the world in their roles. We are aggressive and - for the most part - fit and athletic. We also don't take crap or back off from other teams' aggression. But, most of all, we seem to have incredible bench strength - there is a talented group of newer guys who seamlessly slide into the roles of injured seniors - plug and play. No Shami? No problem. Plug Bhuvi in. No Ashwin and Jaddu? No problem. Yuz to the rescue. No Rohit Sharma? Whatever. Let's put in the guy who can score a triple hundred. Saha is hurt? Bring in Parthiv - yeah, his keeping is suspect, but boy did he bat us into good positions when needed! Need all-rounders? Ashwin in tests, Pandya in LOIs. Need older guys to step in and carry the load - Yuvi and Raina are doing it. We don't depend on 1 or 2 super stars, but each guy stands up and performs when his number is called. And don't forget Kedar Jadhav who is just getting started, and Rishabh Pant who hasn't even had a go yet :-)!! This team also seems to be genuinely having fun. I know, I know, it's easy to have fun while you're winning. But it's also easy to win when you're having fun, and the synergism between enjoyment and winning is truly showing. No one seems insecure; the guys seem to know that, although the competition for each position is hot, they will be given a fair run before being replaced. There is an air of confidence. Two things struck me the most: (1) the genuine team-spirit that Dhoni and Kohli displayed during the ODIs and T20s. While some here were complaining about Kohli just being a rubber-stamp guy etc., it simply didn't seem that way to me. It appeared that MSD was genuinely helping out with the field, especially when VK was away from the action because he placed himself at crucial long-off/long-on spots, and that VK was genuinely seeking advice from MSD. (2) VK's true leadership in deflecting praise away from himself for successful tactical moves, and the true joy he seems to derive from the individual success of each person on the team! This is in complete contrast to my early days as a fan, when it was always egos clashing: Gavaskar vs. Kapil Dev, Kapil Dev vs. Prabhakar, and of course Azharuddin vs. integrity. I am thoroughly enjoying watching this Indian team play together - as a unit, for the common purpose of winning - koi hum se jeet na paave chale chalo chale chalo!!

this is worse than "target mushkil to nahi hai, haaan Lekin difficult jaroor hai" by kapil

I remember the year 1989 very well. Gavaskar had retired a couple of years earlier and Kapil had lost pace. We were losing to Pakistan more often than not in ODIs. The 1983 World Cup and 1985 Benson & Hedges Cup twin wins were things of the past. Crickets fans were feeling directionless. Then came the tour to Pakistan , where a baby-faced 16 year old stole the hearts of the entire nation with his brave batting against the Pakistani quicks. Watching cricket was a pleasure once again for Indians ... and this euphoria lasted for more than fifteen years. In the 1990s, when Tendulkar batted, the whole nation " batted " through him. In 1991, a tall, thin guy, with flailing arms while bowling , burst onto the scene and bowled really quick ... and India had its first genuine fast bowler, Srinath. The year 1996 saw an elegant left-hander score a century on test debut at Lords. This was followed by another century in the next test match. While this was happening, another young man with impeccable technique missed his centuries by a few runs in both those tests. Indian cricket fans were brimming with excitement once again at the emergence of these twin gems. Be it a wristy Hyderabadi scoring 3 centuries in his first three tests in 1984-85, a bespectacled Kumble taking a 4-fer in in Sharjah in 1991, Zaheer and Yuvraj sparkling in Nairobi in 2000, a dashing Sehwag scoring 105 in South Africa on test debut in 2001 ... these memories will stay with us for ever. More than these moments and memories, every time a special talent emerged, it gave us reasons to watch cricket for the next few years. No one will forget the dabaang innings of 148, that a long-haired keeper-batsman played in 2005 against Pakistan ... and a new star was born. No matter what one feels today, every Indian cricket fan felt a connection with that young man, which would stay with us till the time he won us the 2011 World Cup as captain. Then came Kohli, who would go on to become one of the biggest superstars. entertaining us in all three formats with his spectacular batsmanship. Rohit, Rahane, Pujara, Dhawan, Ashwin, Jadeja, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Bhuvi etc. ... all of them inspired interest among certain sections of fans. Seeing a young Shami debut, combining genuine pace with reverse swing to floor the West Indians in 2013, was very exciting. Fast bowling fans just loved it when young Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron bowled at 150 kph. Sports survive and grow in stature and popularity because of superstars and stars. Thirty-one years have passed but people still talk about and remember Maradona winning the football world cup. Fans need to find a connection with individual players. They are happy when that person does well and sad when he fails. They realize their own sporting dreams through him or her. Cricket is facing competition from other sports in India like never before and needs star players more than ever. In Indian cricket, we are recently seeing a trend of trying to introduce thirty-plus players as a matter of priority, especially the batters and keepers . Youngsters are getting chances but only when an " elderly " is not good enough or is injured or fails the yo-yo test or rotation policy demands more players. If the current ODI batting line-up makes it to the 2019 World Cup then we will have six batters who are 30+. Dhoni 38, Karthick 34, Jadhav 34, Dhawan 33, Rohit 32, Kohli 30. I am not suggesting that thirty plus players should all be be dropped or not given fresh chances. But, there should be a mix of experience and youth. Too many youngsters mean lack of experience and too many older players mean lack of new direction and dwindling fan interest. Moreover, there is no point in promoting mediocrity when it comes to selecting fresh players. We have seen young spinners and all-rounders being introduced and backed though ... and the result is there for all to see. Be it the wrist-spin twins, Kuldeep and Chahal, or the charismatic all-rounder Hardik Pandya, they have given new direction and new energy to our team. I hope that some talented youngsters are allowed to flourish in the batting, keeping and fast-bowling departments too. If they receive the same backing as the young spinners and all-rounders are getting, they will also do well . KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Vijay Shankar, Karun Nair, Md. Siraj, Basil Thampi, Avesh Khan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti etc. etc. are waiting. It never was and and never is about choosing the top performers in domestic cricket or the well known names. It is always about spotting and backing the players who have the potential to achieve something extra at international level from now on.

This series is like what I'd imagine sex to be like with the same partner after 60 years of a relationship. You're doing it, you don't know why you're doing it even as you're joylessly doing it, and you, your partner and the rest of the world are thinking - 4 GAWD'S SAKE, Y U DOIN' IT BUB?????

Gift of that dickhead Sehwag... a gift which will keep on giving for many years to come... Sehwag, on the other hand showed support to Indian Hockey Team... Bloody glory hunter and a bandwagoner... My respect for Gauti who is not bullshitter like Viru etc.

After ICF staff members @Trichromatic and @Malcolm Merlyn attended the OPPO F3 and Indian Jersey Launch on the 4th of May in Mumbai, ICF and OPPO India are delighted to extend and deepen their partnership to boost interaction between fans and the Indian cricket team. To this end @Trichromatic shall be travelling as the guest of OPPO mobiles India to represent Indian Cricket Fans during the crucial game between India and Pakistan at Edgbaston, UK on 4th of June this Sunday. He shall be commenting on his experience via a blog for OPPO and will have the new revolutionary OPPO F3 phone to aid his process as he mixes with peers from the Indian sports journalist community. Team ICF would once again like to thank OPPO India for this opportunity and wish @Trichromatic and safe and enjoyable journey. Team ICF

What the goras and Pak did was understandable and on expected lines. Sri Lanka, at least they voted on same side as BCCI on proposed changes in governance model. And to their credit in 2014 when Windies pulled out of India tour SLCB filled in a 5 match series in India when their team was in the middle of a WC training camp. We repaid them by touring there next year and have bailed them out many times in the past. At least SLCB can work with BCCI, we need to monitor them in the future but no need to boycott as of now. The real backstabbers apart from the skunk Shashank Manohar are: 1. WI- Pulled out of 2014 tour, we forgave the $ 42mn fine and toured them last year. Guess what they do now: stab us in the back whilst surrendering themselves before their white masters. Not for the 1st time either. If you go back to the last 30 years when BCCI wasn't financially powerful, Windians have always voted in favor of Eng-Aus and against the brown folk. They even protested when the 1987 WC was awarded to India. We must STOP touring them henceforth. As such they are a 3rd class, gutless piece of wreck who will get their behinds handed by our Ranji teams. We have a scheduled tour of 5 ODIs, 1 T20 in July. I say forget the bloody tour. We can always buy their mercenaries for IPL, just make their board beg for money when their coffers dry out. And when they come with a begging bowl slap their asses right back. I am done with WICB. 2. Bangladesh- Most ungrateful nation on Planet Earth. These beggars were freed by Indian soldiers and we helped them out in 1971 including taking in 10 million refugees. We gave these no hopes Independence from their Pakistani masters. But the Kangladeshi slaves still hate India and worship their Pakistani masters. Not just in the political and social scene, these people are equally ungrateful on cricketing matters. They hate our team, they hate BCCI in spite of the fact that BCCI gave their crap team test status. We tour them so often whilst exposing our players to that filthy country and filthy, abusing Toyger fans. No need to expose our players to that hell hole of a joke country in the future. Stop all bilateral tours with Toygers. Let us see how they replace BCCI with PCB and gora boards in the future. Pakistan, Australia and maybe NZ in the future are unlikely to tour them....how long before the beggars just like the illegal Bangla immigrants run over to India with begging bowls only for BCCI to spit and poop in their bowl. 3. Zimbabwe- Worst on the list. A trainwreck of a country with no future. A shipwreck of a board who were all along surviving on BCCI dakshina. Australia, NZ and England will never tour there because of restrictions imposed by their governments. Only India with annual tours was keeping them afloat. No more annual alms to these traitors, not a single paisa. I want to see the death of Zimbabwe cricket now.

I went to the Afghanistan v Ireland match in Greater Noida and got some pics clicked with the cricketers :D

Welcome to the club Aussies. We are not alone anymore.

Just watched the pre match show by dr nauman with viv lara and chappel, the fraud daaktar desperately tries to show kohli's performance in bad light :- This is what he said about kohli:- His average in England is pathetic ( which is 38 in odis btw, he thinks an average of 38 in odis is bad oh the irony) kohli was flop in IPL He flop against australia He has just 2 tons against pakistan in 10 innings Junaid khan owned Kohli, he bowled 22 balls to kohli and gave away just 2 runs while picking him 3 times Sir Viv shuts the doc by saying that if kohli is in such a bad form than pak should be even more worried because he will click against them, Ian chappel gives an epic slap to the doctor by asking him that why does he think an average of 38 is bad in odis, he says it is a very good average to have in odis

Dravid got so many Indian youngsters under him and along with some other Indian senior players, has formed a formidable team combo. You do not have to be a Delhi Daredevils fan to like this team which has so many Indian future prospects. You can not root against such team which has so many future Indian players. Let's bless this team. Hail Dravid Mohammad Shami Shreyas Iyer Rishab Pant Karun Nair Sanju Samson Navdeep Saini Khaleel Ahmad Jayant Yadav Pratyush Singh Shahbaz Nadeem Milind Chama Amit Mishra Zaheer Khan

In another flash news, Philander has suffered a heart attack hearing this news...

This is the Rahane series. Exclusively played to ensure he can keep his place till 2019. I am sure we will soon play a series with. Srilanka were MSD will confirm his place for 2019. Just not sure who we can play to help of Yuvi.Maybe Namibia ?

Post-retirements, Dravid has become more valuable than SRT hands down. When Dravid speaks you can be assured that he speaks that benefits Team India.

In summary pujara stellar Indian test bat in ultimate format . Yet some young talentless pup in ipl will earn more then him need to reward likes of pujara more . Test cricket is ultimate and incentive must be there bcci needs to look at this and reward test stars

Subtext- Mera beta Binny better hai

Hahahahah shamsi knocks one up in the air and Pandya takes a beautiful catch and he's slating the catch and you can hear in his voice the tears as he's gutted the Indians HAVE DONE IT. wooo feeling sooo good

Saha catches: NOTHING MORE TO SAY! THIS IS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THOSE ASKING HOW WE KNOW SAHA CAN TAKE THE CATCHES THAT PARTHIV DROPPED.

Woke up from a nap and they are still playing but playing for what? Why is Yuvraj randomly bowling? apart from Kuldeep nothing makes sense in this game at all. Pointless series and the worst match I have seen ever and I have seen a lot of crapfest games like minnow games in the Wc etc but atleast they have points and some meaning...this is brutal

I remeber this dialogue From MS dhoni the Film "Hum pata hai match kaha haare" To which my answer for this tournament is "Selection meeting men" Indian cricket despite having all the talent have always lacked due to a very safe n conservative mindset. Those who have been successful have always taken the other approach- be it sachin as a batsman with his stroke play in 90s, sourav with his on the face attitude, dhoni with his tough calls But its generally been harmed by safe approach We often hear "Agar collapse ho gaya to" - "Erre player experienced nahin kacha hia, kisi experienced player ko lete hai" "line n length pe daalte hai , run nahin dete hai wkt apna aap girenge" "Speed pe nahin line n length pe concentrate karo" to players like Kohli, pandya " erre bahut nautanki karta hia, balanced nahin hai player " All this statments smells of our rotten mentality Now coming to this tournament Let me start by giving the champion teams xample. Well they took again those recycled crap akmal n shehzad having again that old safe mindset. When akmal was send a lot of ex-pak cricketer who will praising the team now bashed mickey arthur by saying akmal will only bat few over what fitness do u need for that and we dnt have any power hitter. Well not only they found power hitter in fakhar n faheem ashraf but they set a culture that fitness is importnat in pakistani cricket now. By chance only they learned that no point giving recycled crap like shehzad a chance in the name of experience but instead for go someone good who is hungry and doesnt have baggage. The team who lacked team spirit looked the most united, higher chances if akmal n shehzad were there that might have not been the case. With India n Pakistan teams good things happen by chance only So how did we loose in selection committee, again going by the safe approach. When a team is selected most players do select themselves apart from few. Thats were selection commitee and team management can get in some x-factor . 1. Kuldeep yadav -We also had few spots left.......our bowling looked really good but it lacked that x-factor which we missed out by not selecting kuldeep. Teams around the world have understood the value of wrist or leg spinner and look at us going with safe n exp option of ashwin n jadeja. Well if u didnt wanted to drop them cud have added kuldeep as 3rd. Two flat wkts were our bowling failed we need a bowler with x-factor and we did miss kuldeep there. 2. Selection of Rahane- "eng men ball swing hua to rahane must hai" Jab bowl swing bhi hua LOI ....kya ukhaad liya usne. Ok ill accept the logic that he was the 3rd opener once rahul was injured but the guy has been a failure in ODi cricket and not only that in last 6 given chances he was a bigger disaster. When u know some one wud surely fail then why not pick a youngster who knws he might fire.......it did in case of pakistan. In our team Pandya did well who lacks exp. We missed another X-factor- Pant 3. Dinesh karthik- The guy debut before dhoni n still hasnt made it big. Infact chocked wenever given a chance. If we cudnt understand that in 12-13 yrs god help us. Every time he comes on basis of good domestic or ipl perfomance n fails in international cricket. Well If an act is being constantly repeatedly isnt it understood. Its not that he had some technical issue it was all mental......how n were did we figure that it was soughted. Does he have a future ...... NOOOOO.......when ur looking at future in pant why not take him . Pant also made runs in domestic......but the same old story we need experience players coz its safe 4. 1st 10 over runrate- we rank lowest in this. It didnt cost us this time but it will in future badly. Actually it did somewhat in Sri lanka game . If we have so much of depth what are we afraid of . No one is asking to go at double but a lil more intent cant be bad. That mighty aussie team use to attack attack attack they didnt fear of collapse. These are absolute patta and there is no justification of being at bottom 5. Acceleration starts to late - We start to hit from 38 overs......again why we have so much depth that our middle order didnt get to bat most tournament. Again that ultra safe approach 6. Shami - if he was unfit he shudnt have been taken but if u taken him n tested him in warmup games well play ur best bowler. If u have to take a risk to get in ur best bowler in a crucial game u have to.......n its not that he was coming after a yr he had some bowling behind him. 7- Todays game - We felt the pitch had freshness so better bat 2nd , well every game at start will have something u have to just see through it as if we dnt go bonkers only. Knowing pakistan cannot chase big .....we feared their bowling . Playing acc to their strength .....well bad move 8. Kohli's captaincy- if anything i have noticed he generally goes with a safe approach so he generally goes back to people with past reputation (yuvi, bhajji, gayle, watson) and neither do u see him using a part timer as something diff when nothing is happening (like today the hesitation to try jadhav thinking final is to bigger stage to risk it ) well something he shud learn from Dhoni. 9. India- A selection- when players like uthappa, tiwary, karthik, dhawal, mithun, dinda n unadkat keeps getting chances repeated chances on their FC experiences we loose a chance to see many good youngsters In the end we can point out many instances including WI tour selection were we have send a string unit may be fearing loss in ranking but this safe approach will never make us champion. We can Only make unintentional moves T20 2007 Wc were we send young team due to non seriousness regd that format as we kept sending safe teams after that n never repeated the success .

Aussie women's cricket team

Test Cricket is awesome. I love test cricket. Great match this. Great quality all round.

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Lead from the front with the bat through out this tour. Just amazing how he performed in every game and lead from the front with this mediocre batting otherwise. This is what we have lacked in the past. We should have at least one an ODI series in South Africa, but we could never since we did not make the best of our batting abilities in the past. Kohli's leading from the front with the bat as captain was a big difference, with spinners being the bigger difference. What a captain. Great bowling by Chahal and Kuldeep also through out the series. Just needs to make few changes by dropping certain players, and he can be tat closest thing to perfect captain we can ask for. Well done Kohli and team India.

First he destroyed my childhood in the winter of 2003-04. Now this incompetent shameless cretin is after my adulthood in the winter of 2018.

If only we had a bowler like him available in the CT. Oh wait...

Dhoni has now scored the slowest 50 by any Indian batsman in the last 16 years. All those comments by him about playing freely has just been hogwash.

Dear Posters, Over the past few weeks we have been in touch with OPPO India, the sponsors of team India who were impressed with the enthusiasm, knowledge and passion of ICF posters for Indian cricket. Once we began talking we soon discovered that both ICF and OPPO had the objective of supporting team India in pushing the boys and girls representing our nation to do their very best. Both our organisations want fans to be involved directly with the team they love. To this end, OPPO India has invited ICF staff members to the launch of the team India jersey on the 4th of May 2017 in Mumbai. To mark this iconic event in the history of ICF , site admins Trichromatic and Malcolm Merlyn (alias Sunnyji) are present in Mumbai for the very same, where they will interact with multiple individuals from the Indian cricketing fraternity. They shall be also attending the Oppo F3 Selfie Expert Phone Launch taking place at the same venue. We hope this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership between ICF and OPPO in our following of the Indian team through their ups and downs. Finally we would like to reassure that your ICF will remain a non profit internet forum where you can rant, troll (within reason) and comment on the happenings in the world of cricket. It is our desire that you join us on this journey. Team ICF thanks both Trichromatic and Malcolm for taking out time and representing ICF. Yours truly, Team ICF

His contributions to the Indian cricket team as a player was unparalleled. Now he is going out of his way and producing young players who are national squad ready. The work he has done with the u19 and A-squad teams will never be forgotten. Kudos to this man who has actually contributed immensely even after retiring, unlike so many other legends who have either just contributed as commentators or have taken up some high paying administrative role (Some cheerleader have also gone on to F us by becoming an undeserving national coach).

How about coming back to open the innings mr .Gavaskar? We seem to have a problem there too.

On the stump mic: "Agar shaam tak khelenge toh inki g'aand phat jayegi." #MyCaptain

Afghan U-19 beat Pak U-19

Captaincy change or Selection panel change - Let anything happen Indian Cricket won't change! If Dhoni used to hate changing teams, Kohli hates having newbies in team and brings back all the oldies. If Dhoni used to give excuses of 'Process', Kohli is giving excuses of getting in 'experience' in the team. If Dhoni used to give long rope to his favourites, Kohli is giving new rope to his buddies. Why nobody has any vision? Why is every captain running as if a horse on blinkers, can't they see anything outside their closed group?

Am glad one of the big three has spoken out. It's time to put pressure on the selectors to make a call on these two legends.

This seems like an ugly spat between BCCI babus and others. They are trying to slander anyone who dont fall in line with their decisions. They wanted to get rid of Kumble for siding with CoA but because trio want him to continue as coach, they are trying to throw some mud at them. I would trust Kumble, Sachin, Saurav, VVS over any BCCI babu to be honest. They will have the best interest of Indian cricket at heart over BCCI mafia who dont think beyond extending their influence. Former cricketers made Indian cricket what it is and not Sharad Pawar, Dalmiya, Srinivasan etc.

Yes my congrats as well. Im dissapointed in how we finished up the series. But that is more to do with our shortcomings, poor focus and lack of commitment with the bat. Your mob played seriousley well after that first match and fought your way back to a very well deserved victory. Looking forward to another emotionally charged series in 18 months. This was a cracker of a series and i expect the next one will be too.