ShoonyaSifar

DY Patil has hosted 30+ IPL games, multiple Women's games including series vs Aus and WI and our only Women's Test vs England, host d WPL games, sells out most such women's matches. How exactly is it substandard? The outfield is a proper green carpet, is a sand based outfield, leads to super fast drainage. Pratika's freak injury is unfortunate, that's a risk in any rain affected games at most top class stadiums particularly a match like yesterday when umpires allowed play despite mild drizzle many times. Does not make DY Patil a sub-standard ground in anyway.

Oh man. Wishing him a quick and full recovery. A spleen injury can indeed be life threatening. Amitabh Bachchan got exactly the same injury during Coolie shoot back in early 80s. Took him a good 8-9 months to fully recover including a nearly two months hospital stay and multiple surgeries. Glad Iyer got quick medical help and is in best medical care. His well being should be the topmost priority, discussions on his cricket future can wait.

Bangalore was to host the knockout matches. But no permission yet from local government affer the unfortunate tragedy. Venues likely are those which did not get 2023 ODI WC games and will not get T20 WC either, the stupid venue rotation policy. TBH DY Patil isn't a bad venue. Sells out most Women's matches with 20000+ fans attending. Holkar Stadium itself isn't bad either. One of the cleanest stadiums in India. Nothing fancy but the seating area, food counters, washroom, water facilities all are spotless and staff take a lot of pride in keeping things that way, rate at other stadiums in my personal experience.

Whoever advised Shami to have a public outburst against Agarkar is not his well wisher. In terms of fitness, he is still where he was during IPL. Good enough for domestic cricket with his amazing skills, but definitely not fit for international cricket with a tummy protruding out with moobs.

Shami bowling at 80 mph still moving the ball more than Akashdeep. Lots of seam movement gets him a wicket as well

Svire those big Ranji runs, play full county season and score tons of runs. He is 28 not 32-33. One run heavy season will do it for him again especially with his improved fitness

Bengal vs Gujarat on Star Sports Khel channel Shami bowling 1st over, just reluctantly running in, no speed guns but is not bowling more than 80 mph, looks totally out of shape, no way fit enough to bowl in international cricket. This match will put all doubts to rest. Still has the skills to pick wickets in Ranji but noway ready for international cricket

Only thing common to all the losses across formats is both Rohit and Kohli in the team. Without both of them playing together, the team is doing absolutely fine. Cannot be a mere coincidence. Something definitely gets switched off when they are around in that dressing room. Youngsters coming under pressure, not being able to be themselves, coach and them not being on the same page - could be anything but it's clearly not good for our cricket.

How well the BCCI, team and fans quickly moved on from them post their T20 and Test retirement is the biggest fear of RoKo fan/ PR club. Such legends haven't been missed even once as the T20 team has won everything since they retired and the Test team is settling well too. Will immediately happen with ODIs as well. Yashasvi, Sai, Tilak, Parag, Paddikal (all < 25) are all waiting for a proper run and would only raise the bar for our ODI unit.

His chance in other formats will come. Best for him to absolutely crush the Test batting charts. In WI tests, he was a bit casual, big 200s were there for the taking. Missed opportunity in the 1st test. Should not miss out vs SA at any cost. His numbers this year are a bit underwhelming for someone of his talent and calibre. Aim for a 400 run series in 2 test SA series, hit a big double hundred, go big and make it count. If it means being selfish, do so. And for god's sake, don't say publicly that you want to be Indian captain and all that. Great to have that ambition and then find the right time to make your move. Now is not the time and public proclamations would not help. Never works in Indian cricket.

What a terrible tragedy. That it happened in Indore is even more shocking. One of the safest cities in India but then pervert criminals are lurking everywhere with no fear of law and order authority. Should lead to stern action against those in charge of security apparatus and a proper criminal lesson for the pervert. I was at Kotla recently for the WI test, was shocking to see police force sitting in the stands all across the ground in groups and indulging in loose talk. Such lax attitude, mediocrity with a casual chalta hai attitude all around. Was true 30 years back, is true now.

Poor series overall as expected. Rohit as captain would have fjred any player who played so selfishly in both the matches. Goes against his own philosophy of not playing for personal milestone and going hard from ball one irrespective of the conditions. With Rohit and Kohli playing only IPL and ODIs, these situations of them struggling in early part of a series and thus hurting the team under immense pressure will remain there. Now there is a dead rubber left, why should Rohit and Kohli play in that and not Jaiswal and Jurel? Jaiswal has to definitely play to give him a feel of ODI wickets in Australia. Will be utterly selfish again on Rohit and Kohli's part to suddenly be interested in playing dead rubbers.

Batting at 8, those 30s and 40s are equally valuable when the number 9, 10, 11 are all basically number 11s. Got to bat at 5 in England, hit a 100*, had specialist batsmen with him when he came in at 9, hit a 50. He should not be seen as Ashwin's replacement, that spot has gone to Kuldeep. Sundar is a batting all rounder and should be seen as one

So on cue now politicians have jumped in and called his exclusion as being due to his religion. Some guy said he will raise it in the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Sports. Well that for most part will be Sarfaraz's career almost done. For no fault of his. Engagement hungry cricket accounts on Twitter made it mainstream without an understanding of his current fitness level and now this religious card being publicly talked about will only harm Sarfaraz's case. Politicians jumping in supporting cricketers for non-cricketing reasons has always ended harming players in Indian cricket be it Somnath Chatterjee talking about Ganguly being dropped back in 2005 or Shashi Tharoor's public backing of Sanju Samson for the last 6-7 years each time he was not picked.

How exactly does that make the team strong though? If Axar is replaced with Varun, then you need to play a specialist batsman at 5. And with Varun you will have a tail of Kuldeep (assuming you'd want him as well), Varun, Siraj, Arshdeep and whoever is the 5th bowler. Basically tail will start at 7. Good luck with that 'strong' ODI team. And no Axar isn't doing badly as the 5th spinner, scores runs and bowls 7-8 tidy overs regularly picking a lost a wicket every match. That's excellent. Gave us something to play with even in the last match. But then As for Rana being dumb as a brick, well will take that anyday if he can have returns of 10 wkts@23 every 6 matches. Will end up with a great ODI career if he can sustain it.

Name the replacements for Rohit, Kohli, Axar, Sundar and Rana as well which will suddenly make this not the weakest ODI team as you said it was.

Who exactly is missing? Hardik is injured, out for at least one more month due to a quadriceps injury ihr suffered in Asia Cup, Bumrah rested to prioritise tests and T20Is. Jadeja being rested to give chances to Sundar, NKR as Hardik's replacement. Only one who can be added is Parag ahead of Sundar to bolster lower order hitting strength. Kuldeep can come into the 11 as the specialist spinner but that means a longer tail. Rohit, Gill, Kohli, Shreyas, Axar, KL is as best a top 6 as you will get currently. Yashasvi is in the squad as reserve opener. We need Gill and Shreyas to score big to take pressure off RoKo.

@Sooda I see both Gurnoor Brar and Khaleel Ahmedabad in the squad for game 1 along with Kamboj. For 2nd game , 5 pacers likely due to uncertainty on the workload situation of Siraj, Akashdeep and Prasidh. Will assess close to the match and ask those not in the 11 to join their Ranji teams. I wrote about Sarfaraz situation in the main thread on him Summary is : massive weight loss -> quadriceps injury - > easing into normal FC routine, has played one game. Remains a massive injury risk to same quadriceps, best to go easy through the Ranji route for a couple of rounds. God forbid he does his same quadriceps again, will mean a surgery ruling him out of another FC season. Not easy to lose 17 kgs and retain same fitness levels immediately. Only questionable selection IMO is Ayush Mhatre but that can be justified as backing the current u-19 captain.

Agarkar as selector Two back to back ICC trophies , a record of 29-1 in three ICC tournaments. Went against the popular sentiments to back Shami and Jadeja in 2023 WC, Rohit as T20 captain and five spinners in 2024 T20 WC, picked a team including backing Varun C (for ODIs) that won a ICC Champions trophy 2025 without Bumrah. Backed Gill as Test captain, and what an inspiring choice it has been. Thoroughly backed Rahul in tests and ODIs, results are there to see. Great to see him back youngsters Sai, Paddikal, NKR, Sundar and Rana going against popular sentiments. Has managed Test and T20I transition nicely so far, will end up doing the same in ODIs as well very soon. Blot on his tenure is the 2023-25 ICC Test championship including the 3-0 series loss at home and Australia series loss. With clarity on captaincy and team gradually settling down well, backing him to pick teams which add the elusive ICC Test Championship to the already impressive list of trophies.

As for Sarfaraz, he is coming back after a major injury scare post massive weight loss. Suffered a quadricep injury in the first professional match he was playing after weight loss (Buchi Babu Tournament in July). Needed two months of rest and recovery. Has played one Ranji match. Let him play another couple of Ranji rounds to see how his body is responding to new structure before being thrust into higher intensity situations like India A series. If he gets the quadriceps tendon tear again, it will likely require surgery, could rule him out for another 4-5 months or longer. Hardik suffered the same injury in Asia Cup and is out of action for two months as of now.

Selectors don't address the media after A team selection. What you are referring to is the speculations in the media. Does have some merits from a Team India perspective. Gill, Pant, Jadeja are fixed at number 4-6, 7-8 will be toss up between NKR, Sundar and Axar. Yashaswi and Rahul have the opening slot locked in. Only space is fjr a reserve opener and number 3. Sai and Paddikal are the ones being given chances for that On why India players in A team, simple answer is to give them some FC cricket before a crucial test series. Earlier many India players used to play practice ganes vs visiting teams, now that doesn't happen. So giving FC game time to some main squad players isn't a bad idea. There are enough A team opportunities for others to stake a claim like Sai and Paddikal did vs Aus A or Jurel has done in multiple such chances. I do feel some of the bowlers named for the second game will be withdrawn , that's why they have named Gurnoor, Khaleel, Siraj, Prasidh and Akashdeep. Brar and Khaleel will be asked to rejoin their Ranji teams, likely Siraj will be rested too unless he wants some overs before the SA tests.

Patidar's FC season so far 205* 66, 10 101, 13 77 125, 66 Captained Central Zone to Duleep Trophy title. Good reward for those numbers.

Absolutely. By having a go at Chief Selector saying "If I am fit for Ranji, I am fit for ODIs. Not my job to update selectors" all Shami has done is drawn curtains on whatever remained of his career. Such drama befits our neighbours, doesn't work in Indian cricket. Any injured player has to report to NCA and get the fitness clearance from there. There cannot be an exception for Shami. NCA has issues but the system and process requires you to do that. Anyone who saw him bowling in the Duleep Trophy in late August or even in the last Raji match can clearly see how out of shape he is in. Could the communication have been better? Of course yes. But then it works both ways. If selectors didn't speak to him, no shame in a player reaching out to selectors Remember this same group of selectors waited to see if he could be fit for Aus series last year, took him straight to Champions Trophy after a long injury break, where despite taking wickets, he was looking breathless in the second half of most bowling innings, the trend continued in IPL. By having such unwarranted public outburst, while he will get him short term sympathy, safe to say it's the end of his illustrious India career now.

Good on him. It showed as well, the big belly was gone. Somehow this reminds me of Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh doing a fitness course of 6 weeks under a French coach back in 2013. Looked fitter and leaner on their comeback but didn't help much for their on field performances. Zaheer hardly played after it, Yuvraj being younger continued for a few more years but was done by the he was 35-36. That was a generational shift then, 12 years later, we are seeing another generational change. Reality of life for not just athletes but everyone. Will definitely help prolong his IPL career.

Bowled quite decently, top speed was 142 kmph, plenty of deliveries in 139-142 range. Had pace and zip off the surface everytime he bowled at the office stump line or at batsmen's body. His second over was absolutely top class. Being inexperienced, did bowl a few hit me balls and was punished. Like his aggression as well, something to say to the batsmen, not backing away from a fight. Thoroughly deserved to be backed as an X factor in the bowling unit. Only one who can hit the deck hard, could become a middle over enforced for us if groomed well.