Kohli is too powerful and how the team has regressed because of that :Andy Bull

[chewy]

Adding to selection changes

fans always debate about chopping and changing

 

But there was no reason to change the starting XI for second Test,

 

at least the management could have backed themselves for same XI from 1st Test to come good, but management has been so gutless that they end up being incoherent like playing two spinners on cloudy week at Lords

 

this was exact repeat and c0ck up in 2nd SA Test match (then dropped Bhuvi after being best bowler! In 1st Test)

surely enough is enough and someone needs to be sacked for this BS decisions 

[UrmiSinhaRay]

To be honest, I feel like Virat can't really inspire the team like A Rohit or Rahane can.
I have seen some matches-and I always feel like players feel more comfortable and I dare say, when playing under Rohit or Rahane.
Also Virat is a very reactionary captain - he doesn't back people much, just introduces players into Playing Xi after hearing to a bunch of expert comments.
Do you really think a Dhawan is better than a Murli Vijay?
Pant will fare better than DK?
We do have to keep in mind Joe Root doesn't have a brand to take care of nor he's an evil conceited little shite.

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[zen]

Eng series may well turn out to be Kohli + Shastri's Waterloo

[motomaverick]

These were Kohli's words after the Lords test:

 

"We deserved to lose. For the first time in the last five test matches, we were outplayed".

 

Tells you everything about his attitude. This is someone who doesn't even acknowledge that we were outplayed in South Africa. If one refuses to even see the problem, you cannot hope him to fix it.

 

It's time to give up on Indian cricket. My suggestion is to quit as early as you can, so that next year's world cup smashing to Pakistan becomes a little easy to come to terms with.

Edited August 16, 2018 by motomaverick

[Trichromatic]

1 hour ago, motomaverick said:

These were Kohli's words after the Lords test:

 

"We deserved to lose. For the first time in the last five test matches, we were outplayed".

 

Tells you everything about his attitude. This is someone who doesn't even acknowledge that we were outplayed in South Africa. If one refuses to even see the problem, you cannot hope him to fix it.

 

It's time to give up on Indian cricket. My suggestion is to quit as early as you can, so that next year's world cup smashing to Pakistan becomes a little easy to come to terms with.

They were always in recovering mode in SA and only in 2nd inning of 3rd test they looked like going ahead. 

 

First 2 tests, top 5 was inside the hut for 70 runs and he believes they weren't outplayed?

 

 

[rkt.india]

1 hour ago, motomaverick said:

These were Kohli's words after the Lords test:

 

"We deserved to lose. For the first time in the last five test matches, we were outplayed".

 

Tells you everything about his attitude. This is someone who doesn't even acknowledge that we were outplayed in South Africa. If one refuses to even see the problem, you cannot hope him to fix it.

 

It's time to give up on Indian cricket. My suggestion is to quit as early as you can, so that next year's world cup smashing to Pakistan becomes a little easy to come to terms with.

No.  They were not outplayed in SA.  They competed in all three tests there despite losing tosses.  One toss he won, we won the game. Same in England.  Toss is so important in these places.

[Suhaan]

On Mon Aug 13 2018 at 6:42 PM, Global.Baba said:

The Indian commentators/Media literally look like they are walking on eggshells when they have to criticize Kohli or Dhoni.

 

Naseer Hussain was vocal criticizing Dhoni's knock in the ODI's but not a single beep from our experts. Kohli's constant chopping and changes in the team or questionable decisions in South Africa have escaped under the radar because no one just points them out.

 

I have said before this player power started under Dhoni and now has gone full retard under Kohli.

Kohli is there jijaji and Anuska is there sister.How could they break their marriage?They will be left accountable to their sister Anuska ...yeh kya kiya bhailogo

[motomaverick]

12 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

No.  They were not outplayed in SA.  They competed in all three tests there despite losing tosses.  One toss he won, we won the game. Same in England.  Toss is so important in these places.

I actually prefer us losing tosses because Kohli seems to have no clue about what to do when he wins one. The CT final comes to mind immediately.

[UrmiSinhaRay]

Adding to selection changes
fans always debate about chopping and changing
 
But there was no reason to change the starting XI for second Test,
 
at least the management could have backed themselves for same XI from 1st Test to come good, but management has been so gutless that they end up being incoherent like playing two spinners on cloudy week at Lords
 
this was exact repeat and c0ck up in 2nd SA Test match (then dropped Bhuvi after being best bowler! In 1st Test)
surely enough is enough and someone needs to be sacked for this BS decisions 

It almost feels like Kohli prides on the fact that he doesn't play the Same XI every match .
It is his signature the way Dhoni's tactics and Captain Cool tag are.

He wants to Be Captain Unpredictable but end up making fun of himself everytime

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[Chandan]

Now one or two articles appearing even in Indian media questioning Kohli's bizarre selection policy:

 

'All-rounder' Hardik Pandya struggling for identity as Virtat Kohli's selection conundrum continues

 

 

In the guise of an all-rounder, what exactly does Pandya bring to the table? No one really knows, and this ambiguity is only masking yet another shortcoming of India’s continuously flawed selection strategy in Test cricket.

Chetan Narula, August 16, 2018 12:49 PM IST

Comment 

1

   

There is something peculiar about the second Test at Lord’s, which India lost by an innings and 159 runs within approximately two days. Pick up the scorecard, look up England’s innings, and you will find that Hardik Pandya finished as India’s most successful bowler with figures of 17.1-0-66-3.

These are better figures than both Ishant Sharma (22-4-101-1) and Mohammed Shami (23-4-96-3). In a way, Pandya’s haul laughs in the face of those questioning India’s team selection of not playing a third full-time pacer. He shrugged off suggestions — from the likes of Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton and Sourav Ganguly — that the visitors were missing a bowler.

In 15 innings across 9 Tests that Hardik Pandya has played so far, he has bowled only 119.1 overs. AFP

“There was some thought behind two spinners, but I think three pacers were enough. We did well enough and bowled properly,” he opined after the third day’s play, as England stole an advantage through Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes.

Forget what the commentators said, and ask Bairstow instead. There is a lot of applause going around for Woakes, well deserved of course, but it was his partner who turned the game for England. They were struggling at 89-4 after lunch, and Shami-Ishant bowled attacking spells immediately after the break. They plugged away for nearly an hour, bowling in tandem with R Ashwin, while Bairstow weathered the storm (with Jos Buttler at the other end).

Two moments stand out from those two sessions of play. The first, in the morning, as Virat Kohli gave a nice lecture to Pandya during his opening spell. Two balls later, into a new over, he trapped Oliver Pope lbw. Kohli exulted, in his usual manner whenever a wicket falls, and then proceeded to hug Pandya tight. Whatever they had discussed, worked.

The second comes from that post-lunch session and underlines ‘in tandem with Ashwin’ as the key phrase. Kohli didn’t use Pandya from the other end along with Shami or Ishant. Did he not trust him enough? Was he holding Pandya back? The answer to that former question is unknown. The answer to the latter question is that Kuldeep Yadav bowled after Ashwin, with Pandya coming a tad too late in that session. Was it to justify playing two spinners? Again, that is not known.

Bairstow though will tell you how that tactic eased off pressure on England. Ishant and Ashwin bowled tightly, while Shami looked like taking a wicket every ball. Buttler was trapped lbw, but Bairstow only managed to waft through air on innumerable times. Shami then sulked away, as the intensity fell.

Stop here, and wonder aloud. Wouldn’t any batsman breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Pandya is to follow the likes of Shami-Ishant? Compare that to the first Test where Ben Stokes ran through the Indian middle and lower order in both innings. They had thought seeing James Anderson and Stuart Broad off was enough, only for Stokes to wreck the Indian innings twice in four days.

That is the key difference herein, and something not revealed by the scorecard. Pope was picked up after being worked over by Shami. Bairstow simply gave his wicket away, as he slowed down and became cautious before his hundred. On day four, Shami worked tirelessly to beat Woakes and Sam Curran innumerable times, yet they were not good enough to edge his deliveries. Pandya came along and Curran’s slog gave him the third wicket.

Truth be told, Pandya is not the bowler this Indian team management makes him out to be. Not yet anyway, and not in the Test format at least. At the start of this tour, one had written about how he is developing into a better white-ball bowler through clever changes of pace and subtle slower-ball variations. ODIs and T20Is though are formats that allow you to hide limitations. Test cricket is an infinite quantity — you are fighting against conditions, oppositions and time. There is nowhere to hide.

Sample this: In 15 innings across nine Tests that Pandya has played so far, he has bowled only 119.1 overs. That works out to 8 overs per innings and 16 overs a Test. It might work in the sub-continent where pacers don’t work much, and spinners share a heavier workload. But on overseas tours, Pandya is yet to bowl 20 overs in a single Test innings across South Africa and England. At Lord’s, where conditions were crying out loud for a third pacer, he was only the second-change bowler, after Kuldeep.

And while the team management deems Pandya as a world-beating all-rounder in Test cricket, the above factoid presents a staggering anomaly whichever way you look at it. At this juncture, the question to ask is if Pandya’s spot in the playing eleven should come under considerable doubt? Well, yes.

Away from bowling figures, Pandya simply hasn’t done justice with the bat either. Barring 93 against South Africa in Cape Town (and 71 against Afghanistan), he has scored 116 runs in 9 innings at average 12.88 against the Proteas and England. He failed to cross 20 in five latter innings in South Africa. While on this current tour, he boasts of three 20-plus scores — 22 and 31 in Birmingham, 11 and 26 at Lord’s — that is hardly progress.

Ironically, he is still India’s second-highest scorer (90 runs) after Kohli (240 runs) in this series, and given their current selection standards, it should be enough to keep Pandya’s spot in the playing eleven at Nottingham in the name of team balance. Even so, there is no doubt that he occupied a spot at Lord’s that ought to have gone to a full-time batsman or a third pacer, like in Johannesburg on a raging green-top.

“I see myself as a bowler when I am bowling. I see myself as a batsman when batting,” replied Pandya, when asked about his role in the Indian team. You want to say it is the very definition of an all-rounder, but on current evidence, that answer is vague at best.

It is almost as if there is a lack of identity — in the guise of an all-rounder, what exactly does Pandya bring to the table? No one really knows, and this ambiguity is only masking yet another shortcoming of India’s continuously flawed selection strategy in Test cricket.

 This says how Ind was handicapped due to the lack of a 3rd specialist seamer and how Pandya eased the pressure built by Ishant and Shami with Ashwin doing the plugging job. Also how even Virat didn't have faith in him and hence didn't introduce him right after Ishant/Shami's spell.

[express bowling]

14 hours ago, rkt.india said:

No.  They were not outplayed in SA.  They competed in all three tests there despite losing tosses.  One toss he won, we won the game. Same in England.  Toss is so important in these places.

 

Agree.

[Vilander]

The ammount of crap that Eng Media is collectively piling on India, it might get funny if things turn around next game..lol..

[mishra]

1 hour ago, Vilander said:

The ammount of crap that Eng Media is collectively piling on India, it might get funny if things turn around next game..lol..

Lets 

[UrmiSinhaRay]

Lets 

Nahi hoga.
Indian Batsmen will again go flop and Bumrah I don't think can do jack right after getting healed from a fracture.
Injuries affect you mentally too.

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[Nikola]

I guess in what the duck episode rohit was telling about nidhas trophy and why he sent dk low down the order. He said dk was quite angry and didn't look at him. I doubt dk can do same to virat. This is cause of fear of being such great player and aura of virat. I am not saying rohit should be made captain but players should be able to freely have their opinion shared with captains. Also funny part is i have seen many players being run out by virat but only rohit has had said no to virat (i have seen many times while other people just gets run out to virat and stay silent).

[Chandan]

Here is one article which is saying how Kohli and Shastri have got Red ball and White ball cricket all mixed up and how Indian cricket is suffering because of that confusion.

https://goo.gl/4ifdw2

Shastri & Kohli Have Got the Red Ball & White Ball All Mixed Up

Gaurav Sethi |Cricketnext | Updated: August 17, 2018, 9:56 AM IST

The denial has gone on so long, it is beyond comprehension. Or do they really not know? Or do they refuse to acknowledge? Or are they too falling prey to these sexy new messiahs of cricket? 
 

 

 

It’s time for Kohli and Shastri (K&S) to wake up and smell the red balls. To have it tattooed that red ball cricket and white ball cricket are essentially different.

Few better places to start off than in a tour in tatters. At 0-2 down, India have everything to lose. Foul weather notwithstanding, going down 0-5 is no more a bad dream.

Ignoring the recent findings of the South Africa tour was baffling. The importance of conditioning through warm-up matches in relatively alien conditions was applied by playing an ODI and T20 series in England with a token red ball match (18-a-side carnival). If that wasn’t bad enough, they severed a day off it too. 

While Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul were part of the limited overs teams, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were coming in relatively cold. In an India A match vs England Lions, Vijay’s returns were a worrisome 8 and 0, while Rahane came in at five and six, after Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair, who weren’t in the Test squad. His returns: 49 and 48.

Yeah sure, Pujara was playing county cricket but he wasn’t part of the Indian set-up while doing so. That’s three of your regular top five batsmen, going into an overseas Test match after playing an India A match (with sub 200 totals) and a truncated 18-a-side joke. 

Top that, Pujara was dropped from the first Test and yet again a Test tour was started with Dhawan. Only to drop him for the next match. The random white ball selections were yet again being applied to red ball cricket. Dropping Pujara on his county form though, was akin to dropping Rohit based on his IPL form. Begs the question, do international cricketers need to prove themselves through local tournaments?

K&S, by all accounts, would know that the white ball they play with in ODIs and T20s is quite different from the red ball – and within red balls too, there are various types. 

But seeing how it continues to pan out, why take anything for granted. 

White Kookaburra balls are used in one-day and T20 international matches, while red Kookaburra balls are used in test matches played in most of the Test-playing nations, except for the West Indies and England, who use Duke balls, and India, who use SG balls.

Through this England tour itself, we’ve learned and unlearned so much. That this dreadful Duke ball (red) is not whack-friendly as such. It seams, it swings, it moves around like the devil, sits on your shoulder and talks you out.

That it demands respect. The power play is redefined with it. More so, with its supreme exponent, James Anderson. 

That though, did not deter K&S from dropping Patience himself. You dropped Patience, as you were impatient – you wanted to bully your way through the new ball. You started with a 50-run opening partnership. 

But such was the manner in which Dhawan was dismissed, that in spite of the runs he made, you went with the popular verdict to drop him. Who knows maybe the dropped catches pitched in too. Dhawan doesn’t drop white balls in the slips for obvious reasons. 

For the second Test, yet again, you went with the popular verdict to pick Kuldeep Yadav. It’s another thing Sachin Tendulkar and everybody’s pet cat wanted Kuldeep for the first Test itself. So, what do you do – you wait for a day to be lost to rain, more rain forecast for the following days, and pick Kuldeep for his first Test match outside the subcontinent. On the basis of his white ball form in England. 

Had the Test series been played after the ODIs in South Africa, who knows, he may have played there too. 

After his T20 heroics, a red-hot Dinesh Karthik barely played in the limited overs leg. Possibly, the most exciting India batsman this IPL, Rishabh Pant wasn’t even picked for the T20s. A floundering Manish Pandey was. As was, a sweet memory of Suresh Raina, not just for the T20s but the ODIs too.

So, if red and white ball differential isn’t easy for K&S, clearly, telling white ball from white ball across formats is downright herculean. 

Top that, fresh from his exploits with India A in England, Rishabh Pant was picked in the Test squad. If he plays, he will be making his Test debut in England. 

Surprisingly, Rohit Sharma did not even make the Test squad. A blessing in disguise for him perhaps. He will in all likelihood play India’s next Test series. 

While England is ruthless about who their Test and ODI bowlers are, India has no such differential. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, often sidelined this IPL because of either a niggle or injury, played four T20s and the deciding ODI to find himself unavailable for the first two Tests. In the ODI on July 17, he appeared far from fully fit. 

Losing him before the Tests was not too different from England losing Anderson; who by the way, last played an ODI on March 13, 2015 and a T20I on November 15, 2009. Mr. Anderson is 36 now. He went past 550 Test wickets in the Lord’s Test.

His bowling partner, Stuart Broad, 32, last played an ODI over two and half years ago. Broad’s last T20 was over four years ago.

Bhuvneshwar may not be yet 29, but he is that rare thing, a swing bowler. And if he’s not handled with kid gloves, he could go the Praveen Kumar way. (A little harsh but you get the drift)

As for Vijay, Pujara and Rahane, largely unconsidered for white ball cricket, how long before they fail to make the Test squad leave alone the team? 

This England series could well be history by mid-August. It’s up to them, whether they want to be lost in it or make it. 

Therein could be a vital lesson on how to tell white ball and red ball cricket apart.

And there’s no way that Kohli & Shastri will not see it when it looks them in the eye like that. 
--------------------------------------------

 

I agree with what he says. Poor preparation, poor selections, error of judgments--how long can Indian cricket keep with those? 

 

[UrmiSinhaRay]

^True that.
Rohit had a terrible IPL but did reasonably well in the LoI series.

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[sensible-indian]

On 8/17/2018 at 12:32 AM, Vilander said:

The ammount of crap that Eng Media is collectively piling on India, it might get funny if things turn around next game..lol..

Indian media does nothing so lets hope their media hav knocked some sense into our shameless players.