To hell with Shastri - This is probably the worst Indian side ever, for overseas tours

[Stan AF]

7 hours ago, SK_IH said:

This team is comparable to Dhoni's side post 2011 overseas in respect of lack of resilience.Once the things go downhill, there will be no back to the wall performance. This led from the front by Virat, he could have at least one chase out of so many this year but continuously failed at the crunch. Virat so far has stats but no standout effort overseas even comparable to the one recently by Williamson.

Coming to bowling, I have said before, if Ind loses this series, howsoever good Ishant, Shami and Umesh have been , Ind should move on from them. 

Williamson's 89& the 2nd innings 139 was a very challenging one. 

[Wall2018]

14 hours ago, Kothili said:

Sack Kohli and Ass3 already. 

sack the coach n the captain... but retain kohli as just a bastman... else there will be no batsmen in the team...

[R!TTER]

Of course no one's asking Kohli the best batter in the world to be dropped, but this deadly duo/toxic combo cannot continue. What's worse is that Dhoni makes it the unholy trinity in LO & IMO completely destroys our slim chances at the next WC in England.

[Real McCoy]

9 hours ago, prasen82 said:

Shi$$iest batting unit in a long time and the worst openers in a very longggg time...

 

 

Anyways only old-timers care about tests.. so it doesn't matter for kohli or bcci.. let the tamasha continue...

 

 

Test matches should prolly be in evenings and for maybe 60 overs and 6 days.. and market it like a carnival.. great food.. music.. proper mexican waves.. fireworks.. face painting.. caricature paintings.. a beer stand here and there.. dance floor.. It should be a family event for different sets of audiences .... needs to evolve..

 

. Why not massage parlors and a $2 sucky sucky. Then you got all bases covered . 

 

On a serious note 60 overs for 6 days is not a bad idea. Maybe you should submit this suggestion to the ICC and BCCI and wait for the result.

[R!TTER]

The boards & ICC need less days not more, this is why we had the first(?) official 4 day test last year. The proposal while admirable will not be practical unless we reduce the gaps between tests, even then the broadcast expenses will dictate whether/for how long 5 day tests can continue.

[Deleted_User_1]

9 hours ago, R!TTER said:

So you're comparing a team on the decline with this team, boasting no.1 rank for well over 2 years now? Not to mention the teams we faced in Eng/Aus were much better than this lot.

No. I am just refuting your statement about being the worst touring team. Just because one is worse than the other does not make the less worse one good. The current team sucks donkeys balls!

[Vilander]

Probably Kohli apart this is the worst ever batting lineup. Basically worst ever batting lineup around arguably the best ever batsman from India.

 

And arguably one of the best ever bowling lineups from India, with clearly the best ever pace lineup from India better by a daylight. 

 

SO No, this is not the worst ever team.

 

They did well in SA , could have done better had the series been 4 or 5.

 

Did well in Eng did not win crucial moments, and toss did not help.

 

Doing well in Aus again, hope the toss evens out and unfortunate to not have Shaw and Pandya. 

 

With the correct selections, this team would be one of the best actually.

 

Openers and middle and lower middle + tail batting are the worst ever without a doubt. We had folks like Kumble, Irfan, Agarkar in tail who could score 100s and only batter in their level Ashwin is now an all-rounder lolz and rest are Shami... I only respect Ishant in Indian tail.

[Vilander]

KLR is such a *ing disaster and a disappointment. its unreal guy has the ability to support Kohli  but we get his bs on top of the order. 

 

Vijay and Rahane regressing has put a hole in the lineup. Pujara finding his feet is a great sign, hope he supports Kohli more in the series. And hope one of the other bats come good. 

[mishra]

As long as "Horses for Races"  theory

 best batsman theory

Bevada Coach theory

 

is selling.

 

No one will buy

selecting best 11 theory.

 

 

So lets keep whining

[Vilander]

8 hours ago, express bowling said:

 

 

Very good idea.

 

Tests for 60 overs for 6 evenings.

 

People are very comfortable with watching 40 overs an evening in T20s.  Just 20 more overs would fit in smoothly.

 

And it must be a party / picnic like environment on the ground ... to attract families and youngsters.

 

 

 

 

not a bad idea. Same 12 sessions but spread over 6 days. 

[Deleted_User_1]

I don’t understand Umesh. He has so much going for him, but runs in a bowls like a gnawaar. He looks strong, built well, seems fit, has a fluid run up and action, is fast enough, and even has a good outswinger. But does not use his brain, sprays often and is just not effective. Besides his fault, blame lies on team management for not grooming him.

Edited December 19, 2018 by dandaroy

[ExtremeBrainfade]

22 hours ago, Oldhere said:

Either all those who are creating such threads haven’t experienced the pain of being an Indian supporter on such tours.

 

we never used to take 20 wickets and only due to our batting used to draw few matches or maybe once in a blue moon win.

 

look at it now, we won a test each and were atleast competitive.

 

I know and agree that we have lost good opportunities so far in all series this year but frankly speaking rhis team isnt the shittest team overseas.

It's probably the worst overall batting team overseas.  It's cruelly funny - when our batting was strong (SRT, RD, VS, VVSL), we couldn't take 20 wkts.  Now that we take 20 wkts routinely, our batting keeps laying eggs.  

 

 

[coffee_rules]

EVen Gavaskar thinks so.. hehe

 

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/virat-kohli-ravi-shastri-india-vs-australia-tests-sunil-gavaskar-5499326/?fbclid=IwAR2RDeJtcpndkhLpVurYM67iLf_sO9aJ9qx_uhJwBY61rzWoJw0ndI7SEf

Q

[R!TTER]

5 hours ago, ExtremeBrainfade said:

It's probably the worst overall batting team overseas.  It's cruelly funny - when our batting was strong (SRT, RD, VS, VVSL), we couldn't take 20 wkts.  Now that we take 20 wkts routinely, our batting keeps laying eggs.  

 

 

I would be hesitant to term this bowling attack anything but competent atm, I read somewhere just recently that this is the best year for pacers worldwide since 86(?) & looking at that the numbers aren't superlative.

[ShoonyaSifar]

29 minutes ago, R!TTER said:

I would be hesitant to term this bowling attack anything but competent atm, I read somewhere just recently that this is the best year for pacers worldwide since 86(?) & looking at that the numbers aren't superlative.

Aah so a direct correlation will be this will also be the worst year for batsmen in decades. Why are we being so critical of our batsmen then?

[R!TTER]

12 minutes ago, ShoonyaSifar said:

Aah so a direct correlation will be this will also be the worst year for batsmen in decades. Why are we being so critical of our batsmen then?

Sure & this is why it is hard to draw any conclusions based on the performance of just this year, but there are worrying trends. Our batters have regressed, most of them can't build long innings except on flat tracks, even at home it can be hard if the opposition spinners are good or pacers threatening. Then there's DRS, the obvious elephant in the room, can't say how that has affected the technique of this lot since they didn't grow up playing with DRS but it hasn't been positive IMO.

 

All in all, looking at the opposition strength I would say we had a great chance of winning abroad, since on paper we had the best batting lineup of the top 4 test nations. That should've been enough even on difficult tracks such as these, but alas.

Edited December 20, 2018 by R!TTER

[ShoonyaSifar]

1 minute ago, R!TTER said:

Sure & this is why it is hard to draw any conclusions based on the performance of just this year, but there are trends. Our batters have regressed, most of them can't build long innings except on flat tracks, even at home that can be hard if the opposition spinners are good or pacers threatening. Then there's DRS, the obvious elephant in the room, can't say how that has affected the technique of this lot since they didn't grow up playing with DRS but it hasn't been positive IMO.

 

All in all, looking at the opposition strength I would say we had a great chance of winning abroad, since on paper we had the best batting lineup of the top 4 test nations. That should've been enough even on difficult tracks such as these, but alas.

That is correct. Vijay has massively regressed, Rahul has lost it mentally. But the performance that has hurt us the most is Rahane's rapid downslide. Even slightly above average performance from him and we could have at least 2 if not more tests in the away series.

[Adi BB]

Team is moving forward in the right direction wrt to the bowling and being competitive on field but this present batting line sucks bad! 

I always maintained from the beginning that it's the bowlers who wins the test matches and they have won 3 despite our spineless batting ,but had the batsmen showed a bit more application we could have easily won 2 more matches at the very least 

[ShoonyaSifar]

1 minute ago, Adi BB said:

Team is moving forward in the right direction wrt to the bowling and being competitive on field but this present batting line sucks bad! 

I always maintained from the beginning that it's the bowlers who wins the test matches and they have won 3 despite our spineless batting ,but had the batsmen showed a bit more application we could have easily won 2 more matches at the very least 

To be fair, the same bowling has let us down in some crunch situations as well (aided by poor captaincy and dropped catches). From 142-5 to 296 vs SA in 1st test

86/6 to 246 for England in 3rd test

177/6 to 332 in the 5th test

 

The what-ifs!

[R!TTER]

Yeah the bowling isn't blameless, otherwise we'd have won more matches abroad. I'll add that for test "specialists" we must get rid of IPL, no need to play them there, pay them extra retainer if need be.