Time to use LOI bilaterals to develop and try out players

[zen]

In the past, when the # of games played was less, there was no IPL, and ICC multi team events were limited to WC and CT, bilaterals had some charm esp. if played b/w stronger and/or evenly matched sides. It appears as if now many fans are more focused on Tests (including WTC), ICC events and IPL (it has got its own window too in the calendar). 

 

I am not sure if many even care if Aus or Ind wins in ODIs/T20s .... May be it is time to use LOI bilaterals to develop and try out players

 

The thought of having to watch Dhawan and Rohit (thankfully not playing in LOIs) opening with Kohli at 3 and youngsters warming the bench (or just played way down the order), makes we want to not watch these games .... I would be more interested in seeing how a Samson performs (potentially an exhibition of exciting strokeplay) in the top order in Australia. What a SKY could have done with his 360 degrees skills. How SDP (Hardik) would take on the bowlers playing in the top 4 (or even opening). And so on .... 

 

Let's look at the LOI squad for the bilaterals in Aus, the ones highlighted in green are the ones I would be more excited to see (Bumrah & Shami should be rested so they remain fresh for the potentially gruelling test series): 

 

ODIs: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-capt, wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Sanju Samson (wk)

 

T20Is: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-capt, wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan

 

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by zen

[Adamant]

No, bilaterals are important. 

Wasim Akram is referred as the GOAT for those 500 wkts and not just for his performance in world cups. (actually in world cups zaheer khan and malinga have a better record). 

 

Its time to relaunch tri series, an odi series between England, aus and Ind will be one hell of a blockbuster. 

 

ECB and CA should drop their dismissive attitude towards bilaterals, new ideas should be implemented to gain the losing interest. Bilaterals are a big part of cricket and atleast a majority of indians religiously follow bilaterals. 

[zen]

10 minutes ago, Adamant said:

Wasim Akram is referred as the GOAT for those 500 wkts and not just for his performance in world cups. (actually in world cups zaheer khan and malinga have a better record). 

 

Just the total # of career wkts has nothing to do with someone being termed as GOAT bowler (there are factors like averages, SR, ER, and so on). Akram has performed in various tri-series/multi teams events as well including in Sharjah, which were quite common when he played .... the discussion here is considering the current situation (including the need to develop players so teams do well in major events, which are far more common now v in the past) .... this is about the way forward (not the past) as highlighted in the opening line of the OP - "In the past, when the # of games played was less, there was no IPL, and ICC multi team events were limited to WC and CT, bilaterals had some charm esp. if played b/w stronger and/or evenly matched sides."

 

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by zen

[Ankit_sharma03]

It shud neways be the case now that their are so many crappy teams.