Test team : The way forward !!

[lemsip]

7 minutes ago, Lord said:

ofcourse the seniors need to be booted but there are better options than Sarfaraz. 

 

We saw how out of depth he looked once the ball started swinging/spinning even in NZ series. He can handle spin I guess but not sure about pace/bounce and swing. One look at his technique and you can understand this. 

 

He'll get his chances now and I'll be happy to be proven wrong. But to me he seems suited for Indian pitches and ODIs

 

 

He is hungry and motivated so I would give him a chance to prove the doubters wrong by adapting his game. Not giving a performing player opportunities just based on preconceptions is never a good signal. For one I would encourage him to play county cricket this summer as he is not involved in the IPL and see how he develops his game.

[deathmonger]

1 hour ago, rkt.india said:

Indian test team going forward will be declining steadily. We don't have any good quality young test batsmen in sight. Bowling also has holes even at home.

naah India will always be a top team. Will be a transition like in 2011-15 but will be good soon.

[bowl_out]

I would even bring back Rahane is required if that helps dropping Kohli and Rohit.

 

Jaiswal

Easwaran (back up Ruturaj)

Sai

Sarfaraz 

Rahane (vc)

NKR/Sundar

Pant (wk)

SaiKishore 

Prasidh 

Akash/Siraj

Bumrah(c)

 

Back up: 

Pradosh Ranjan

Jurel

Kotian

 

 

[First class]

6 hours ago, Chaos said:

Only one way forward. Deny entry back to india to everyone minus pant, boom, jaiswal. Rest of them can go live in pakistan with @First class

 

Son, looks like you're skipping your dose of lithium lately, going through relapse ? 

[Majestic]

4 hours ago, deepdynamo said:

 

Still believe bowling was decent.

 

Its all on the seniors batsman.

 

Rohit ans Kohli were nonsense and non existent all throughout.

 

KL tapered off, once again.

 

Pant had cute 30's and 40's but nothing much. Same with Gill.

 

You can't win any series with almost entire top order non performing.

Those two players right.

 

But In this test match, Rohit didn’t played. It was a bowling shootout and they had better and more fitter pacers than ours. Look at how we started this inning. Wild, extremely wild bowling, spraying down leg or bowling short. Luckily Kontas threw his wicket and post that the two pacers finally settle in. Siraj was still spraying. 
 

Blame is on both- batters and bowlers. Bumrah was superb, Jaiswal was good and perhaps Nitish Reddy was decent. But rest were poor.

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, First class said:

Son, looks like you're skipping your dose of lithium lately, going through relapse ? 

[Chaos]

7 hours ago, Chaos said:

Only one way forward. Deny entry back to india to everyone minus pant, boom, jaiswal. Rest of them can go live in pakistan with @First class

 

@Vicks57 what ya think?

[saransh]

I would probably play

Jaiswal 

KL 

Sai

Jurel

Pant

NKR

Sundar

Shami (if he is fit)

Arshdeep (need to groom if for tests)

Bumrah 

Siraj 

[BacktoCricaddict]

9 hours ago, Sooda said:

Musheer is promising but needs a lot more experience on A tours.

 

Easwaran unfortunately struggled Vs Aus A, we can't invest in home bullies 

 

England series:

 

KL

Jaiswal 

Sai

Gill

Jurel 

NKR

Pant 

M Suthar

Akash

Bumrah 

Siraj

 

Mukesh Kumar 

Arshdeep Singh (?)

Harshit 

Kuldeep 

Devdutt 

Sarfaraz

 

 

 

Kotian as much as Suthar should be in contention.

[BacktoCricaddict]

(1) With the exception of Jaiswal and Bumrah, every other position should be up for grabs. Yes, even Pant (coming from the biggest Pant fanboy that I am).

 

(2) Form, form, form. There is a long way to go before the next test match. Find guys who have been at the top of the FC game (esp Duleep/Irani/A-matches) for a year or two and see how they are performing in red-ball cricket close to selection time. Pick based on that with no concern for history beyond that (no more of "he played so well at Lords in 2015 or whatever)!

 

Off the top of my head, here's a pool of guys to keep an eye on

 

Top order

Jaiswal

Sudarshan

Gill

Jurel

Sarfaraz

Musheer

Paul?

Rahul

 

Middle order/All-rounders

Pant

Rinku

NKR

Sundar

Axar Patel

Kotian

Suthar?

Bawa?

 

Pace

Bumrah

Rana

Prasidh

Siraj

M Yadav

Mukesh

Arshdeep + another left-arm seam guy

Tyagi

Shami (added in edit)

Spin

Kuldeep Yadav

Sai Kishore

Bishnoi (can't think of any other wrist leggie)

Saurabh Kumar

 

TBH, it's a bit depressing typing this list, esp wrt to bowling. Just not seeing any exciting new prospects.

 

Edited January 5, 2025 by BacktoCricaddict

[figo6762]

Need to build a team without bumrah , shami .. bumrah  , shami is a bonus not a given 

 

Imo only 3 players write themselves in from the current eleven 

Jaiswal , Pant , NKR

 

 

The team we will get Eng series might be the same team in Sydney with Shami 

 

 

[The Dark Horse]

My 15 member squad to England 

Jaiswal

Rahul

Ruturaj

Sai Sudharshan 

Jurel

Pujara 

Nitish Reddy

Washington Sundar

Pant (VC)

Axar Patel

Shami

Siraj

Prasidh

Bumrah (C)

Arshdeep Singh

Edited January 5, 2025 by The Dark Horse

[maniac]

Mukesh Kumar can be our Boland in SENA.

[First class]

3 hours ago, Chaos said:

@Vicks57 what ya think?

Considering the state of Pakistan team , other than Sharma and Kohli in current form , all others in current India team will make the playing 11 in Pakistan tests side. 

[BacktoCricaddict]

4 hours ago, bowl_out said:

I would even bring back Rahane is required if that helps dropping Kohli and Rohit.

 

Jaiswal

Easwaran (back up Ruturaj)

Sai

Sarfaraz 

Rahane (vc)

NKR/Sundar

Pant (wk)

SaiKishore 

Prasidh 

Akash/Siraj

Bumrah(c)

 

Back up: 

Pradosh Ranjan

Jurel

Kotian

 

 

I don't think Rahane's recent FC record is impressive.

[Chaos]

18 minutes ago, First class said:

Considering the state of Pakistan team , other than Sharma and Kohli in current form , all others in current India team will make the playing 11 in Pakistan tests side. 

Are u @Vicks57? 

[Muloghonto]

My thoughts on the matter:

1. I agree with all who say that 'only Bumrah and Jaiswal are safe, all others are up for grabs'.

 

2. However, realistically, Indian team or any other team doesnt fire half the team and replace them with 4-5 debutants in one go, so there has to be some sensibility of that into account as well. This means, i think its realistic to have a list of 'must go' and a list of 'should go, but need to stay coz of timing/no one better yet'.

 

3. I want good management of Pant - there are warning signs already that it wont be wise to overwork him as a MSD or a Gilly and get him to play every game everywhere as wicketkeeper with skyhigh batting expectations.
We are blessed with a timing of several good wicketkeeper bats in India, most prominently, Jurel and its high time we started rotating Pant with Jurel to both distribute workload and create bench strength. That being said, it may be a scenario now where the Indian team's batting is so dire that both Jurel and Pant may need to play at the same time, but either way,we should not give up on Jurel and play him as a backup keeper who plays 25-33% of the matches.

 

Having said that, this is what i think the playing XI should look like for England as base template: 

 

Jaiswal

Rahul**

Gill**

????

????

Pant/Jurel

Jadeja

Reddy/???

Shami/AkashDeep

Bumrah(capt)

Siraj

 

My rationale : in the top six Indian order, Kohli and Rohit  **MUST** go. That means Rahul & Gill fall under the 'should go, but have to stay coz team aint putting 4 newbies in the top 6 that would be stupid'.

I prefer playing an extra batsman and pushing Pant/Jurel down to 6, which is ideal position for him.

The team needs one spinner at least and Jadeja is best candidate - he isnt great shakes as spinner in England but he is fairly economical there ( going at less than 2.75 per over there) and is a proven lower order bat there, with 1 century and 3 fifties, he provides the spin 4th/5th bowler option + lower middle order stability quite well.

 

Reddy has on paper earned a place in the team for sure, especially for England, where his 125kph dibbly dobblies can be useful if he can generate decent movement and keep decent line and if he can do a good job, he can fill in the 4th bowler role well, but i am not sure if his bowling will see the required improvement for him to get a 4th bowler job and then it may come down to Nitish OR jadeja if Kuldeep is fit, but if Kuldeep isnt fit, Jadeja must be the default spinner for India by choice i think.
If however, Reddy's bowling is good enough to be the 4th seamer in England, then it should be a BOTH of Reddy+Jaddu playing and we creating a 'South Africa of the late 90s' type of batting depth going all the way to #8.

 

The next 3 selections are self-explanatory, there is also a scenario of 'could do better but no one better' in the whole Siraj case and if Shami is fit, Shami makes the team as well.

 

[bowl_out]

1 hour ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

I don't think Rahane's recent FC record is impressive.

He had a good SMAT.. Not following his FC scores recently.

Looks like Iyer has been scoring for Mumbai.

Edited January 5, 2025 by bowl_out

[Ultimate_Game]

47 minutes ago, Vicks57 said:

 

NRI Kohli will love it in Pakistan. He has too many fans in Pakistan than in India 

 

Looks like you haven't seen average Indian fans at home. You'll see "King" Kohli and "Hitman" Rohit everywhere. These fans don't care about performances. They just want to see their "stars". For them cricket is just like a movie and performances are optional.

[Ultimate_Game]

Just now, Vicks57 said:

 

When will we get rid of celebrity culture?

 

But it's common in other parts of the world as well.

 

Ronaldo fans, Messi fans, Federer fans, Nadal fans, Djokovic fans, Kobe fans, Lebron fans. Not to mention the obsession with cinema stars and their personal lives around the world.

 

I've given up and it's not gonna happen. We're destined to be an average team which punches much below our weight and underperforms. My last trip to India was an eye opener. Nearly every other Indian is a huge Kohli fan and when you discuss or debate with them regarding he hasn't done much and not delivered anywhere close to the hype he has, those people don't have any response other than get angry.

 

They actually blame all and sundry, including Bumrah for the King's inability to win anything. The kind of excuses and mental gymnastics they do to find excuses for the "King" is mind boggling. So yeah nothing much will change and you'll see Kohli playing in WC 2027 even if he continues to fail throughout till 2027.