How to fit Iyer in T20is

[Sooda]

Seems a matter of when and not if now given his IPL form

 

Need Jaiswal in as well

 

Harsh on Samson but we Could get Jitesh in to keep instead and bat at 7/8:

 

Abhishek, Jaiswal, Sky, Iyer, Tilak, Hardik, Axar, Jitesh, Arshdeep, Bumrah, Varun

 

Iyer should be captain too but that would be an incredibly bold move for our very conservative selectors

 

Edited June 1, 2025 by Sooda

[Ultimate_Game]

Abhishek

Jaiswal

Tilak/SKY (pick one though I prefer Tilak. SKY is a fair-weather batter who won't show up in big matches)

Iyer (c)

Axar

Rahul/Jitesh (wk) (these are the only 2 wk who can bat lower down the order. Can't play Samson coz Jaiswal and Abhishek are both better openers)

Pandya (vc)

Nitish/Parag/Vipraj Nigam (bowl 2-3 overs and can bat giving us batting depth till 8, which is a non-negotiable. Pick Nitish for pace, and Parag or Vipraj for turners)

Arshdeep

Bumrah

Varun C

 

Others in the Squad:

Rinku

Samson

Harshit/in-form pacer

Others mentioned in the XI who're vying for the same spot and aren't selected.

Edited June 1, 2025 by Ultimate_Game

[Sooda]

26 minutes ago, Ultimate_Game said:

Abhishek

Jaiswal

Tilak/SKY (pick one though I prefer Tilak. SKY is a fair-weather batter who won't show up in big matches)

Iyer (c)

Axar

Rahul/Jitesh (wk) (these are the only 2 wk who can bat lower down the order. Can't play Samson coz Jaiswal and Abhishek are both better openers)

Pandya (vc)

Nitish/Parag/Vipraj Nigam (bowl 2-3 overs and can bat giving us batting depth till 8, which is a non-negotiable. Pick Nitish for pace, and Parag or Vipraj for turners)

Arshdeep

Bumrah

Varun C

 

Others in the Squad:

Rinku

Samson

Harshit/in-form pacer

Others mentioned in the XI who're vying for the same spot and aren't selected.

 

I like this squad because of the additional bowling option in Parag or Nigam, however I don't think we can or should drop both Sky and Tilak. 

[Ultimate_Game]

1 minute ago, Sooda said:

 

I like this squad because of the additional bowling option in Parag or Nigam, however I don't think we can or should drop both Sky and Tilak. 

 

I said one of the two. It's either Tilak or SKY batting at 3 though my preference is Tilak. I prefer multi-skilled cricketers and that's why want likes of Abhishek, Parag, Nigam and Nitish coz they can give you couple of overs each.

[vvvslaxman]

I think we have to build a unit with absolute role clarity and also a team that can handle both spin pitch and pacy pitch. In order to do that we need all rounders as well. Axar patel's place may be under threat if Abhishek starts bowling.

 

ABhishek   (bowling)

Samson

Tilak

SKY

Shreyas

Paragh/Reddy  (bowling)

Pandya (bowling)

Vipraj (bowling)

Bumrah (bowling)

Arshdeep (bowling)

SIraj/Prasidh/Rana (bowling)

 

That gives you 7 bowlers. 8 batsmen. All of them can hit monsterous sixes.

 

 

 

 

[vvvslaxman]

 

Finishers

 

Wadhera

Naman Dhir

Shashanak
Asutosh

Rinku Singh

Ramandeep singh

 

Of these guys Wadhera, Naman Dhir, Ramandeep can bowl a bit.

 

 

[tapandrun]

So Ind's high scoring has come because of few reason 1st which is obvious playing t20 format specific batters and Ind has them in plenty specially for top3 position, 2nd providing security to the batter that they can have bad days and still be picked in the team, 3rd following the v.good and proven template at this point in time that amongst top 3 atleast 1 should be able to bowl of some kind contribute 2-3 over and amongst top 3 there should be a wkt. and 4th because of multiple bowling options Ind now bats deep.

 

Now compare to Ind's odi pattern they donot have multiple bowling options so they do not bat deep and plays v.conservative cricket even in ct 25 which INd won , we all knew there is point beyond which they can not chase and there is point beyond which they can not set-up a target. 

 

Even when its should have been an easy chase in the finals Ind looked under pressure and rohit's innings provided the cushion and even then kl was doing something with bricks (his words).

 

Now if TM keep changing and chopping the player after each series and failure will they have security or they will fall in same play conservative trap to keep their places.

Its v.sure TM would be eager to bring GIll in t20i mix and we all know which position he plays and he plays there bcoz rohit bhai plays there.

 

On to Iyer -- Where does he play, its#3/4 which means either Verma or Sky goes out. You can pick any1 which he can replace.

 

Some here suggested dropping sanju and getting jitesh in and play him as finisher, do not think he is intnl. quality finisher he has struggled to hit 6s mostly lobbing the ball up when trying to hit boundaries, only this season he had 1 good innings where he was hitting multiple 6s consistency.

The idea of having wkt keeper bat at opening slot is to give them full freedom to go from ball 1 maximize the pp and its kind of sacrificial batter  or have wkt play as finisher because of same reason. And the idea behind this is some wkt-keeper would not be as good a batter to play in mo and keep hitting ball for 6s.

 

If you have some1 like pooran, kalsen who are legit hitters in the middle order then its okay.

 

More and more players should be in rotation as some1 can lose form any time and kind of cricket Ind is trying to play they will need it, so now would say it would be between gill, verma, sky (even though he is captain but nt a high value asset for the board as they are trying to build gill for it) and iyer. would keep iyer above gill.

 

here is the mo (in the order of preference not batting order) Sky, Verma, Iyer, Gill.

 

Even picking the opening slot is hard today there are guys like jaiswal, abhishek, sanju, Arya. Add prab and sai to it as well.

 

As suggested above time is to invest and figure out finisher Ind never had a good or even any kind of finisher some1 who can add those extra 20-25 runs and case down 15-20 runs in last 6 balls if needed.

 

not related to the topic but vipraj looks good prospect for a leg-spinner, in the list of the leggies Ind have do not think any-1 has any kind of obvious advantage over the other bowler and they are v.similar in term of production and impact. here vipraj looks good over all player to easily fit in to the playing 11 , his inclusion will only increase the strength of the team overall without hampering in any section --fielding/bowling or batting

  

 

 

 

[vvvslaxman]

[Ultimate_Game]

44 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

 

Iyer anna! 

 

Deserves to be the captain and BCCI and Indian selectors had such an easy call to make and somehow they phuck it up 

[Gollum]

Why is SKY an automatic starter? When has he ever shown up in big games. If we need someone to just bully minnows, we can find 30 other players from the IPL pool. 

[Gollum]

As long as Rutu and Gill don't open in 26 WC, or we don't indulge in pitch tampering a la Nov 19, we should win the trophy. 

[rkt.india]

25 minutes ago, Gollum said:

As long as Rutu and Gill don't open in 26 WC, or we don't indulge in pitch tampering a la Nov 19, we should win the trophy. 

There was no pitch tempering in 19.

[Gollum]

Just now, rkt.india said:

There was no pitch tempering in 19.

Why would Kaif lie?

[rkt.india]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

Why would Kaif lie?

Was kaif in team management? Final was played on same pitch as Pak game and it played same way in both the games. So where is the pitch tempering when the pitch played same as previously?

[rkt.india]

30 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Why is SKY an automatic starter? When has he ever shown up in big games. If we need someone to just bully minnows, we can find 30 other players from the IPL pool. 

You are short sighted. IPL stats are meaningless when it comes to T20Is. Iyer after 51 t20Is has a Strike rate of 136. SKY on the other 167 after 83 games. Koi comparison hi nahi hai. Aur T20s me koi minnow nahi hota. 

[Manucrick]

Drop sky and play iyer simple 

[Sooda]

7 hours ago, Ultimate_Game said:

 

I said one of the two. It's either Tilak or SKY batting at 3 though my preference is Tilak. I prefer multi-skilled cricketers and that's why want likes of Abhishek, Parag, Nigam and Nitish coz they can give you couple of overs each.

 

Yeah sorry. I meant I think we should play both 

 

Though I do agree we need to groom multi skilled players 

 

India need to bowl Abhishek and Tilak more they can be that 6th bowling option, just need one or two tidy overs. 

[rkt.india]

11 minutes ago, Manucrick said:

Drop sky and play iyer simple 

Yeah drop sky who has a t20I SR of 167 with someone having T20I SR of 136.

[cowboysfan]

straight swap- Iyer for Rinku.

[Nikhil_cric]

Gill 

Sai

Iyer

SKY

Abhishek(allrounder)

Jaiswal

Sanju(keeper)

KL(keeper)

Pant(keeper)

Parag( allrounder)

Dube(allrounder)

Tilak

 

How do you construct a Top 6 with these many options? Rinku should no longer be in contention imo 

 

Likes of Vaibhav , Priyansh, Mhatre are closing in as well.

 

I'd go

 

Abhishek 

Sai

Iyer

SKY

keeper 

Parag/Dube

 

It's one way you can maybe include Iyer. But Tilak Varma will be the sacrificial lamb in that case.