"Selections without clarity and over-tactical thinking. Ind not a top test side" - Venky Prasad slams Gambhir

[tweaker]

From the squad selected for the test series ,11 could have been selected 

 

Jaiswal 

Rahul 

Sai

Gill

Pant

Paddikal 

Jadeja 

Sundar

Kuldeep 

Bumrah 

Siraj.

 

The team.selected had lots of wicket keepers and spin bowling allrounders 

 

Sundar should have bowled more.

Hope this selection problem is solved in 2nd test.

 

Gambhir will drop Kuldeep and select Sai

[putrevus]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

 

Some may call these things a coincidence or underplay them. But especially after the publicized CSA racism hearings, in a country with apartheid history, I think there was always tension between their white players and coloured/black ones. Even if not direct, there were groupings based on skin colour, mistrust, silent treatment etc. You just have to look at statements, gestures by guys like ABDV, Faf, Kock, Elgar to see that they don't even understand or acknowledge racial issues in their country. @rollingstoned @New guy @Lone Wolf @Lord Not even talking about their old players like Symcox, Dippenaar, Boucher. Kallis was once embroiled in a controversy over refusing to sing their national anthem and when questioned he didn't express any regret, some white South Africans hate their post apartheid anthem for obvious reasons. I remember seeing videos from 2010 FIFA WC where many white RSA fans would openly express their support for opponent teams, RSA football team (Bafana Bafana) is black dominated because for long, entry of blacks in other sports was blocked/restricted. Racism is a bigger issue with Afrikaaners (Dutch origin). 

 

Bavuma and Shukri Conrad have transformed RSA cricket completely in this respect, a united team now greater than sum of its parts.

They sure  have united them and Bavuma is slowly but surely becoming a good captain.Good for them SA should have more black players.

 

 

[Lord]

12 hours ago, Manucrick said:

Those losses hurts pujara more than  any others seniors because we won lots of matches at home because of him 

 

Ashwin, Jadeja, Pujara were architects of our home domination

[Lord]

4 hours ago, express bowling said:

1. 10 players selected themselves. Only one selection ... Axar ahead of Sai .... can be questioned.  But Sai is not at a stage where he is expected to score on such a tough pitch.

 

2. Not bowling Washington was a poor decision.

 

Venky not being objective here.

 

The real reasons for this loss are 1)  poor batting against spin  2) preparing such a shitty pitch when flat tracks are our strong point.

 

How did Jurel select himself as a pure bat?

[bowl_out]

4 hours ago, express bowling said:

1. 10 players selected themselves. Only one selection ... Axar ahead of Sai .... can be questioned.  But Sai is not at a stage where he is expected to score on such a tough pitch.

 

2. Not bowling Washington was a poor decision.

 

Venky not being objective here.

 

The real reasons for this loss are 1)  poor batting against spin  2) preparing such a shitty pitch when flat tracks are our strong point.

 

Few other problems:

3. Lack of clarity in selection when you bench most of your batsmen to play 3 all rounders and 2 wicket keepers.

4. Problem of plenty with bowling. When you have 6 bowlers, 1-2 bowlers will surely be under-bowled.. And with the recent maddening trend of not bowling off-spinners to RHB, Sundar didn't get to bowl at all during Bavuma's fighting innings

[express bowling]

36 minutes ago, Lord said:

 

How did Jurel select himself as a pure bat?

 

1. Jurel scored 2 centuries in the last A-team Unofficial Test.

 

2. Averages almost 56 after 31  FC games. Has a highest of 249.

 

3.  Is technically very good.

 

4. Scored a century in his penultimate test before this match. 

 

5. Before this test, he averaged 47+ in tests after 7 tests.

 

6. There is no other obvious better choice batter who was left out.

[AKane]

5 hours ago, express bowling said:

2. Not bowling Washington was a poor decision.

What about not bowling Siraj until the spinners could not get out the tail? Siraj bowled his first over in I2 after 51 overs were bowled. Took 2 wickets for 2 runs.

[NameGoesHere]

This is Gautam Gambhir.  Proud, touchy, but also very loyal.  Very Delhi/ North Indian type.  A Ready, Fire, Aim kinda guy. 

He was a Test player who served with honour, but my worry is that he lacks the patience and stamina for the long term and hence may unsuitable as a planner coach for Tests.  

 

Just look at his political career - he was served an opportunity in a player, a MP seat and gave it up, out of sheer disinterest or laziness or what I don’t know. 

[Bigg Brother]

Venky is bang on. This is mediocre test side, nothing more than that. 

[The Dark Horse]

More like brain dead thinking..Gambhir should gtfo at least from the test scheme of things.

[putrevus]

Pseudo allrounders never win tests matches consistently.

 

1980s to early 1990s is very good example.India technically had  lot of allrounders, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Madan, Lal, Manoj Prabhakar.Even guy like Sandhu had two fifties.

 

Guy like Chandrakanth Pandit who just like Jurel got in as batsman.Guess what he had FC avg of 48. India could bat till number 10. But it was horrible test side.

 

These bits and pieces players like Sundar , Jurel and Axar look good on paper but when it comes to winning they play zero role.

 

Indian started winning at home consistently when they had proper spinners like Kumble.

 

Ashwin and Jadeja walked into side as bowlers first their batting was bonus that is why India was unbeatable for decade at home.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2025 by putrevus

[Vk1]

1 hour ago, putrevus said:

Pseudo allrounders never win tests matches consistently.

 

1980s to early 1990s is very good example.India technically had  lot of allrounders, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Madan, Lal, Manoj Prabhakar.Even guy like Sandhu had two fifties.

 

Guy like Chandrakanth Pandit who just like Jurel got in as batsman.Guess what he had FC avg of 48. India could bat till number 10. But it was horrible test side.

 

These bits and pieces players like Sundar , Jurel and Axar look good on paper but when it comes to winning they play zero role.

 

Indian started winning at home consistently when they had proper spinners like Kumble.

 

Ashwin and Jadeja walked into side as bowlers first their batting was bonus that is why India was unbeatable for decade at home.

 

 

we tend to assume that next gen will automatically fill the long boots of previous gen and hence mediocre Rahane, KL Rahul etc got continuous backing to replace fab 4 and they failed more often than not. Likewise with Ashwin/Jadeja replacements we are trying to force fit

[putrevus]

34 minutes ago, Vk1 said:

we tend to assume that next gen will automatically fill the long boots of previous gen and hence mediocre Rahane, KL Rahul etc got continuous backing to replace fab 4 and they failed more often than not. Likewise with Ashwin/Jadeja replacements we are trying to force fit

It is pathetic that this bozo  KL Rahul is still playing today,

[AKane]

I am not sure we can beat SL in SL next year.

 

SL batting is not what it used to be but I am not sure our batters can handle SL spinners on SL wickets either.

 

Hasaranga and company are as good as Kolpak Harmer at least.

 

Edited November 18, 2025 by AKane

[AKane]

7 hours ago, putrevus said:

It is pathetic that this bozo  KL Rahul is still playing today,

The peerless KL cannot open.  He is somewhat tolerable in the middle order.

[AKane]

8 hours ago, putrevus said:

Pseudo allrounders never win tests matches consistently.

 

1980s to early 1990s is very good example.India technically had  lot of allrounders, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Madan, Lal, Manoj Prabhakar.Even guy like Sandhu had two fifties.

 

I agree with you .... bits and pieces players don't work out in Test cricket unlike LOIs.

 

However... however... Please do not mention Kapil Dev with Shastri, Binny, Madan Lal and Prabhakar. He was not one of them. He was not a "Pseudo" allrounder either.

[putrevus]

1 hour ago, AKane said:

I agree with you .... bits and pieces players don't work out in Test cricket unlike LOIs.

 

However... however... Please do not mention Kapil Dev with Shastri, Binny, Madan Lal and Prabhakar. He was not one of them. He was not a "Pseudo" allrounder either.

Kapil walked into that team as bowler, He is still greatest cricketer still from India

 

One great allrounder like Kapil would have lent great balance but he was sorrounded by lots of bits and pieces players ruining balance of those teams.

 

Now Jadeja is good allrounder but he is being surrounded lots of bits and pieces ruining the balance.

[tweaker]

Under Gambhir ' era certain players are backed ie Harshit,Reddy,Axar, and some players are thrown out.

 

Gambhir should have backed Sarfaraz, Eashwaran, but he opted for Sai,Paddikal to block their places in the squad. 

[Suhaan]

Batting on good wickets make you play better even on minefields as confidence plays it's part

Doesn't mean you play your domestics on good pitches and suddenly come to play a test against a well oiled side on a difficult pitch

This is combination of so many things ,bad team combination,bad strip, Captain not coming out to bolster confidence in his mates etc

Just don't look at the 4th innings,our first innings was also pure pathetic,were we chasing there?1-2 batsmen should have scored 40+ ,50+ and we could have been 70-80runs ahead

Match was 60 percent lost there,pressure or no pressure they can't hold their own in these wickets,none of them not a single batsman takes responsibility and scores tough 50 or 70 on such surfaces irrespective of innings 

There will be losses but repeating same mistakes is outright crime

Talk about our peak,there too we struggled on such surfaces,our bowling was pure class which kept us in the game,not  same anymore 

This is a perennial problem for us,if I go back post Ganguly Laxman we have been piss poor quality spin players

Edited November 19, 2025 by Suhaan

[AKane]

I think for some reason India got a reputation as good players of spin because India played Warne very very well and played Murali okay.

 

I have seen India struggle against Derek Underwood and Grieg  struggle against Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Qasim, struggle against   Saqlain and Mushtaq.

 

Trick is to use 2 or more spinners in India. Feed to the Indians what they feed to others. Don't have Warne and Kasprowicz bowling. Have Panesar and Swann bowling. Don't come here with only Nathan Lyon. Bring Lyon and a couple more spinners like Murphy or Kuhneman or whatever his name is. Play Santner and the other 2 Kiwi spinners. Etc.

 

Heck even Gambhir, Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly lost a test and drew home series 1-1  to Pak with a spin bowling attack of Kaneria and Shahid Afridi in 2005.

 

 

Edited November 19, 2025 by AKane