Cricket

Some fascinating series results over the last few months.

England beat Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka beat New Zealand. New Zealand beat India. India beat Bangladesh. Bangladesh beat Pakistan. Pakistan beat England.

I think test cricket is as close as its ever been, you could argue it’s top level has dropped though.
 
Sarfaraz does not make runs any time it's needed.

He's either bashing in a big first innings lead or in a lost cause.
 
zing said:
Sarfaraz does not make runs any time it's needed.

He's either bashing in a big first innings lead or in a lost cause.
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Probably because we're always under some form of pressure when hes in. Our top order is a fecking joke and has been for ages.
 
In the team that played the second test vs NZ, I still fail to see who the “anchor” was going to be. Kohli, KL both talk about being “anchors” for their T20 teams, but I don’t understand why they don’t do a better job of it in test matches.

India moved on from Dravid and eventually Pujara took over the role. I don’t think Gill has it in him to grind the opposition. Kohli and KL are shadows of themselves. What were the selectors and team management thinking about this role when they picked this squad?
 
iKnowNothing said:
In the team that played the second test vs NZ, I still fail to see who the “anchor” was going to be. Kohli, KL both talk about being “anchors” for their T20 teams, but I don’t understand why they don’t do a better job of it in test matches.

India moved on from Dravid and eventually Pujara took over the role. I don’t think Gill has it in him to grind the opposition. Kohli and KL are shadows of themselves. What were the selectors and team management thinking about this role when they picked this squad?
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Isn’t one in Indian cricket right now. We got lucky with Pujara. No such player in domestic cricket with the quality.
 
Gill deserved a century there. I feel like he's a more natural number 4 than a 3.
 
Wow they’ve lost it, whitewashed at home. I thought India would chase this down. Amazing from NZ. When was the last time that happened in India?

Edit - it’s the first time since 1999-2000 when SA won 2-0.
 
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TheGame said:
Wow they’ve lost it, whitewashed at home. I thought India would chase this down. Amazing from NZ. When was the last time that happened in India?

Edit - it’s the first time since 1999-2000 when SA won 2-0.
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And first ever 3-0 :lol: utter humiliation

Stunning achievement for NZ though, they did it without fuss, just went about their business
 
TheGame said:
Kohli’s form has fallen off a cliff. What has happened to him?
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He's been a good/average test player for most of his career. He had a four year spell he was great and one of the best but other than that he hasn't been great. It's between him, Viv and Sachin as to best white ball player but in tests he's been outside of the best for most of his career.
 
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So stunned by this, this is one of the biggest upsets of my lifetime. Can I just say that this was an embarrassing cricket pitch and that should not be ignored in the madness
 
Wow. A nightmare series for India and a dream series for New Zealand. India have to be worried about their senior players going into the Australia series. There’s a little bit of England 13/14 about this series, all time great team that just collapses on itself very abruptly.

If Sharma and Kohli don’t have a good series in Australia there’s going to be a lot of pressure on them.
 
hasanejaz88 said:
He's been a good/average test player for most of his career. He had a four year spell he was great and one of the best but other than that he hasn't been great, it's between him, Viv and Sachin as to best white ball player but in tests he's been outside of the best for most of his career.
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His 48 average accurately reflects the player he has been. The media likes to pretend he’s in the mid 50s.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Wow. A nightmare series for India and a dream series for New Zealand. India have to be worried about their senior players going into the Australia series. There’s a little bit of England 13/14 about this series, all time great team that just collapses on itself very abruptly.

If Sharma and Kohli don’t have a good series in Australia there’s going to be a lot of pressure on them.
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Sharma seems doubtful for the first test, personal reasons
 
MDFC Manager said:
Sharma seems doubtful for the first test, personal reasons
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If whoever replaces him scores loads of runs does he come back in? Pretty much the worst possible prep for 5 tests in Australia, the scrutiny is going to be huge.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
If whoever replaces him scores loads of runs does he come back in? Pretty much the worst possible prep for 5 tests in Australia, the scrutiny is going to be huge.
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They’ve picked a guy who has been consistent in Ranji for two years and he will be making his debut. He just got a couple of double digit scores in a tour game versus Australia A. I think Rohit’s position is safe.

The real threat to him would’ve been if they picked Sai Sudarshan. He’s a newer player on the horizon but just put up 100 in the same tour game.

I think he should play 3 and Gill moves to 4 as someone above said.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
If whoever replaces him scores loads of runs does he come back in? Pretty much the worst possible prep for 5 tests in Australia, the scrutiny is going to be huge.
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I don't think they'll upset the apple cart during that series. Perhaps after it.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Wow. A nightmare series for India and a dream series for New Zealand. India have to be worried about their senior players going into the Australia series. There’s a little bit of England 13/14 about this series, all time great team that just collapses on itself very abruptly.

If Sharma and Kohli don’t have a good series in Australia there’s going to be a lot of pressure on them.
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The actual balance of the Indian team is very good. 6 Batsmen, 2 genuine all rounders and then 3 bowlers. The problem is most of the team is just horribly off form, most notably all of the batsmen with the exception of probably Pant. They need to start discovering that form really quickly as there is more pressure away to Australia. A catastrophic series over there and I can see people like Kohli retiring for good from test cricket.
 
MDFC Manager said:
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I don't like to blame coach this soon to his tenure but questions have to be asked. Is he even a good test coach, just because he won IPL with kkr. Why not make him white ball coach then have dravid continue with the test side. Not sure what will happen now. From test pov this is one of the lowest moments in Indian cricket history.

Anyways for me rohit Kohli are to blame more than a recently appointed coach. Our batting was vulnerable for long now. The bowlers were bailing us out.
 
zing said:
They’ve picked a guy who has been consistent in Ranji for two years and he will be making his debut. He just got a couple of double digit scores in a tour game versus Australia A. I think Rohit’s position is safe.

The real threat to him would’ve been if they picked Sai Sudarshan. He’s a newer player on the horizon but just put up 100 in the same tour game.

I think he should play 3 and Gill moves to 4 as someone above said.
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The positive for India is they aren’t short on skilled replacements, problem is the politics that comes with dropping such big names.
 
AshRK said:
I don't like to blame coach this soon to his tenure but questions have to be asked. Is he even a good test coach, just because he won IPL with kkr. Why not make him white ball coach then have dravid continue with the test side. Not sure what will happen now. From test pov this is one of the lowest moments in Indian cricket history.

Anyways for me rohit Kohli are to blame more than a recently appointed coach. Our batting was vulnerable for long now. The bowlers were bailing us out.
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Yes I don't disagree with you, especially the last part. Bowlers have bailed us out with both bat and ball for close to a decade now.
 
TheGame said:
Wow they’ve lost it, whitewashed at home. I thought India would chase this down. Amazing from NZ. When was the last time that happened in India?

Edit - it’s the first time since 1999-2000 when SA won 2-0.
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I was in Wankhede for that match too.. we lost in 3 days..
some things never change.
 
Ridiculous result for NZ - really looking forward to the England series over there next month now.

India wise, tempted to say don't panic...But they will, and that's usually a recipe for disaster going to Australia.

3-1.
 
Utd heap said:
Ridiculous result for NZ - really looking forward to the England series over there next month now.

India wise, tempted to say don't panic...But they will, and that's usually a recipe for disaster going to Australia.

3-1.
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no shami most likely. 5-0
 
I don’t think India have any more tests home till next Sep/Oct. I have a feeling some of the bigger names have played their last home test. Ashwin most likely, probably one of Rohit and Kohli. Jadeja might stick around for another season or two.
 
iKnowNothing said:
I don’t think India have any more tests home till next Sep/Oct. I have a feeling some of the bigger names have played their last home test. Ashwin most likely, probably one of Rohit and Kohli. Jadeja might stick around for another season or two.
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I can't see Rohit or Kohli going anywhere for a while.

BCCI reluctantly moved on from Tendulkar and co because they already had Kohli & Dhoni to take over as the commercial faces of Indian cricket. They don't have anyone yet - Jaiswal is just a year in his career, Gill hasn't established himself as a star outside of ODIs and Pant has question marks over him in the LO format.
 
zing said:
no shami most likely. 5-0
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I think India have the pace resources to really cause issues for Australia in Australia. Don't forget that Australia have their batting issues too and I would fancy Bumrah to do some real damage there, India also have a varied batting line up that can keep them competitive in many situations.
 
AneRu said:
I think India have the pace resources to really cause issues for Australia in Australia. Don't forget that Australia have their batting issues too and I would fancy Bumrah to do some real damage there, India also have a varied batting line up that can keep them competitive in many situations.
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Maybe but bowlers also need some scoreboard pressure to help them out. If your batting line ups getting bundled out for low scores, it's really hard for them to build any consistent pressure.

And bowling at really high intensity to artificially create some pressure on the batting line up is very tiring - especially if the wicket itself doesn't offer a whole lot of support.
 
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