2023 ICC Cricket World Cup (October/November) - India

[icyman]

Anti Mike Hesson

View attachment 287065

Ha Ha Ha!

Among those who had predicted an Indian win, this guy and the '1987 theory guy were the most popular. to the extent that Times of India kept posting articles before each game. Btw, I read somewhere, this fellow deleted his Twitter profile after the loss

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Ha Ha Ha!

Among those who had predicted an Indian win, this guy and the '1987 theory guy were the most popular. to the extent that Times of India kept posting articles before each game. Btw, I read somewhere, this fellow deleted his Twitter profile after the loss

Greenstone lobo?

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Poor Neesham

 

[icyman]

Greenstone lobo?

Yes, Greenstone.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Yes, Greenstone.

I remember he rose to fame when he used to write those predictions for DNA back in 2010-11 days and successful predicted 2011 WC win.

He went onto to say India won't win another title again under Dhoni after 2013 which turned out to be true.

But ever since then seems like he got it all wrong predictions of RCB and India winning under Kohli etc..

 

[icyman]

Greenstone seemed spot on until the Final. I think he also predicted the last 2 FIFA World Cups correctly. Well, might have been a fault in the stars of too much interference from the Supreme Leader yesterday

 

[asprin]

they shouldn't be getting another final in the next ten years

You do know that's something that would not be acceptable. There's a reason it was named after the PM.

 

[icyman]

You do know that's something that would not be acceptable. There's a reason it was named after the PM.

They are trying for the 2036 Olympics. If Jay Shah is ousted, which will happen in all likelihood in the near future- I expect Anurag Singh Thakur to come back to the BCCI. That would mean more games for Dharamsala, but at least, the board will be in better hands than Shah.

 

[asprin]

If Jay Shah is ousted, which will happen in all likelihood in the near future

Interesting, why do you think so?

 

[harishankar]

Here's some stats that I noticed on seeing the history of the world cup:

Since 1987, Australia have played in 7 finals out of 10 and won 6. Amazing record.
Since 1979, there has only been a single final (2019) between sides that wasn't either Australia or a subcontinent side.
For an unbroken period from 1992 until 2011, every World Cup final has featured at least one subcontinent side.
Until 2011, no team has won in their home country, the streak since began in India and ended in India.
Australia and India are the only teams to win the World Cup with both red and white ball.
Apart from Australia, the World Cup has been dominated by the subcontinent teams, with India featuring in finals 4 times (winning two), Sri Lanka thrice (winning once) Pakistan twice (winning one).

 

[icyman]

Interesting, why do you think so?

Shah seems to have made a few enemies at the BCCI. Previously too, there have been cases of politically strong candidates helming BCCI/ State Associations, but in this case, it has gone a bit too far. The power centers have shifted to Ahmedabad and it seems a lot of focus has gone away from cricket. Indian performances(bar the current one) have been sub-par. While the BCCI coffers have grown, there seems to be a fair bit of resentment. Shah should make way, in order to keep the other associations happy. If Ugra's article is to be believed, he is a one-man army taking all the decisions- this is what has earned him a lot of enemies.

 

[Neo 7]

Meanwhile me shamefully waiting for squad announcement for the series starting on 23rd

 

[harishankar]

Anyhow, here's my personal analysis:

All things considered and in hindsight, emulating Dhoni was going to be the toughest ask for any Indian captain, because Dhoni was a blip in a radar, who transformed India in world champions in the limited overs format. Since the 90s, India have always had teams of talented, but over-hyped, underachieving performers and this trend has returned after Dhoni's era. Only under Ganguly we saw some success starting in overseas Test Cricket, but even Ganguly couldn't win a World Cup. His team was just a bit too inconsistent...

Rohit Sharma seemed to me the best possible opportunity to reverse the trend, but sadly the team let him down on Sunday.

A few observations:
-> The team was top heavy on batting, reminding me much of like teams in the 1990s and 2000s when, if you lost three wickets early (and especially Tendulkar), you were basically in a hole. Under Dhoni, we seemed to have more allrounders and batting up to 8 and even 9 sometimes. Dhoni himself carried the lower middle order, giving room for really fearless cricket by the top and middle order batsmen.
-> The five bowlers strategy has always seemed a bit bizarre to me despite its success, considering that none of the regular bowlers are capable of batting properly, especially in a tough situation. India definitely missed the all rounder. And considering that there is no sixth bowling option, India were stretched too thin in bowling resources when even one bowlers doesn't perform up to the mark.
-> Once India were safe to the semis, they should have experimented a bit more for different situations. Playing Ashwin at least once in the late league stage should have been an option.
-> One minor criticism of Rohit Sharma's captaincy could be that seemed a bit too keen on the "roles" assigned to each player, rather than being adaptive. The best of Dhoni at his peak was that he could surprise opposition as a captain by some of his tactics. To be fair, when winning, most Indian captains, past and present, have been content to stay with the "winning formula".
-> This was probably the best team likely to win a world cup for some time, and we may not get as close as this for the next few world cups.

 

[Neo 7]

A few observations:
-> The team was top heavy on batting, reminding me much of like teams in the 1990s and 2000s when, if you lost three wickets early (and especially Tendulkar), you were basically in a hole. Under Dhoni, we seemed to have more allrounders and batting up to 8 and even 9 sometimes. Dhoni himself carried the lower middle order, giving room for really fearless cricket by the top and middle order batsmen.
-> The five bowlers strategy has always seemed a bit bizarre to me despite its success, considering that none of the regular bowlers are capable of batting properly, especially in a tough situation. India definitely missed the all rounder. And considering that there is no sixth bowling option, India were stretched too thin in bowling resources when even one bowlers doesn't perform up to the mark.

Damn ! Same thing I mentioned while making an ODI team surrounding Dhoni / in general . Reading this made me nostalgic & reminded of this :

Asela Gunaratne joins our lower middle order . Russell & he would swap batting positions according to the situation of the match ...

And Tim Murtagh would be our 12th man in case we need some dynamic bowling changes in the XI ...

Mohammad Shahzad
Shane Watson
Mohammad Hafeez
Faf du Plessis
Sean Williams
MS Dhoni
Andre Russell
Asela Gunaratne
Graeme Swann
Trent Boult
Al-Amin Hossain

12th man : Tim Murtagh



And as we conclude our draft pickings , you see a pattern . That's the way Mahi Way . We have a luxury of bowlers and all being proper proven ones . Similar to the Dhoni era where you had everyone chipping in overs . Kohli , Raina , Yuvraj , Sehwag . That void would always remain a void . You would hardly see the Indian batsmen bowl some overs in the future ...

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Meanwhile me shamefully waiting for squad announcement for the series starting on 23rd

View attachment 287075

Oh.. ho.. ho... ho...