Australia's tour of India 2019

[LiveLoveABD]

Bumrah bowling a 3rd with no 3rd seamer and Umesh going the journey? Pathetic captaincy at it's peak.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

It almost feels like Kohli is trying to do something different to stand out.

 

[SaiSrini]

Horrible stuff from Umesh Yadav in that last over. After Bumrah spectacularly got us out of jail with that 'dream over', Umesh Yadav just blew it all away with some real tripe bowling!!!

Anyways, 126 was nowhere near enough for us and it is good that we lost it in the end.

 

[Master Bates]

I have Umesh from now. Worst bowler in death. Bring Kaul in next match.

 

[Aalay]

I don't care about anything else but when you have 14 to defend in the last over against bowlers and if you still can't do it. There must be something seriously wrong with your death bowling skills. Umesh Yadav is not a death bowler and I think this has been proven quite a lot of times but for some reason, the team management refuses to believe that.

Also some very poor game awareness by Umesh. He should have gone and collected that 3rd ball and should have kept it to a single. Also for the last ball, the fielder on the boundary ahs to throw to the keeper's end but ends up throwing to bowler's end. Some really poor stuff in that last over.

 

[SaiSrini]

Even Siddarth Kaul would've done a better job there than Umesh Yadav. And Umesh made the mistake of not fielding off his own bowling, which could have saved the extra run and it might've turned out crucial in the end.

I find it very painful to see MSD go through this. He has clearly become a big stumbling block for the team in limited overs formats. With guys like Pant and Karthik available, India are forced to play Dhoni purely for his reputation and his tactical acumen. How much value that 'tactical acumen' adds is up for debate. Honestly speaking, India is wasting time by playing 3 wicketkeepers in the same XI. Atleast MSD can retire from T20's but he seems to be using this as WC practice.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

This game is a prime example of a few things.

1) How much India actually gives a toss about these bilateral T20's.

2) It's very good to build a good bench, but I cannot understand Markande's selection. If he must be picked, Chahal should have rested. It was 100% overkill to play so many spinners and the problem compounded itself the moment Bumrah bowled 3 up front with just 2 seamers in the side without even Hardik. Just ridiculous!

3) I am sure the media will not end heaping praise on Kohli and Shastri for the win down under in tests but do we now hail Karunaratne as a god for winning in SA? Any logical cricket fan will tell you that all 3 tours we just went for the weakest SA, ENG and AUS teams of all time. SL beat SA which is insane and WI beat ENG who had just thrashed SL 3 zip.

4) I have no doubt that Indian cricket have more depth than ever before. 3 months before the 2011 world cup our XI was nailed. The only doubt was over Praveen Kumar's fitness who ultimately missed out because of an injury. It's almost world cup time and India are still stuck with their stubborn methods and look set to go into the tournament with that. The overkill with selection experiments has been hilarious.

 

[Bevab]

• Both teams made very weird selections for this game. Australia went with five bowlers for some reason despite having three all-rounders already in the team and one more player who could have bowled if needed to. If they wanted to test Cummins' white ball skills, Jhye should have sat out. As for India, there's no point in playing only two pacers when one of them is Umesh who can't bowl properly in the death overs. And as expected, he fails badly in the end, though it is tough to blame him as he shouldn't be anywhere near the death overs, like Behrendorff. The tactics were a bit odd too, wonder why Chahal bowled the second over to Stoinis when Umesh's best spells come only with the new ball, and then not bowling Chahal versus Short (introducing Umesh at that time) when the latter actually would bat in the fourth over was madness too. Also, I think Umesh should have bowled the penultimate over as Bumrah would have defended even 4 runs if needed to.

• Dhoni was absolutely dreadful today, right from the very moment he stepped out, he showed absolutely zero inclination to play aggressively which eventually led to no boundaries for two entire overs and Rahul trying to slog leading to his wicket. Feel the same thing happened with Pandya in the end. And him trying to take it deep with barely any attempt at trying to hit boundaries and then struggling to connect with the ball in the end was very much painful to watch. Seems obvious that the management wants him to play every game in order to get match practice, but right now he doesn't deserve to play in the team and should be dropped. If he wishes to get match practice and confidence, he should be playing domestic cricket. Felt like he could have got at least 10 extra runs had he chosen to run a bit more and trust his partners.

• Dinesh Karthik is absolutely clueless when he doesn't bat in the end whilst chasing. I know that he's very much loved in these parts, but honestly he seems to be an extremely limited player who can't be trusted to build any sort of decent innings. Maybe this has to do with the fact that his place in the team has been constantly in question, but there's no point in having such a limited player in the playing XI who can't roll his arm and isn't a specialist fielder either.

• Shankar isn't proven at the moment to be a frontline pace bowler, but unless he's selected and bowls, there's no way to know if he's good enough to be the 5th bowling option or if he'll ever become one. One of Pant or Karthik should be dropped for him, and I would rather see Karthik dropped as he's been given enough chances to prove himself and has mostly been a failure barring the odd chase.
  
  
• Bumrah has to be the greatest Indian bowler in limited overs cricket in terms of skill, and will surely be there records wise within a few years too. We're lucky to have the best bowler in the world playing for India, and he deserves a lot more praise than what he currently gets. If only we could find someone just nearly as good enough to bowl alongside him...
  
  
• Is it just me, or has the subtle changes Kohli has made to his batting in order to make him less vulnerable in tests affected his power hitting in limited overs cricket? He seems to bat at a pretty good strike rate for a number 3 in most LOIs, yet I remember him chasing targets in excess of 300+ in just 40-45 overs a few years ago with T20-esque strike rates in ODIs. Whilst it might not be an issue in ODIs due to his incredible strike rotation, T20s might often need more than that. This and the fact that Rohit still seems like a misfit in T20s due to his inability to start aggressively unless playing on the flattest roads could explain India's recent occasional poor batting performances in T20s.
  
  
• KL Rahul looked good today with the bat, and should probably be in the World Cup squad as the backup opener. There was talk of Rahane replacing him, which sounded worrying. Hoping that he eventually translates this form into tests too.
  
  
• Australia seem like a genuinely good T20 team, especially if they can get Lynn and Warner back into the team. A top 3 of Lynn, Warner and Maxwell could be pretty scary, and if they further get somebody like Handscomb consistently keeping, they would finally solve their problems with keepers. Zampa's been a genuinely good spinner whenever I've watched him play, and their Scorchers' pace attack looks good, without even factoring in players like Stanlake, Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins etc.
  
  
• Finch looks like he's absolutely cooked at the moment, thanks to the selectors ruining him by making him open in tests. Any sort of inswinger into his pads and he's guaranteed to be dismissed these days. He was in fine form prior to this, but should Australia have a player with such an obvious and exploitable weakness in the playing XI? Especially when as captain, he's under increased pressure (although tbf his captaincy has been pretty decent)? In stark contrast, Short looked like he played spin well tonight, without any sweeps which was his main weakness a year ago. Short can also bowl if needed, unlike Finch. Wouldn't be undeserved to drop Finch from the WC XI if Short plays ODIs well too.

 

[Bevab]

This game is a prime example of a few things.

1) How much India actually gives a toss about these bilateral T20's.

2) It's very good to build a good bench, but I cannot understand Markande's selection. If he must be picked, Chahal should have rested. It was 100% overkill to play so many spinners and the problem compounded itself the moment Bumrah bowled 3 up front with just 2 seamers in the side without even Hardik. Just ridiculous!

3) I am sure the media will not end heaping praise on Kohli and Shastri for the win down under in tests but do we now hail Karunaratne as a god for winning in SA? Any logical cricket fan will tell you that all 3 tours we just went for the weakest SA, ENG and AUS teams of all time. SL beat SA which is insane and WI beat ENG who had just thrashed SL 3 zip.

4) I have no doubt that Indian cricket have more depth than ever before. 3 months before the 2011 world cup our XI was nailed. The only doubt was over Praveen Kumar's fitness who ultimately missed out because of an injury. It's almost world cup time and India are still stuck with their stubborn methods and look set to go into the tournament with that. The overkill with selection experiments has been hilarious.

I do think Karunaratne deserves to be hailed for winning in SA haha. What they did was nothing short of a miracle considering how badly they were thrashed prior to that, and had their best batsman injured, their ex-captain unfairly dropped and having selected an extremely inexperienced pace attack with bowlers who barely even bowled in domestic cricket due to their dust bowls. Compared to that, India were favourites down under and whilst our win was impressive and deserves credit, SL's win will go down in history as one of the greatest upsets in sport. And, India's playing XI for this World Cup is extremely nailed on too. Not sure why you think they haven't decided upon that yet

 

[SaiSrini]

I am not convinced India should be playing 3 wicketkeepers at a time in the WC. In fact, I would choose between either Karthik or Pant and not both of them together, in my WC squad. I do not care about T20I's but for WC, both cannot go. And it seems like Rishabh might win considering his age, his left handed batting variety and the fact that he can bat at any stage of the innings as opposed to Karthik whose utility is mostly when it comes to batting in the very fag end of the innings. I have a strong feeling Karthik will lose out on his place.

I would not take Umesh Yadav to the WC. I would rather have Khaleel as the backup seamer even if he goes for runs. India is mostly going to be served by Bumrah, Shami and Bhuvi in the WC. Among Khaleel and Umesh, I feel Khaleel is the better of the two options since he has a left handed variety to him and that can be useful at times. Umesh to me, does not inspire confidence that we can take him in the WC.

I would reserve judgement on KL Rahul. His batting technique has changed drastically and that's helping him in home T20's. Just because of this innings, we cannot say that he is good to be selected for the WC squad. To me, the backup opener in the WC squad should be Ambati Rayudu and KL Rahul should play T20's exclusively until he can prove in domestic cricket that he can be inducted back into the ODI or test side.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

What ever Kohli as a Captain did Yesterday could've been compensated in the last over. But, poor field placements again came into play. I feel Umesh is unnecessarily criticized as a bowler over here. Cummins and Coulter-Nile are well capable to score 14 off 1 over. Umesh bowled yorkers 4 out of 6 times which suggested he bowled in that area where batsman felt difficult to score. Only thing he did wrong was that he let the batsman convert a single into a couple on the third ball of the last over. And on 2 occassions the fielder were too far to stop singles and easy 2's were available. The fielding placements need to have a check here !!!!

Anyways our batting form has been pathetic over the last few weeks and it needs some improvement quickly !!!!!!!

 

[LiveLoveABD]

I am not convinced India should be playing 3 wicketkeepers at a time in the WC. In fact, I would choose between either Karthik or Pant and not both of them together, in my WC squad. I do not care about T20I's but for WC, both cannot go. And it seems like Rishabh might win considering his age, his left handed batting variety and the fact that he can bat at any stage of the innings as opposed to Karthik whose utility is mostly when it comes to batting in the very fag end of the innings. I have a strong feeling Karthik will lose out on his place.

I would not take Umesh Yadav to the WC. I would rather have Khaleel as the backup seamer even if he goes for runs. India is mostly going to be served by Bumrah, Shami and Bhuvi in the WC. Among Khaleel and Umesh, I feel Khaleel is the better of the two options since he has a left handed variety to him and that can be useful at times. Umesh to me, does not inspire confidence that we can take him in the WC.

I would reserve judgement on KL Rahul. His batting technique has changed drastically and that's helping him in home T20's. Just because of this innings, we cannot say that he is good to be selected for the WC squad. To me, the backup opener in the WC squad should be Ambati Rayudu and KL Rahul should play T20's exclusively until he can prove in domestic cricket that he can be inducted back into the ODI or test side.

I am confused whether you're talking about the 50 overs world cup or 20 overs. KL Rahul should play every format regardless. And Umesh Yadav should only play tests, that too in the subcontinent only.

 

[asprin]

I did not watch the match live so I don't really know whether it was bad bowling or poor field placement/fielding that cost us the match. But when you have got 14 runs to defend against the lower order batsmen/bowlers, you tend to do it 9/10. Unfortunately, yesterday was the 1/10.

I agree with the notion that MS Dhoni's time in T20 is over. He might again do well in the IPL (he usually becomes someone else when donning the yellow jersey) but at the International level, he is occupying a very vital spot in the playing XI. But I also agree that he perhaps is using this series as a warmup/match practice to be ready for the WC. Since this is the last T20 series that India play before the WC, I would hope that he announces his retirement from this format - at least at the International level.

Dhoni is ODIs still has something to offer. So I think that can wait for a little more time.

 

[GOKUL RAJ K]

I see where you are coming from, but I think the problem is that him and Rayudu together choke the batting. I think Rayudu is good at his role, but with his keeping and spin assist mode Dhoni is better. That mountain of experience and calm also is an unquestionable benefit. I definitely don't see him as a good fit in T20's. The XI for the limited overs has been discussed to death. The thing is, our bowling is what is winning us matches and big moments. So most of our shortcomings get masked and this management is more about basking and bragging rather than acknowledging and learning.

Personally, I really like Rohit in the middle order for T20's. I would opt for this XI just to see how it goes-

Dhawan
Rahul
Kohli
Rohit
Pant
Karthik
H Pandya
Kuldeep
Bhuvi
Bumrah
Shami/Chahal

Rohit is not suitable in middle order.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Rohit is not suitable in middle order.

He has done a remarkable job for Mumbai Indians whenever he has batted there barring the last season. When Rohit began opening the batting, it was said he in not suited in that position and was strictly a middle order batsman.

Personal batting positions and numbers are more embedded in fans and followers and not so much the players. They do what is right for the team and at the moment, India can do with his experience in the middle with Dhoni leaving. Rohit is so good that he can tonk it around from ball 1, something even Kohli can't. Dhawan has to open and it is criminal to leave Rahul out any longer in the format. Off the current lot of batters, Rohit is the only one who can basically bat in any situation and the prime reason for that is the time he has to play shots and the range he has.