Barring Kohli & Pujara, Indian batsmen can't play bouncers

[Fenil]

I think Umesh Yadav will be great in NZ with the new ball because of his pace. Zaheer bowls around 130 kmph now and if Umesh Yadav gets the new ball (Shami is greatly effective with his reverse swing with the old ball) then even the change in pace generated by the two by fox the batsmen but for that, Yadav will need to keep bowling full.

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Seeing posts like this almost makes me wonder if I'm some sort of deluded wishful thinker, because I'm quite confident going into away tours of New Zealand and England.

I too think India will do great and win the tour of NZ and ODis in England but I guess England will win the test matches (if any, I haven't checked the fixtures).


Coming to thread topic, no Pujara and Kohli are not the only ones to play short ball well. Dhawan and Rohit can play it too. Yes they failed in RSA but you have to look at the bowling too. Steyn, Philander and Morne is the best bowling unit in world cricket right now.

 

[playkid12]

Inconsistent? On what basis? He played his last test match almost 1 and 1/2 years back, and after the Champions Trophy where he did quite well (with a 5 wicket haul in the warm-up match against the Aussies) he only played 2 games in South Africa.
It's the inconsistency of him playing in the team, not of his performance.
He's the quickest bowler of India at present, strong and fit lad, can go 145kmph+ on a regular basis, wicket taking bowler, what else do you want? Making him play 1-2 games in long intervals isn't done. He needs to be made part of the playing 11 on a regular basis, then only he'll get better.

How about on the basis of his bowling average being 43 in ODIs with an economy rate of above 6 and an avg of 32.5 in tests with an economy greater than 4?

And I do agree that he should be given more chances. He's young and has shown potential - much moreso than Ishant has for a very long time.

I also don't understand the immense support that Rohit Sharma gets from the commentators. After failing in RSA, the Cricinfo video concerning the points given out to each player of both sides barely had a discussion about him, despite him receiving among the lowest points by the commentators. Back when he was playing second fiddle to Dhawan's imperious form, the commentators would always embellish his supporting role.

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Seeing posts like this almost makes me wonder if I'm some sort of deluded wishful thinker, because I'm quite confident going into away tours of New Zealand and England.

The optimist inside me really wants India to win, always. However, I'm just shocked that I'm expected to feel good for losing a test series by "just 1 match" when the first one should've been bagged by India.

To me, the first draw felt like a loss. I couldn't believe that we almost lost that match after being in firm control for 4 days. I lost a lot of my faith in the team that last day. And then, I lost the remaining in the 2nd match when India so easily folded and didn't fight back just like the South Africans did to India in the 1st match.

That second match, India should've looked at the SA heroics and attempted to emulate them.

Rahane just needed support.

 

[PrateexitS]

How about on the basis of his bowling average being 43 in ODIs with an economy rate of above 6 and an avg of 32.5 in tests with an economy greater than 4?

And I do agree that he should be given more chances. He's young and has shown potential - much moreso than Ishant has for a very long time.

I also don't understand the immense support that Rohit Sharma gets from the commentators. After failing in RSA, the Cricinfo video concerning the points given out to each player of both sides barely had a discussion about him, despite him receiving among the lowest points by the commentators. Back when he was playing second fiddle to Dhawan's imperious form, the commentators would always embellish his supporting role.

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Those figures will improve when he'll get to play on a regular basis. He's the only bowler at present (Maybe Varun Aron too) who can touch that 150kmph mark quite often.

Rohit Sharma has his godfathers, among them are Dhoni and the BCCI. No matter however he performs, he has been a regular fixture of the team and has got way too many chances than he deserves. I guess in 2012 his average was below 18 in ODIs. To somehow justify his place in the team, his postion was changed and was promoted to the top of the order, had a fairly good Champions Trophy as you said playing his supportive role, followed up with a good performance in West Indies, and then the ODI series vs the Aussies at home was the turning point in his career. 2 centuries in his 1st 2 test matches against the Windies was also an achievement for him, the bowling attack was quite weak though, but no credit taken way from him.

Then came the ultimate test, South African tour, and then he showed his true colours against a quality bowling attack and in tough conditions. In the 1st ODI, he batted literally like a tailender. He couldn't even touch the 1st 15-16 balls that he played, majority of them were play and miss and some were left.
Then he continued this in the test series too.

This clearly shows he's a flat track bully. He seriously needs to work on his temperament as an opener. We all know he has the potential, but that performance came for a short while and then disappeared. There are a lot of other bunch of youngsters waiting to take his place.

 

[surendar]

The optimist inside me really wants India to win, always. However, I'm just shocked that I'm expected to feel good for losing a test series by "just 1 match" when the first one should've been bagged by India.

To me, the first draw felt like a loss. I couldn't believe that we almost lost that match after being in firm control for 4 days. I lost a lot of my faith in the team that last day. And then, I lost the remaining in the 2nd match when India so easily folded and didn't fight back just like the South Africans did to India in the 1st match.
.

You shouldn't be taking too much just from a 2 Test Match series which doesn't prove anything anyway. The way we have shown our skills this time in those 2 tests, to me, it's the best defense that we have shown on SA soil since 1996( as I don't know how they played before & I just don't believe what the stats say!) which is the biggest plus.

There might be negatives in those 10 days, but its not much of a bother as we seem to be on right way & it's just few more small holes to be sealed.

 

[grkrama]

my pick would be-vijay ,pujara,kohli,rahane all of them seem pretty good with short stuff.
Rahane seems more of dravid build ,performs well on overseas tours,and also seems capable of accelerating when neded.find of the tour.

The prob with dhoni is more about over pitched outswingers than bouncers,i have never seen dhoni rattled by short stuff. So he has to sort that stuff out if he ever wants to perform in swinging conditions,because right now every bowler seems to get him out just bowling outswingers outside off.hejust goes and jabs at it and edges its as irritating as watson planting his bigfoot out and getting struck on pads.the skipper has some work to do.

Rohit sharma --- the pampered child of bcci ,personally i think he is simply outclassed even more than raina or dhawan or yuvi for that case when playing out of subcontinent against good bowling attacks, but if he gets a weak unit he will score lots of runs and will hold on to the place and play spoilsport for others.

Sir ji -- he is turning out to be more of a bowler,hope he tune his batting skills to atleast scramble 40 odd runs in test,because if he gets brain fart like he did in the second test its going to be tough to do justice to his slot,or he should be termed just as a bowler and picked on that basis. even bhaji used to do more with the bat.

Bowling shami looks good,BK could have been given more chance,yadav and arun have pace but im still skeptical of their accuracy.

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That second match, India should've looked at the SA heroics and attempted to emulate them.

Rahane just needed support.

yup agree, kholi got a bad decision,pujara got a unplayabale one, vijay was out to a good delivery. ,but others i cant digest dhoni,jadeja,both had brain explosion of the highest order,dont know what they were trying to achieve with those shots,maybe just wanted to board the flight back home.dhawan atleast learnt and tried to emulate his partner by grinding out a bit,but he did the hoopla by dancing down the wicket and throwing away all the hard work.rohit as usual doesnt belong there ,wouldnt mind having yuvi or ashwin instead of him if its against a good bowling attack in helpful conditions.

 

[Epic]

I too think India will do great and win the tour of NZ and ODis in England but I guess England will win the test matches (if any, I haven't checked the fixtures).

I was talking about the Tests.

The soon coming England series very much reminds me of when they toured us a year or so ago. We were sitting vulnerable, with a side in transition, very similar to where England are now, and there were also questions asked over England's ability to play spin bowling on friendly pitches as there are questions being asked over our ability to play seam bowling on friendly pitches.

The optimist inside me really wants India to win, always. However, I'm just shocked that I'm expected to feel good for losing a test series by "just 1 match" when the first one should've been bagged by India.

To me, the first draw felt like a loss. I couldn't believe that we almost lost that match after being in firm control for 4 days. I lost a lot of my faith in the team that last day. And then, I lost the remaining in the 2nd match when India so easily folded and didn't fight back just like the South Africans did to India in the 1st match.

That second match, India should've looked at the SA heroics and attempted to emulate them.

Rahane just needed support.

I fear you're not giving South Africa enough credit and in turn are also expecting too much out of a very inexperienced side of ours.

This bunch are just starting their overseas journeys and their first test, no pun intended was against the #1 side in the world and they came away with a 1-0 loss in a 2 match series, nothing to be proud of, but there are positives to be had, like how we dominated 4 days of cricket at the Wanderers and how we were sitting pretty with 181-1 after day 1 at Kingsmead, those right there are victories that go untold when a side eventually reaches it's pinnacle.

All I ask is for you to give these guys a chance, go into the next 2 upcoming series' with an open mind as I'm sure you did with our recent series in South Africa.

 

[playkid12]

You shouldn't be taking too much just from a 2 Test Match series which doesn't prove anything anyway. The way we have shown our skills this time in those 2 tests, to me, it's the best defense that we have shown on SA soil since 1996( as I don't know how they played before & I just don't believe what the stats say!) which is the biggest plus.

There might be negatives in those 10 days, but its not much of a bother as we seem to be on right way & it's just few more small holes to be sealed.

We also got demolished in the ODIs, though.

 

[Cricket_god]

Everybody will struggle against short pitch stuff at pace ,English is perfect example of how not play it,they were scared.Indians generally do not pull or hook well bar few and
current generation is one of the best with guys like kohl,pujara,rohit,dhoni
very good players of pull shot.If u cannot play the pull or hook better leave well like vijay and rahane showed in sa.

Guys like dhawan,raina will struggle due to lack of back foot game,but rest are pretty good.So the OP seems did not follow the Sa series.

 

[lemony snickts]

Well, as long as India continues to play 9 months in a year against opponents as West Indies etc, it will not matter if they perform bad in one month in a foreign series.
And, after the Australia series, no body can touch Rohit and Dhawan for 3 years at least. If anybody, it's going to be Rahane, who will be made the scapegoat.

 

[asprin]

And, after the Australia series, no body can touch Rohit and Dhawan for 3 years at least.

Actually, I woldn't consider the ODI series against Australia to be used as a benchmark. That wasn't cricket at all.

 

[lemony snickts]

Well, for the Indian selectors that is the benchmark.