Ok, so as expected we folded out and continued playing as we were playing in Australia. I know I will be crucified for saying this but, we are struggling and if no one is seeing that, you are part of the problem as well.
Why is Rohit still opening and being preferred over actual openers in KL and Mayank. he played one good innings and has played below par Rohit inning. Not all players are meant to be test players. Yuvraj was one example, Gill will get better with time. He has the potential but has to work on his game to play longer innings. You have all the talent, use it wisely.
Pujara is doing what he does. No complaints there,. Kohli played a good second innings but something is changed in the way he plays these days. He is no longer ruthless.
lets talk about the elephant in the room. Ajinkya Rahane!! Yes he captained better compared to Kohli, he did good in an inning in Melbourne, but he has played below par. His position in the team should be questioned. We have enough talent in domestic cricket and no one player should hold up space when they are under performinng.
Pant will play like he has played. If we want him to play like that, we need a cushion of someone playing better and longer innings compared to what Rahane is playing. If Rahane gets back into form, Pant playing the way he has been would be ok.
No, please dont say we dint play that bad. We played poorly. As a home team, we were more under prepared compared to England. We had zero plans and just were riding on the confidence of the Australia series.
Also, Australia was a mediocre team. They had 3-4 players who perfomed. England has 5-6 rockstars who will perform. I see England winning this series. Kohli the captain has no clue and plans and that is hurting Indian team right now. The day night match is England’s game as well.
I am not going to crucify you because everyone has an opinion but I do disagree with a few things. I think we are playing really well and we have a pool of fantastic young/established/world class players. The problem is more around the administration and the management which is a choice of the captain and it has been discussed to death. It all trickles down from that main power board so everything needs to be seen collectively and not in isolation and that includes the battery of fast bowlers along with the ruthless desire to win beginning at the helm.
1) Rohit's selection was complicated just because of the selectors. As much as I am against Kohli the captain, he followed all the protocols and it was first Rohit and then the selectors that really messed up. Once he was in Australia, he had to be picked because of his stature in Indian cricket which I agree and acknowledge. Should he have replaced Mayank? NO! Not even if Monk had failed up to this test. If a bloke is making a thousand runs in 15 tests, I don't see how you drop him specially as an opener!!
2) Kohli played a marvellous knock in the second innings and really, what does he do to the ball he got out on? He played a fine knock in the first innings at Adelaide and he got out there through no fault of his own. That's two centuries gone and the whole conversation changes. One thing I will definitely say is that while I don't agree that he's lost any of that ruthless instinct, I do think he's become very tentative in some situations, specially at the start of his innings. I don't think it needs any major overhaul but I do think that it's just a mindset thing and not being captain will really help this. I personally do feel he's feeling the burden a tad now.
3) Rahane bats at a very tricky number in tests. It's a bit of neither this nor that. He has over time batted a lot with Vihari and Saha which means he needs to wrestle the initiative and attack while sometimes he bats with Kohli who dominates the strike at at least 60-40 when he's ticking. If not that then he's with Pujara and as you said, Pujara is Pujara. Rahane is just fine. I think he's someone who should have a crucial innings column like Jadeja and you'll see that it outweighs a ton of tons. No pun intended. I think even thinking of dispensing with him is madness. Same with Kohli. Same with Pujara. We've spent half a decade building this batting line up and now is the time to cash in.
I'll repeat that we played well. One or two poor shots from the top order and a toss which was crucial to win. To top it all, Root and Anderson bought their absolute A game. Australia is not a mediocre team by far, definitely not in Australia although I do rate England higher. Remember, England couldn't win the Ashes at home recently because they were so spent after the World Cup and I think it's the same with India with a bubble to adhere to, to boot. England have prepared well for this series and I wouldn't be surprised if they level the series. Win? I would say it's very difficult but even then I wouldn't change much with our side. Sometimes, you try your best and fail and you just say well done to England and this England side, like this Indian side could have dominated this decade of cricket. Lots of unfulfilled potential.
Our cricket needs just one change and that is with the captaincy across formats. That's all. We should all also respect Kohli's batting a lot more than we do because we will miss/remember it once he hangs up his boots. He is class unparalleled and I think he's at heart a really good bloke. He's just no leader and definitely not a captain/tactician.