General Cricket Discussion

[Verified Enigma]

Expected a farewell match for him at least.

And nothing is ever obvious with Dhoni

Might get a farewell match in CSK[DOUBLEPOST=1597505913][/DOUBLEPOST]Suresh Raina follows the footsteps of Dhoni and announces retirement

 

[Ohm]

I'm not being hateful or something, but Dhoni has made a good decision. He didn't play competitive cricket for over a year now, and yet expecting a comeback in national team would be foolish. Nothing against him, but his blind fans shouldn't be hoping him to wear blue jersey again with this kind of attitude. He has had a good career though.

And I feel sad about Raina though. He still could try and offer more to the national side. Gave up too early I think.

 

[Verified Enigma]

I'm not being hateful or something, but Dhoni has made a good decision. He didn't play competitive cricket for over a year now, and yet expecting a comeback in national team would be foolish. Nothing against him, but his blind fans shouldn't be hoping him to wear blue jersey again with this kind of attitude. He has had a good career though.

And I feel sad about Raina though. He still could try and offer more to the national side. Gave up too early I think.

Well, its more like the other way around.

MS Dhoni himself never wanted to play international cricket since India's exit from 2019 CWC.

If you see how Dhoni is as a person, he always maintains an undertone and never boasts his announcements.

So, he had already decided that he won't play since July last year.

 

[Neo 7]

Quite ironic destiny . Fast runner (maybe the fastest actually) between the wickets . Still his first and last international match ended with a run-out .....

 

[Bevab]

I'm not being hateful or something, but Dhoni has made a good decision. He didn't play competitive cricket for over a year now, and yet expecting a comeback in national team would be foolish. Nothing against him, but his blind fans shouldn't be hoping him to wear blue jersey again with this kind of attitude. He has had a good career though.

And I feel sad about Raina though. He still could try and offer more to the national side. Gave up too early I think.

Dhoni's decision was definitely motivated by the logical conclusion that he wouldn't be in the team again. I don't think he deserved to be in the team previously based on form too but that is a whole different story.

Raina definitely is past it though, he was dropped by Uttar Pradesh themselves owing to his poor fitness and lack of form. His career reminds me a lot of Wayne Rooney, an early start and peak and a slow decline into mediocrity at a time when most players are normally in their peak. Hoping he manages to get permission to play overseas though, could do a world of good if he opens that pathway for other Indian cricketers.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I can't think of ten batsmen that are a better option than him in T20s. Off the top of my head in no particular order

• Buttler
• Warner
• Finch
• Kohli
• Rohit
  
• Maxwell
• Rahul

Quite surprised to see Rohit in there because he is hardly a match winner in this format. Also his 4 centuries at times are blown out of proportions. Let us get into detail of his 4 centuries.

1. A flat track of Dharamsala where 200 was chased down quite comfortably by South Africa and also Rohit took more than 60 balls for his hundred. It was Kohli who actually helped the scoring rate that time.
2. The fastest hundred in T20I format but against a weak Sri Lankan bowling on an extremely flat pitch with 55m straight boundary on offer.
3. Probably the only hundred that was under pressure, he was in a poor form and hadn't done anything good in last few months. India had to win this match to win the series and were chasing 200-odd. But again small boundaries and flat pitch on offer.
4. Against a 3rd tier West Indies line-up who missed most of their players and did not have that great bowling line-up, India were already leading the series 1-0 after winning the ODI series 3-1 so confidence was just very high which helped him further.

And even apart from this most of his knocks are somewhat slowish or against weaker sides. He has never been consistent in this format. His strongest format is OD Cricket where he gets enough time to get himself in and then go after the bowling. I would probably rate him as one of the best OD openers in the world but in T20 Cricket he isn't even top 10. Rahul and McCullum are far better players in T20s. Even Hardik is ahead of him in terms of hitting abilities and playing under pressure.

 

[CerealKiller]

McCullum

Retired

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Retired

Yeah but he was better than Rohit as a T20 player in his playing days. I think as a Rohit fan I am a bit disappointed since he has all the shots in his book along with having powerful arms and wrists to succeed in this format. Even his strike rate is hardly 130 playing 328 matches. I think it improved in just last year or so.

 

[Verified Enigma]

Quite surprised to see Rohit in there because he is hardly a match winner in this format. Also his 4 centuries at times are blown out of proportions. Let us get into detail of his 4 centuries.

1. A flat track of Dharamsala where 200 was chased down quite comfortably by South Africa and also Rohit took more than 60 balls for his hundred. It was Kohli who actually helped the scoring rate that time.
2. The fastest hundred in T20I format but against a weak Sri Lankan bowling on an extremely flat pitch with 55m straight boundary on offer.
3. Probably the only hundred that was under pressure, he was in a poor form and hadn't done anything good in last few months. India had to win this match to win the series and were chasing 200-odd. But again small boundaries and flat pitch on offer.
4. Against a 3rd tier West Indies line-up who missed most of their players and did not have that great bowling line-up, India were already leading the series 1-0 after winning the ODI series 3-1 so confidence was just very high which helped him further.

And even apart from this most of his knocks are somewhat slowish or against weaker sides. He has never been consistent in this format. His strongest format is OD Cricket where he gets enough time to get himself in and then go after the bowling. I would probably rate him as one of the best OD openers in the world but in T20 Cricket he isn't even top 10. Rahul and McCullum are far better players in T20s. Even Hardik is ahead of him in terms of hitting abilities and playing under pressure.

Agreed Rohit has got away at times, but he surely has that potential of being a complete package.

Yes Hardik is a slogger, but Rohit can play that role of a slogger as well as one of being an accumulator if need be, Rohit has a better cricketing brain which matter as well.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Agreed Rohit has got away at times, but he surely has that potential of being a complete package.

Yes Hardik is a slogger, but Rohit can play that role of a slogger as well as one of being an accumulator if need be, Rohit has a better cricketing brain which matter as well.

Well he had a potential to even be a great Test player and probably the greatest ever player for India across formats. I agree with the second part of your post that he has a sharp Cricketing brain.

 

[Verified Enigma]

Well he had a potential to even be a great Test player and probably the greatest ever player for India across formats. I agree with the second part of your post that he has a sharp Cricketing brain.

to be honest if this discussion had happend in 2017 or before, I would have agreed with you for Rohit in T20s but during the last couple of years I have seen a sharp increment in rohit's performance, not just in scoring runs but in reading the game and playing accordingly.

May be this has even helped him in Test, too early to judge to be fair though about the tests. Need more innings, overseas that too.

 

[Bevab]

@NilayShah60 I was pretty sceptical about having Rohit in that list at first but his record for India is very solid indeed and I do think us Indians are harsh on him because we believe his ceiling to be far higher. Most teams would take him as an opener in a heartbeat (barring Australia maybe because Finch-Warner work well together). Don't really know if you could hold up playing well versus weaker sides against him given that it is international cricket and most teams and players don't play versus strong sides themselves. Same applies for the short boundaries too.

@LiveLoveABD (moving it over here to not distract the thread) Russell was another one that I wanted to include with a question mark as he plays a very different role and comparing roles in T20s is not an easy job at all. I don't agree with the rest though, Bairstow is a tad too inconsistent for me (although he has been done no favours with the constant juggling of his position) and Gayle is living off his past glories. Again I really don't rate Stokes as a top class T20 player given how less than impressive he has been and even if current Stokes is in some form, his current playing style of taking his time to settle in and then go big will not translate well to the shortest format unless he plays higher up the order and I don't think he is that dominant versus the type of spin you see in T20s to merit a top order role. Still think you underrate the likes of Kohli and Azam in T20s (Kohli in particular as he can also be aggressive unlike your typical accumulator), one accumulator as the opener to score some lofted boundaries with timing is usually an excellent strategy to get some quick runs onboard using the powerplay and also to rotate strike heavily with the odd boundary versus spinners in the middle overs.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

A couple of articles about the team that's the talk of the internet.

The German women's team are enjoying new-found fame after breaking several T20I records | ESPNcricinfo.com

Meet Anuradha Doddaballapur, the scientist who leads the German women's team | ESPNcricinfo.com

 

[abhi_jacko]

A couple of articles about the team that's the talk of the internet.

The German women's team are enjoying new-found fame after breaking several T20I records | ESPNcricinfo.com

Meet Anuradha Doddaballapur, the scientist who leads the German women's team | ESPNcricinfo.com

Refreshing articles - thanks for sharing

 

[CremerCurrans]

Yahoo Cricket

Zimbabwe will be likely touring Pakistan in October.