I don't agree with this at all. As I said in my previous post, Sanju won't give you that flexibility at all because he needs time to settle down before he goes for big shots. Even though Pant has been frustrating, he has the ability to go after the bowlers from ball 1. Sanju and Pant are not the same type of players. Sanju is much more like Rohit and Virat who both have the power game but will need that initial 8-10 balls to settle down properly.
He can only turn his game when required when he is actually settled. Just like I mentioned above, he won't start going after the bowlers from ball 1 which we actually need right now form someone who is coming to bat at number 5 in a T20.
Plus, how many power players do you actually need in your side? We already have Rohit (towards the end of the innings),Kohli, Hardik and Jadeja. Fitting Samson in the side isn't difficult. Note that Pant's major role is to keep wickets; even that is tough for him as he fumbles a lot behind the stumps.
As many as you can for a T20 side. We already have two accumulator in Rohit and Kohli. We need rest of the players to be power players and that is the reason everyone here has been crying to have KL Rahul opening the inning instead of Dhawan. Even though Dhawan hasn't done much wrong. Pant by no means is a finish article and has a LOT of work to do both with gloves and bat. However, with the team we have right now, it is easier to fit Pant or even someone like Ishan Kishan in it than Samson.
That was a different era man, you didn't need that many power players in that era. We had Sehwag, Dhoni and Irfan Pathan and that was more than enough for that era. The game has changed a lot since then and you need more power players in T20 line-ups today.
Today, you don't need a keeper who has to score heavily. What we need is a keeper who can keep well, batting is secondary. (much like Tim Paine, Mo Rizwan)
This is true for test cricket and that is why I have always wanted Saha over Pant for test cricket. In limited overs however, you do need someone who can contribue equally with the bat as well. Saha is decent with bat but I wouldn't put him in limited overs team for India.
You got some good points in there. However, the T20 game too has changed over the years and teams are playing smarter cricket than going all out nowadays. This refutes the claim of 'Having as many power players as possible for a T20. The problem with stocking up your side full of power players means that your team can be erratic. There will be days when they score 180-200 and on other days they may get bowled out for 80-90.
In order to avoid that, one needs batsmen from the classical mould to be a part. This is exactly where the team management needs to decide the expected output from the wicket-keepers. Is it to be an Adam Gilchrist? Or would you be happy if the keeper simply kept and batted like a Sangakarra? Or like a Tim Paine?
The current Indian side lacks the element of dependability. Beyond Rohit and Kohli, there is none in this side, who can help them out of a tight hole. Dhawan is well past his prime. The toehrs are known for their erratic shot making. In such a scenario having a keeper who can control the game and help the side out is a plus and hence my vote does go to Sanju here. Pant will have an opportunity soon, when Dhawan gets sidelined. From a purely cricketing perspective, I wouldn't play him until his keeping improves AND he scores consistently in domestic cricket,
Even if Sanju is considered as a backup for Pant, he could have been given atleast 1 match in the 2 completed series.It would have been apt if he was allowed to play at his homeground in Trivandrum.
I wanted to talk about this in the tour thread but I felt that this is the appropriate place to discuss.
The Indian side with all the pool of talent and their consistency they have it is actually surprising that they don't win Overseas every now and then. But, it does not mean that they have been a weaker side. The Indian side have been underperforming for quite sometime now. If I remember correctly right since the 2017 Champions Trophy where they have thrown away the matches which they were supposed to be the firm favourites. Everyone would say this comes down to the Captaincy and the attitude of the coach. What I felt is the Captain itself have been underperforming with what he has had at his expense (I am talking about his Captaincy and team selection). But that is not all, it is also about the attitude that the other players have played which matters a lot.
Now take the example of the 2017 Champions Trophy Final over here. The top order of India which scored runs a almost a run-a-ball for the last 6 months and all that experience of Yuvraj and Dhoni who were known to outperform the opposition which just fell away like a pack of cards. That day somebody had to take up that responsibility but instead we saw an inexperienced 23-year all-rounder playing his first ICC tournament final taking on the part-timers and the spinners. So what I am thinking is when Hardik Pandya can strike away the ball so fearlessly then what stopped others from stepping up ? Instead we saw Rohit looking clueless to a straight ball, Dhawan throwing his bat at a wide delivery, Kohli get beaten by a ball which he wouldn't try to have a go at in ideal situation and finally both Yuvraj and Dhoni in between a collapse throwing their wickets away. Again the bowling was looking so tired with Jadeja just trying to roll his arms, Ashwin consistently bowling wides down the leg side, Bhuvi bowling length ball at the death. I mean it's a thing of common sense.
Some similar mistakes have happened in 2019 World Cup Semi-final and the recent New Zealand series. It's big time that there is a complete overhaul in the attitude of the entire system. The basics of discipline, humbleness and calmness needs to be instilled back in the team then only we would play our best Cricket. Enough of passiveness have been seen now. It's time the players to act and take up the initiatives themselves now.
I just had discussion with one of my good friend asking him about the squads in the Asia XI v/s World XI series where there were supposed to be 6 Indian players that were included. He named those players and was surprised to hear about Kohli's name in the list. But he then said to me that KL Rahul and Kohli haven't given their consent. I was like, "I don't think that Kohli would want to play. He wouldn't want to tire himself out in that." He replied to me, "Right now the workload on him is just too much. Recently he is playing poorly just because of that added work load on him. He would definitely have to look to manage that before giving out his consent."
This is a golden opportunity for KL Rahul to start his re-integration into the test team. He will play in the Ranji semis against a side captained by a rival for his spot who has been in truly poor form this season and if he does well, a recall might be on the cards.
EDIT : Easwaran is out for just fifteen runs too. With the kind of confidence and form Rahul is currently in, you would back him.
This is a golden opportunity for KL Rahul to start his re-integration into the test team. He will play in the Ranji semis against a side captained by a rival for his spot who has been in truly poor form this season and if he does well, a recall might be on the cards.
EDIT : Easwaran is out for just fifteen runs too. With the kind of confidence and form Rahul is currently in, you would back him.
During the New Zealand tour after the end of Test series which India lost 2-0, we discussed few points about why India wasn't being able to win the Test series. And I remember I made of point that India's lack of preparation costing them the series.
PS: The thing I would be saying is solely my opinion and is based on the analysis that I have done. I don't want to force people to believe to this post and it has to solely be your choice whether you accept it or not.
The first and the foremost part pf the preparation for Overseas Test Tours is going in the respected country and playing first class and warm-up matches. Warm-up matches are quite important as they provide the taste of the conditions and gives you the idea of playing in conditions that are alien to you so that you know the basics to survive and play a game that is natural to you in certain conditions. And what you get to learn is the art of survival and handling of conditions which actually can't be learnt in the nets. And the major thing to be focused upon here is that net practice isn't a substitute to match practice because the pressure of playing in a match is different. One thing that should be kept in the mind is that you can't just send your domestic and A-teams and call it as part of the warm-up but instead you can try out your combinations to find out the right balance in the team for specific conditions.
The above graph shows the number of Warm-up matches that India played on tours starting on or after January 2000. I have classified that data into 4 parts i.e Jan 2000-Dec 2004, Jan 2005-Dec 2009, Jan 2010- Dec 2014 & Jan 2015- Present.
From the above data you could see that in 2000-04 period which was known as the Ganguly Era India played atleast 3 Warm-up matches in both England and Australia while 1 Warm-up in New Zealand.
In 2005-09 period which was a combination of 3 great Captains in Dravid, Kumble and Dhoni, India played 3 Warm up match in England, 2 in Australia while surprisingly no Warmups in New Zealand and England.
In the 2010-14 period India actually tour all 4 countries twice and therefore you see the matches increased to 3 in Australia and England while 1 in New Zealand.
In Kohli era we have played the least of matches.
India have never ever played a warm-up match in South Africa while the frequency is less in New Zealand so one shouldn't be surprised that why India have done poorly in both these countries.
So now we come on to the results of matches in these countries for India,
The above graph shows the Number of Test matches that India won in the same period of Warm-up classification
India tour of South Africa 2001/02
Were to play only 1-warm up match of 3 days which was abandoned due to rain
Was actually meant to be a 3-match series which ended on a bad note after Mike Denness issued suspensions to Tendulkar, Ganguly, Sehwag and Harbhajjan Singh
Lost the 2-match series 1-0
India toured England for a 4-match series in 2002. The tour started with the NatWest ODI Tri-series which India won for the first time beating England in the Final. Later the Indian side played three 4-day First-class matches followed by the Test series.
India manage to level the Test series 1-1.
In this series Indian batters were able to put up runs on the board and managed to score even after having Overcast skies and windy conditions.
This was a settled side with injury covers as well and a long batting line-up accompanied by decent bowling line-up.
Zaheer Khan lacked enough support from other bowlers while fielding proved to be a little ordinary.
The same year India toured NZ
Worst tour batting-wise
Not a single half-century from either sides
Bowling nearly won the seires for India
The 2004 Australia tour has to be India's best tour in the Country.
India draw level the 4-match series 1-1, that too for the first time in their history.
Played three 4-day games.
Did not dismiss the opposition but managed to contain them and get more wickets than last time.
Better batting performance.
Reliable and establised options in the batting department
India tour of South Africa 2006
No first class matches.
A 3-match series.
An upset in the very first match winning the first ever Test match in South Africa.
Batting struggled to put up runs on the board later in the series.
Lower order batting collapses and lack of partnership in the middle order was the reason for low scores despite good starts.
Bowlers bowled their heart out. Zak and Sreesanth in particular and well supported by RP Singh.
India tour of England 2007
Played three 4-day Warm-up Matches
Won the 3-match series 1-0
Batting took time to settle but did reasonably well
Bowling took away from the batsman pressure of scoring additional runs
A complete team effort was displayed
India tour of Australia 2007/08
Played two 3-day First Class matches with a full strength line-up
Lost the 4-match series 2-1
Reasons for failure-
1. Poor umpiring decisions
2. Lack of preparations
3. Batting collapses in initial matches
India tour of New Zealand 2009
Won 3-match series 1-0
Best and most settled batting line-up
Nearly 15 years of experience in batting line-up with players like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman in the middle order
A confident young batsman who loved taking on short bowling alongside his Delhi-mate Virender Sehwag as openers
Experienced bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Harbhajjan Singh picking wickets at regular intervals
India tour of South Africa 2010-11
Drawn 3-match series 1-1.
In-form and experienced batting line-up.
A balanced bowling attack picking up wickets at regular interval.
What followed was a series of uninspiring performances due to ageing stars and arrival of new-comers and helpless bowling line-up catching defeats from the jaw of victories.
Although what really caught my attention was this data
This is the data showing the number of tour matches played by each team post January 2015.
South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have played lesser tour matches then the number of series that they have played and their performance haven't been good as lately. But the case have been quite different when we talk about West Indies and England maybe because of them not having enough Test specialists. England side on an average plays 2 Warm up per tour. Talks about the thing that preparation is not enough but the team structure also becomes a lot more important.
Warm-ups are not the only way to win but they are the first step towards winning an Overseas Test series.
I also would like to discuss about how batting and bowling performance has an impact of winning in Overseas.
Batting
The above graph shows average batting scores of India in every match. I have bifurcated the scores into 1st innings and 2nd innings so that we can get a clearer picture of how things have panned out. The data is further bifurcated into 4 periods ie. 2000-04, 2005-09, 2010-14 & 2015-Present.
So in the first period we can see that India scored about 500 runs in Australia and 375 runs in England in 1st innings while about close to 300 runs and more than 400 runs in 2nd innings in Australia and England respectively. In England scores might have increased due to the fact that the pitches might have got better for batting and due to drawn matches. No doubt why India were so successful in this period in these countries, remember the fact that runs on the board always count. In the same period in South Africa the score falls down to less than 300 in 1st innings and slighlty above 200 in 2nd innings respectively. The New Zealand tour in this period as mentioned in previous post had worst batting surfaces and it was very difficult to score runs on.
The Indian side was more successful in the period 2005-09 and actually had the highest win% in this period. They went on to win series in England and New Zealand while they came close to winning in Australia and South Africa. The success in this period was actually carried by the batting line-up consisting of Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Dada and Viru. Although Ganguly retired before the New Zealand tour but the team was well settled before the series actually began.
The 2010-14 period actually consisted of 2 tours in each of those countries. The batting did poorly in these tours because of decline in performance of ageing players and arrival of new-comers. There was nothing to talk about the performance in this period apart from the drawn series in South Africa back in 2010-11. 2015-Present period have seen a rewind of performances in 2010-14. The rise in the score in Australia is due to the fact that Australia use drop-in surfaces which doesn't change much during the course of the match. Lack of ability to play in bowler-friendly surface, increased number of limited overs Cricket and lack of preparation are other reason for the failures.
Bowling
In the 2000-04 the bowling performance was slightly average maybe due to factors like inexperience, lack of discipline in bowling, inconsistency, injury, lack of fast bowlers, etc. In 2005-09 there is a major improvement probably because of the rise in experience, better workload management of fast bowlers, improved consistency, more number of fast bowlers, better spin bowling department and a better approach towards bowling. The 2010-14 was a period worse for the Indian bowlers and probably majorly hampered due to injury issues. Currently the Indian bowling is in its peak and is well balanced. Majorly this has happened because of improved fast bowling department. Currently the Indian bowling department is full of pace, aggression, disciplined bowling and spinners being able to chip in with some wickets. Since the SENA countries are accustomed to suit the pacers so having a good battery of pacers is a huge bonus. And looking at the current situation India is expected to actually have an era of fast bowling.
I tend to disagree with this. I think you can say that without even looking at the stats. I don't even remember Kohli's numbers in this format but I can surely say at Present there isn't a better T20I batsman for India than Kohli. It's a myth amongst the fans that T20Is are just run fests where only boundaries and sixes become important. There is equal need for rotation of strike in between the wickets, keeping the score board moving and finding gaps in the field. You wouldn't hit a four without finding the gaps in the field. This man is a manipulator of gaps and his mind just works like a computer when he plays and the biggest advantage he has is his hand-eye co-ordination. We literally rely on his runs when we are under pressure or are looking for quick runs. And whenever he hasn't scored runs we have went on to lose the match. Even someone like Yuvraj Singh wasn't as consistent and as reliable as him in this format. In 2014 & 2016 WT20 Kohli was single handedly winning matches for India. And he does have the ability to hit those big shots and at the same he is very confident as well to do that. It is just that we don't have another player who seems to be as reliable as him and hence he avoids taking risks so that we can have chance to win the match by having runs on that board. The only player who comes close to Kohli is KL Rahul. Although, there is still a lot of distance for Rahul to cover if he wants to become as good as him.
For some reason that entire thread isn't visible to me unless I happen to go via a link.
Also Kohli being far far away from India's best T20I player is an outlandish take by any measure. I would argue that he hasn't even been utilised effectively by India!
For some reason that entire thread isn't visible to me unless I happen to go via a link.
Also Kohli being far far away from India's best T20I player is an outlandish take by any measure. I would argue that he hasn't even been utilised effectively by India!
Also I remember that Kohli recently scored a 27-ball 72 in the series against West Indies at Wankhede in December 2019. So it well gives an indication that he can give competition to players like Andre Russell.
I think even Pollard's strike rate is lower than Kohli since 2016 in first 10-15 deliveries because he score less than a run a ball in that period whenever he has batted for the West Indies or Mumbai Indians. Other matches I haven't followed so I have no idea.
In 2016 IPL, Kohli was in beast mode and he used to score at a higher rate than somebody like Chris Gayle. Scoring 4 centuries in a season in T20s is a special achievement.
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