India tour of Australia Nov'20-Jan'21

[LiveLoveABD]

Well if Ambanis can allow Saurabh Tiwary to play a match, playing Rohit even at 50% fitness won't be an issue for them.


Which is not the case for Team India. Under the Kohli regime, fitness is the number one priority.
We have seen players like Shami who was predominantly not known for his fitness, work on that and see the results it is giving him now.

Even Shastri realised this and he isn't a couch potato anymore.

Leave match fitness, the first hurdle for Rohit will be to clear the yo-yo test, which he has issues with in the past too.
IPL doesn't demand yo-yo, the franchise just wants you to go all out and play.
But national team does.

Moreover, IPL was a 4 hour match. Tests are a 5 day matter.

Rohit Sharma can become Yokozuna if he likes. Even Kohli will not be able to get rid of him in the white ball format.[DOUBLEPOST=1606238842][/DOUBLEPOST]Why is the nike logo gone? And couldn't they just remove that Byju's logo? Make the 'India' in yellow/white.

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Why is the nike logo gone? And couldn't they just remove that Byju's logo? Make the 'India' in yellow/white.

I agree BCCI is an NPO

But you need to know that we are living in a commercialized world

 

[LiveLoveABD]

I agree BCCI is an NPO

But you need to know that we are living in a commercialized world

MPL sports is our new kit sponsor? How do these guys have such deep pockets? And if you can sponsor the Indian team kit, surely you can find a better logo designer for your brand?

 

[AliB]

MPL sports is our new kit sponsor? How do these guys have such deep pockets? And if you can sponsor the Indian team kit, surely you can find a better logo designer for your brand?

Best case scenario, make the text white and remove the by at least! It's just shut af.

 

[SaiSrini]

Jersey on

Such a royal F*up of the 1992 Jersey. Might have as well left it alone and stayed with whatever we were wearing currently. Both the MPL logo and the BYJU logo, make the jersey look so damn ugly!

 

[SaiSrini]

There are now rumours of Rohit Sharma missing the tour entirely due to fitness concerns and Shreyas Iyer being his replacement. Apparently the former is fit enough to play in the IPL but cannot recover in time from whatever mysterious ailment he has to play later?

I do like the inclusion of Shreyas in the team though. Mentioned it earlier that he is perhaps the best batsman in our domestic setup to not get a FC game so long despite a hugely prolific Ranji season and a volume of runs that would mean automatic inclusion a few years ago. His weakness versus short ball will be ruthlessly exposed on Aussie pitches though so I'm not sure if this would be the right timing for him to make an instantaneous impact. In the absence of Kohli though, might be worth giving him a game and hope he makes a similar impact to Mayank the last time we toured.

Its actually a blessing in disguise for India that Rohit is not fit for the tests. We already have opening options in plenty within the current selected squad (Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill). Adding one more guy (Rohit) to that opening pool was unnecessary. Now with Shreyas Iyer being retained as cover for Rohit in the tests, we have one less opening option and a new addition to the middle order.

I would play Iyer ahead of Rahul in the middle order (not a fan of forcefully sandwiching Rahul into middle order).

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Is Iyer surely flying ahead of SKY? That's nonsense.

And it would be utter travesty if we don't open with Rahul and Mayank no matter who is available and who is not. But, Rohit has done exceptionally well in the home tests but since he's nowhere to be seen for the first two tests then it's a moot point.

This is Rahane's absolutely golden opportunity to shine. If by some miracle he manages to win here or even draw, it would hold much more value than our previous triumph without Smith & Warner. I am not a fan of Shaw at all. I think he has some serious issues in his head and while I am not a fan of 'technique' I really think you need a strong mind to overhaul those flaws. I doubt he has it (right now). Vihari, Rahane, Pujara? I think there's too much sameness. I would straight away play Iyer/Sky. If SKY is still ignored, there is something fundamentally wrong in Indian cricket and I rate Iyer very highly mentally. Someone like SKY at 4/5 will be the exact "umph" you need against Australia down under.

Also, decide who your spinner is and play him for four tests. I hope they don't play musical chairs with Ashwin and Jadeja.

 

[SaiSrini]

Is Iyer surely flying ahead of SKY? That's nonsense.

And it would be utter travesty if we don't open with Rahul and Mayank no matter who is available and who is not. But, Rohit has done exceptionally well in the home tests but since he's nowhere to be seen for the first two tests then it's a moot point.

This is Rahane's absolutely golden opportunity to shine. If by some miracle he manages to win here or even draw, it would hold much more value than our previous triumph without Smith & Warner. I am not a fan of Shaw at all. I think he has some serious issues in his head and while I am not a fan of 'technique' I really think you need a strong mind to overhaul those flaws. I doubt he has it (right now). Vihari, Rahane, Pujara? I think there's too much sameness. I would straight away play Iyer/Sky. If SKY is still ignored, there is something fundamentally wrong in Indian cricket and I rate Iyer very highly mentally. Someone like SKY at 4/5 will be the exact "umph" you need against Australia down under.

Also, decide who your spinner is and play him for four tests. I hope they don't play musical chairs with Ashwin and Jadeja.

The unofficial news is that Shreyas Iyer will be asked to stay back for the tests since Rohit is not going to be available atleast for the first two tests and most likely for the entire series. I dont think they would go through the trouble of getting SKY to travel to Australia now and go through the entire quarantine process when Shreyas Iyer is already there with the squad and has completed the quarantine protocols already and is going to play the ODI's and T20's.

Rahul and Mayank seem like the pair to start with! More so when Kohli is not available. I feel Vihari will play as the 7 batsman since he is also a useful part timer and could play the 5th bowler duties. I know Pujara, Rahane and Vihari have a sameness but I dont mind those 3 playing together. This is old fashioned test cricket and it would be nice to have 3 batsman of such solid technique in the XI. And yes - play one spinner and play him throughout. Since IPL has been the only tournament that happened in the last 6-7 months, we've to base form/confidence on it and Ashwin should be ahead of Jadeja on form/bowling confidence (Jadeja was good with bat for CSK, but below par on bowling).

 

[Yash.]

Is Iyer surely flying ahead of SKY? That's nonsense

And reason for SKY to be selected in Tests? Because of his form in the T20s?

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Rohit Sharma can become Yokozuna if he likes.

Hahaha, that sounded so funny.

I agree to you though. As long as he keeps playing well he would continue to play for India despite his fitness issues. He is too much of an established player in the white ball format to miss out, so he would somehow make this Indian side.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

The unofficial news is that Shreyas Iyer will be asked to stay back for the tests since Rohit is not going to be available atleast for the first two tests and most likely for the entire series. I dont think they would go through the trouble of getting SKY to travel to Australia now and go through the entire quarantine process when Shreyas Iyer is already there with the squad and has completed the quarantine protocols already and is going to play the ODI's and T20's.

Rahul and Mayank seem like the pair to start with! More so when Kohli is not available. I feel Vihari will play as the 7 batsman since he is also a useful part timer and could play the 5th bowler duties. I know Pujara, Rahane and Vihari have a sameness but I dont mind those 3 playing together. This is old fashioned test cricket and it would be nice to have 3 batsman of such solid technique in the XI. And yes - play one spinner and play him throughout. Since IPL has been the only tournament that happened in the last 6-7 months, we've to base form/confidence on it and Ashwin should be ahead of Jadeja on form/bowling confidence (Jadeja was good with bat for CSK, but below par on bowling).

I don't think Vihari has any technique to be honest. He was struggling against the short stuff in India and West Indies. In Australia, against Australia with Stars, Cummins and Hazlewood hurling down fireballs is another bracket of cricket. On bowling form, Ashwin should play ahead of Jadeja but the former was struggling to be on the park for twenty overs. This is 450. Jadeja as a package beats Ashwin in any format and in any conditions. The question is whether they play Kuldeep or not? I would honestly play Ashwin and Jadeja at 7 and 8 along with 3 quicks. (pink ball test aside)

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I would honestly play Ashwin and Jadeja at 7 and 8 along with 3 quicks.

Exactly what I wanted India to do when they toured NZ earlier this year, but honestly doing that in NZ was going to be risky and India lost that series since they were poor with the bat so that did not really affect the results but considering Australia uses drop-ins and since they don't have enough moisture in them they would certainly help spinners in a better way. I somehow want India to play Shami, Bumrah & Saini/Siraj in test along with Jadeja and Ashwin.

Also don't you think that Jadeja should bat over Ashwin considering he has played extremely well at that spot since the test match at The Oval couple of years ago? I know it has been a long time but I don't think he has got opportunities to prove himself at that spot. Also with Jadeja one would expect him to stay on the crease and score decent amount of runs in the lower order which we generally don't expect Ashwin to do since anything over 140 kph is difficult for him to handle. I know he has got 4 hundreds under his belt but those actually came on slow pitches with not much of a lateral movement.

 

[Bevab]

Its actually a blessing in disguise for India that Rohit is not fit for the tests. We already have opening options in plenty within the current selected squad (Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill). Adding one more guy (Rohit) to that opening pool was unnecessary. Now with Shreyas Iyer being retained as cover for Rohit in the tests, we have one less opening option and a new addition to the middle order.

I would play Iyer ahead of Rahul in the middle order (not a fan of forcefully sandwiching Rahul into middle order).

Rohit Sharma missing out may be a blessing if he was slated to open, however in the absence of Kohli I would have preferred to see him in the middle order. For all criticism of him on away tours, he looked decent when he wasn't brainlessly slogging or trying to go after each and every delivery on the last tour and I hoped that his experience opening in home tests would have taught him the value of patience that he has infrequently showed on away tours. Would not have been my first choice but if you were to send him back to Ranji cricket for a few games, it wouldn't surprise anyone if he was selected again as a backup at the very least due to his incredible performances.

I understand the calls for Rahul to open, but if he hasn't rectified his massive issues with technique and mentality that plagued him on the last tour, he will continue being Hazlewood's bunny this time too. I am a fan of Ashwin and Jadeja both playing for quite sometime as I feel Jadeja can offer value with the bat if Pant also bats decently and in the absence of Ishant who was our workhorse bowler the need for a fifth bowler becomes a big necessity. We are not going to win games with our batting unit unless Pujara and Mayank bat incredibly well, might as well strengthen our bowling and take the risk.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

And reason for SKY to be selected in Tests? Because of his form in the T20s?

Just see the runs he has been amassing as Mumbai captain in Ranji trophy. Plus, when he has got runs and how he has got them. The biggest thing about Sky is his ticker. He's a sponge under pressure and he's what we call in bengal a chameleon. He changes as per the situation. Already he's been wasted a lot. Same with Karun Nair who I think is terminally destroyed.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

How psychotic is the Indian ODI squad? There's not a keeper in view bar KL who is at best make shift! Quite the planning one must say considering he's looking likely to open in tests and will need powers of concentration which has been his weakness. Just don't see the point in him keeping with the WC as far away as 23 and burning him out for the tests to follow.