India tour of England Aug-Sept 2021

[Bigby Wolf]

Is this because of the whole Intent thing that our captain always talks about?

Or Rahane as batter is taking too much pressure on himself since last couple of years.

 

[asprin]

While I do agree that the combo of Pujara/Kohli/Rahane have worrisome stats, I would still say Pujara is doing better than the other two. He has been blunting out the attack on a regular basis during his "10 off 80 deliveries" kind of innings. I do agree though that he isn't scoring big which is putting pressure on the next 2 batsmen.

Kohli is definitely struggling and his first ball duck against Anderson will only add to his woes. I'll bet that it will be in the back of his mind in the remaining innings and that may affect the way he plays. Getting dismissed by Anderson is bound to irk him - it probably wouldn't have had the same effect if some other bowler had got him dismissed.

Rahane played one brilliant innings in Australia and another good one during the home series against England but has largely been stuck with dismal scores otherwise. Among these three, he is most likely to face the axe if things do not improve.

The problem is we don't have alternatives for Pujara and Rahane. We have a host of openers in line but none that can fit into the middle order. I don't think we will need to get to the end of the series for the calls to drop a player become loud. We may see it as early as the 3rd Test.

 

[Ashutosh.]

The problem is we don't have alternatives for Pujara and Rahane. We have a host of openers in line but none that can fit into the middle order. I don't think we will need to get to the end of the series for the calls to drop a player become loud. We may see it as early as the 3rd Test.

We have

Rohit
Agarwal/Prithvi
Gill
Rahul
Vihari
Pant
Jadeja
Ashwin
Shami
Ishant
Bumrah

Rahul had scored a century while batting at 5 against County Select XI.

 

[asprin]

Rohit

Can't believe I'm saying this, but he is the one who is looking dependable at the moment. Big scores are missing but at least he is occupying the crease and as an opener that's commendable.

Agarwal/Prithvi

Agarwal - String of low scores consistently after having a good start to his career
Prithvi - The less said the better. At the moment he is more suited for LO format. Too flashy for Test cricket. You may may say "so was Sehwag", but Shaw has not reached that level IMO

Gill

I'm not sure if you're implying that Kohli needs to be dropped. I'm not in favour of that. He is too big for that to happen anyway.

Rahul

Should he be in the middle order or top?

Vihari

Probably a decent option. But then again not a certainty every time.

Pant

I tend to consider Pant as a hit-or-miss option (I'm probably being a bit unfair to tag him such given that he has had more hits than misses). But as his career progresses, we may see some misses as well. Not his fault though as that's his brand of playing. I wouldn't count on him to get us out a soup. You enjoy whatever you get out of him.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I tend to consider Pant as a hit-or-miss option (I'm probably being a bit unfair to tag him such given that he has had more hits than misses). But as his career progresses, we may see some misses as well. Not his fault though as that's his brand of playing. I wouldn't count on him to get us out a soup. You enjoy whatever you get out of him.

This is something that happened so often with Gilly if I am not wrong then. Australia's top & middle order those days used to be so strong that they did not mind a Gilchrist getting out for 30-40-odd because on his days he would score one of the fastest ever hundred on a Perth track that had a lot of pace and bounce.

 

[CerealKiller]

We cannot rely on Pant always and our lower order is subhanallah!

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Just as Pant dances down the wicket the rain comes.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Just as Pant dances down the wicket the rain comes.

Maybe he was doing rain dance. Looks like rain is saving England more than India.

 

[chiefdave]

We play too much international cricket (specifically test matches). I don't think having what amounts to a few inter-squad games would make much difference. That's seven matches - Jos Buttler's played six in the last six years.

The amount of international cricket is for me the biggest reason there is waning interest. Its simply over saturation of the market. Tests go from being marquee events of the summer to something that is happening constantly.

Also agree inter-squad matches with people going through the motions isn't the answer. But we do need fringe players to be getting game time. If we need to bring in two or three players to cover injuries in this series where are the in-form players coming from? No county cricket for weeks before the series and by the time they play again the test series will be virtually over. So you just end up rotating the same few squad players. Would love to be in the situation where you have someone smashing it in the county game and being able to come into the test side while in prime form.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Have been a big critic for KL Rahul over the last year and this inning from him alone is so freaking good to see. This is the KL Rahul that I expect. Absolutely top notch stuff from him.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Top class innings!!! Anderson have finally got his man at the 3rd attempt.

 

[asprin]

Expect India to be bundled out under 220 now. 7 wickets down and three super batters to follow.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Not a great idea by Jadeja to go after Robinson. Probably could've waited for a couple more overs. Curran was a better option to slog.

As I am typing this Shami gets dropped by Anderson off Sam Curran.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

This is some crazy stuff from India. Cricket or comedy show?

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Jadeja often gets carried away after the 50s doesn't he?

Maybe its the sword celebration.