India tour of New Zealand 2019

[abhi_jacko]

Sunlight stops play...

now thats a first

 

[asprin]

I would love to experience sun at 7.20 pm

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Excellent decision to drop DK after his terrible performance in the last game. It should do his confidence a world of good. Another good decision to give Rayudu some match time and have Dhoni back at 6.

 

[Morphed]

Excellent decision to drop DK after his terrible performance in the last game. It should do his confidence a world of good. Another good decision to give Rayudu some match time and have Dhoni back at 6.

Sarcastic I guess?

 

[Ashutosh.]

Kohli rested for last two New Zealand ODIs

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Kohli rested for last two New Zealand ODIs

I think it's a good move considering the WC in mind but why not rest him for IPL as well ?

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

I seriously do not understand this resting of Kohli. World Cup is coming up, you want to test your combinations, Kohli in 2018 rested already for Asia Cup, Nidhas Trophy, the Afghanistan test. He still wants to be rested?

 

[aditya123]

Excellent decision to drop DK after his terrible performance in the last game. It should do his confidence a world of good. Another good decision to give Rayudu some match time and have Dhoni back at 6.

Bright team management and their even brighter ideas. DK was supposedly given the job of a finisher as per our captain's press conference in Australia. For some really sad reason, our media and the team think Dhoni won us those 2 chases in Australia. In reality, it was the innings of DK and Jadhav which made Dhoni`s knocks look good. Dhoni`s inability to keep the score moving put pressure on Kohli and led to his dismissal in both the games. He should`nt be in the side if he won`t bat No.4. My XI, with the assumption that dhoni is indispensable to this team management is as below:

Dhawan
Rohit
Kohli
Dhoni
Karthik/Rayudu/Jadhav
Karthik/Rayudu/Jadhav
Pant
Bhuvaneswar
Kuldeep/Chahal
Shami
Bumrah

Reserves
Jadeja
Umesh/Deepak Chahar

 

[SaiSrini]

India better opt to bat first in a game or two this series (hoping they win the toss a few occasions) so that they can test their middle order and their capability to press the accelerator effectively after the 30th over. I still am not confident India has the right combination to do that effectively.

 

[Bevab]

I seriously do not understand this resting of Kohli. World Cup is coming up, you want to test your combinations, Kohli in 2018 rested already for Asia Cup, Nidhas Trophy, the Afghanistan test. He still wants to be rested?

He still has some persistent issues with his back. And considering the rather high amount of cricket that he usually plays (at a high intensity), I’d rather see him rest. And, this could open up a spot to test Gill out.

Excellent bowling from India today, and hopefully Dk was dropped because India wanted to test a new combination. Good to see Dhawan score a 50 too, some of the more fickle part of the Indian fanbase were starting to question his spot in the team.

Wish we get to see Shankar bat higher up the order sometime in the series too. He’s no mug with the bat, and has generally been batting higher than 7 for the state and ‘A’ team. If he does well, we could have Jaddu in the team at 7 without worrying about having to play two frontline spinners (in case Pandya happens to be banned for a significant period)

 

[hammadahmed88]

Now that Kohli has decided to rest, would love to see Shubman Gill in for him, a bit down the order perhaps. Wouldn't it be great to see Shaheen Afridi bowl to Gill in the next world cup?

 

[SaiSrini]

I can't see Gill getting a chance even if Kohli is rested for the last two ODI's. With Gill being a rank newcomer, he is MOST LIKELY not in India's WC plans for 2019. And if that's the case, he will very likely not get a chance as India would want to play the WC bound guys in the XI for the last two ODI's. If Kohli is rested, Rayudu plays at No. 3 and DK plays at No.6. Only if one of our batters get injured and are not available, will Gill get a chance and fit into the XI.

India's WC squad is almost finalized 99.8% and Gill does not feature in it. And I don't think even Rishabh Pant features in it, even though MSK Prasad says that Pant is in their WC plans. The ODI team for the home series against Australia should tell you if Pant is indeed in the plans.

 

[zwarrior]

For me, Gill is the next big thing in Indian cricket. Absolutely love whatever I have seen of him so far.

 

[SaiSrini]

For me, Gill is the next big thing in Indian cricket. Absolutely love whatever I have seen of him so far.

I agree. He looks solid and has worked extensively under the supervision of Rahul Dravid. He looks an all-format player to me, who can bat in any format. Hope he keeps his head in the right place and not go astray like KL Rahul. Once the WC is done, we should definitely be seeing more of Gill. If Dhoni retires, Gill would be a great No. 4 and Pant can be the wicketkeeper-bat who can go hammer tongs in the middle order. Just the kind of young blood India needs in the middle. Prithvi Shaw can be brought into ODI's and compete for the opening slots with Rohit/Dhawan. When Prithvi and Gill come in after the WC, the competition is going to be turned up several notches high. Edit: And oh...... I totally forgot Mayank. Man, India's batting has a lot to offer in the coming years.

I somehow get the feeling that "Dravid taking care of Indian cricket at grassroots level" could be the best thing that might have happened to us in recent times.

 

[asprin]

I seriously do not understand this resting of Kohli. World Cup is coming up, you want to test your combinations, Kohli in 2018 rested already for Asia Cup, Nidhas Trophy, the Afghanistan test. He still wants to be rested?

I actually don't mind it. He is the pillar of our team and the last thing we would want is an injury that would keep him out of the WC. Kohli is a certainty in the playing XI, so it's not like he has prove anything to merit a place in the team. Having said that, this rest would be of no use if he goes on to play the IPL, which as everyone knows is what will happen eventually. The risk of fatigue/injury is greater when playing in IPL.

In fact, I'm so against it that I would prefer to have no IPL this year keeping the WC in mind. But that's not gonna happen, so I can only hope that the players take care of themselves.