India tour of South Africa

[namin96]

Even if you get out showing aggressive intent, it is alright.

I'm not sure why Kohli's definition of intent is being so criticized. He's right, you can't keep just blocking all day and look to spend 30-40 overs at the crease not doing anything cause there will eventually be a ball that gets you out in these conditions, unless you're Rahul Dravid who can do that and just wears bowlers out mentally, only he can do that. You need to look to put pressure back on the bowlers and you need a bit of luck in the process as well.

 

[aditya123]

A great fighting knock by Kohli but he is such a prick as a captain that it makes it hard for me to appreciate him. Despite that, well played. Apart from that, there is nothing new that we learned from the game today. We dropped catches, gave away 30-40 runs extra and then suffered from the lack of a quality middle order batsman. Rohit never looks like he belongs in test cricket. This lineup does not have it in them to get to 350-ish totals which you have to in order to win overseas. All you have is 3 batsmen in Vijay, Pujara and Kohli. You cannot use a test series overseas to make test careers of players and keep established cricketers on the bench. Forget the SA attack, you just look at how Rohit fared in the Caribbean against Gabriel, Cummins and Joseph when the mad duo picked him ahead of Pujara. He struggled on those sporting wickets as well. If you again go back and check who got runs in the WI, it was Rahane, Kohli, Rahul and Ashwin. I really do not rate Shastri's cricketing acumen. Rohit is at best a good ODI player. Even in ODIs, he struggles against good pace attacks. All those 200s and 150s amount to nothing if you do not have the game against good attacks in tough situations.

 

[namin96]

Sehwag is an idiot! All the great batsmen went through bad patches in their career, Sachin/Lara/Dravid. Kohli has batted well for so long it was just a matter of time before form evade him.

He is not an idiot, he actually got a 100 against SA when they had bowlers like Pollock. He's right when he said that because Kohli needs to lead from the front and he didn't do that in the last match, if he played the team could have easily won.

 

[aditya123]

I'm not sure why Kohli's definition of intent is being so criticized. He's right, you can't keep just blocking all day and look to spend 30-40 overs at the crease not doing anything cause there will eventually be a ball that gets you out in these conditions, unless you're Rahul Dravid who can do that and just wears bowlers out mentally, only he can do that. You need to look to put pressure back on the bowlers and you need a bit of luck in the process as well.

Its not the jargon but the decisions he makes in the garb of aggression that is the problem. Show me a more aggressive innings than Rahane's hundred at Lords and MCG against top quality pace attack. He has the best attacking game against pace bowling after Kohli. More recently, the way he took on Cummins at Dharamshala in that run chase was also pure class. Yet, he is considered a defensive option.

This is what makes some captains better than others. Some captains look beyond numbers when they build a team. Do you think Dravid or Laxman would've become the players that they were if Ganguly dropped them for Yuvraj Singh after a bad series? Laxman might have averaged in the 40s only because he played a lot of innings coming lower down (like Rahane) and there were several innings against lower ranked attacks (while setting up declarations and so on) which he did not capitalize . However, come the tough situations, he would always click and that is why his place was seldom under threat. You have to back your established batsmen and lock down a stable test XI if you want to be a consistent side across conditions.

 

[Satan666]

He is not an idiot, he actually got a 100 against SA when they had bowlers like Pollock. He's right when he said that because Kohli needs to lead from the front and he didn't do that in the last match, if he played the team could have easily won.

Steve Waugh, Lara, Sachin, Ponting, Cronje, Flemming, Ganguly.......name one captain dropped after not scoring in two test matches!

@Yash. name a couple captains also since you thanked his post!

Lets see who the idiots are!

 

[Satan666]

Its not the jargon but the decisions he makes in the garb of aggression that is the problem. Show me a more aggressive innings than Rahane's hundred at Lords and MCG against top quality pace attack. He has the best attacking game against pace bowling after Kohli. More recently, the way he took on Cummins at Dharamshala in that run chase was also pure class. Yet, he is considered a defensive option.

The real question though is why Rahane not captain, he lead the team well in the 4th test against the Aussies. Rahane needed to be dropped, good wake up call for him but I wonder if Kohli feels threatened by him as the guy to take the captaincy from him. Wont be the first tome we’re seeing thr ‘crabs in a barell’ syndrome from the Indians!

 

[Yash.]

It was a dig at the management giving the same reason Rahane was dropped.

Steve Waugh, Lara, Sachin, Ponting, Cronje, Flemming, Ganguly.......name one captain dropped after not scoring in two test matches!

@Yash. name a couple captains also since you thanked his post!

Lets see who the idiots are!

 

[SaiSrini]

Sad to see Pujara literally waste his wicket today. There were a lot of runs there for him to take, but he gave it all up first ball with a very silly run-out. Wonder why a classical batsman like him had to take such a suicidal run the very first ball he faces. Wait, let me guess? Could it be because a certain 'captain' recently came out in the press conference and talked about how you need to show intent and all when batting out there?

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Wll done Rohit Sharma, brilliant innings. That innings just saved your spot as you were only required to score 5 runs. You doubled it well done.

 

[Aalay]

Virat Kohli needs to make sure he goes on to get a big one here if India wants to have upper hand in this test match. Without any doubt, he has looked the most in control in this series when he has settled in. I just wish someone could give him some support from the other hand.

People complaining about Kohli as a captain might be right but the thing we need to understand is Kohli is a leader but he is probably not as strong tactically right now. However, with experiance he will only get better. Ricky Ponting was also similar when he started to captain Australia where he led the team from front but wasn't a tactical genius until he gained some experiance. This is where Kohli is missing Kumble who was pretty strong tactically.

On the other hand, Faf du Plessis is someone who is a leader and is also pretty sharp tactically. He knew that Philander won't get much movement on this surface so only used him with the new hard ball and as soon as the ball became a little old, he brought in Lungi Ngidi who was quite impressive. If you are going to compare both captains, it is pretty easy choice that Faf is gonna come on top any day.

Rohit is such a weird case in test cricket. He has finally figured out how to bat in limited overs cricket but he is still unsure about how to build an inning in test cricket. This is very weird for a batsman with his class and international experiance. It's not like he hasn't had success at first class level. He has a very good record in ranji cricket but just somehow fails to deliver at test level. I think he has one more inning to repay the faith that the captain and coach has shown in him. If he doesn't do anything, he should not be in the final 11 especially when he is blocking the way for "VICE CAPTAIN Rahane".

 

[Gaurav_7]

No one doubts Kohli the batsman, no one! All here agreeing with what Sehwag said had to do with Rahane and Dhawan's exclusion. More so with Rahane being ignored. We don't need all batsmen to be dashers in Test cricket. It is batters like Vijay, Pujara, Rahane who make us look a solid test batting unit.

 

[aditya123]

The real question though is why Rahane not captain, he lead the team well in the 4th test against the Aussies. Rahane needed to be dropped, good wake up call for him but I wonder if Kohli feels threatened by him as the guy to take the captaincy from him. Wont be the first tome we’re seeing thr ‘crabs in a barell’ syndrome from the Indians!

This is the problem with such an approach. If Rahane 'deserved' a wake-up call after one poor series against SL and lets face it, most of his innings came in when India were setting up declarations, did Kohli deserve to be dropped after the Australia series where he did'nt get a run either. This sets a dangerous precedent and unsettles the side bigtime. Now you have batsmen playing for places all the time and never express themselves as they would if they felt secure. Guys like Rahul and Rahane are supremely gifted strokeplayers and yet feel the sword dangling around their necks all the time thanks to this moronic selection policy. Show me one legendary test side (WI of 70s and 80s or Australia of 90s/2000s) which was`nt stable. I`m not saying Rahane or Rahul won`t fail against good attacks but they are more equipped to do well more often than proven failures like Dhawan and Rohit who always get shown up overseas. How a proven all conditions batsman can be dropped for a 'potential' 'match-winner' is beyond me.

This is the last that I have to say about this issue. My views stand vindicated and the match result (another batting failure tomorrow) will teach the management more lessons than we fans can hope to teach anytime.

 

[Satan666]

This is the problem with such an approach. If Rahane 'deserved' a wake-up call after one poor series against SL and lets face it, most of his innings came in when India were setting up declarations, did Kohli deserve to be dropped after the Australia series where he did'nt get a run either. This sets a dangerous precedent and unsettles the side bigtime. Now you have batsmen playing for places all the time and never express themselves as they would if they felt secure. Guys like Rahul and Rahane are supremely gifted strokeplayers and yet feel the sword dangling around their necks all the time thanks to this moronic selection policy. Show me one legendary test side (WI of 70s and 80s or Australia of 90s/2000s) which was`nt stable. I`m not saying Rahane or Rahul won`t fail against good attacks but they are more equipped to do well more often than proven failures like Dhawan and Rohit who always get shown up overseas. How a proven all conditions batsman can be dropped for a 'potential' 'match-winner' is beyond me.

This is the last that I have to say about this issue. My views stand vindicated and the match result (another batting failure tomorrow) will teach the management more lessons than we fans can hope to teach anytime.

Fair enough argument.

 

[aditya123]

Rohit is such a weird case in test cricket. He has finally figured out how to bat in limited overs cricket but he is still unsure about how to build an inning in test cricket. This is very weird for a batsman with his class and international experiance. It's not like he hasn't had success at first class level. He has a very good record in ranji cricket but just somehow fails to deliver at test level. I think he has one more inning to repay the faith that the captain and coach has shown in him. If he doesn't do anything, he should not be in the final 11 especially when he is blocking the way for "VICE CAPTAIN Rahane".

Has he? Point out one recent ODI innings of his in a situation that mattered against a good quality pace attack. He fails even on good tracks when he comes up against good pace attacks. He is just an average to decently good ODI player made to look good by some really mediocre ODI attacks that are put up on the field in bilateral ODI series. This is why one must look at ICC events and matches against good pace attacks to get a measure of one's ODI worth. For instance, the moment he had the game hinge on him against a good Pakistani attack in the CT final, he failed. Similarly, take any match situation where the team depended on him and you know he will fail. This is why you cannot compare him to someone like SRT or even Ganguly in ODIs despite his better numbers. Teams tended to play their full sides in ODIs back then and there were some really good attacks going around. Also, there were many knockout like games in ODIs then owing to the tri/quadrangular series back then. Rohit and even Kohli for that matter are yet to play a innings of the class of SRT's 98 at Centurion against Pakistan in 2003 or some of his other knocks in the WCs. That is what makes an ODI player.

Rohit is a bilateral, flat track bully against average attacks. I'd be surprised if he or Dhawan got any runs even in the ODIs in SA. Its not merely a question of temperament with them, its also their skills. I would place him in the league of guys like Ajay Jadeja who had a good ODI record for the 90s but hardly had any performance of note under pressure (yes I recall that innings in the 96 Q/Fs).

 

[Satan666]

2nd inns gonna be interesting for both sides as it appears this pitch is holding up.

I’ll say India are just ahead though. SA pacers will have to extract something early in the morning.[DOUBLEPOST=1515951729][/DOUBLEPOST]

No one doubts Kohli the batsman, no one! All here agreeing with what Sehwag said had to do with Rahane and Dhawan's exclusion. More so with Rahane being ignored. We don't need all batsmen to be dashers in Test cricket. It is batters like Vijay, Pujara, Rahane who make us look a solid test batting unit.

Yeah and this is my thing I dont see Rahane being so special of a batsman, a great prospect as captain however.