India's Tour of South Africa Dec 21 - Jan 22

[NILAYSHAH60]

It's unbelievable how stats mask reality. Most people are going to look at Kohli's captaincy numbers and go "WOW."

Here we are after his tenure debating where the captain/vice captain of this team should bat?

Remove Rohit (basically started under Dhoni), Kohli (same as Rohit), Jadeja (duh) and Bumrah (started his white ball career under MS?) and nobody has a clue what our team is now.

Kohli's legacy is chaos. For me, a great leader, batsman, bowler, all rounder is one who leaves behind something for the next generation. Kohli has left behind chaos and I hope with all my heart some of the batters in 5-6 years time will pop up saying it was Virat who prompted them to become India cricketers (I know this will happen)

But dear lord this man has created pandemonium with his leadership!

For social media experts if they read this post of mine they will come up with trolls like:-
Shit Man Fan
Vada Pav man Fan
Gabbar hater and what not!

And they'll come up with left-right combo logic!

But again Dhawan does lack that ability to hit the ball a long way. He is one of those guys that hits the ball powerfully but seldom looks to clear the ropes. We may bat KLR in the middle order but not anywhere apart from no.5 (where Pant bats) and that should be followed by a condition that we move on with one of Dhawan/Rohit. Considering Rohit is to Captain, Dhawan has got to go!

 

[Rehan_24]

Meanwhile Manjerker has his say: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cric...hnsTRpV4Zu_Eo7_LCm3KPuBQwZVjKjfon8GAoyGbE7KoI

I think thats too negative. Let the guy live. He is the best batsman in the world and had been a great captain who made you won matches outside India. If there have been concerns, those could be discussed behind closed doors. Surely, he is not as cool and calm as MSD but MSD kind of captains come once in a blue moon. What choice you have apart from him. He should have been given more run. About Coach, Coach is there to support and assist, Captain is the leader and should be given most importance and authority.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Captain is the leader and should be given most importance and authority.

This!

I don't understand this obsession. I don't think a Captain should be given an authority to an extent where he makes the selector pick players he wants and where they don't communicate their decision to everyone involved. Under Kohli's stint, we improved massively as a Test side but it had it's own negative effects. Few of it includes-

1. Making Karun Nair an unknown entity overnight even after he scored a triple ton.
2. Dropping our best Test player of the last decade on multiple occasions.
3. Dropping our vice-Captain in South Africa back in 2018 because he didn't score runs in some home series.
4. Our best Test opener lost his confidence to score runs in SENA and eventually his career ended when a certain GOAT spinner got him out bowled in a Test match in Perth.
5. Our emerging Test opener looked clueless in Overseas conditions because of the obsession to have him included in LOIs. He eventually went unsure into a WC.
6. Our best Test spinner received a workload to the extent where he was asked to put in hard yards beyond capacity on multiple occasions.
7. Our coach was disrespectfully taken aside by him
8. We experimented our no.4 in ODIs for about 6 months and come the WC he was dropped!

If such authority is fine for a Captain then I don't know why we have Chairman & President at our Cricket board.

 

[icyman]

The main concern with Kohli's stint-the media raised him above the game and continued support from Ravi meant that he was virtually untouchable.

Also, do not forget that Kohli-Shastri controlled Indian cricket when the BCCI didn't have elected officials at the helm. For close to 3.5 years, you had some idiots in charge and they handed everything on a platter to this combine.

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

No 71 even today.

 

[CerealKiller]

Glad to see Markram bowling well isn't just a Pakistan thing

Are you a newbie/out of form/making a comeback/part-time bowler? If yes, Pakistan is the perfect opposition. Just ask Duanne Olivier, Paul Harris, Nathan Hauritz, Marcus North, Will Somerville and so many more.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Well this approach is very much helping India. But still worried that Shreyas coming after the 30th over mark is going to cut down the scoring rate a bit.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Terrible way for the Indian Captain to be dismissed. That was way down the leg side and he chips it straight to mid-on

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Soft Dismissal that.

And an absolute poor innings from KLR comes to an end.

This template of batting the whole innings in ODIS is just outdated and Rahul is great at it.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Soft Dismissal that.

And an absolute poor innings from KLR comes to an end.

This template of batting the whole innings in ODIS is just outdated and Rahul is great at it.

But could this be of help had he played at 4/5?

I guess more like the Captaincy taking a toll on him.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Another average maintaining innings from Rahul in which he should have been dismissed twice on his own accord and then he finally did get dismissed. The more I watch this batting line up, the more I feel a bowler should be our future captain.

We are suddenly a year away from a proper World Cup and Rahul is exactly where he was in 2019 where nobody knows where he is to bat and how he is to play and the horror show is that he is now the captain.

We have got to realise that Rohit's fitness is at a place where I will not be in the least surprised if he has to miss a WC.

I hope the job is kept as far away from Pant as possible.

P.S- For all the VK captaincy fans- Just look at Shamsi the bowler today. He and Kuldeep came about around the same time. One showed the promise of a Shane Warne and the other was clueless. But, via consistent selection and player backing one has become a world class white ball bowler while the other has his career in tatters.

 

[Bevab]

But could this be of help had he played at 4/5?

I guess more like the Captaincy taking a toll on him.

But he does not bat like that there, that was the entire point of my previous post!

Opening in ODIs and T20s are different scenarios too. Barring the absolute roads of England, most batting friendly surfaces in an ODI would still be a competitive pitch in a T20 where as T20 pitches are pure roads with shortened boundaries to boot. The powerplay is also a slightly bigger portion of a T20 in comparison to an ODI. ODIs have two new balls which has eliminated the factor of reverse swing and threating finger spinners but has also ensured that the opening overs are tougher to deal with in the right conditions. You also get possibly the two best bowlers of a side bowling more deliveries at a batsman whilst finally, the value of a wicket in a T20 is less than an ODI.

The more I think about it, the more it feels like Rahul opening feels weird. Is Dhawan still our first choice opener? Who do we drop when Rohit Sharma the captain returns? If Dhawan, Rohit and Rahul all play, why doesn't Rahul play in the middle order and let Gaikwad who has a similar playing style to Rohit play as the opener especially when he is in the form of his life? What is the actual team being built here?

 

[Neo 7]

Meh feel like vomit ! First match Rishabh Pant . And this match , Iyer stumped down the leg-side by Phelukwayo .

 

[harishankar]

Same old story. Middle Order Collapse (MOC for short, since it's become so common). India lucky to get to 260 I guess from here.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

That is Dhoni-esque stumping from De Kock.

Well Done