India's Tour Of Sri Lanka- August 2015

[PokerAce]

Great work on the chase, as memories of Barbados '97 come rushing back.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

This is an incredible fight back by the Sri Lankan's but India still have a slim chance with Rahane at the crease.

 

[PokerAce]

Lol, Manjarekar keeping track of how many runs India need to win, even now. I am all for 5 bowlers, but the 6 batsmen and keeper have to know how to bat. Playing 5 batsmen, one of them being Rohit and another a guy with 4-5 tests under his belt is like virtually playing with 3 batsmen.

If the 5 bowler theory has to work, India need to kick Rohit away. Vijay returning will be a huge bonus. Pujara also needs to come back. Vijay, Dhawan, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, now that is a line up of batsmen that gives me much more confidence than the one in this test. India seriously need to look at the Keeper situation. This is not the 80s and 90s where the Keeper can just be a passenger.

Saha has had a 50 here okay, but there has hardly been anything else from him. India need runs from the keeper, and Saha I am afraid won't do. Samson seems the most likely option, or just go back to Dinesh Karthik, who has the potential to avg arnd 25 with the bat. Its not great, but at least its something.

Harbhajan was tried, and he was disappointing. I am not sure he still has it. If he couldn;t do it here, then he cant do it anymore. India need to look ahead, not behind. Ashwin did come of age, Mishra seems an okay short term solution. New spinners need to be introduced.

Lastly Sanga gets a winning farewell at Galle, so congrats.

 

[aditya123]

The story of Indian test cricket so often. We dominate test matches and have one or two really poor ones to lose the game in a jiffy.

 

[AliB]

Best way to describe our tests is "jeeta hua match hargaye" (The match we'd already won has been lost )

 

[namin96]

Lol, Manjarekar keeping track of how many runs India need to win, even now. I am all for 5 bowlers, but the 6 batsmen and keeper have to know how to bat. Playing 5 batsmen, one of them being Rohit and another a guy with 4-5 tests under his belt is like virtually playing with 3 batsmen.

If the 5 bowler theory has to work, India need to kick Rohit away. Vijay returning will be a huge bonus. Pujara also needs to come back. Vijay, Dhawan, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, now that is a line up of batsmen that gives me much more confidence than the one in this test. India seriously need to look at the Keeper situation. This is not the 80s and 90s where the Keeper can just be a passenger.

Saha has had a 50 here okay, but there has hardly been anything else from him. India need runs from the keeper, and Saha I am afraid won't do. Samson seems the most likely option, or just go back to Dinesh Karthik, who has the potential to avg arnd 25 with the bat. Its not great, but at least its something.

Harbhajan was tried, and he was disappointing. I am not sure he still has it. If he couldn;t do it here, then he cant do it anymore. India need to look ahead, not behind. Ashwin did come of age, Mishra seems an okay short term solution. New spinners need to be introduced.

Lastly Sanga gets a winning farewell at Galle, so congrats.

Yup I totally agree with you. Rohit needs to sit now and Pujara needs to get his place back and I'm hoping Vijay comes back because Rahul's technique against spin was horrendous! The kid was trying to play off the backfoot to full length spin! Also, I don't understand why our team can't play spinners properly now? It seems like times have changed; we have started playing fast bowling better and spin bowling worse! I don't understand how you could have so much confidence to include rohit over pujara.

 

[abhi_jacko]

Loll. We all feared this would happen.. and it did. This, my friends is called faith!!

 

[PokerAce]

Its seems in cricket two things are certain -

1) Rohit never gets dropped from the side;
2) Rohit never gets dropped from the side.

 

[PokerAce]

Just to add to this, and why drop him. he has been on an exceptional run in tests. Near undroppable form.

He has 2 50+ scores (53 and 79) in his last 19 test innings. Take away his two 100s against a hapless WI side at home, he averages a majestic 21. Thats a mere 78 less than Bradman's immortal average. How can this man be dropped?

The guy he is keeping out btw has a career avg of 47 (Rohit's being 35). Granted he went through a poor run, but the same period that Rohit averages 21 (in 19 innings), and is considered undroppable, Pujara averages 31.79 (in 24 innings).

So not only does Pujara average better he averages better over a larger innings sample. So if your head wants to explode trying to figure out why Rohit gets into the side ahead of Pujara, just tell yourself Rohit never gets dropped from the side.

 

[abhi_jacko]

So if your head wants to explode trying to figure out why Rohit gets into the side ahead of Pujara, just tell yourself Rohit never gets dropped from the side.

The wisest of the wise men have said that "only with acceptance, can there by recovery"

The only way to get over the trauma, that is Sharma ji, is to accept his eternal presence in the playing XI. Every Indian cricket fan needs to achieve this in order to reach cricketing nirvana. So India will play 90% of the matches with 10 players. That is OKAY, and that is LIFE. Infact, things could be worse: Rohit could share the test lineup with Binny

 

[PokerAce]

To be fair Binny > Rohit ... or rather even Binny > Rohit. Even a piece of Rock > Rohit

 

[SaiSrini]

So when I was defiantly arguing for Pujara in the Pujara vs Rohit battle a few days back, I get to now know that I ran into just a handful of Rohit Sharma sympathizers/followers. There seems to be a split group here equally arguing for both sides.

On the match - I can't help but laugh out loud! After having strangled Sri Lanka by the neck, they fell at just the first punch back from the opposition. The perennial problem of losing due to the inability to close out the opposition will keep haunting India forever. Teams now know that if they lose their top order easily to India's bowlers, they always have the chance of coming back into it because our bowlers lose steam soon

 

[namin96]

This is going to be real interesting to see how India recovers from this tragic loss. I don't really think we can win the series now, but the first thing is can we win the second match? Sangakarra's farewell game, I doubt India will win the game.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

Don't know why Naman Ojha isn't picked. He has performed at a high level in Ranji and for India A, and is superior to Saha from a technique POV.


While bashing Rohit is the 'cool' thing to do, how about we consider that he hasn't got a long run in the side? He's got no continuity, in the sense he's picked for one game and dropped for the next. It's better to give him chances against sides like Sri Lanka than throw him to the wolves in England/S. Africa/Australia. Perhaps give him 5 more games and then judge.

 

[cerande]

Don't know why Naman Ojha isn't picked. He has performed at a high level in Ranji and for India A, and is superior to Saha from a technique POV.

This. I have always believed Naman Ojha to be far better than Saha, even if that probably stems from him playing for Indore/MP.
Despite his terrible returns in the Tests against Aus A, Ojha has a great technique against spin, and good technique against pace.

Never been a fan of Saha, if India want to have a younger option, draft in Samson.