India's tour of West Indies - July/August 2016

[Velocity]

Samuels is so inconsistent

 

[CerealKiller]

3000 Test runs for Darren Bravo. Among those who debuted after 2001, he's the only West Indian to reach that mark. That tells a lot.

 

[Aalay]

Kraigg Brathwaite credits Indian pacers for West Indies' no-show | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

"I think I haven't seen any bowlers bowl so well in the early stage of the innings," Brathwaite said. "They bowled with a lot of discipline. They also set attacking fields and really backed it up with good disciplined bowling."

Brathwaite has played against Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan. This just goes to show if the Indian bowlers can get their heads right, they are actually pretty decent.

 

[aditya123]

Kraigg Brathwaite credits Indian pacers for West Indies' no-show | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo



Brathwaite has played against Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan. This just goes to show if the Indian bowlers can get their heads right, they are actually pretty decent.

I think our pace attack is also at a disadvantage due to the recent trend of 3-day spin-heavy tests in India. They don`t get enough bowling opportunity at home and when it actually comes down to taking up responsibility overseas, they don`t have enough experience of setting batsmen up or bowling long spells to work a batsman out. This is why I want Kohli to not pick 3 spinners in this series regardless of how slow the track is. Our seamers need to bowl long spells and get test match discipline. What happens with our pacers is that a vast majority of them end up passengers on tours and at home they hardly have work to do except some reverse-swing bowling with the old ball. I believe that our seam attack is`nt totally short of skill or pace. Its the discipline and the patience that is lacking. The more we start playing a 3-pronged pace attack, the more these guys will learn. Shami, Umesh, Varun Aaron, Bhuvi and even Ishant have all got age on their side. Its not the worst pace attack in the world actually. Even on the tours to England, SA, NZ and Australia we created a lot of opportunities and had sides on the mat, only to throw the advantage away with wayward spells at the wrong time. With Ashwin showing signs of being an improved test bowler , we have a really useful bowling lineup.

 

[Aalay]

I think our pace attack is also at a disadvantage due to the recent trend of 3-day spin-heavy tests in India. They don`t get enough bowling opportunity at home and when it actually comes down to taking up responsibility overseas, they don`t have enough experience of setting batsmen up or bowling long spells to work a batsman out. This is why I want Kohli to not pick 3 spinners in this series regardless of how slow the track is. Our seamers need to bowl long spells and get test match discipline. What happens with our pacers is that a vast majority of them end up passengers on tours and at home they hardly have work to do except some reverse-swing bowling with the old ball. I believe that our seam attack is`nt totally short of skill or pace. Its the discipline and the patience that is lacking. The more we start playing a 3-pronged pace attack, the more these guys will learn. Shami, Umesh, Varun Aaron, Bhuvi and even Ishant have all got age on their side. Its not the worst pace attack in the world actually. Even on the tours to England, SA, NZ and Australia we created a lot of opportunities and had sides on the mat, only to throw the advantage away with wayward spells at the wrong time. With Ashwin showing signs of being an improved test bowler , we have a really useful bowling lineup.

The thing I have also noticed is Ishan't seam position which has changed drastically. I did not see our series vs Sri Lanka where Ishant was amazing. Our home series vs South Africa, we did not need much of his bowling. So I am watching him in test cricket after quite some time and his seam position has impressed me the most. It's such a basic thing but he didn't do it well when we were in Australia. He would just bowl with wobble seam but that has changed which is a good news. Shami has always been a good bowler but the problem with him has been discipline. In Australia, he did bowl good balls but also offered couple of bad balls in every over and the same can be said about Umesh. They have shown good discipline in this match so far. However, the bigger test will be to show consistency throughout the series.

BTW, That Ashwin delivery to get Holder out was amazing. He got that drift and then spun the ball back into the right hander.

Any news on Murli Vijay? He hurt his thumb I think when he got out and hasn't fielded since.

 

[shravi]

Where is @aditya123 to tell us that India will let Brathwaite and Bishoo post a huge total and end up losing this match?

 

[aditya123]

Where is @aditya123 to tell us that India will let Brathwaite and Bishoo post a huge total and end up losing this match?

I`ve been active my friend. This WI side does not insipire even an iota of pessimism. Only one team went into this match with an intention of winning.

 

[USACricNerd]

This is 100% true. West Indies simply does not have the pace bowling options to be able to take enough wickets to compete in Test cricket. Too often recently they bowl first (once in AUS even winning the toss and fielding), get an early wicket or two, lose control of the game in the second session and end up waiting for a declaration at 500-600. Their batsmen don't have enough experience or application (save Kraigg Brathwaite and maybe Darren Bravo) to be able to handle the pressure of matching a huge score, so they end up folding.

Their spin department can be okay - Bishoo offers more wicket-taking potential while Warrican gives you a little more control. No quality offspinner in the ranks right now.

But the seam group is just a mess right now. Taylor was the best of the lot and he retired, and Kemar Roach is out of form and favor, leaving Shannon Gabriel as the only experienced Test match fast man in the stable. But Gabriel is injury-prone and can bowl four overs on the trot at best, and he's best deployed as a first-change after about 12-15 overs. Neither Holder nor Carlos Brathwaite can be relied on to take regular wickets at this point - if WI is going to continue to play both of them, at least one needs to be able to strike.

I like the move to go to Dowrich behind the stumps, notwithstanding the drop on Day 1. He is the future and honestly I don't believe Denesh Ramdin was ever going to play for a quality WI side. With the side in chaos as it is right now, I don't mind at all seeing WI go with young players, putting them through the fire, and seeing what comes out on the other side.

My ideal XI:
Kraigg Brathwaite
Shai Hope
Darren Bravo
Leon Johnson
Jermaine Blackwood
Shane Dowrich (wk)
Jason Holder (c)
Carlos Brathwaite
Jomel Warrican/Devendra Bishoo
Miguel Cummins
Shannon Gabriel/Alzarri Joseph

Cummins and Holder share the new ball.

It's a weak team right now, of course, but it would be a high-energy side with a lot of flair and character. Hope replaces Chandrika - frankly, I've seen enough of him at this point. Johnson replaces Samuels, who is planning to retire after this series. Warrican or Bishoo come in at 9 as they can bat a bit. And when Gabriel inevitably goes down hurt, we get a look at the most exciting fast bowling prospect to come out of WI in a decade - Alzarri Joseph. Classic West Indian quick - tall, lithe, whippy action, hits the deck hard, and gets a little movement off the season.

Go young, figure out what you have in your young talent, and start making room for some of the promising guys from the Under-19 champions - Joseph, Shimrom Hetmyer, Shamar Springer, Keemo Paul, Keacy Carty, Gidron Pope, Chamar Holder, and the like.

 

[Targaryen]

Really happy for Dhawan and Ashwin. They both were going under rough patch for the past few months and returning to their form outside sub-continent seems very special. Quite dissappointing performance by Cheteswar Pujara. He got to work more on his techniques to remain in the playing XI.

Bowling was impressive with both pace and spin getting wickets according to the change in behaviour of the pitch as the day passed by. Won't be surprised if Ishant gets dropped and Bhuvi replaces him.

I heard that Murali Vijay was injured and he was not seen on the field. I don't know how serious that injury is but he is under review and soon something about it will be out. He was substituted by Rahul on the field which clearly shows that Rahul can be into the playing xi if at all Vijay conditions doesn't get resolved before the next match day.

My ideal XI for the 2nd test:
KL Rahul/Murali Vijay
Shikhar Dhawan
Cheteswar Pujara
Virat Kohli
Ajinkya Rahane
Wriddhaman Saha
Ravi Ashwin
Amit Mishra
Umesh Yadav
Bhuvneswar Kumar/Ishant Sharma
Mohammad Shami

 

[zwarrior]

R Ashwin reclaims top spot among Test bowlers in the ICC rankings | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Velocity]

West Indies need good bowlers.In the next test, I think Miguel Cummins to debut, cause better bowling means a lot.(Bowlers win matches, Batsmen save them) They need expierience as well, to sort of help the youngsters out and help the team if they collapse or to the team together. People say that Alzarri joseph should play, though West Indies need to take care of him and he needs to play a few seasons in domestic cricket if he is to be succesful in the future.

 

[zwarrior]

BCCI officials in Florida to discuss India-WI T20s in August | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Aalay]

I have a feeling that we might see Binny for tomorrow's match.

So Murli Vijay is out of tomorrow's game.

 

[AliB]

What a start! two in two for Ishant and now Shami strikes (watched my first over of the series live now ).

 

[CerealKiller]

Why the hell did WI bat first?