India's Tour to South Africa

[Bigby Wolf]

Great stat

A great man once said "Stats are like mini skirts they hide more then they reveal".

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Great stat

If only BCCI made under the table deals during those times as well.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

 

[Bevab]

Naah white ball bowling is just fine IMO especially with Kuldeep as the spinner.

We have plenty of good limited over bowlers and tried and tested as well with the likes of Mukesh Kumar, Arshdeep and even Avesh is a decent ODI bowler.

Test bowling is something which is worrisome when you have to rely on Lord Thakur to pick wickets for you in the middle overs.

Both Ashwin and Jadeja are mediocre overseas and proven time and again yet persisted with.

Barring the last OZ tour Ashwin has always been a struggle overseas and so is Jadeja only plays because of his ultra defensive batting in any formats.

Where on earth are your spinners in Tests?

Not sure why you're calling Mukesh and Avesh good limited overs bowlers... this was the first year in which Mukesh even played in the IPL. Avesh has been a better red ball bowler than a white ball bowler for as long as I can remember despite his IPL success... the stats back that up too (he's got a List A average of 37). It's the same story with Mukesh, his white ball averages are above thirty in both formats (they're closer to forty in 50 overs cricket) and this is a guy who only had one-fourth of his T20 games in the IPL. I've followed both of them in Ranji cricket and for India A (Avesh is comparatively worse in the latter) and they're much better with the red ball. If anything I'd argue that we've been guilty of producing pacers who are capable of bowling with rhythm sticking to a consistent length but struggle with variations other than the dreaded knuckle ball and cross seam which is why I fear for our white ball bowling and part of it may be because unlike other country pacers ours don't have to hone their skills in the T20 circuit and so miss out on potentially learning multiple variations to survive there.

We have two states in Bengal and Karnataka who have been recently producing numerous pacers of good quality... Karnataka's produced four pacers that average below twenty-five in FC cricket and Bengal's worst regular pacer is Porel who averages twenty-five... and these are just two states. The problem lies in the step between international and domestic cricket not being done properly since the pandemic due to India A not playing as regularly as before or being managed properly (Dravid's absence is hurting us here). I've not even talked about Mavi who took a six wicket haul in his last FC game in the Duleep Trophy and currently averages below twenty. Most other countries have nowhere near the same level of talent in their domestic system. The problem is picking Lord Thakur over and over again when he wasn't even the best FC pacer by a mile in the system.

We've got plenty of spin depth too, not sure why you're confused over it. Saurabh Kumar had a ten wicket haul in the Irani Cup two months ago, Mulani has been in the top two wicket-takers in the Ranji Trophy over the last two seasons. Suthar's already played a couple of India A games (albeit in List A cricket) and has been reported to be highly talented, Kartikeya's done a great job and I've not even talked about the two international backups we have in Kuldeep and Axar. If we're truly facing an injury crisis to all four of these blokes I'm pretty sure Saxena can do a job in a solitary series even at his age. Yet again the issue is in the pathway between domestic to international cricket... and I'm not sure why you're hitting out at Ashwin and Jadeja when they've mostly been given pitches that are absolutely not conducive to spinners on most SENA tours. Jadeja's role in the last England tour was to be that defensive bowler who held up one end on pitches that had nothing for spinners and he did his job well. He did well enough the last time we toured Australia and Ashwin outbowled Lyon significantly in the same series. The one place you could argue Ashwin failed recently was in South Africa last time and those pitches were barely conducive to spin either, Maharaj bowled half of his overs and averaged twice as badly.

It doesn't really matter who he worked with Gillespie , Akram or whatever.

In the end he was a part of faction who picked up 20 wickets every single time in tests when they stepped in the field from 2018 to 2021.

You've missed the point. It's that if Ishant can go from that meme-y bowler to being an integral part of picking up twenty wickets everytime between 2018 to 2021 after just one county stint with one quality coach... then there's a lot more hope for all of the players I've listed above with the right guidance which they'll get somewhere in the system from someone. That is why I'm saying you're overreacting by claiming that India will go back to the dark days of the 90s or 2000s for pacers when that's unlikely to happen again.

 

[asprin]

SA, Elgar in particular, have ensured that they most likely will end up winning the Test now. Hard to see getting them dismissed without having a 75+ run lead. Credit to their batsman for putting the bowlers under pressure (they are still scoring at 3.8 rpo). Would take a miracle for us to turn things around, not counting on it.

Post automatically merged: Dec 28, 2023

Also, what is it with our bowlers and left-handed batsmen?

 

[Bigby Wolf]

That stupid Prasidh Krishna bowling full tosses.

@icyman where you at?

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Pretty sure we are going to the dark old days now with lead of 150+ atleast incoming and India facing an innings defeat.

 

[Bevab]

This is a really embarrassing performance.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

 

[Bevab]

Completely forgot about Sundar once being a test spinner for us.

 

[icyman]

That stupid Prasidh Krishna bowling full tosses.

@icyman where you at?

Am cheering on for a Jansen 150 now....More I look at the scoreboard,it is quite clear that we need Bharat Arun back in our ranks.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

I hope the young players step up in the 2nd innings with bat.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Beauty from Rabada

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Innings defeat loading