New Zealand tour of India (Sept-Oct 2016)

[abhi_jacko]

Very scratchy knock from VK

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

He has always been scratchy in first test of all series. The problem is he is soo aggressive that he wants to play all the deliveries. He does not like leaving deliveries.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Time to put the Kiwis in.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Ross Taylor looks like he can get out every ball!

KL Rahul looks like he's injured. The moron Dhawan will again come back in.

 

[Aalay]

Secondly, I saw Hardik Pandya do well with the bat under those conditions as well. I feel Pandya does have something to offer for this test side in NZ/Eng conditions if he can get some discipline in his bowling. It bugged me to see Binny being picked ahead of him in the test squad for the WI. At the very least, Pandya brings in a lot of energy to the side. He can bowl in the high 130s and is a terrific fielder. Lets look at the larger scheme of things and not the IPL performances. We must also keep in mind that guys like Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes were very similar cricketers when they began. Look where they are now.

Totally agree about Hardik Pandya. I have always wanted him around the squad since I first saw him because he can be a proper all-rounder that we have been missing for so many years. He is very raw so it is too early to throw him in the test squad straight away but selectors have to show faith in him and send him to these A-tours at least. The funny thing is he wasn't in the original squad for these A series but he was added later. We also need him for limited overs and he is even more suited there since he can hit big but as you rightly pointed out, he has to work on his bowling. His bowling is not up to international standards as of yet so once he works on that and sort that out, he can be a real handy cricketer for India especially when we travel overseas. We will have a proper fast bowling all-rounder rather than going with Binny.

 

[Velocity]

Very scratchy knock from VK

You pretty much see the best of Kohli on overseas trips. Not so much in Test matches in India.

 

[Velocity]

I really want to see how Ronchi is going to play tomorrow. Imagine if he goes bonkers and knocks of the target! But there is Ashwin to contend with..... I'm sure if we keep this up, we can get back the No. 1 ranking. I feel now if we have a good fast bowling all-rounder, ( Not Binny of course) we can beat anyone anywhere. We just need to get Dhawan out, bring Gambhir for the reserve opener, we are all set. Team Blue has the batting and bowling strengths to take on the world, and if those two click at the right time, we could see a great force coming. But, we will have to see if somewhat NZ can conjure up a win, or how comphensfully win this match. Well, it seems it's going to be a while till we play overseas, so India needs to enjoy while it lasts( home season)

 

[Umair7]

I don't understand why people are bashing this pitch , this pitch was fine

 

[aditya123]

I hope we stick to Shami and Yadav for the next test as well even if the spearhead gets fit. Both of them have looked potent and have shown discipline as well. You need bowlers who are skiddy and can use the old ball well. Ishant has very limited utility on these tracks, mostly defensive.

 

[zwarrior]

Who will be the MOM ?Ash bowled really well in both innings and Jaddu bowled well in first innings and contributed with his batting in both the innings. Meanwhile Vijay and Pujara gave a solid foundation to our batting. It's gonna be a hard task. But I feel it would be Ash. If not him, then Jaddu.

 

[Chewie]

This pitch is actually much better for India than turners - rank turners just even up the spinning game as even terrible spinners can do something on them, while on pitches like this there's reward if you have application and are good like Ashwin and Jadeja, but hard toil for average spinners

 

[LiveLoveABD]

@kushal17 - I see you often dig up Ashwin's loud mouth. Well I have seen a lot of loud mouths in international cricket, and let me know Ashwin is nowhere close to even any of them. Kohli is a far bigger loudmouth (since you use that term) than Ashwin. There have been lots of them in Indian cricket itself. Ashwin when he talks, he talks sensibly. Yes of course he talks with confidence, but I wouldn't call that 'loudmouth'. For this current generation, Ashwin is slightly more timid than the average.

Ashwin is the last person I'll refer to as timid. There is also a VAST difference in him and Kohli. The latter is more expressive when retaliating to a criticism or against a competitor, the former is generally the one talking himself up on interviews. There is also the small matter of VK having been there and done that all around the globe, Ashwin is far from it. I've never seen Kohli verbally challenge a competitor in an interview. In fact, he's often talked the likes of Ab and etc. up while Ashwin loves talking himself up. Remember how he challenged Maxwell and how he was humiliated by him? I much prefer my humble boys from the south whose aggression spoke from within ala Laxman, Kumble, Sreenath and Dravid. AFAIK, Kohli got very candid in an interview against Johnson, but Johnson started it all. On the field, Ashwin is a better behaved boy and more disciplined, but off the field and in interviews Kohli is much more humble. Of course, these are personal opinions. @SaiSrini

 

[LiveLoveABD]

This pitch is actually much better for India than turners - rank turners just even up the spinning game as even terrible spinners can do something on them, while on pitches like this there's reward if you have application and are good like Ashwin and Jadeja, but hard toil for average spinners

All this pitch talk gets my blood boiling. I agree Nagpur was a bad pitch last year, but India have faced similar pitches (in seaming conditions) in NZ in 2002, in England post 2007. It's part of the challenge. Much of the 'pitch is dangerous/unplayable/not international standard' last year was exaggerated by the atrocious SA batting last year bar Amla and De Villiers.

 

[Aalay]

Really liked what I saw from Ronchi and Santner today. They both rotated strike very well and didn't allow the spinners to dominate. It was just that one false shot from Ronchi that gave India an opening again. Shami's spell was amazing to watch as well bowling reverse swing at very good pace. Ashwin was amazing as usual getting another five-fer. Also NZ have called up Jeetan Patel who has done very well in country cricket and have been to India before. So it will be interesting to see how he goes in the next test match.

 

[aditya123]

Really liked what I saw from Ronchi and Santner today. They both rotated strike very well and didn't allow the spinners to dominate. It was just that one false shot from Ronchi that gave India an opening again. Shami's spell was amazing to watch as well bowling reverse swing at very good pace. Ashwin was amazing as usual getting another five-fer. Also NZ have called up Jeetan Patel who has done very well in country cricket and have been to India before. So it will be interesting to see how he goes in the next test match.

I hope India stick with Shami and Yadav for the home tests. Of all the bowlers in the squad, these two are most suited for the dead tracks. It was also good to see that both of them bowled with a lot of discipline and did not release the pressure in both the innings. Yadav, against SA and Shami now have shown that they can be really effective with the old ball. That is precisely the role of quick bowlers in India. I don`t think Ishant can do that job for you. Ishant and Bhuvi should get a look in only based upon the conditions.