At this point it's a matter of how long it will take for the selectors to realize how catastrophic this situation really is.Yeah I think his place has become untenable now. He's backed up the selectors' loss of faith in him as a bowler but proceeding to bowl dross for a little while now and the Ramdin/Sammy 6/7 combination is an international joke.
He's always copped unfair blame at times but Sammy's selection has literally been the difference between the two sides here. The West Indies got off to a good start with the bat but then completely collapsed once they lost a couple of wickets because the tail started at six. Conversely, India's top order got blown away but the innings was then rescued by the sixth specialist batsman, showing its value.
It takes only ONE ball to get out. Sometimes everything goes your way and you pick up quick wickets. (new batsmen were always going to find it harder to adjust to that sort of a pitch anyway).We had ONE spinner doing the damage and England had two!!..that was the difference today!!..it doesn't change the fact that the majority of their top order flopped does it?
Lots of very good points there.Great to see Rohit bat like that, even if it had to be against us. In terms of technique he is one of my favourite right hand batsmen. Ashwin is clearly better than number 8 batsman and he's an excellent cricketer, but there is simply no way he should be scoring this many runs against us (he's done this twice now). Our fitness was awful today, the bowlers looked absolutely knackered in the last session. This is where the lack of test match action in recent years makes it hard for us, we simply couldn't keep the high standards of the first session going.
I completely agree with those who say Sammy's place is now untenable. This match is perhaps the most obvious example yet of how his permanent selection holds us back as a test side. Deonarine should be batting at 6. He's in form, decent against spin and scored lots of runs on the A tour in these conditions. His off spin would have been at least as effective as Sammy's bowling too. We're also badly missing Roach and Rampaul. I like Cotterell, I think he's got a future at this level and has something to offer but he's not ideal for these conditions, especially not in partnership with Tino.
My final point is that the wrong left arm spinner is playing. Nikita Miller deserves his chance at this level and is a much more accurate bowler than Permaul. I really don't understand that selection, it is beyond me.
and you're trying to tell me sehwag and gambhir will adequately handle pace bowling? what did you learn from 0-8? Pujara will be backup opener. Maybe...maybe...maybe Gambhir as a backup opener if they don't want to move Pujara, but hell no to Sehwag.Going through the last few pages regarding the team for the South African tour. I still feel we need Zak and one of Gambir and Sehwag. I don't trust Vijay at all. He struggles against decent fast bowling in Indian pitches. He will be like a fish out of water in South Africa. With Rahane telling the management that he doesn't want to open, I feel we have to bring one of those two back into the team. As for Zak, Shami has done well this match but we would need Zak's experience in South Africa. At least we know no matter how poor he is, he will get us one wicket in Graeme Smith.
Yeah but I thought the slightly more 'educated' fans generally don't give these comments any value.Nah he was a loathed character for his poor ODI performances for a while by a greater cricket fan community. Definitely not so much on CricketWeb, but if you read the lesser internet sources such as cricinfo comments or even the ICF forum, a lot of people wanted him blacklisted from Indian honours forever and begrudged him Test squad selection when his ODI performances weren't up to scratch. JontyPanesar's obviously new to CW so he won't be aware of what the consensus was here.