Well when it comes to this last series it's hard to judge because they were up against some real trash that simply wasn't fit enough to wear the WI shirt!!..had they faced Narine, Roach and Rampaul along with Shilly it would have been interesting, but i digress..
Kohli= Looked vulnerable against spin!!..fantastic at one dayers of course but against us in three series he's just about got two 50s and has been quite poor, will be interesting to see how he goes against SA.
Dhawan= Looks like a hitter to me!!..not much technique realy he just goes for it and if it comes off it comes off!!..he was part of the India-A team who came to the caribbean last year and he was exposed so badly that he had to be dropped in the end!!..so i was surprised when i saw him take Australia apart!!..personally i think Steyn and Co will eat him alive next month
Vijay= Terrible against spin and struggles with the short ball!!..when India last toured the Caribbean Rampaul had him on toast and i still see the same frailties today to be honest.
Pujara= a solid little bugger and the best of the emerging Indian batsmen!!..still doubts remains as to weather he can handle quality swing bowling though so we'll see over the next year or so.
Sharma= couldn't have wished to face an easier attack in his debut series!!..he's another who came to the caribbean with the A-team last year and he was totally found out against Delorn Johnson and Jason Holder!!..two tall pacers, so i don't see him coping too well in foreign conditions to be honest. He's also been Narine's bunny whenever they've faced eachother aswell!!.. It's ok scoring a ton on your debut at home but when you reach England, SA and Australia it's a different story!!..just ask Kirk Edwards who was averaging i the mid 50s after four test series before he went to England and came crashing down.
All in all i think it's a mixed bag!!..Kohli and Pujara look the most solid to me where performing outside of India is concerned but i'd worry about the others!!.
I can understand if you want to just want to temper the current hype, but you're just taking it way too far.
Holder and Johnson also enjoyed some really bad pitches on that India A tour of WI. And if you remember from that tour, Rohit didn't do that badly (1 or 2 decent innings when everyone seemed to fail ex Pujara). And think about the form he was in that summer (the infamous SL odis). Rohit did exceedingly well on some ugly pitches this past summer in that triangular series. Given how much success he has had against WI, especially on those crap Windian pitches, I figured you might have a little more respect for his play. He's an easy target I guess.
Dhawan's technique is much improved from when he was last in WI. I used to laugh at him against short stuff, but he has proven me wrong now. He has the aggression of a Sehwag, but unlike Sehwag, he has a pretty good technique and he is willing to work hard. His decisive footwork has impressed me too. Maybe we'll stop associating aggression with lack of technique going forward.
Kohli has crap shot selection in tests and plays with hard hands but the former problem can be solved with time and the latter problem is not such a big deal in quicker overseas conditions. He also will struggle to play late in swinging conditions from what I see. I thought you'd be more negative about him maybe it's easier to pile on to the others. Everyone seems to think Kohli is a lock for the test side for the next ten years but Manoj Tiwary and Ajinkya Rahane are better FC players imo. Nevertheless, I think he'll improve and likely have a good test career.
Agree on Vijay. Nothing new to say.
I have confidence in Pujara overseas more so from what I saw when he was last in SA for the test series. Looked very sharp even if he didn't score a lot of runs.
If Tiwary can get his knees right, watch out. Rahane's a nice cricketer getting corrupted by limited overs. Poor Badri
