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***Official*** South Africa in India 2015

duffer

duffer

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
At least Dhoni shaved for today's match. He's too young to be sporting that salt n pepa beard.

edit: Oh....
 
smash84

smash84

The Tiger King
Pratters said:
I have watched Tahir closely in recent times. He is one of the best odi bowlers. His faster ones are very difficult to put away.
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he's been good in odis for some time apparently.

Just that his awful test performances stand out for some reason
 
Pratters

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
Oh we are going to lose this. Ffs. Run rate required shouldn't have been allowed to climb like t this. SA have been terrific but still.
 
cnerd123

cnerd123

likes this
Contra said:
What do you mean by lack of replacements? If India are simply not going to give other batsmen a chance to get "international experience" then how the hell do you plan on finding replacements? Just give a bunch of you guys a go like Hooda/Yadav/whoever and see how they go at 7, whats the worst thing that can happen? They fail? We have time for them to fail. Look, India need a lower order hitter, not a top order batsmen, It's like a job in a company and you post an opening, that opening as it stands is for a lower order hitter because IDEALLY you want Kohli at 3 and Dhoni at 4, Raina is fine at 5 because he's played quality innings in the past. #7 is there for an AR (Axar/Jadeja/Binny/whoever else). So your looking for a guy who can finish an innings at 6.

India simply need to give new young guys a go at 6 and see how they go instead of saying "oh we don't have anything so we have to play Rahane and fit him in at the top cuz he's **** at the position we need filled". It's a terrible way to go about handling the situation. I personally am a big fan of Rahane btw, but ultimately it's the team combination that matters and either we try Rahane towards the end of the innings as a finisher to see how he goes or we get someone else. I really don't want to disrupt Kohli and Dhoni at the top.

EDIT: Also Robin Uthappa is not even 30 yet...
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No you're still not getting it.

Out of all the batsmen in India, Kohli is probably the best equipped to bat at 5. I doubt we will find anyone who could do a better job than him.
Out of all the batsmen in India, the only one who can bat better at 3 than Rahane is Kohli.

If you play Rahane - MSD - Kohli, you have the 2nd best Number 3, and the best Numbers 4 and 5.
If you play Kohli - MSD - Newcomer, you have the best Numbers 3 and 4, and at best, the 3rd best Number 5 (given MSD is the 2nd best 5 in the country).

This is what I mean by lack of replacements. Whoever we get to bat at 5, it is extremely unlikely they will be as good as MSD or Kohli would be in that slot.

In my opinion, the gap between Kohli and Rahane at 3 is less than the gap between Kohli and Newcomer at 5, especially given all our choices for 5 are either untested or too young.

This is further compounded by the fact that we have no one decent batting at 7 - Binny/Axar/Jadeja/Ashwin at 7 is already a huge hole in the lineup as it is.

I like the floating idea PEWS mentioned: Rahane-Kohli-MSD when batting first and Kohli-MSD-Rahane/Raina when chasing. But even that forces Rahane into a situation he isn't ideal to handle quite frequently. Like today's game. If we lose a couple of wickets and end up relying on Rahane, we're probably ****ed.

I'd like to see India give Kohli a proper shot at 5 before dropping Rahane, because if Kohli can do a job at 5, then we have pretty much the best batsmen available batting in all the positions. If Kohli sucks at 5 though, or if Rahane's inability to convert fifties turns out to be a massive issue, then by all means drop Rahane and start looking for a replacement.

And Uthappa will be 31 in 2017, and 33 by the 2019 WC, which was what I mean when I said 'wrong side of 30'. He isn't a long-term solution.
 
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