***Official*** New Zealand in India 2016

[Kippax]

not unless you can be certain that Guptill's replacement will do better than Guptill does.

Yeah but McCullum always said that against the subcontinental sides especially, he was a big fan of 'if in doubt, favour the more aggressive option'....

 

[Kippax]

I hope that was one of his bad days, because I gotta say that looked mass aids.

Nah, was from a big breakthough knock of 152 for NZA, which got him over the hump of many years of A squad omissions and into this Test squad.

 

[OverratedSanity]

.I think I just dont agree with making that move in such a big series; not unless you can be certain that Guptill's replacement will do better than Guptill does.

I wouldn't drop guptill right now either but if selectors actually followed what you said here, no one would get dropped. Guptill hasn't just been bad, he's been ****ing terrible. He more than deserves to get axed right now. Plus, obviously you never know how good/bad replacements will be until you give them a shot.

 

[hendrix]

I think I just dont agree with making that move in such a big series; not unless you can be certain that Guptill's replacement will do better than Guptill does.
.

You can never be certain of how people will perform at Test level. Guptill himself is the prime example of that (if you don't look at batting technique).

 

[harsh.ag]

Maybe Kohli at 3 and Pujara at 4 isn't a bad idea. Kohli can be a Ponting-esque batsman, and seems to want to grab control of the match narrative and wrest back the momentum after the first wicket falls. Also get the feeling he doesn't like the way Pujara sets a 'negative' tone after the fall of a wicket. Pujara can then come in and soak up the pressure if the second wicket falls, esp if it is of Kohli.

 

[harsh.ag]

Btw, Pujara killing the pink ball for India Blue in the Duleep Trophy as we speak. It's admittedly a flat pitch. He's been flawless though, hasn't hit a single ball in the air from what I have seen and has scored at a strike rate of 80 since getting his century.

 

[OverratedSanity]

If these idiots are dropping ChePu from the test team for being "too slow", there's no way he'll ever play ODIs for India.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

ChePu

This the worst.

 

[honestbharani]

Dunno why Pujara's ODI prospects is being brought up here. But as a test batsman, as has been noted ad nauseum everywhere, he is just very slow at the start. He usually catches up pretty well for an overall SR of around 50 when he gets a score, it is just that he has been getting out after getting set way too often for that to happen.

 

[harsh.ag]

Was talking about tests.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah, I got that. Was just wondering about OS' context.

 

[OverratedSanity]

This the worst.

I think it's cute

 

[OverratedSanity]

I don't see a slow start as a negative for a top order batsman. If your number 3 is generally coming in and consuming 50 deliveries for not many runs I see it as him contributing to the new ball getting blunted slowly. Would I like him scoring big runs? Sure. But it's like him scoring a slow 20 at number 3 is almost seen as worse than just getting dismissed cheaply immediately. I don;t understand that at all.

Probably misread harsh's context when he was talking abbout ChePu (**** off RTB, Daemon) and his SR was about him playing ODIs as an anchor, which btw I don't think we need at all.

 

[harsh.ag]

I don't see a slow start as a negative for a top order batsman. If your number 3 is generally coming in and consuming 50 deliveries for not many runs I see it as him contributing to the new ball getting blunted slowly. Would I like him scoring big runs? Sure. But it's almost as him scoring a slow 20 at number 3 is almost seen as worse than just getting dismissed cheaply immediately. I don;t understand that at all.

Agree. Am trying to think from Kohli's pov, since he is, for better or worse, our captain and he has an attacking mindset. Think the reason he keeps dropping Pujara for Rohit is that in his mind, Pujara gives away the 'momentum' to the opposition after the fall of the first wicket.

A good compromise could be Kohli at 3 and Pujara at 4.

 

[hendrix]

Pujara's strike rate in tests is almost completely irrelevant, as far as I'm concerned.

What's relevant is whether he's batting like the real real son of Dravid like when he first got in the team, or the first-three-tests-in-England Younis.

 

[weldone]

All Pujara needs to do in order to impress Kohli is wear a t-shirt during practice (or workout or breakfast) with 'INTENT' written on it.

 

[StephenZA]

I haven`t really being keeping up with the Indian test team... but I did not even realize that Pujara had been dropped for Rohit. Probably a late comment... but absolutely stupid. Will regret that against the better sides.
Oh and I think batting Ashwin at 6 is a terrible idea as well..

 

[harsh.ag]

Pujara's strike rate in tests is almost completely irrelevant, as far as I'm concerned.

What's relevant is whether he's batting like the real real son of Dravid like when he first got in the team, or the first-three-tests-in-England Younis.

We all know what the right thing to look at is.

But I think Kohli wants an attacking number 3, and there is nobody apart from him who can play that role. Pujara at 4 is a much better idea than Rohit at 5.

 

[Blain]

Raval and Henry dropped, Neesh back.

FFS.. Can't see how Braces gets a gig in front of Matt Henry, hasn't taken wickets or got runs. Guptill will be make or break, can't see him doing much currently. With no back up batsmen, I can't see this ending well.

 

[Athlai]

Black Caps squad for test series in India: Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Mark Craig, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Jimmy Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson (c).

Haha ALL in. The balls. Love it.

Probably read my posts.