***Official*** India's Tour of Sri Lanka 2017

[honestbharani]

Best idea will be to play him as 1 of the 2 seamers in our next test at home and pick only Shami. We will get a very good idea of his prospects as a bowler then as Kohli loves giving seamers overs even if the spinners are looking threatening every ball.

 

[Howe_zat]

My opinion on Pandya barely changed this series tbh. I was pretty confident he had a decent amount of talent with the bat but we don't need the extra batting anywhere near as much as the extra bowling overseas. If he gives us a quick 50 here and there in SA/Eng/Aus but isn't good enough with the ball and is relegated to 5-6 overs a day it'll be a total waste. He has to be good enough to handle a 15-20 over workload and we saw no real evidence of that in this series.

Thought Kohli missed a trick big time by not giving him more to do with the ball. If he's not being tested now and is just thrown into the series in SA with the assumption that he'll just start to bowl well, it'll be a disaster.

I think he'd be a good pick overseas if India want to play four seamers. Last time they were in England they were so sure of picking a 4-1 attack they picked Stuart Binny along with Jadeja.

I'd put him in the squad and consider him a good #6 option. a 6-7-8 of Pandya, Ashwin and Saha followed by three frontline seamers looks a good balance, especially if playing two spinners doesn't look like the right move for the conditions.

 

[Prince EWS]

I think he'd be a good pick overseas if India want to play four seamers. Last time they were in England they were so sure of picking a 4-1 attack they picked Stuart Binny along with Jadeja.

I'd put him in the squad and consider him a good #6 option. a 6-7-8 of Pandya, Ashwin and Saha followed by three frontline seamers looks a good balance, especially if playing two spinners doesn't look like the right move for the conditions.

Yeah I thought this when they first selected him, but batting him at eight made me think they might as well have just picked Bhuvi. If they rate his batting enough to bat him ahead of Ashwin then I think he'd be a fine pick away from home, but otherwise they're better off with another bowler (particularly when you consider that Jadeja is averaging over 40 in the second half of his Test career, and the fact that Bhuvi #canbat as well).

 

[Heboric]

India's best chance to win at SA is coming up this November.

If Ash gets 8 wickets in his next three tests, he will become the fastest bowler to 300 test wickets beating Lillee. Wag.

I was going to comment something similar, but isnt that tour in danger because of Sri Laka coming to India in that period.

 

[honestbharani]

But you wont see Jadeja and Ashwin together away from home, and our lower order becomes very compromised if you have any of Bhuvi/Kuldeep/Shami as high as 8.

 

[WindieWeathers]

So how do SL recover from such a beating like this? It seemed like just yesterday they were rolling through Australia at home and everything looked promising. Then they lose the ODI series to Zimbabwe (and should have lost the test too tbh) and nowthis mauling against India has occured. Why has this happened? No new batting prospects coming through? No pacers good enough coming up? And I guess the worry for them is Hereth will soon be departing, so how on earth are they gonna replace the great man? Mendis, Chandimal and Matthews are a solid middle three. Apart from that though I don't see much to shout about tbh.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Considering how hyper he was during the Australian series, it was amusing how ho-hum and matter-of-fact Kohli was when India took the final wicket to get what is (I think) their first ever whitewash in an overseas 3 Test series.

I know Sri Lanka were pitiful opposition, but too easy to overlook how good India were in this series.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I was going to comment something similar, but isnt that tour in danger because of Sri Laka coming to India in that period.

It'll happen but it'll just be truncated again, like the last two times. Really sucks that the boards' pettiness is affecting this. SA tours are always so much fun to watch.

 

[honestbharani]

I was going to comment something similar, but isnt that tour in danger because of Sri Laka coming to India in that period.

Nope. CEO has clarified that the matches may get pushed out to Jan to March 2018 but definitely a full tour is happening. I would rather see them cut off the LO games for next year and just let us play 4 or 5 tests this year over there.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Yeah I thought this when they first selected him, but batting him at eight made me think they might as well have just picked Bhuvi. If they rate his batting enough to bat him ahead of Ashwin then I think he'd be a fine pick away from home, but otherwise they're better off with another bowler (particularly when you consider that Jadeja is averaging over 40 in the second half of his Test career, and the fact that Bhuvi #canbat as well).

Probably no longer true tbh. His batting has regressed a lot since 2014.

He should be a lock but I've been saying that for years and they've always found some reason to not pick him. Shami/Bhuvi/Umesh + two of Ashwin/Jadeja/Hardik is the way to go overseas.

 

[honestbharani]

Nah. Think Ishant is still the best for the 3rd seamer role we have and as such I wont rule him out of contention overseas. And you have to throw in Kuldeep there as well.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Don't say that. Ishant's career has to be done now. It's taken ages but after this summer with Umesh and Shami performing well, we may have finally managed to get rid of him for good.

 

[mr_mister]

Surprised Dickwell still only averages 30 feels like he chips in with some runs every innings now

 

[honestbharani]

Don't say that. Ishant's career has to be done now. It's taken ages but after this summer with Umesh and Shami performing well, we may have finally managed to get rid of him for good.

He was really good even in the Australia series. I know he has flattered to deceive over his 80 tests but surely it is not far fetched to say he is the 4th best fast bowler we have and in contention in case we need a 3rd seamer in certain conditions?

 

[Prince EWS]

Surprised Dickwell still only averages 30 feels like he chips in with some runs every innings now

Probably seems low because we tend to forget those Tests he played back in 2014. He's been better since he came back into the side this year.

 

[Howe_zat]

Dickwella in the top five keeper-batsmen for Test sides now?

Qdk, Bairstow, Sarfraz, Saha, Dickwella

My thought is Watling hasn't scored runs in forever but I'm sure someone will come in and tell me I'm wrong

 

[Prince EWS]

Dickwella in the top five keeper-batsmen for Test sides now?

Qdk, Bairstow, Sarfraz, Saha, Dickwella

My thought is Watling hasn't scored runs in forever but I'm sure someone will come in and tell me I'm wrong

He hasn't scored a ton for over a year, and it was against Zimbabwe. Excluding that mini-tour he's been pretty dire ages. I'd probably still pick him ahead of Dickwella though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Yall sleeping on Mushfiqur

 

[Prince EWS]

Yall sleeping on Mushfiqur

I thought about mentioning him but his actual keeping is just so bad these days. You'd swear watching his evolution as a player that he didn't have much interest in keeping, but apparently he sulks when they take the gloves away from him.

 

[honestbharani]

TBF, I think sulking is probably his default setting.