***Official*** India in South Africa 2021-22

[honestbharani]

Yeah, I know Ganguly has a rep for salvaging Indian cricket after Azhar's depredations, but the guy's always had a massive ego: as a player, as a captain, heck as twelfth man even based on rumors from thirty years ago. He's too familiar with the oily machinations of the BCCI for my tastes - has to be, to be where he's at - and I'm not sure his past as a cricketer necessarily means he'll always come down on the side of what's good for Indian cricket.

I mean, you know its a ****ing horror show when you long for the days of Anurag Thakur and his cronies running BCCI. At least them and the team and management seemed to be on the same page.

 

[honestbharani]

Ash is surely getting dropped. Bishnoi probably will be picked for Lanka T20Is I think. Sundar may as well get a shot as Jaddu is still recovering. These guys should get good 15-20 T20Is & probably a WT20 if they do well. WC 2023 is quite far away & they will get reasonable games under them by then.
We will see a lot of changes in Bowling attack I think from up coming series.

I have posted this before but our ideal side would have a makeup like this - you can tweak the T20 and ODI sides a bit but generally speaking, the template should be this -

Cake Opener - Rohit (Rahul when Rohit is not fit, which is 75% of the time apparently)
Hitter Opener - Ishan/Rahul (double up as wicketkeeper and need to be told the role is to be aggressive in the powerplay)
Cake batsman - Virat (Manish maybe a backup? )
Spin hitter batsman - Shreyas (unsure if we have a backup for this role, maybe Pant? )
Spin hitter batsman - SKY (again, unsure if we have a backup for this role, maybe SRK? )
allrounder - Hardik/Venky (gotta invest in Venky if they think he has the talent)
spin allrounder - Jaddu/Washy
fast bowling alrounder - Shardul / Harshal
swing bowler/hitter - D Chahar / Bhuvi (??)
Strike Fast bowler - Bumrah/Shami
Wrist spinner - Bishnoi/R Chahar

 

[Apex Predator]

Quite a wretched last few months for Indian cricket... Right after than Oval test win & canceled Manchester test. Horrible WT20.. Drawing a test match at home vs NZ & Mayank saving our a** in 2nd test & a potential series defeat, an absolute sh*** show against a weak SA side in both formats.
Drastic changes needed.

 

[Apex Predator]

Lol Rahul is getting blasted on SM. Poor guy. Loss is not totally on him. He can say goodbye to any chance of test captaincy though.
His Post match interview also sounded dumb & robotic.

 

[Kirkut]

Quite a wretched last few months for Indian cricket... Right after than Oval test win & canceled Manchester test. Horrible WT20.. Drawing a test match at home vs NZ & Mayank saving our a** in 2nd test & a potential series defeat, an absolute sh*** show against a weak SA side in both formats.
Drastic changes needed.

They are going through a burn out

 

[Apex Predator]

They are going through a burn out

Dhawan Chahal Bumrah (rested for home games) Boobie Kumar lol..
Rohit Pant Rahul have genuine excuse to be a All format players not anyone else.
Team is mediocre in LOIs

 

[karan_fromthestands]

Gotta say its some job by Ganguly and BCCI. To have taken this team from where they were in September after the Oval win, successfully alienating our best batsman, letting go of the coach whom the players seemed to trust the most, replacing the captain with someone who cant even stay fit and then seeing injuries after injuries happen and get worse, players coming back being nowhere near what they were before injuries. As good as our system has been, you gotta think something is rotten since Ganguly has taken over.

What does Ganguly have to do with players being injured? I doubt there's much interaction between the players and Ganguly apart from the huge misunderstanding between him and Kohli.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

Boovi the Trundler Koomar getting tonked.. Nothing better sight in world cricket than a trundler being shown his place.

As a supporter of Bhuvi, I must say it's hard to accept that his bowling has regressed. I still feel he will be decent in IPL and might find his rhythm back, but at the moment it looks very bleak for him. He should be axed.

 

[anil1405]

Things look so gloomy after Kohli left.

The ODI team was in a mess under Kohli. In fact I wouldn't mind blaming him for where the team stands today.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

Lol Rahul is getting blasted on SM. Poor guy. Loss is not totally on him. He can say goodbye to any chance of test captaincy though.
His Post match interview also sounded dumb & robotic.

Rahul's horrible 50 was problematic tbh. His SR of 69( ) on a pitch where the batsmen are freely scoring runs is questionable. 55 off 79 balls, really?

 

[Apex Predator]

As a supporter of Bhuvi, I must say it's hard to accept that his bowling has regressed. I still feel he will be decent in IPL and might find his rhythm back, but at the moment it looks very bleak for him. He should be axed.

At this age & with plenty of promising young pacers & even someone like Siraj outside who is best Indian pacer in two IPls after Bumrah. Bhuvi is getting to play is in itself a miracle. Should have been binned after WT20 thrashing against Pakistan. Rizwan butchered his 125 kph pies... Was embarrassing to see opposition pacer clocking 150kph & our guy bowling pies at 125kph.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

I don't know how people are connecting everything to Kohli's captaincy and Shastri's exit. A team doesn't become this bad overnight. Lack of availability of some of our key all-rounders has hurt our chances, but we were anyways a mess in white ball cricket. Look at our recent WC outing, we were terrible in the first 2 games, played 90s style cricket and lost the only two games that counted.

 

[Apex Predator]

Rahul's horrible 50 was problematic tbh. His SR of 69( ) on a pitch where the batsmen are freely scoring runs is questionable. 55 off 79 balls, really?

Dumb Dravid call. Rahul at no 5 was averaging almost 70 odd & a S/R of 105 in last 2 years.. With in form Ruturaj as Opener we could have solidified our lower middle order with Rahul. Absolute carnage by coaching staff & TM... Makes me miss legend Shastri & kolli duo

 

[anil1405]

I don't know how people are connecting everything to Kohli's captaincy and Shastri's exit.

Because Kohli created the mess. Constant chopping and changing in the batting unit and not finding a proper no.4 for years has to be on him (and the management).

 

[karan_fromthestands]

At this age & with plenty of promising young pacers & even someone like Siraj outside who is best Indian pacer in two IPls after Bumrah. Bhuvi is getting to play is in itself a miracle. Should have been binned after WT20 thrashing against Pakistan. Rizwan butchered his 125 kph pies... Was embarrassing to see opposition pacer clocking 150kph & our guy bowling pies at 125kph.

I don't have an issue with his speed, Praveen Kumar was even slower but was simply unplayable with the new ball. Bhuvi has lost the bite, I hope he plays enough domestic cricket and makes the necessary adjustments.

 

[Apex Predator]

Next game I hope Dravid shows some spine & make a few changes. Though the squad selected is outrageous.. But still.

Ruturaj (Dravid deserves a sack if guy doesn't gets a game here)
Dhawan
Kohli
Pant
Rahul
Venky
Shardul
J Yadav (over Ashwin)
Chahal (no one else in squad)
Siraj
Prasidh (X factor pace + Bounce)

Bumrah rested... Give poor guy a break. Drop Bhuvi.

 

[Heboric]

Well done lads, chase was surprisingly smooth, odd reason people trying to invent fake drama, reminds me a little of those dodgy reality shows.

 

[Apex Predator]

I don't have an issue with his speed, Praveen Kumar was even slower but was simply unplayable with the new ball. Bhuvi has lost the bite, I hope he plays enough domestic cricket and makes the necessary adjustments.

Praveen was very skillful swing bowler had that Banana swing as well. Bhuvi lost that swing a long while ago. Now he is gun barrel straight... With a occasional knuckle ball.
Pace + Bounce matters in LOIs. Shaheen uses his pace &, left arm angle up front. Bowling 90 mph is always an asset. If you have a guy with that pace (Prasidh) it's dumb you are benching him. Prasidh literally won us the ODI series vs Eng in Pune. Youngster wasn't backed. Now he is in squad but not getting a game.
Avesh is pretty quick as well.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

Because Kohli created the mess. Constant chopping and changing in the batting unit and not finding a proper no.4 for years has to be on him (and the management).

Let's see how it goes when all the players are available. I still think it's just about finding the right combinations. Tough calls have to be made, Rahul has to be axed if this is how he wants to play in white ball cricket. And same has to be communicated with others, a positive approach with the bat is needed.

Bhuvi has to go for now. Axar, Jadeja, Washi and Pandya will be key players going forward as they are the best all-rounders we have. In the pace bowling department, Mavi, Krishna, Avesh, Tyagi, Nattu, Siraj and Arshdeep should be tested since they seem ready for the big stage. We have so much talent that we can go with specialists for all formats.

 

[Apex Predator]

Painful highlights package.

Keeper was standing up to 3 outta 4 pacers. Absolute throwback to 80's. All hail the trundlers. Thank you Dravid for this experience & selectors & Kela