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

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
One serious concern we have in ODIs is the lack of 6th bowling option. Markram provides so much cushion to the South African side by bowling useful overs, Venky can also be very useful for us in a similar way. If Hardik/Jadeja/Axar bat at 7(+4 main bowlers) and one from the top 6 can chip-in with a few overs, we'll get to cover up if one of our bowlers has an off-day(which happens quite often). Or the other option would be to "fit" Hardick in the top 6 and have Jadeja at 7.
 

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
KL Rahul is so intrepid though. Would not have chosen him to be a captain. Besides, is he even good enough to warrant a spot in the team at all times? I am a bit biased against him because of the whole years of mediocrity thing but he's so meh imo.
No he clearly isn't cut-out for white ball cricket. We've had guys who take their time at the start but they generally know how to pace their innings, Kela Rahul is clueless about it, so is Shreyas Iyer despite of how talented he is. Iyer's premeditated slashes remind of Siraj's batting at times, looks good when he plays the ball on its merit though.

I think Virat wouldn't be a bad option as an opener, he'll be a nightmare for the bowlers in the power play and he is just ruthless once he gets his eye in.
 
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StephenZA

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Being the last day of the tour and no matter the result of this game I have come to the conclusion one team was way under-estimated and one team not...
It has been strangely dominant from SA overall. Pretty much lost the first test on day 1, then have just slowly improved and ground out wins. Even in the ODIs. Always thought we had fantastic bowling attack, question was always is it good enough to compensate for the unknown and avg batting department. Petersen coming in and performing shows that SA batting talent needs to be backed a bit more, unknown is not the same as incapable.
 

Apex Predator

State Vice-Captain
4 changes in Indian team 3 in bowling. Prasidh Krishna finally gets a game over Boovi.
Chahar replaces Shardul which is weird.
J Yadav over Ashwin.

Kishan or Ruturaj again robbed off Debuts. But at least they did something.
 

Apex Predator

State Vice-Captain
India's lower order was already pretty weak but that's a tail like a rapid antigen test now.
Don't think they care about lower order batting. Chahar J Yadav can hold the bat & can tonk a few. None of them are close to Thakur though. But Boobi is overrated with the bat.. I can count on Bumrah to score a few with the bat than him.
 

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
Being the last day of the tour and no matter the result of this game I have come to the conclusion one team was way under-estimated and one team not...
Both teams have a lot to gain from the series.

SA have found players around whom they can build their future.

For India. it's a blessing in disguise that the issues in white ball cricket have got the spotlight at the right time. Changes only happen when teams fail, so hopefully things will get sorted out going forward. We just need the right combination and the right approach with the bat.

Regarding India's test performance, the only issue was our brittle middle-order and something will be done to address it. And Elgar Pujara'd us in the last two games, so even if we had a few more runs, we would have lost. So it was just the opposition playing better than us.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Both teams have a lot to gain from the series.

SA have found players around whom they can build their future.

For India. it's a blessing in disguise that the issues in white ball cricket have got the spotlight at the right time. Changes only happen when teams fail, so hopefully things will get sorted out going forward.

Regarding India's test performance, the only issue was our brittle middle-order and something will be done to address it. And Elgar Pujara'd us in the last two games, so even if we had a few more runs, we would have lost. So it was just the opposition playing better than us.
Yeah, and honestly while the MO issue is kinda known and expected to be resolved, or at least get better, I am more worried about how our bowling looked in the 4th innings and the way the lower order gave it away.

But then again, when you look at it objectively, we lost a game where we were basically playing with 10 players and lost our captain just on the morning of the match. And we went in without our best opener and allrounder to the series anyways. The Cape Town loss was worse than the Jo'burg one, it was almost like we learnt nothing from the Jo'burg loss which is the worrying thing. It could be fatigue, it could be the issues that Virat had with BCCI, but whatever it was, has to be nipped in the bud if we are to ensure the gains are maintained from our 2021.
 

Apex Predator

State Vice-Captain
Theory around Gaikwad/Kishan omission is Rahul doesn't wants his own place to be in jeopardy when Rohit returns. Dhawan will always be in firing line courtesy age factor & a non entity in T20Is anyways.
In my opinion Dravid had to take the call. But he probably wants to see if Dhawan/Iyer can score. Huge vote of confidence.
Ashwin & Boobi are dumped for good that's certain. Chahal is on thin ice & very lucky he is only leggie in squad.
 

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
Chahar is fine as a death overs bowler, has bowled a lot of death overs in the IPL for CSK.
Yes, but he doesn't bowl great yorkers/bouncers and his slower ones are not that difficult to spot, not sure if he'll be equally effective at this level. The bat part of his bowling is his stock outswinger which is bloody good.
 

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
Yeah, and honestly while the MO issue is kinda known and expected to be resolved, or at least get better, I am more worried about how our bowling looked in the 4th innings and the way the lower order gave it away.

But then again, when you look at it objectively, we lost a game where we were basically playing with 10 players and lost our captain just on the morning of the match. And we went in without our best opener and allrounder to the series anyways. The Cape Town loss was worse than the Jo'burg one, it was almost like we learnt nothing from the Jo'burg loss which is the worrying thing. It could be fatigue, it could be the issues that Virat had with BCCI, but whatever it was, has to be nipped in the bud if we are to ensure the gains are maintained from our 2021.
Agreed, the third test also highlighted the need to look beyond Yadav and Sharma as our backup seamers. Mavi, Avesh or Prasidh need to be in the mix since Yadav and Ishant are old and can't get it up anymore bowl with the same zip anymore.

Bumrah and Shami should also be rested from time to time, they looked worn out on the last day but they tried their heart out.
 

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