An Indore-style turner would be a horrible idea IMO. This is exactly the right pitch for India and it worked just fine; their own lack of discipline is why they're in this situation. A turner wouldn't rectify that and it would be hugely at risk of a meme Bazball 70(50) innings being the difference in teh game.
Sarfaraz has scored too many runs
Yeah inspite of how bad we were in the first innings with the bat with about 8 wickets basically thrown away, Axar takes that catch and we are chasing about a 100 less which means we are probably winning easily.
The "dropping heads" thing has to be fixed pronto IMO. It might actually be the biggest issue with the team. Especially with key parts of the side aging and coming towards the end of their careers you have to expect some sort of adversity in the field and have to be prepared to dig it out. The fact that we can all see now for two years that they lose all intensity and energy in the field when they feel the match is getting away from them really can't happen this often for such an experienced leadership group.
Sarfraz is another Samson story IMO. He could work out but we need some left handers. I think its obvous there have been many issues behind the scenes now with whatever is happening with Ishan Kishan. If we at all get Pant back and playing as he did before the injury, we can still hope but right now, the energy is just not there. Ashwin just seems like he wants to try something new every ball, something he seemed to have unlearned between 2016 and till last year. Jaddu keeps getting these random injuries. Axar is good but not great. Kuldeep can bowl and even bat decently in this format but not gonna be a match-winner. I wonder if they could have had Washy for Siraj here, that might have helped overall.
Honestly, I just blame Ganguly. Have never seen a board president walk in with such agenda that he always knew could cost the team. There have been far more corrupt ones running the BCCI but no one has dealt such permanent blows as Ganguly in the last 5-6 years just because Shastri once discipined him.
Sarfaraz isnt a Samson story lol
I mean he made runs in 1 game. I would play him as he seems to play these sweeps and reverse sweeps and actually tries to access different parts of the field unlike the settled idiots in our side, but its not some magic solution. He hardly bats above 5 even for Mumbai and sometims it shows. I feel Tilak has far higher ceiling and can be groomed as our next MO bat. Rinku has enough Ranji success translated to international cricket so I wont mind him being given a chance either.
4000 runs @70 you'd have to think his time is coming soon.
I quite sincerely think that many Indian fans - not here, but elsewhere, especially on Reddit - are hugely taking Ashwin and Jadeja for granted and are just assuming that everything is going to be kind of fine after they depart. Maybe that happens but it's also quite possible that you enter a post-McWarne cycle where you suddenly struggle for a while to do what you'd always been able to bank on: 20 cheap wickets at home reliably.
Ashwin is just bowling for intellectual stimulation now and its so low IQ to see
Pitch is completely dead. A ball that would have been a rank long hop on Day 2 kept so low and came on so slowly that Ashwin almost chopped it on trying to cut it, went about knee height at most
This being said, I think we can expect to see Nagpur pitches dealt out for the remainder of the series to control the narrative.
