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**Official** 5th Test at Sydney, 3-7 Jan 2025

Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Starfighter said:
Been reading rumours about both of them. Would be terribly retrogressive making Kohli captain, unless he's not fit why can't Bumrah do it? Dropping Pant would obviously be a reaction to his shots (though at least he won't be dropped for years like Damien Martyn) but then what about Kohli and his fishing?
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Kohli is usually functionally captain when Bumrah is anyway lol, and he decided to become campaign halfway though the Melbourne Test as well.

I think it would have made more sense to have Bumrah continue being a paper captain though.
 
S

smellcricketintheair

School Boy/Girl Captain
Kapil Dev was dropped by Sunil Gavaskar for playing a rash shot allegedly. No wonder he is so mad abt Pant. But dropping Pant would convince me that Gambhir has no clue how to manage this team.
 
Burgey

Burgey

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OverratedSanity said:
Kohli captain wouldn't be the worst call if he was even mediocre with the bat. Dropping Pant would be such a massive load of horseshit that I expect it to happen. The shot he got out to in the second innings was executed horribly but it was a bad ball that you wouldn't have any issue with someone trying to hit it for six. If he's being dropped for supposedly bad shot selection it's one of the dumbest calls I've seen from a team management that has become very good at making dumb calls. Basically no one in this team deserves the axe unless Kohli and Rohit go first.
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Yeah, I mean I genuinely rate Jurel based on what I’ve seen of him but having him replace probably your most dangerous and fast lest scoring batsman in a must win game is an odd call tstl.

I also don’t get all the Sundar love tbh. He’s a solid player don’t get me wrong, but batting him three seems like a mistake at first blush. He seems to be a chosen one for whatever reason, though his bowling aint all that from where I’m watching

Having said all that, India has thrown seemingly weakened sides together before here and done well off the back of young blokes, so it might well work for them.
 
Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Burgey said:
Yeah, I mean I genuinely rate Jurel based on what I’ve seen of him but having him replace probably your most dangerous and fast lest scoring batsman in a must win game is an odd call tstl.

I also don’t get all the Sundar love tbh. He’s a solid player don’t get me wrong, but batting him three seems like a mistake at first blush. He seems to be a chosen one for whatever reason, though his bowling aint all that from where I’m watching

Having said all that, India has thrown seemingly weakened sides together before here and done well off the back of young blokes, so it might well work for them.
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Sundar is a batting allrounder who has this far in his professional career over-achieved with the ball and under-achieved with the bat.

And yes I know he has a stupid Test batting average, but beyond that.

If Jurel comes in for Rohit then noone in the top seven will want to bat three. Sundar is a top three bat by trade so batting him there keeps everyone where they're most comfortable. I think that's probably the way to go, especially since making Pant a specialist #5 bat who isn't keeping will make him realise he needs to covert a start.

If they also drop Pant then it's stupid knee jerk and they can sort out their dumb batting order without me wasting brain cells on it.
 
Daemon

Daemon

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Burgey said:
Yeah, I mean I genuinely rate Jurel based on what I’ve seen of him but having him replace probably your most dangerous and fast lest scoring batsman in a must win game is an odd call tstl.

I also don’t get all the Sundar love tbh. He’s a solid player don’t get me wrong, but batting him three seems like a mistake at first blush. He seems to be a chosen one for whatever reason, though his bowling aint all that from where I’m watching

Having said all that, India has thrown seemingly weakened sides together before here and done well off the back of young blokes, so it might well work for them.
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Why would Sundar be batting 3?
 
H

halba

International Debutant
Daemon said:
Pretty sure it's going to be Gill. There's a clip going around where Gambhir and Bumrah went up to him and shook his hands in a congratulatory sort of way.
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Rohit absent from slips practice. Gill was there with Kohli at 1st(in place of Rohit). Intl test career appears over. Both sides making bold decisions on a crucial 5th test and with a WTC place in the balance(SAF already qualified at #1).
 
honestbharani

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
For whatever its worth, I dont mind making big changes for a test like this. If its gonna be a green mamba, Washy's bowling may not be a factor and I would rather have Harshit Rana at 8 than Washy in that situation as his batting is most likely wasted anyways at that number. If Bumrah as a captain is also like Rohit and hardly gonna bowl the spinners, then at least play the bowlers whom you actually wanna bowl.

Rahul
Jaiswal
Gill
Virat
Jaddu
Jurel (wk)
NKR
Harshit
Bumrah (c)
Siraj
Prasidh

does not sound like the worst side. But knowing GG, he is probably gonna have Washy play instead of Prasidh.

EDIT - Actually if we can just drop Virat for Washy, it settles the side even better, lol. Move NKR up to 4, bat Washy at 7 and you got 4 seamers and 2 spinners and a part timer. And its not like any of them are gonna score less than Virat and Rohit in this form anyways. Pant definitely feels like he needs a breakup from workload perspective IMO.
 
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