***Official*** India in New Zealand 2020

[Nintendo]

India deserve a second 10 wicket loss here.

 

[Grasshopper]

Not a bad session. So far so good...

 

[Moss]

I do like that Blundell, even though he looks suspect when the opening bowler hits a full-ish length, continues to hit the boundary balls for four.

It will be an interesting selection question if he continues to do well, or at least passably, as an opener, especially as Watling gets closer to retirement.

He's definitely a good guy to have in a situation like this. Can imagine Raval going into his shell and nicking off quickly if he were playing.

Don't know that he'll enjoy a lot of success as opener but you'd think he'll be first in line when Watling calls it a day.

 

[Athlai]

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/e...al1=span;team=5;template=results;type=batting

Stats since 2005 for NZ openers against Australia and India. Blundell the GOAT

 

[cnerd123]

Hopefully this complete and utter humiliating spanking India is getting will be motivating for them.

india haven't been massively worse than NZ. They've just been bad in a few key areas. Batsmen have under delivered. Shaw, Agarwal, Vihari and Pant are new and raw, it was really on Pujara, Rahane and Kohli to deliver. Pujara has played 1 bad shot in 4 innings, otherwise he's done what he can do. Rahane had one nice innings. Kohli's been missing.

Bowling wise the attack has just bowled a bit short. Ishant and Bumrah were both carry question marks over match-fitness, and Ashwin's never been good overseas.

This NZ team is a pretty good one, and we're playing them in conditions they excel in. If we were anything less than 100% we were going to lose this series, and we've probably been at around 65-70%. We're not as bad as we were during that 0-8 season.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Tom Bombadil is good nickname I reckon

 

[sphynx]

“Missing” is a nice way of saying completely crap.

Kohli shouldn’t escape criticism, most of this is on him.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

The thing with Blundell is, with the mid-season call up to opener, he won’t have really even had time to work on the position yet. I think with an off-season specifically training for the role, he will continue to improve and possibly cement the spot there. He seems like an intelligent cricketer who will work hard and make the changes to his game that he need to to succeed. Definitely seems to have all the tools to do so, as well.

 

[straw man]

dane cleaver doesn't exist in sky commentary land

and ftr if blundell can consolidate the opener position, cleaver should be watling's heir.

He's definitely a good guy to have in a situation like this. Can imagine Raval going into his shell and nicking off quickly if he were playing.

Don't know that he'll enjoy a lot of success as opener but you'd think he'll be first in line when Watling calls it a day.

If Blundell as opener tails off over the next 12 months it's pretty straightforward, he takes over the gloves from Watling.

But if Blundell does alright then... what does he want? Cleaver could take the gloves from Watling in a year or two and then Blundell is opener or bust. Could lose form and find himself out of the side completely.

Equally, if he's opener but levels out at say Jeet Raval level, is he occupying a spot that someone like Young or eventually Ravindra should have? It will be interesting.

 

[cnerd123]

“Missing” is a nice way of saying completely crap.

Kohli shouldn’t escape criticism, most of this is on him.

Criticize Kohli all you want, he's the one part of this team that isn't changing anytime soon

Don't think anyone in the squad should be dropped based on this result tbh. It's not like we've got anyone really good waiting on the sidelines

 

[Burgey]

Bumrah bowling magnificently. NZ will be thankful he didn't appear to have hit his stride in the first test. As it is, looks like he'll turn this target into a reasonably challenginf one.

He's bowled marginally too short. They all have.

 

[harsh.ag]

india haven't been massively worse than NZ. They've just been bad in a few key areas. Batsmen have under delivered. Shaw, Agarwal, Vihari and Pant are new and raw, it was really on Pujara, Rahane and Kohli to deliver. Pujara has played 1 bad shot in 4 innings, otherwise he's done what he can do. Rahane had one nice innings. Kohli's been missing.

That this is almost completely right is a sad indictment on him

 

[cnerd123]

just saw the Bumrah run out. Shambolic. Jadeja was on his way to a heroic rearguard effort. Pfft.

 

[nzfan]

I don't think 150 is going to cause concerns in the NZ camp. Indian bowling is gun but still on a 3rd day pitch NZ should be comfortable chasing up to 220. Anything over it will be a lottery. Chances are India is going to not set anymore than 120 I hope

India they did better than I thought, was in meetings all day so far and checked the score to see we were set 132

Indian batting is awful. Their bowling is gun, one of the very best.

This series for India is a bit like the one we had in Aussie.

 

[Flem274*]

india will do a lot better at home, but for overseas conditions im pretty skeptical of agarwal and vihari. with kohli/pujara/rahane they've succeeded away from home before. the ball has swung a lot here and both attacks have enjoyed themselves.

 

[cnerd123]

That this is almost completely right is a sad indictment on him

you know what you get from ChePu. He's fantastic when the batting lineup is functioning properly, but he's not Dravid.

 

[straw man]

The thing with Blundell is, with the mid-season call up to opener, he won’t have really even had time to work on the position yet. I think with an off-season specifically training for the role, he will continue to improve and possibly cement the spot there. He seems like an intelligent cricketer who will work hard and make the changes to his game that he need to to succeed. Definitely seems to have all the tools to do so, as well.

Maybe, though also wonder if having nothing to lose helps his mindset (which seems very clear-headed). Might change if he thinks he's perma-opener and can't drop back to wicket keeper.

 

[Daemon]

just saw the Bumrah run out. Shambolic. Jadeja was on his way to a heroic rearguard effort. Pfft.

I actually miss Ishant’s batting.

 

[Daemon]

So limp from us. Had them by the balls at 177-8 and Jamieson ****ed us real good. The batting was disgraceful as usual.

Only good thing to happen was poor Nostrils finally got to play overseas and Ashwin was rightly dropped. Jadeja should definitely be the incumbent overseas spinner now.

 

[Grasshopper]

One more session of the Tom Tom Club please.