***Official*** India in South Africa 2017/18

[CricAddict]

I, for one, am very happy with this decision if it happens. Strengthens batting without compensating bowling.

 

[harsh.ag]

Yeah that's not that bad a call. Also means that we might get to see a few overs of Vijay and Virat bowling.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah that's not that bad a call. Also means that we might get to see a few overs of Vijay and Virat bowling.

It's all about the Rohit bowling IMO. Hopefully he doesn't have a sore back in this Test.

 

[atishvaze]

But then you are only playing with 3 and half bowlers especially if the match somehow goes into 4th and 5th day

 

[SeamUp]

Pitch as of yesterday. Can see a hint of the colour. Definitely looks like a majority of dead grass covering with tinges of green

 

[SeamUp]

Fielding drills yesterday , Morris was at gully for SA.

Guess it is just between Kesh and Temba now because 5 fast bowlers would be over-kill.

 

[SeamUp]

Maybe not definitely Morris.

stuart hess
‏@shockerhess
Faf and Gibson, standing close by, and watching what seems like a 'bowl off' between Morris and Ngidi. Great viewing for us 120m away, not sure Markram and Elgar - who are facing - feel the same.

 

[CricAddict]

But then you are only playing with 3 and half bowlers especially if the match somehow goes into 4th and 5th day

We go up from 3.5 to 3.75 if Ashwin plays. Not a massive upgrade. That 0.25 can be done by all the part time bowling batsmen.

 

[Shri]

Ashwin top scored in the second innings for us ffs. And he got two wickets for not many in the first innings. Nohit should go if anyone goes.

 

[StephenZA]

Maybe not definitely Morris.

I really would not mind them playing Ngidi... if you going to blood a new player like that, then his home ground in a 4-man pace attack at a venue that SA basically don't lose at is probably a good opportunity. I still think it will be Morris though. Hopefully they don't do anything as stupid as dropping Maharaj at Centurion.

 

[CricAddict]

Ashwin top scored in the second innings for us ffs. And he got two wickets for not many in the first innings. Nohit should go if anyone goes.

Do you believe Ashwin is a better overseas batsman than Rohit? Leave aside the bowling.

 

[Shri]

Yes. Scored 50s in England in both tests and county games.

 

[SeamUp]

I really would not mind them playing Ngidi... if you going to blood a new player like that, then his home ground in a 4-man pace attack at a venue that SA basically don't lose at is probably a good opportunity. I still think it will be Morris though. Hopefully they don't do anything as stupid as dropping Maharaj at Centurion.

I honestly don't know what I want. Both have their pros and cons.

So I am going to sit on the fence

Senior batsman and Otis must just make a gut-call and stick with it.

 

[StephenZA]

I honestly don't know what I want. Both have their pros and cons.

So I am going to sit on the fence

Senior batsman and Otis must just make a gut-call and stick with it.

Is it not nice to have some faith in your selectors? For all the SA issues, we have been consistent and on the whole done what we liked to see and what was right.... minor disagreements aside.
......Unlike some of our cricket loving opposition fans

 

[Woodster]

If you don't play at anything outside off stump, can't cut, can't pull, and refuse to drive, that leaves you with exactly scoring zone: leg-stump half volleys. Not a sustainable strategy in Test cricket.

Don't agree with that in the slightest! You can drive but the ball has to be under your eyeline and full. It can be on off stump maybe even a fraction outside but if your head's moving across you can still play the ball right under your eyes, just not be lured into anything too wide of off stump outside of your eyeline. You can drive down the ground, you can flick the ball off the front or back foot, you can still pull/hook.

And again,you wouldn't play like this for an entire innings if you bat for a long time but given the situation of the game I think it was a more than valid ploy, sadly he gave it away first ball after lunch doing everything in one shot that he hadn't done.

 

[Woodster]

Forcing them to come straight and tucking them away off your hips/legs is a legitimate strategy. It's not like Pujara is literally not going to score off anything else.

It is a valid concern that he isn't scoring runs and has limited strokeplay but you can't see 25 (70) or whatever and think oh he'd get more runs if he had a few more shots when it might be that he only gets to 70 balls precisly because he doesn't play the shots while his teammates are gifting away their wickets on the other end.

There are plenty of players that don't have the range of strokes that, say a Kohli has. But if he's disciplined he will score runs, if they want another dasher in the order then drop Pujara but it's wrong to expect him to come out at start batting with urgency. I think he has a better technique than most of these Indian batsmen for these conditions, India can afford him to set his stall out to try and bat for hours, and if that's slow accumulation then so be it.

 

[Groundking]

Dropping Ashwin would be one of the dumbest mistakes India have made with selection in a long line of dumb mistakes IMO.

 

[Burner]

Dropping Ashwin for the sake of keeping Sharma in the team, then I agree. How on earth can anyone justify selecting Sharma in the next match? He looked like a fish out of water. Never looked like scoring runs let alone score any runs.

 

[Heboric]

Hope there is a nice crowd in for Saturday and Sunday

 

[Spark]

Don't agree with that in the slightest! You can drive but the ball has to be under your eyeline and full. It can be on off stump maybe even a fraction outside but if your head's moving across you can still play the ball right under your eyes, just not be lured into anything too wide of off stump outside of your eyeline. You can drive down the ground, you can flick the ball off the front or back foot, you can still pull/hook.

And again,you wouldn't play like this for an entire innings if you bat for a long time but given the situation of the game I think it was a more than valid ploy, sadly he gave it away first ball after lunch doing everything in one shot that he hadn't done.

I would be more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt if he hadn't played like this on four or five overseas tours now with only limited success.

Again, this would all be fine if he had a really comfortable back foot game. That's my problem here. As it is, he's playing at too much and scoring off too little, which is really the worst of both worlds.

There are plenty of players that don't have the range of strokes that, say a Kohli has. But if he's disciplined he will score runs, if they want another dasher in the order then drop Pujara but it's wrong to expect him to come out at start batting with urgency. I think he has a better technique than most of these Indian batsmen for these conditions, India can afford him to set his stall out to try and bat for hours, and if that's slow accumulation then so be it.

Yeah this is just flat out wrong IMO. Kohli, Rahane, Vijay all have techniques that are more suited to the conditions than Pujara's.