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

[weldone]

Before the first test, nobody thought Rohit and Kohli could play swing - and now people haven't changed their opinion.

 

[Burner]

I can just picture Pujara getting dropped this game for lack of "intent." I am sure every Indian fan in this forum would love it

 

[Daemon]

Honestly CW should pick XIs. We'd do a better job and it'd be free.

 

[harsh.ag]

Honestly CW should pick XIs. We'd do a better job and it'd be free.

Nah I would be open to bribery.

 

[Daemon]

Nah I would be open to bribery.

That's a prerequisite to being a BCCI member

 

[SeamUp]

This is the first test pitch prepared by this groundsman and Faf says he hasn't seen a Centurion pitch with so much brown grass before. I think a spinner has to be played to cover the unknown.

SuperSport curator feels the heat ahead of Test debut - ESPNcricinfo

 

[SeamUp]

Nice quotes on Faf

 

[burr]

Looking forward to this one. Finally, some cricket to watch on TV in UK if you don't have that BS that is BT!

 

[Burgey]

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.



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

Pujara can fish at a ball a metre outside off and still be playing it under his nose.

 

[Prince EWS]

Pujara can fish at a ball a metre outside off and still be playing it under his nose.

So gun.

 

[harsh.ag]

ToI says KL to replace Dhawan and Parthiv to replace Saha. Maybe Ishant for Bhuvi since it's not a swing friendly pitch.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

I fail to see how Ishant for Bhuvi is anything other than a backwards step. It's not even like there is that much of a pace difference between them these days.

 

[OverratedSanity]

ToI says KL to replace Dhawan and Parthiv to replace Saha. Maybe Ishant for Bhuvi since it's not a swing friendly pitch.

Literally one step forwards two steps back

 

[vcs]

They'll probably push Parthiv up to open as well, to "lengthen" the batting lineup.

Should be fun watching the tall guys like Morkel and Morris bouncing him.

 

[Prince EWS]

They'll probably push Parthiv up to open as well, to "lengthen" the batting lineup.

I would actually see this is a perfectly legitimate strategy, and maybe even compelling enough to justify bringing him in for Saha, if India had a glut of middle order players and few viable openers.. as if often the case with India, especially on overseas trips.

That's not the case at all, so it'd be silly bordering on entirely absurd. Still completely possible, but absurd nonetheless.

 

[vcs]

Yeah, it might not actually be such a terrible strategy because no one expects much from any of our openers in these conditions apart from maybe playing 10 overs and adding 20 or so. Parthiv could probably do that as well.

But I think it will be Saha's keeping that India would miss more. He did really well in the last match.

 

[StephenZA]

Dropping your best keeper, particularly in these conditions where you are going to have a lot of catches behind the stumps, is a stupid idea... one dropped catch can cost you 50+ runs, India have enough problems in the slips as it is.

 

[harsh.ag]

But he will score 20 runs more so they're covered.

 

[Pratters]

Pick Saha ffs.

 

[Prince EWS]

Respect the Saha.