The Indian team has the ability to win overseas which has been proven with their wins in SA and England. The problem with the team is lack of consistency. The bowling attack always lets the lower order score runs, this is not specific to this present Indian team. Previous captains were guilty of this too. They would drop the intensity and the bowlers would start to bowl differently to what they were bowling till then when the tail comes into bat. The captain needs to play a crucial role in this and that is where Virat lacks similar to other captains of the past.

I don’t agree to the FTB tag. Ajinkya Rahane has better record outside Asia than in Asia. He averages 50+ in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The problem with Rahane is that he has lost the consistency which he displayed in the 2013-2015 season. The other batter who has good record outside Asia is Murali Vijay, who was woefully out of form. Pujara has finally started to score runs and Rahul is anything but a FTB.

The problem is that the middle lower order isn’t strong enough and the top order failures are costing India more than England. If you see even the English openers have been poor, Root has been poor, Bairstow has been poor. None of them you would call an FTB. The pitches have been such and the bowling from both sides have been good with the new ball.

I agree, thats the reason I was saying that longer tours are not possible. Even practice games are not possible. Teams need to get smart in terms of preparation. Go early (2-3 weeks before), request the type of wickets you need and probably practice on them? Or if you are touring England, arrange a Test against Ireland etc. Probably some way to get acclimatise sooner than what is happening these days. Else we will continue to see mediocre cricket all round when teams are touring.

Yup agree, that’s why I mentioned that Teams have to be smart about scheduling. The days of 3-4 month tours are gone and is not possible anymore. In the 90’s even the tour games used to get lots of crowd. That’s not possible anymore.

Yup completely forgot that the Sydney Test was drawn. I wrote is from memory, did not look at the actual series. They did play one practice 3 day game and if I remember correctly the Tri-series also happened between the Test matches. The point is that India still had lots of time to acclimatise in Australia after the first Test loss at Gabba. To be fair, India would have still lost the series even if they had played 3-4 games. The 90’s team was that awful. There was a reason why they went without winning a single Test outside subcontinent in the 90’s. This included one Test against Zimbabwe (Their first) which we managed to draw. Anyways thanks for pointing that out. But my point still stands though, there were more time and games played by teams in the 90’s than it is today.

Yup agree. The increasing T20 Leagues and TV rights etc..Makes the 3-4 months tours obsolete in my opinion. Not great situation but that’s were cricket is headed these days. Boards want to make quick bucks and having one tour for 4 months does not help with that. The teams should try and maximise the opportunity they have to try and organise some competitive games on tour. Pakistan played a tough Test against Ireland ahead of the English tour, which for sure helped their batters ahead of the Test series more than the practice games they played.

In the last Test it went England’s way, even though everyone felt Dhawan caught it cleanly because the soft signal was not out. So it does even out in the long run. The general consensus was that it was a clean catch. I think in the future if the fielder is unsure, they will not display the same to the umpires. Dhawan did that and got soft signal as not out and Rahul did not and the soft signal was out. The umpires going on the fielders reaction rather than their own gut. If the umpire does not know whether a catch is clean or not, he should just ask the third umpire to make the decision. It does seem like the third umpire is compelled to agree with the on field umpires on these close catches.

Can’t blame the fielders though as in the slips it is hard to know as everything happens so quickly.

Jenkins dropping dollies in both the innings was ridiculous to watch. The second one of Kohli was epic as the ball went through him without touching any part of his body. He is just completely low on confidence and so is Cook. Both of them aren’t contributing with the bat and also in the field.

Pandya made a useful 52 no yesterday as well. So he is indeed having a great Test match. Hopefully we will see more of such performances from him. At this point of time, if he can get 1-2 wickets consistently with the ball, he will be an asset.

None of the openers mentioned above have done well including Cook. Haseeb looked great but I hear that he has been struggling with the bat in county cricket. If Jennings fails again in the second innings, I don’t know what England will do for the final two tests.

Yes Cook’s average is in teens if you take away his 244 no. He has not only been poor with the bat but has also cost England a lot of runs with his poor slip catching.

Yup, I don’t think he can be burdened with being the third seamer for India. He is a good support cast who can get you wickets and occasionally bowl a spell like this one. His batting also should be considered as a bonus at this point. He probably can develop into a better all rounder in the future but for now, putting less pressure on him will help. In India he can surely be the third seamer as pace bowlers have little to do on those pitches.

All teams struggle against good swing bowling nowadays. England playing at home was expected to counter the conditions better but they haven’t. The English team rely a lot on Cook, Root and Bairstow. Cook has been in poor form recently and Root has forgotten how to score hundreds and Bairstow played well in the Lord’s Test but has struggled in the rest of the series.

How much of a long stint should Pujara get? He debuted in 2010, He has been playing cricket for a long time. He has 37 innings outside subcontinent which includes West Indies. He was not even able to string few good scores in West Indies. He just is not the solution we are looking for at number 3. He is no Rahul Dravid. The guy still has a huge gap between bat and pad and keeps getting bowled. Look at his dismissal in county cricket. KL Rahul deserves more chances I agree but Dhawan and Pujara need to go if they don’t perform for the rest of the tour. There is no justification keeping them in the team. It is unfair on the players who are putting long yards in domestic cricket with hopes of getting into the Indian team.

Lots of good players missed out playing for India between 1996 and 2007/08 but again we had an ATG batting unit which was justifiable but not anymore.

To be frank, India faced the same issue in SA as well. If we take the first 2 Tests in SA, Hardik played a blinder in the first innings, India scored just over 200, the rest of the batting failed. second innings everyone failed chasing 200 and got bowled out for 130 odd. second Test India scored 307, Kohli scored 153, Ashwin scored 30 odd, the rest of the batting did not score much. Third Test, first innings was the same Virat played well, rest did not. second innings Rahane contributed along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar who was India’s best bat in SA behind Kohli.

The last tour outside subcontinent for India was in West Indies 2016.

First Test, Kohli scored 200, Ashwin scored 113, Dhawan scored 84, Pujara, Rahane and Vijay failed.
Second Test: This was the only game where others besides Kohli contributed as Rahane & Rahul scored hundreds and others scored some useful runs.
Third Test: Rahul Scored a 50 but India found themselves at 126/5 with another top order collapse, Ashwin and Saha saved Indian team with hundreds.
second innings: Another top order failure, Rahane scored runs supported by Rohit Sharma.

So this is not an isolated event, Indian top order struggled in 2013 SA, 2014 England, 2016 WI, 2018 SA, and now 2018 England. Pujara, Dhawan et all need to go. Like I said Rahane and Rahul will still be part of the side and so will Kohli and Pandya. The opening combination is not working and all the matches I mentioned above had India lose at least 2 wickets before reaching 50. The fact that against an inexperienced West Indies bowling line up, the middle/lower order was able to rescue India but were not able to do so against a strong team like England.

If we don’t give young players a chance, how long are we going to pursue with Pujara and Dhawan? Are they really going to improve at this stage of their careers? How worse can Prithvi Shaw be compared to Dhawan at the top? I am all for giving Vijay little bit of a run, but what happens if he fails for the entire England series? Would we carry him to Australia? Pujara averaging 26 over 6 years in 37 innings, is he going to make any difference to India’s chances in Australia? These are the questions Shastri and Virat need to answer. The problem is that India need to make the changes sometime, if it has to be on a overseas tour, so be it.

The best chance for India would have been to test out some young players in the home season, they did not do so and the players they tested are not even part of the X1. If India want to seriously think about winning overseas, we need to drop the dead weights. If we don’t this will continue to occur. In 2011/12 Australia series, India were losing badly and in spite of that Dhoni did not rest, Laxman, Sachin or Dravid and continued playing them without giving young players a chance and Kohli is falling into the same trap. Dravid and Laxman retired right after and Sachin hung on for a year. Did not help India much as we were forced to go with a young team without any experience to SA in 2013 and still managed to perform decently. I know making sweeping changes isn’t the right thing to go but it is the right time to do. Even if it is one step at a time.

Very disappointed with performances of Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane and KL Rahul. Pujara has never been good outside subcontinent and not much was expected of Dinesh Karthik.

KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane will still be in the mix. Pujara has poor record in all countries outside subcontinent, so his replacement cannot do much worse. Dinesh Karthik needs to go. Murali Vijay is a tough one but again, he is not the same player he was 4 years ago. So 2-3 changes in the top order isn’t that bad. Bhuvneshwar Kumar anyways does not play on wickets which does not suit his bowling. Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Ishant Sharma are the 4 pacers. None of them have good records in Australia with the ball. Mohammad Siraj has done well for India A, and having him in the mix would be great for India. Hardik Pandya isn’t a number 6 bat, so he needs to bat lower. I would prefer to see this team in Australia,

Prithvi Shaw
M Vijay (Will give him one more run as he scored as lot of runs in Australia last time)
KL Rahul
Virat Kohli
Ajinkya Rahane
Rishabh Pant
Hardik Pandya
Ashwin
Jasprit Bumrah
Mohammad Shami
Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Mohammad Siraj/Umesh Yadav

Reserves:
Nair, Gill, Kuldeep, Ishant

That is just like 2 changes or at max 3 changes. Which India should be able to do. Dropping Pujara and Dhawan for good will be the right move. Karthik should not be near the Test team again.

I agree, Virat has been the most reluctant captain India has ever had. Dhoni gets lots of flak but again Virat Kohli, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Mohammad Shami, Ravi Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Pujara, Rahane Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah etc all debuted in his captaincy. Please list 5-6 players under Virat’s captaincy. Chahal debuted under Dhoni as well. Probably Kuldeep? Pandya?Nair? To be frank Kohli needs to make the tough calls and do what is right for the team.

To be frank we will not know until we Test them. I would rather lose a series with young players in the Team than losing badly with player who have no hope of improving. How long do we go on with Pujara? If Shaw, Gill, Vihari and Pant are not the future, who is? Should Indian cricket shut shop after this current bunch? Pakistan took a gamble with young players and I see that they are moving forward in all forms of the game. This is a country which is not known for its batting. Even a conservative team like England are playing 2 20 year olds in the X1. The Indian team does not have any young players. We haven’t tried any in last 3-4 years. The A programme was built for this very reason, to identify young talent and get them ready for international cricket. I think Rahul Dravid is doing that but are the selectors and Virat ready to bite the bullet. Pujara, Vijay and Dhawan aren’t going to improve much from now on. They have received far chances, there is no point in beating a dead horse. It is little harsh on Vijay as he has done well in the past but again, the age is not on his side.

That is not entirely true. Sachin debuted in 1989 and for about 7 years, he was India’s lone warrior on overseas tours. Dravid and Ganguly debuted in 1996 but weren’t a force until 2001. Laxman only established himself in 2001, Sehwag’s debut was in 2001. India was a one man team till 1999/2000. I still remember India’s 3-0 loss to Australia in 1999, when Sachin was the only one to score runs. Rahul Dravid failed badly against McGrath and Warne. Laxman scored a hundred in the Sydney Test but the series was done and dusted then.

Sachin was a one man army when India stepped out of subcontinent during most of his first 12 years before the rest picked up the pieces. Kohli is going through even worse scenario but again, it is partly his own doing by backing wrong players due to his likes/dislikes. Sachin did not do that, he just got worst pool of players, playing for India when he was the captain.

The English pitches will more or less remain the same. If England resort to flat pitches, India will outbat England quite easily as Ashwin and Jadeja/Kuldeep will be more threatening on those wickets than Adil Rashid/Moeen Ali. So it is basically a battle between two struggling batting line ups.

India need to fix the batting and the same is true for England as well. It will be interesting to see if the second test will be as closely fought as the first Test.

Well I think the problem is with the batting. I hope something is done regarding the same. Kuldeep probably wouldn’t make the X1 in place of a pacer if Bumrah is fit as Shami and Ishant did well in the first Test.

Thanks Paul. Yes it is strange that India looks more vulnerable in this series. This was the reason I had written earlier that India’s batting will give England the edge. England don’t have to bat big, but just have to score enough in this games like we saw in the first Test. But if Indian batting clicks then England will be in trouble.

Hardik Pandya is a strange case. Virat likes him but I don’t think that alone should be the reason for him to play in the X1. He offers nothing at the moment and India will be better off playing an extra bat or someone like Jadeja. Jadeja is a brilliant fielder and will give the team some quiet overs even if he does not pick wickets. Also seeing how badly England played Ashwin, Jadeja might cause more trouble to the English batting like up. I still remember how he dismantled the English batting on a flat wicket in the final Test in India where England had to just survive 2 sessions. Jadeja will get you runs as well.

You are right 🙂 That was a typo from Roar, I meant 1 hundred and 4 fifties.

That was a typo from Roar, I meant 1 hundred and 4 fifties.