SA tour of India, Sept 29-Dec 7

[mikesiva]

Match not yet started due to rain delay.

Second day's play abandoned...could rain save the saffers?

[ianp1970]

Match not yet started due to rain delay.

Second day's play abandoned...could rain save the saffers?

Possibly if it rains all day tomorrow.

[The Professor]

Intensive deconstruction of Ashwin's bowling and India's fielding. http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-sou ... 40795.html

[Red Devil]

Virat has reverted to 7+4 combo for this test. Terrific bowling performance by the spinners yet again. The batsmen too have given a good start and we can hope to get a substantial first innings lead at Day 2 stumps time.

It is actually 6.5+4.5
Binny only picked because he can bowl seam up and still bat.

it's neither really - picking Binny basically means it's 6+4 and we're playing with 10 men. As demonstrated in the first innings when he bowled all of 3 overs, he really has nothing to contribute with the ball in tests - he currently has 3 wickets at 86 runs per wicket after 5 tests. His batting average in tests is also only 21 so he's not contributing there either.

Even as an all-rounder, Bhuvneshwar Kumar would be a better bet - averages 35 with the ball and over 26 with the bat in his 12 tests ... or Rishi Dhawan who seems destined to never be given a chance at international level despite over 2,000 runs at 42 and over 200 wickets at 26 in first class cricket.

If we get a turning wicket they may pick Gurkeerat as the all-rounder option so him, Ashwin and Jadeja should offer enough batting depth to go with 5 bowlers

[Red Devil]

weather forecast looks awful - could be rained off again today, and then day 5 doesn't look good either. Will be asking a lot of |ndia to win it in one day from here so I hope the weather turns out better than expected - reckon Ind will win if we can get 2 days play in.

[shankycricket]

Virat has reverted to 7+4 combo for this test. Terrific bowling performance by the spinners yet again. The batsmen too have given a good start and we can hope to get a substantial first innings lead at Day 2 stumps time.

It is actually 6.5+4.5
Binny only picked because he can bowl seam up and still bat.

it's neither really - picking Binny basically means it's 6+4 and we're playing with 10 men. As demonstrated in the first innings when he bowled all of 3 overs, he really has nothing to contribute with the ball in tests - he currently has 3 wickets at 86 runs per wicket after 5 tests. His batting average in tests is also only 21 so he's not contributing there either.

Even as an all-rounder, Bhuvneshwar Kumar would be a better bet - averages 35 with the ball and over 26 with the bat in his 12 tests ... or Rishi Dhawan who seems destined to never be given a chance at international level despite over 2,000 runs at 42 and over 200 wickets at 26 in first class cricket.

If we get a turning wicket they may pick Gurkeerat as the all-rounder option so him, Ashwin and Jadeja should offer enough batting depth to go with 5 bowlers

Agree with you on Binny but have you seen Bhuvi bowl recently? Its a joke that he is anywhere near the Test side. Watching Rishi Dhawan in televised Ranji matches doesn't strike as anything special either. Honestly, I don't get this allrounder obsession especially at home where spinners do all the bowling. They should just pick 7 batsmen (Saha is not a No6) and 3 spinners with 1 seamer for the sake of it. Honestly, just spin should be enough.

[Red Devil]

Virat has reverted to 7+4 combo for this test. Terrific bowling performance by the spinners yet again. The batsmen too have given a good start and we can hope to get a substantial first innings lead at Day 2 stumps time.

It is actually 6.5+4.5
Binny only picked because he can bowl seam up and still bat.

it's neither really - picking Binny basically means it's 6+4 and we're playing with 10 men. As demonstrated in the first innings when he bowled all of 3 overs, he really has nothing to contribute with the ball in tests - he currently has 3 wickets at 86 runs per wicket after 5 tests. His batting average in tests is also only 21 so he's not contributing there either.

Even as an all-rounder, Bhuvneshwar Kumar would be a better bet - averages 35 with the ball and over 26 with the bat in his 12 tests ... or Rishi Dhawan who seems destined to never be given a chance at international level despite over 2,000 runs at 42 and over 200 wickets at 26 in first class cricket.

If we get a turning wicket they may pick Gurkeerat as the all-rounder option so him, Ashwin and Jadeja should offer enough batting depth to go with 5 bowlers

Agree with you on Binny but have you seen Bhuvi bowl recently? Its a joke that he is anywhere near the Test side. Watching Rishi Dhawan in televised Ranji matches doesn't strike as anything special either. Honestly, I don't get this allrounder obsession especially at home where spinners do all the bowling. They should just pick 7 batsmen (Saha is not a No6) and 3 spinners with 1 seamer for the sake of it. Honestly, just spin should be enough.

yeah, may well be an option. Seamers haven't exactly done much for us in the series so far

the other thing would be for Naman Ojha to keep rather than Saha - he'd do a much better job with the bat, but it depends how much we'd lose on the actual keeping side of it.

[Dr Cricket]

Yep agree with you shanky.

[Dr Cricket]

Saha not even a great keeper so not sure you would lose much anyway keepers get better by keeping more evident in Dhoni, Prior and Buttler careers.
pick the better batsman.

[shankycricket]

Virat has reverted to 7+4 combo for this test. Terrific bowling performance by the spinners yet again. The batsmen too have given a good start and we can hope to get a substantial first innings lead at Day 2 stumps time.

It is actually 6.5+4.5
Binny only picked because he can bowl seam up and still bat.

it's neither really - picking Binny basically means it's 6+4 and we're playing with 10 men. As demonstrated in the first innings when he bowled all of 3 overs, he really has nothing to contribute with the ball in tests - he currently has 3 wickets at 86 runs per wicket after 5 tests. His batting average in tests is also only 21 so he's not contributing there either.

Even as an all-rounder, Bhuvneshwar Kumar would be a better bet - averages 35 with the ball and over 26 with the bat in his 12 tests ... or Rishi Dhawan who seems destined to never be given a chance at international level despite over 2,000 runs at 42 and over 200 wickets at 26 in first class cricket.

If we get a turning wicket they may pick Gurkeerat as the all-rounder option so him, Ashwin and Jadeja should offer enough batting depth to go with 5 bowlers

Agree with you on Binny but have you seen Bhuvi bowl recently? Its a joke that he is anywhere near the Test side. Watching Rishi Dhawan in televised Ranji matches doesn't strike as anything special either. Honestly, I don't get this allrounder obsession especially at home where spinners do all the bowling. They should just pick 7 batsmen (Saha is not a No6) and 3 spinners with 1 seamer for the sake of it. Honestly, just spin should be enough.

yeah, may well be an option. Seamers haven't exactly done much for us in the series so far

the other thing would be for Naman Ojha to keep rather than Saha - he'd do a much better job with the bat, but it depends how much we'd lose on the actual keeping side of it.

I agree he'd be better than Saha (especially as Saha isn't even doing well in his primary skill - keeping) but don't think he is a Test match number 6 either. Dhoni is the best wicket keeper bat India have ever had and even he didn't much bat at 6 either. There aren't too many Test wicket keepers who can lay claim to being top 6 bats. Even Gilly's record at 6 was much worse than at 7. Its asking a lot of these new guys to come in and bat there straightaway, I think 5 bowlers is only an option if you have got an allrounder good enough to bat in the top 6 (Hardik Pandya may be an option in the future). But I honestly fail to see why they need the extra bowler than the extra batsman. Since that series against England, the bowling has been next to flawless in the subcontinent with spinners doing brilliantly and the batsmen have looked vulnerable to collapses against spin, yet they need the extra bowler? To me, it seems that Kohli and Shastri are going overboard with all this aggression talk and are desperately trying to fit a 5th bowler in (as its "aggressive") rather than looking into the actual requirements of the team based on its strengths and weaknesses. 6 batsmen + keeper + 3 spinners should be enough. Having seamers just means they are wasting the overs that could've been bowled by the spinners (the overs bowled by Yadav and Aaron at Mohali instead of the spinners early on Day 2 might have cost India on another day).

[shankycricket]

Saha not even a great keeper so not sure you would lose much anyway keepers get better by keeping more evident in Dhoni, Prior and Buttler careers.
pick the better batsman.

Sanju Samson is keeping wickets in the Ranji Trophy this season. Has been doing alright with the bat too. Always saw Saha as a medium term pick but looks like he might not even be that. I think they should pick Ojha for the rest of the series (unless Saha does something with the bat here) and look at blooding one of the youngsters next season against England (do India play any Tests before that, assuming the Pak series is off?)

[meninblue]

Match not yet started due to rain delay.

Second day's play abandoned...could rain save the saffers?

Rain saved them already

[Aidan11]

Bit of a damp squib this test.

[greyblazer]

At this point of time, it is unusual for rains to lash down in Bangalore. It is all because of the cyclone effect. The weather looks ok now, but the damage has already been done.

[meninblue]

Why doesn't it rains when we tour to Australia, South Africa , England. That's when our cricket team actually need lot of rain.