West Indies vs India | 2nd Test | Kingston | 30th Jul - 3rd Aug | Day 1

Manjrekar used to be a half-decent commie back in the day? What happened to him?
 
There could also be a case where Rahul might be asked to bat one down once Vijay returns. That guy's solid!

That's what I was thinking. Until Pujara/Rohit establish themselves, you already have a set batsman that has grasped every opportunity that has been given to him. Rahul needs to be integrated into this team.

Dhawan/Vijay/Rahul would be my top 3. Pujara can come in at #3 in place of one of the three if somebody's not performing.
 
When Pujara starts using his feet against spinners, thats when you know he is back to his best, his natural game.

He had stopped doing that (consciously or subconsciously) for some period in the past.
 
When Pujara starts using his feet against spinners, thats when you know he is back to his best, his natural game.

He had stopped doing that (consciously or subconsciously) for some period in the past.

This is his best chance to get back into form. What is it, 4 Test series at home in a row? If he comes back into form, then he'll be quite an asset because he's the most natural player of spin India has.
 
When Pujara starts using his feet against spinners, thats when you know he is back to his best, his natural game.

He had stopped doing that (consciously or subconsciously) for some period in the past.

That's exactly what I was thinking
 
Its a huge leap to drop Pujara.

The guy who guarantees almost 100 balls per test in the middle preventing any funny business happening in our already fragile batting.

Rahul is young. He will go score big or go bust and his stats may not reveal the impact of that in the team's results.

I will give you guys a proper example.

If Vijay and Pujara weren't there for SA home tour, we would have lost some of the tests. Big names like Kohli and Rahane did very little in the first 3 tests (where we sealed the series). Even Saha and Jaddu played super important gritty knocks which helped us in first 3 tests.

Again...without Pujara's 144*, we would have walked off from the SL series with a crushing defeat.

Our batting is really not that special (atleast for now) so we must be careful making such decisions.
 
if Pujara fails this series India seriously should be looking for replacements if not then put Rahul at no3 and find another opener in case dhawan keeps failing
 
To be frank I would stick with Pujara rather than someone like Rohit in the test X1. Rahul needs to be in the scheme of things, either as a opener or as a keeper. I wasn't very impressed with Saha as a keeper either. Pujara as mentioned by SIF bats long even though for not many runs. He is vital for overseas games. He needs to kick on after spending so much time in the middle. Ideally our batting should be Vijay, Rahul, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Wicket keeper (Saha or someone else), Ashwin, Shami, Ishant, Mishra/Jadeja, Yadav/Mishra/Jadeja. The pacers and spinners can vary according to the conditions.
 
I am sure the Indians won't get carried away with their success so far in WI. They are playing a Club Level Team. Not their fault, mind you ... but the WI's Cricket politics is possibly the worst amongst all the Cricket playing countries !!!
 
I am sure the Indians won't get carried away with their success so far in WI.

Dude, after being beaten black and blue by the WI back in the 1970s and 80s, I am quite ecstatic about India's performance the current tour. Maybe a few more tours like this will wash away the memories, but right now it is all good.
 
I wonder how England failed to win the series vs this "club level" "poor" "minnow" WI team in 2015?

Some people will go to any lengths to discredit what Indians achieve.
 
Good day's play, need to get 400 plus which means one of our best 2 batters - Kohli/ Rahane should get a century.

With a lulloo keeper like Saha all 5 batsman have to bat extra carefully :(


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I am sure the Indians won't get carried away with their success so far in WI. They are playing a Club Level Team. Not their fault, mind you ... but the WI's Cricket politics is possibly the worst amongst all the Cricket playing countries !!!

WI didn't have a good team to win outside in the last 5-6 years, but they have not been exactly minnows at home. They have drawn or won many series in the last 5-6 years despite not able to do anything when playing outside.

2009 - Win series against Eng
2011 - Drew series against Pakistan
2012 - Won series against NZ
2015 - Drew series against Eng
 
Absolutely no question of dropping Pujara. Even with his shot knee, he's one of the best batsmen we have. It's not like we have Sachins and Dravids as ready replacements.
 
Even Rahane struggled at no 3 in SL. Less said about Rohit at no 3 the better.

It is one thing scoring runs at no 5/6 and completely different to score at the top of the order against new ball. Pujara's innings at Lords is highly underrated. He played brilliantly against the moving ball on a green top, was just unlucky not to reach 50. Deserved it thoroughly.

We need to stick with him. Can't afford to lose a talent like Pujara.
 
Rahul should improve his keeping and then we can replace him with Saha who is a mediocre player. Ashwin at no.7 is pretty good.However, the question is who should bat at no.6 if Rahul replaces Saha. Dhawan isn't getting dropped any time soon as he is a consistent performer and can score runs against good attacks on flat decks.
 
I am sure the Indians won't get carried away with their success so far in WI. They are playing a Club Level Team. Not their fault, mind you ... but the WI's Cricket politics is possibly the worst amongst all the Cricket playing countries !!!

May be ..but you do need to consider the way India are thrasing WI till now. Only few teams can do that.
 
Rahul should improve his keeping and then we can replace him with Saha who is a mediocre player. Ashwin at no.7 is pretty good.However, the question is who should bat at no.6 if Rahul replaces Saha. Dhawan isn't getting dropped any time soon as he is a consistent performer and can score runs against good attacks on flat decks.

Though he did take some good catches in the test in SL, he can realistically be an LOI keeper only. The stakes are very high in Tests, we need a specialist keeper. Also, it is not possible to open immediately after keeping for the whole innings. That is why there is no keeper-opener in Test cricket. At the best, he can be a backup in case Saha gets injured midway through a tour & keep in ODIs & T20s (Sandeep Patil has talked to him about this).
 
Though he did take some good catches in the test in SL, he can realistically be an LOI keeper only. The stakes are very high in Tests, we need a specialist keeper. Also, it is not possible to open immediately after keeping for the whole innings. That is why there is no keeper-opener in Test cricket. At the best, he can be a backup in case Saha gets injured midway through a tour & keep in ODIs & T20s (Sandeep Patil has talked to him about this).

Yes in tests one prefers to have a wicket-keeper batsmen rather than a batsmen who can keep especially in overseas games where edges go quickly to keepers and slips and you have to concentrate all the time.

Kohli will have batting worries when he will play against stronger teams on overseas tour or teams with top spinners on home pitches. You can't have just 5 batsmen and Saha and Ashwin as no.6 and 7.
 
WI didn't have a good team to win outside in the last 5-6 years, but they have not been exactly minnows at home. They have drawn or won many series in the last 5-6 years despite not able to do anything when playing outside.

2009 - Win series against Eng
2011 - Drew series against Pakistan
2012 - Won series against NZ
2015 - Drew series against Eng
The team playing in this match is particularly mediocre

Apart from Samuels, Bravo, Holder and Bishoo I haven't even heard of the rest. And it's not like these four I recognise are some world beaters
 
The team playing in this match is particularly mediocre

Apart from Samuels, Bravo, Holder and Bishoo I haven't even heard of the rest. And it's not like these four I recognise are some world beaters

Do you know the team which defeated ENG last year in WI?

Brathwaite, Hope, Darren Bravo, Samuels, Chanders, Blackwood, Ramdin, Holder, Permaul, Taylor and Gabriel.

England's playing XI in the same match was -

Cook, Trott, Ballance, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Ali, Stokes, Buttler, Jordan, Broad and Anderson

It was Bravo, Blackwood who scored runs and wickets were shared by Gabriel, Taylor and Holder. So how exactly is current WI lineup inferior to above mentioned team?
 
Do you know the team which defeated ENG last year in WI?

Brathwaite, Hope, Darren Bravo, Samuels, Chanders, Blackwood, Ramdin, Holder, Permaul, Taylor and Gabriel.

England's playing XI in the same match was -

Cook, Trott, Ballance, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Ali, Stokes, Buttler, Jordan, Broad and Anderson

It was Bravo, Blackwood who scored runs and wickets were shared by Gabriel, Taylor and Holder. So how exactly is current WI lineup inferior to above mentioned team?



I was referring more to the 2009-2012 series he has mentioned
 
I wonder how England failed to win the series vs this "club level" "poor" "minnow" WI team in 2015?

Some people will go to any lengths to discredit what Indians achieve.

Its all in your head this discrediting. I gave you guys credit for winning the 1st test and I will do the same if you win the series.
 
Its all in your head this discrediting. I gave you guys credit for winning the 1st test and I will do the same if you win the series.
Go through the thread and the posts and you will know what i am talking about
 
Saying some of the west indies players are average and saying they haven't heard of them is not a problem.
It is not at all a problem if someone says they haven't heard of players like Gabriel, Braithwaite and Blackwood. But to conclude that the team is weak on that basis just reeks of confirmation bias more than any objective evaluation. It is more of a reflection of the poster's ignorance rather than the strength or weakness of a team.
 
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It is not at all a problem if someone says they haven't heard of players like Gabriel, Holder and Braithwaite. But to conclude that the team is weak on that basis just reeks of confirmation bias more than any objective evaluation. It is more of a reflection of the poster's ignorance rather than the strength or weakness of a team.

Its not exactly a strong west indies team but India have been ruthless so I give them credit for that. They have done the job well.
 
Saying some of the west indies players are average and saying they haven't heard of them is not a problem.
Again.As i said go through the thread.Some of The words used for WI team has been mentioned by me.
 
Its not exactly a strong west indies team but India have been ruthless so I give them credit for that. They have done the job well.
Yeah thats exactly what I feel and I'm sure any sane neutral poster would say the same thing.
 
If Pakistan won this current West Indies team, what would you say?
I would say congratz on winning your 1st test series in WI.Ever.

Its easy to say that team is minnow.Far more difficult to actually go and beat them.Pakistan even failed to win a series againist Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe.WI are still a decent team at home.
 
I would say congratz on winning your 1st test series in WI.Ever.

Its easy to say that team is minnow.Far more difficult to actually go and beat them.Pakistan even failed to win a series againist Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe.WI are still a decent team at home.

Loool that Zimbabwe defeat was a one off. I think we would beat them easily now.

Yes West Indies are decent at home, looking forward to our tour there next year.
 
Apart from Kohli/ Rahane/ Ashwin current Indian test line up too is nothing great and legendary that people are expecting it to steamroll windies. I am quite surprised at how our bowlers have fared so far in this series.

If we take out Kohli-Ashwin partnership in last test it would have been a one sided affair.
 
I would say congratz on winning your 1st test series in WI.Ever.

Its easy to say that team is minnow.Far more difficult to actually go and beat them.Pakistan even failed to win a series againist Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe.WI are still a decent team at home.

Cool down joshilabhai. Just enjoy Rahul batting! Good day are not far away:)
 
Loool that Zimbabwe defeat was a one off. I think we would beat them easily now.

Yes West Indies are decent at home, looking forward to our tour there next year.

If the ball moves and bounces i will give any team a chance againist present Pakistani batting.
 
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