India in Sri Lanka 2017

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India in Sri Lanka on a full tour, with matches across all 3 formats.
First test underway today onwards.

Sri Lanka trying their level best to make the West Indies look a half decent international side. That was an awful performance. India just sauntered through that chase, a nice little walk in the park. A 9 wicket win led by Shikhar Dhawan with solid support from chase-master Virat. The only thing Virat would be concerned about would be that neither KL Rahul nor MS Dhoni got anything much to do.......

rate they were scoring at was 7.63 an over...dismal from sri lanka they are heading down a long dark path

India is clearly using the ODIs to optimize the  16 for the world cup and also identify perhaps 4 or 5 standby to make an extended squad of 20 and how I see them looking at their strategy and their approach to these bilateral ODIs.

1) Seam Bowling

India will play 3 or 4 seamers depending on the pitch in world cup
One of those will be Pandya.

the first choice pool of seamers would be Bumrah, Bhuvi, Umesh and Shami

and Bumrah is certain in the 11 if he is fit.

so remaining seamers will be any 1 or 2 of Bhuvi, Shami, Umesh

Shardul will be in the squad of 16 as a reserve...and will be given a few games here and there between now and 2019...to groom him further between now and world cup
Seam bowling is settled and quite healthy part of Indian composition


2) Batting

Yuvi is out and raina is gone for good...as was published that they failed the Yo-Yo fitness test....and shastri's uttering in the media that fitness will be the criteria gives away India's thinking and strategy.

Yuv was too much of a hit and miss, reflexes definitely not the same and Raina had dropped out of contention quitet some time back.
Will be interesting to see if they are back in T20....I doubt
I think T20 squads will be almost same as ODI squads.

Rohit, Dhawan and Rahul will be in the playing 11 and if fitness or form becomes and issue, Rahane comes into the 11...especially if the opener is unfit.
Rahane will be in the squad of 16 for sure.....

They've made a decision to go with Pandey based on age, fitness, temperament whenever he got a chance...and his fine show against a high quality SA-A has sealed the spot for him in the squad.

if there is a middle order opening due to form / fitness Pandey will play
and rahane plays if there is a vacancy in the opening position

3) WK
Dhoni is seemingly their plan-A for the world cup....but given age/ fitness and that WK is a crucial spot....Most likely they will groom Pant as a back-up and keep him in the squad.
WK Pant who also doubles up as a Plan-C for a middle order position.
so in every ODI series Pant will get a game or two (like shardul) to keep grooming him


4) Spin
Ironically this is the area where problems are....India is rattled by the lack of effectiveness of its spinners in Champions Trophy and one that I would identify as the biggest cause of our not winning  that Trophy.

so the team management is looking at all options....trying out Chahl and Axar,

Ironically Ashwin and Jadeja were the stars of the 2013 CT win and Ashwin was superb in 2015 world cup also.....but as they have improved in tests, they have declined in ODIs.

Since the 2019 world cup is in Eng there will be room for 1 spinners in most game and 2 in a few games if the pitch is exceptionally dry

In my view

--Chahl & Axar are pure transnational spinners...who have no mystery, not big turners, just keep it tight and hope batsmen / pitch to do something for them

--Jadeja in ODIs has turned into almost the same category as above....a transnational spinner..but he is a great fielder, good lower order hitter and more experienced

--Ashwin is too much "test matchish" now although he has ability to reinvent as a mystery spinner in ODIs and i'd rather leave him to focus on test. He is not the fastest on field nor does his average of 40 as a batsman in tests helps much in ODIs because he is not a power hitter and won't come before no.8

--Kulpdeep is a solid mystery spinner who can spin even on pitches that have little help.

I would take Kuldeep and jadeja in the squad...and depending on pitch / match situation etc play one or both of them in the world cup.
And bear in mind Jadhav is a good option to give 5 to 6 overs..... is not as innocuous as he looks...he doesn't spin the ball much but varies them hugely...his Malinga like side arm delivery is not something i have seen any other spinner even attempt...and when batsmen are looking for runs....this delivery that he bowls occasionally as a change delivery catches them by surprise getting him LBWs and clean bowled.
And in quite contrast to his fast slider...he has a really slowly highly tossed delivery as another variation.
he his not an easy bowler to slog and hit apart.

That's it.....batting and seam bowling are settled and if Dhoni's fitness holds the WK spot is also sealed.
Spin will be optimized soon and then we hope form and fitmess of the first 16 holds up util 2019

The match itself today was a side-show...Lanka was duly mauled....they need to win 2 out of 2 games now to qualify for the world cup

KPF, agree with most of what you said babout the possible squad they would be looking at. Despite Axar and Chahal playing today, think Kuldeep remain their first option. Axar had a good game today, between him and Jadeja, I would any day go for the latter. I wouldn't be surprised if Ashwin finds his way back, but I would rather have him focusing on the tests. In the seam bowling department, apart from Pandya, think Bumrah and Bhuvi are the first choices, and then Shami. and I think that is the right way to go.
In the batting department, I am not really sure. Not sure Pandey is the man, not sure about Rahane, particularly doubling up as a middle order back-up too. With Rahul, a natural opener available, why would we even need Rahane in the reserves. If one of the opening spots opens up, Rahul gos up the order, and a better middle order option comes in to bat 4. And if it is number 4, my man would be Pandey. Anything below that, I would go for Pant. I hope they try out Krunal Pandya at some point. Useful offspinner in limited overs, good hitter, distructive like his brother.

I must say I am indeed disappointed that Pant wasn't picked for this series. Of course MS remains their first option, and Pant is very much in the scheme of things and was send to South Africa and he didn't do himself much favors there. But he should be given more opportunities on a regular basis.

msp83 wrote:KPF, agree with most of what you said babout the possible squad they would be looking at. Despite Axar and Chahal playing today, think Kuldeep remain their first option. Axar had a good game today, between him and Jadeja, I would any day go for the latter. I wouldn't be surprised if Ashwin finds his way back, but I would rather have him focusing on the tests. In the seam bowling department, apart from Pandya, think Bumrah and Bhuvi are the first choices, and then Shami. and I think that is the right way to go.
In the batting department, I am not really sure. Not sure Pandey is the man, not sure about Rahane, particularly doubling up as a middle order back-up too. With Rahul, a natural opener available, why would we even need Rahane in the reserves. If one of the opening spots opens up, Rahul gos up the order, and a better middle order option comes in to bat 4. And if it is number 4, my man would be Pandey. Anything below that, I would go for Pant. I hope they try out Krunal Pandya at some point. Useful offspinner in limited overs, good hitter, distructive like his brother.

Krunal Pandya have a long way to go
first he has to break into A tours and then peform there and for that perform in FC cricket, list A cricket.....and then he comes into consideration.
selectors have made it clear India caps won't be handed out on IPL show only.
I do not think he has the batting skills for highest quality international bowling in ODIs...which is a different ball game compared to IPL or even T20 internationals....but let him go throuhg the grind.

There is no one better than Pandey for the middle order right now....
who has gone through the grind....and has performed in FC, IPL,List A, India-A, and in the given chances in ODIs
some might argue he should play ahead of Rahul in the middle order...but Kohli obviously rates Rahul highly

A contest at last! Finally, Sri Lanka has decided to put up a fight. They lost in the end, but it wasn't a distruction by any means, though yet again their batsmen made a mess of things. They posted only 236, but Akhila Dhananjaya absolutely ripped the heart out of the Indian batting with 6-54 and reduced them to 131-7.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni was still thereand he had Bhuvneshwar Kumar for company. The dhoni of old, everyone would very much hoping, but not so with the recent version, Though the asking rate wasn't much and that Bhuvi can bat. But Dhoni did the needful calmly and quietly. He cut out the risks, trusted enough of Bhuvneshwar who played a fine hand and together they took India through. Dhoni didn't even reach 50, but this has been an important innings for him and for India's plans.
Dhoni might still struggle in situations when he has to consistently get the big shots away, but the temperament remains as brilliant as ever.

Jasprit Bumrah yet again led the attack well and there were a couple of wickets for Chahal. And Before Dhananjaya was all over the Indian batting, Rohit Sharma made a brisk 50 and Shikhar Dhawan missed out on his by 1 run.

Good to have a contest
Exciting to see emergence of another mystery bowler....once there was a Mendis who bamboozled India in a bigger way... and then also Dhoni deciphered him well
Good to see on their bad days, India has enough in the tank to take them past the finish line

Ind steam rolls SL in the series 3-0 and makes it 6-0 including the tests..
they had some hiccups today when batting...but a lowish total did not test them....

--Super series for Bumrah.....clearly India's No.1 ODI seamer and in my view also shown that he could be a capable test match bowler also

--and a good series for Rohit, Dhawan and Dhoni too

--and inpsite of good figures I am not excited by the line-length-no-turn spinners Chahl and Axar
Under par performance with the ball by Bhuvi too

--Rahul and Jadhav failed their two innings each in the middle orders falling to Dhananjay's guile...and along with Pandey are contenders for 2 middle order slots
Jadhav is ahead of the other two in my view....he has performed consistently inspite of inconsistent opportunities except twin failures here.

Hopefully Kohli will be more experimental or perhaps less. Chahal isn't an ODI spinner, and Axar should come into the mix only when Jadeja isn't there. Kuldeep should be given more and more game time, he's likely to be India'se best bet in that department. Hope they would show more patience with Rahul, the guy is a special talent. Picked out the deep fielder of a half-tracker today, but he was beginning to look good. It took him some time to find consistency in tests, should be given more opportunities, though Pandey comes in with a pretty good time with the A team.
And Kedar has done well enough in earlier opportunities. Perhaps they should stop moving him around the order. India's best bet at the moment for hat number 6 spot. Not sure he'll be better up the order. Untill Hardik could mature more or Pant is ready, Kedar is India's best bet for 6, just leave him there and bat MS at 5.

India are palying Kuldeep for Chahl
Shardul debuting for Bhuvi
and Pandey for Jadhav.......I would have given more games to Jadhav and brought Pandey in by resting Kohli or Dhawan...with Rahul opening

211/1 (27.3/50 ov)
Indians batting with Gay abandon
Gay in the old sense of the word

--another annihilation of Lanka in the 4th ODI..India confirming full prowess of its reserves..each one of Kuldeep, Shardul and Pandey who came in did well

--Pandey is in the form of his life and should be played, although Jadhav deserves to be also given an unbroken run......Rohit is the one to be rested

Kuldeep we know is a mystery bowler and he bamboozled the lower order fast-tracking the end.
Kohli i think aims to use him sparingly

--I saw Shardul closely today for the first time in full intensity international, not holding anything back...he was hitting 141 kph...short man, bustling low arm ( sidearm) action...skiddy and should get LBWs rather more...

--Kohli send Pandya att No.4 as they were hoping to test how far they can stretch the score..... if pandya got going India could have touched 500 and that was the rationale I think.

---Who captains Lanka, who plays for them and how many captains Lanka has had in this test and ODI series I dunno......it's no joy watching them turn up and get thrashed by a mile in 6 out of 7 games...

---sideshow was Dhoni prompting call for DRS on two fairly down the legside wide calls and getting caught behind both times.....with the bat commonsense, gumption based batting still gets him runs overcoming the slowed reflexes

Sri Lanka bowled out for 238 in 5th oDI, Kumar with a 5-fer, but another bitterly dissapointing batting performance from the sri lankans..

Well India wallops Lanka again to coast to a 5-0
Not once did Lanka cross 250 in the series.

I would have liked to see Shardul being given a couple of overs more yesterday....to test his temperament after going for 48 in his 6 overs

Very healthy competition for spots in the Indian squad.....with Shami, Yadav, Ishant, Ashwin, Jadeja not even considered for this series
The last game a T20.....and with Dhawan gone back Rahul should open.

Dire series for Sri Lanka horrific in fact

9-0 ultrawhitewash by India