[VWAllstar]

Remember Rohit is hurting with the ODI WC Final Loss. Everything changes when one plays for the country in a World Cup. I feel Rohit will replicate his attacking batting in T20 WC and Kohli will be the one who would try to bat till the end. It is almost certain that we will have below as the playing XI unless we are in for a complete overhaul.

R Sharma
V Kohli
SKY
S Iyer
R Pant (WK)
H Pandya
R Singh
R Jadeja
K Yadav
J Bhumrah
M Siraj
M Sharma

Bench: KL Rahul, A Patel & few fast bowlers.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by harry10

Especially Rinku who can attack from ball one and can play the long innings too when needed as shown by him in one match before IPL.

Everyone is praising Gambhir but Rinku I feel is being wasted at KKR so low down in the order. He's hardly getting 10-15 balls to face at the end. Agreed they have the likes of Russell in the XI.

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

Remember Rohit is hurting with the ODI WC Final Loss. Everything changes when one plays for the country in a World Cup. I feel Rohit will replicate his attacking batting in T20 WC and Kohli will be the one who would try to bat till the end.

Rohit batted in ODI WC as if it were a T20 when what was needed was to build an innings and look to play till the end & maximize his form. His cameos helped the team to get good starts. I hope Rohit or Virat don't look to bat till the end as that is detrimental to the format. A 30-40 run cameo is far more useful than a 65-70 ball Hundred!

[harry10]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

Remember Rohit is hurting with the ODI WC Final Loss. Everything changes when one plays for the country in a World Cup. I feel Rohit will replicate his attacking batting in T20 WC and Kohli will be the one who would try to bat till the end. It is almost certain that we will have below as the playing XI unless we are in for a complete overhaul.

R Sharma
V Kohli
SKY
S Iyer
R Pant (WK)
H Pandya
R Singh
R Jadeja
K Yadav
J Bhumrah
M Siraj
M Sharma

Bench: KL Rahul, A Patel & few fast bowlers.

Few issues-
Iyer isn't international class anymore since his short ball issues surfaced. And t20 was never his strong format anyways. I will rather play Samson at 3 and SKY at 4. Both Intent merchants and don't waste balls in anchoring. Pant at 5 is fine if he keeps his current form going. Hardik at 6 is debatable. He doesn't have bowling or batting form. Rather play a Shivam Dube or Rinku at 6. Jadeja has same issue. His batting is absolutely ridiculous since couple of years and he can't hit anymore to save his life. Rather play Axar at 7 who is bowler equivalent and a better bat in t20. 8 is fixed for Kuldeep. 9,10,11 are pacers. Bumrah is fixed. Siraj is abysmal. Can't bowl in PP. Can't bowl in death. Rather play Natrajan or Arshdeep for left arm variety. Mohit has been found out. His only slower balls won't work anymore. Sandeep Sharma is any day a better choice. Bowls well in PP and Bowls well at death.

Reserves- Jadeja, Siraj, hardik etc. There will be injuries and form dips so have to be cautious.

[searacer932]

I hope the selectors don't select any of the below batsman for the T20 WC. If they do then India will not cross even 160 in 20 overs

Batsmen not to be selected

1. KL Rahul
2. Virat Kohli
3. Rohit Sharma
4. Ravindra Jadeja
5. Hardik Pandya
6. Rishab Pant

Similarly the below bowlers should not even be net bowlers for Indian team. If they come anywhere close to Indian team, the batsmen will be chasing 200+ in every match

1. Arshdeep Singh
2. Avesh Khan
3. Khaleel Ahmed
4. Siraj
5. Umesh Yadav
6. Ishant Sharma

[Shumi_21]

Found on Twitter:

[Aakash118]

Opening with VK doesn’t sound good to me in WC, his best always comes at three. We especially need him in chases at three to finish off the games. Also opening with VK is gonna put extra pressure on Rohit to score heavily in poweplay. We should rather have an attacking left handed opener who can go big from first ball and allow Rohit to play his natural game. I think each of Jaiswal, Ishan & Abhishek is a good choice for that position. My XI will be like this-
Jaiswal
Rohit
VK
SKY
Pant
Hardik
RJ/Axar (Depends on form)
Kuldeep
Bumrah
Arshdeep
Natranjan
Reserves- Axar/RJ, Rahul, Sandeep Sharma, Rinku/Chahal (Depends on captain & coach if they want an extra batter or a reserve wrist spinner)

[Pythonic]

I don’t know how SKY still figures in everyone’s lists. He hasn’t been in form since September. He has not played a decent knock in both the knockout games he has been a part of and he is not looking good this IPL.
Rohit and Jaiswal should open, Kohli at 3 and Sanju at 4. With him gone Rinku and Dube both can come in to 11 I believe

[Shumi_21]

Yet another analytical gem from Captain Hardtactics.

He's trying to throw a 21 year old Tilak Varma under the bus, for not "having intent" against the spinners. Tilak managed 14(6) against Axar & 24(9) against Kuldeep. While Captain Hardintent managed 10(6) against Axar & 21(8) against Kuldeep. Go figure. If anything, I'd say MI lost because Captain Hardinga conceded 40 in 2 overs, despite hiding behind Jasprit Bumrah's overs.

Even if we disregard the obvious shit-take, what captain criticizes a young player in public? Especially Tilak, who's been the only batter to put up a fight everytime MI are under pressure & Captain Hardastic cowered in the dugout. No wonder the BCCI didn't make Pandya captain for the World Cup.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

Yet another analytical gem from Captain Hardtactics.He's trying to throw a 21 year old Tilak Varma under the bus, for not "having intent" against the spinners.

Hardik is clearly ruffled! Its not a secret that Tilak is a part of Rohit camp in the MI setup. Infact quite a few times the younger bowlers turn to Rohit for helping with the field while Hardik is away at the boundary line. Since MI is no longer in contention for a playoff spot hope better sense prevails & Bumrah is rested in between for a few games.

[Shumi_21]

Originally Posted by PPS

Hardik is clearly ruffled! Its not a secret that Tilak is a part of Rohit camp in the MI setup. Infact quite a few times the younger bowlers turn to Rohit for helping with the field while Hardik is away at the boundary line. Since MI is no longer in contention for a playoff spot hope better sense prevails & Bumrah is rested in between for a few games.

I think all the players see through Hardik's BS. He clearly doesn't have the respect of the dressing room and that's his own doing. Running away from challenging situations & throwing teammates under the bus publicly, it's almost as if he's trying to tick all the boxes of the Captain Crappy checklist!

[vvivek85]

CSK VS SRH at Chepauk, my inhouse experience.

I have fond memories associated with M A Chidambaram stadium, my first match at this venue was the famous and unforgettable India - Pakistan match in 1999 even though India lost inspite of Sachin’s brilliant hundred, the standing ovation given to Pakistani players is still spoken about. Since then I have been to couple of International matches and IPL matches.



Considering in all possibility this year could be Dhoni’s last stint in any form of cricket, I wanted to make it for atleast 1 match. That’s also one of the reason the demand for tickets were literally high right from last year.

Only God knows how tickets were sold out within seconds but very much available in black market for eye watering price. Last year, I decided to skip as I had some hope that Dhoni wouldn’t hang his boots. This year with the help of my direct report I was able to get CSK vs SRH G upper stand tickets for me, my wife and daughter.

Match day

Yesterday, considering parking hassles we decided to travel in bus, I am travelling in MTC bus after a decade atleast, it was in pathetic condition, our return journey as well was in bus and it was even more pathetic where driver had to put enough effort for gears to fall in place I feel for people who had to travel in bus day in and day out. One positive experience in this overall journey was return journey was free if you had the match tickets.

Reached stadium around 5:30PM collected the tickets from my reportee. First time watching the match from G upper stand, it had the best view in the house. Last time when I went for an IPL match, 3 stands weren’t operational but now with all stands up and running the experience was just mesmerising.





He is loved in this part of the world right from kids to elders and fondly called Thala



One of the best all rounder in the world, Pat Cummins.



This 2 minute video of Dhoni coming to bat is a testimony of how he is loved here. I have seen Sachin getting this kind of reception wherever he goes, after him this man gets a massive reception wherever he goes, and rightfully for what he has done to Indian cricket he deserves all these love and affection. After all he is our last captain who won us ICC trophies.

https://youtu.be/GLVLqP3eRnc?si=DpTJuln9JYT2048V

Even though Rudu is CSK’s captain, MSD is still manoeuvring the field placements. 2 balls prior to Head’s dismissal he asked Mitch who was standing in the boundary line to come inside by a yard, result; he took a low running catch. MSD is brilliant without any doubts, the awareness of the game is simply astonishing.



Had a great time yesterday, I went there only for my man, have I got my money’s worth? Doubled!! Winning the match was icing on the cake.



Cheers

[antz.bin]

When playing T20 cricket nowadays, on an average, 10 RPO is par. Anything above is above par and anything below is below par.

10 RPO translates to 1.66 runs per ball. In IPL 2023, this was 8.86 RPO or 1.47 runs per ball. It was even lower prior to that. In this IPL, any ball scoring less than 1.66 runs is a victory for the bowler. A dot ball is a big victory, a single is the smallest win possible for the bowler. A 2 is the smallest possible victory for the batter.

Any batter scoring at a strike rate of <166 is losing to the opposition bowlers. The problem with Virat (147), KL(144), Gill(141), Jadeja(132) and even Hardik(151) is that they are stuck on scoring rates that were OK in 2023 but not in 2024. If someone is scoring below 166, the opposition would actually prefer to not dismiss such a batter and let them use up deliveries so that the scoring rate can be controlled.

This is in a time when players like Rohit(160), Jaiswal(155 with just 1 good innings), Abhishek Sharma(214), Sanju Samson(162), Rinku Singh(158), Shivam Dubey(172), Riyan Parag(160), Rishabh Pant(160), Tilak Verma(159), SKY (171) are closer to that crucial number of 166. This set of batters can easily walk into

Hardik is failing as an all-rounder. Across this IPL, He is leaking runs at 11.94 RPO but scoring them himself only at 9.1. He is supposed to be an explosive batter and an OK bowler. As it stands today, both his economy rate and his strike rate are below par.

Yesterday, Virat played through the chase at a strike rate of 159, lower than the required rate of 167. Good that the other guy woke up or else this could have ended up either way.

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by antz.bin

...Any batter scoring at a strike rate of <166 is losing to the opposition bowlers...

The problem with this analysis is that it is solely based on IPL, where pitches are different.

WI & USA pitches will be very very different. WI is slow and turning, while US is bringing in drop pitches from Australia.
I doubt we'll even play three seamers.

[coolmind]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

I doubt we'll even play three seamers.

Exactly. That is why even Rohit said he preferred 3 spinners. Let us hope for the best for India.

[antz.bin]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

The problem with this analysis is that it is solely based on IPL, where pitches are different.

WI & USA pitches will be very very different. WI is slow and turning, while US is bringing in drop pitches from Australia.
I doubt we'll even play three seamers.

The last RCB game vs GT, the one that RCB won the most convincingly despite the collapse, was the first match where Kohli batted at a strike rate > required rate.

By batting below the required rate, Kohli has been accumulating runs to get his orange cap while making it more difficult for his RCB teammates to win anything. I hope he supports his teammates and not make things difficult for them and also doesn't end up making the same mistake at the world cup.