[saket77]

Things have lined up the way teams deserved. SL- no doubt they are the champions the way they played after being outplayed in their opener by AFG. Pak, surely the next best team- and definitely not as consistent as SL. They lacked where SL excelled- building up from when they are down.

India- one of the average sides w.r.t the performance on display in this series. Not much better than teams who couldn't make to the finals. Only game we looked good was one with the newcomers AFG and we beat them black and blue- claiming VK is back in form and Bhuvi who is pretty average as a bowler claiming best figures of the series and more hoopla. I am not sure if we should be convinced. Someone stated here & I wholeheartedly agree that out of our huge population, I cannot believe that we got Bhuvi & Chahal to represent as the best of us in bowling. Can't wait to see Bumrah back. Even Arshdeep, especially in death overs is so much better than Bhuvi as we saw in this series.
VK did look like the old king esp in the last few overs vs AFG but can't say if he is actually back from hell. I would say that the game with AFG and the performance there was as good as inconsequential and not worth the hype that was generated esp about Kohli and Bhuvi.

[whencut86]

Originally Posted by saket77

VK did look like the old king esp in the last few overs vs AFG but can't say if he is actually back from hell. I would say that the game with AFG and the performance there was as good as inconsequential and not worth the hype that was generated esp about Kohli and Bhuvi.

Someone had to say it aloud. We are just going gaga over Kohli hitting a century against Afghans in a dead rubber match. We are just celebrating mediocrity and are heading nowhere. Would not be fair to pick Kohli for WT20 leaving out many who deserve a spot in the playing XI. We are just ruining the morale of players and fans with crazy team selections and frequent changes.

[redCherry]

Originally Posted by whencut86

Someone had to say it aloud. We are just going gaga over Kohli hitting a century against Afghans in a dead rubber match. We are just celebrating mediocrity and are heading nowhere.

These are my exact thoughts

Our media and King Kohli fans all went overboard praising Kohli's 1st century in almost 3 years, and forgot (or conveniently ignored) that it's came against Afghans, in an inconsequential match. No, not blaming Kohli for India's loss.

For me, dropping Dinesh Kartik was not right choice, when he was selected into the team as a finisher, and somehow never felt Chahal is good bowler for T20Is.
These 2 reasons + Bhuvi bowling in the last few overs is the reason we didn't make the finals

[AtheK]

India squad for T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.

congratulations guys our top3 will make sure we are eliminated ASAP, and you can enjoy the rest of the tournament relaxing.

[Eddy]

Surprised to Chahar not make it to the squad and Shreyas as the backup batter instead of Samson, who in my opionion should have been in the squad. He would have done well on Australian pitches.

[Emvi]

Originally Posted by whencut86

Someone had to say it aloud. We are just going gaga over Kohli hitting a century against Afghans in a dead rubber match. We are just celebrating mediocrity and are heading nowhere. Would not be fair to pick Kohli for WT20 leaving out many who deserve a spot in the playing XI. We are just ruining the morale of players and fans with crazy team selections and frequent changes.

Originally Posted by redCherry

These are my exact thoughts

Our media and King Kohli fans all went overboard praising Kohli's 1st century in almost 3 years, and forgot (or conveniently ignored) that it's came against Afghans, in an inconsequential match. No, not blaming Kohli for India's loss.

To be honest, this was kind of expected.
Whenever India face a lower ranked team, our players are bashed no matter what.

- India win massively, they are bashed.

- The lower ranked team play out of their skin but still India manage to win by a narrow margin, Team India gets bashed again.

- India lose a match courtesy opposition's brilliance or an off day, do I have to say anything more!?

A player scores a brilliant 50/100 or a gets a 4-fer/5-fer, he is ridiculed. A player gets out for a nought/ low score or goes wicketless, he is just torn apart and what not.

Afghans are no pushovers as far as T20 cricket is concerned. Let us not forget that the newly crowned Asia Cup champions were taken to the cleaners by the same Afghanistan team in their opening match. Afghanistan team is not short of world class players. This is not just my opinion or assessment. Have a look at this and then decide for yourself -







Source- ICC Rankings

Dead rubber or not, cricket or for that matter any sport is about winning. I see no problem in it.

Is it not surprising that before Kohli none of the top batters in the world have managed to score a ton against the "minnows"!? Btw, have a look at what Pakistan players had to say about Kohli's innings. Mind you, the players who have tweeted are of international repute and India's arch rivals.



India fared badly in the Asia Cup mainly due to poor team selection, dropping crucial catches, missing run-out opportunities, losing important tosses. Cricket fans, commentators, experts all have the right to criticize(constructively) when the players fail to perform to their potential, absolutely. At the same time, let us also give credit where credit is due.

[redCherry]

Originally Posted by Emvi

Dead rubber or not, cricket or for that matter any sport is about winning. I see no problem in it.

I don't see anything in my comments indicating we should've lost, nor did I say scoring century against weaker teams is bad, only quoting the facts.

Hopefully we'll do better in the World cup and will be more than happy to see the King score lots of runs there

[whencut86]

Originally Posted by Emvi

Afghans are no pushovers as far as T20 cricket is concerned. Let us not forget that the newly crowned Asia Cup champions were taken to the cleaners by the same Afghanistan team in their opening match. Afghanistan team is not short of world class players. This is not just my opinion or assessment.

Dead rubber or not, cricket or for that matter any sport is about winning. I see no problem in it.

This is precisely what I pointed out. Surprising to hear that Afghanistan are no pushovers when infact Afghanistan are ranked 10th in the ICC T20I rankings.

We are just celebrating mediocrity and it will get us nowhere. Kohli maybe king to fans but please point out one match he has single handedly won in the last 3-4 years. Champions don't treat a 10th ranked team with kids gloves. They just storm their way to the top like how erstwhile Windies and Aussies did.

It is really unfair just to claim a spot in the WT20 squad purely on merit of this century against Afghanistan. Please name players with whom selectors have been patient for 3+ years for regaining form like how they are treating Kohli now.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by whencut86

This is precisely what I pointed out. Surprising to hear that Afghanistan are no pushovers when infact Afghanistan are ranked 10th in the ICC T20I rankings.

We are just celebrating mediocrity and it will get us nowhere. Kohli maybe king to fans but please point out one match he has single handedly won in the last 3-4 years. Champions don't treat a 10th ranked team with kids gloves. They just storm their way to the top like how erstwhile Windies and Aussies did.

It is really unfair just to claim a spot in the WT20 squad purely on merit of this century against Afghanistan. Please name players with whom selectors have been patient for 3+ years for regaining form like how they are treating Kohli now.

And why do anyone has to win the game single handedly? What are other 10 players in the team for? Champion teams win tournaments with collective performances and not just one off individual performances. The windies of yesteryear and Aussies of 2000 had so many players who used to perform collectively in important games and that's why they were champions.

Kohli was highest run scorer in Asia cup till Rizwan overtook him in the final. He is second highest run scorer of tournament with 147 SR. What more do we want from him? India was out of tournament cos of many reasons but Kohli wasn't one of them. Kohli doesn't makes runs, bash him. Kohli makes runs, bash him. Forgetting completely the blunders our dear Coach has done in team selection in almost every series since SA series. What is Rishabh Pant still doing in the T20 team is beyond me now with DK made to sit out.

Anyways, KL is VC for world cup. Disaster news as he will again fail in an important match and we will again be chasing our tail in the game. I strongly believe we should open with Rohit and Kohli. SKY at 3 and KL at 4 if he has to be played. But, team management will again blunder with KL the most selfish Stat padder I have ever seen open in WC.

I will start with this line up in World Cup.


Rohit

Rahul

Kohli

Sky

Hardik

DK

Axar

Harshal

Bhuvi

Bumrah

Arshdeep

Gives enough bowling options and bat deep as well. Barring injuries or loss of form for someone.

[deehunk]

It was expected that all players will be retained for T20 WC, now at least two players may get injured during the T20 series against Australia and South Africa. My gut feeling says either Ashwin or DK will not play in the T20 WC.

[Emvi]

Originally Posted by redCherry

I don't see anything in my comments indicating we should've lost, ....

In which part of my post did you find me saying that you wanted India to lose the match?

...nor did I say scoring century against weaker teams is bad, only quoting the facts.

In case I have misunderstood, may I request you the decipher this part of your post -

"Our media and King Kohli fans all went overboard praising Kohli's 1st century in almost 3 years, and forgot (or conveniently ignored) that it's came against Afghans, in an inconsequential match."

---------------------------------------

Originally Posted by whencut86

This is precisely what I pointed out. Surprising to hear that Afghanistan are no pushovers when infact Afghanistan are ranked 10th in the ICC T20I rankings.

Afghanistan are ranked no.10 alright. But have a look at the rating points and you are not too far away from new surprises. Team ranked no.6(West Indies) has 241 rating points and team ranked no.10(Afghanistan) has 219 rating points. Just 22 points separate these two teams. Whereas Zimbabwe which is ranked no.11 on the table has 25 rating points lesser than Afghanistan. Afghanistan get to play lesser matches in comparison and a few good wins against better ranked teams could easily push them higher on the chart swiftly as the bottom 4 teams are closely placed. That's the reason they are not exactly "minnows" anymore atleast in the shortest format of the game.

We are just celebrating mediocrity and it will get us nowhere. Kohli maybe king to fans but please point out one match he has single handedly won in the last 3-4 years.

Who is celebrating what!?
Cricket is a team game isnt it!

It is really unfair just to claim a spot in the WT20 squad purely on merit of this century against Afghanistan

I haven't even talked about world cup team selection anywhere in my post. Have I? Now that you have brought this topic up for discussion, there are some interesting numbers for everyone to see.

Kohli with 276 runs is by far India's top run getter in the just concluded Asia Cup. Just for the sake of discussion let us not consider Kohli's much discussed 71st century.
276 - 122 = 154 runs.(4 innings)

Now, this will leave a lot of people surprised. Even if you ignore the innings against Afghanistan, Kohli still tops the run chart for India with Surya Kumar coming a close second with just 139 runs in 5 innings! This means the whole top order deserves to be sacked. It doesn't work that way, does it?

Please name players with whom selectors have been patient for 3+ years for regaining form like how they are treating Kohli now.

I would like to respond to this by re-quoting a part of my earlier post.

Cricket fans, commentators, experts all have the right to criticize(constructively) when the players fail to perform to their potential, absolutely.

Now again, since you are asking this, leaving other things aside, please tell me how many players have
- Scored 23000+ international runs and averaged 50+ (49.5 in tests currently) in all the three formats.
- Captained an international side in over 200 matches with a win percentage of over 60 percent(all the 3 formats combined)

Also, in 60+ international matches in the period, Kohli has managed to score 20+ scores of 50 or above.
Just stating the facts, nothing more. I stand to be corrected.

[am1m]

Just to get the focus back to the team and players who actually won the T20 world cup, great article:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/a...t-have-1334379

[b_naresh]

The Indian Cricket Team will continue to underperform in major tournaments because the selectors don't have the guts to take tough decisions. BCCI will continue to select non-performing seniors because of their reputation and these seniors will promptly fail in crunch situations leading to our ouster in the knockout stages of the tournament.

[deehunk]

The decision seems to be influenced by the Secretary elected only for political reasons and his followers, otherwise how come Harshal Patel coming out of injury and Axar Patel can directly make it to the final squad? A young talent like Bishnoi and Sanju Samson have been repeatedly ignored.

[Eddy]

Harshal Patel has been preforming consistently for a long time, so definitely deserves a slot.

Still can't get my head around Iyer as a standby! Samson deserved that (at least). I am also not sure about Hooda being able to cope up in Australian. I see the Vijay Shankar saga being repeated.