Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[pakhitheboss]

As expected ENG won the match by 226 runs and Joe Root the player of the match and he deserves it. Lot of criticism going on about Indian captain for sure and he lost 4 consecutive tests in a row. There is a 4 day break before they play second 2nd test match, can they make it in the same ground?

If there is criticism against Kohli, then it is perfectly justified. First of all, he should stop his bias and nepotism and leave team selection to those who are assigned the job. And secondly, it may be better for him to concentrate on ODI/T20I captaincy. Captaining test matches requires a cool head, which he clearly lacks. Kohli is good only for dramatics, while his tactics doesn't work most of the time. Ajinkya Rahane did a wonderful job as captain in Australia and I don't know why he was replaced for the series against England.

In my opinion I think it is better for Kohli to leave the captaincy for all the format not just Test cricket. He has hard won any international series in all the format as a captain. I think thisnis just the beginning of his downfall.

[1714717265]

1714717265

[1714717265]

1714717265

[1714717265]

1714717265

[Vishnu.Reang]

In my opinion I think it is better for Kohli to leave the captaincy for all the format not just Test cricket. He has hard won any international series in all the format as a captain. I think thisnis just the beginning of his downfall.

The BCCI probably don't want to make Kohli feel disheartened. He was the captain for so many years and although he is having a rough patch right now, he still ranks as one of the most successful test captains for India. On top of that, until very recently, Indian batting used to be overdependent on Kohli, especially in green surfaces. But at the same time, the continued captaincy should be linked to performance on the field.

I have a different opinion on this. From what I can see, the performance of the Indian team has gone down ever since Damaadji (Ravi Shastri) was appointed as the coach in 2017. He is having almost zero contribution as far as coaching role is concerned (most of which is taken care by Bharat Arun and others. A better solution would be to kick out Damaadji from the post he has been holding for the past 4 years.

[Iranus]

As expected ENG won the match by 226 runs and Joe Root the player of the match and he deserves it. Lot of criticism going on about Indian captain for sure and he lost 4 consecutive tests in a row. There is a 4 day break before they play second 2nd test match, can they make it in the same ground?

If there is criticism against Kohli, then it is perfectly justified. First of all, he should stop his bias and nepotism and leave team selection to those who are assigned the job. And secondly, it may be better for him to concentrate on ODI/T20I captaincy. Captaining test matches requires a cool head, which he clearly lacks. Kohli is good only for dramatics, while his tactics doesn't work most of the time. Ajinkya Rahane did a wonderful job as captain in Australia and I don't know why he was replaced for the series against England.

In my opinion I think it is better for Kohli to leave the captaincy for all the format not just Test cricket. He has hard won any international series in all the format as a captain. I think thisnis just the beginning of his downfall.

You are right. He should give up his captaincy now. India may not have a skilled and experienced player like him. But India has a better captain than him. Rohit Sharma and Rahane are skilled enough to be captains. And Rahane proved it by winning the series against Australia .

[Juggy777]

As expected ENG won the match by 226 runs and Joe Root the player of the match and he deserves it. Lot of criticism going on about Indian captain for sure and he lost 4 consecutive tests in a row. There is a 4 day break before they play second 2nd test match, can they make it in the same ground?

If there is criticism against Kohli, then it is perfectly justified. First of all, he should stop his bias and nepotism and leave team selection to those who are assigned the job. And secondly, it may be better for him to concentrate on ODI/T20I captaincy. Captaining test matches requires a cool head, which he clearly lacks. Kohli is good only for dramatics, while his tactics doesn't work most of the time. Ajinkya Rahane did a wonderful job as captain in Australia and I don't know why he was replaced for the series against England.

In my opinion I think it is better for Kohli to leave the captaincy for all the format not just Test cricket. He has hard won any international series in all the format as a captain. I think thisnis just the beginning of his downfall.

You are right. He should give up his captaincy now. India may not have a skilled and experienced player like him. But India has a better captain than him. Rohit Sharma and Rahane are skilled enough to be captains. And Rahane proved it by winning the series against Australia .

@Iranus he should continue to remain captain in the ODI and T20 format because he excels there, however in the test format he just doesn’t have the right mentality, and maybe it’s time he either steps down or quit playing tests.

Furthermore if you ask me then I feel that Rahane is a much better captain than Rohit, because he has a relaxed approach about him and that’s what allowed him to excel in Australia, and if given the chance then I’m sure that he’ll help team India win again.

Sources:

https://www.mensxp.com/sports/cricket/85431-india-vs-england-test-1-virat-kohli-explains-teams-mentality-after-losing-first-match.html

https://wisden.com/series-stories/australia-india/calm-easy-to-approach-all-you-need-to-know-about-captain-rahane

[mersal]

I don't know why he was replaced for the series against England.

Rahane has never been a full-time captain for team India, he just asked to take over the captaincy when Kohli came back to India to visit his newborn baby but in the end Rahane made history and break OZ fort in their home ground of unbeaten run for 32 years.

Now the ENG tour of India is in their home ground and Kohli is available  then probably he is going to captain for the team but now the question is his captaincy is affecting his batting performance or not because it seems he looks underperformed compared to his previous records that is why it is important for him to focus on his batting than his captaincy.

[Iranus]

Furthermore if you ask me then I feel that Rahane is a much better captain than Rohit, because he has a relaxed approach about him and that’s what allowed him to excel in Australia, and if given the chance then I’m sure that he’ll help team India win again.

I agree with you. Rahane is more experienced than Rohit Sharma for the test format. But I think Rohit Sharma can be given a chance for T20 formats. Maybe he can do something better. Many countries have different captains for 3 different formats. I think India should do the same.

[onecall123]

-snip-
Furthermore if you ask me then I feel that Rahane is a much better captain than Rohit, because he has a relaxed approach about him and that’s what allowed him to excel in Australia, and if given the chance then I’m sure that he’ll help team India win again.

Rahane is brilliant in overseas as you have referenced exceptionally well in Australia but rahane's subcontinent record is below average. Nonetheless, he is as yet an entirely significant resource for the side. He gives valuable inputs to Kohli and reads the game quite well. Anyway, we can't deny brilliant spell by England bowlers, Anderson on a high and shines. Winning the toss and exploiting that advantage expertly.

[onrise]

-snip-
Furthermore if you ask me then I feel that Rahane is a much better captain than Rohit, because he has a relaxed approach about him and that’s what allowed him to excel in Australia, and if given the chance then I’m sure that he’ll help team India win again.

Rahane is brilliant in overseas as you have referenced exceptionally well in Australia but rahane's subcontinent record is below average. Nonetheless, he is as yet an entirely significant resource for the side. He gives valuable inputs to Kohli and reads the game quite well. Anyway, we can't deny brilliant spell by England bowlers, Anderson on a high and shines. Winning the toss and exploiting that advantage expertly.

I think Toss made the difference, if India would have won the toss and bat first result could have being other way around. But disappointment from second innings as they could not even end up making 200. Rahane and Rohit Sharma were 2 batsman who in both innings could not continue in this test with bat. Full credit to England team they played well as a unit and both batsman and bowler did exceptionally well to ensure they could beat India in India inspite of not having a best spin bowler in the world currently.

[Swordsoffreedom]

-snip-
Furthermore if you ask me then I feel that Rahane is a much better captain than Rohit, because he has a relaxed approach about him and that’s what allowed him to excel in Australia, and if given the chance then I’m sure that he’ll help team India win again.

Rahane is brilliant in overseas as you have referenced exceptionally well in Australia but rahane's subcontinent record is below average. Nonetheless, he is as yet an entirely significant resource for the side. He gives valuable inputs to Kohli and reads the game quite well. Anyway, we can't deny brilliant spell by England bowlers, Anderson on a high and shines. Winning the toss and exploiting that advantage expertly.

I think Toss made the difference, if India would have won the toss and bat first result could have being other way around. But disappointment from second innings as they could not even end up making 200. Rahane and Rohit Sharma were 2 batsman who in both innings could not continue in this test with bat. Full credit to England team they played well as a unit and both batsman and bowler did exceptionally well to ensure they could beat India in India inspite of not having a best spin bowler in the world currently.

I don't think India have lost because they haven't batted first. They have been defeated because of their own mistakes. They bowled very poorly in the first innings, and England collected a huge total. But in the last innings when they got a big run target, their batsmen should have played the defensive game and saved the wicket to draw the match. But they also failed to do so. I thought this match would be a draw. They disappointed me.

[teosanru]

-snip-
Furthermore if you ask me then I feel that Rahane is a much better captain than Rohit, because he has a relaxed approach about him and that’s what allowed him to excel in Australia, and if given the chance then I’m sure that he’ll help team India win again.

Rahane is brilliant in overseas as you have referenced exceptionally well in Australia but rahane's subcontinent record is below average. Nonetheless, he is as yet an entirely significant resource for the side. He gives valuable inputs to Kohli and reads the game quite well. Anyway, we can't deny brilliant spell by England bowlers, Anderson on a high and shines. Winning the toss and exploiting that advantage expertly.

I think Toss made the difference, if India would have won the toss and bat first result could have being other way around. But disappointment from second innings as they could not even end up making 200. Rahane and Rohit Sharma were 2 batsman who in both innings could not continue in this test with bat. Full credit to England team they played well as a unit and both batsman and bowler did exceptionally well to ensure they could beat India in India inspite of not having a best spin bowler in the world currently.

I don't think India have lost because they haven't batted first. They have been defeated because of their own mistakes. They bowled very poorly in the first innings, and England collected a huge total. But in the last innings when they got a big run target, their batsmen should have played the defensive game and saved the wicket to draw the match. But they also failed to do so. I thought this match would be a draw. They disappointed me.

I think India did try to draw the match. I saw the batting this morning and never saw any of the batsmen making any hurry in their shots. Everyone got out playing traditional cricket shots mostly due to uneven bounce or unexpected turn. Even though it can't be said that India completely lost due to batting second but pitch was a pretty crucial factor on day 4 & 5. This can also be explained by how England that batted more than 180 overs on first 2 days coudn't even bat for 50 overs against the very same kind of bowling attack. But yes Rohit Sharma needs to buckle himself up otherwise he would be soon dropped out.

[vella85]

It did look like India was playing for the draw after losing them quick wickets. I thought that they would pull it off as they were able to do it against Australia but again the pitch was difficult to bat on at times where as in Australia when India drew the game the pitch wasn't doing much. Congrats to England, they deserve this big win after a top first innings which set them up for this win. Also the English bowlers bowled well which also helped set up the win so it was a good all round performance by the England team. The question with India now, will they bounce back and if they don't then maybe its time for the board to think about naming a new captain.

[Sithara007]

It did look like India was playing for the draw after losing them quick wickets. I thought that they would pull it off as they were able to do it against Australia but again the pitch was difficult to bat on at times where as in Australia when India drew the game the pitch wasn't doing much. Congrats to England, they deserve this big win after a top first innings which set them up for this win. Also the English bowlers bowled well which also helped set up the win so it was a good all round performance by the England team. The question with India now, will they bounce back and if they don't then maybe its time for the board to think about naming a new captain.

At least initially, India was aiming for the win. Shubman Gill was scoring runs very quickly during the start, but when he got out they became defensive. Pujara and Rahane are not the sort of players who would score at a brisk rate in test cricket. The situation changed again when Rishabh Pant came to bat, but he got out very quickly. And unlike what happened in the first innings, this time Washington Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin wasn't able to contribute much with the bat.

The BCCI may think about changing the captain, only if India lose the test series and then fail to qualify for the WTC finals. Even then, it is not certain. Kohli has been captaining the side for so long and they don't want to disrupt the status quo.

[mersal]

I think India did try to draw the match. I saw the batting this morning and never saw any of the batsmen making any hurry in their shots. Everyone got out playing traditional cricket shots mostly due to uneven bounce or unexpected turn. Even though it can't be said that India completely lost due to batting second but pitch was a pretty crucial factor on day 4 & 5. This can also be explained by how England that batted more than 180 overs on first 2 days coudn't even bat for 50 overs against the very same kind of bowling attack. But yes Rohit Sharma needs to buckle himself up otherwise he would be soon dropped out.

Its not fair to ask players to bat for 120 overs when the ball is turning too much so yes they went for a draw but couldn't reach the target since the lead from the first innings was huge to consolidate on the day 5. But India too made some mistakes, which are not choosing the right combination of bowlers because we can't say that we always going to win the toss and came with 3 spinners for that, it is important to have 3 pacers along since they already have Sundar and Aswin who can take 5 wickets and also can score century then what is stopping the selection committee to go for 3 full time pacers.

[Iranus]

The BCCI may think about changing the captain, only if India lose the test series and then fail to qualify for the WTC finals. Even then, it is not certain. Kohli has been captaining the side for so long and they don't want to disrupt the status quo.

My guess is that only BCCI will consider releasing Kohli from the captaincy if India loses by a huge margin in this series. The BCCI has no intention of releasing Virat Kohli from the captaincy. BCCI will give some more time to Kohli. Kohli has captained in 57 Test matches. India has won 33 of these matches, lost 14, and drawn the remaining 10. On the other hand, Dhoni has captained in 60 matches, winning 27, losing 18 and drawing 15 (from Wikipedia). So I will still say that Kohli has enough time to prove his worth.

Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_India_national_cricket_captains#Test_match_captains

[bryant.coleman]

Its not fair to ask players to bat for 120 overs when the ball is turning too much so yes they went for a draw but couldn't reach the target since the lead from the first innings was huge to consolidate on the day 5. But India too made some mistakes, which are not choosing the right combination of bowlers because we can't say that we always going to win the toss and came with 3 spinners for that, it is important to have 3 pacers along since they already have Sundar and Aswin who can take 5 wickets and also can score century then what is stopping the selection committee to go for 3 full time pacers.

Going with 3 full-time pacers for a match that is taking place in Chennai? I don't think that they will ever do that. A decade or so ago, India used to play matches in Chennai with just one full-time pacer, and three full-time pacers. And the pitch was hardly offering any support for the pacers. That didn't had an impact on the English bowlers though.. Archer depends more on his pace and bounce to take the wickets, while Anderson is more of a swing bowler than seamer. What India needs now is a pace bowling all rounder.  There are a few such as Shivam Dube and Vijay Shankar, but they are not up to the mark.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

After a high from the Australian series we saw another disaster in the first match against England and Kolhi and the team management will be under pressure, they need to pick the best team according to the playing conditions, Rohit Sharma is not performing well and Kuldeep Yadav could have performed better as he is a wrist spinner.

[mersal]

Its not fair to ask players to bat for 120 overs when the ball is turning too much so yes they went for a draw but couldn't reach the target since the lead from the first innings was huge to consolidate on the day 5. But India too made some mistakes, which are not choosing the right combination of bowlers because we can't say that we always going to win the toss and came with 3 spinners for that, it is important to have 3 pacers along since they already have Sundar and Aswin who can take 5 wickets and also can score century then what is stopping the selection committee to go for 3 full time pacers.

Going with 3 full-time pacers for a match that is taking place in Chennai? I don't think that they will ever do that. A decade or so ago, India used to play matches in Chennai with just one full-time pacer, and three full-time pacers. And the pitch was hardly offering any support for the pacers. That didn't had an impact on the English bowlers though.. Archer depends more on his pace and bounce to take the wickets, while Anderson is more of a swing bowler than seamer. What India needs now is a pace bowling all rounder.  There are a few such as Shivam Dube and Vijay Shankar, but they are not up to the mark.

When you have two spinning bowling all rounders in your team then it allows you to go with 3 fast bowlers for sure because if the toss is not on your side then you need to try something to get some wickets in the first day itself and with the two pacers it is going to be hard because they can bowl 15 overs or bit more as max so mostly they have to rely on spinners which is not going to give any advantage on the day 1.

I think Siraj or Takur can be included in the second test who bowled in similar conditions for a very long time, especially Takur.

[Vishnu.Reang]

When you have two spinning bowling all rounders in your team then it allows you to go with 3 fast bowlers for sure because if the toss is not on your side then you need to try something to get some wickets in the first day itself and with the two pacers it is going to be hard because they can bowl 15 overs or bit more as max so mostly they have to rely on spinners which is not going to give any advantage on the day 1.

I think Siraj or Takur can be included in the second test who bowled in similar conditions for a very long time, especially Takur.

Shahbaz Nadeem will be dropped for the second test match and now the question comes to who will replace him. If India want to go with 3 pacers, then they may include Shardul Thakur. In that case, the curator needs to make sure that the pitch gives some support for the pacers as well (I am not sure whether there is enough time remaining to do that). Bumrah/Ishant/Shardul can be the pacers, and Sundar/Ashwin can perform the spin bowing duty.

On the other hand, if they want to go with 2 pacer/3 spinner setup like they had in the first test, then a logical solution would be to replace Nadeem with Kuldeep Yadav. That will give more variety in the spin bowling attack, with the inclusion of wrist spinner. The pitch supported spinners a lot during the first test, and the English spinners (especially Bess and Leach made the most use out of it). But the Indian spinners were disappointing, with the exception of Ravichandran Ashwin.

[Haunebu]

My guess is that only BCCI will consider releasing Kohli from the captaincy if India loses by a huge margin in this series. The BCCI has no intention of releasing Virat Kohli from the captaincy. BCCI will give some more time to Kohli. Kohli has captained in 57 Test matches. India has won 33 of these matches, lost 14, and drawn the remaining 10. On the other hand, Dhoni has captained in 60 matches, winning 27, losing 18 and drawing 15 (from Wikipedia). So I will still say that Kohli has enough time to prove his worth.

Quality matters more than quantity. In my opinion, Kohli is a better batsman when compared to MSD, but MSD is a better captain when compared to Kohli due to his ability to help the team win tight matches in all formats of the game.

However, I do agree with your opinion regarding BCCI continuing to back Kohli which is the right move. He still has a long way to go as a captain, but he is improving with every match.

[Indymoney]

When you have two spinning bowling all rounders in your team then it allows you to go with 3 fast bowlers for sure because if the toss is not on your side then you need to try something to get some wickets in the first day itself and with the two pacers it is going to be hard because they can bowl 15 overs or bit more as max so mostly they have to rely on spinners which is not going to give any advantage on the day 1.

I think Siraj or Takur can be included in the second test who bowled in similar conditions for a very long time, especially Takur.

Shahbaz Nadeem will be dropped for the second test match and now the question comes to who will replace him. If India want to go with 3 pacers, then they may include Shardul Thakur. In that case, the curator needs to make sure that the pitch gives some support for the pacers as well (I am not sure whether there is enough time remaining to do that). Bumrah/Ishant/Shardul can be the pacers, and Sundar/Ashwin can perform the spin bowing duty.

On the other hand, if they want to go with 2 pacer/3 spinner setup like they had in the first test, then a logical solution would be to replace Nadeem with Kuldeep Yadav. That will give more variety in the spin bowling attack, with the inclusion of wrist spinner. The pitch supported spinners a lot during the first test, and the English spinners (especially Bess and Leach made the most use out of it). But the Indian spinners were disappointing, with the exception of Ravichandran Ashwin.

Right now Indian facing some tricky time because England is here with good homework after winning 3 tests in a row to give them good confidence, so they are enjoying this all on the other hand after winning series in Australia India was also good but at home they are facing pressure which is effecting on their performance.
I am also feeling Kuldeep Yadav could be much better than Shahbaz Nadeem as he is wrist spinner but this all need some good support from management also.