Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[slaman29]

As much as I hate to admit it, you're all right and it's not just India, it's probably the whole of South Asia (and I bet you if we get the Southeast to play as well they would do the same). These sports are excursions, they probably even eat and drink badly the night before if they don't get too early and do even more, not saying it's a stereotype but I know my own people:(

[RealMalatesta]

BCCI needs to organize practice matches the condition in England is very different to the subcontinent. In my opinion, most Indian players were not at all serious about this WC.

Conditions were alone not the factors for India's defeat in WTC final. They conquered Australia in Australia few months back; how that become possible? I believe India need to work on finding young blood rather than keep giving out chances to experienced people (remember Rahane led India in Aus for last 3 test matches and they won 2 and draw 1).

1. India's both of openers were new and if remember correctly in their first 15 or 18 WTC matches they had different pair and I guess they might have replaced Gill with KL Rahul or Mayank Agarwal.

2. For an England match, 2 spinners are too much. M Siraj might have made impact if have got a chance.

3. Pujara and Rahane (Even Kohli) were form out as per their last 10 test matches (their unavailability/injury must be a the reason why India won Australia in Australia as young people got chances).

[Vishnu.Reang]

Although I am an Indian citizen, I was supporting New Zealand throughout this test match. Virat Kohli makes it hard for people like me to support the current Indian team. His celebration after the dismissal of Kane Williamson in the first innings is the perfect example. He was roaring and jumping like a monkey, as if his team has won the trophy. And the New Zealand captain is just the exact opposite. I still remember the words he said, after New Zealand was robbed of the 2019 ODI World Cup trophy. There is a reason why cricket is known as "gentleman's game". There is no place for intimidation or bullying in cricket.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Although I am an Indian citizen, I was supporting New Zealand throughout this test match. Virat Kohli makes it hard for people like me to support the current Indian team. His celebration after the dismissal of Kane Williamson in the first innings is the perfect example. He was roaring and jumping like a monkey, as if his team has won the trophy. And the New Zealand captain is just the exact opposite. I still remember the words he said, after New Zealand was robbed of the 2019 ODI World Cup trophy. There is a reason why cricket is known as "gentleman's game". There is no place for intimidation or bullying in cricket.

Virat Kohli is very arrogant. He is a talented player. I like her playstyle very much. But I don't like him as a person. He despises other players. These habits of Virat Kohli must be changed. I don't like Jadeja either. Compared to them, Rohit Sharma and Rahane seem to be polite enough.

[LittleBitFunny]

Although I am an Indian citizen, I was supporting New Zealand throughout this test match. Virat Kohli makes it hard for people like me to support the current Indian team. His celebration after the dismissal of Kane Williamson in the first innings is the perfect example. He was roaring and jumping like a monkey, as if his team has won the trophy. And the New Zealand captain is just the exact opposite. I still remember the words he said, after New Zealand was robbed of the 2019 ODI World Cup trophy. There is a reason why cricket is known as "gentleman's game". There is no place for intimidation or bullying in cricket.

Virat Kohli is very arrogant. He is a talented player. I like her playstyle very much. But I don't like him as a person. He despises other players. These habits of Virat Kohli must be changed. I don't like Jadeja either. Compared to them, Rohit Sharma and Rahane seem to be polite enough.

Looking at Virat Kohli's behavior, I think he is still young. In Kohli’s nature, more seriousness has to be brought. He is the captain of a big team like India. He should learn from Dhoni or Sachin. I don't think he will ever be able to have a personality like Dhoni.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Looking at Virat Kohli's behavior, I think he is still young. In Kohli’s nature, more seriousness has to be brought. He is the captain of a big team like India. He should learn from Dhoni or Sachin. I don't think he will ever be able to have a personality like Dhoni.

He's no longer young. He's in his mid 30s, and we expect him to be more mature. Dhoni and Sachin were mild natured guys, so we can't compare Virat with them. One good comparison may be with Sourav Ganguly (who is regarded as the most aggressive captain of the Indian team before Kohli). But while Ganguly was aggressive, he was never disrespectful or arrogant. Also, no one ever complained that Ganguly was biased. On the other hand, Kohli is more like a bully, rather then being aggressive. On top of that, he is accused of bias towards RCB players such as Saini and Siraj.

[7788bitcoin]

Its our wishful thinking, although we all know that nothing is going to change. England series is next and i heard some report that Indian team already took 20ish day break from the cricket and there is no county match schedule for them before the ind vs eng series. There is zero accountability and its kinda weird that India failed to win any ICC trophy after 2013 Champions trophy, despite qualifying into 3 semis and 3 finals with stellar performance.  Kohli is turning Indian team into RCB, Chokers!!

It happens if they want to be a rock star team but do not play the necessary warm up matches to understand the climate and the pitch situation and that is what i understand with your explanation.

In the past every visiting played these warm up matches but now a days there is too much cricket played and they usually rest if they do not have a match scheduled. I think the respective boards should think about these and plan accordingly rather than blaming the players.

[eaLiTy]

~
I don't think that there is any chance of getting a result here. Only 90 overs of play remain and 18 wickets need to fall. And looking at the scoring rate so far in this match, I would say that neither of the two teams is aggressively pushing for a win. The conditions are suitable for seam and swing bowling, and therefore difficult for batting. At this point, India has a lead of just 32 runs. In order to get to a lead of at least 200 runs, they need to bat for another 60-70 overs, which will give them around 20-30 overs to bowl out New Zealand.

The reason i expected a result is because if you look at the recent tours by India, they loose the first match and then come back and win the rest of the match and series and even though the WTC final was disrupted by weather, Indian batsman failed big time and you should give big props to New Zealand to restrict India when everyone thought the match would be a boring draw and then went out and win the match is incredible.

[Sithara007]

The reason i expected a result is because if you look at the recent tours by India, they loose the first match and then come back and win the rest of the match and series and even though the WTC final was disrupted by weather, Indian batsman failed big time and you should give big props to New Zealand to restrict India when everyone thought the match would be a boring draw and then went out and win the match is incredible.

Some of the Indian batsmen went in to the T20 match and threw away their wickets. So actually the New Zealand bowlers didn't had to put much effort in getting them out. It was a combination of irresponsible batting from the Indians and exceptional bowling form the Kiwis.

It happens if they want to be a rock star team but do not play the necessary warm up matches to understand the climate and the pitch situation and that is what i understand with your explanation.

In the past every visiting played these warm up matches but now a days there is too much cricket played and they usually rest if they do not have a match scheduled. I think the respective boards should think about these and plan accordingly rather than blaming the players.

There was more than enough time to organize the warmup matches. They arrived in England almost a month ago. But as usual, the contingent arrived with spouses, children, girlfriends and other family members and they were busy with shopping and sight seeing.

[JSRAW]

BCCI needs to organize practice matches the condition in England is very different to the subcontinent. In my opinion, most Indian players were not at all serious about this WC.

Conditions were alone not the factors for India's defeat in WTC final. They conquered Australia in Australia few months back; how that become possible? I believe India need to work on finding young blood rather than keep giving out chances to experienced people (remember Rahane led India in Aus for last 3 test matches and they won 2 and draw 1).

1. India's both of openers were new and if remember correctly in their first 15 or 18 WTC matches they had different pair and I guess they might have replaced Gill with KL Rahul or Mayank Agarwal.

2. For an England match, 2 spinners are too much. M Siraj might have made impact if have got a chance.

3. Pujara and Rahane (Even Kohli) were form out as per their last 10 test matches (their unavailability/injury must be a the reason why India won Australia in Australia as young people got chances).

-Condition did play some part so we can't ignore that. Rohit did fairly good job as opener in last 2 (Aus-Eng -home-) series and he did okay job in the last game too. Gill was new guy tho.

-Indian team missing Seam allrounder. Pandya is not fit to bawl, which is kinda disappointing and irritating at the same time. Shardul is there with the squad so he might get some outing in upcoming series in England. Selecting 4 pure fast bowler means is your tail is long as none of em can bat, they are genuine tailender. That's why Kohli went with the Jadeja as he's handful batsman at no 7 and performing quite well, he didn't click in last game tho.

- Only Kohli was unavailable in last Border-Gavaskar trophy. In the finals Middle order failed (Kohli-Pujara-Rahane-Pant), that's why India lost against the kiwis IMO.

There was more than enough time to organize the warmup matches. They arrived in England almost a month ago. But as usual, the contingent arrived with spouses, children, girlfriends and other family members and they were busy with shopping and sight seeing.

I don't mind criticizing their behavior as far as practice session goes but this sound wrong info to me, Indian team reached England around June 3rd and stayed at bio bubble. They had 1 county match schedule but it got cancelled due to logistic and new covid cases that's why they had to play intra squad match. IMO Team could have arrive there at the same time as New Zealand team then may be , things could have much better in terms of practice.

@7788bitcoin  2 first class (3-4days) match never hurts the schedule if you're playing 5 match series. I do agree Indian team schedule is hectic and covid didn't help much. Problem is Players are cash cow for BCCI and arrogant statement from the skipper-coach combination making things worse.

[bryant.coleman]

I don't mind criticizing their behavior as far as practice session goes but this sound wrong info to me, Indian team reached England around June 3rd and stayed at bio bubble. They had 1 county match schedule but it got cancelled due to logistic and new covid cases that's why they had to play intra squad match. IMO Team could have arrive there at the same time as New Zealand team then may be , things could have much better in terms of practice.

@7788bitcoin  2 first class (3-4days) match never hurts the schedule if you're playing 5 match series. I do agree Indian team schedule is hectic and covid didn't help much. Problem is Players are cash cow for BCCI and arrogant skipper-coach combination is not helping much too.

The calendar is hectic and there is no doubt about it. But for test and T20/ODI, they now have separate teams, right? At least players such as Rahane, Pujara and Ishant (who are not part of the ODI/T20 squad) could have arrived earlier and participated in some practise matches. Anyway, the IPL is about to start in a couple of months and for the players (both Indian and foreign), the IPL is much more important when compared to the WTC. There are rumors that the BCCI want to restructure the team after WTC final defeat. But I don't think that they have a backbone to act against Kohli.

[pakhitheboss]

Although I am an Indian citizen, I was supporting New Zealand throughout this test match. Virat Kohli makes it hard for people like me to support the current Indian team. His celebration after the dismissal of Kane Williamson in the first innings is the perfect example. He was roaring and jumping like a monkey, as if his team has won the trophy. And the New Zealand captain is just the exact opposite. I still remember the words he said, after New Zealand was robbed of the 2019 ODI World Cup trophy. There is a reason why cricket is known as "gentleman's game". There is no place for intimidation or bullying in cricket.

Virat Kohli is very arrogant. He is a talented player. I like her playstyle very much. But I don't like him as a person. He despises other players. These habits of Virat Kohli must be changed. I don't like Jadeja either. Compared to them, Rohit Sharma and Rahane seem to be polite enough.

Apart from being arrogant, he is also jinxed, every important tournament final he has lost yet he still comes out on the field as if he is the only crusader for team India. I do not know what his problem is but he thinks he is the one 

Not sure which player can replace this guy as a captain but Rohit Sharma would be my first choice.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Apart from being arrogant, he is also jinxed, every important tournament final he has lost yet he still comes out on the field as if he is the only crusader for team India. I do not know what his problem is but he thinks he is the one 

Not sure which player can replace this guy as a captain but Rohit Sharma would be my first choice.

Rohit Sharma is even more arrogant when compared to Kohli. But in his case at least we can say that he know how to behave in public, unlike Kohli who behave like a baboon in the field. The same is the case with the other potential options, such as Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya. Anyway, until Kohli retires from the game (that may happen after 7-8 years), there is no chance that someone else will come up as the permanent captain in any of the three formats. Kohli will never resign by himself, and no one else have the courage to demand that he should step down. 

[Swordsoffreedom]

Apart from being arrogant, he is also jinxed, every important tournament final he has lost yet he still comes out on the field as if he is the only crusader for team India. I do not know what his problem is but he thinks he is the one 

Not sure which player can replace this guy as a captain but Rohit Sharma would be my first choice.

Rohit Sharma is even more arrogant when compared to Kohli. But in his case at least we can say that he know how to behave in public, unlike Kohli who behave like a baboon in the field. The same is the case with the other potential options, such as Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya. Anyway, until Kohli retires from the game (that may happen after 7-8 years), there is no chance that someone else will come up as the permanent captain in any of the three formats. Kohli will never resign by himself, and no one else have the courage to demand that he should step down. 

If any Indian player is arrogant, I would say Dhoni was very arrogant. Watch the matches in the middle of his career. Then you will understand that he is not paying attention to any player of the opposition. But he does not have a violent nature like Kohli. He knows how to behave in the field. Kohli doesn't know that. As much as I like Kohli as a player, now I dislike him as a person. If India can't win the next World Cup, we don't see Kohli as captain anymore.

[slaman29]

There was more than enough time to organize the warmup matches. They arrived in England almost a month ago. But as usual, the contingent arrived with spouses, children, girlfriends and other family members and they were busy with shopping and sight seeing.

I don't mind criticizing their behavior as far as practice session goes but this sound wrong info to me, Indian team reached England around June 3rd and stayed at bio bubble. They had 1 county match schedule but it got cancelled due to logistic and new covid cases that's why they had to play intra squad match. IMO Team could have arrive there at the same time as New Zealand team then may be , things could have much better in terms of practice.

@7788bitcoin  2 first class (3-4days) match never hurts the schedule if you're playing 5 match series. I do agree Indian team schedule is hectic and covid didn't help much. Problem is Players are cash cow for BCCI and arrogant statement from the skipper-coach combination making things worse.

So we all agree there's a problem with people and their attitudes if they come from our region then. And it's a very difficult cycle to pinpoint. On one hand, we know the conditions we live in and culturally even, bringing family and spouses shouldn't be frowned upon (it's really what makes it even possible for many of them to play professionally, imagine if they ignored their families the hell it would be for their personal lives haha).

But yes, covid is a big big problem and we can't discount that BUT even with preparations all in place, as you said, the arrogance is what put them down in the end.

[Haunebu]

I agree with the fact that Kohli is not good at winning big cups, but so many are downplaying his contributions because of this one factor. He is an aggressive captain who isn't afraid to express his emotions which isn't a bad thing.

However, I do feel that India needs separate captains for separate formats(ODI: Kohli, T-20: Rohit, Test: Rahane/Kohli).

[Iranus]

I agree with the fact that Kohli is not good at winning big cups, but so many are downplaying his contributions because of this one factor. He is an aggressive captain who isn't afraid to express his emotions which isn't a bad thing.

However, I do feel that India needs separate captains for separate formats(ODI: Kohli, T-20: Rohit, Test: Rahane/Kohli).

I agree with you. India now needs separate captains in three formats. Rohit Sharma is an experienced batsman and captain for T20 format, it is proven. Moreover Rahane is experienced enough. He should be given the opportunity to be the captain of the Test format. While Kohli has been successful as a batsman, he has not yet been fully successful as a captain.

[JSRAW]

I don't mind criticizing their behavior as far as practice session goes but this sound wrong info to me, Indian team reached England around June 3rd and stayed at bio bubble. They had 1 county match schedule but it got cancelled due to logistic and new covid cases that's why they had to play intra squad match. IMO Team could have arrive there at the same time as New Zealand team then may be , things could have much better in terms of practice.

@7788bitcoin  2 first class (3-4days) match never hurts the schedule if you're playing 5 match series. I do agree Indian team schedule is hectic and covid didn't help much. Problem is Players are cash cow for BCCI and arrogant skipper-coach combination is not helping much too.

The calendar is hectic and there is no doubt about it. But for test and T20/ODI, they now have separate teams, right? At least players such as Rahane, Pujara and Ishant (who are not part of the ODI/T20 squad) could have arrived earlier and participated in some practise matches. Anyway, the IPL is about to start in a couple of months and for the players (both Indian and foreign), the IPL is much more important when compared to the WTC. There are rumors that the BCCI want to restructure the team after WTC final defeat. But I don't think that they have a backbone to act against Kohli.

This idea is about to kick in so we have to wait and watich, let's see how it pans out. Why only test specialists? BCCI announced their test squad way back in 8-10th May because Ipl got postponed around 3rd-ish may, everyone was free after that they could have take 20 days break and arrive 1 week early in England if they were serious about the Finals. Having said that, they are still one of the best test team. IMO major Criticism coming because this team has so much potential but they are wasting every oppourtunity.

I have a feeling that if any changes come then Rahane-Pujara could be their new scapegoat.  

~snip

So we all agree there's a problem with people and their attitudes if they come from our region then. And it's a very difficult cycle to pinpoint. On one hand, we know the conditions we live in and culturally even, bringing family and spouses shouldn't be frowned upon (it's really what makes it even possible for many of them to play professionally, imagine if they ignored their families the hell it would be for their personal lives haha).

But yes, covid is a big big problem and we can't discount that BUT even with preparations all in place, as you said, the arrogance is what put them down in the end.

Yeah, its subcontinent problem When team wins then no one cares, we make them heroes but things get out of the hand when they lose. I'm not in favor of bringing their personal life into cricket and i don't subscribe to this behavior.

I agree with the fact that Kohli is not good at winning big cups, but so many are downplaying his contributions because of this one factor. He is an aggressive captain who isn't afraid to express his emotions which isn't a bad thing.

However, I do feel that India needs separate captains for separate formats(ODI: Kohli, T-20: Rohit, Test: Rahane/Kohli).

More importantly Ravi Shastri need to go for good. His contract ending after T-20 WC, hope BCCI find some one else after that. Not sure about Test captaincy but in limited over (esp T-20) cricket Kohli is shit as captain.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

~
More importantly Ravi Shastri need to go for good. His contract ending after T-20 WC, hope BCCI find some one else after that. Not sure about Test captaincy but in limited over (esp T-20) cricket Kohli is shit as captain.

I thought Ravi Shastri would be replaced after India folded for 36 runs in Australia and when Kohli left to India after that match no one gave a chance for India to win any matches let alone win the series and India changed history and went on to win a Test series in Australia and that cemented the place of Ravi Shastri as well and one loss in WTC final will make any changes and i feel like India will perform better against England and silence everyone about these replacement  .

[UmerIdrees]

I agree with the fact that Kohli is not good at winning big cups, but so many are downplaying his contributions because of this one factor. He is an aggressive captain who isn't afraid to express his emotions which isn't a bad thing.

However, I do feel that India needs separate captains for separate formats(ODI: Kohli, T-20: Rohit, Test: Rahane/Kohli).

It's time that we stop blaming captain for the losses. If a team loses, the whole team is responsible and not just the captain.

Think of the contribution of Kohli in ODI, t20 and test matches, before thinking of replacing him. I think India need aggressive captain like Kohli who can take bold decisions.