Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[JSRAW]

Yes, but only for T-20 Franchise type leagues.

No BCCI doesn't have much say if players want to play in County (if they are free). In fact BCCI encourage players to visit there and this tradition is at least 50-70 years old.

Even for county cricket, getting the NOC from the BCCI has been a hassle these days. They believe that if the Indian players play in foreign domestic competitions, then their value will get diluted. And I can't really blame them. These Indian players hardly ever play in the Indian domestic competition. So the BCCI may not be happy when they apply for county stints. BTW, the last time India had a domestic 4-day competition was in 2019. After that, the Ranji trophy was cancelled for two successive years because of CoVID 19.

I highly doubt that if that's the case. Like i mentioned BCCI encourage Test specialists players to feature in the county which include many senior players Ashwin, Ishant, Rahane and new guys Hanuma, Prithvi etc. I'm yet to hear any incident where BCCI stopping players, in fact in my recent memory they even named 6-7 players for the County before the WTC finals but it got cancelled due to unknown reasons. It all comes down to individuals, if players are featuring in all 3 formats then ofc there is no chance.

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[Vishnu.Reang]

I highly doubt that if that's the case. Like i mentioned BCCI encourage Test specialists players to feature in the county which include many senior players Ashwin, Ishant, Rahane and new guys Hanuma, Prithvi etc. I'm yet to hear any incident where BCCI stopping players, in fact in my recent memory they even named 6-7 players for the County before the WTC finals but it got cancelled due to unknown reasons. It all comes down to individuals, if players are featuring in all 3 formats then ofc there is no chance.

Playing in different conditions is good. But a few years back, there was an initiative to prepare some of the domestic grounds to be more supportive to pace bowling, similar to the SENA ground conditions. After one or two years, this initiative was silently rolled back. One rumor that I heard was domestic teams are heavily dependent on spinners and they refused to play on surfaces that are supportive to pacers. It is not the bowlers who suffer from the lack of such grounds in India. India is producing good pace bowlers. But is it the batsmen who suffer from the lack of exposure to such conditions.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

^^ Atleast Ashwin voluntary opted to play in the county and performed well against Somerset, he ended up with 7 wickets in the match, more importantly he got game practice which was necessary. Other players should have take a cue from the Ashwin especially Bumrah, Rahane, Vihari and Pujara... But NO.

I am watching the youtube channel of Ashwin and he usually updates everything that is revolving around him but i am not sure about how Ashwin could voluntarily opt to play in a county game and what is the selection procedure and not sure why others opted out or whether they will get selected to play for the county. If they opted out then they are in a vacation as they only have a warm up match and the series starts on August 4.

[Sithara007]

Suresh Raina just started a huge controversy in Chennai, during the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). He casually said that he is a Brahmin, and therefore he could adjust in a better way with the Chennai Super Kings and it's players/staff. Twitter users from Tamil Nadu were furious, given the widespread hatred against the Brahmin community in that state. IMO, there was no need to create such controversy over a casual comment. CSK is owned by a Brahmin and a majority of the Tamil players from that state are Brahmins. Raina would have got the impression that Chennai is a Brahmin dominated city.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/suresh-raina-tnpl-commentary-brahmin-chennai-7413303/

[JSRAW]

I highly doubt that if that's the case. Like i mentioned BCCI encourage Test specialists players to feature in the county which include many senior players Ashwin, Ishant, Rahane and new guys Hanuma, Prithvi etc. I'm yet to hear any incident where BCCI stopping players, in fact in my recent memory they even named 6-7 players for the County before the WTC finals but it got cancelled due to unknown reasons. It all comes down to individuals, if players are featuring in all 3 formats then ofc there is no chance.

Playing in different conditions is good. But a few years back, there was an initiative to prepare some of the domestic grounds to be more supportive to pace bowling, similar to the SENA ground conditions. After one or two years, this initiative was silently rolled back. One rumor that I heard was domestic teams are heavily dependent on spinners and they refused to play on surfaces that are supportive to pacers. It is not the bowlers who suffer from the lack of such grounds in India. India is producing good pace bowlers. But is it the batsmen who suffer from the lack of exposure to such conditions.

Like you said " Rumor" and its silly one IMO. You and me both know that some pitches are pace friendly but situation is bad in context of Fast pitches if we look at overall situation in India. Not every team will get chance to bat on such pitches, may be 1-2 teams in every season and majority of our pitches are spin wickets, no shame on accepting this fact although its another discussion that why our domestic arena stopped producing quality wrist spinners in recent time.  

^^ Atleast Ashwin voluntary opted to play in the county and performed well against Somerset, he ended up with 7 wickets in the match, more importantly he got game practice which was necessary. Other players should have take a cue from the Ashwin especially Bumrah, Rahane, Vihari and Pujara... But NO.

I am watching the youtube channel of Ashwin and he usually updates everything that is revolving around him but i am not sure about how Ashwin could voluntarily opt to play in a county game and what is the selection procedure and not sure why others opted out or whether they will get selected to play for the county. If they opted out then they are in a vacation as they only have a warm up match and the series starts on August 4.

I'm not sure but I guess he knows what's his priorities.

His channel is doing good, he's future commentator and it seems he's going to be very likable and famous if he join the commentary box. His cricketing knowledge is amazing and we need such commentators especially from India because majority of our commentators are mediocre except Harsha (Dinesh Kartik started very well tho).

[Vishnu.Reang]

I'm not sure but I guess he knows what's his priorities.

His channel is doing good, he's future commentator and it seems he's going to be very likable and famous if he join the commentary box. His cricketing knowledge is amazing and we need such commentators especially from India because majority of our commentators are mediocre except Harsha (Dinesh Kartik started very well tho).

How much these guys earn from the job as commentators? I guess the pay level will be much lower than what they would earn from the IPL. And for Ashwin, he still goes for well over $1 million a year in the IPL auctions. So I don't think that he has any immediate plan to take retirement from the game and concentrate on the commentator job. I agree with you on the mediocre quality of Indian commentators. Sanjay Manjrekar is a perfect example. It surprises me that this guy is not yet fired by his employer.

[Juggy777]

I'm not sure but I guess he knows what's his priorities.

His channel is doing good, he's future commentator and it seems he's going to be very likable and famous if he join the commentary box. His cricketing knowledge is amazing and we need such commentators especially from India because majority of our commentators are mediocre except Harsha (Dinesh Kartik started very well tho).

How much these guys earn from the job as commentators? I guess the pay level will be much lower than what they would earn from the IPL. And for Ashwin, he still goes for well over $1 million a year in the IPL auctions. So I don't think that he has any immediate plan to take retirement from the game and concentrate on the commentator job. I agree with you on the mediocre quality of Indian commentators. Sanjay Manjrekar is a perfect example. It surprises me that this guy is not yet fired by his employer.

@Vishnu.Reang I wouldn’t be surprised if IPL commentators are over paid, because if they don’t do good commentary then the match will seem dull to viewers who’re watching it at home. Furthermore even if they remove him then how many quality replacements do you think they have?, and the answer is quite simple i.e. they don’t have many options but that could all change if few quality commentators became available.

[bryant.coleman]

Agreed with Dinesh Karthik. He has just started, but his language seems to be much better than some of the other options such as Gavaskar and Manjrekar. But personally I would prefer non-Indian commentators, such as Danny Morrison, Simon Doull, Michael Holding, Isa Guha, Ian Bishop and Nasser Hussain. IMO, only Harsha Bhogle has enough skills to be classified along with these commentators. Perhaps the Indian viewers prefer someone like Gavaskar, because they will mix the Indian English phrases in the commentatory.

[JSRAW]

I'm not sure but I guess he knows what's his priorities.

His channel is doing good, he's future commentator and it seems he's going to be very likable and famous if he join the commentary box. His cricketing knowledge is amazing and we need such commentators especially from India because majority of our commentators are mediocre except Harsha (Dinesh Kartik started very well tho).

How much these guys earn from the job as commentators? I guess the pay level will be much lower than what they would earn from the IPL. And for Ashwin, he still goes for well over $1 million a year in the IPL auctions. So I don't think that he has any immediate plan to take retirement from the game and concentrate on the commentator job. I agree with you on the mediocre quality of Indian commentators. Sanjay Manjrekar is a perfect example. It surprises me that this guy is not yet fired by his employer.

Their yearly salary can touch 1 million easily. Usually almost all commentators gets $50-60K per series (International) and when they gets gigs in the IPL then top commentators can bag maximum $700,000.
Basically they have 3 categories in IPL.   

-English Panel   $250,000 to $500,000 (Harsha, Gavaskar, Simon etc)
-Hindi Panel   $80,000 to $350,000 (Deep Das gupta, Pathan, Akash chopra etc)
-Dugout Panel   $500,000 to $700,000 (Brian Lara, Scott Styris, Graeme Swann etc) Here they focus more on technical stuff, hence bigger pay check)

[Vishnu.Reang]

Their yearly salary can touch 1 million easily. Usually almost all commentators gets $50-60K per series (International) and when they gets gigs in the IPL then top commentators can bag maximum $700,000.
Basically they have 3 categories in IPL.   

-English Panel   $250,000 to $500,000 (Harsha, Gavaskar, Simon etc)
-Hindi Panel   $80,000 to $350,000 (Deep Das gupta, Pathan, Akash chopra etc)
-Dugout Panel   $500,000 to $700,000 (Brian Lara, Scott Styris, Graeme Swann etc) Here they focus more on technical stuff, hence bigger pay check)

Wow! Never thought that their salaries are this high. That is a very good amount, even after the 43% tax cut by the Indian government. And unlike the salaries associated with playing cricket, these salaries are expected to remain stable or increase over the years. And if someone can maintain the quality, then he can easily last for two decades (I think both Harsha and Gavaskar are in this job for more than 20 years). Dinesh Karthink will be tempted to join full-time, although his IPL salary is much higher.

[JSRAW]

^^ Ideally Kartik should play IPL for couple of more years then he could move into commentary box, his short stint with SKY was not bad. He was funny, technical, was sledging his partners so good combo and fun to listen. Tbh i'm more excited about Ashwin. IMO he's going to be badass and successful, imagine someone (Hope its Buttler  ) discussing Mankand issue with him on the air in next 10 years lol.

[Sithara007]

^^ Ideally Kartik should play IPL for couple of more years then he could move into commentary box, his short stint with SKY was not bad. He was funny, technical, was sledging his partners so good combo and fun to listen. Tbh i'm more excited about Ashwin. IMO he's going to be badass and successful, imagine someone (Hope its Buttler  ) discussing Mankand issue with him on the air in next 10 years lol.

Dinesh Karthik hasn't justified his price tag in the IPL recently. Apart from a good innings every now and then, his form has remained poor for the last two years. He is already 36 years old and in case he fails to perform in this year's IPL, then he should seriously consider retirement. Nowadays, most of the Indian players have good English speaking skills and DK can also be handy in the Tamil commentary panel (along with Ashwin). Recently, I have seen both Star Sports and Ten Sports expanding their commentary to local languages such as Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. DK may prefer to stay with the English team, since he is more suited to that role. 

[JSRAW]

^^ Ideally Kartik should play IPL for couple of more years then he could move into commentary box, his short stint with SKY was not bad. He was funny, technical, was sledging his partners so good combo and fun to listen. Tbh i'm more excited about Ashwin. IMO he's going to be badass and successful, imagine someone (Hope its Buttler  ) discussing Mankand issue with him on the air in next 10 years lol.

Dinesh Karthik hasn't justified his price tag in the IPL recently. Apart from a good innings every now and then, his form has remained poor for the last two years. He is already 36 years old and in case he fails to perform in this year's IPL, then he should seriously consider retirement. Nowadays, most of the Indian players have good English speaking skills and DK can also be handy in the Tamil commentary panel (along with Ashwin). Recently, I have seen both Star Sports and Ten Sports expanding their commentary to local languages such as Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. DK may prefer to stay with the English team, since he is more suited to that role. 

Well as far as performance goes. Fair amount of oldies were below par in the last season and Kartik was not alone or different in this context but his future looks bright in commentary box. IMO now he has maximum 2 years of IPL career, doesn't matter much if he's performing or not.

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Prithvi and couple of more players might join the Indian Test squad in England. 3 players got injured, Gill and Washington + Avesh Khan in recent warm up games.

[Sithara007]

Prithvi and couple of more players might join the Indian Test squad in England. 3 players got injured, Gill and Washington + Avesh Khan in recent warm up games.

Prithvi is not suited for the longer format of the game, IMO. Also, his style of play is not suitable in England (it was more suited to conditions in Sri Lanka). So it surprises me that he is packed off to England, when the T20 series against Sri Lanka is just about to start. Abhimanyu Easwaran and Wriddhiman Saha were included in the squad as reserve batsmen and now they have also rejoined the squad after completing the quarantine requirements. Saha won't be considered, as long as Rishabh Pant is available.

[JSRAW]

Prithvi and couple of more players might join the Indian Test squad in England. 3 players got injured, Gill and Washington + Avesh Khan in recent warm up games.

Prithvi is not suited for the longer format of the game, IMO. Also, his style of play is not suitable in England (it was more suited to conditions in Sri Lanka). So it surprises me that he is packed off to England, when the T20 series against Sri Lanka is just about to start. Abhimanyu Easwaran and Wriddhiman Saha were included in the squad as reserve batsmen and now they have also rejoined the squad after completing the quarantine requirements. Saha won't be considered, as long as Rishabh Pant is available.

Well Bhai if we go by this requirement then we don't have many suitable replacements but only bits and pieces kind of batters. Rahul, Mayank, Shaw, Rohit all comes in the same category. Surya Kumar yadav is also joining the squad as batsman along with Shaw and 1 more player (name is announced, may be 1 seam bowler), although i don't know if SKY is going to fit in the playing XI.

[pakhitheboss]

Prithvi and couple of more players might join the Indian Test squad in England. 3 players got injured, Gill and Washington + Avesh Khan in recent warm up games.

Prithvi is not suited for the longer format of the game, IMO. Also, his style of play is not suitable in England (it was more suited to conditions in Sri Lanka). So it surprises me that he is packed off to England, when the T20 series against Sri Lanka is just about to start. Abhimanyu Easwaran and Wriddhiman Saha were included in the squad as reserve batsmen and now they have also rejoined the squad after completing the quarantine requirements. Saha won't be considered, as long as Rishabh Pant is available.

There has been a constant debate about Prithvi shaw, some say he is suited for the shorter format and some say he is for the longer. I have seen him suited for only domestic cricket. He is a big disappointment in my opinion for all formats of International cricket. To date, I have not seen him batting the way he did in domestic cricket excluding IPL. I might be wrong but just compare him with other newcomers and you will know the difference.

[ene1980]

There has been a constant debate about Prithvi shaw, some say he is suited for the shorter format and some say he is for the longer. I have seen him suited for only domestic cricket. He is a big disappointment in my opinion for all formats of International cricket. To date, I have not seen him batting the way he did in domestic cricket excluding IPL. I might be wrong but just compare him with other newcomers and you will know the difference.

No one will debate about the skill level of Prithvi Shaw, even though he did not play a long innings the shots he played were world class and outstanding and his skill level as a batsman is visible with each of the strokes as he is not powering those shots but his timing is out of the world but he lacks concentrating and he lost his wickets to spinners, he might need to fine tune that and he will be a force to reckon in world cricket if he can be consistent with his performance.

[Iranus]

There has been a constant debate about Prithvi shaw, some say he is suited for the shorter format and some say he is for the longer. I have seen him suited for only domestic cricket. He is a big disappointment in my opinion for all formats of International cricket. To date, I have not seen him batting the way he did in domestic cricket excluding IPL. I might be wrong but just compare him with other newcomers and you will know the difference.

No one will debate about the skill level of Prithvi Shaw, even though he did not play a long innings the shots he played were world class and outstanding and his skill level as a batsman is visible with each of the strokes as he is not powering those shots but his timing is out of the world but he lacks concentrating and he lost his wickets to spinners, he might need to fine tune that and he will be a force to reckon in world cricket if he can be consistent with his performance.

Prithvi Shaw is now a world class and skilled player no doubt about it. But now it seems he has lost form or is not able to maintain the continuity of performance. He scored 43 in the first match against Sri Lanka, 13 in the second and 49 in the third. He was dismissed for zero in the first T20. The team expects more from him.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

~
Prithvi Shaw is now a world class and skilled player no doubt about it. But now it seems he has lost form or is not able to maintain the continuity of performance. He scored 43 in the first match against Sri Lanka, 13 in the second and 49 in the third. He was dismissed for zero in the first T20. The team expects more from him.

Prithvi Shaw is a young talent but he needs to improve playing against spin and the moving ball, in foreign tours the moving balls were troubling him and even today he got out to a moving ball in T20 International and to play Test cricket especially in foreign pitches he needs to improve his batting and needs experience and for that he needs to play domestic matches outside India and whenever he plays in India i am sure he will score big.

[Sithara007]

Prithvi Shaw is a young talent but he needs to improve playing against spin and the moving ball, in foreign tours the moving balls were troubling him and even today he got out to a moving ball in T20 International and to play Test cricket especially in foreign pitches he needs to improve his batting and needs experience and for that he needs to play domestic matches outside India and whenever he plays in India i am sure he will score big.

Playing a few county matches in the UK might help him, as in India the players don't get regular opportunities to play in green surfaces that are supportive of pace bowling. But the big question is does Prithvi Shaw has the patience to play test cricket? Some of the younger Indian players (Rishabh Pant is an example) have a habit of batting in test format just like they do in the T20. That may or may not work for them, depending on the opponent. But they will be successful, if they change their strategies for test matches, and I haven't seen any of these younger Indian players doing that.