The Cricket Society III

That's his biggest issue. Inconsistency. That's why Kohli took his place in the world cup squad. Also, after he gets a big score, in his next couple of games he struggles even to get a good 30/40 runs. Guess now, he's being compared to Raina and Kohli, and overall he falls short. Kohli is far more consistent, arguably a better athlete, and seemly more dedicated than Rohit. Then Raina, is a more explosive, lower order batsman who's capable of doing the big hitting towards the latter end of an innings. Also Raina's fielding and handy parttime spin is a bonus.

You would think it when you first see Gauti, but he's actually very aggressive and focused. Not aggressive like Kohli, who's plain arrogant and stupid at times.

Doherty? Lyon? Smith? They have spin options.

Hales anyone?

It will be interesting to see how India's IPL spinners will play. From what I've seen of the IPL (which is admittedly not a lot), they don't really bowl as spinners, prefering to bowl darts than slow spinning balls like Vettori or Murali might.

All three of those are awful spinners.

One good international innings and now he's as good as Kevin Pieterson? Not to mention that he'll play in the subcontinent, and England are hardly the best there, let alone on their first trip.

Doherty is average. I agree Smith is less good - his value comes in his all-round ability. However, I rate Lyon - on a direct comparison he outperformed the Indian spinners during their last tour.

I never said that. My point was that we have attacking batsmen even if Pieterson isn't available.

Doherty is average. I agree Smith is less good - his value comes in his all-round ability. However, I rate Lyon - on a direct comparison he outperformed the Indian spinners during their last tour.

I never said that. My point was that we have attacking batsmen even if Pieterson isn't available.

I would put Kohli above both as a batsman, and then Raina, and then Rohit. Raina does show fight sometimes and Rohit I just don't really rate. I don't really see Rohit's position in the batting order, I think he's a number 4 batsman but I just think he's too mediocre to play that role, and doesn't have the shots to play lower down. Anyway, he'll likely not get in the team when Yuvraj is back (Yuvraj wants to play in the NZ T20s).

Kohli is a guy that anyone would like in their team, but hates (with good reason) if he plays for another team. He's a total prick, but that same aggression and confidence is shown in his play.

Definitely. Without a doubt, Kohli is better. Raina has a specific role in the squad, the lower order 'smash-hitter', alongside Dhoni. Rohit, however is neither a 'Kohli' nor 'Raina'. Hence, falls short.

I read the articles and Yuvi's tweets. I really hope he's fit, and gets into form, 'cos if he is, it will just be amazing He deserves to play for India, kinda goes without saying really. Should be a good series for him to comeback in, and truly assess himself.

Love the bold bit
Agree totally. He does need to tone down that immature outburst of swearing though. He's only 23 though, and he's making a conscious effort now, needs to realise, he's no longer the 'new kid' and that he needs to grow up a bit.

Yuvraj is a player who's a huge upgrade on Rohit, so yes, you do miss him. New Zealand should be an easy test for him too, yup, so it is in fact good timing.

Hell, can't deny the truth.

I wouldn't mind all that aggression from him too much. If he can carry on playing the way he is then there's no problem.

Totally. No argument, Yuvi out does Rohit in every department. Better batsman (he was amazing for India in the WC, playing the all-rounder role for us), part-time bowling of a fair standard (looking at India's average attack) and really stepped up his fielding too.

I'm more concerned about his mental state more than anything. But like I said earlier, he's not going to rush by any means. So, yeah. Dying to see him back.

Tbh, the pros to Kohli's attitude, is that he seriously pisses off the opposition. So works in his favour. But his century celebrations and the Sydney finger incident just shouldn't happen. When he's that good a player, he needs to follow a more modest route that way. That's just my take on it all though. Performance wise, he can stay how he's been for the last 4 years for India.

Want to see more of Kohli in Tests. Needs to play up the order. At 3 seems best for him.

He should be okay mentally I reckon, I'd imagine he'd want to be raring to go. I'd think his physical state might be a bit more worrying, cancer isn't nice on the body.

I don't think he's quite as bad as you're making out, but he's fired up, and that's no bad thing. I think he should continue as he is, if you can walk the walk, then you may as well swagger it. As long as he doesn't start to get into trouble with the ICC (too much, a little won't be awful) then I think he's fine. He will eventually mature and develop into your future captain. I think he could be a 3 in ODIs and a 4 in tests. In tests, the number 3 has to have a bit more fight, and a bit more nous against the new ball (ie Kallis, Trott, even Azhar Ali), and I think his aggression could be used better at 4 (De Villiers, Pieterson, Clarke), though of course, Ponting was a great number three.

I guess. Based on his interviews, he's always been talking about the mental 'scars' that cancer had on him. Going through the entire treatment and dealing with the side effects really got him down (as you'd expect). Now that he's in the nets training fully now, I'm sure he'll make great progress.

I'm a girl. Looking at Kohli from my POV, I think in order to be a good role model and generally to seem like a better guy, he should tone down the swearing a bit. That's all.

I'd say play at four too, but so long as SRT is in the team, he'll only play at 4. So Kohli should play at 3 till Sachin retires.

Ohh okay. I think cricket could be the thing to drag him out of that trough of depression, but we'll have to see I guess. India legend regardless of his contribution after his return.

I think SRT should drop to 5 and allow Kohli to play at 4, but obviously that's never going to happen. I think Kohli's wasted at 5, so yeah, maybe 3 is the place to put him and see how he does there. Obviously playing at 3 in India is a world away from playing at 3 in England or Australia, so there could be the danger of him going down the Gambhir (poor away form) route if he plays in the upper order. I also think at 5 he'll learn to play spin better and how to accumulate runs without risk. Right now he's an aggressive batsman and maybe a stint at 5 would be a good thing for him. In the future, definitely a number 4.

Yeah, summed up perfectly.

I don't think Sachin should go lower down the order. I think SRT should be at 3, Kohli at 4, maybe slot Rahane at 5? Exactly, haven't even seen him play at 3 at home yet, if he can't get runs consistently at home, where will he? Although, he did play rather well in India's pathetic performance in Aus. Then again, there was no pressure on him, considering the entire team did abysmally.

Yup, get your logic.

It depends on whether his reflexes are good enough any more. I think he could be susceptible to the new ball, and he'd have to be in early and up for the fight a lot, especially with Sehwag/Gambhir's poor form, and Sehwag naturally being a risky player.



For anybody looking to see some magnificent new-ball bowling, have a look at this from Junaid Khan http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xs1iew_p-3_creation

Skip to 1:40. The delivery at 4:20 is just incredible, his seam position throughout the spell was exemplar, and on that occasion, for a left hander to bring the ball away from the batsman from around the wicket is a skill which you can't teach really, it's rare.

If you can't be bothered to see that, then the first wicket is at 5:30ish, and Junaid embarrasses Kumar from around 6:30 onwards. The wicket taking delivery is just incredible.

In India, I think Viru and Gauti will be fine. But yeah, seeing the performance of our openers abroad recently, totally get your point.

And wow to the video. WHY CAN'T INDIA PRODUCE BOWLERS LIKE PAKISTAN -.-
Sanga had no clue with Junaid's delivery :O

He's doing very well to be honest. As with every Pakistani player in history except Imran, there are a fair amount of detractors, people were calling him the worst bowler to ever play for us (evidently Muhammad Sami with an average of 51 doesn't count) but they were silenced by that. Quite a few LBW appeals wrongly turned down, Gul should have had Para and Junaid got Sanga first ball too.

Haven't seen much of him myself, but yeah, what I have seen was impressive!

No DRS? Were they debatable decisions, or totally out?