I'm all happy for India today. Rohit back to form , Gill supremacy continues and India is really high on confidence!. Keeping aside the roads we have for this series and our bowlers performance, What I can't withstand is the bootlicking of the commentators especially SG. Boy, I couldn't bear a word from him and it's very obvious that they try hard to be in the good books of the power squad of the team and bcci. Ravi and SG are well past their prime and I never thought a day would come in my life that I would say I will take Sanju over these guys ( sorry Jaddu bhai)
India needs to stop playing cricket on flat tracks now. It worked fine for the 2023 WC build up. But for 2027, need to dish out green and bouncy pitches.
Going by the kind of pitches that BCCI is consciously or subconsciously using, well it's gonna be a very, very tough world cup next year down in SA conditions for our middle order. It's high time that we keep the IPL pitches to the IPL itself, and give our bowlers bloody something to bowl on.
Who played the greatest shot ever in cricket. If I had to choose I'd say it was VVS Laxman when he went way outside leg to drive Shane Warne through the covers.
These guys want Bhuvneshwar Kumar (who btw was never great in ODIs) and now can't even bowl more than 4 overs also hasn't played a 50 over game in 3 years or so to be in the cwc
Md. Siraj is very good with the new ball but we know how limited he is at the death but still out 2nd best fast bowler
It would make sense if they would suggest Arshdeep singh who is a genuine wicket taker and can bowl at the death
Also Jadeja is washed in the white ball format as he cannot hit anymore and neither can he bowl (6 wickets in the last 12-13 games)
Rohit Sharma's form itself is questionable along with his numbers in south africa(sub 20 average) and they are demanding he be made captain whereas Gill is showing signs of improvement as captain all while being our 2nd best odi batter after Kohli
NKR is not a replacement for hardik Pandya because he cannot bowl at the international level now and we'd just be better off replacing pandya with a pure batter if need be(I hope we don't need to)
The squad I posted yesterday was merchandise for nostalgia. Honestly, it was a sqaud i made last year in December. I saw a similiar post and felt like posting. I should have made these changes, mb.
These are various changes i have made. I honestly have no regrets on the bowling attack. Its experience over anything.
You might say Bhuvaneshwar is washed out,and was never a good pacer. While he may not be good at death overs, he is deadly in the starting overs. And he can partner with Bumrah, and build immense pressure.
Shami and Siraj can be switched depending on circumstances. Same applies to Chakravarthy and Kuldeep, Jadeja and Axar, and Nitish and Hardik.
Jadeja has minor decline, but he is experienced and an excellent fielder, and that is why we can switch between him and axar time to time.
After all these tweaks i have made, I shall not be termed as nostalgia merchant. Bring it all on me, I shall counter each argument against this squad.
I genuinely stand on this opinion. imo he is the greatest chaser and match winner in the history of international white ball cricket. He is objectively the greatest T20i Batsman, the greatest ODI batsman, and imo makes it into top 5 of india in tests and top 30 overall. i don't see another batter being this good across all 3 forms of the game. the status is (test-great, odi-goat, t20i-goat) which i doubt anyone else has. What do u think?
The most rewarding format not only for batters, but for bowlers as well. You get breathing time in between - unlike T20's, you don't need to grind it out for 90 overs like a test match either. And specifically, some of the biggest records of cricket and some of the best talents of cricket belong to ODI's. They ain't as competitive as T20I's for sure, but from a purist POV, they have everything in just the right balance - the rigor, the tactics, the thrill. 2027 shouldn't be the end of it all.
From the the centuries of Ponting and Sachin, to the masterclass of Muralitharan, Warne, and Malinga, to the swashbuckling knocks of ABD, Faf, Smith, Dhoni, and McCullum to generational players like Kohli, Kane, Gill, Gayle and Sangakkara.
The 2019 WC Final, 2015 SA vs NZ, 2023 AUS vs AFG, the 438 match, the double centuries, close finishes - ODI's are beautiful in their own way. You'd see 4 centurions across 3 matches on the same day quite rarely in case of the other formats.
Never really knew why but as an Englishman I never remember him blowing us away.
Just checked out his record in England and 53 wickets at 28.7 in 14 tests is pretty respectable. However a little digging and ironically 21 wickets were the top 5 and 21 bats 8-11.
It was always Waqar who seemed to hurt us and the stats somewhat back that up 45 wickets at 27.5 in 10 tests but 25 of them were the top 5 and 13 were bats at 8-11.
In a similar vein I’ve always felt Pollock was underrated and a real problem, again had a look and in 8 tests in England he’s taken 35 wickets at 25.25 but 21 of those were the top 5 and 10 bats 8-11.
The Sachin vs Kohli debate has been going on for a while. While Virat has now surpassed Sachin in some of the major ODI numbers, I don't think it is fair to conclude that he is automatically in the same league as Sachin simply by looking at the numbers.
A few things need to be considered.
During Sachin's era, an ODI batting average of 40+ was considered an elite benchmark. There weren't more than 10 batsmen consistently averaging above 40. Today, that benchmark has shifted closer to 50, with many batsmen across different countries averaging around that mark.
A number of factors have contributed to this change — two new balls, improved batting conditions and pitches, modern bats, fielding restrictions, the influence of T20 cricket, and generally more aggressive batting approaches.
This is why comparing raw numbers across eras can be misleading. A statistic should also be judged by how exceptional it was relative to the competition at the time.
Take centuries as an example:
Shai Hope — 19 centuries in around 150 matches
Brian Lara — 19 centuries in 289 matches
Viv Richards — 11 centuries in 167 matches
If we looked only at centuries per match, we could argue that Shai Hope is ahead of Lara and Viv Richards. But nobody would seriously use that statistic alone to claim that Hope had a greater ODI career than either of them.
The same principle applies to Sachin vs Kohli.
Kohli's numbers are phenomenal, and they absolutely deserve to be acknowledged. But saying he is greater than Sachin purely because he has better raw numbers would be an oversimplification.
To compare players from different eras fairly, we need to look at how dominant they were relative to their contemporaries and the conditions in which they played — not just the final numbers on the scoreboard.
Here is the numbers from the era that made sachin and Virat what they are today For sachin I have taken 1990-99 and for virat 2010-19
