India vs Australia 2018/2019 Second Test (Perth) Review

As expected India lost the Perth test.
But I thought India gave credible performance to be in match despite doing badly on the first day of the match.

I thought now a days, the teams win the match once they win the toss, and mostly bat first. Specially when the teams who play away.
Recent examples.
England in SL won all the matches by winning the toss and batting first. I am sure the result of the series would have been different had SL won the toss and batted first in those matches.

In Pakistan vs NZ series, NZ won the matches where they batted first and Pak won when they batted first.

In Australia, India won the first test after batting first and Aussie won after batting first in Perth test.

Even in the England vs India series, I am sure the result would have been different if India had batted first in most of those matches (except the Lords test).


Now coming to the end of Perth test, let us summarize India performance so far.

• There is lot of blame from all former greats on the team selection, that India decided not to go with a spinner
• On this I feel Kohli was right.  Jadeja would not have made any difference in the bowling
• Also as Ian Chappel said, India could not have selected a bowler just because he better - either in case of Bhuvi or Jadeja
• So it is India's problem that tailendars do not bat as well as other teams, and this is known problem for long and India has not worked on it
• KL Rahul should be dropped from India team straight away and not be included in any Indian team for 1 year. He need to sort out his mental problem before he is selected for India team again
• Bumrah is highly overrated bowler. He bowls too short when he knows his wicket taking balls are the one which hit the wicket and more of good length or full length balls
• Hanuma Vihari definitely is better bet than Rohit Sharma for number 6 slot

Now off to Melbourne, and let us await for India bounce back there.

India vs Australia 2018/2019 First Test (Adelaide) Review

India has won the first test by 31 runs.

So my pre-series prediction of Australia winning this series 4-0 has been proved wrong in the first test itself. I am happy about it :)

It was a very close match - with India winning due to better batting from one of their top order batsmen in first innings and 2 top order batsmen in the second innings.

Australia lost because there was only one fifty from their top order batsmen in either of the innings and that made the difference. This was despite better performance from Australia tail compared to India, and better spin bowling compared to India.

In first innings the India top order crumbled and then rescued by Pujara and in the second innings all the top order batsmen except Rohit Sharma applied themselves very well, but tail crumbled resulting in the match being lot closer than it was.

Australia bowling first innings was good, and in second innings I think Michell Starc must be little disappointed with his performance.

Indian bowling in the first innings was good with all 4 front-line bowlers bowling well, but in second innings, Ishant Sharma disappointed with his frequently overstepping the crease which costed India couple of wickets, and Ashwin could not break in on fifth day pitch.

So overall both sides have problem to sort out heading into the rest of the series.

Next test is in Perth in a new ground (not the famous bouncy WACA), but even in the new ground it is expected to be lot more bouncy than other pitches in Australia.

So Australia has lot better chance to level the series in Perth Test starting from Friday.

India vs Australia Test Series 2018/2019 Preview

So the much awaited Test Series of the 2018 is here. Same expectation was there for India vs England series too. But due to India batting failures we lost the series 4-1. It was definitely much closer series and if Indian batting had done little bit well and India had bowled out England lower order early, the scoreline would have been reverse. Only test where England comprehensively won was in Lords. There again, they had better of weather conditions, where when England batted it was completely a Sunny day and when India batter it was mostly cloudy. So all in all India lost a series which it should have won.

Now coming to the India vs Australia series.

Due to absence of Smith and Warner, I think batting of both side can be considered equal with slight edge to Australia because of home conditions.

Let us look at each area and see which side has greater strength in particular area.

Openers
Aus has stronger presence in this because of form Khwaja, and KL Rahul is in poor form, Shaw is inured and M Vijay is coming back

Middle order
Probably due to V Kohli presence Indian middle order can be considered little stronger, but then due to poor form of other players, It gets balanced out

Lower Middle order / Tailenders
Definitely Aus is stronger in this with Paine, Cummins, Starc vs Pant, Ashwin and Co

Wicket keeping
Paine is much better Wicket keeper than Pant and also better batsmen

Fast Bowlers
On any given day Starc, Hazelwood, Cummins are much better bowlers than I Sharma, Bumrah and Shami. Specially Shami being erratic on a given day.
Aus has bowlers in Hazelwood and Cummins to give them control and Starc to attack

Spinners
Here Nathan Lyon wins hands down against M Ashwin
Nathan Lyon is very good attacking offspinner who takes wickets as well as contain. It is difficult to attack again Lyon due to the line and length bowls.

Ashwin on foreign conditions is a very erratic bowler and cannot be relied to either take wickets and hold one side. That will be the biggest difference for Aus to do well in this series.

So my prediction is Aus winning this series 4-0

India vs Australia 2018/2019 Preview

Much awaited India vs Australia Test series is starting on Dec 6th, before that 3 match T20 series has already completed.

My brief analysis on the just completed T20 series.
Series ended 1-1 with 2nd match abandoned due to rain in the second innings.
My reading was India were lucky to end the series 1-1 despite pathetic fielding performance. Field was one of the worst performance from India in the last few years, even with safe fielders like Kohli, Rohit dropping catches and mis-fielding.

Overall positive for India from the series was bowling of Kuldeep Yadav and batting of Shikar Dhawan, and Dinesh Karthick.

Bhuvi and Bumrah were below par which resulted Aus scoring runs in the end overs and making competitive total.

KL Rahul continue with his poor form and seems like not showing any indication to improve.

Rishab Pant seems like not learning from mistakes and his keeping continues to be poor.

On the overall India should have won this series easily instead of 1-1 against an Average Aus team who consisted primarily of hitters.

Test Series
Early indications of form suggest it will be difficult for India to go with KL Rahul as opener for India. India should fall back with M Vijay. Regarding wicket keeper - Rishabh Pant continues to be below average, and I would like India to go with Parhiv Patel who also has previous experience of Aus tour.

At this stage it seems like 3 seamers will be Shami, I Sharma and Bumrah.
Spinners - Kuldeep Yadav should play instead of Ashwin

Practice match is starting from tomorrow (Wed 28th) - and need to watch out for any the possible lineup from this match.

India vs West Indies 2018 ODI Series - Review

• So after a promising start to the series, and at mid point it looked like Windies were going to create upset and probably win the series. But then they fizzled out.

In 4th ODI, in Mumbai although they got the run machine Kohli out early, they had Rohit to content along with Raydu. This match confirmed definitely Raydu as the number 4 slot for World cup. This match also brought out the best of Khaleel Ahmed, and potentially as 4th Seamer for the WC squad.

In the 5th ODI, It was even more disastorous performance from Windies, and there is noting much to write about this.

Overall from Windies point of view, they have very good young talent in Hope and Hetmyer who should be nurtured along with experienced Holder and Nurse. With some more experienced player joining the WC squad, I feel this Windies team can compete in England and can cause some upsets on a given day against top team like they did here in this series.

Coming to India performance, what do we know, what still remain concerns.

Top Three

• Rohit continues to one of the most dominant opener in ODI currently in the world
• Dhawan is bit lazy, and repeating the same mistakes again. So probably India needs to have a good back-up option for opener if Dhawan continues to be in this form
• Virat Kohli - continues to show why he is the Number one ODI player 

Middle Order

• Ambati Rayudu pretty much cemented his number 4 position in this series with couple of good innings
• Dhoni continued his struggle, and there are people now openly talking about replacing Dhoni with Pant
• Pant did not get enough chances, and in the brief period he was there at the wicket, he demonstrated how he probably can provide that thrust required in late innings while setting-up the target or chasing. Probably T20 series will give us more pointers on his ability and how he can perform in the international level in the shorter format
• Jadhav did not get to bowl, but showed in the one innings he fits well as a finisher role and part-time backup spinner

Spinners

• The 3 spinner slots are booked between Kuldeep, Chahal and Jadeja and probably it will be a toss-up between Chahal and Jadeja in the XI depending on the opposition and pitch

Seamers

• At this stage it looks like Khaleel and Shami are the back option for Bumrah and Bhuvi. Although Bhuvi himself has not been in a great form in ODI over last one year. But hopefully in the next few ODI leading-up to WC, he should get into the groove

Backup Batsmen, Openers

• At this stage it seems like it is going to be KL Rahul and Manish Pandey

So let us wait for Aus ODI series to see how well India can perform with this squad on more flatter surfaces which we are likely to face during WC in England

India vs West Indies 2018 ODI Series - Mid series review

Before the start of the series, one of the wish list was that this series will closely contested than Test series. Contest so far is lot better than expected, and West Indies despite missing some of their stalwarts has exceedingly well and done even better than India. In fact at this stage I feel Windies are more well rounded side than India on following accounts,
1) Their openers have given better start compared to famed India openers
2) Their number 3 may not have scored as many centuries as Virat Kohli, but has been solid and almost them won them 2nd ODI and was significantly responsible for 3rd ODI victory
3) Middle order is pretty is strong than India with Hetmyer playing good attacking innings in all 3 ODI and Indian bowlers are clueless bowling to him. It is more of him getting out than our bowling getting him out
4) Lower middle order and tail end is very strong than India - as evident in all the 3 ODI
Indian tail starts from number 7/8, while Windies number 10 also scores decent 20

India have a plenty of problem in hand and is more magnified because of missing all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Kedhar Jadhav.

Let us look at the performance so far by individuals.

Rohit Sharma - Played well in first ODI and sub-subsequent ODI's got out early. Difference between Legend vs Great batsmen. These 3 matches have shown why Rohit cannot become legend while Virat can. Rohit seems to get satisfied with 1 or 2 hundreds in a series,  while Virat wants to continue to do well for team despite however hard it is stay there at the wicket and score runs

Shikar Dhawan - After decent performance in Asia Cup, got into the rott again. Frustrating them Dhawan is he gets out in similar fashion and not seems keen to learn from previous mistakes. Dhawan can be easily taken out through off spinner and if the weakness continues into WC, then India needs to think about new opener for WC

Virat Kohli - there is nothing to review. Simply we can say Great !, Great !, Great !

Ambati Raydu - Initially before the start of the series I was preferring Manish Pandey over Raydu. But so far in the series Raydu has done very well and seems like settling very well at number 4. He is good against spinners which is what is required in the middle overs and also decent against fast bowlers. If we can improve his fielding, he will become good asset for India in WC

Rishabh Pant - He got chance to bat in 2nd and 3rd ODI, did play small cameos and showed us what he is capable of. But both the times got out to loose shots, which he needs to improve. His ground fielding is not great, but then his primary skill is wicket keeping. so sooner or later he will move into that role, and he is definitely a player worth investing and groomed for the long run

M.S Dhoni - Continues to be good Wicket keeper specially for spinner (which what we will miss once Rishabh become full time keeper for India), but is other skill batting is going down drastically. He has been dropper from latest T20 teams, but do not think selectors and team management will be bold enough to drop him from ODI team so close to the WC. But do not see his batting getting improved - so he has become big liability for India while batting, while he is asset during fielding due to his keeping and passing on experience to bowlers.

Ravindra Jadeja - Showed Asia cup performance was pretty much to nature of wickets in Dubai. In flat tracks in India and the ones we will encounter in Aus, New Zealand, and during WC in England - he will not help much. So once Hardik is fit, this all-rounder slot will got to Hardik

Kuldeep Yadav - Bowled well in patches. Going for lot of runs due to incosistent bowling, but very much capable or taking wickets in the middle period and creating impact on the match

Y Chahal - After good performance in first match, other 2 ODI has not bowled that well, Seems like batsmen are picking him well, in that case India will need to seriously consider some off-spin talent as backup. He specially is very against left handed batsmen many of the teams like Windies, England, Aus have lot of left handers in the middle order. So Chahal will be weak against them

Mohamed Shammi - Was expensive in the first ODI, but bowled very well in 2nd ODI including lot of yorkers. Rested for rest of the ODI series. Definitely my choice to get into the team as 3rd seamer

Umesh Yadav - Played first two ODI, and was expensive. He has good yorkers, but does not seem to have confidence to bowl them consistently. Still I feel he is better choice as 4th seamer in this squad compared to talent we have outside the team

Khaleel Ahmed Played first and 3rd ODI, bot the times has been expensive. Need to still go through first class grind before becomes long term option for India ODI

Jasprit Bumarh - No 1 bowler for India in ODI, and now probably number 1 bowler across formats. Nothing else to add :)

Bhuvi - Bhuvi is struggling in ODI setup since almost 1 year. He did not had a good outing during ODI series in South Africa, neither in England. In Asia Cup also - he did well only in one match. He seems to struggle once the batsmen start attacking him and in slog overs do not seem to have great control. He needs to work hard from now till WC to improve his death over bowling to regain the number 1 death bowling attack.

India vs West Indies 2018 ODI Series Preview

So as it gets nearer to 2019 ODI World Cup to be held in England, every ODI series, every ODI match becomes important.
At this stage based on current form England the number one ODI team is the favorite team to win the Cup for multiple reasons. 1) The all-round depth they have in terms of bowling and batting. They have 6-7 bowlers who can easily bowl quota of overs in a given match. 2) Their bowling line-up now has good mix of both Fast and spin bowlers 3) Their ODI death bowler are probably are the best in business along side India line up 4) Their middle order and lower middle lower order batting is the strongest

Along side England if one were to look for favorites - India probably gets tagged on that along with Bangladesh. Yes Bangladesh because of the way they have performed since the 2015 World cup and their performance can be reviewed in just concluded Asia Cup where they performed admirably well despite missing their top ranked players.

Now coming to this India vs West Indies ODI Series, it is expected for India to win this series. Windies are the champions of T20 format, but for ODI series - they are missing their some of the key players like Chris Gayle, Bravo, Russel, Pollard, Sunil Narine. So their batting line up mostly resembles what they had in test line-up. Since all these ODI's are D/N and held in winter, expect some matches to be effected by Dew despite early start at 1.30 PM IST. So if the Windies chase in some of these ODI - we can expect them to cause upset. India is also missing their seam bowler all-rounder and first choice seamers for this series (at least in the line up for first 2 ODI).

So let us look at what India will be trying to achieve in this series to fine tuning the squad for the World cup.

Top three batsmen are pretty much settled for India team, and only we need to find a backup opener. At this stage backup opener seems to be KL Rahul, But he is not getting much game time to grab that spot. I have seen India always getting to back to Ajinkya Rahane for that spot when ever that need has raised in the past. Ideally India test out KL Rahul some time in this series for backup opener slot.

Middle order and lower middle order is the biggest problem area of India, and compared to England this becomes even more glaring. Despite this India is still ranked favorite aside England is because of their top order and bowling unit. But what pulls them down is the middle order.

Dhoni has been out of form for more than area, and this out of form become more glaring during chasing. Dhoni's inability to rotate the strike is one of the major concerns. Unlike in the past, he seems to now also lost the ability to accelerate in the later stage to make-up for the slow strike rate in the earlier part of his innings. But he will continue to be there in World cup squad because of his experience and not because of his current batting form.

Kedhar Jadhav is another assure middle order spot for now - again not because of his batting, but due to his bowling :). 

Ambati Raydu is being tried for number 4 slot - but I am not convinced with his ability specially while chasing. He has come back to team based on his performance in IPL this year. But in Asia Cup, it showed again that he cannot translate his IPL performance to international level. Ideally I would have liked Manish Pandey to be played in this sport. Manish Pandey also adds great value to the team because of electric fielding.

Due to Dhoni's continue poor form and inability of Dinesh Karthick to grab that spot during the Asia Cup, India has gone to Rishabh Pant to give much impetus needed to their middle order. Rishabh Pant based on his IPL performance and his recent Test performance, certainly looks the good candidate to provide that much need boost in the middle order. But Rishabh also seems to not good in strike rotation against spinner as could be seen in some of the test innings. This could become problem in the middle order period specially against off-spinners. Hope Rishabh to find a solution for this issue. No one doubts his capability to play big shots though.

Spinners select them selves at this stage, and Jadeja has come back to contention as spin bowler all-rounder. Seam bowling all-rounder that will be much needed in England will definitely be Hardik Pandya and he is yet to recover from the injury occurred during Asia cup.

Another major thing India need to find before the WC is the backup Fast bowlers - with Bhuvi and Bumrah being the first choice bowlers for that spot. I had vouched for Shami and Umesh Yadav to be those bowlers after the failure of Shardul Thakur, Siddharth Kaul to grab those spots.  Hopefully both Shami and Umesh will do well in this series to confirm their spots. Khaleel Ahmed is also excellent option (being a left armer) and this series will provide him enough chances to grab that spot.

So overall expecting this series to be lot closer than Test series, and Indian team to get still competition and also find some solutions their middle order problems.

India vs West Indies 2018 Test Series - Review

India vs West Indies 2018 series has concluded as expected with 2 - 0 result for India. Like the first test second, 2nd test held in Hyderabad too ended within 3 days. But 2nd test was much close fought than the first test and sessions were won by Windies.

On day Windies ended the day in good position after doing badly in first two sessions. This was due to good performance from Roston Chase and their skipper Jason Holder who had come back from injury. Immediately Jason holder showed why he was missed so badly in the first test. In the first innings Roston Chase scored a well made century and India also suffered a set back on the bowling front in first 30 minutes when they lost Shardul Thakur due to injury after just bowling 1.4 overs. Shardul Thakur was injured even during Asia Cup, hence did not understand the logic of giving chance to him over Mohammed Siraj who had performing credibly for India A just few weeks back.

Umesh Yadav stepped up and bowled significantly to finish with 6 wickets - one of the best fast bowling performance by Indian fast bowler in India after Javagal Srinath.

During India batting - Prithvi Shaw continued to show his talent, while there was a continued failure for KL Rahul. Kohli, Pujara got out cheaply for a change, and Ajinkya Rahane and Pant had to play good partnership to steady the ship on 2nd day ending on a strong note for India. 

At the start of the 3rd day, India were expected to get significant lead and then expected to declare at some stage, and nobody were expecting the match to finish that day. But the first session saw a complete turnaround with splendid fast bowling by Jason Holder and co resulting in India all out with only 56 runs lead. But this lead was found to be significant with Windies batting again folding within 50 overs, with no batsmen making any significant contribution. Umesh Yadav again bowled impressively to finish match honors of 10 wickets first by an Indian after Javagal Srinath.

So the result was 2- 0 as expected and both the tests ending in 3 days. Next off to ODI series and expecting the series to be lot closer than the test series.

So let us review what check boxes India ticked as they head to Australia for a much tougher series later this year.

Openers
Prithvi Shaw has grabbed the opener slot with a very good performance with all the eminent Cricket analysts also appreciating his talent and his performance.

KL Rahul continued to deceive despite his talent and time is running out fat for him. Couple of more failures in Australia could see the door shut for him soon

Middle Order
Nothing much new happened on this front. Ajinkya Rahane continued to struggle despite his 80 odd score in second test. Pujara continued to be inconsistent. So going to Aus series, batting continued to be concern

Wicket keeper
Rishabh Pant batting continued to prosper and emerging as formidable wicket keeper batsmen for India. His keeping specifically for spinners to need to improve to build confidence about his keeping

Spinners
It was expected that Indian spinners to do well on the Indian pitches as mentioned by India skipper after the 2nd test, but in 2nd test in flatter conditions they were found to be wanting. India finished well and won the test primarily because their fast bowler came up with splendid performance. So the conditions that the Indian spinners face will face in Australia is similar to the one faced in Hyderabad - much flatter conditions. On these flatter conditions Ashwin continued to be Average. Jadeja is probably more second innings bowler. Kuldeep Yadav can be attacking options, but he also leaks too many runs. So this series did not solve who are those spinner(s) who should play in the Aus conditions and expected to do both containment as well as pick wickets.

Faster bowlers
Shami played first test and was rested for 2nd test. Shami also has been picked for ODI series, which is good thing. Shami will definitely be there in the starting lineup for Aus series.

Umesh Yadav who misses out in the overseas tours despite is strong showing on Indian conditions, probably has increased his chance to be the starting eleven this time around. But need to see on whose expense, as there are other strong contenders in Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah

Next off to ODI series where India has some problems in the middle order to solve and identify their backup fast bowlers options behind Bhuvi and Bumrah.

India vs West Indies 2018 - Second Test Preview

India vs West Indies 2018 series Second test is starting in Hyderabad from tomorrow. In the first test played in Rajkot - West Indies did not offer much of resistance to India's domination in the home front. West Indies were also considerably weakened due to absence of Kermar Roach and their skipper Jason Holder. Kemar Roach is certain to join the squad, where as there is still injury concern about Jason Holder, and we will know about his status only on the morning of the Test.

India meanwhile look to consolidate their home domination, but with one eye on the upcoming tough Australia Series.  Getting into this test KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane are still the concerns in the batting, and India would hope that both them get a good outing. They would also love to test their reserve opener Mayank Agarwal in this test before getting into Australia, but the question is whom they can rest. At this stage seems like they need to be decide between Pujara or Kohli to rest one of among them, but do not see Indian team management taking such bold decisions.

On the bowling front, we will more likely to see continuation of 3 spinners, but on the fasts bowling front, I seriously hope that they give chance to Mohammed Siraj in place of Shami to achieve twin objectives. 1) Give rest to Shami before the all important Aus series and keep him fresh, and 2) Test out Siraj for probably the 5th spot in the Aus Series.

Result wise, India should win this Test based on the performance of Windies in the first test, but Windies did gave good fight back in 2nd Test in England Series last year after the dismal first test. So hopeful for the similar fight back from Windies to give a good test to Indian team.

India vs West Indies 2018 - First Test Review

India vs West Indies first test held in Rajkot has ended today with expected result. It was expected that India will win this test easily, but probably did not expect such meek surrender from Windies and finish the test within 3 days given the flat nature of the wicket in Rajkot.

Windies were already weakened going to the match with Kemar Roach not being available for First test, and then Skipper Jason Holder pulling out on the morning of the test due to injury. Missing out on two key players further weakened their bowling attack. India debuted the talented Prithvi Shaw - giving first go over Mayak Agarwal for the opener slow and went with 3 spinner as expected.

Review of India performance

Openers
KL Rahul, continuous to concern in the opening slot for India with poor technique for incoming ball which was exposed by Anderson and co in England. Here Shanon Gabriel exposed that in the first over itself. Rahul needs to find solution to this soon, otherwise he will be repeating his England performance again in Aus against Michel Stark and Co

Prithvi Shaw showed why his talent is getting praise from lot of legends and former cricketers. Watching innings I felt like Virender Sehwag was again batting for India. His batting style and the speed at which he was scoring the runs matched well with Sehwag style of batting. So if Shaw does pretty well in Aus against Stark and co, we would have found good opener. His backfoot based batting style definitely suited for Aus conditions

Middle Order
Pujara missed out on another hundred on home ground (after scoring one against England in 2016), Kohli scored another with walk in the park style of batting almost taking no stress. His batting was also less intense after the grueling and intense tour of England, and seemed like he was getting prepared to long innings in Australia series
Ajinkya Rahane - continued to be concern, and still struggling to play long innings

Wicket Keeper
Rishabh Pant batting continues to replicate his domestic / IPL form in international level, but his keeping is larger concerns specially against spinners. He definitely needs some help to improve on this

Fast Bowlers
Mohamed Shami was at his best although he got only very overs to bowl, and Umesh Yadav did not get much to showcase.

Spinners
Ravindra Jadeja is definitely now going in the pecking order above R Ashwin in the spin bowlers all-rounder position - his allround performance in this test with first century, good fielding and bowling seems to increasing his chances of getting into the eleven in Aus series above Ashwin

R Ashwin batting to continue to slide, and his bowling was again average and bowled well only in patches

Kuldeep Yadav - bowled below average in first innings, but bowled exceptionally well in second innings and probably cementing his position for 2nd spinner slot for Aus series.

Review of West Indies Performance

Nothing much to write on this. Shanon Gabriel bowled well only in his first spell and in the rest of the spells he was below average. Sherman Lewis - right arm fast bowled who debuted in this test looks promising. Devendra Bishoo bowled well in patches, but also went for lot of runs.

In the batting in the first innings Roston Chase played well to score a fifty, and in the second innings Kieran Powell scored a well made 80+, but with no other significant contribtion, both the innings got folder within 200 runs handing India one of the biggest wins.

Next test will be in Hyderabad from 12-October, and hope the Windies will give a much improved performance and test the Indian lineup in both batting and bowling.

India vs West Indies Test Series 2018 - Preview

West Indies is India to play short Test Series (of 2 test matches), 5 ODI and 2 T20. West Indies were in India for a Test Series in 2011 too just before India left for Australia. Hope all remember the painful drubbing (4-0) India got at the hand of Australia during that series. Before that Series Aussies were not doing well and even drew their home series 1-1 against their neighbors New Zealand. Everybody were expecting India to do well and win the series despite drubbing received (4-0) few months back in England. But what turned out to be eventually was this, was the last series for the Wall (Rahul Dravid) and VVS (Very Very Special Laxman). Also this was the series that defined Virat Kohli in the test arena after the couple of Initial failures.

Now coming to this series, India will be soon travelling to Aus for a 4 test series and this time too they got 4-1 drubbing in England. I would look at this result more positively (compared to 2011) result. India were well within a chance to win 2 test and draw the last test and the scoreline could have been totally different.  India were let down in the spinner department and if one more batsmen had played along with Kohli, India would have worn that series.

While it is expected for India to win this Windies series 2-0, I feel Windies are not a push over.
Their bowling attack is good despite Kemar Roach will be missing for the first test. Windies Squad for test series has good fast bowler in Shanon Gabriel, Jason Holder and good spin attack in Devendra Bishoo and all-rounder Roston Chase.  Their batting also look much better compared to couple of years back with decent performances in England, and home season.  Kraigg Brathwite, Shai Hope, Roston Chase, Kieran Powell, and Shane Dowrich (Wicket Keeper) are all solid player and less flamboyant. Expect them to give tough fight to India.

India will have new opening batsmen for sure, and I am propose new opening bowler too :), in my proposed lineup

My Proposed squad for this 2 test series (not just for first test) is,

Opening Batsmen
K.L Rahul
Between Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw, I would like to go with Mayank Agarwal because of his consistency and his current form

Middle Order
Selects them selves with no alternative available at number 3 and 4 - Pujara and Kohli
For number it will be Ajinkya Rahane
I would not go with 6th batsmen for this series, and would like to go with 5 bowlers, reason is we should play 3 spinners in this series. More reason given below.

Wicket Keeper
Rishabh Pant

Pace Attack
Umesh Yadav more suited for Indian pitches
I would like Mohamed Shami to be rested from the Test series and instead played in the ODI series, as I see him as backup fast bowling attack for World cup with other people so far who have been tried are below average. I would like us to try out Mohammed Siraj based on his current form and may be this might help him to stake claim for the Aus series as the 5th fast bowler and may be build his confidence to get into World cup squad too. Siraj has been tried in few T20 matches, where he has not done well and may be good performance in these test matches will give him the confidence to do well in the shorter format

Spin bowlers
I am of the opinion of that basted on performance shown by Ashwin, he has played his last test in overseas condition. He has already gone twice to Australia and has not any improvement to bowl well in overseas conditions like England, Australia, South Africa. He has had enough overseas exposure to tune his bowling for these conditions, but so far not shown any improvement in these conditions. His batting also does not that well in these conditions and his fielding is anyway below average, hence  for me Ashwin cannot be part of the spin attack in overseas condition

Ravindra Jadeja - cannot be a attacking option in overseas condition specifically in the till day 3 of the test matches. But he is much better fielder and batsmen than Ashwin in these conditions, and if given a choice will play him instead of Ashwin

Now coming to one of the key ingridients for winning overseas series and in Australia, we need good spinner who can bowl well in flat conditions, and this means we need a good leg spinner. Kuldeep Yadav fits that bill. But we have not see Kuldeep Yadav bowling 25-30 overs in a day in test matches (he  has played 3 test matches, but not bowled so many overs). So in this Windies series, I would like us to play Kuldeep and make him bowl 25-30 overs and check out is performance and prepare him to that spin option for Aussie series

Let me know your views about this squad.

How the Indian Cricket ODI team is shaping up for World Cup 2019

While we look at the probable 15 member Indian squad for the World Cup 2019 to be held in England from end of May to July, let us look back at the Team India performance this year and see what problems have been solved and what remains to be solved.

India started 2019 with a bang, by winning the 6 match ODI series in SA convincingly by 5-1. This is the first time India has won any kind of Series in SA, and this score line was emphatic. The victory was mainly achieved due to Captain Virat Kohli tremendous batting (he scored 3 centuries), and spin twins Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav terrific leg spin bowling that bamboozled SA batting lineup which had already got bit lightened due to injuries to their star batsmen like AB villiers and Faf Duplessy.

This series showed once again that when their Top 3 scores, India will most of their matches, and now combine that with deadly spin combo in middle overs. However India middle order batting rarely got tested in this Series, and the problem did not get noticed much during this series.

After that next major ODI series was in England during July 2018. After T20 series win, there was a high expectation on Team India to win this series, and that expectation also rose after the resounding win in first match. The first match primarily won due to England team got bamboozled from leg spin of Kuldeep Yadav and then India top 3 chased the total in a canter resulting in easy win.
Next two matches India lost due to two reason. Their top 3 failed to score big runs and spin twins also failed to contain in the middle overs. Combined with this India fast bowling attack was depleted with the absences of Bumrah and Bhuvi missing in action. Middle order led by Dhoni was any already doing poorly failed to provide backup option resulting in 1-2 loss of the series. This series highlighted critical things for India ,
1) India will win easily their matches when at least 2 of their top 3 batsmen (Rohit, Dhawan, Kohli) score big. This is irrespective of chasing / setting up the target
2) For India top contain the opposition score, their Spin twins have to click big
3) Their fast bowling led by Bumrah and Bhuvi has to be there to contain in the death overs. We have seen that this attach does contain in the end slog overs even if they get hit in the initial overs. However we still good backup of fast bowlers as we have seen in England series that when these bowlers were not available, the backup did not do their job.

If the above 3 clicks, then India's middle order will not be tested, and will be able to hide its problems. This again got confirmed with Asia cup where Virat Kohli was rested , so only Top 2 was available.

In Asia Cup 2018, held in Dubai - after a lackluster start against Honk Kong, India won most of their matches convincingly, and in these following performances stood out,
1) Showed how important is for the Rohit, Dhawan to score big to help India chase / setup the total
When they did not score big (as in Final) or when they did not play against Afghanistan - Indian team struggled
2) Spin twins did again bowled well, when they were not taking wickets, they were at least containing the opposition batsmen, leading to wickets from the other end
3) Bhuvi, Bumrah combined well to contain in the initial overs and slog overs. When they were not there, again Indian bowling struggled

Performances which remained as concerns,
1) India middle order continues to be weak, and when the top 3 does not score, there is no one to rely while setting-up total and finishing well, and no one to steady the chase
2) Backup seamers - Except new boy Khaleel Ahmed, others were ordinary when they got chance

So how does the team stack-up now, that we have only about 20+ ODI to go before the WC,

Opening Batting
There is no Alternative (TINA) to Rohit and Dhawan
Seems like the backup opener at this stage is KL Rahul

Middle Order ( 2 to 6)
Presence of Number one ODI batsmen Virat Kholi, makes it a stronger but only when he clicks.
Now 4, 5, 6 - is still not completely decided
5 will most probably - MS Dhoni. But he is former shadow of what he was couple of years ago. You cannot bank on him to setup the total - basically finishing strongly in the slog overs, or neither you can expect him to be finisher during the chase, let us say there is a need to score 90 runs in last 10 overs. I do not remember last when India scored 90+ runs during the last 10 overs to win a match.

Number 6 seems to be leaning towards to Kedar Jadhav. Specifically due to his Golden arm and his ability tee off immediately after coming to bat. He does not take time to settle down, and immediately starts hitting and contributes with 20-30 runs most of the time.

Number 4 is up in the open, Contenders are Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthick, Manish Pandey.
First two were given chance throughout the Asia Cup, did nothing much to convince that they can take this slot.  During the Asia Cup, they were highlighting Rayudu having 50+ average, well we need to look at where did he score of most of those runs. As I recall most of those were from couple of series in Zimbabwe,  Sri Lanka when they had come to India in 2014,  and may be against Windies.

So I am not convinced with Rayudu, and Karthick - both are also weak fielders. Karthick probably getting selected also as backup keeper. Well for that I would go with Rishabh Pant (more futuristic selection) than Karthick which will take us backwards. Also there is KL Rahul as another backup keeper.

I would go with Manish Pandey just with this fielding abilities itself as we had seen during Asia Cup when he was on field as substitute. Also he did performed well when he was in the middle order during South Africa T20 series. Strangely was then overlooked for England series - primarily because of IPL form (which should not be the case)

All-rounders
I would like place Bhuvi above Hardik Pandya in the Seam bowling all-rounder because, you can bank on him to bowl 10 over every match with 40-45 runs or 50/2 and score 20 runs every match.

Other Seam bowling all-rounder will be Hardik Pandya-  not because he is doing great, it is just because there is no strong alternative available. Hardik is highly inconsistent. You cannot bank on him to bowl consistently in every match and contain the opposition team with say 40-45 runs in middle over, neither you cannot bank on him to score 20-30 runs every match. If does that - India will have another match winner

Spin bowling all-rounder will be Ravindra Jadeja - He was back in the team after more than a year and his performance in the Asia cup confirmed it. I was surprised that for this slot he was getting overlooked against Axar Patel.

On fielding - Jadeja, will be probably classified as the best fielder in India ODI team
Batting - definitely Jadeja is much better batsmen than Axa
Bowling - both probably at same level in ODI level - but Jadeja goes through his overs so fast, that it will also help India captain save some fine from slow over rate :)

Spin Bowlers
Yuzvendra Chahal
Kuldeep Yadav

They are good bowlers, but they are also weak in batting and fielding and they really need to do well in their bowling to help India win their matches

Fast Bowlers
Jasprit Bumrah - selects himself and number one ODI
Bhuvi is already selected above as all-rounder, and now we need backup seamers
I would go with Umesh Yadav and Mohamed Shami - because of their experience and we have also seen backup options like Shardul Thakur, Sidhharth Kaul were average at International level - not withstanding their performance in IPL based on which they were selected.
Other alternate option will be Khaleel Ahmed

So overall the 15 member squad with about 20+ ODI still go before WC looks like below for me,

Rohit Sharma (Vice Captain)
Shikar Dhawan
Virat Kohli
Manish Pandey
MS Doni (Wicket Keeper)
Kedar Jadhav
Hardik Pandya
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Jasprit Bumrah
Yuzvendra Chahal
Kuldeep Yadav
Umesh Yadav
Mohamed Shami
K.L Rahul
Ravindra Jadeja

Please let me know you comments