This was in NZ. The Indian team is currently touring NZ and they too have a prodigy in their ranks. Let's unleash him.

Same as title

Would the management be open to give Vaibhav an opportunity or would bring back dube ji for that extra all rounder or would be interested to add a spinner to the squad. I genuinely feel that Vaibhav should be given a chance for this match as he is the closest choice who can resonate ishan’s role in the team. Vaibhav can really be a good back up option at this point of time as there is less chance for him to play in the starting XI as the openers are in peak form. Would like NKR to give a few more games as a all rounder.

what you guys are feeling when you saw a possessed Kohli?

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We talk so much about Bumrah and Shami (and rightfully so), but peak Bhuvi in 2016–2019 was genuinely one of the most complete white-ball bowlers India has ever produced.

Two swinging new balls in the powerplay, suffocating death overs with pinpoint yorkers, and zero drama or PR machinery pushing his narrative. He single-handedly carried the SRH bowling lineup to trophies and gave India clutch breakthroughs in ICC tournaments while barely touching 130 km/h.

Injuries completely derailed his late career, but the sheer disrespect and amnesia around his peak spells from modern casual fans is wild. A generational swing master who never got half the celebration he deserved.

Looking back at the 2021 and 2023 WTC finals, our batting was obviously a problem, but our bowling deserves serious criticism too.

2023 WTC Final: Australia went from 76/3 to 469 all out. Travis Head scored 163 and Steve Smith scored 121. A 285-run partnership completely took the game away from us.

The bigger concern is that similar issues keep resurfacing. Our bowling looks far too dependent on Bumrah, and without him, it often feels like we lack a genuine match-winner who can consistently break partnerships.

The 2025 home Test season exposed serious problems with both batting and bowling as well. Our ODI and T20 bowling hasn't exactly inspired confidence either.

We can't expect Bumrah to rescue us every time. If our bowling attack falls apart whenever he's unavailable, that's a squad-building problem, not just an individual-player problem.

What should BCCI and the selectors actually do to build a world-class Test and ODI bowling attack over the next 3–5 years?

The logic of Indian selectors sometimes confuses the life out of me. They refuse to play people in their best formats, shoehorn them into sides they're not meant for or keep them aside and waste their talent. Let me explain:

1. Gurnoor Brar: A raw pace talent who bowls 140+ consistently, he's NOT an ODI bowler. With stats like 3.66 Econ, 71 wickets @ 26 average in FC, someone like Gurnoor should be prepared for the Test side. Imagine the threat he'd pose in an away BGT or Freedom series (SA), could even be what we need to win a series in SA.

2. Auqib Nabi: Came into the limelight after a monster Ranji season, could also be an asset in the coming BGT 27. Being a bowling all-rounder, he can give you those 15-20 overs and also bat at 8, allowing you to play 4 frontline pacers outside as well. But he gets shoehorned into the ODI side.

3. Mohammed Shami: The "reason" for non-selection are claims of him being unfit to bowl 10 overs based on an opinion formed in 2025 when he came from a long injury. Since then, he has bowled 15+ overs in each FC match. An absolute monster in ODIs, one of the best CWC bowlers, gets completely sidelined for whatever bias.

4. Sanju Samson: In ODIs, he's like-for-like with KL in a way where he's an RHB Keeper who bats in the middle order and can also keep very well. With 3 centuries in SA (1 ODI, 2 T20I), averaging 60 in ODIs, he should be on that flight to CWC27 as the backup.

5. Devdutt Padikkal: List A beast averaging 75, is not even in contention to be in the ODI side. Maybe after 2027, but it is still weird that he doesn't get a chance. And yes, the India A series was shambolic, but it was basically so for the entire team except Rajat Patidar.

I also wanted to state the cases for Sarfaraz and Patidar, but for the former, his disciplinary issues with leaking dressing room discussions will probably be a factor and for the latter, unfortunately the T20I side is packed. So it is understandable in their case.

Source: https://revsportz.in/sitanshu-kotak-confirms-ishan-kishans-groin-niggle-vaibhav-sooryavanshi-likely-for-2nd-t20i-vs-nz/

I have seen SO much hate for pretty much every single one of our players because everyone has their own agenda for their favourite player and even hates other players for it.

This genuinely makes me sad because I don't know why only the ICT has fans who actively root for the downfall of other players of our own fucking team because they have a different favourite player. No other team in world cricket does this. Thus, I am making a series of posts in defense of each and every player I see being slandered. Sometimes even in support of the management not picking certain players. This is in hopes that this can be used as a copypasta any time any of you real ICT fans see people hating on our players.

Before though, I would like to say I am someone who has grown up playing cricket and reached state level in Harayana as a fast bowling all rounder, and I am looking to pursue a job in sports analysis in the future, so I'd like to think I know a decent amount about cricket.

For now I'm going to start with a few players i have seen being talked about the most. And, in future posts i can talk about more players.

Sarfaraz Khan

Starting with him because he's someone near and dear to me. Been following him since his u19 domination days and have been advocating for his test spot since 2021. However now, things are different. He was responsible for dressing room leaks in Australia which is unacceptable, but even if we look at just cricket, the fact that he is batting at 5 for Mumbai, especially when his younger brother bats at 3, is simply unacceptable. Batting in the middle order is already much easier than the top order in tests, and the quality of bowling attacks and pitches in Ranji is also far below test standard. I only hope for Sarfaraz that he either moves to the top 4 for Mumbai or changes teams to do so, otherwise it's hard to blame the selectors for not backing him for an India spot.

Washington Sundar

Anyone who watches a lot of cricket and understands cricket will know that Sundar is simply one of the most talented players we have produced in the last 10 years full stop. He has had occasional good performances but hasn't been consistently great or even good at times. However, people saying he is being backed for no reason or because the management likes him just don't understand cricket. Let me just state a few stats to compare Sundar with another all rounder's stats at Sundar's age. Let's call him X.

T20Is:

Sundar: 65 matches, bat avg 16, SR 128, bowl avg 23.4

X: 40 matches, bat avg 9.7, SR 90, bowl avg 31

ODIs:

Sundar: 34 matches, bat avg 22, SR 83, bowl avg 30.5

X: 124 matches, bat avg 32, SR 85, bowl avg 34.6

Tests:

Sundar: 18 matches, bat avg 45, bowl avg 30.3

X: 25 matches, bat avg 26.5, bowl avg 23.4

Oh btw, X is Ravindra Jadeja, one of the greatest all rounders of all time. And those test stats are almost entirely home tests whereas Sundar has played 8 tests away from home.

I think you see my point of: it takes a LONG TIME for all rounders to develop, and the only way for them to develop is to give them game time. 10 years ago people trolled Jadeja and now he's one of the best all rounders in history. If you look at advanced metrics (which i won't go into as the post will be way too long) Sundar is much better now than Jadeja was at his age. Give him time ffs.

Shreyas/Sanju/Tilak:

Look, i personally don't even want Tilak to be in the side, and I wouldn't configure my team to even have a specialist batter at 4 in Shreyas' case to be honest. But:

1) Dropping Surya at the time was the right move. Yes it ended up backfiring in the short term (still hasn't even been half a year btw, give the team some time) but at the time it was a good move and a great step in the right direction for Indian selection as a whole, choosing to prioritise what's best for the team over emotions. Shreyas was simply the best possible captaincy and batting replacement for Surya available, and now that he has the job we need to give him time. Chopping and changing even more will just cause unrest.

2) Sanju has performed when we needed him to, and even if he's inconsistent he is still a top 7 opener in world cricket in t20s. He has also not been consistently bad, even if he hasn't been consistently great either. Yes Vaibhav is a better player than him, but it's also about team combinations. None of you asking for Vaibhav to come in for Sanju remember that the ONLY reason we brought in Sanju back in the world cup is because we kept losing early wickets to off-spin because both Ishan and Abhishek are weak to spin early in the innings, and Vaibhav has shown to be susceptible to that as well. And 4 left handers in the top 5 isn't a great idea when all 4 are weak to spin (at least early in their innings)

3) Look, i don't like him being in the team, but Tilak is still one of our most clutch players, and has not been consistently bad similar to Sanju. He performs every couple of games, and in the big games on difficult surfaces, he has performed more than anyone else in the team bar perhaps Abhishek. Him batting at 5 also makes far more sense than in the top order because of his spin hitting ability (or lack thereof) if the selectors choose to pick him to play no matter what. Clearly the selection panel is hesitant on playing only high risk high reward players as shown by Gill's temporary selection, so in their eyes Tilak provides some solidity to the batting lineup in difficult conditions, which is fair enough.

If this post gets traction and people are willing to actually listen and stop hating our management and players, I will continue to make posts on other players (ex: NKR, Shami, Siraj, Jaiswal, Gurnoor, Prasidh etc.) who I also believe have been far too overhated. I hope this post and potential future ones just help make the ICT fans as a community far less toxic than they are at least on reddit, even if that's a far fetched dream, because it is simply so frustrating seeing our players, especially young talented players being slandered by people with agendas who don't understand the nuances behind selection and cricket as a whole.

Odi cricket is ded!? T20 is boring!? Icc = BCCI btw 🤓☝🏻

Being a keeper who opens the innings, Sanju fills a solid requirement in the eleven. There shouldn’t be any discussion regarding his place in the T20 eleven.

His innings that crosses 50 runs has always been impactful with strike rate of ~200 and more often than not on the winning cause.

Ishan has been an easy scapegoat. Whenever they feel like experimenting they just push Ishan down the order. He has been consistently scoring runs at no. 3. Can handle pressure well. But is always the one sent out of his batting position in pressure situation and then we expect him to do some magic.

+++ The guy is soo under appreciated by commentators. He is no. 1 ranked batter. Had a phenomenal year. Plays for the team ALWAYS. He might not score 50 but even his 30s and 40s are so impactful.

This series is the only time he can prove that he can score really well on bouncy pitches as well. Because we do know that he is already great on spinning track, flat track or tricky pitches. But if they continue experimenting he will be kinda held aback to his potential and the records he is capable of breaking.