Ashwin for the Australia series

[h_hurricane]

I have zero hope on Pandya lasting 2 days let alone a test match. While watching the IPL match yesterday in the super overs, while running one of those borderline twos, he was run out yards behind. A fully fit Pandya would have made it I reckon. Also, has he bowled anything in this tournament ?
I also don't remember him playing any tests last 2 years, and may be no first class matches as well.

Ashwin has at a bare minimum one solid test match in Australia. Apart from his good show in Adelaide last time around, his partnership with Pujara in the first innings is under-rated. India would not have won the match without that.

Not advocating for Ashwin + Jadeja here. It seems though that it is a better option than Pandya breaking down in the middle of a match and throwing all plans to water.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Who's the third seamer in Ishant's absence, assuming he doesn't recover in time? If it's Umesh (or anyone else not named Ishant for that matter), chances are he's going to spray it all over Australia, forcing Bumrah and Shami to cover his ass by bowling more overs than they should. Those two will eventually decide how we go and protecting them should be an important consideration in what bowling combo we select. That's where the Jadeja+Ashwin duo become relevant to the conversation.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Pandya's test career looks like its completely derailed tbh. A 2 year absence is hard to bounce back from. I think Jadeja's batting is actually more reliable too, so not keen on him being picked anyway.

 

[honestbharani]

Pandya did get a fifer in England. Personally I think India are better off stacking batting.

Its what we have done every time, including in RSA and England last time and we keep getting beaten. When you have a top 3 of fast bowlers who are so much better than the rest (esp. the top 2) I think it pays to make some changes that can help manage their workloads too. Its not like we are dropping a VVS Laxman or a Sourav Ganguly at #6 either.

 

[weldone]

I think Jadeja's batting is actually more reliable too.

In fact Jadeja's batting is so much better than Pandya's in the longer format that they're not even comparable. Jadeja has 10 FC centuries 3 FC triple-hundreds with an FC average of 47. Pandya has 1 FC century with an FC average of 30. The fact that some on this thread are even suggesting Pandya to be the better batsman shows that they watch too much T20 / don't follow Indian FC cricket.

 

[h_hurricane]

Even 10-12 years back, the players who wanted to make it to the test team used to put in the hard yards in FC cricket. For instance, Yuvraj played a lot of FC cricket making a lot of comebacks to the test team in late 2000s. That he was not good enough to cement his place in the team is a different matter altogether. At least he tried.

In present times though, you would see players not playing FC cricket for ages are still under selection radar for tests. Just looked up in cricinfo, Pandya last played a first class match in December 2018. That is way too much of a gap for him to be in reckoning.

 

[honestbharani]

TBF, the Pandya thing is because he plays all the LO stuff for us and is either unavailable or injured during the FC season.

 

[Arachnodouche]

There's no doubting his talent and confidence. I thought he was developing nicely before the injury arrived and would have been a fixture in the Test side by now. Whether he wants to pursue long-form cricket over the hit-and-giggle stuff is a different matter altogether, but I have a lot of time for him as a player.

 

[weldone]

Nah he is too overrated in the longer format. Pandya has not proven himself to be test standard yet. I also can't think of a single test team (except the minnows) where he'd be an automatic selection.

 

[Burgey]

Its what we have done every time, including in RSA and England last time and we keep getting beaten. When you have a top 3 of fast bowlers who are so much better than the rest (esp. the top 2) I think it pays to make some changes that can help manage their workloads too. Its not like we are dropping a VVS Laxman or a Sourav Ganguly at #6 either.

This is why I thought Pandya would be so useful for you guys. Even 8-12 over a day of decent stuff which doesn’t let the pressure off is really handy

what’s his injury anyway? Reading th past couple of pages it sounds alike he’s been out a while.

I love build ups to big series. Most interesting time imo is the discussion around team balance/ line ups etc.

 

[Burgey]

Who's the third seamer in Ishant's absence, assuming he doesn't recover in time? If it's Umesh (or anyone else not named Ishant for that matter), chances are he's going to spray it all over Australia, forcing Bumrah and Shami to cover his ass by bowling more overs than they should. Those two will eventually decide how we go and protecting them should be an important consideration in what bowling combo we select. That's where the Jadeja+Ashwin duo become relevant to the conversation.

what about Bhuvi Kumar? Is he crook as well? He’d be handy under lights and bowls tight

 

[Starfighter]

I'd be tempted to pick Siraj, but maybe that's just me.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Nah he is too overrated in the longer format. Pandya has not proven himself to be test standard yet. I also can't think of a single test team (except the minnows) where he'd be an automatic selection.

11 Tests is hardly any sample size for an impetuous young player tbh. He has a 5-fer in England to go with a 100 in SL and a counterpunching 90 odd in SA. We've seen worse people persisted with for longer.

 

[Arachnodouche]

what about Bhuvi Kumar? Is he crook as well? He’d be handy under lights and bowls tight

Thigh tear, but I doubt he'd have been in the running for Aus even if fit (maybe as fifth seamer, but selectors appear more inclined towards blooding a youngster like Saini in that role). Still not sure what he's done to be binned tbh.

 

[Daemon]

Pandya actually did fairly well in his short career in Tests and added balance that we’d been lacking. Looked very promising imo, his pace was up around mid to high 130s, was getting the ball to do a bit and he didn’t look incompetent or anything with the bat.

He’s not an option for now though, clearly.

Bhuvi should have always been our back up to the top 3 ever since Bumrah came along (maybe Yadav over him in India), but he’s a bit of an injury concern too.

 

[weldone]

In Australia, I'd have Yadav and Siraj over Bhuvi as backup - except in the pinkball test.

 

[Burgey]

So, it seems from what you guys are saying that there'll be no Hardik on offer for India in Australia this summer.

 

[Nintendo]

Do India pick hardik in the LO stuff if he's not bowling by the time they tour aus? Assuming not.

 

[TheJediBrah]

So, it seems from what you guys are saying that there'll be no Hardik on offer for India in Australia this summer.

I think you're forcing these jokes about Hardik a bit

 

[stephen]

I think you're forcing these jokes about Hardik a bit

Rich coming from a guy who is constantly whining about bowlers getting Head.