India v New Zealand (WTC FINAL, replay-- NAHHHHH) at the Ring of Fire, Dubai, 10/31 Sunday (N)-- Match #28, Group 2

[theegyptian]

In defence of the Indian players most of them have been on the go since when they travelled to England for the WTC at the start of June. WTC to England tests to IPL to World t20. As far as I can tell there was only 1 small break between WTC and England tests and that was in England rather than India. I don't know what is after this for India but that is quite a schedule especially in the age of covid with quarantine periods and the difficulty getting away from the game. It can't be a surprise if the likes of Kohli or Ashwin or Jadeja or Shastri are feeling tired physically and mentally.

Quite a few of the England players skipped the IPL for this reason and the others have had breaks in recent months. It's certainly paid off for Buttler. I doubt the Indian players had the option of skipping the IPL.

 

[Moss]

Definitely rings true at the moment. However, what I'm saying is if they set themselves as if playing for India was the pinnacle, they'd be tough to beat. But in this tournament, you've got 11+ guys who look jaded and as if they could not give a **** if they bounce out in pool play. Contrasted with NZ - every single guy in our set-up, their pinnacle is winning tournaments and series' for us. Even the IPL players. The ones who favour franchise cricket (and no criticism) they fade out of the national set-up fairly quickly.

Don't know if it's fair to say this Indian team doesn't regard playing for India as the pinnacle. Sure they do look jaded, but they don't really have a choice when it comes to the IPL - like it or not, the board has made it the highest priority event in the calendar and they don't have the freedom to turn out for overseas leagues. Not the best comparison maybe, but we could all see NZ weren't exactly setting themselves up for success during the Australia tour in 2019/20 and it led to a lot of questioning on the lines of "*this* is the no.2 side in the world?" but as I recall no one questioned NZ's commitment to the series.

When it comes to NZ players who favour franchise cricket (Munro is the main example - I'm not sure if he isn't contracted because of his unavailability, or the other way around), I understand you're not making any judgements but I don't know that NZ's approach is the greatest here. Seems a little unrealistic to expect all players to make themselves available for each and every international series in this day and age, and if you're serious about winning tournaments you pick the best players.

 

[hendrix]

Look, a 6 week t20 tournament does not impact negatively on India's national team performance.

If anything, it impacts positively.

 

[Moss]

Look, a 6 week t20 tournament does not impact negatively on India's national team performance.

If anything, it impacts positively.

In normal/ideal times, yes. But the below holds good IMO.

In defence of the Indian players most of them have been on the go since when they travelled to England for the WTC at the start of June. WTC to England tests to IPL to World t20. As far as I can tell there was only 1 small break between WTC and England tests and that was in England rather than India. I don't know what is after this for India but that is quite a schedule especially in the age of covid with quarantine periods and the difficulty getting away from the game. It can't be a surprise if the likes of Kohli or Ashwin or Jadeja or Shastri are feeling tired physically and mentally.

Quite a few of the England players skipped the IPL for this reason and the others have had breaks in recent months. It's certainly paid off for Buttler. I doubt the Indian players had the option of skipping the IPL.

 

[honestbharani]

Look, a 6 week t20 tournament does not impact negatively on India's national team performance.

If anything, it impacts positively.

I do think there is a factor of tiredness given how much most of these 15 players have been playing since June and basically been away from home the entire period. That said, we could have been fresh as a daisy but still performed almost to the same level (maybe taken a few more wickets, but that is about it). I suppose the tiredness is a factor in how bad we have been, but the reason we lost is the fact that we have to pick very unbalanced teams for this format and that is gonna bite us when few other things don't go our way. Teams like England and Pakistan (in these conditions) and Windies generally do well in T20Is coz they have more options with both bat and ball than just a bunch of specialists. I mean, we can still win if one of our batters has a field day from the top 4/5 who are all match winners in their own right, but it is just set up for inconsistency. Hopefully this brings about the long overdue realization that we need batsmen who can bowl and bowlers who can bat to compete in LO competitions at the international level.

 

[Nintendo]

Understandable. They're obviously povvos without the IPL and not at all wealthy from representing their country.

Not a shred of honour or decency among them. Or the Australian blokes who made themselves unavailable for the WI and Bangladesh tours but played IPL.

Or you. Though to your credit at least you're up front about it.

My favourite was Smith pulling the "I don't want to pull my elbow so I'm going to miss these tours and any other cricket I need to to be ready for the ashes" line then only skipping the WI and bang tour and going to play ipl for a franchise that where paying him **** all compared to his usual wage to warm the bench.

 

[honestbharani]

My favourite was Smith pulling the "I don't want to pull my elbow so I'm going to miss these tours and any other cricket I need to to be ready for the ashes" line then only skipping the WI and bang tour and going to play ipl for a franchise that where paying him **** all compared to his usual wage to warm the bench.

Gets to spend time with Punter... Silver linings.

 

[Nintendo]

Gets to spend time with Punter... Silver linings.

You make a good point. The things I would do to my computer if I was alone in a hotel room for weeks and randomly got into a zoom cool with punter jeezus Christ. I didn't know you could break the Geneva convention with strawberry jam and an acer laptop till today.