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***Official*** India in South Africa 2017/18

Bijed

International Regular
One of the main criticism of Kohli is that he usually goes missing in tough conditions. But in hypothetical scenario, if he were to have a godly series in SA like one of the recent home series against SL or England, then will it completely reduce the gap between him and Smith?
A godly series in SA would certainly close the gap between him and Smith, but what Kohli really needs is a good tour of England - basically averaging 40+ would I think get rid of his black mark in swinging conditions (which tbf is Smith's only potential question mark too). I think England is his only country where he's currently got a shocking record, so whilst he'd need an excellent tour (which could well happen) to make his overall record there good, a good tour now would mean there's no real holes to poke in his performances. On the whole, I think he needs a fairly extended period of very good away if he seriously wants to be considered Smithesque.

Because there are certain qualities that are unique only to Kohli; like scoring big hundreds and if he does that in SA, then I don't think he will have anything to prove for the time being.
It's amazing really that about two years ago a justified criticism of him was that he generally didn't do really big scores, and since then he's got 6 doubles from 9 tons, the other three being a 160-odd and two others which were 'small' tons only because they declared. Insane.
 
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vcs

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It's gonna be tough for Kohli's ego, been averaging in the high 70s for two years, yet got completely outshone in the head to head against Smith and now he's got a bunch of tough tours coming up and Smith's likely to pull further away from him. :laugh:
 

Chrish

International Debutant
A godly series in SA would certainly close the gap between him and Smith, but what Kohli really needs is a good tour of England - basically averaging 40+ would I think get rid of his black mark in swinging conditions (which tbf is Smith's only potential question mark too). I think England is his only country where he's currently got a shocking record, so whilst he'd need an excellent tour (which could well happen) to make his overall record there good, a good tour now would mean there's no real holes to poke in his performances. On the whole, I think he needs a fairly extended period of very good away if he seriously wants to be considered Smithesque.



It's amazing really that about two years ago a justified criticism of him was that he generally didn't do really big scores, and since then he's got 6 doubles from 9 tons, the other three being a 160-odd and two others which were 'small' tons only because they declared. Insane.
lol didn't even notice that!

Good observation..
 

SeamUp

International Coach
We've only got 2 lefty front-line batsman so it will be interesting if they go with Jadeja over Ashwin because of this.
 

Daemon

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I think it's very possible, the cheap 6-fer he got there last time round certainly helps. If they decide not to go with Ishant then I think it's even more likely because they'll want one guy to be a workhorse and keep things tightish.
 
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SeamUp

International Coach
It's harsh on Ashwin but would be the best call for the conditions and for India. If there will be any turn it in the 3 tests it will be at Newlands (the first test) so it may complicate things but Jadeja is more than good enough to adapt.
 

anaksr

U19 Debutant
Not sure what else Rahul should do. He's been in that form of late. He is not getting selected in tests then ignored for ODIs. That's some disappointment for someone of his calibre. I would pick Rahul over Dhawan anyday especially in SA coz I think that Dhawan will be owned by SA fasts.
 

OverratedSanity

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That is so ****ing lame. Of all the things they could've chosen for "bhagwan ka apmaan" they chose the 146 at capetown. Wtf
 

smash84

The Tiger King
Lovely! :)

Meanwhile, this is the **** the Indian TV channels are coming up with...


ugh, cringeworthy stuff.

As a neutral, quite looking forward to this test series. I hope they make really quick pitches. Would love to see the indian lineup facing up to the Saffer quicks on quick wickets. Should be a good contest
 

Daemon

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They got carried away after the first Mauka ad. Pretty cringe these days.

I think the worst one I've seen was from NEO back in 2011 or something. They interviewed a few random Australians and one dude was like "they're just a bunch of curry munchers". So bad.
 

vcs

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It's just utterly ****. It even fails at being properly jingoistic. When they said "Bhagwaan ka Apmaan", I thought they'd refer to Sachin's ball tampering incident.. instead they've shown him getting out after one of his best ever innings in Cape Town, like OS pointed out.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
It's just utterly ****. It even fails at being properly jingoistic. When they said "Bhagwaan ka Apmaan", I thought they'd refer to Sachin's ball tampering incident.. instead they've shown him getting out after one of his best ever innings in Cape Town, like OS pointed out.
So many things wrong with that I don't know where to start - when they talk about revenge they show the current teams in colored clothing only (clearly they don't hope for a test series win lol), the voice of the guy sounds like hindi dubbing of a cheap south indian movie, the shot where they show dravid getting hit was not a proper injury (come on lot of indian batsmen got injured in sa), and the tone was not like we want revenge or we want to win - it is as if winning is just a matter of time and then all the wrongs of the past will be undone...the morons don't even know how well indian teams have performed in some of the test series there earlier (2011 for example)
 

Arachnodouche

International Captain
You guys tend to forget who these channels are catering to; the average Indian cricket fan isn't exactly a beacon of grace and common sense.
 

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