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************Official IPL 2020******

Tom Flint

International Regular
Umesh outside the rough wickets of India always struggles though. His action just does not lend itself to consistent line and length bowling, at whatever pace. And he has lost pace now. So its very rough. The only plus with him is reverse and he does not have that here and generally in T20s anyways. He is still a great bet in India for tests as the second seamer (Shami being the only one who is clearly better in those conditions) but otherwise, its tough to keep him around overseas and even at home for LO cricket.

Shami has similar problem of often drifting down leg naturally due to his action but he seems to have worked very hard on overcoming it. He still does it now and then but it is far less frequent compared to Umesh. And he was the better bowler even before when both had the weakness. Shami's action is less prone to falling apart than Umesh's, basically.
No way is Umesh Yadav better than Bumrah in any conditions or in any format.
Imo
 

Arachnodouche

International Captain
If you're waiting to be 2 wickets down before your two best batsmen can have a bat, you're not maximizing your potential. Kohli should bite the bullet and open with Finch; he's not as good as AB at hitting out from ball one and needs to have the run of all 20 overs. Padikkal looks ok to slot in at 3 or after AB.
 

JOJOXI

International Vice-Captain
If you're waiting to be 2 wickets down before your two best batsmen can have a bat, you're not maximizing your potential. Kohli should bite the bullet and open with Finch; he's not as good as AB at hitting out from ball one and needs to have the run of all 20 overs. Padikkal looks ok to slot in at 3 or after AB.
Personally, I'm fine with Kohli at three - the problem is outside of Kohli and ABD there really hasn't been much batting there over the last year or two. As a result you have Kohli and ABD having to reign themselves in a bit and play with the pressure of knowing if they get out early, RCB most times will not win. The Indian talent across the IPL and particularly with RCB seems to be largely concentrated amongst top order batsman - I'm surprised Gurkereet Mann hasn't had a chance yet in the middle order but whilst its not like Paddikkal has never batted three before he's had a lot of success opening - if he goes to number three and has a poor run you probably end up binning your two best Indian batting options outside of Kohli just so Kohli can open (even more of a risk of that happening with him at 4) - with Parthiv already out and Paddikkal not playing in his favoured position.

Paddikal strikes at a good strike rate opening the batting and Parthiv has arguably been the only Indian batsman outside Kohli who can say they've made a notable contribution to the side over the last year or 2 and is a positive if not explosive powerplay player. In hindsight I'd prefer they both open the batting, Kohli at 3, ABD at 4 and an overseas batter at 5 whether that be Finch, Moeen whoever - would have preferred we bought one in the auction but can't turn back time and didn't look like there were too many options outside Maxwell.

It might mean Kohli gets a few less balls but if he gets significantly fewer it probably suggests the openers are utilising the powerplay, if an opener gets out early Kohli faces a similar number of balls anyway. The problem for me with Kohli at 2 and potentially ABD at 3 is opponents only need a solid powerplay and they've almost won. If we're say 50/2 after 6 overs with 2 of Finch, Kohli and ABD out the pressure is huge on the remaining player of those 3 at the crease. Some may say the remaining batsman outside those 3 needs to step up and I'd agree but I'm not sure the best way to achieve that is by playing them out of position or binning the best Indian batsman (after Kohli) altogether.

Kohli opening may get the best out of him (although I think by how much is often exaggerated - people often reference that 2016 season but the names in that batting lineup (ABD, Rahul, Watson, Gayle) are much better then now. Watson and Gayle didn't have great tournaments but I'm sure Kohli would've felt less burdened with that batting lineup than the current one. So whilst Kohli opening gets the best out of him I'm not sure it gets the best out of the team as a whole.
 

Pup Clarke

Cricketer Of The Year
RCB making some baffling calls in general. Under-bowling Washington Sundar, no Zampa, Kohli and AB at 4/5 in a run chase

Would like to see this for their next game : Paddikal, Parthiv, Virat, AB, Dube, Moeen, Washington, Morris, Saini, Zampa, Chahal
Think unless Phillipe opens then you can't justify playing him currently
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
RCB making some baffling calls in general. Under-bowling Washington Sundar, no Zampa, Kohli and AB at 4/5 in a run chase

Would like to see this for their next game : Paddikal, Parthiv, Virat, AB, Dube, Moeen, Washington, Morris, Saini, Zampa, Chahal
Think unless Phillipe opens then you can't justify playing him currently
Issue for them is that Morris is injured. If Morris comes in for Steyn, then the bowling slots become that much more well defined. Even if you wanna give Umesh one more game, you can bowl in the powerplay with Umesh and Sundar and if they go well get them to bowl all 6. Then you can attack the middle overs with Saini and Chahal and use Dube and Morris as specialist death bowlers.

Plus, they have only lost one game. Granted, they have lost it comprehensively which is a very RCB thing to do, but I wont be panicking just yet. Morris has a side strain apparently and that means they cannot rush him back either. They say it usually takes about 3-4 weeks to recover from those. So not a good look for RCB. Even if they get Zampa for Steyn, it may still be a worth while trade though. Zampa can bowl the middle overs and they can try Saini as the specialist death overs guy.

Feel bad for them, tbh. They probably picked Kane Richardson and Chris Morris to be their specialist death bowlers and both are injured. lol.
 

Tom Flint

International Regular
I said "Clearly better" coz Bumrah has not bowled in a test in India yet. :) He may well be but its not like its proven.
Not proven that's true ?
Yadavs 1st class average in India is quite good, 28. Bumrah is 23 but from just 40 games. Bumrah will have to go well to have a better test average in India though as yadavs is 24.5!
So you may end up being right anyway
 

Bahseph

State Captain
RCB look seriously muddled. We all know the batting is very reliant on AB and Virat,but there is no way a team can go far with that bowling lineup. I don't remember Umesh being a good death bowler,but Steyn for me never was. At this stage of his career he needs to bowl three up front and one in the middle. He became very hittable in Tests as well before he retired.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
The other option they have, of course, is to get in Isuru Udana to play the Chris Morris role of late order hitter but use him in the middle overs and save Saini for the back end.

To me, the best bet for RCB is to look at the T20 bowling inning as 3 different sections to be controlled by 3 different sets of bowlers.

Powerplay - Umesh and Sundar - Look for swing and early wickets with Umesh, control the hitting and get a lot of dot balls with Sundar.
Middle overs - Udana and Chahal - Attack with Chahal, defend with Udana - take you through to 13/14.
Slog - Saini and Dube - Hard length at pace mixed with yorkers and bouncers with Saini, variations of slower balls at different lengths with Dube.

And maybe get in Moeen for Philippe and maybe Parthiv for Padikkal if AB does not wanna keep. Parthiv/Padikkal to go bang at the top with Finch, Moeen to bat 5 and arrest any slide if that happens. Issue is Moeen's all or nothing batting in T20s but it maybe worth the risk. Or continue to show faith in Philippe and expect him to get good at #6 splitting the left handers Dube and Sundar.
 

Arachnodouche

International Captain
Sam Curran is such value for money. Reminds me of what Irfan Pathan promised with bat and ball until his career went south. England should always have him in their plans.
 

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