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The Great Indian Middle Order Crisis Thread

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
A simple solution: don't let the test specialists get anywhere near the T20s, pay them a little extra and tell them to play Ranji trophy, county cricket and some sort of domestic 4-day cricket abroad to constantly work on their game instead of the IPL.

Mayank messed up his technique for the IPL, Pujara wants to be a part of the IPL and so does Rahane, surely they try to play with a different technique when they train for the shorter formats? We have enough resources to pick specialists for both tests and white ball cricket. A core group of players should be kept away from white ball cricket. Kohli can play whatever the hell he wants coz he has shown that he can easily adapt, but he is an exception. Same with Pant, he is naturally aggressive and doesn't change his game no matter the format.

We can keep Vihari, Mayank, Pujara, Rahane, etc. away from white ball cricket for their long term returns in tests. Again, these are very tough calls but they have to be made.
 

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
Pujara is as away from white ball as a player can realistically hope to be, he is in terrible form anyway.
He was picked by CSK and took part in their training sessions. There are videos of him practicing as well if I am not wrong. And there's no way he would have approached those training sessions with the same technique that he had against the Aussies in the test series.

Also, ODIs are just an extended version of T20s at the moment with 2 new balls, flatter pitches and field restrictions. So whether it's T20s or 50 over cricket, batsmen will have to focus more on hard-hitting than conventional stroke play. Instead of batsmen switching back and forth between red ball and white ball cricket and making adjustments to their technique, it would make more sense to pick as many specialists as possible.
 
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Slifer

International Captain
Tbf, this isn't unique to India. As a west Indian I'd gladly take an occasionally struggling Indian middle order over our primary school standard middle order.
 

deerkick

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
The one problem with specialists is that every single Indian batsman wants to be involved in the white ball setup. That's unfortunately where the glory is since the majority of Indians care about white ball only. Even someone like Gill who can be a 50 average test bat said in an interview the pinnacle in cricket is to win a world cup, doubt it holds up to the Gabba win for him.
 

karan_fromthestands

State Captain
The one problem with specialists is that every single Indian batsman wants to be involved in the white ball setup. That's unfortunately where the glory is since the majority of Indians care about white ball only. Even someone like Gill who can be a 50 average test bat said in an interview the pinnacle in cricket is to win a world cup, doubt it holds up to the Gabba win for him.
It's about compensating them enough and making the plans clear from the get go. Someone like V Iyer can easily be told to focus on white ball cricket while Vihari has little to no chance of making it in the shorter formats so it's better to have plans for him accordingly.
 

Kilowatt

School Boy/Girl Captain
If Pujara and Rahane are to be ditched for good, then they shouldn't be replaced by hacks like Iyer and Vihari, but with Gill and Shaw. The younglings aren't perfect but atleast they are not sitting ducks against pace bowling.
 

Xix2565

International Debutant
Wtf Vihari just had a decent India A outing here averaging over 50 and Iyer didn't immediately fall to the likes of Southee/Jamieson. Gill and Shaw are definitely the future but come on, no need to disrespect the current members in contention for spots.
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
Vihari is going to be fine at home. I just don't think of him as a long term solution because he is very limited in scoring options against pace bowling in suitable conditions away from home. Even at home, I think Shaw can do at least as well as Vihari and has much more upside for the future.
 

Chrish

International Debutant
Yeah terrific prospect.. Looked like a proper test bat when he batted in Australia unlike Thakur who just seemed to be taking a swing at each ball.

Hope his dad who kept running his mouth doesn’t affect his test career..
 

Flem274*

123/5
I don't understand how Pujara and Rahane have literally become half they players they were

They wouldn't even make the English side atm
tbh they would.

Pujara and Rahane might give you some of the old magic. Pujara sorta has at times. Crawley, Hameed, Bairstow?...nah
 

cnerd123

likes this
We've had this issues with transitions since the Sachin/Dravid/Ganguly/Laxman era. Took us ages to move past them once they were declining and now the same here.

Once you've established yourself as a somewhat great middle order player you basically get to play for as long as you like, selectors don't have the balls to drop you.
 

OverratedSanity

Request Your Custom Title Now!
We've had this issues with transitions since the Sachin/Dravid/Ganguly/Laxman era. Took us ages to move past them once they were declining and now the same here.

Once you've established yourself as a somewhat great middle order player you basically get to play for as long as you like, selectors don't have the balls to drop you.
Apart from Kohli the others aren't fit to lace Tendulkar and Dravids boots and don't deserve the long rope given to them.
 

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