Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Common sense prevails Vijay and Rahul are opening.

Like the look of the team that India pick.

Vijay
Rahul
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Rohit/pandya
Saha
Ashwin/jadeja
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Shami
Ishant sharma

Only question is which spinner plays which isn’t clear cut or decided yet I would go with jadeja though and the other pick depends on the pitch, bowling friendly and rohit plays and flat pitch then pandya plays although reports states Rohit Sharma is 70% likely to play since they feel the extra batsman is more beneficial if the pitch got some life in it.

So SA play the keeper in the top six and five bowlers, and India the keeper at seven and four bowlers. SA going for the riskier/attacking option, which is fair enough as home side with control of the pitches.

Jadeja taken to hospital so Ashwin likely to start.
Hopefully jadeja recovers from illness.

Steyn will not be a part of first test. A huge relief for our batsmen, even so temporarily. Having said that Morkel and Rabada are dangerous too. Philly has the swing. If the wickets are flat then we will have some chance of drawing the series.

I think Team India will go with a cautious strategy. 7 batters and 4 bowlers. Once or only if our batters are used to the wickets and it gives confidence that they wills core runs, then probably think tank will go with 6 batters only. If we flop with the bat then 7+ 4 will continue in next test as well. I will be very surprised to see 6+5 in first test.
And in if at all we go with 6+5, Hardik will bat at 7.

Overall 5 specialist bowlers seems highly unlikely strategy to me as we are unsure about our batters performance here.

mikesiva wrote:Based on those comments this could be the team for the first test. ...

Elgar
Markham
Amla
De Villiers
Du Plessis
De Kock
Phehlukwayo or Bavuma
Philander
Maharaj
Rabada
Morkel

Reading the comments by Gibson a little closer for the first test Bavuma could get the nod over phehlukwayo. Seven batsmen and four bowlers. That could change for the second test.

Adi wrote:Steyn will not be a part of first test. A huge relief for our batsmen, even so temporarily. Having said that Morkel and Rabada are dangerous too. Philly has the swing. If the wickets are flat then we will have some chance of drawing the series.

Difficult to know if Steyn will be anywhere close to the bowler he was

Philander, rabada and morkel is a world class seam attack either way

Please consider your performances of 2017 on the CRICKET AWARDS thread.

backfootpunch wrote:

Adi wrote:Steyn will not be a part of first test. A huge relief for our batsmen, even so temporarily. Having said that Morkel and Rabada are dangerous too. Philly has the swing. If the wickets are flat then we will have some chance of drawing the series.

Difficult to know if Steyn will be anywhere close to the bowler he was

Philander, rabada and morkel is a world class seam attack either way

Injuries will definitely have hampered him, but still he has a huge reputation and he may comeback strongly enough even after the rest.

Yes, Rabada, Philly and Morkel form a very good pace attack together. But the pace is somewhat dying in the case of Morkel in particular. Pehluk... is also a handy backup bowler. Moves the ball away from righties and has a better pace than Philly.

Always feels a bit of a shame when a series of this interest is only three Tests.

Cricinfo is hedging a lot of bets on the elevens, so a few spots are uncertain.

Seeing how BD get on this year against WI and SL will be worth following, though Adam Voges might come out of retirement when they go to Australia. There's England v India, so I suppose India are in the two big events of 2018.

Yeah the series deserves 4 test or more, you can tell the interest is high when cricinfo got loads of articles on it and the players have been looking forward to this series for a while now.
The talking stop now though with the test starting tomorrow.
So buzzing for this series.

Sa vs aus will be massive as well.
3 and half big series played this year,
India vs England
India vs Australia
India vs South Africa
Sa vs Australia.
India vs Australia being a half because they probably only playing one test this year.

Really looking forward to this

Hopefully the pitches aren't flat

India likely to play 4 Seam bowlers with pandya set to play.

India is trolling commentators 5 seam bowlers all warming up and marking runs up will India play all 5 fast bowlers and leave out Ashwin.

Bumrah confirmed to make a debut intresting didn’t see that coming last week.
Good luck to him.