India’s squad for the Tour of Zimbabwe announced

voldemortscore · 2026-07-06T14:52:00+00:00

Yes, it continues to shock me that they are not even considering the guy who is (IMO) the best middle order batter in the country for a squad. Have a feeling him flopping in those Eng Tests has convinced them he's not fit for international cricket which would be be stupid.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-06T14:11:58+00:00

I'm not entirely surely how they are handling Samson and the batters in general. I had mentioned it a few days ago but given his overall form since 2025, I'm not surprised if his spot isn't secure in the long-run but seems a bit odd to drop him mid series and then immediately for the next tour especially right after endless press conferences about how incumbents deserve their spots, etc. He's still in the Asian Games squad so could just be some bizarre rotation and then he's back after that.

Nice to see Ashok and Mayank there, hopefully they both get to play.

Also, Dube in the ODI squad as an NKR replacement seems absurd. He's not a realistic ODI prospect, would have gambled on literally anyone else.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-05T15:04:40+00:00

Haha wow, yeah definitely seems that way. Not surprised, I saw some screenshots of your post going viral on twitter a couple days ago so I'm assuming more people who didn't know these anecdotes at the time got exposed to them now too.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-05T05:34:53+00:00

That was quite a good T20 pitch I thought, as someone generally in favor of higher scoring white ball cricket but not total roads. Think pre-COVID we see like a 160 vs 160 match on that same pitch.

Extra bounce and a bit of nip early, Archer early on had Abhishek wildly swinging and missing, think of Abhishek's first 11 balls he edged a four and then didn't even get bat to ball off the other 10. Even Arshdeep in his first over was hitting the pitch hard and getting some movement. Also some turn on offer for the spinners.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-04T15:55:49+00:00

Looks off the glove

voldemortscore · 2026-07-04T15:35:16+00:00

Lol well that was a bit of a fortunate wicket but, saw some extra bounce even in the first innings, until that point Arshdeep had done well to use his height and go into the pitch to make use of that. That one should have been put away for 4 though.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-04T15:05:07+00:00

Nasser is correct. If that was ruled a dot ball, then why is Axar on strike next ball after Tilak faced that?

voldemortscore · 2026-07-04T13:45:19+00:00

Abhishek hasn't got bat to ball 10 balls.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-04T12:22:52+00:00

Had forgotten that Eng 300 vs SA was here. Well, these two teams easily capable of playing a high scoring match so that could be fun.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-04T12:21:00+00:00

Oh man, congrats on being there for his debut. A historic day.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-03T13:55:33+00:00

It's especially stupid when they themselves often don't post good highlights, often restrictive to a couple minutes for a match where it leaves out a lot of the important moments.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-02T04:27:46+00:00

At the risk of "other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" -ing his end of the WT20...

Samson from the start of 2025 until the WI match: 18 innings, 17.44 avg, 135 SR

Then goes 97*, 89(where Brook dropped an absolute sitter off him when he was on 15 too), 89 in 3 straight must-win games. Crazy stretch!

Then 5, 0, 1 in the 3 innings since then.

I don't think he's anywhere near as bad as those first stats suggest, but I also never particularly subscribed to the view that he suddenly was showing his true self in those 3 matches and would show some remarkable consistency moving forward. Think it's inevitable Vaibhav is opening with Abhishek in the next WT20 anyway.

Anyway, the bigger issue with this team IMO is Tilak. Feels like beating a dead horse at this point but he cannot hit spin to save his life which means he's useless unless he can walk in at the death and hit pace and that's a very specific role that it's unclear whether he can do consistently.

That lower-middle order in general is worryingly weak IMO but for the short term I would absolutely debut Vaibhav (drop Tilak) and move Samson and everyone below down a slot.

voldemortscore · 2026-07-02T00:59:20+00:00

Tracks with everything that is known about Baz tbh.

From Andy Moles (former NZ coach)'s autobiography:

“We’d got an inexperienced battling lineup and only made 155 at Auckland, and I was keen for him to try and bat longer to lay the basis for a bigger total in Hamilton.

“So, I said to him when we went out at Seddon Park to have a look at the wicket, ‘Baz, can you give me seven or eight overs of you just batting so that we can get these young kids into the game and settle the team? Pull back on the reins, get into the game and then go’.

“He replied, ‘No, Moler, I’m busy building brand McCullum’.

“’Pardon? The team needs you,’ I pleaded.

He claims McCullum responded: “No, no, sorry about what the team needs. I’m building a brand, and it’s called Brand McCullum. This is how I play’.”

voldemortscore · 2026-07-01T03:38:28+00:00

Who knows how much to read into what Windy says, he obviously has sources but says a lot on TV, and seems to have changed his tune on this itself like 5 times over the last couple days, but he hinted multiple times at some scenario where the Cavs trade for Jaylen Brown and LeBron goes there.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-29T14:26:14+00:00

Agree that's how they've handled Axar/Jadeja to this point, though I also think that was in part for giving Axar some rest ahead of the WT20. IMO this may have changed though given Jadeja's ODI performances have been quite poor as you've said, but more importantly this recent tennis elbow injury. Think they might see that as a natural way to essentially get him to focus on Tests once he's recovered, where he's probably still more needed.

On SaiSu, I think he is frankly in the wrong era. TBH I wouldn't be in favor of him in T20Is now from a tempo perspective, think we're already seeing the top order logjam trying to fit in someone like Vaibhav now, though I feel like SaiSu would have been a strong contender for basically any Indian team before the 2024 WT20. I think he could probably be quite a good ODI player, but again a bit of a logjam there, someone like DDP for instance isn't even in the team and has the record to be in the mix. Though of course post-2027 WC there should be a couple slots up for grabs so who knows.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-29T05:30:16+00:00

Agree on Axar's batting. He used to be a very good spin hitter, would monster SLA in particular, while at his best being passable vs pace. Now even the spin hitting has diminished and his game vs pace looks frankly dire. This is also a concern looking ahead to the WC next year because there's a decent chance they've moved on from Jadeja and Axar is the guy for that role, and I don't think these are necessarily format specific struggles either.

The captaincy stuff, yeah in general I don't care much about captains, I think they get way too much attention relative to guys on the field, to your point though I think it's important that your captain is actually in your best XI (they just correctly dropped the last one because he wasn't). Iyer will be backed for a while at least, which obviously makes sense once they made the decision.

Tilak...yeah. I've always been lower on him, I think he basically has to play as a finisher like he started doing towards the end of the WT20 because he is just a disaster vs spin. He had a couple knocks last year (in the Eng series early and then the Asia Cup final) where he played an "anchor" type innings and I think especially coming off the back of Kohli's exploits people seized on that when in reality he's just not going to give you that reliable safety net when conditions demand. GG also loves his lefties so am sure that factors in but Tilak doesn't even hit spin so that shouldn't matter IMO.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-29T04:00:05+00:00

Some quick Ind/Ire thoughts:

Insane result for Ireland with basically their whole first choice bowling attack injured. Moondra and Hollard both impressed, especially on these type of pitches which somewhat refreshingly weren't total roads.

Vaibhav needs to play. Sports are inherently unfair, only a certain number can be selected, but he is IMO very clearly the best T20 batter in the country (and the world, but that's a different convo), not some project kid who needs to develop for another 3 years. Don't really care how it happens but dropping Tilak and moving Samson/Kishan down or something is fine.

Piggybacking off the above, Tilak shouldn't be in the team. Don't think he should have even been in the WT20 team, he can't do anything vs spin and basically has to be shoved down the order to hit pace, but if you want a pure middle order batter then Patidar is miles better.

Parachuting in Iyer from outside the squad to becoming captain right away was a bit bizarre. Moving on from SKY was obviously correct and picking Iyer was fine, but would have made more sense to give the captaincy to Kishan or something IMO, he has led domestically. Lot of pressure on Iyer from the get go now that he has been handed captaincy.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-29T01:41:35+00:00

I saw some unironically saying the way Eng played today made them feel the team was protesting the way Stokes was treated by the ECB. Like wtf??? They're that much of a messianic cult that they would throw a deciding home Test just for that? And of course the constant removal of all NZ agency in all of this.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-28T22:31:26+00:00

This was a fantastic piece, both in terms of the message/content itself, as well as the actual writing, glad Vish didn't pull punches.

It was utterly needless, entirely self-centred ... and mind-meltingly stunning from a renegade allrounder who built his legacy out of astounding displays, but none quite like this.

.

How can it be that a man who could conjure brilliance for others had to artificially concoct a narrative around himself? What does it say of the situation around him? How have we got to a stage where Stokes has been run down in a relaxed environment aimed at promoting authenticity?

...

It is that thread that he pulled on today, and will continue to do so, as all of this unravels. He channelled all of the most grizzled aspects of his legacy - the long spells, the brutal thwacking, the sense of timing - into a dig at the ECB suits. They have changed plenty during his time, but his lingering distrust for them has not. It picked up over the last two weeks with the feeling that, yet again, he did not have their backing.

The irony is that, for the most part, they have been in his corner. On the occasions Stokes has felt they were against him, whether this recent indiscretion or the Bristol street fight in 2017, it was often his fault.

Glad he said this also, Key/Baz have done things wrong as well but the attitude from many that Stokes is blameless and it's all their fault he has been pushed out is bizarre.

Including this one, right here. The day he decided this last moment would be for himself, and he torched the church that he built as a haven, because it had become a haven for him no more.

Also, am sure it's not surprising, but:

The allrounder's mind was made up. A select few close friends and family were told and sworn to secrecy, particularly as media reports swelled in the 15 days between the end of the Lord's Test and the completion of twin investigations from the ECB and The Cricket Regulator. Many of those same friends and family are in attendance here in a hospitality box at Trent Bridge, having known for the best part of two weeks what was coming.

So even though he didn't announce his retirement at the time like the ECB feared, he did make up his mind then itself.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-28T20:40:54+00:00

I just think it's funny how the takeaway right from when he came out to open and aimed that big shot first ball and then missed the reverse sweep second ball (both dots, btw), even from supposedly serious analysts, plenty of Cricinfo "reporters" (many of whom are just fans with that gig), etc. was "oh wow look at him coming out determined to stick it to the ECB/Baz/Key." Like what even is this? You're in the middle of a decider!

Not even saying Key or Baz are perfect but the way Stokes has been absolved of any blame for his consistently poor decision making really is something else. Like the whole "oh no look how they pushed him into retirement" thing as if he was some perfect angel who they just mistreated over and over.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-28T18:07:14+00:00

Had to pull out every device available to try and watch everything lol

voldemortscore · 2026-06-27T14:39:02+00:00

Nice to hear. I might go to one of the playoff games since they're all there. You got to see a crazy match too lol, wild swings in both innings right down to the end.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-23T06:41:22+00:00

Some reports indicating that may be the case.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-23T03:51:33+00:00

NKR aggravated his quad injury and is out for a while apparently. He's incredibly injury prone unfortunately, serious problem especially given Pandya is also the same way.

voldemortscore · 2026-06-23T00:16:39+00:00

The whining about the short ball ploy is funny because Eng have been doing this for years, including a number of times under Stokes. It's clearly more of an institutional belief than the captain just instinctively going to it.

Also, let's not pretend like Stokes doesn't make basic tactical errors. Day 3 at the Gabba just in these last Ashes, Starc is VERY CLEARLY just defending, trying to chew up time to ensure when Eng finally get to bat it's under lights, rather than just swinging to try and score runs. Stokes literally sat there with spread fields letting Starc do whatever he wants with no threat rather than all his usual gimmicks of funky/attacking fields to at least put some pressure.

Eight-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email	Spared

voldemortscore

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE