Cricketing Thoughts

Since 2000, India have had 5 Test series defeats at home.

2000 vs South Africa
2004 vs Australia
2012 vs England
2024 vs New Zealand
2025 vs South Africa

You can see above, after a home series defeat, the next one is usually after a considerable gap which suggests after one defeat, there's usually a course correction.

But the last 2 series defeats are just a year apart, almost back to back and this suggests there's been no course correction, analysis or attempt to change anything since the 2024 0-3 series defeat against New Zealand.

The thing that struck me as odd about Gautam Gambhir as coach is how he approaches Test cricket like its the same as an ODI or T20 game and his comments repeatedly make it clear that he doesn't understand the difference in the formats.

In his first Test match as Coach, Sarfaraz Khan makes his debut, replacing Virat Kohli at 4 who was injured and scores a 150 on debut in the 2nd innings.

In the next Test match, Sarfaraz is pushed to number 6. Now you can say that once Kohli is back, its natural he would be pushed down.

Ok then he could have batted at 5? Now you can say that's Rishabh Pant's settled position. Okay so 6 is the only spot available for Sarfaraz.

But then, in the same match, in the 2nd innings, Sarfaraz is batting at 7, as Washington Sundar is pushed ahead of him.

In the 3rd Test 1st innings, Sarfaraz is again sent at number 7, Jadeja promoted ahead of him. In the 2nd innings, Sarfaraz gets number 6 again.

The reason provided is to keep a left-right combination. And this is what I mean by Gambhir not understanding the difference in formats.

This is a strategy from ODI/T20 cricket where in the middle offers outside of PP and death overs, you try to keep a left-right combination for strike rotation, to unsettle the spinners and make them adjust their lines. In white ball, you have to be flexible with your batting positions, and mostly you use floaters based on the match situation and stage of the game.

MS Dhoni famously promoted himself ahead of Yuvraj to maintain a left-right combination with Gambhir at the other end against Muralitharan in the middle overs.

Have you ever heard of anyone using this strategy in Test cricket?

In Test cricket, you have settled batting positions, not floaters. India's Test batting line up has always been right hander heavy and these are some of India's famous middle orders.

3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Virat Kohli

and then

3. Cheteshwar Pujara
4. Virat Kohli
5. Ajinkya Rahane

Can you imagine anyone meddling with this line up to send a left handed floater to bat with Dravid or Kohli to have Left-Right combination?

And now look at India's selection and combination and batting line ups for this Test series.

In the 1st Test, India went with 6 bowlers, (3 all rounders, 4 spinners) and India barely needed them. Washington Sundar ended up batting at 3. India also went with 2 wicket keepers, playing Jurel as a specialist batsman at number 4, same position held by Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.

In the 2nd Test, again India went with 6 bowlers (3 allrounders, 3 spinners) and ended up barely using Nitish Kumar Reddy, the seam bowling allrounder. Once again Jurel played at number 4, a backup wicket keeper batting in the most important batting position.

Now look at his statements today at the end of the 0-2 loss. He immediately cited the Asia Cup and Champions Trophy as successes without understanding they are different formats.

Gambhir reflects a fundamental flaw in thinking that a lot of 80s, 90s and some 2000s cricketers have - inability to see the formats as fundamentally different from each other.

20 years ago when Gambhir made his debut, Cricket was very different. There were 2 primary formats and you generally played the same XI. The game did not require vastly different skillsets and a Test players like Dravid ended up being ODI Captain and playing 344 ODIs.

By 2010s, this had completely changed. Aaron Finch is Australia's T20 WC winning Captain, but complete failure in Test cricket.

Rishabh Pant and R Aswhin are two of India's finest Test match winners but neither Pant nor Ashwin had the same success in White ball.

Gambhir's failure to see Test cricket as a different format that requires totally different thinking, skillset and approach from White Ball is why Indian Test team under him has completely fallen apart.

India's greatest Test team under Kohli-Shastri management had a core group of Test specialists, from Murali Vijay as opener to Pujara, Rahane in the middle, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma in the Seam department.

The idea Test XI is

5 specialist batsmen
1 wicket keeper batsman
1 all rounder
4 specialist bowlers

You build a squad with that in mind. You should have a backup opener, and at least 2 backup middle order batsmen in the red ball pool who can replace if anyone gets injured.

If Jadeja is playing as an allrounder, you don't need Nitish Kumar as seam bowling allrounder in Asian conditions.

And lastly, Dhruv Jurel is a wicket keeper, he should only play if Pant is injured or dropped. There is no way in hell he can be a replacement for a position filled by Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.

Starc will finish with 450 Test wickets, WTC Trophy, 2 x ODI WCs, 1 x T20 WC.
Shaheen will finish with PSL Trophies.
Difference in Levels

No Cummins, No Hazelwood
No Problem, says Starc!

The more you give to Test Cricket, the Test Cricket will honour you.

Shaheen Shah Afridi's focus is tinpot leagues so that's his level now, winning tinpot league trophies while Starc has WTC, 2 ODI WCs, T20 WC and 400 Test wickets

What Pakistan expected from Shaheen in test cricket …
But …

Some thoughts before the

As always, Test cricket is largely decided by pitch conditions which determine a whole range of things from Playing XI to Individual Performance to Results. Sometimes these factors can even end a Career. That's what makes Test cricket the most exciting format because so much of it depends on physical factors beyond the control of the player.

However, one thing that has gone unreported is the impact of Climate Change on Cricket.

Australian Summers are no longer as hot and dry as they used to be, just like English Summers no longer see as much rain as they used to.

One of the main reasons England have performed so horribly in Australia in the last 15 years is because their main strength, Anderson and Broad were almost neutralized, barely getting much lateral movement.

Look at some of the scores from a few years ago, you regularly see 400/500+ scores at least by Australia if not the other team.

Now compare that to 2023-24 home series.

Both the Pakistan-Australia series of 2023 and India-Australia series of 2024 saw relatively low scoring games, with more assistance for seam bowlers. Mir Hamza and Aamir Jamal bowled well in perhaps Pakistan's best seam display in Australia since Asif in 2009.

In the India vs Australia series, we saw low scoring games, batsmen from both sides struggling and Scott Boland ended Virat Kohli's Test career.

Test matches in Australia barely used to see rain before. Last summer we saw plenty of rain, and a match was drawn because of that.

Now coming back to Ashes, the much hyped Bazball relies a lot on flat pitches to enable fast and high scoring. Bazball would have perhaps helped England win in Australia 4-5 years ago.

But back then, England relied on Anderson and Broad who were neutralized by the flat and dry pitches. Bazball no longer relies on Anderson/Broad, but now England will likely get conditions that assist seamers but not Bazball.

Bazball scored big against India earlier this year as English summers now are more like traditional Australian summers - hot and dry.

Australian summers now are more like traditional English summers, and this is now where Bazball thrives.

My money is on Australia, as depleted as they are with injuries. 5 Test matches is a long time, and Melbourne and Sydney see a lot of rain now. By then you will have Hazelwood and Cummins back.

Between March 2022 to January 2023, Pakistan played 10 Test matches. This was a bumper home season unlike anything Pakistan had - hosting Australia, England, New Zealand. How many Tests did Pakistan win? How many Tests did Shaheen Shah play?
He was bowling like a medium pace trundler against Australia and then sat out of home series against England and New Zealand.

Even when Pakistan has a major Test year, no one shows interest and it was clear Pakistan team never played those Test matches seriously and never took WTC seriously.

Mitchell Starc has always put Test cricket first like James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes.

Today, the game saluted him back. 400 wickets and a standing ovation.

Meanwhile, Pakistani fast bowlers are happy just playing T20 leagues and winning PSL trophies!

Ben Stokes is injury prone, at 34, still bent his back and gave his everything to bowl 24 overs. Shaheen Shah and Naseem Shah run out of steam in 4-5 overs and turn into medium pace trundlers. That's why Stokes will go down as one of the greats for England while Naseem and Shaheen will not even be footnotes.

5 key wickets, 77 cruical runs, that incredible run out of Pant & keeping his side motivated throughout by bowling long spells in severe heat - Ben Stokes has lead from the front and shown world what a champion cricketer he is!
Respect Stokes for keeping test cricket alive 🎖

Ben Stokes ❤️

Bumrah has already played more Test matches in SENA than Wasim Akram did in his entire career.

Jasprit Bumrah now has the most Test wickets by an Asian bowler in the SENA countries, surpassing Wasim Akram 🌟

In 2023, most Australian players skipped the IPL, and won both and ODI WC 2023.

In 2025, most Australian players played in the , and got hammered in both and Champions Trophy 2025.

Sorry I don't make the rules.

As Pakistan is in deep trouble as South Africa already scored over 550. But as a Pakistani I am not worried about that as Pat Cummins is going to take revenge of what SA is doing to Pakistan. Best of luck Patrick James Cummins. You're an absolute superstar of the game! The online brothers need you tomorrow. Please do something and then ask for anything from us. We'll give you everything, from family members to the bowl we have for be&&ing.

Lot of people are asking where Abbas was for the last 3 years. Abbas last played a Test match in August 2021. In September 2021, Ramiz Raja became the PCB Chairman.
Then this happened.

In that period, Test specialists like Abbas, Fawad Alam, Yasir Shah, Azhar Ali were pushed out and discarded.