3rd T20I | Zimbabwe vs India | July 10, 2024

[sam_ahm]

This is where more fixtures will come in handy, it's not ideal when the likes of Myers know that their next series will be 3 months later and they start to find form all over again. None of the Zimbabwe players ever get a chance to be in form and carry that into the next series because the next series is always 3 months away. It sucks.

Anyways, this is a proper India A team, it is touted the same way here in India as well, people are looking at Gill, Jaiswal, Gaikwad, Abhishek, Samson to take over from the current players. The bowling is slightly weak but that's what we have... Apart from Bumrah, Shami and Siraj, India at present do not have exceptional pace bowlers and that is actually very concerning for us.

[Donald]

I will say Myers did well as a new player having taken time out of the side and cricket in general. To know he still has what it takes is very exciting indeed.

Won't be too harsh on him. Hitting out like a lemon when you are 37-5 would have been stupid. Pride has been retained if you like and also myers will now exude confidence after that great knock.
If anything we need Welch back as an opener and given a much longer rope. Would not be adverse to having Navqi opening either.

[TapsC2]

Poor fielding is what really separated the sides today. The new fielding coach has a lot of work to do other than being the spy on the ground we gave away 20 runs

[Kriterion_BD]

The old problem of only one guy stepping up at a time is still there for the most part. Today it was Myers.

The issue with the old Big 4 wasn't that they weren't good. They all had respectable stats individually...but they rarely performed collectively as a unit. How many times did all 4 of Taylor, Williams, Ervine, and Raza cross 30 in the same innings together? How many times did 2 of the 4 get past 50 in the same innings?

Bennett, Campbell, and Myers are all very young, so there is hope and time for them to right that wrong that plagued the Big 4. This is the new Big 3. Jury is out whether any of Madhevere, Marumani, Shumba, can join them. At this stage, Madande and Burl are better placed to be the 4th/5th than those 3.

[TapsC2]

What concerns me about Marumani is that I have actually never seen him play a comfortable knock. Say what you want to say about the other guys but I have seen them have a few good days. That’s never been the case with Marumani. Reminds of when every coach gave Chari a run in the team because of domestic form but there were very few comfortable knocks. Something just isn’t right. His timing wasn’t good at all. Others like K-Long have actually pulled off that aggressive style of his.

[Googly]

I keep defending Maru but he's trying to play the modern way.
A comfortable knock is a run a ball until 20, 30 or 40 and then 2 boundaries to get strike rate to 120 and then everyone gets excited. That innings loses you the game 4 out of 5 times.

[Googly]

I'm reading some social media posts and every single one is praising Dion and Clive. I swear all they did was make the loss respectable. The rrr just steadily climbed whilst they were at the crease. Not one big over to bring it back a little.
Again I acknowledge the bowling was pretty good, but you have to at least go for it. You're honestly better off losing by 70 runs and keeping up with the rate than by 25 runs and letting it slide over by over. You're essentially deliberately batting the team to a respectable loss. I just don't get that at all. You have to try and play the shots and at least go down fighting. It's a thinly disguised early capitulation and I'm not sure what they're learning from that.
Some comments about Bennett being too aggressive? F%#& me, we're chasing 180, what do they want him to do? Go at 6 an over and lose us the game in the first 6?
You look at a scorecard after the fact and u see 60 off 40 and u think wow. But u watch the game and if the batter is 35 off 35 prior to that, as is his partner, and they've lost us the game. It's tough but it is what it is.

Are they going to be smarter about pitch prep next game?
It will give us a better chance.
If you're going to prepare a flat deck then play the shots!
If you don't have them then they need to learn them. Or try to.
Let's hope Salmon is on the same page.
Maybe in this upcoming NPL we need some flat decks and teams need to try and post 200 plus? Most t20 internarional decks are batter friendly.

[Googly]

If Campbell is going to be there as a pure finisher without bowling there are better options. Let's see him bowl. I think he's a smart bowler.. there's actually not a lot to lose, we're not competitive on a flat deck.

Again it will be so interesting to see who they drop if Knackers makes a guest appearance.
Their options seem to be Jonno, Wes or Maru. As usual the pressure builds exponentially with each poor outing.
I don't think they'll consider dropping Wellie, but it's an option.

Against the really good teams (like this one), Wes is looking increasingly like the likely one because he doesn't seem to have the big shots.

[Pat_Bee]

If Salmon hasn't hasn't negotiated a decent say in the selection process he's going to be swimming upstream for his entire tenure.

Swimming upstream to give birth to a dynasty.

[zimfan1]

I give up on who should open, I have no idea.