All rounder Shivam Dube shines as India wins Afghanistan T20 series

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Edges and Sledge's Cricket podcast.

[00:00:14] I'm your host Ashwin.

[00:00:15] I'm joined by DJ.

[00:00:17] DJ, Happy New Year.

[00:00:18] I haven't gotten to do an episode with you since the New Year.

[00:00:20] Last week was just Varun and I.

[00:00:21] How are you doing?

[00:00:22] I'm well, man.

[00:00:23] Happy New Year.

[00:00:24] Happy New Year to all BBL as well Which has been pretty funny in some cases with Warner flying in on a head. They only take younger Yeah, the only thing for the BBL that I have watched I just put time zones on the Amada cricket I don't get towards the big match, but the only thing I have watched

[00:01:42] Will you tell our listeners who missed it?

[00:01:44] I mean if you missed it by the way you haven't been, but he returned it back in the good. And Joko, which like lost his mind thing. I can't believe you do it. And I'm sitting there saying this guy faces, you know,

[00:03:00] 160 kilo, 155 kilo an hour with a much harder ball

[00:03:04] from a much shorter distance.

[00:03:06] I mean, a tennis serve,

[00:03:07] it's not like he's a good tennis player, one in Mohali, one in Indoor. Let me start by asking you first about the toss and then I'll ask you about the team. Why did Rohit, after losing 11 tosses in a row, why did he win two tosses? And then that second both times, is this not the kind of, we know we're a pretty good chasing team. We know most T20 teams in India are pretty good chasing teams.

[00:04:23] Is this not the time to be trying out your batting step

[00:04:27] and batting first or do No, it's just memory. But this is pretty obvious. I mean, we get these like, okay, I mean, I don't even want to say it like 2023. Oh, yeah, I don't want to conflate formats, but bad for us and loss. So chasing is become easier and limited over cricket.

[00:05:43] And I think there's probably some other parts cricket to be played until the IPL T20 cricket. All these guys will be playing IPL T20 cricket. So I don't think it makes that much of a difference. Yeah, for me, I think I would have liked to see him say, listen, clearly a series were trying out the combination, trying out some of the players, etc. So I was a little disappointed, did not see us choose to bat first

[00:07:03] and see if we can set a total on the board.

[00:07:05] So what did you...

[00:07:07] I was going to saying, I, you know, the Afghanistan T20 series is the time to try them out. Right now you can sit here and say that too much, did we learn much, but I think it's not about growth at all. Maybe we did. Maybe we learned a lot about them, to be honest. But so I think

[00:08:22] net, I'm okay with it. Right. I don't I do. I do. The answer is, the answer is, unfortunately for me, clouded a little bit by my bias, but I'm a big Virakkhoda fan as are you, right? So for me, he's like the last time he played T20s for India, he played that blistering

[00:09:42] knock for against Pakistan. Bishnoy and then your Twix for our steep and Mrakesh and then Dubai obviously bold as well. How do you feel about that? How do you feel about that 11? Pretty interesting because you have Washington, I think he bolded the 19th over and he brings quite a lot of batting to that side. So maybe there was some discussion around

[00:11:01] India doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results which is the

[00:11:04] definition of madness, right? So picking Rohit Kool-eL last year. But an IPL, you get every IPL, you get eight overs, say of not international quality cricket, or international quality bowling. You get like one notch lower, you have probably three good bowlers that can keep 12 overs tight, and then you get eight overs of not such good. He make him sit on the bench. I don't know. It's not the kind of thing that would go down too well. And yes, he was a breakout player in this year's they get stranded at the same end. Rohit actually sacrifices himself, so they probably wasn't. That's Gil did move. Gil refused to move. Then Rohit was seen unhappy, let's say Gil, on the way out.

[00:15:03] And then of course, the second match, how badly he wanted to do well. His reaction was pretty uncharacteristic for an international captain to go after what

[00:16:24] is it?

[00:16:25] A gilt 23-year-old, 24-year-old.

[00:16:26] Was it uncharacteristic though? truth be told, Gill is probably in better T20 form overall. Of course. Yeah. Then Rohit, then he's got a more recent century in T20 cricket. He's got 126 and M. Dava, I think early this year, wasn't it? High score by Indian in T20 cricket. Yes. High score by 2023, sorry.

[00:17:40] And he had an IPL century in M. Dava too.

[00:17:42] Correct.

[00:17:43] Correct.

[00:17:44] Yeah.

[00:17:45] So maybe that was, but it to just take your time for yourself. Yeah, do something else. Get your mind off your game. Maybe it's tough, right? Like, so, but Robert has had to come out with all of these clarifications constantly. But I mean, it's going to be a hard job picking

[00:19:03] this squad when it comes around, right? He, well, do, babe. Drink. Akshara. So there are five in your top eight in the second week, which is what to as many as we could as we can. DJ, a couple of things come in. Ejaz has said, do we really think when we have a Baratan Rohit going out and saying they want to play the selectors will overlook them? I think that's the point I was trying to make. I don't think we have the, you know, if this was Australia, maybe I think we don't

[00:21:41] have the culture of being able to say, listen, Bar was. Because he looks awful when he's out of form, right? Like, because he's, but he's, when he's on song, he looks absolutely unstoppable.

[00:23:00] Kind of rolling back the years, reminding us of UV,

[00:23:04] at his best.

[00:23:05] Yeah, yeah, couldn't agree more.

[00:24:06] take her away from him there, but just not a great start to the calendar year T20. I know World Cup year for Rohit, right? Yeah, I don't know. Nothing to say, man. I mean,

[00:24:13] Nicola Vastain, the comments on YouTube has said it was painful to watch.

[00:24:19] Yeah, the Rohit's ducks were painful to watch because he is a class player.

[00:24:22] And Arpeth has said Rohit got out early with 26 balls to spare. I forgot to mention, by the way, how entertained I was that Afghanistan was 170 for seven with two balls left and managed to finish at 172 all out, which is kind of weird statistical

[00:25:40] phenomenon.

[00:25:41] But yeah, talk to me about the Coli knock and talk to me about how it compares to the

[00:25:46] two youngsters who made, I guess, win T20 World Cups playing safe.

[00:27:00] You win T20 World Cups by having ball outs where you ball give the ball to the par.

[00:27:04] Robin Othepa and Seva and you have It's hard. I'm totally with you. But you need to reset at some point, right? You need to reset at some point and say it's not work.

[00:28:21] We haven't won a T20 World Cup for...

[00:28:23] It's actually quite a scared start. 17 years?

[00:29:25] on them to say I'm taking a break or I'm stepping aside. Basically we're saying if they're in the squad or if they're if there is a handstick it's like they will be played and then we'll be frustrated

[00:29:29] that we're playing the order. We have that superstar culture and we've always had that.

[00:29:35] I mean we are guilty of it as much as anything else. I mean I look forward to

[00:29:39] Coli batting an AT20. I'm talking handker like that's a spot that you're looking for.

[00:31:03] Rohit, I mean, is he the best opener India have?

[00:31:07] T20 opener, is it? 2020 I and then we have a full IPL season and you never know if Jess wall and Gil have breakthrough seasons and rothas and roth and Colia tough ones you might see us make the goal to say those two guys will be our 20-0 so do you also need to give yourself the best shot of winning on those pitches Australia? Yes 100% Colia lots of experience playing yeah, got a turn with trees into trees got a huge boundaries you need to go by stats you need to go by

[00:33:25] all thoughts, like final thoughts on Doube. I mean, yes, he's friendly medium, but we've been talking about wanting somebody who can back in the top six and give you a couple

[00:33:29] overs and that might be the case, even though he's already 30.

[00:33:32] I mean, in the absence of Hartvik Pandya and the Shahadul Pandey experiment, Shahadul Pandey,

[00:33:40] I just mixed up to over your favorite players.

[00:33:42] Shahadul Pandey, man. You're full credit. It's not easy. It is harder to come back to make a comeback than to make a debut. And I have to give him full credit for that. And so it'll be interesting. He's given the

[00:35:00] selectors a lot to think about. But also, Afghanistan won't full strike. No, Rashiv Khan.

[00:35:04] Yeah. But that's part of why I'm just back is nice to see, obviously, we're expecting spinning conditions. There's been a lot of the pre-series drama. I think all of the popers come out and says, we won't complain about the pitches, but we know you definitely will, my friend.

[00:36:21] Kudip and Akshara are in.

[00:36:24] The squad, of course, Akshara are totally expected.

[00:36:26] Nice to see Kudip back there. with the bat is the question England aren't probably going to play Ben folks they'll probably play Johnny Beisto. So they usually take the other approach on this kind of thing like you draw the value the bat that runs with the bat and Rahul's coming off like a good. How well has England done in India recently? That's true.

[00:37:40] That's true. So point being if you're backing your spin to move basically as the ball leaves, the baller's hand, not waiting for it to pitch and then seeing what it does. And it's unbelievable. It's a completely different skill set and feels like to me. And the best keepers obviously can do both. And Rahul is a batter who keeps, not a specialist keeper who can bat a bit, like an MS was. So anyway, so I agree with you.

[00:39:02] Keepers, one big question is going to be interesting.

[00:39:04] And then how many spinners?

[00:39:06] Yeah, what do you think the balling combination is?

[00:39:07] I think it's going to be three spinners. Rahul at five instead of a year because of the not created series that you had, although you have to believe, you have to say he's still the best, one of the best players who spin with him. Yeah. And he played really well in Bangladesh, remember, when we were struggling. Yeah. No, I'm saying just on South Africa, Rahul made a century in very tough conditions and a year didn't show up. And so... But this is what I'm saying, like what we should actually be thinking about is whether

[00:40:23] we can afford to have a Rahuli keep with it and have them. I don't think I've wished other things really well in in I think if but in swinging conditions right he's Yeah, he was good in this. I think Bit more controls and sir, but it's really hard to drop Siraj after what he did he went six for a man I think he's a big is really making a strong case for a for being the third simmer. Yeah, I don't know

[00:41:42] Shami Labsen's of course of course. I, you know, definitely let's call it good enough, keep it better than

[00:43:02] Rahul. I don't know if his keeping is at maybe a different temperament, a different vibe that is Sachin and Federer bring to it.

[00:44:20] Yeah.

[00:44:21] Holy is much more a jock of which character.

[00:44:23] He is.

[00:44:24] He's like, Hi, intensity, where is his heart on his sleeve?

[00:44:26] Yeah. any before then. If you are listening to us on the podcast, again, check us out on YouTube sometime. We put these all out on video as well. So they're fun. You can watch us chatting and enjoy some of our reactions. I, you were also at one tip one hand at number one tip, number one hand on all the social media as we do read everything and we try to respond to as much as we can. So please, please

[00:45:40] send us those in and we'll be back next week to talk about, I guess, more about the test team and

[00:45:45] probably the next three months or just deliberating about the 2020 World Cup selection because that is