India stun England 4-1 in T20 series

[00:00:08] Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Edges & Sledges Cricket Podcast. This is DJ and I'll be your host for this week. I'm joined by Varun, who's in Delhi at the moment. So he's spending some time at home, which is nice. Varun, how are you doing, man? What's going on?

[00:00:23] Good, man. Just being at home, it was Chinese New Year break in Singapore, so he took the opportunity to come back to Delhi. It's been good. The matches are at a decent time. I had some time to watch them. The T20 series has officially wrapped. I was telling my parents that DJ is going to make me do this podcast late at night. Then the wickets started falling and I was quickly messaging him saying, let's just get on early. It doesn't matter. This looks like our game.

[00:00:52] So, yeah, India has won the series 4-1 as we speak. Yeah, what an incredible result. A bit of a reprieve and a respite for Indian cricket fans after the Borda Gawaskar Trophy went back so badly for us. Nice to see Team India, maybe not in the same format, but bounce back with a crushing win over one of our big rivals, right?

[00:01:17] Of course, every England series comes with its own controversy, so we'll get into that. Sorry, go on. Yeah, I was saying biggest respite for Gautam Gambhir, man. Like, he's only had success in this one format for India. Everything else has been a shit show, including an ODI loss to Sri Lanka. So, this is the format I think he excels in.

[00:01:40] No, it's been good. Let's get into it, actually. So, Ashwin and I, we spoke last week. India was leading 2-0. At that point, it had been a great kind of knock by Tilak Verma to take India home. Varun, do you want to talk us through the third game? Because there was a bit of Varun Chakravarti magic and then a bit of Adil Rashid magic that derailed India's chase of the target that England sent them. So, talk us through the third T20 first.

[00:02:04] Yeah, so I was actually on the flight. So, I missed the Varun Chakravarti magic. But when I landed, I saw he's picked up five wickets. And I started messaging some friends asking, what's happening? Is this guy, like, has he improved drastically in the last 12 months? Or, you know, are the English guys just not able to pick him? But I really think he's coming into his own. DJ, remind me, he was part of the T20 World Cup or no? He didn't play the T20 World Cup.

[00:02:32] Yeah, he didn't play it. And that's what surprised me when I was thinking about that as well. So, he's come out of nowhere. I think, you know, as I was looking at this team, you can clearly see that, you know, with the Varun Chakravarti, Harshit Rana, the kind of KKR boys are making their presence felt. And I'm not surprising. This is what happens when a coach is of a certain franchise.

[00:02:59] But anyway, England, I would say 171 for 9 in 20 overs. I thought this is a par score. I thought India would kind of make it. Duckett, who in my mind is like more of a test player, actually did pretty well. He went 51 of 28. So, a striker of 182. And then Liam Livingstone, finally for RCB fans, came up with some magic towards the end. 43 of 24.

[00:03:27] Apart from these two guys, everyone else was just 10, 15, 20. So, they kind of managed to get 171 for 9 in 20 overs. Nothing major to write home about. India's bowling DJ, Shami, when you were watching it, how was Shami? Because I didn't see the bowling. He bowled three overs, 25. No wickets. He got through a spell. He didn't finish his spell.

[00:03:57] He looked fine. I mean, he didn't look like he was in any kind of physical trouble. He bowled some nice away swingers. Yeah, it wasn't quite vintage Shami at his peak. But I think he was just feeling his way back into international cricket a little bit. I think a lot of eyes won him. Of course, Arsteep got rested in this game, right? To give Shami a shot. And Rajkot, I think the first bowl he bowled, kind of went through to the keeper on the bounce,

[00:04:24] which is pretty amusing because Rajkot is not a place you want to make your comeback if you're a fast bowler. But good to see Shami back, actually, in India colours. And important, maybe not for the immediate kind of T20 or ODI games, but India's got a big tour of England coming up in the next WTC cycle. Shami will be a key part of that. You've got the Champions Trophy coming up as well. Is Shami part of that squad? Or have we not got Shami?

[00:04:53] He is. And that's what, since we're just on Shami, I wanted to ask you, it feels like he's warming up or getting back into it. In this Champions Trophy in Dubai, do you see India playing Shami, Bumrah and Arsteep? To me, it's like Arsteep and Bumrah are the first two. Yeah, I think so as well. Yeah. And I think Shami becomes your backup, which is sad because even in the 2023 World Cup, he was a backup and we know what happened.

[00:05:21] And the minute he got a chance to kind of come in and I remember Modi still hugging him in his chest and all. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see. But yeah, okay, good. If Shami was looking good to me, he looks like he's just taking a little bit of time and getting back into that rhythm. And maybe, you know, it's just a build-up to the Champions Trophy. So, getting back to the match then, India came out and we lost this game. It was 145 for 9.

[00:05:51] Again, to me, when I was watching the Indian batting, a bit shocking. It just didn't get into any sort of momentum, right? We just kept losing wickets. Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma's opening pair, I think, are a great opening pair. But what happens is when they both kind of fail or don't, you know, get you to 50 as a partnership, suddenly after that, you just feel that in this innings, the team kind of wasn't able to come back from that.

[00:06:18] So, Sky has not had much to write home about in this tournament. But he has maintained his number three slot. And so, Sky and Tilak also did 14 and 18, got to starts, I feel, but didn't really do anything. And then came the innings that kind of defined India's batting, which was Hardik Pandya. I think he got a lot of criticism for this, DJ.

[00:06:47] 40 of 35 balls, effectively going at a runner ball in a chase where the pressure was starting to build. What did you make of that? See, it's always funny that we end up blaming the guy that scored the most number of runs, right? Always, always. Yeah, so this is kind of the MS Dhoni syndrome in a way. So, yes, Pandya hung around. I think he got out when there were 130-odd to get.

[00:07:16] But I think he was trying to take the game deep. And I think it didn't come off. And when it doesn't come off, you get criticized. When it comes off, you're a genius, right? So, that is what I mean by the… I mean, not everybody is as good as MS Dhoni as finishing it off. And now when you look back at that career, you go like, this guy managed to kind of make it all about himself so many times, so successfully that we already, we just kind of got used to it. But no, it didn't come off this time.

[00:07:45] And I find it very odd that you end up criticizing the guy that's top scorer in the team. He's not the reason you've lost this game. The reason you've lost this game is because Adil Rashid bowled a spell of four overs for 15. And then got a great wicket of Tilak Verma. And I mean, if your top order isn't going to perform, you can't expect the guy who's batting 5-6 to win you each game. That's just not going to happen. He didn't have any support either.

[00:08:11] And so, we should be asking questions of the Sanju Samson and the Suri Kumari Adav of this team, right? I don't know. We haven't talked really about Sanju. Where does this series leave him? We should probably just talk through where this series leaves all these players. Yeah, we can. Why don't we? Yeah, we can. Let's get into that after we discuss these two games. Because one thing that has been on my mind is how long do you keep Jaeswal out, right?

[00:08:35] Today, when I was watching Abhishek smack it, I was like, just imagine Abhishek at one end against the spinners. And then Jaeswal at the other end. Both left-handed, yes. But oh my god, that is just chaos. Yeah. It's true, man. It's true. I thought of the same thing. I thought of Jaeswal and Abhishek opening. But then, what happens to Sanju Samson, man? Are you saying that again he's kind of in this situation where he's not done anything wrong yet?

[00:09:04] He will be thrown out of the team when a big tournament comes. It just... Something feels very wrong. I also think the challenge for India is going to be that they have now made him the default keeper. So, they did try to bring Jurel in. But again, that didn't work. So, it's going to be an interesting one. Yeah, for sure. I mean... Anyway, at least the England team struck one back at Rajko to take the team...

[00:09:32] To take the series 2-1 in India's favour. Now, the next game had a little bit of controversy. So, we should just talk through this game. Of course, I mean... Nothing boiled over. So, it was nothing too bad. But we went to Pune next. And India put on 181 for 9. Again, Samson failed. Abhishek Sharma went off again. We batted first. He got 29 of 19. Tilak Verma got a duck. Coming down the track, I think, first ball.

[00:10:00] Caught it deep third man. Samson was caught again by Kars at deep square leg. Hitting a pull shot. Probably beaten for a bit of pace. Surya Kumar Yadav fell for what was an obvious trap. They put two fielders on the left side. And he just popped it. And what was ridiculous was he popped it to Midon. And Midon actually appealed for the catch. Because I don't think he believed that this ball had been hit to him.

[00:10:29] It was unbelievable. He thought maybe this is a bump ball. Because no one can be so silly to him. It's an obvious trap. Shot mid-weekend, shot Midon. And Sky just hits one straight to them. And I think India were maybe 12 for 3. And of course, we were 12 for 1, 12 for 2, 12 for 3. Three wickets in and over from Mahmood who played that first game of the series. So yeah, it was pretty ridiculous.

[00:10:57] Of course, you had Rinku Singh. He batted a bit. He got 30. And first, I think Rinku Singh has come out, had so much time, right? I mean, when Rinku Singh came in, I think there was still 18 overs to go or something. Yeah. And when he got out, actually, it was... Abhishek Sharma got out when he was 57 for 4. Rinku got out at 79 for 5.

[00:11:24] But then came what was really the defining partnership of the series. Because a lot of people, like at 79 for 5, things aren't looking that great. And you could have seen England, like, going, okay, this is our opportunity. 2-2 going into Mumbai, setting up Cracker for Super Sunday. But the guy who got all the break-bats in the previous game. And I mean, Pandya has taken a lot, man, recently. And you see it did affect him after that World Cup final. And you could see him talking about it.

[00:11:52] But the Pandya-Dube, Dube playing his first game of the series as well. Replacement for Washi. Just a great, like, counter-attacking partnership. There was a no-look 6 from Pandya straight down the ground. It was just great to watch. And they both got exactly, I think, 53 of 30-ish balls. Yeah, I'm just looking at the scorecard. Dube, 34 balls, 53 run out by Butler.

[00:12:19] Pandya caught Butler bowl over to 53 of 30. And so we got to 181 for 9. Now, the crucial part of this is the second last ball of the India innings. Dube takes a blow to the head of a bouncer. Right? And the physio comes on. All of this stuff happens.

[00:12:46] And I don't know whether he played the last ball or maybe he did play the last ball. He did because he got run out on the last ball of the match. Okay, so he did play the last of the innings. And then we've seen this happen once before where somebody gets hit in the head and India replaces them. I think Chehal replaced somebody once. Yeah, I can't remember who it was. Three, four years ago. But here we had a scenario where Chewam Dube hasn't come out to field.

[00:13:15] And India has gone to the match referee and got a concussion substitute. Now, of course, the concussion is a very serious thing. You've had head injuries in sport. They are very, very serious, of course. You've got players that have suffered pretty horrific consequences as a result. So they brought in this concussion sub-rule. Of course, Manus Labhishek made his test debut as part of it when Jofra Archer hit Steve Smith.

[00:13:42] He made his debut at Lords and see where that's got him. So far, probably the most famous concussion sub in the history of the game. But it was a very interesting choice to have Harshit Rana as the concussion substitute. Now, Varun, talk me through what's gone on over here. Because Rana, contrary to the pundits on TNT Sportway, which is what I watch, which is Alistair Cook and Steve Finn,

[00:14:11] they were talking about how can you replace a spinner, a spin bowling all-rounder with a fast bowling all-rounder. Because I was just like, have you not watched Shivam Dube bowl? Like, ever? But clearly they had not. But anyway, talk to me as to what… Because they were like, Washington, Sundar should have replaced him because they're both spin bowling all-rounder. Yeah, Dube is slow, but it's really mean to call him a spinner. Dude, it's not a great look.

[00:14:38] Unfortunately, Dube is a nothing sort of a bowler, right? Oh, but we'll talk about their last game. Yeah, last game is different. Last game is different. But I think Washington's Sundar would have been a stretch. What I heard a lot of people say, and I can't confirm this, but that Raman Deep, I think would have been the ideal replacement. Right?

[00:15:06] Yeah, but the question is, what is like for like, Varun? What is like for like? Do you have to be like for like in the kind of batting skill or bowling skill, or do you just have to be right-handed, both of you? Or do you just have to… I mean, because… Or do you just have to be 6 feet 5 inches tall, each of you? Or do you have to, I don't know, have a similar bowling average, batting average? What is a measurement of like for like that we're talking about in this role? Man, so I think it's… Look, it's very hard to define that, okay?

[00:15:37] And I'm like… I'm on ClickBuzz right now, and I've got the squads open because I'm trying to understand how to define this. Effectively, you've got batters, bowlers, batting all-rounders, and bowling all-rounders, right? That's how it's defined on ClickBuzz. That's not my definition or a cricket definition. I'm just picking up one thing I'm looking at right now. To me, a like-for-like would be batting all-rounder for batting all-rounder, right? That's how I would consider it.

[00:16:07] Now, that could mean that, you know, Abhishek Sharma is a batting all-rounder. He could be a replacement for Shivam Dube. It could… Okay. It means Ramandeep Singh is a batting all-rounder, and he could be a replacement for Shivam Dube. But like, Harshit Rana is listed as a bowler. He's not listed as a bowling all-rounder. And so, after Ramandeep, I would say Washington probably would have been the next best.

[00:16:38] Just Harshit Rana was… I mean, like, he opened the bowling in Perth or something, man, in the test match. He got Travis head out with that ball. Yeah. That was a beautiful delivery. I mean, okay, that was a beautiful delivery. But I just… I don't agree with it. Like, I'm sorry. I have to… I'm on Geoff Butler's side here, which I'm very rarely as an England captain. I don't think this was a like-for-like.

[00:17:06] I think he was spot-on when he said Shivam Dube has picked up 25 km in his bowling. I mean, Harshit was bowling at 151. And it just… I mean, it just makes no sense. I don't know. I'd love to hear your take on what it's like for like, but it just made no sense to me. Look, the reason for the rule, right? The reason it's got good intention behind it.

[00:17:32] It's to incentivize or it's basically to prevent players from playing on with a concussion because you don't get… Because you lose a player, right? So, the temptation would be for the player to carry on playing with a concussion because the team needs them and all of that stuff. So, they're trying to take that out of the game by saying, listen, if you got hit in the head, you have a chance of being concussed. We'll give you a replacement. Then comes what is a like-for-like? Where is the subjectivity in that?

[00:17:59] I think Harshit Bhogle was on air when he got asked this. His point was like-for-like must be… You must be similar in terms of skill. But it's very difficult. On any given day, somebody could be like… If… I don't know. You could… How do you measure skill? Or should you just say, if you're a right-handed batter, you replace them with a right-handed batter. Or you're a right-handed bowler, replace them with a right-handed bowler. What they do is irrelevant. I don't know.

[00:18:27] Like, there's been a time where Chris Wokes has bowled off-spin, right? I mean, dude… Manoj Prabhakar has bowled off-spin to Jaisuriya in Delhi in 96. Dude, if you go by right-handed, left-handed, I mean, firstly, Shivam do the bats left-handed and bowls right-handed. Yeah. So, deadly. Imagine if you have to carry somebody in the squad who does exactly that. It's a weird situation, man. So, there are a few ways to solve this.

[00:18:56] One, you say that you can replace the player with whoever, who is in the squad. The other way to do that, to resolve this, is to say, for every player in this squad, there is a like-for-like replacement. And that like-for-like replacement before the squad is declared is X. So, if they get concussed… The problem with that is if both all the like-for-likes are playing in the same game, right? Then what do you do? So, the simple way to do this, to avoid this issue,

[00:19:21] is actually if somebody actually is taking the concussion sub-rule, or it's an effect, you just allow them to replace them with whoever. That then becomes what… Is that like an impact player? Which is what I think Ashwin said on his show, which caused a bit of controversy. Like, this is basically like the IPL. Are we playing international cricket or has become the IPL, where the impact player has come in? And Harshit Rana basically could be seen as an impact player. He did make an impact. He took 3-for-33.

[00:19:50] Arguably, one of the performances that changed the game completely, right? For India to win that game. So, yes, we're talking a lot about this. And I don't think there's a perfect answer anyway. But what we must not forget is, England have actually thrown this game away. They should have won this game. Yeah. Right? So, let's talk about the England batting a little bit. Because they got off to an absolute flyer, right? So, they were smashing it everywhere. They were… In six overs, they were at 60.

[00:20:18] And then we had three quick wickets falling. Duckett went. Salt went. Butler went. Again, it was the spinners that came into the attack. Patel, Vishnoye, Varun Chakravarti. They broke those partnerships up top. Yes, Rana came in and kind of took those wickets in the middle. But the game was rescued for India by the spinners. Because it was looking…

[00:20:48] They were looking like they were running away with it. Even then, they just kept going. They just kept going for it. Livingston got out 95 for 4. Harry broke. Again, I mean, what? I don't know what Harry broke… What he's thinking when he's playing Varun Chakravarti. I just don't understand it. Like, he played a reverse scoop which hit the bottom of his bat. He was on the floor when… Like, what's going on every time he plays Varun?

[00:21:15] Like, is there just a smog that like descends around his head? The best thing about the smog is… I don't know if you guys discussed this. But basically, he said he's got a problem with smog, right? And then everyone was like… Wacking up on Twitter going… I hope he realizes that the Delhi capitals have picked him up. You and I were just talking about the pollution of the smog just before this podcast started. So, yeah, he's…

[00:21:44] There's something funny about this guy. He just… It just feels like he's a bit tone deaf. Like, the last time he was in India, he spoke about how bad the food was. Now, he's here and he's talking about how he can't see the spinner because of the smog. And then, maybe it's true, but it just feels tone deaf in my opinion. It's just hilarious to me. But anyway, Bishnah takes three. Rana takes three. Chakra takes two. And England just fade away. 166 all out.

[00:22:13] And India get… Win the series slightly… Under a slight cloud of controversy, I suppose. Because I guess England will look back and say, yeah, they had the harder… That the decision went against them. But frankly, if they're totally honest with themselves, they probably should have just won that game. And none of this would have been a discussion point. Yeah. And I think India said that also. He said that… Then he said that.

[00:22:39] It was impact sub and whatever, impact player. But he also said, we still should have won the game. So, he did call it out. Yeah. Fair enough. And I'm guessing Baz wouldn't have, like, created too much of a stink about it either as a coach. But probably quite sharp practice by India. So, something for the ICC to take a look at this rule and how it's actually applied. Because, I mean, it is international cricket. It's professional cricket. If you're given an inch, take it. Like, you would…

[00:23:08] It needed to be blessed by a match official. And if the match official blesses it, that's fine. That brings us to the Mumbai game, right? The 1K Day. Bit of a dead rubber body. It's a Sunday game at the 1K Day. Great batting track. Why don't you… Like, how good was that knock from Abhishek today? I mean, it's the highest ever T20 score by an Indian cricketer. It was phenomenal. I mean, my mom was sitting next to me and watching it. And she's like,

[00:23:37] there's so many errands I need to finish off at home. But I don't feel like getting up. Because I've never seen batting like this, right? That is coming from, like… Yeah, from a mom, an Indian mom who probably hasn't sat and watched every game. But has had the TV on throughout. But she was not able to leave the room. And that, I think, spoke volumes to me. Like, it was an incredible knock.

[00:24:01] I've been saying this for a while that, unfortunately, Abhishek Sharma is going to have to keep performing at this 200 strike rate minimum average of 35, I would think, to keep a Jets wall out. And he's doing it. He's doing it again and again. He's not going at 200. He's going at 250. He's not hitting 35. He's hitting 60s, 70s, 80s. Today, he's hit 135. More than 50% of the runs that India made came from him.

[00:24:31] He just changed, like… From ball one, man. He just kept going. It was… The 1KD we know is a high-scoring ground. It's a small… It looked small, man, from how the way Abhishek Sharma was hitting it. But so clean. And, again, I mean, I'm just the biggest UV fan. And so when I see people like Abhishek Sharma and Shivam Dube play, I just get very excited because it reminds me of the good old days. You know that UV works with Abhishek Sharma, right? Like… Yeah, yeah.

[00:25:01] He's like kind of his coach and mentor. And he trolls him also on Twitter being like, hey, you hit one straight down the ground? Not bad. I didn't know you could do that. No, but it was incredible, actually, today, the batting because they showed a reel of him hitting sixes. And all of it was down the ground. It was straight bat down the ground. And they would… Like you would say that the ground looks small. Those would have been sixes on almost any ground in the world. They were like 90 plus meters, most of them. Yeah.

[00:25:30] It was just fantastic batting. Like, I'm surprised actually your mom said, Varun Betha, why can't you bat like this? Because that's what usually Indian moms are like. That's exactly way past that. She's given up. She's given up. But, yeah, I mean, it's obviously eye-catching, right? Like, so, watch out. If you're a Sunrisers fan this year, Travis Sheik will be back. And, yeah, it's going to be quite something to watch.

[00:25:57] Travis Sheik changed the IPL, man, last year. They just changed the IPL. Before getting struck by Mitch Stark. Twice. Twice. Hilarious. Hilarious. But, no, it was great to watch. I don't know what else we want to talk about, really, in that scorecard from India today. Of course, we got 247 for nine, which is the second fastest. Sorry, go on.

[00:26:25] Well, I was going to say, you've got to call out Shigam Dubey again, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 13 of 13. I mean, like, even in a game where everyone else is struggling or not doing much, wickets are falling, he still came in with that massive, massive contribution, right? Because you take out Shigam Dubey and this was a 200 score. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's true. That's true. And then, Abhishek keeps going to, like, the 18th, 19th. I think he got out in the 18th over right at the end.

[00:26:54] And they said a massive 248. England had no choice but to come out and go from ball one. I have to say that, sadly for them, they did crash and burn. All out for 97. Probably had one foot on the plane back to England. But some of their players are not even going back to England. They have to stay on for the ODI series. So, unlucky for them. But, yeah, Shami. Big news. Three for 23. Three for 25. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's great.

[00:27:24] We discussed him. It's great. I'm really happy to see him among the wickets. Back among the wickets. It's too good. Yeah, but he didn't start great. Because I think he went for 14 rounds of his first three balls. Sorry, Phil Solman or Saul Feldman. What's his name, Baru? I don't even know anymore. Saul Feldman. Saul took him for 14 rounds of his first three balls. Four, four and six. But, no, Shami struck back hard. Three for 23. Three for 25.

[00:27:54] I don't know why I keep saying three for 23. Chakra, two for 25. But then, Dube. Just as if he'd been hearing all the chat about him being a slow, bad bowler. Comes in. He bowls an off spinner first ball and gets out. I was just like, this is what Alistair Cook and Steve Finn were talking about. Because he was an off cutter. But, yeah, I mean, two for 11, man. Shivam Dube. Great work, man. And Abhishek Sharma, two weeks again, proving the value, right?

[00:28:22] Because when it comes down to picking out of these top three or four guys for the opening slot, it is going to come in handy, right? That there's a guy who can roll his arm over. And not just roll his arm over, pull a decent two-three over spell if needed. So, yeah. It was fantastic. Yeah, I think four wickets between Dube and Abhishek Sharma was the highlight for me. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:28:52] And a word about Sky's captaincy. Like, for example, in the fourth T20, him bringing Chakravarti on getting broke out. Great call. Him keeping Harshit Rana on after Harshit Rana actually went for a lot of runs in his second over. Another great call. What do you think of Sky's feel for captaincy in T20s? He hasn't had a great series with the bat, right? I mean, that's just a matter of time. Yeah, I mean, I still think he's one of India's best T20 batsmen. So, Sky has to be there.

[00:29:22] And in this lineup, I think he's the right captain. The team is a young team. They all kind of, I don't know if I want to say look up to him, but they all know that he is the right person to be leading them. And I think he's done well. He seems to get along well with Gambhir. That combination is, like I said, the only successful captain-coach combination India has had for the last, I would say, eight, nine months. So, it's just working.

[00:29:50] And I think it's a very clear plan that till the 2026 World Cup, which is T20 World Cup, which I was thinking is probably going to be October, November next year, you've got a good 18 months with these two at the front of it. And I just think it's a good combination. No, absolutely. Varun, the ODIs are coming up. Some of the players have been pretty busy playing Ranji Trophy. Do you want to tell us how Virat went at Delhi?

[00:30:20] Man, the Virat Kohli mania is such that I was in Delhi and I was thinking, should I just sneak out for a few hours to go see him? Thank God I didn't because apparently there were two-kilometer lines to get into the stadium. I have never seen Ranji crowds like that. And everyone, I mean, everyone just showed up to see the king. And the PR around this was crazy, apparently.

[00:30:47] Like, everyone's asking him, should we get you food from a five-star? And he's like, no, I'll just eat chili paneer from the canteen. And then they're like, should we pick up your bags? He's like, no. Like, it's just, it's like, I don't know. It's like Sachin in his peak just coming down to play a Ranji game out of the blue because of one bad series in Australia. So, he didn't do very well. So, let me tell you that. The good news is that he didn't edge it.

[00:31:13] The bad news is that he got bold and the cartwheel took a few kind of circles or whatever that, yeah, cartwheels actually. The stumps took a cartwheel. And I think, yeah, Delhi still won. But I think whether it's Pant, Jaiswal, Rohit, KL, Shreyas or Kohli, I think everyone has failed in this one-off Ranji game that they've played. Token Ranji game.

[00:31:44] Minwar Purane both got 90s. I think Bujara got 99, Rane got 93 or something. But no, the chili paneer thing was pretty funny, I have to say, because apparently he used to eat chili chicken before he became more vegan, vegetarian and conscious. So, I mean, the amount of knowledge we have about Viratpul's eating habits are slightly too much. But also, he's usually used to being overshadowed by an AB, right, at RCB.

[00:32:14] This was Ayush Baduni in the Delhi team. He's the one that overshadowed him. He was the captain of the Delhi team. In fact, I think he got 99 as well. What is up with all these guys getting 99? I don't know. It's like, it's a bit funny actually that you think about it. And Smith getting out on 9-9-9-9. 9-9-9, yeah. Yeah, Steve Smith. What was that test match in Sri Lanka, dude? It was so weird. Like, I think… Puzi got 232.

[00:32:43] They didn't review him three times. They dropped him six times. And Smith, like… Yeah. I mean, there was… In the Sydney test against India, there was a lot of chatter on how this should be Uzi's last game. And firstly, I was like, look, they've made the World Test Championship final. So, it's not going to be his last game. Second, they're going to Sri Lanka. They are not going to Sri Lanka without Uzi.

[00:33:06] And he came out later and said, Andrew McDonald had told me like 18 months ago, whatever happens, I need you on that Sri Lanka tour. Because think about it. If that India-Australia series had been a draw and they had to win in Sri Lanka to secure their place, you know, you need people who can play spin. So, I think they did a few good things, right? They got Travis Head to open and my God, what a move that was. Because they just knew that before the ball starts turning, if they can get 100-odd runs, they will be on top.

[00:33:35] And after getting that between Uzi and Smith, the experience that kind of they have and that's what showed, right? It's… They must have hit like 400 runs or something between them. So, it was… It was a bit of a crazy test match. Yeah, absolutely insane. And I mean, I'm kind of glad that India got knocked out of the World Test Championship final after that tour of Australia.

[00:33:59] Because if we'd won and we'd have to wait for Sri Lanka versus Australia result and all, like watching this would have been really annoying for Indian fans. We would have watched the entire like Osman Kwaja 200-odd. We would have watched every ball saying when will he get out. So, you're right. I'm glad we haven't made it. Yeah, absolutely insane. No, Avar, I'm sorry. We should talk about the ODIs quickly before we wrap, right? Yeah. Three ODIs coming up? Yeah.

[00:34:29] What is the context of the ODIs and who are we looking to perform in this ODI series? Who needs to perform in this series? Who needs to score runs? What is the… Who's under pressure from the India side? Yeah, so I would say for me, let's take the bowling a little bit first, right? I think Shami needs to perform very honestly, right?

[00:34:57] Because now you're coming off from a four-over spell, which also… I don't think he bowled a full four-overs in this T20 series, but I need to check that. But I think Shami bowling 10-overs is going to be important. That's one. I think the whole Jadeja versus Akshar versus Sundar, that's the second thing for me. Because I think in Dubai, you are going to play a Kuldeep, right? So you're going to play Kuldeep.

[00:35:26] And I'm just not 100% sure how much space there is for these two… These left-handed batting all-rounders. And so I'm just trying to think as we go through, right? I think you've got Rohit Sharma and Gil opening. You've got Kohli at three. You've got Shea Sair at four. You've got KL Rahul at five.

[00:35:52] Those are your top five from the World Cup that I think 90% is going to be mirrored. You have then got Hardik Pandya at six. Jadeja slash Akshar at seven. And then you have four slots. And this is where I was coming to, right? Kuldeep, Bumrah and Ashdeep are three out of the four. I think that last slot is either going to go to one of the spinning all-rounders or to Shami.

[00:36:21] That's the way I see this team. I also think they probably wouldn't start with Shami. They'll probably want a little bit of batting depth because you need to… The way this Champions Trophy is built is you need to get to the semi-final, right? That is your number one priority. And you're probably going to want a little bit of batting depth there. That's my view. DJ, I don't know what your view is, but that was my view. No, I don't really have any issues with any of that, to be honest.

[00:36:47] I think, yeah, the conditions, as you say, are going to be pretty similar. So, I wonder whether the pitches are going to be made high-scoring, I think, because Dubai should be pretty high-scoring, right? At this time of the year, it's hardly been used those tracks. So, hopefully, that can be something that can be replicated here. Any predictions for the series?

[00:37:14] I mean, for this series, I'm going to say 2-1 to India. But I just want to say one more thing. Have you ever predicted a series win for anybody but India? Because I predicted a series win for Australia in the 10th series. Recently, sadly. I think so did I. But I think… 2-1 India is like a standard three-match answer. Yeah, it is the more cop-out kind of answer.

[00:37:42] But my last comment on the ODI is that Bumrah will not be ready for the Champions Trophy League matches. That's why I keep talking about Shami. Because if Bumrah is not ready, you have to play Shami. Shami and Arshdeep are your frontline goalers. Baseballers. So, that's why it's important. So, to me, the guy to watch out for is probably Shami. And then it's Jaddu, Akshar and Washington. These three. Yeah, I mean, Jaddu's not been allowed to bowl

[00:38:11] to manage his workload for the ODIs and the Champions Trophy. So, I suspect Jaddu's still number one in line. Yeah. To be totally honest with you. And then lastly, I don't know. Maybe I should know this. But is the Netflix documentary out? The Greatest Rivalry? Have you watched it? I think it's on Friday. It's coming out on Friday. Yeah. So, I'm going to watch it on Friday. The promo for that, it is…

[00:38:38] I don't think I've been excited about a documentary like that for a long, long time. I mean, is it the guys who've made Drive to Survive? Or is it somebody else totally? I don't know. I don't know who's done it. That's my favorite sports documentary. But I think this may actually exceed that. Because like Ganguly, Sehwag, all of these Shoei Bakhtar. This is like… It's our generation, right? Like it's our generation of cricketers who played against each other.

[00:39:08] All those battles. Like Mirinder Mahwag from Multan. Do you remember that comment? Yeah. Should I call you Mirinder Mahwag? Mirinder Mahwag. That was Manju. Sanju Manju. I'm looking forward to it. I'm like almost not sure. Should I watch it or should I savor it and wait? And do I watch the whole thing in one go? Or do I break it up? Because it is going to be special. It's going to be insane. And you almost kind of feel sad for like a generation of cricket fans

[00:39:38] that haven't got to watch India play Pakistan in tennis cricket particularly or in bilateral series. Of course, that's a totally different story. Probably beyond the scope of this podcast. But I mean, the series in 98-99. The tour that Ganguly led. The tour that Dravid led. Them playing over here in Bangalore. UV scoring runs. I mean, like there's so many incredible. They're one for times. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 26 for 6.

[00:40:07] The appearance of Shoya Bakhtar bowling. Dravid and Sachin on successive balls breaking like a billion Indian hearts. Man. I think. And then the Sohail. Amir Sohail. And the Venkatesh Prasad moment. It's just going to be. I can't wait, man. Like, yeah. I hope they've got some really like. I know they've got Sunny Bhai and all of these guys. But I want to see like Lakshman and like all these other guys also talk about it. It's just like. And Saevaag will obviously just be Saevaag. He'll just like.

[00:40:37] Paap hota, beta, beta hota type of stuff. I don't. I don't. I don't think offspinners are bowlers. And then I saw something on Instagram where I saw his son bowling offspin and taking a weekend. I was like, I wonder what his father thinks of this. But no, it'll be good. I'm excited about that. But I guess by the time we speak next, all of us would have seen that. Yeah. I mean, I've got a bit of time on my hands in the nights these days. So yeah. I might turn that on in the background.

[00:41:07] Okay. Varun, thank you so much for joining. And for all the listeners and viewers, thank you so much for joining. If you're on YouTube, give us a like. Give us a subscribe. If you're on Spotify, Apple, give us a review. Like, we love to hear from you guys. Tell us what you think about the show. Tell us how we can improve the show. We do this every week. Every Monday is where we usually drop the show on the audio platforms. Of course, depending on what the schedule is for the games.

[00:41:32] And yeah, we'll be back next week with more about the ODI series, which would have kicked off between India and England and all the other news in the world of cricket. So take care. And we will speak to you next week. This is the Edge of the Sledge of Cricket Podcast signing off.