There is very strong likeliness that South Africa might miss on a seat in the 2023 WC. They are 11th at present & the 10th Sri Lanka & 9th Ireland are much ahead of them. The no. of participants is 10.
I think there should be a GOAT awards in ICC some time. It can be updated every 10 years. It will be the GOAT award of till that time. It will be interesting to have the declaration of GOATs. There can be a 50-member jury of greats & experts for it to judge the shortlists & then decide the winner.
India have some new players now - With the T20 captaincy handed over to Hardik Pandya, & Rishabh Pant set as a permanent wicketkeeper, & some fresh bloods there in the form of S.K.Y, Sanju Samson & Shreyas Iyer, the bunch is headed for some young operations now. But I am most excited for Ishan Kishan, he is a talented exploder, qualifies even as a pure batsman besides being an able wicketkeeper, & has done some vote-winning fireworks in both the limited overs formats recently. I believe he is capable of developing as a large batsman, & the fact that he is from my home state Bihar, I have special fondness for him.
Time of delivering of Ashwin's promise to Tim Paine in Gabba is coming. He (Paine) may or may not play in this series, but the Australian might might be at the receiving end of this promise. My strong prediction is that the Australians might get a drubbing like 2013. & India, having won the last 2 BGTs, & with the next 2 likely to be hosted in India due to the last 2 hosted in Australia, might make a sequence of 4 wins in a row. & My prediction for Ashwin is that he might take 40 wickets in this series.
Many batsmen have hit 4-5 centuries in the current national season. Credit for it goes to Rahul Dravid who had worked very accurately when he was associated as a coach in the U-19 team. N. Jagdeesan's world record of highest List-A score of 277 is one such production only. Many more records got broken in this match also. Tamil Nadu became the only team to score 500+ in a List-A match. The openers became the 1st opening pair ever to be at 150+ at the same time. & The margin of win registered 435 was also highest ever.
Next year's world cup is in Oct-Nov. I think this will give Indian team good time to prepare, as they must be extra-spirited right now with their new success.
Bradman of 2022. Most likely contender of the POTY 2022. Surya Kumar has taken the world by storm. He is very close to breaking Rizwan's record of most T20I runs in a calendar year. He needs 175 runs for that in the last T20. The ease with which he hits sixes, the magnitudes at which he turns the balls, the strike rate at which he explodes, he has all the qualities of a dominating limited overs batsman. He is my POTY of 2022.
I have come to know that a player of India is related with a neighbour of our society. Ishan Kishan, I have been told by a neighbour Shiv Kumar Aunty of our society that he is a relative of hers. He is son of a cousin sister of hers. Shiv Kumar Uncle was a colleague of my father. & Uncle & aunty have been living in our society since 6 years. Aunty told me in 2019 that Ishan plays for Jharkhand. I searched his info, I found that he is a domestic level player & he was still very young. He soon made his debut in 2021. I am happy to feel that he is a close known of mine.
India vs New Zealand rain love story continues even after the WTC & 2019 S.F. Toss delayed due to rain is the current status of the first T20I. Hope luck India favours this time.
David Warner, Steve Smith & David Malan showed sheer explosive class today in the first ODI. My congratulations to each of them.
The first team to hold ODI & T20 WCs at the same time. The new exponents of aggressive game. Able players in Jos, Ben, Jonny, Root & Roy. Big match temperament. Specific role specialists like Sam Curran. England are all but domineering champs. The likely team to rule the world cricket for few more years. Players sold highly in leagues. No. of all-rounders. Legendary fast bowlers like Anderson & Broad, & FAB 4 member Root. England are as good as Australia at present.
Congratualtions to England for winning the cup & to Pakistan also for reaching the final.
India miss the target but win hearts in the T20 WC. The way they swept through the group stage & topped the table, they were favourites to win the title, & the Indian fans had faith that they will win the trophy this time, but England were better in the semis & the dream remained unfulfilled. But the performance has been inspiring & the spirit shown by the Indians was encouraging. Hence the Indians leave the shores of Australia with won hearts & they will now have the support of the Indian fans in the following tours & seasons to do better & attain higher goals.
Pakistan was unexpected to do well in the tournament, but it reached the finals. India was expected to sweep through the group stage, but it lost one match. In all, a prospectively enthralling final has been set up between the neighbours & arch rivals. I trust India to sweep through the semis & the finals. England won't be much difficult to beat in the SFs & Pak might be an easy fodder in the title.
My predictions for the semis & finals:
I feel New Zealand will beat Pakistan easily, & India can surpass England with some challenges, & India might cross New Zealand with some testing struggle. This is my prediction for the knockouts. & The POTM & Golden Bat shall go to Kohli & the Golden Ball may go to Hasaranga.
Thank you to Netherlands for making India's reach to the semifinal one match earlier.
The Group 1 equation, 1 semifinalist is clear. Newzealand are through. Australia might miss if England beat Lanka with the required margin to overtake them. The group 2 is a bit open yet. My congratulations to Newzealand for this.
I think India vs Zimbabwe last match of the Super 12 is going to be a crusher. India are going to crush Zimbabwe with full feet in this as they would be steeply confident after the mega show yesterday.
After topping the table in WC 2019 & WTC, India are back in the driver's seat in this WC also in similar fashion. The win has been strifeful & must have boosted the confidence of the XI much.
The rain has played a spoilsport many a times with many teams in the past. & It is playing a similar death-game today. Ban have recorded a blastful powerplay with Litton Das smashing 90% of its runs. If the rain doesn't stop today, Ban are 17 ahead in the DLS equation. This suffering may cost India dearly.
One by one, all India's batsmen are coming in form. SKY has been in purple touch since the beginning of this year. 'The King' has returned to mould. KL Rahul also struck today. Rohit Sharma hit in a match this tournament. Hardik Pandya has been hitting 6s on & off. The tailenders like Ashwin also blast sometimes these days. In sum, the signal is of some big explosion in the near future. Enjoyment of the Ban battle for the time being. Best of luck, Team India.
'King Kohli' isn't seeming getting down from his purple patch. The flow from Asia cup is rocketing further only. 3 fifties from 4 innings. All of them unbeaten. The signal is of some sun conquering march from here. Congratulations Republic of India.
I am having a gut feeling that India is going to do something unprecedently big in this WC. The fashion of win in the 1st match & the spirit which all the players are showing currently, it is signalling clearing from that that the power of the Men In Blue is inflating & they are in the process of achieving something unprecedentedly big.
