Champions Trophy 2025
-
- Regular Contributor
- Posts: 224
- Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2024 11:34 pm
- Has thanked: 174 times
- Been thanked: 238 times
Champions Trophy 2025
Today's NZ vs Pak match was live on Jiohotstar app. There were 12cr people watching it from India. Probably more as I didn't watch the whole thing. That's 120million people in India watching match that doesn't involve India. Many many more maybe watching on TV. I wonder how many would watch it on Sunday for Ind vs Pak.
Little surprised about the popularity of one day tournament. I thought 50over match is dying breed.
Disappointing performance by Pakistan. Their politics has ruined their cricket as well. Famous Babar Azam looked like as if a county player. I don't know if I am really enthusiastic about Ind vs Pak match anymore.
NZ has done wonderfully well. They recently beat India comprehensively. Ofcourse they are tournament favorites.
India will in all likelihood have a disappointing performance. I am not happy with team selection of Sundar/Axar/Jadeja playing. Too much focus on all rounders. While all 3 are unreliable in both bowling/batting. Pandya is the only one decent reliable allrounder but even he has been out of form for long time. Bumrah is out and Shami is not in form after injury. Surprisingly, Jaiswal is not playing. I would rather him play than Rohit or Virat. Team may look like this:
Rohit
Gill
Virat
Iyer
Pant
Pandya
Axar/sundar/jadeja
Axar/sundar/jadeja
Shami
Singh/Rana
Kuldeep/varun
None of these players give confidence. Pant and Pandya being in top 6 as batsman is scary. Doesn't give much reliability to the batting line up.
Little surprised about the popularity of one day tournament. I thought 50over match is dying breed.
Disappointing performance by Pakistan. Their politics has ruined their cricket as well. Famous Babar Azam looked like as if a county player. I don't know if I am really enthusiastic about Ind vs Pak match anymore.
NZ has done wonderfully well. They recently beat India comprehensively. Ofcourse they are tournament favorites.
India will in all likelihood have a disappointing performance. I am not happy with team selection of Sundar/Axar/Jadeja playing. Too much focus on all rounders. While all 3 are unreliable in both bowling/batting. Pandya is the only one decent reliable allrounder but even he has been out of form for long time. Bumrah is out and Shami is not in form after injury. Surprisingly, Jaiswal is not playing. I would rather him play than Rohit or Virat. Team may look like this:
Rohit
Gill
Virat
Iyer
Pant
Pandya
Axar/sundar/jadeja
Axar/sundar/jadeja
Shami
Singh/Rana
Kuldeep/varun
None of these players give confidence. Pant and Pandya being in top 6 as batsman is scary. Doesn't give much reliability to the batting line up.
-
- Regular Contributor
- Posts: 224
- Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2024 11:34 pm
- Has thanked: 174 times
- Been thanked: 238 times
Re: Champions Trophy 2025
Surprisingly Pant isn't playing and instead they have Rahul. Rahul doesn't even compare to Pant. I think there is some issue between Gambhir and Pant. But totally ridiculous to drop Pant for Rahul. Rahul hardly plays well in most games. He even dropped catch and stumping chance. Stupid decision.
-
- Super Contributor
- Posts: 646
- Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2024 7:14 am
- Has thanked: 407 times
- Been thanked: 600 times
Re: Champions Trophy 2025
Someone tell Rohit to play for the team and not for the gallery and remind him that it's not a T20 match. Going on attack-dog mode is somewhat acceptable while setting targets and not while chasing 228!
-
- Regular Contributor
- Posts: 224
- Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2024 11:34 pm
- Has thanked: 174 times
- Been thanked: 238 times
Re: Champions Trophy 2025
Both him and Kohli are simply playing for ipl and advertisers. They do not belong in the team and should let youngsters in. Dhoni was another drag where people were just waiting for him to retire. These two are on same path.
-
- Regular Contributor
- Posts: 224
- Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2024 11:34 pm
- Has thanked: 174 times
- Been thanked: 238 times
Re: Champions Trophy 2025
India did win the match but it's disappointing that it was so close that too against minnows like Bangladesh. This win actually has hidden all the existing cracks today. Poor fielding, poor batting. These cracks will open wide against sena teams. I just hope they don't lose against Pak. Pak bowlers are of good quality and it will not be easy on this dubai pitch.
-
- Super Contributor
- Posts: 646
- Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2024 7:14 am
- Has thanked: 407 times
- Been thanked: 600 times
Re: Champions Trophy 2025
LOL -No one was waiting for Dhoni to retire! In fact, he retired when he was 33 from test cricket and 37 from ODI and T20I. Even in his last ODI, everyone was counting on him to win the semifinal until a brilliant runout, he walked in when the score was 24-4!Returning_Indian wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:11 am Both him and Kohli are simply playing for ipl and advertisers. They do not belong in the team and should let youngsters in. Dhoni was another drag where people were just waiting for him to retire. These two are on same path.
Maybe you're getting confused with Sachin

-
- Regular Contributor
- Posts: 224
- Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2024 11:34 pm
- Has thanked: 174 times
- Been thanked: 238 times
Re: Champions Trophy 2025
Maybe you don't remember the questions over questions in press conferences and articles being written about him. He just dragged it out for so long. All for advertisers and ipl. Too much fascination for Thala?SAPPORO wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:21 amLOL -No one was waiting for Dhoni to retire! In fact, he retired when he was 33 from test cricket and 37 from ODI and T20I. Even in his last ODI, everyone was counting on him to win the semifinal until a brilliant runout, he walked in when the score was 24-4!Returning_Indian wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:11 am Both him and Kohli are simply playing for ipl and advertisers. They do not belong in the team and should let youngsters in. Dhoni was another drag where people were just waiting for him to retire. These two are on same path.
Maybe you're getting confused with Sachin![]()
It was because of jadeja that there was even a chance against NZ in that match or else Dhoni was playing a test match. He couldn't play well against NZ in that match.
-
- Super Contributor
- Posts: 646
- Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2024 7:14 am
- Has thanked: 407 times
- Been thanked: 600 times
Re: Champions Trophy 2025
Why would anyone question about his retirement when at the very minimum he was good at keeping, arguably the best in the country even now! I already gave the objective stats about the retirement age and not a subjective opinion.Returning_Indian wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:26 amMaybe you don't remember the questions over questions in press conferences and articles being written about him. He just dragged it out for so long. All for advertisers and ipl. Too much fascination for Thala?SAPPORO wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:21 amLOL -No one was waiting for Dhoni to retire! In fact, he retired when he was 33 from test cricket and 37 from ODI and T20I. Even in his last ODI, everyone was counting on him to win the semifinal until a brilliant runout, he walked in when the score was 24-4!Returning_Indian wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:11 am Both him and Kohli are simply playing for ipl and advertisers. They do not belong in the team and should let youngsters in. Dhoni was another drag where people were just waiting for him to retire. These two are on same path.
Maybe you're getting confused with Sachin![]()
It was because of jadeja that there was even a chance against NZ in that match or else Dhoni was playing a test match. He couldn't play well against NZ in that match.
Jadeja played the aggressor, but Dhoni was the anchor. The conditions were so bad that even the five-time century maker in that world cup could not last long. For God sakes, India was 5-3 and you blame the guy that was the last hope!