Bits & Banter

17/11/2022

A bilateral series - Ind vs NZ T20 and ODI - just days after a emotion-filled World Cup. What to make of it? If it is for building a team for ICC tournaments then it can hold significance. Raj and Bala chat on this.

Yet another bilateral series. This time in New Zealand. Raj and Bala discuss on how it can be used to set the team for the future and build a team strategy. ...

17/11/2022

The IPL is a weird beast and the recent spate of retentions and releases makes one thing clear. There aren’t going to be any mini auctions around here. In fact half of the ten teams do not even have even the bare minimum personnel and one team is without a captain! I guess Kuppuswamy Balakumar isn’t joking when he says the ICC may soon create a window for IPL shopping 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️ - do check out our video and share your thoughts

Ahead of the mini auction in December, the 10 IPL teams have released a bunch of their respective players and retained a bunch of them. How do they stack up ...

16/11/2022

After the retentions and releases, how do the IPL teams stack ahead of the auction? Raj Narayan and Balakumar discuss it, and feel that ICC may soon open a separate window in its intl calendar for IPL auction itself.

Ahead of the mini auction in December, the 10 IPL teams have released a bunch of their respective players and retained a bunch of them. How do they stack up ...

11/11/2022

Another ICC tournament and another heartbreak. However, the discerning among cricket lovers, including a few of us here, knew that this team didn't have it t...

11/11/2022

Another ICC event, another disappointment. In this edition of we have Arvind Shankar Iyer and Raj Narayan taking a deep dive into unraveling this mystery of why T20 legends seem like T20 minnows when they turn out at the ICC tournaments and 15 years after winning the first T20 World Cup, India hasn't really progressed. Maybe, we just need to drop off all this big talk of processes and rely on picking a team of fresh faces and ask them to perform without pressure in these tournaments - after-all, the two occasions when India did win ICC tournaments in the past, the teams weren't even on the bookies list of favourites to do so.

Kuppuswamy Balakumar

Another ICC tournament and another heartbreak. However, the discerning among cricket lovers, including a few of us here, knew that this team didn't have it t...

10/11/2022

What happens when you watch a match and want to forget that it ever happened? Kuppuswamy Balakumar and I decided that a bout of selective amnesia can be used to discuss the Pakistan vs England finals, without actually talking about how one of them got there. Check out and let us know if we succeeded in our mission?

There was only one team that turned up to play the semifinals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 and unfortunately, that wasn't India. England was awake and aware...

10/11/2022

The semifinals wasn't even one-sided. There was only one side that turned up, the other making a brief appearance after the first 10 of the scheduled 40 overs for the day was bowled. Kuppuswamy Balakumar and Raj Narayan decided to have a bout of amnesia as they moved beyond the 10-wicket badgering of India by England and discuss the Pak-Eng finals scheduled at the MCG this Sunday. Reminds us of 1992 when the World Cup (50 overs) was played in Australia. Pakistan lost to India, defeated New Zealand in the semi-finals and beat England in the finals. So, will Babar Azam stand a chance to become Pakistan's Premier 25 years from now???

There was only one team that turned up to play the semifinals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 and unfortunately, that wasn't India. England was awake and aware...

07/11/2022

The semi-final line-up for the is out there. There is already talk of an India-Pak final, though that game will depend on how New Zealand and England turn out in their respective games against Pakistan and India. Given this scenario, we decided to take a slight detour and talk about what this edition held out as unique for

Raj Narayan Arvind Shankar Iyer Kuppuswamy Balakumar

The T20 World Cup for 2022 has reached its final stretch and one look at the semi-final round up is enough to tell us that all hasn't gone to script. Reignin...

06/11/2022

Raj Narayan and Bala, even while talking in awed terms about Sky's batting, look ahead and discuss the two semis and feel that the two Asian teams don't start the favs in them.

It has been a great advertisement for the unpredictability of cricket in this T20 World Cup. Nobody would have predicted South Africa losing to the Netherlan...

23/10/2022

Kuppuswamy Balakumar and Raj Narayan somehow hid their excitement and tension and recorded this on the adrenaline-pumping match. won against , and Kohli came out on top. So all is well with our world.

We have nothing to say expect that this match defied description. An win for India against the arch rivals, and Virat Kohli back in form - men in Blue could ...

20/10/2022

We're Back!!! Of course, that's nothing to be excited about as we were always around - just that we got a bit bored with things, and decided to take a break. This week, Kuppuswamy Balakumar and Raj Narayan appear in contrasting colours (by sheer accident) to discuss the and the battle, not to mention the favourites for the tournament. Give us a listen as we ramble on about Ravi Shastri and everything else. This is also an invite to all our collaborators

Bits and Banter, after a break, is back. And it starts off with Ravi Shastri. So plenty of cliches were traded. This is a look at the India and Pakistan enco...