Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
What teams need to do now:
Baroda: Irfan's return should boost them a great deal. His brother, leg-spinner and strike batsman Yusuf, has been dropped due to declining form. The selectors can gamble and get him back, ahead of off-spinner Ajit Bhoite, who's just a stock spinner now. Rajesh Pawar and Rakesh Patel will be in the wickets once more, and should keep up the form. Irfan has one more match, and can use it to good effect to return to form with the ball. As a batsman, he can stick to striking the ball, since the batting order is very strong, with batting all the way down to nine.
Delhi: Batsman Aditya Jain has age on his side, so it's not too late for this part-time off-spinner to bowl full-time. Rajat Bhatia has dropped one catch too many and struggles on the field, but he's been in the runs and often provided support with his medium-pace bowling. They need to improve their fielding and be more judicious in choice of shots.
Haryana: Score more runs! Especially Rana and Sumit Sharma. Joginder needs a cushion above him to play more freely. All along, he's played as a batting lynchpin, and wasn't too good at it. Stock seamer Rana needs to contribute more overs and reduce the load on Joginder and leggie Mishra.
Uttar Pradesh: They should think twice before promoting the aggressive Pravin Kumar in nearly every match. He's not suited to open in most matches. Spinner Murtaza is one who can help the team's cause by supporting leggie Chawla and scoring runs. They have three bowlers– Chawla, Kumar and Murtaza– who can score runs, and wicketkeeper Amir Khan can also score some. They can open with SJ Srivastava and RP Singh, with Kumar coming in first-change. Kumar is raking in so many wickets; he should be in national contention after this season, especially after the World Cup.
Karnataka: It's a tough call to drop one of two left-arm spinners. The over-the-hill Sunil Joshi is still relevant because of his experience, while KP Appana is still developing. They've got one more bowling option in Chandrashekhar Raghu, the offie. Only one of Akhil, Binny and Dhiman should play. Ideally, it should be Dhiman, who can contribute a lot with the ball. You then have a very versatile team with six bowling options, batting till eight and very effective on the field.
Andhra: How did they miss that one? Their performance, as a team, was fabulous in the match against Delhi. Strike bowler Sahabuddin scored heavily, when he was needed most. They do have some versatility with Sahabuddin and Mohammed Faiq the off-spinner, and wicketkeeper MSK Prasad still scores runs. Seamer Kalyankrishna has been moving the ball well, taking wickets at a good average this season. They need more runs in the forthcoming matches.
Bengal: Paul has been out of action for some time now. Middle-order batsman Laxmi Ratan Shukla should support seamers Bose and Dinda regularly. Murtaza Lodhgar has been left out for a good part of this season, although there's no real case for his recall. The second spinner has often been changed, though Lahiri still picks wickets. They're doing fine now, but need to try harder to get into that last four.
Punjab: With Sodhi gone, it's up to seamer Ishan Malhotra and spinner Vipul Sharma to perform all-round duty. Gagandeep and Ablash should open the bowling, with Malhotra to back up. With Rajesh Sharma reported for a suspect action, he may miss the next match, with Harbhajan and Vipul bowling in tandem. Dharmani can continue keeping wickets. Malhotra needs to convert those starts into larger, chunky scores.
Mumbai: This piece comes last as they're in League B, unlike other seasons. This is just to highlight the piece. Zaheer, Agarkar, Powar and Kulkarni will form a match-winning bowling lineup. A place is left open for a seamer, either the value-added Abhishek Nair or Wilkin Mota, or the young scholarship holder Waingankar. Samant has also got into run-scoring form in the last match, so a specialist may be a good choice. With Jaffer back, Mane may have to be benched, and a middle-order of Sharma, Tendulkar and Mazumdar will be very strong. This team will be the one to watch.
Baroda: Irfan's return should boost them a great deal. His brother, leg-spinner and strike batsman Yusuf, has been dropped due to declining form. The selectors can gamble and get him back, ahead of off-spinner Ajit Bhoite, who's just a stock spinner now. Rajesh Pawar and Rakesh Patel will be in the wickets once more, and should keep up the form. Irfan has one more match, and can use it to good effect to return to form with the ball. As a batsman, he can stick to striking the ball, since the batting order is very strong, with batting all the way down to nine.
Delhi: Batsman Aditya Jain has age on his side, so it's not too late for this part-time off-spinner to bowl full-time. Rajat Bhatia has dropped one catch too many and struggles on the field, but he's been in the runs and often provided support with his medium-pace bowling. They need to improve their fielding and be more judicious in choice of shots.
Haryana: Score more runs! Especially Rana and Sumit Sharma. Joginder needs a cushion above him to play more freely. All along, he's played as a batting lynchpin, and wasn't too good at it. Stock seamer Rana needs to contribute more overs and reduce the load on Joginder and leggie Mishra.
Uttar Pradesh: They should think twice before promoting the aggressive Pravin Kumar in nearly every match. He's not suited to open in most matches. Spinner Murtaza is one who can help the team's cause by supporting leggie Chawla and scoring runs. They have three bowlers– Chawla, Kumar and Murtaza– who can score runs, and wicketkeeper Amir Khan can also score some. They can open with SJ Srivastava and RP Singh, with Kumar coming in first-change. Kumar is raking in so many wickets; he should be in national contention after this season, especially after the World Cup.
Karnataka: It's a tough call to drop one of two left-arm spinners. The over-the-hill Sunil Joshi is still relevant because of his experience, while KP Appana is still developing. They've got one more bowling option in Chandrashekhar Raghu, the offie. Only one of Akhil, Binny and Dhiman should play. Ideally, it should be Dhiman, who can contribute a lot with the ball. You then have a very versatile team with six bowling options, batting till eight and very effective on the field.
Andhra: How did they miss that one? Their performance, as a team, was fabulous in the match against Delhi. Strike bowler Sahabuddin scored heavily, when he was needed most. They do have some versatility with Sahabuddin and Mohammed Faiq the off-spinner, and wicketkeeper MSK Prasad still scores runs. Seamer Kalyankrishna has been moving the ball well, taking wickets at a good average this season. They need more runs in the forthcoming matches.
Bengal: Paul has been out of action for some time now. Middle-order batsman Laxmi Ratan Shukla should support seamers Bose and Dinda regularly. Murtaza Lodhgar has been left out for a good part of this season, although there's no real case for his recall. The second spinner has often been changed, though Lahiri still picks wickets. They're doing fine now, but need to try harder to get into that last four.
Punjab: With Sodhi gone, it's up to seamer Ishan Malhotra and spinner Vipul Sharma to perform all-round duty. Gagandeep and Ablash should open the bowling, with Malhotra to back up. With Rajesh Sharma reported for a suspect action, he may miss the next match, with Harbhajan and Vipul bowling in tandem. Dharmani can continue keeping wickets. Malhotra needs to convert those starts into larger, chunky scores.
Mumbai: This piece comes last as they're in League B, unlike other seasons. This is just to highlight the piece. Zaheer, Agarkar, Powar and Kulkarni will form a match-winning bowling lineup. A place is left open for a seamer, either the value-added Abhishek Nair or Wilkin Mota, or the young scholarship holder Waingankar. Samant has also got into run-scoring form in the last match, so a specialist may be a good choice. With Jaffer back, Mane may have to be benched, and a middle-order of Sharma, Tendulkar and Mazumdar will be very strong. This team will be the one to watch.
