India Thread

[Richard]

And you want that sort of reliability?

 

[C_C]

It's a disgrace Powar has been left out.Seems that the Indian selectors are just trying to take the easy option and not make big decisions.Pathan or Harbhajan should really have been dropped.Harbhajan in the last year has turned into a very ordinary spinner especially
in the one day arena recently.

Why'd you drop Harbhajan ?
He doesnt take wickets in ODIs a lot but Bhajji is mighty consistent on even pancake-flat pitches. In 9 outta 10 matches Bhajji has figures like 10-0-40-1 with the occasional clobbering that every ODI bowler suffers.
IMO, he is the perfect ODI bowler for middle overs to tie up one end and let an incisive bowler(which india doesn't have yet) operate on the other.

Kumble, IMO is very rusty in ODIs since he hasn't played much. And to be honest, his figures are misleading - in the last match he played, he went for something like 10-0-50-1 where his last over got belted for 15 runs or so.
IMO, Kumble is a good pick for the world cup and i can see why Powar was excluded : The WI grounds are really small and small grounds are the ultimate nemesis of a bowler who likes to flight it and toss it up - he'd take wickets but be torn apart as well. Powar's batting also hasn't shown the same spark yet as in domestic cricket but overall, i think Powar is very much in the equation after the world cup.

The most baffling pick is Utthapa. He is not a batsman and he has zero backfoot play, much like Matty Hayden. Unfortunately, he isnt as tall as Hayden to take most balls on the front foot and get on top of them at the same time.

 

[Sanz]

Why'd you drop Harbhajan ?
He doesnt take wickets in ODIs a lot but Bhajji is mighty consistent on even pancake-flat pitches. In 9 outta 10 matches Bhajji has figures like 10-0-40-1 with the occasional clobbering that every ODI bowler suffers.

Really ? Last 10 games Bhajji Figures are :-

10-0-49-0
10-0-59-0
10-0-63-0
8-0-39-1
10-0-59-0
10-3-29-0
8-1-30-0
2-0-7-0
10-0-41-1
10-0-37-3

Seems like 5 out of 10 rather than 9 out of 10.

 

[Jono]

What do you mean ? He has heardly gotten a chance to bat and already has a fighting 50 versus England. Powar can be a decent lower order ODI batsmen as good as Pathan.

Then why the hell did Harbhajan and AA bat ahead of him in one game? I mean the Indian team does stupid things, but if Powar was that good a bat surely he wouldn't bat at 10.

By the way, my mate noticed this and I honestly missed it when first seeing the squad. Does anyone think they chose one too many bowlers?

We only have 8 batsman including Karthik and Dhoni. Its 9 if you include Irfan I guess

 

[adharcric]

Considering we might play 5 bowlers, we had to go for 7 including reserves.

 

[Prince EWS]

Then why the hell did Harbhajan and AA bat ahead of him in one game? I mean the Indian team does stupid things, but if Powar was that good a bat surely he wouldn't bat at 10.

By the way, my mate noticed this and I honestly missed it when first seeing the squad. Does anyone think they chose one too many bowlers?

We only have 8 batsman including Karthik and Dhoni. Its 9 if you include Irfan I guess

Yeah, Pathan has been picked as an allrounder. I don't see him batting any lower than 7 in the tournament so he wasn't really picked as a bowler. Pathan being selected as one of the four main bowlers given his recent form would have been disasterous, and considering they were insistant on picking the guy to give you the option of playing 5 "bowlers", you had to take 6 bowlers + him.

 

[Sanz]

@Jono - I am not sure why they did that, but it doesn't mean that he is worse than Bhajji and Ajit. Must be another one of Rahul/Greg expereiments.

 

[Sanz]

Considering we might play 5 bowlers, we had to go for 7 including reserves.

I dont think we are going to play five bowlers + Irfan. We will probably play four bowlers + Irfan and IMO at least 20 overs of bowling would be shared between Sehwag, Sachin and Yuvraj with Ganguly 1/2 overs once in a while.

 

[Prince EWS]

I dont think we are going to play five bowlers + Irfan. We will probably play four bowlers + Irfan and IMO at least 20 overs of bowling would be shared between Sehwag, Sachin and Yuvraj with Ganguly 1/2 overs once in a while.

Adharcric is counting Pathan as a bowler of 5 there, I'd imagine.

 

[adharcric]

I dont think we are going to play five bowlers + Irfan. We will probably play four bowlers + Irfan and IMO at least 20 overs of bowling would be shared between Sehwag, Sachin and Yuvraj with Ganguly 1/2 overs once in a while.

Huh? Pathan would play as the fifth bowler. You seem to have Pathan in the mix and still have 20 overs to be shared between the part-timers .. wtf?

 

[C_C]

Really ? Last 10 games Bhajji Figures are :-

10-0-49-0
10-0-59-0
10-0-63-0
8-0-39-1
10-0-59-0
10-3-29-0
8-1-30-0
2-0-7-0
10-0-41-1
10-0-37-3

Seems like 5 out of 10 rather than 9 out of 10.

I don't give a damn what the last 10 match figures are...more like what his trend over the past few years are.

 

[Sanz]

Huh? Pathan would play as the fifth bowler. You seem to have Pathan in the mix and still have 20 overs to be shared between the part-timers .. wtf?

I think Pathan will play as the fourth bowler. As usual India will pack its side with batsmen.

 

[silentstriker]

You have to play to your strengths. Is the fifth bowler really going to be all that much more effective than the other four? I would doubt it. I'd say four bowlers including Pathan and Tendy/Yuvraj/Ganguly doing the rest would do it.

 

[adharcric]

I think Pathan will play as the fourth bowler. As usual India will pack its side with batsmen.

You have to play to your strengths. Is the fifth bowler really going to be all that much more effective than the other four? I would doubt it. I'd say four bowlers including Pathan and Tendy/Yuvraj/Ganguly doing the rest would do it.

There's no way Pathan will play if we go in with only four specialist bowlers. He's simply not good enough right now. He will only play as the fifth bowler and we're honestly better off playing only four bowlers.

 

[nate-d]

How about Ganguly to open with Sehwag or Tendulkar, come back to the lefthand and righthand combination as of old

 

[Prince EWS]

There's no way Pathan will play if we go in with only four specialist bowlers. He's simply not good enough right now. He will only play as the fifth bowler and we're honestly better off playing only four bowlers.

Completely agreed. Pathan as one of four would be ridiculous.

 

[Evermind]

I really don't know what Kumble, Harbhajan, Sehwag are doing in that team. They're all in dreadful form, and there's nothing to indicate they could come good.

I really hope they play Uthappa in first XI and use Sehwag only in case of injury to him. Hell, given Sehwag's recent form, I'd have picked even Kaif in the squad: at least he's an excellent fielder.

 

[Jono]

I really don't know what Kumble, Harbhajan, Sehwag are doing in that team. They're all in dreadful form, and there's nothing to indicate they could come good.

I really hope they play Uthappa in first XI and use Sehwag only in case of injury to him. Hell, given Sehwag's recent form, I'd have picked even Kaif in the squad: at least he's an excellent fielder.

Since 2006 Harbhajan has the 4th best economy rate in world cricket!

http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/columns/content/story/280455.html

 

[Pup Clarke]

Since 2006 Harbhajan has the 4th best economy rate in world cricket!

http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/columns/content/story/280455.html

Isn't one day cricket alot to do with taking wickets though and to be fair Harbhajan hasn't taken a stack full of them.A good economy rate is fine but if your not taking wickets there's not as much pressure put on the batsmen.

 

[Jono]

Its important for ODI bowlers to take wickets if they are the lead of the attack/best bowler. IMO, Zaheer leads the attack atm in Indian cricket, and before that it was Irfan before he forgot how to bowl a cricket ball.

If the Indian seamers do crap, then obviously if Bhajji can't buy a wicket there's a problem. However if he goes for 4 an over, and Munaf and Zaheer take the wickets, I have no issue.

If anyone was to be dropped for Powar, it'd be Kumble.