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***Official England in India***

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Erm, none that are convincing. Foster would probably be OK further down the order, but then we have the problem of who should open the batting in these games. The English cupboard is embarassingly bare.
Trying to manufacture a useless batsman-wicketkeeper into an opener won't solve the who-should-open problem.

I don't really rate Foster at all as a OD batsman. I'd be quite happy to see him in the Test side as he's pretty decent in the longer game, but he'd be batting at seven or eight and I can see him quite often getting 5 off 9 balls or something when coming in with 6 overs or so left. Which is little use to anyone.

I'd prefer Ambrose if the choice is between the two of them. But hopefully in time Davies will come in and bat at four or five.
 

Uppercut

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Trying to manufacture a useless batsman-wicketkeeper into an opener won't solve the who-should-open problem.

I don't really rate Foster at all as a OD batsman. I'd be quite happy to see him in the Test side as he's pretty decent in the longer game, but he'd be batting at seven or eight and I can see him quite often getting 5 off 9 balls or something when coming in with 6 overs or so left. Which is little use to anyone.

I'd prefer Ambrose if the choice is between the two of them. But hopefully in time Davies will come in and bat at four or five.
Mustard did a decent pinch-hit job. And that's obviously what they're looking for, because England is overflowing with people who see off the new ball. He's one of the worst wk-batsmen around county cricket, but he can do the job they want better than Ambrose or Prior.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
I don't, myself, want someone who can get 15 off 20 balls often, 2 off 6 balls not-irregularly, and 80 off 70 balls on absolute rank roads with very short boundaries and almost never otherwise. Don't want such players anywhere near the team. They're no use IMO. If you're going to have one of them you might as well send Graeme Swann or Mascarenhas in to open (and Swann is just about as good at OD opening as Mustard and has done it for far longer).

There are wicketkeepers who could do a more useful job than Mustard. Mustard is the worst batsman of all county wicketkeepers. It just beggars belief that he got anywhere near the ODI squad. That he was a single injury away from playing a Test is truly terrifying.
 

ramu

Cricket Spectator
:
For this Indian side, I'd prefer to see (or not see) Yuvraj out of the XI. It will help him and the team a lot more. He's not scoring too many, he can't bowl and he's struggling on the field. It's come to a stage where a frontline bowler would add more value to his place.


:laugh:
 

ramu

Cricket Spectator
:@
For this Indian side, I'd prefer to see (or not see) Yuvraj out of the XI. It will help him and the team a lot more. He's not scoring too many, he can't bowl and he's struggling on the field. It's come to a stage where a frontline bowler would add more value to his place.

In comparison, we haven't seen Rohit Sharma stretched much, and he should get a more crucial role in the lineup. A promotion to three or four, to get a certain century, would help a lot more than getting an impossible two-runs-a-ball century at six or seven with ten overs left. The batting lineup should be a specialist batsman (read: a batsman who can't bowl) light so that the top six (Dhoni included) are stretched a little, so that they get more responsibility, and play responsibly. I'm talking of an innings like that of Rohit Sharma at Sydney- not spectacular in numbers or strokes, but still substantial. Kohli and Raina have done well in their previous matches, so they can go down the order a little.

Seeing Krejza's success in a Test match, it's time they play Yusuf Pathan as a limited-overs spinner. This is just right for him- he's a steady bowler, gives nothing away and bowls without any of the baggage or blocks (no flight, fire-it-in-straight or slow-with-no-turn) we find with some established bowlers. Moreover, he's the best choice for that inconvenient number seven position, where big hits, hard dashes across the wicket and a semblance of a sensible innings are needed- and he has it all. For that, Dhoni needs to be more flexible in captaincy, a lot like his short-term predecessor.

Putting together four frontline bowlers, though, will be a tough task. They can't risk Zaheer and Ishant getting injured in the series, else it's farewell Test Trophy. They'll have to bench one of the seamers and Harbhajan regularly, or even two, but the prospect of having Pragyan Ojha or Munaf Patel in the ODI side isn't encouraging. RP Singh may have his problems with the ball, but can surely do a lot better on the field, so we should see him in all seven ODIs.

The best part of this team will be the opening combination of Sehwag and Gambhir, though they also have Vijay as a reliable backup.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Why not open with KP?


Give Prior the licence to go all out at the top with his strokes, let KP settle in and take control of the innings at 2, which is not THAT diff. from 3, at

least for this English side... :p


Ideally, I would want to try out this line up for the remaining matches and see if it doesn't help out England...



Prior
KP
Shah
Bopara
Flintoff
Collingwood
Patel
Broad
Harmison
Sidebottom/Anderson/spinner
Sidebottom/Anderson/spinner
 

IndGunner

First Class Debutant

Top_Cat

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A player as talented as Yuvi, surely, has to start scoring Test runs at some stage. Even Michael Bevan resembled a Test batsman occasionally.
 

Precambrian

Banned
A player as talented as Yuvi, surely, has to start scoring Test runs at some stage. Even Michael Bevan resembled a Test batsman occasionally.
But it's too much of opportunities given. He has done nothing so far that could give an impression of him devoting time to correct the obvious flaws in his technique. Too much leeway I guess.
 

Top_Cat

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But it's too much of opportunities given. He has done nothing so far that could give an impression of him devoting time to correct the obvious flaws in his technique. Too much leeway I guess.
Hey look, largely I agree with you. He's been in the Indian set-up for ages now, should be well aware of what it takes to be a Test batsman. It's inexplicable that he'd keep wasting his opportunities, though. What's more baffling is his play against spin; looked totally inept against Brad Hogg, for crying out loud. All in his head, I reckon.
 

Precambrian

Banned
He's 26 superbly talented and averages 44.60 in Asia. (Without ever playing Bangladesh!) He'll do fine.
Mainly due to his performance against the worst Pakistan bowling to tour India. And batting tracks. His failure in Australia, told us he can't play the bounce. His failure in SL told us he can't play spin. So what is left? Flat tracks and low bounce.

Not test-worthy until proved otherwise.
 

Top_Cat

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Mainly due to his performance against the worst Pakistan bowling to tour India. And batting tracks. His failure in Australia, told us he can't play the bounce. His failure in SL told us he can't play spin. So what is left? Flat tracks and low bounce.

Not test-worthy until proved otherwise.
Definitely weren't bouncy decks last time he was here and the other batsmen scored plenty of runs so he has even fewer excuses, really....
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
Mainly due to his performance against the worst Pakistan bowling to tour India. And batting tracks. His failure in Australia, told us he can't play the bounce. His failure in SL told us he can't play spin. So what is left? Flat tracks and low bounce.

Not test-worthy until proved otherwise.
His failure against SL was ODI cricket though wasn't it?
 

Precambrian

Banned
Definitely weren't bouncy decks last time he was here and the other batsmen scored plenty of runs so he has even fewer excuses, really....
Anything that helps the ball to carry to the wicketkeeper at waistheight = bouncy by Indian standards. Exposed his back foot problem dealing with deliveries on or outside off stump.
 

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