**Official** India In West Indies

[oitoitoi]

November till proper cricket by the indian team.....don't know if I'll make it that long! The ashes better be spectacular!

 

[shivfan]

West Indies playing a home Test in early July - d'you think it'll be warm enough for them?

It was warm enough in the spring when England visited the Caribbean....

 

[honestbharani]

can someone change the title to official and sticky this to the first page?

 

[shivfan]

India have named their squad, and four players are out with injury - Tendulkar, Sehwag, Zaheer and Raina. Munaf and Irfan have been dropped....

 

[honestbharani]

yep.. Abhishek Nayyar, Badri, Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja, Nehra and Dinesh Karthik are back..

 

[Manee]

Ravindra Jadeja, and Nayar are overrated limited overs cricketers, imo. Good to see Nehra and Karthik rewarded for strong IPL stints (Karthik found good form and Nehra was tremendously impressive) and Badri kept on the scene, though would prefer to see him in Test colours. Just remembered, where is Virat Kohli, he surely > Nayar and Jadeja.

 

[honestbharani]

I don't mind Nayyar there at all.. He has the same weakness as Raina or Rohit against the short balls but he is a decent hitter and can chip away with nudges when he cannot get the big onside slog going... He is a decent bowler and fielder too for this format...



Jadeja.. meh, better that he is in the in the ODI side than in the T20 side is all I can say.

 

[Arjun]

There are comments on the selection having a South Zone bias. I don't subscribe to that at all, it's just the Chairman of Selectors and the team manager who are from TN as well as three players. The inclusion of Vijay Krishnan has raised eyebrows and hence this tag, but it's better deserved than, say, Parthiv Patel.

Ravindra Jadeja is a waste. He can't hit the ball long enough, and gets stifled by tight field settings. His bowling isn't far better than the part-timers, and only got away with bowling on the same slow wickets on which strokeplay wasn't easy. Maybe he has a chance in the Test team, but there's a far better player already in this team. Maybe more, but they can't afford to play as all-rounders as they're batting mainstays.

Nayar was drafted solely as a replacement for Irfan Pathan. The selectors have taken a conscious step to penalise Irfan in particular for non-performance (then what about Ishant, Raina, Pragyan, Jadeja and Rohit?) but have thankfully gone in for a replacement. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have him playing as a bowler; his batting ability was never in doubt, but he would need to bowl long stocks regularly, not just bits and pieces. Both he and Yusuf will be crucial as all-rounders. That said, Praveen Kumar has been under-utilised as a batsman ever since he made his India debut; he can come in as a lower-order striker to send in with few overs to play.

This is an exhibition tournament, not a World Cup match. The Indians can experiment; their best team still has a few holes to plug, and they'll get their hints from here.

 

[AaronK]

What is the point of touring when they have to play one day matches only.. i say add a couple of test matches and 20 twenty then we got an exciting tour in hand..

 

[shivfan]

What is the point of touring when they have to play one day matches only.. i say add a couple of test matches and 20 twenty then we got an exciting tour in hand..

This is just India returning a favour for the four ODIs the WIndies played in India prior to the 50-overs World Cup....

Does seem pointless, but tickets are selling fast, I understand. So, can't argue with that.

 

[honestbharani]

I believe this could be the XI for the first match:


Gambhir
Vijay
Rohit
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Nayyar
Pathan
Harbhajan
Praveen
RP Singh
Ishant


Ideally I would like to see Ishant rested too.. Maybe a Dhawal Kulkarni could have gone instead.. Or even Sreesanth.


Depending on form and fitness of others, esp. Yuvi, maybe even Badri can come in for a game for him and Jadeja in place of Nayyar...

 

[sunilreddy]

3-1 West Indies

 

[Shri]

Are the WI pitches bouncy these days or are they slow pitches with unpredictable bounce?

 

[Xuhaib]

India 3-1

 

[shivfan]

Are the WI pitches bouncy these days or are they slow pitches with unpredictable bounce?

Well, India are only playing on two pitches - Sabina Park in Kingston, and Beausejour in St Lucia....

Sabina is not easy to bat on, and can offer assistance to both bowlers and batsmen. However, on the first day (the first match), it will probably be good for batting. The second match should offer more for the bowlers.

Beausejour should be better for more fluent strokeplay.

 

[Shri]

Well, India are only playing on two pitches - Sabina Park in Kingston, and Beausejour in St Lucia....

Sabina is not easy to bat on, and can offer assistance to both bowlers and batsmen. However, on the first day (the first match), it will probably be good for batting. The second match should offer more for the bowlers.

Beausejour should be better for more fluent strokeplay.

Thanks for the info. Got a feeling that Gayle is going to be in mean form when the series starts.

 

[shivfan]

However, it was a good move by India to travel to Jamaica. I understand they arrived in Jamaica yesterday!

It will take the WI players some time to get re-acclimatised to the Caribbean wickets again, so I'm expecting an interesting series....

 

[Shri]

Hope Nayar has a trick or two to deal with Bravo - his IPL team mate.

 

[Beamer]

My Windies XI (plus reserves) for this series:

Kieron Powell
Lendl Simmons
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Shiv Chanderpaul
Dwayne Bravo (VC)
Darren Bravo
Denesh Ramdin (C, WK)
Darren Sammy
Jerome Taylor
Suliemann Benn
Nelon Pascal

Reserves:

Imran Khan
Lionel Baker
David Bernard Jr

Notes:

- Chris Gayle may miss this series to have ankle surgery to make sure he is fit in time for the tour of Australia.
- I wouldn't take any chances with Fidel Edwards either if he is having back spasms. This is a pretty unimportant series and he is too important to risk.
- Nelon Pascal is an interesting pace option against an Indian lineup that looked highly uncomfortable against pace in the 20/20 tournament.
- Imran Khan is a bit of a wildcard but he is a quickish leg spinner who can give the ball a good thump with the bat.
- Kieron Powell is our best alternative to Gayle when it comes to having a power player at the top of the order IMHO.
- It is time we have a proper batsman coming in at 6 instead of a hit and miss candidate like Pollard. Darren Bravo can attack just as well as Pollard but he is also capable of playing to the situation.

 

[roseboy64]

Could see a few new faces for the West Indies with the Tests against Bangladesh after and the Champions Trophy.