*Official* - India in West Indies

[Cevno]

I'm disappointed that Parthiv is one of only two openers in the squad. India could have looked for Dhawan or Rahane. It is not wise to have Parthiv opening the batting when he still does not have an OD century in 99 innings and has a modest average. He is not exactly a hitter either, I guess his aim is to score a steady 50, which is not the requirement in modern OD cricket. The middle order is expected to be strong, whatever combination is chosen.

Completely agree on this.

Parthiv Patel is a weakness as a opener.

Mukund was stupid to stay at CSK otherwise he would have been the automatic choice.

Dhawan and Vijay have both dissapointed in the IPL ,and Vijay has a poor ODI record too but i guess after Srilanka Dhawan should have got another chance.

Rahane could have been given a go too .He is not a specialist opener but has opened at times in domestic cricket.
And has even outperformed Nohit in every form of domestic cricket plus India A and BP XI matches against international opposition and still keeps getting overlooked.
Feel Sorry for him.Is a impressive batsman too.

The bowling is interesting, Ashwin and Harbhajan are the certainties as spinners. It is interesting to see Mishra there, he appears to have fallen out of form. I do think it is unlikely that he will get a game, but I think it is interesting that India have once more snubbed Ojha - who I personally rate more than Mishra.

3 reasons for this -

1)Mishra had outperformed Ojha in the IPL so far and has bowled attackingly and well and gets selected for Deccan Chargers ahead of him.

2)Yuvraj bowls 10 overs most days in ODI's so another left arm spinner may not be required.

3)Keeping tests in mind , a leg spinner getting acclimatized to the conditions will be good.
Gives a diffferent kind of attacking option in tests being a wrist spinner on flatter surfaces.

 

[Xuhaib]

good to see no IPL inspired selections remember India selecting duds like Gony and Jadeja based on a good IPL season.

Solid side which should do well, this tour will mark the start of Virat Kohli era for India.

 

[Xuhaib]

btw is this the end of Dinesh Kartik? Not that he will be missed much.

 

[Austerlitz]

Disappointed,some baffling pickings.

1]wridhiman saha instead of ambati rayudu.
Rayudu is in a diff class as batsmen compared to this tailender who's only shots are tap to square leg and third man and scoop.Total waste of space as he can't play batsman at all.Rayudu could have played as extra batsmen if[when] parthiv patel failed.And i'm from saha's hometown.

2]amit mishra for rahul sharma.Lets face it old porky mishra has no future in ODIs,just not encouraging youngsters enough.With yuvi in ojha is unnecessary.

3]Not sure if vinay kumar has done enough to warrant a space.


Pleased about.

Rohit sharma.Time to bring this guy back into the big picture.
Sharma-pujara-kohli-raina = indian batting future.

Badrinath.Deserved it,got it.


I'm guessing the team will be

gambhir
patel
kohli
yuvraj
raina
badri
pathan
munaf
ishant
ashwin/praveen kumar
harbhajan.


If we win the series i would ideally want

Gambhir
Patel
Kohli
Sharma
Badrinath
Raina
Yuvraj/pathan

Batting line up

If we win series we must let Rohit and badri play as UP the order as possible.
Actually if patel fails open with one of them.I'll be watching sharma and badri.

 

[Cevno]

btw is this the end of Dinesh Kartik? Not that he will be missed much.

Won't say the end of the road,as the backup keeper position is a bit of a revolving door but he needs to improve his keeping to get another go.

Is probably the best batsman of the lot of backup keepers(along with Patel) ,but his keeping let him down in Srilanka and since then has not come back in the team.

 

[Austerlitz]

btw is this the end of Dinesh Kartik? Not that he will be missed much.

Far better than saha imo.

 

[Teja.]

One thing I'm hugely concerned about is the possibility of Badri having a terrible ODI series and the selectors using that as an excuse to not pick him for tests forever.

 

[Cevno]

One thing I'm hugely concerned about is Badri having a terrible ODI series and the selectors using that as an excuse to not pick him for tests forever.

Yep.

That is a possibility ,but he can have a brilliant series too and get selected in the Test Squad.

He seems to be in pretty good form at the moment and is scoring quick runs in the IPL ,so should do well in the west indies too.

Besides,in the west indies ODI pitches tend to be slow and low grinders more than flat high scoring ones ,which should suit him too,showing superiority over others.

 

[Austerlitz]

Yep.

That is a possibility ,but he can have a brilliant series too and getting selected in the Test Squad.

He seems to be in pretty good form at the moment and is scoring quick runs in the IPL ,so should do well in the west indies too.

Besides the west indies ODI pitches tend to be slow and low grinders more than flat high scoring ones ,which suit him too showing superiority over others.

Hopefully he isn't shoved down to bat at 6 or 7.

 

[salman85]

That's a subcontinent dilemma.Age is not on Badrinath's side,and one bad series could effectivley end his international career before it has even started.Plus India have this habit of producing quality batsmen,so he will always be up against competition from younger players.You will find very VERY rare cases of players into their 30s joining the national team,having a bad series and somehow finding a place in the national team again.

 

[Xuhaib]

one good thing that Misbah resurgence has done to Pakistan is it has provided domestic workhorses a new lease of life Ajmal,Rehman and Hafeez have all comeback well and have become an integral part of the squad maybe Badri can start the same culture in India.

 

[Blaze 18]

Decent squad. Would go with :

1) Gautham Gambhir
2) Parthiv Patel
3) Virat Kohli
4) Subramanium Badrinath
5) Yuvraj Singh
6) Suresh Raina
7) Yusuf Pathan
8) Harbhajan Singh
9) Ravichandran Ashwin
10)Praveen Kumar
11)Munaf Patel/Ishant Sharma

 

[Cevno]

You would start Nohit ahead of Yuvraj?

No way is that going to happen and neither it should.

 

[Blaze 18]

Missed Yuvraj Singh, actually. So they're only resting Tendulkar, Sehwag, Dhoni and Zaheer?

 

[Daemon]

tbh I'd give Harbhajan a break and play another pacer. Our pacers need as much match practice as possible atm.

 

[Arjun]

This is a good selection, but the choice of both Parthiv and Saha is terrible. Parthiv is not much of a batsman. Nor much of a keeper. Not even much of a limited-overs player. Saha, at the very least, is good for limited-overs, but a very limited batsman, though his wicketkeeping is quite good. Dinesh Karthik would be a better choice.

Six multi-skilled options is delicious, and hopefully they'll make the most of it. Praveen, Vinay, Ashwin, Yusuf, Harbhajan and Mishra offer good options for the team to take forward, post-World Cup. Yuvraj can safely concentrate on his batting, so that he can force his way back to Tests.

Mishra, Badri and Vinay are very experienced limited-overs players with little ODI experience, and their selections are well and truly deserved. Then again, Rahane would feel very unlucky not to make this squad. However, a relatively poor IPL and (thus) lack of good performances against international bowlers and fielders, as against gobbling up second-string domestic attacks with pedestrian fielding watching, may have pushed IPL frontrunner Rohit Sharma ahead. He would, however, be a far, far better choice than Parthiv and Saha, and also do fine as backup keeper- for some reason, the rotation of a wicketkeeper hasn't been used by teams.

Putting eleven together, the batting may be opened by Kohli and Gambhir, with a middle-order of Yuvraj, Raina and Badrinath. The wicketkeeper-batsman's position will be a cause for concern, as neither Parthiv nor Saha are convincing behind or before the stumps. That will necessitate the choice of more versatile bowling selections, so we can expect three of the multiple men to consistently figure. Sluggish Caribbean pitches would suggest the choice of three spinners, with Yusuf as one to stretch the batting. Mishra and Ashwin in tandem would be a delight to watch, while Bhajji can sit this out and then kick in for Tests. Two of Ishant, Munaf and Praveen will lead the seamers, and hopefully we'll see Vinay get a few more caps. We can be sure of this- none of the bowlers will figure in all of the ODIs.

 

[Cevno]

This is a good selection, but the choice of both Parthiv and Saha is terrible. Parthiv is not much of a batsman. Nor much of a keeper. Not even much of a limited-overs player. Saha, at the very least, is good for limited-overs, but a very limited batsman, though his wicketkeeping is quite good. Dinesh Karthik would be a better choice.


Six multi-skilled options is delicious, and hopefully they'll make the most of it. Praveen, Vinay, Ashwin, Yusuf, Harbhajan and Mishra offer good options for the team to take forward, post-World Cup. Yuvraj can safely concentrate on his batting, so that he can force his way back to Tests.


Mishra, Badri and Vinay are very experienced limited-overs players with little ODI experience, and their selections are well and truly deserved. Then again, Rahane would feel very unlucky not to make this squad. However, a relatively poor IPL and (thus) lack of good performances against international bowlers and fielders, as against gobbling up second-string domestic attacks with pedestrian fielding watching, may have pushed IPL frontrunner Rohit Sharma ahead. He would, however, be a far, far better choice than Parthiv and Saha, and also do fine as backup keeper- for some reason, the rotation of a wicketkeeper hasn't been used by teams.

Ajinkya Rahane has never kept Wickets ,how can he be chosen as the backup keeper?

I think you are mixing him up with Ambati Rayudu.

As for Dinesh Karthik ,his keeping has deteriorated and he needs to improve on that before he is picked again.

I am not a fan of either Parthiv(not a great keeper either) or Saha(poor batsman) though and perhaps a Murali Gautam,Shreevats Goswami,Naman Ojha or a Uday Kaul could have been given a chance.

 

[Arjun]

Ajinkya Rahane has never kept Wickets ,how can he be chosen as the backup keeper?

I think you are mixing him up with Ambati Rayudu.

As for Dinesh Karthik ,his keeping has deteriorated and he needs to improve on that before he is picked again.

I am not a fan of either Parthiv(not a great keeper either) or Saha(poor batsman) though and perhaps a Murali Gautam,Shreevats Goswami,Naman Ojha or a Uday Kaul could have been given a chance.

These days, anybody half-decent batsman keeps wickets in limited-overs games. Like I said, they can rotate the keeper if needed.

Rayudu was one I had in mind, but he's not as impressive in the domestic scene as Rahane, though he got plenty of chances in the frontline in the IPL.

I haven't seen too much of Karthik's keeping, especially since he plays as a batsman for Punjab, but he's the best of the next, so he should be in the running. Naman Ojha isn't much of a keeper either, and yet another bits-and-pieces man for a wicketkeeper-batmsan. Likewise Uday Kaul. Murali Gautam is good, but that's a long shot, and even more so Shreevats Goswami.

 

[jeevan]

With Gambhir on one end - Parthiv makes it an lhb-lhb combination, Rayudu or even Uthappa - who has top order experience - could've given us the lhb-rhb play...

Baffled by Saha, thought that even Bengal plays Shrivats as the WK these days in list A.

 

[Arjun]

Uthappa's also doing well in the IPL, and would be a far better choice than Parthiv. Saha, though, isn't that bad a batsman in a limited role, with a long batting lineup. Poor choice in the frontline, though.