*Official* - India in West Indies

[Prince EWS]

Over rates are such a non-issue though. If I'm given the choice I'll definitely watch the team with Lee in it over the one that bowls their overs on time.

Yeah, I agree. The incentives for (or deterrents against, as they mainly are) captains to get their overs in on time have never really resulted in them correctly speeding up their between overs and balls; instead it's resulted in them not bowling certain bowlers at certain times and turning to part-time spinners, which is terrible. I'd rather see 80 overs of proper, non-contrived play than 70 overs of it and 20 overs of manufactured rubbish designed purely to soak up overs.

 

[Top_Cat]

Yeah but human nature dictates if you set the lower limit at 80, teams will struggle to get through 70 and instead of 80 good overs, you'll have 70 good and 10 of part-timers to get through them.

90 overs in a day isn't that hard if you're not having gully conferences every couple of balls.

 

[marc71178]

90 overs a day is an over every 4 minutes before breaks etc for wickets.

With a team of quicks it's tricky to attain it but nowhere near impossible. What really pisses me off though is when a team has 2 spinners and still can't get 90 overs done by the cut off.

 

[biased indian]

in earlier days they used to bowl more than 90 overs rt....

 

[smash84]

and there used to be 8 ball overs

 

[Outswinger@Pace]

Can we drop Vijay and ask Dravid to open? Wish it didn't have to be that way, but it's effectively what he's doing anyway.

I'll be honest with you, friend. I am not a huge fan of chopping and changing in the middle of a 3-test series, especially when you are 1-0 up. The reason is no one gets a consistent run in such a process.

You bascially select players that you (as the selection committee) expect to do well and give them a decent run. If he (Vijay or Mukund) fails in all three tests, well then the guy has hung himself and the next incumbent can be thought about.

Merely four innings in foreign soil is not a good enough base to be judged by. Just my two paise!

 

[Cevno]

Vijay has scored 50 runs total in his last 6 innings and looked clueless in all of them. He was out of form this time in the IPL too.

Though having said that ,i don't want to mess with Dravid opening again so would rather open with Kohli or drop him for Badrinath for this match.
Also Vijay is can be also dropped maybe for Patel ,but that would be a tougher call.

Badrinath is way due his chance ,even though only 1 test won't be fair on him really.

 

[Outswinger@Pace]

Badrinath is way due his chance ,even though only 1 test won't be fair on him really.

That's my point exactly. I'd suggest that the current team be persisted with and the guys - Vijay, Mukund and Kohli - be given one more chance to prove themselves.

This is one of the drawbacks of a three-test series, IMHO. You cannot change in the middle of the series and expect to give the second guy a fair run.

 

[Cevno]

But the thing is in the position Badrinath is currently well something is better than nothing.

Infact ,if he does not get a chance here even in one test then there is a real possibility that he never will.

 

[Anku31]

Badrinath definitely deserves a chance today.And yes,only one test is not enough for him.

 

[vcs]

I'll be honest with you, friend. I am not a huge fan of chopping and changing in the middle of a 3-test series, especially when you are 1-0 up. The reason is no one gets a consistent run in such a process.

You bascially select players that you (as the selection committee) expect to do well and give them a decent run. If he (Vijay or Mukund) fails in all three tests, well then the guy has hung himself and the next incumbent can be thought about.

Merely four innings in foreign soil is not a good enough base to be judged by. Just my two paise!

I agree in principle, but as Cevno said Vijay has looked especially clueless, out of all the young Indian batsmen. Don't want Parthiv ahead of him at any cost, though.

 

[silentstriker]

Eww. Shave it off.

 

[weldone]

I shall personally want the same team with Mishra or Munaf replacing Mithun (for no other reason than the first two are in the England tour squad, while the third one is not).

My predictions for this test: India's batting performance in this test will be the best in the series. Ishant will continue to impress with the ball. All of Mukund, Raina and Dhoni will come good at least in one innings. Barath will be the highest scorer among West Indians. Sammy's bowling figures in this test won't impress anybody. Weather permitting, India is winning this test, and Ishant Sharma becomes the Man of the Series.

My eyes will be on: Harbhajan's performance with the ball...

 

[Cevno]

India have chosen to Bowl.

And no Badrinath still ***** off.

 

[Cevno]

And Edwards and Powell come in for the Windies for Sarwan and Simmons.

While Munaf in for Mithun for India.

 

[kingpin]

Munaf wud an xtra boost to our bowling attack!!!

 

[shivfan]

I expected Kirk Edwards to come in, but I'm surprised that they went with Kieran Powell instead of Simmons....

How much cricket has Powell played recently? There's no domestic competition going on, and unlike Kirk, he's just come into the squad, so wasn't training with them.

More importantly, Shiv becomes the most-capped player in West Indies Test cricket history....

 

[Cevno]

Is Powell usually a opener?

 

[silentstriker]

Want Praveen to do really well here - would rather have him over Munaf in England by such a huge margin. Zaheer/Ishant/Praveen/Harby.

 

[silentstriker]

Batting out of the crease is a good strategy vs. Kumar so maybe Dhoni should think about coming up to the stumps to discourage that a little bit.