*Official* Road to India in Australia 2011/12

[Cevno]

Also, the Nohit hype machine seems to be back in full flow. Hopefully, he really delivers this time though.The signs are encouraging, but he needs to carry through.

 

[Cevno]

Squad: MS Dhoni (capt &wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Zaheer Khan

 

[weldone]

Good team. Pujara has rightly been kept out. He has to prove his form and fitness (mainly form) in domestic cricket first. A batting order like Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Kohli, Dhoni looks right. Good to see Yuvraj, Raina and Harbhajan out for good. Getting the bowling combination right will be tricky. On Australian pitches, pace and bounce and reverse swing of Umesh Yadav will be helpful. Ashwin will definitely do well in Australia. Zaheer will be a shoe-in if fully fit, but I doubt if he will be fully fit by then. We can't risk a repitition of the first test in England. If he doesn't play, then Praveen and Ishant should open the bowling. Do we have a test in Sydney? Playing the second spinner Ojha there won't be a bad move, provided our pacemen are not in exceptional form.

 

[morgieb]

The big question surrounding this series is - can Zaheer stay fit?

Because if he does, it will be a cracker. If not, expect it to be a damp squib.

 

[morgieb]

Good team. Pujara has rightly been kept out. He has to prove his form and fitness (mainly form) in domestic cricket first. A batting order like Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Kohli, Dhoni looks right. Good to see Yuvraj, Raina and Harbhajan out for good. Getting the bowling combination right will be tricky. On Australian pitches, pace and bounce and reverse swing of Umesh Yadav will be helpful. Ashwin will definitely do well in Australia. Zaheer will be a shoe-in if fully fit, but I doubt if he will be fully fit by then. We can't risk a repitition of the first test in England. If he doesn't play, then Praveen and Ishant should open the bowling. Do we have a test in Sydney? Playing the second spinner Ojha there won't be a bad move, provided our pacemen are not in exceptional form.

Yes the 2nd test is in Sydney.

wrt to Ashwin, when was the last time an offie did well in Australia? Like actually being a significant threat, not like Swann who just played a role.

 

[robelinda]

I dunno, off spinners can do great things in this country, I mean will anyone here ever forget Richard Dawson?

 

[Cevno]

Hauritz against Pakistan, i guess?

Though, obviously India can't depend as much on the spinners in Australia as they do in India.

 

[Prince EWS]

Good team. Pujara has rightly been kept out. He has to prove his form and fitness (mainly form) in domestic cricket first. A batting order like Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Kohli, Dhoni looks right. Good to see Yuvraj, Raina and Harbhajan out for good. Getting the bowling combination right will be tricky. On Australian pitches, pace and bounce and reverse swing of Umesh Yadav will be helpful. Ashwin will definitely do well in Australia. Zaheer will be a shoe-in if fully fit, but I doubt if he will be fully fit by then. We can't risk a repitition of the first test in England. If he doesn't play, then Praveen and Ishant should open the bowling. Do we have a test in Sydney? Playing the second spinner Ojha there won't be a bad move, provided our pacemen are not in exceptional form.

Will Ashwin actually picked over Ojha as the 'first' spinner?

 

[robelinda]

You would think India have a mighty tough choice for the sole spinner, I guess its possible they might play both of them, our pitches will hardly be fast.

 

[Cevno]

Will Ashwin actually picked over Ojha as the 'first' spinner?

Considering he is going to get Man of the Series against the Windies(with MOTM in both matches), he is probably slightly ahead of Ojha right now.

Dhoni likes both though, so probably the tour matches would play a part too.

 

[Furball]

Will Ashwin actually picked over Ojha as the 'first' spinner?

I'd imagine so. Much more useful cricketer than Ojha.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Sensible squad, all eyes on Zaheer now.

 

[Cevno]

You would think India have a mighty tough choice for the sole spinner, I guess its possible they might play both of them, our pitches will hardly be fast.

Can't see both playing at anywhere except perhaps Sydney tbh. Especially, with Praveen in the team who can get through a big workload if required and Sehwag being a possible spinning option too.

 

[Cevno]

Sensible squad, all eyes on Zaheer now.

Yeah, there might be 1/2 selections that maybe slightly contentious, but all are understandable and no major wtf's. Indian selectors at least doing their jobs better here than their Australian counterparts.

The best part is all of Harbhajan, Sreesanth, Yuvraj and Raina have been done away with together.

 

[Prince EWS]

I still don't really 'get' the Aaron pick/fascination in general. He's the seventh best bowler in the squad though (eight if we include Sehwag) so it's unlikely he'll get a game, but still.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

I still don't really 'get' the Aaron pick/fascination in general. He's the seventh best bowler in the squad though (eight if we include Sehwag) so it's unlikely he'll get a game, but still.

Better to go with him than the tried failure Sreesanth though. At least India have cut the dead wood out of the side and are going with fresh blood. Can't criticise them for that, it may not work but at least they are doing something off the back of the England tour.

 

[social]

India's best chance of winning a test lies in Australia self-destructing as their bowling lineup is pretty ordinary

 

[flibbertyjibber]

India's best chance of winning a test lies in Australia self-destructing as their bowling lineup is pretty ordinary

The thing is with so many injuries and a new crop of kids being selected for the NZ series you would be a brave man to try and guess the Aussie attack come the first test. On paper both attacks look popgun, could be a run feast this series. Tendulkar may even get that missing ton.

 

[Cevno]

I still don't really 'get' the Aaron pick/fascination in general. He's the seventh best bowler in the squad though (eight if we include Sehwag) so it's unlikely he'll get a game, but still.

He is a better bowler than Sehwag, tbf.

Have somewhat liked what i have seen of him so far and has potential + age on his side, so worth a risk in the squad for sure.Certainly better than persisting with proven failures like Sreesanth or a Lax Munaf, while any of the others would have been more or less equal risks.

 

[Prince EWS]

He certainly is a better bowler than Sehwag, tbf.

Haha, DWTA.

Look, there's picking on a small sample size of performance, fast tracking a bloke who looks the goods etc.. and then there's just giving the big up yours to reality and picking a player based on absolutely no performance at all. Aaron made his Test debut having taken 26 First Class wickets @ 42. It's not a closed off system in India either; every man and his dog gets his chance to rack up awesome domestic numbers. Someone who looks the part as much as Aaron is probably rare enough in India to justify selecting if he'd taken 20 wickets @ 25 or something (similar to the Yadav pick, which I'm okay with), but yeah, it's a crap pick.