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Changes To Indian Team in Next Series Onwards

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Don't they see Raina as captaincy material as well? Pretty sure he captained the ODI side in the West Indies.
Yeah, he is definately spoken about as Captaincy material, but he isn't getting into the test side yet and will have a battle even after the seniors retire.

Gambhir's been spoken about but he needs to justify his spot first.
He'll do enough to justify his spot at home and in SC and is a battler away(did well in NZ and SA). Been going through a real poor run of form for the last year though, but his attitude is good and he is a pretty hard worker.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
I believe cricket teams are formed of 2 clusters of players - one core group, and one peripheral group.

In the team I suggested, the core group will be Tendulkar, Zaheer, Dravid, Sehwag, Yadav and possibly Ashwin.

Gambhir and Laxman have moved from core group to peripheral group - they are no longer permanent fixtures of the side. But they deserve one more chance I believe. So, I am going to persist with them for one more series. If they fail, Rahane and Kohli may replace them.

India's top-middle order hasn't fired. It's solely my personal opinion that it's not a matter of class (or age) but form, which we'll overcome. However, the real problem lies in our lower-middle order and I think Rohit, Saha and Ashwin are the perfect 6, 7, 8 for now. Dhoni has proved that his batting outside SC is not good enough even for a wicketkeeper.

Finally, Tendulkar is the best person we can have to captain the side for the next 2 years IMO. Though I believe he won't be interested but that's another story.
 
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deerkick

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Finally, Tendulkar is the best person we can have to captain the side for the next 2 years IMO. Though I believe he won't be interested but that's another story.
Sorry but Tendulkar is a horrible captain. Sehwag is pretty bad too tbh. It should be Gambhir atm, even though he's out of form. Ideally I'd want it to be Kohli. He led the U19 side to a WC victory I believe. Worth a shot IMO. Would be a ballsy move though.

As for our keeper situation, there's two other options I can think of.

Uday Kaul | India Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo - Uday Kaul. Decent FC record but I'm not sure about his keeping ability. Maybe someone who watches Indian domestics can testify?

Naman Ojha | India Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo - Naman Ojha. Once again dunno about his keeping ability. Has a 200 in domestics though.

Dhoni should just retire from tests. If he really wants to play tests he could fix up his technique at county cricket by skipping the IPL (LOL). But the chances of that happening are worse than Raina belting an Aussie attack for 300 at Perth.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Kohli would be a very poor move tbh, he's not even really established himself at Test level yet - don't give him the added distraction of trying to lead what must be the last team anyone in world cricket would want to lead right now.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Re: Tendulkar, whilst there's no doubt he's not a very good captain in general, I think as a short-term measure for this Test it wouldn't be a bad idea.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
As for our keeper situation, there's two other options I can think of.

Uday Kaul | India Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo - Uday Kaul. Decent FC record but I'm not sure about his keeping ability. Maybe someone who watches Indian domestics can testify?

Naman Ojha | India Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo - Naman Ojha. Once again dunno about his keeping ability. Has a 200 in domestics though.
Naman Ojha, of these two. Yes, he's only had one season and the knokcouts of the previous in the Elite league, but he's pulled his team out of Plate league mediocrity and has performed significantly better in the last ftwo seasons.

Good wicketkeeper, adequate striking power (but can't score 70-ball centuries or 31-ball golds or hit eight sixes even once) and can regularly get you centuries (but don't expect regular 150+ scores), and hold his own behind the stumps. Let's just hope they don't make him captain.

Kaul, on the other hand, is still raw, and sometimes does not keep wickets. Better options are at hand. Ojha's the one to choose. Far better than Patel/Saha and slightly ahead of Dinesh Karthik, at present.

===========================================

Outside of that, let's not make too many youthful changes in the Indian side. Blooding too many youngsters may leave the side bleeding a little too soon, too often. Sri Lanka threw aside a lot of their old players after the dreadful 1999 World Cup, and started losing series after series, even at home, and had to call back their oldies soon. A similar tale unfolded after the less disappointing 2003 World Cup, with their youngsters failing and seniors phased back in. Pakistan cleaned up their team of anyone experienced after the 2003 World Cup, and when they too started losing tournaments, had more or less all the players thrown out, back in the side (bar Wasim, Waqar and Anwar).

India's attempts at giving the youth a chance have been unsuccessful. They tried a very, very young team in Zimbabwe. They ended up with egg on their faces, also known as losing both games to Zimbabwe and dropping out of the tri-series. Another case of grooming a youngster backfired horribly when Unadkat represented the country in a Test match in South Africa, tamely surrendered to the home side. Even now, there's daylight between an ageing batting core and the so-called promising young batsmen.

Rather, they need to pick teams on athleticism and fitness, not age. Badrinath is over thirty, but one of the fittest cricketers in India, and is much better on the field than most twenty-somethings playing for India. Pankaj Singh is no slouch on the field either, nor is the much-mocked Vinay Kumar. Pick a team of eleven good fielders, without looking at age certificates, and you have something capable of winning.
 

Black_Warrior

Cricketer Of The Year
‎"I am saying this with a heavy heart, but once the IPL comes around in April, every Test defeat will be forgotten." - Bishan Singh Bedi
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
I don't care who gets dropped and who gets picked but Dhoni should remain as captain.
He can't remain as captain if he's dropped. He won't be dropped though, but should be dropped when we are playing test matches outside SC IMO. The guy is a joke of a test batsman outside SC, even as a wicketkeeper.

As an aside, I don't have any doubt in my mind that he should be our captain in limited overs cricket for the coming 4 years at least.
 
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silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Tendulkar as captain would be going backwards - he's bad at it, but I don't see any other choice if you're going to remove Dhoni (I don't like Dhoni as captain but there is really no one else tbf). I think Dhoni will stay for the forseeable future.
 

MrPrez

International Debutant
He can't remain as captain if he's dropped. He won't be dropped though, but should be dropped when we are playing test matches outside SC IMO. The guy is a joke of a test batsman outside SC, even as a wicketkeeper.

As an aside, I don't have any doubt in my mind that he should be our captain in limited overs cricket for the coming 4 years at least.
DWTA, he was quality when India toured SA. He is just having some bad form, I remember how a year or two ago he was the "best captain in the world." Love the total u-turn after a rough patch :laugh:
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Funny how his bad form tends to coincide with coming in when the team's under the cosh isn't it?

Amazingly his form picks up when it's 400-5 and the opposition side are flagging.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Well, he is not the best but is there that many who are better in India? He is still a better keeper than Parthiv and perhaps a better batsman than Saha and DK.. So really, he is just the best we have..
 

Cruxdude

International Debutant
Laxman needs to go immediately. Get Rohit Sharma in and let him prove if he belongs (which I think he does). Dhoni as a captain should also go. Would have made Gambhir the captain but with his current form and confidence do not know if it would work. Sehwag should maybe play the rest of his career in the middle order. Maybe he is the next captain in this dismal lot.

Will stick with this set of bowlers for now. Ishant needs to improve a lot though. Cannot spend his entire career as the next hope.

Has been a painful time as a cricket fan. Couldn't get myself to watch much of the last test and luckily had lots to do at work.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Think India should drop Tendulkar. Overrated imo.
DWTA, he was quality when India toured SA. He is just having some bad form, I remember how a year or two ago he was the "best captain in the world." Love the total u-turn after a rough patch :laugh:
Wow, calling Sachin overrated and wanting him dropped and then praising Dhoni's test batting.

Extraordinarily horrible.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Slot Ganguly in at 6 instead of Kohli and I think we have a chance
I know its mainly a sarcastic post, but Ganguly post-2000 would have done **** all.

I like what Sourav did for Indian cricket, but golly gosh he was a decent-to-good test batsman. Nothing more.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
DWTA, he was quality when India toured SA. He is just having some bad form, I remember how a year or two ago he was the "best captain in the world." Love the total u-turn after a rough patch :laugh:
He's still among the best captains in the world. But non-playing captains aren't the norm in test cricket. Right?

Agree with marc here. He may do well only when we are 400/5. But we don't want our lower-middle order full of such batsmen, please. There are many sides in the world that lose the first 5 wickets for 150-odd 25% of the time. Not all of them get bundled for 180 all those times.
 

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