Jammu and Kashmir have a problem-ridden State Board. As many observers pointed out, it's on life support, and cannot breed quality cricketers, so they should move out. Yet, they've impressed everyone by coming to the quarters, and actually challenging a team that was playing good cricket. They don't have too many prospects- just Rasool (Ram Dayal, Sami and Mudhashir are only gentle medium pace, while Reshi isn't relevant), but it's a remarkable rise from where they began. Maharashtra, though, seem to have good facilities and plenty of money, but the management there has been rather poor- ex-Mumbai player Bahutule settled there for a while, but left, citing poor management. They're not on oxygen like J&K, but are perpetually sleepwalking.
I can imagine Kedar Jadhav playing ODIs for India, but Samad Fallah opening the bowling? Not quite. Shrikant Mundhe bowling first-change and batting at eight? Too much. Chirag Khurana as all-rounder? Long shot even to replace Jadeja or an off-form Ashwin. Khadiwale? Maybe, but he was stifled by an ageing Zaheer, so he's not really perfect.
Talking of Rasool, of all the all-rounders we've seen play over the last two years, he's been very impressive. Scoring plenty (over 1200 runs), he can be India's six or seven. Should make it as a batsman first, who can also roll down plenty of overs to support the lead spinner. He's had a relatively poor run with the ball this season, though, but putting both seasons together, his figures all round are a huge improvement over his career average. His OD figures, though, are poor, but it's difficult to take OD figures in Indian conditions seriously- it's such a lottery. And, of course, there's Rishi Dhawan, who's been getting better, but won't get much room to improve when he still palys for HP, a bottom-tier team. Definitely, we should have Kedar, Rasool, Dhawan, Pankaj, Pandey (both) and maybe Harshad in India's 2015 World Cup plans, and near Test selection. Grumpy Gauti, though, may stage a comeback, since he's scored 500 runs across the season on pitches that he wanted bowler-friendly, to take his FC team ahead.
Plenty were pushing for Manpreet Juneja's India debut, on account of his stupendous debut season. His follow-up season, though, was dire. Don't know what to make of Jalaj Saxena- although a good batsman, he's been dire throughout his career with the ball, and has come good only this season, a patchy one with the bat. At least he's been performing in a higher tier, unlike Rasool and Rishi. Also Sandeep Sharma, very productive over two seasons, but only medium pace, and swings it a little, and he's also just two season old.
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Daljit Singh's push for sporting wickets yielding results from Yahoo. It's a welcome sign. It hasn't really thrown up oddball successes as is often the case in some North Zone games, but we're seeing some decent bowlers leading the pack.
