An Ageing Indian Side

[SJS]

I hope they dont induct him into the test side too quickly. There wont be too much incentive on him to work harder on his keeping if they do.

Selecting Kaarthick before him for keeping merits will send the right signals to Dhoni. He has admitted that he needs to work on his keeping and that opinion needs to be reinforced rather than diluted.

Cant believe that this was just 4 months ago.

 

[RolledOver]

How exactly is this side ageing????

Sachin and Dravid are in their early 30's, though Sachin is down, but Dravid is still doing great and has atleast 5-6 years left in him.

Kumble is a bit old though, others i think are in 20, so certainly we can't say that this is an ageing India side on the basis on 2 players in Sachin and Kumble

 

[adharcric]

How exactly is this side ageing????

Sachin and Dravid are in their early 30's, though Sachin is down, but Dravid is still doing great and has atleast 5-6 years left in him.

Kumble is a bit old though, others i think are in 20, so certainly we can't say that this is an ageing India side on the basis on 2 players in Sachin and Kumble

Kumble, Ganguly, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman

One of them sorted himself out and that makes it four over-30 players. Not that I think this side has serious age issues, just addressing you with what might have been the intention of this thread.

Oh yeah, Sehwag looks 50 right now.

 

[RolledOver]

Kumble, Ganguly, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman

One of them sorted himself out and that makes it four over-30 players. Not that I think this side has serious age issues, just addressing you with what might have been the intention of this thread.

Oh yeah, Sehwag looks 50 right now.

I see.

I think some players still at top till late age.For example Steven Waugh performed till late 30's. Inzi is 35-36 and its amazing to note that he's as good (if not better ) as he was ever before.

I think Dravid has 5-6 years left in him, Kumble can play for 2 more years, by then Chawla will be matured and will replace Kumble.

Laxman and Tendulkar will probably disappear after WC 2007.

As for Sewag, he's behaving like Zaheer Khan lately, getting lazy and not taking care of his fitness.No matter how good you are, if you aren't fit, then you are useless, infact even a burden on team at times.

 

[TIF]

Even I have the same question to ask - How come the Indian side is ageing? From what I am seeing, the Indian teams looks like only getting younger everyday.

As for the "senior" players -

Ganguly - Dropped.
Laxman - About to be dropped.
Tendulkar - Lots of Indians want him dropped. But however, he is injured.
Dravid - Lots of fans want his captaincy Dropped.

And only recently, 2 "senior" fast-bowlers, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar were dropped to include younger fast-bowlers like Sree Santh and Munaf Patel.

India does have a good crop of good quality youngsters coming throw with high amounts of fighting spirit and a never-say-die attitude. Even if this Indian team were to be replaced by a India u-25 team, the performance will more or less remain the same as the seniors are mostly in there due to experience more than anything else.

 

[silentstriker]

Even if this Indian team were to be replaced by a India u-25 team, the performance will more or less remain the same as the seniors are mostly in there due to experience more than anything else.

Without Dravid and Kumble, India would most definatly not perform the same.

 

[TIF]

As for Indian u-25 team, Yuvraj, Kaif and Venugopal Rao will still be eligible for u-25 considering that they played in u-19 World cup 6 years ago. Also, Dhoni will very much be there as Dhoni is still not 25. Only real miss will be Dravid, but then Dravid is called as "too slow" by many Indians and Kumble doesnt play in ODIs.

Here will be what the teams will look like -

India u-25 -

Gautam Gambhir
Shikhar Dhawan/Cheteshwar Pujara
Mohammad Kaif(c)
Venugopal Rao/Suresh Raina
Yuvraj Singh
Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w)
Irfan Pathan
Piyush Chawla
Harbhajan Singh
Munaf Patel
Sree Santh

Stand-bys:
Cheteshwar Pujara
Suresh Raina
Pravin Kumar
RP Singh
VRV Singh
Dinesh Kartik
Yusuf Pathan

Still looks almost as good as our current team.

 

[silentstriker]

As for Indian u-25 team, Yuvraj, Kaif and Venugopal Rao will still be eligible for u-25 considering that they played in u-19 World cup 6 years ago. Also, Dhoni will very much be there as Dhoni is still not 25. Only real miss will be Dravid, but then Dravid is called as "too slow" by many Indians and Kumble doesnt play in ODIs.

If any Indian thinks Dravid is a hinderence to the Indian team, they need to get smacked upside the head real hard.

And we are only talking about ODI's?

 

[SJS]

Even I have the same question to ask - How come the Indian side is ageing? From what I am seeing, the Indian teams looks like only getting younger everyday.

As for the "senior" players -

Ganguly - Dropped.
Laxman - About to be dropped.
Tendulkar - Lots of Indians want him dropped. But however, he is injured.
Dravid - Lots of fans want his captaincy Dropped.

EXACTLY.

Thats why I said,

Cant believe that this was just 4 months ago.

I meant that four months ago we talked of this and already the seniors are getting close to be shown the door or so it appears.

 

[SJS]

And ageing is not supposed to mean that they are not fit to be in the team (that wasnt the intent of this thread when it started) but that if a large number of the stars (five in this case) were expected to end their careers around the same time, replacements should start appearing on the horizon around this time.

Lets not go over board without either going through where the thread started and what it was saying to start with.

 

[greg]

I think Dravid has 5-6 years left in him

That's just pure guesswork. 5-6 years is about the length of most decent players' test careers.

 

[marc71178]

As for Indian u-25 team, Yuvraj, Kaif and Venugopal Rao will still be eligible for u-25 considering that they played in u-19 World cup 6 years ago. Also, Dhoni will very much be there as Dhoni is still not 25. Only real miss will be Dravid, but then Dravid is called as "too slow" by many Indians and Kumble doesnt play in ODIs.

Here will be what the teams will look like -

India u-25 -

Gautam Gambhir
Shikhar Dhawan/Cheteshwar Pujara
Mohammad Kaif(c)
Venugopal Rao/Suresh Raina
Yuvraj Singh
Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w)
Irfan Pathan
Piyush Chawla
Harbhajan Singh
Munaf Patel
Sree Santh

Stand-bys:
Cheteshwar Pujara
Suresh Raina
Pravin Kumar
RP Singh
VRV Singh
Dinesh Kartik
Yusuf Pathan

Still looks almost as good as our current team.

No, it doesn't.

 

[adharcric]

Dravid and Kumble might be aging, but both are very fit and disciplined. Just look at Kumble, 35 years old and the man dives around like a kid sometimes. Dravid is quite fit and that's why he should be expected to last past 35.

 

[adharcric]

No, it doesn't.

Yes it does, the difference between Under-25 Team and regular Team strength is smaller for India than for any other cricketing nation. Let's take a look.

Under-25 Team
Openers ~ G Gambhir, S Dhawan / C Pujara (Sehwag is only 26)
Middle-Order ~ M Kaif, Y Singh, S Raina
Wicketkeeper ~ MS Dhoni
Lower-Order ~ I Pathan, P Chawla, M Patel, Sreesanth, VR Singh / RP Singh

Dravid is the one guy we would really miss, but Raina is very good.
Tendulkar would be missed almost as much, but India has plenty of batting talent in the ranks.

The lower-order is basically what we have right now, because Chawla will be as good as Powar with 1 year of experience.
This upcoming series will be huge because it'll test whether India's youth (along with Dravid, who isn't breaking down and slowing in the field) are up to the task.

The test team is a different issue, the "loss of aging players" will hurt much more there.

 

[Sanz]

I dont think Yuvraj, Kaif are < 25. And no it doesn't like our current team. It would if you drop Dravid, Kumble and Bhajji from the current team.

Also if we appoint Greg as the Coach of this team.

 

[adharcric]

Well we're discussing the one-day side here, so Kumble and Bhajji aren't huge losses.

Yuvi is 24 and Kaif is 25.

 

[Sanz]

Okay even in ODIs, I think this team will miss, Sachin, Rahul, Bhajji and Sehwag. I kinda remember one game where 3-4 guys didn't play and the team lost to BD. Not saying this will happen every time, but definately not as good as the senior team.

 

[adharcric]

Well yeah, it's not as good as the senior team but it's still not too bad a situation to be in. Plus Sehwag is 27 and Bhajji is 25.
Guys like Sachin getting little niggles once in a while will actually result in a stronger team once he retires because the young guys will get exposure to meaningful roles and get a chance to develop some maturity and experience.

 

[steds]

How'd Bhajji creep into this? 25 isn't old, as such.

 

[adharcric]

I think the bigger issue than age is fitness. Look at the Aussies, virtually their entire team is nearly 30 or well into their 30s, apart from Clarke I guess. Still, the guys are fit even at that age ... precisely why I think Dravid will last for a while, he cares about his fitness. Sehwag might be 27 but he's as fit as a 35-year old common man who sits and drinks beer on his couch every day. Sachin is actually fit too but injuries are an issue for him.