AWTA. As great as these three have been for India, I'm not too worried about replacing them in the test lineup with so many quality batsmen making a case for national selection. Replacing Kumble will be tougher, not because India don't have any promising spinners (Chawla, Ojha, Mishra all have a shot) but more because Kumble has meant so much for India - professional, courageous, a real champ. Hope he hangs around for a while.
A great spinner is always the hardest to find a replacement for. Just ask Australia.
Recent evidence would suggest he's actually 5th in the pecking order behind Zaheer, Sreesanth, RP Singh and Sharma.
Yeah, that was my main concern regarding the attack on the tour of Australia, because no-one has really got the ball to swing much here in the last 5 years other than the odd spell (eg. Agarkar in 2003). Even Hoggard, who is arguably the best out-and-out swing bowler in the world at the moment, got bugger all assistance last summer. What has been really impressive though is the fact that they've all swung the ball anyway - often in conditions I wouldn't say were at all conducive to it.
Pathan's upside is that he is a far superior batsman than all of these bunnies combined. If he can bowl just as well as Sharma or Sreesanth (note that I'm rating RP Singh and Zaheer Khan ahead of the rest) and also pitch in consistently with the runs, then he is a far suprior option than Sreesanth or Sharma. Although Ishant Sharma looks pretty special in a raw sort of way at the moment. He just needs to bulk up, become fitter and more consistent with his line and length.
Good points there. Sharma is valuable because he has done well on flat tracks in India and he's got enough pace, accuracy and bounce as well as swing and seam movement to have an impact regardless of the conditions. Besides, he's only 19 and looks like a natural athlete with good fitness apart from the lean frame. Sreesanth and RP Singh are both sharp enough (around 140 kph) so that will help them. Sreesanth has seam movement to fall back upon but he really needs to work on accuracy and variety. RP gets good bounce but I haven't really analyzed his bowling enough to make further assessments. Zaheer and Pathan have both matured as bowlers - they both have plenty of variety and are very intelligent bowlers - but I'm uncertain as to how they will do with little assistance from the track.
Same here. England at full-strength (that excludes Simon Jones, obviously) are still a top side IMO.
I think SL v India this year (August 2008) will be very exciting now and I expect SL to clinch that No.2 spot quite convincingly then...even if for short time...
based on what are you saying the aussies will be easy prey for the indians in india? are you just trying to bait/provoke? i thought you were a more knowledgable and thoughtful poster than this...
without Shane Warne and McGrath they don't stand a chance in India and the upcoming series will show that very clearly...why would I even bait /provoke ...that is an opinion based on their past performaces ...
