India Thread

[honestbharani]

I think Dinesh Kaarthick will be in the 25 as our reserve keeper, adharcric. Otherwise I agree with your 40 and 25 lists. And I predict Rohit Sharma to push very very hard for a place in the next few months.

 

[adharcric]

1. Rahul Dravid
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Irfan Pathan
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
6. Harbhajan Singh
7. Suresh Raina
8. S Sreesanth
9. Virender Sehwag
10. Ramesh Powar
11. Munaf Patel
12. Mohammad Kaif
13. Rudra Pratap Singh
14. Robin Uthappa
15. Vikram Rajvir Singh
16. Venugopal Rao
17. Shikhar Dhawan
18. Piyush Chawla
19. Ajit Agarkar
20. Gautam Gambhir
21. Rohit Sharma
22. Dinesh Karthik
23. Ashish Nehra
24. Amit Mishra
25. Ravindra Jadeja

The latest update. Vidyut tossed out after his injury. Sharma and Karthik move up by special request. AA moves up by recognition of the reality. Kumble moves out due to his age and Jadeja moves in due to his talent. Zaheer Khan is pushing for a promotion with his county exploits. Another good performance and I'll push him into the top 30.

Next update will come at the conclusion of the West Indies ODIs. Stay tuned and keep offering suggestions.

 

[Jono]

I'm trying real hard to argue with the order of your players, particularly the main 15, but they all look just about right to me.

Nehra in the top 25 sucks though

 

[adharcric]

Well, who would you throw in there besides Nehra?
An opener? Jaffer, Ganguly. I left them out because we already have Dhawan, Uthappa and Gambhir to try out. After that, Vidyut and Pujara have a chance.
A middle-order bat? Laxman. Quite simply, he's too old and won't get a chance with athletes like Kaif and Raina and young talents like Sharma and Jhunjhunwala.
A keeper? Parthiv. Please.
A seamer? I left Balaji out because he doesn't have pace and unless you've already broken in and proven yourself (ie Pathan), you need pace to get into this side. Left out Zaheer because I'm pretty sure he's done, just like Ganguly.
A spinner? Kumble. Again, he's good enough to play ODIs but he'll be 36 at the WC ... not going to happen with talents like Chawla, Jadeja and Mishra to back up Bhajji and Powar.

That's why I took Nehra.

 

[alternative]

Pretty good adharcric, but i srsly would like to see ganguly...

 

[Anil]

do you think ganguly has a chance to come back into the one day team....i doubt it very much....of course with the politics that goes in selections, anything is possible, but somehow i don't see that happening unless india loses a lot of games between now and the world cup and there is a cry for a lot of top-order axing....

 

[adharcric]

In my opinion, Ganguly's international career was over the day the selectors chose Robin Uthappa as Tendulkar's replacement. Picking a 20-year-old with no experience over an all-time great with more than 10,000 runs sends a strong message. If I had to rank India's one-day opening batsmen in terms of their chances of playing international cricket, it would go like this:

1) Sachin Tendulkar 2) Virender Sehwag 3) Shikhar Dhawan 4) Robin Uthappa 5) Gautam Gambhir 6) Sivaramakrishnan Vidyut 7) Sourav Ganguly 8) Cheteshwar Pujara

 

[alternative]

I can understand yur point of views guyz, but IMO he surely deserves a place in the team... But i think you guyz are rite, there is very minute chance for Ganguly, would love to see him back into the team tho..

 

[adharcric]

I really wanted to see Ganguly back in the team too because I thought he'd been treated unfairly. Right now, though, I prefer an Uthappa, Dhawan or Pujara because I think all three of them are at least as effective as Ganguly with the bat at the moment and all three are better fielders and not distractions to the team chemistry.

 

[alternative]

can't disagree you with you on the chemistry side of things, as team is working well without ganguly issue..

 

[alternative]

IMO Sewhag getting reprimanded today, was just not appropriate... one feels such warnings from BCCI can actually lead to much more seriousness...

 

[vic_orthdox]

Pujara doesn't have the shots to be an international OD opener, IMO...

 

[adharcric]

Pujara doesn't have the shots to be an international OD opener, IMO...

Uhh then how did he top-score in the U19 World Cup? With defense? Or are you just saying he's better suited to the #3 position?

 

[honestbharani]

I think he meant that he is someone who cannot really take advantage of the power plays.

 

[adharcric]

I think I'll delay the release of the updated ladder until the end of the Top End Series.

 

[Sanz]

So after the wonderful performance of Indian pacers, does anyone think that Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and L Balaji should be considered or we are still okay with Munaf, Santh, RP Singh ?

 

[adharcric]

In test matches, I think Sreesanth and Munaf Patel are solid. RP Singh is pretty good when in form and the A team stints should help him a great deal. In one-day matches, Agarkar is the veteran who has shown newfound consistency and maturity lately. RP Singh and VRV Singh are both going to be given their chances for some time.

As for Zaheer, he has been given plenty of chances and he hasn't looked threatening for India recently. If he can finish the English domestic season as a leading wicket-taker and do well for Baroda next season, he may have a chance to stage a late comeback. I don't think he has any place in the World Cup plans; it's just too late and we've committed to six pacers: Pathan, Sreesanth, Munaf, Agarkar, RP and VRV.

As for Balaji and Nehra, they were both reported to have recovered from the injury and started bowling again. Balaji is young so he could return next year. Nehra was pretty impressive just before he got injured and I think he can still be a strike bowler for India in ODIs. It will still be tough for them with the emergence of guys like Sreesanth, Munaf, VRV, Nabi, Trivedi, Yomahesh, Paul, etc.

All this assumes that the Indian selectors use their brain when considering players and choosing teams. That is no guarantee.

 

[alternative]

^ the way indian selectors choose players these days, u can never expect anything..

 

[adharcric]

Zaheer Khan is a leading wicket-taker in the county circuit with a first-class average of 22 and a limited-overs average of 21. If he can keep it up, a comeback is on the cards.

 

[Anil]

whether it is the county circuit or the domestic circuit, whatever form he displays usually comes to nought when he comes into the national team...either in the form of an injury breakdown or a total loss of form...we have been seeing that for a few seasons now...