Indian domestic season 2006-07

[Jungle Jumbo]

The Challenger Trophy, sorry,"The Challenger Series for the NKP Salve Trophy" will be shown live on Sky over here.

 

[marc71178]

They can pick up the stressed-out England opener MARCUS TRESCOTHICK, who's now out of favour with the England selectors.

Out of favour since when?

Never dropped in his career until he was left out because he's not playing the CT does not equal out of favour.

 

[adharcric]

Let's look at what foreign player each team needs. The bigger the name, the better. We're only looking at the Elite teams here, and Maharashtra are already choosing theirs.

Mumbai needs some consistency at the top of the order, and they're not getting it with the current opening combination. The big names are ageing and the youngsters are not up to the mark or underperforming. They can pick up the stressed-out England opener MARCUS TRESCOTHICK, who's now out of favour with the England selectors. If two overseas players are allowed, they can also opt for SIMON KATICH and add some strength to their middle-order.

The brittle Baroda batting lineup could do with some power. They can use some big-innings temperament, so a proific middle-order batsman would do just fine. With KEVIN PIETERSEN, they get even more– power play. Their best opening combination for a long time, Parab and Williams, are not quite as prolific as they used to be, so a new opener may be just right. They can try ALISTAIR COOK.

While Gujarat are an average team all-round, they definitely need an all-rounder to compete. Obviously, FLINTOFF is the best option for them, but he'll have a major task too many at hand playing for this team. As for Saurashtra, they're newly promoted, and we don't know what they're particularly lacking.

Heading southward, Tamil Nadu could do with a genuine opener. MATTHEW HAYDEN comes to mind instantly. The young Karnataka side could do with a top-notch spinner, hopefully not an off-spinner, so they can call STUART MACGILL. Hyderabad is another team that lacks an all-rounder, so ABDUL RAZZAQ wull be just right for them. As for Andhra Pradesh, well, they could do with a lot of beefing-up, especially a fast bowler. They may need more than one foreign player. Choose them.

Railways need pace. Extra pace. Name SHOAIB AKHTAR. Uttar Pradesh will need a middle-order stalwart or an opener. So many to think of. Maybe MOHAMMED YOUSUF or YOUNIS KHAN for the middle-order? Rajasthan are also a newly-promoted team, so we don't know what's weak in them.

Eastward, Bengal needs a frontline spinner. They can try DANISH KANERIA or opt for a stock spinner like SHOAIB MALIK, who can also score runs. Heading North, we look at Delhi first. This team needs an all-rounder, and how much! Try SHAHID AFRIDI, whose leg-spin will suit this team nicely. Punjab needs some solidity at the top of the order, so SALMAN BUTT may get the nod. Haryana need some pace to open the bowling, so choose your bowler.

All these names are just those that come to mind at first, but we know what these teams need, and which overseas players will suit them.

^^ This week's candidate for the Skull.

 

[aussie]

The Challenger Trophy, sorry,"The Challenger Series for the NKP Salve Trophy" will be shown live on Sky over here.

can't believe Indian domestic cricket is being shown on Sky now & nothing from Australia, thats crap yo.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

can't believe Indian domestic cricket is being shown on Sky now & nothing from Australia, thats crap yo.

TBH there's probably a bigger potential audience for Indian games (with a large Indian community, plus games at suitable times of the day) than Australian (with few Australians living over here plus games in the middle of the night).

Challenger squads have been announced:

India Blue:
Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Wasim Jaffer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ravindra Jadeja

India Red
Venugopal Rao (capt), Gautham Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Tejinder Pal Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wk), VRV Singh, Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Murali Kartik, C Raghu

India Green
Mohammad Kaif (capt), Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Hemang Badani, Suresh Raina, Tanmay Srivastav, Piyush Chawla, Parthiv Patel, Ashish Nehra, L Balaji, Praveen Kumar, Reetinder Sodhi, Saurasish Lahiri

Slightly CW XI-esque.

Possible XIs:

Blue
1 Tendulkar
2 Dravid (c)
3 Pathan
4 Sehwag
5 Yuvraj Singh
6 Mongia
7 Dhoni (wk)
8 Agarkar
9 Harbhajan
10 M Patel
11 RP Singh

Red
1 Gambhir
2 Uthappa
3 Sharma
4 Venugopal Rao (c)
5 TP Singh
6 Karthik (wk)
7 Powar
8 Harbhajan Singh
9 Zaheer Khan
10 Sreesanth
11 Kartik

Green
1 Srivastava
2 Ganguly
3 Laxman
4 Kaif (c)
5 Raina
6 Sodhi
7 P Patel (wk)
8 Chawla
9 Kumar
10 Nehra
11 Balaji

 

[Magrat Garlick]

India Red
Venugopal Rao (capt), Gautham Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Tejinder Pal Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wk), VRV Singh, Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Murali Kartik, C Raghu

Red always get the awful players.

Interesting that Kaif has been degraded to the Greens...

Who is Tejinder, Raugh and Badrinath, anyway? (and Lahiri, Jadeja from the other teams?)

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Red always get the awful players.

Interesting that Kaif has been degraded to the Greens...

Who is Tejinder, Raugh and Badrinath, anyway? (and Lahiri, Jadeja from the other teams?)

Tejinder Pal Singh is a middle-order batsman/left-arm spinner for Railways (think Dinesh Mongia).

Chandrashekar Raghu is a one-day specialist off-spin bowling all-rounder from Karnataka (think Dalrymple).

Subramiam Badrinath is a middle-order batsman for Tamil Nadu.

Saurashish Lahiri is an off-spinner from Bengal with a decent economy rate.

Ravi Jadeja is a slow-left armer from Saurashtra with India A experience.

 

[Dravid]

Does blue even have competition?

 

[marc71178]

Interesting that Kaif has been degraded to the Greens...

At least he's not had to stoop as low as Yellows though.

 

[adharcric]

Interesting that Kaif has been degraded to the Greens...

It's quite clear that while India Blue is supposed to be the best team, India Green and India Red were mixed up to make it a better contest. Let's see how well that works out.

 

[honestbharani]

Sachin wont be playing the first game for the Blues.

 

[adharcric]

The lineups I would expect ...

India Blue
vs India Red .....
W Jaffer, V Sehwag, R Dravid*, Y Singh, D Mongia, MS Dhoni+, I Pathan, A Agarkar, H Singh, RP Singh, M Patel

vs India Green .....
V Sehwag, S Tendulkar, R Dravid*, Y Singh, D Mongia, MS Dhoni+, I Pathan, R Jadeja, A Agarkar, H Singh, M Patel

India Red
vs India Blue .....
R Uthappa, G Gambhir, R Sharma, V Rao*, S Badrinath, TP Singh, D Karthik+, R Powar, Z Khan, VRV Singh, S Sreesanth

vs India Green .....
R Uthappa, G Gambhir, R Sharma, V Rao*, C Raghu, D Karthik+, R Powar, M Kartik, Z Khan, VRV Singh, S Sreesanth

India Green
vs India Blue .....
S Ganguly, P Kumar, VVS Laxman, S Raina, M Kaif*, H Badani, P Patel+, P Chawla, L Balaji, S Lahiri, A Nehra

vs India Red .....
S Ganguly, T Srivastava, VVS Laxman, S Raina, M Kaif*, RS Sodhi, P Kumar, P Patel+, P Chawla, L Balaji, A Nehra

 

[Arjun]

Surprinsingly, there's little mention of the TV packages, although I am partly responsible for being out of action for some time. Nimbus, it seems, will start a channel called Neo TV, which will only show domestic cricket matches. We'll see a lot of domestic action, albeit closer to Pawar camp– Karnataka and Bengal will have less coverage. Yet, all of this looks promising.

 

[Arjun]

Out of favour since when?

Never dropped in his career until he was left out because he's not playing the CT does not equal out of favour.

The local media here (especially Mumbai Mirror) made it look like the England selectors were fed up with Trescothick.

 

[Arjun]

The Blue team is a good selection, but it's a pity Ramesh Powar is missing. That would give Irfan a breather with batting, yet support his bowling. It's good to see the people in charge get so much out of Irfan as a batsman, but the load should be shared with Number 8 or the tailenders. It's not feasible with this tail, but Ramesh Powar or Sanjay Bangar or Sharma/Yadav at eight would be even better. The bowling is also decent, but it's a pity they're still stuck with Agarkar. Maybe someone in Green or Red can step up and perform.

That someone in Red may be Zaheer Khan or Sreesanth. The best reminder that either can provide is a rich haul of wickets against India Blue. Either will make a good partner for Irfan. Hopefully both of Ramesh Powar and TP Singh will play together. The pace trio of Zaheer, VRV and Sree Santh should make it. Not Murali Karthik.

The selectors have blown a chance of trying out new all-rounder prospects by picking Parthiv Patel and Sodhi in Green. It's a step backward. Seamers Nehra and Balaji have new-ball issues. It's good to see Kaif, Raina, Chawla and Pravin Kumar together in the same team, especially Kumar.

 

[Pratters]

Telegraph has mini profiles for some of the new players. Maybe you guys would be interested in reading it.

 

[adharcric]

Good stuff. I'm very keen to see Sharma and Srivastava in action; could well be potential middle-order lynchpins to succeed the current lot. Also interested to see Pravin Kumar and his bowling abilities.

 

[Arjun]

Good stuff. I'm very keen to see Sharma and Srivastava in action; could well be potential middle-order lynchpins to succeed the current lot. Also interested to see Pravin Kumar and his bowling abilities.

I have seen Rohit Sharma, Praveen Kumar (his name may be controversial) and (Shalabh, not Tanmay) Srivastava. Rohit Sharma is a little batsman who can hit very hard. I have yet to see him score big, at least on televised matches. His big hitting and ability to score quick are an advantage, but being a specialist batsman, he can't afford to be a Shahid Afridi. He's a fantastic fielder and may be a genuine India prospect, so it's a good thing he's picked. That said, that other Sharma, medium-pacer Joginder (who's also a middle-order lynchpin), should not have been left out in an event where Challenger spots were distributed like appraisal letters in a company in a good mood.

It's good to see Praveen Kumar (or is it Pravin? Or Parveen? Even D(P)oordarshan is confused) in the Challenger series. He's very tall, looks like VR Singh but is a lot slower. He is a typical line-and-length stereotype, but uses a lot of power. The low-dipper that rattled Mansoor Amjad's middle-stump was special, and a sign of a future India strike bowler. His batting, although more effective than Chawla's (at times it resembles Afridi's), did not take off in this match. Hopefully we'll see him in full form and full force in the Challengers. That is, if the team management are not afraid– one may expect them to have Parthiv and Sodhi higher up (and a bowler less) to save their skins, rather than give Chawla and Kumar a go!

 

[open365]

Hey, could someone fill me in on what team/competitions SS Das will be playing in this year?

And could someone keep shout out any of his scores if you notice any?

Cheers.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Hey, could someone fill me in on what team/competitions SS Das will be playing in this year?

And could someone keep shout out any of his scores if you notice any?

Cheers.

Orissa in the Ranji Plate Group (effectively second division), and probably East Zone in the Duleep Trophy.

Zaheer set for Mumbai

Joins Aavishkar Salvi to form a potent new-ball pair.