***Official*** Australia in India

[biased indian]

In that case, I'd rather leave him out altogether. Ganguly, Tendulkar, Uthappa and even Gambhir are all more likely to provide consistent starts at the top of the order.

Agree....

but i will have him and Dravid coming @ 3 or 5 depending on the situation...

 

[SJS]

India have taken one spinner too many by taking three. They should have dropped one and brought in another batsman.

Sehwag is likely to come in for the second team announced for the fourth game onwards. His performance in the remaining games of the T20 will be vital for him.

Sehwag is the best bowling option from the non regular bowlers, thats a big factor in his favour. He is a hardly ever thrashed the way Yuvraj and Tendulkar are on many occasions. He would be an option if we do find ourselves again resorting to four bowlers.

 

[Richard]

Look, we don't NEED Sehwag in the one-day team but if he does return, it should be in a different role.

I'd simply say (as you do in response to SJS later) that we don't need him in the ODI team full-stop.

80 or 90? Where'd you get that from?

It's what I'd always hope to take off 10 overs from serious part-timers.

 

[Richard]

Karthik clearly got an opportunity because of the promise he showed and the way he batted in South Africa, and before that in some domestic match that Vengsarkar (or someone else) was watching. Yes, you should be looking at the way he has batted in ODIs and that is not limited to his ODI average. His domestic OD record means very little right now.

It didn't when he was first picked, though, and that was when I thought "he's not ODI-class". To my knowledge, little has changed, and the way he's batted in ODIs doesn't seem to suggest this was a bad judgement to make.

Name a few.

Dasgupta, Patel... heck, Dighe and Dahiya if they're still playing. Not to mention Dhoni obviously. There's probably others too. There must surely be more than a couple who can at least average in the mid-20s, which Karthik did not when first selected, he averaged 19.

You can't just look at the "record". I'm sure you would have said the same thing about him in tests but for the fact that he's batted like a specialist batsman in that form despite having a subpar FC record. For me, Badrinath should be brought in for Karthik very soon but that's because Karthik hasn't made runs after his initial promise, not because he has a poor domestic OD record.

I thought Karthik should have played Tests a few games before he did TBH. Far better batsman than Parthiv Patel. His FC record was at one time excellent (averaged over 40), and I presume it will get back to being so before too long, judging by the way he's batted in Tests.

 

[biased indian]

It's what I'd always hope to take off 10 overs from serious part-timers.

thay never go for that rite.....its usually 55-70...

if they have a good day it will be around 40--45 and on a off day above 70
both of which are though very rare

 

[adharcric]

It didn't when he was first picked, though, and that was when I thought "he's not ODI-class". To my knowledge, little has changed, and the way he's batted in ODIs doesn't seem to suggest this was a bad judgement to make.

Well, I would say that his approach to batting has changed dramatically since his first stint in international cricket. I did not see anything too special back then but I saw some really positive things early on in his second stint (and in preceding domestic matches, to an extent).

I thought Karthik should have played Tests a few games before he did TBH. Far better batsman than Parthiv Patel. His FC record was at one time excellent (averaged over 40), and I presume it will get back to being so before too long, judging by the way he's batted in Tests.

Whenever he may have averaged over 40 in FC, the sample space was ridiculously small. He's batting better now than ever before, despite his domestic record being subpar.

 

[Richard]

Well, I would say that his approach to batting has changed dramatically since his first stint in international cricket. I did not see anything too special back then but I saw some really positive things early on in his second stint (and in preceding domestic matches, to an extent).

What is it you feel he's doing differently? He had to be going pretty well to be scoring centuries on Test debut against an attack that, while certainly not on top of its game as such, was a pretty damn potent one. I thought he started superbly - just in those days he was best-known for being a Tendulkar-clone.

I thought then that he looked a superb bet as a middle-order batsman for the next 10 years. Sadly, he was pushed up to open, had some success there (due in no small part to dropped catches initially) and now has come crashing back down.

Whenever he may have averaged over 40 in FC, the sample space was ridiculously small. He's batting better now than ever before, despite his domestic record being subpar.

When was his domestic record subpar, though? The time when he was also going poorly in Tests. He started well in domestic cricket, then went bad (and also did badly in Tests), and more recently has recovered. As I say - provided he's given the chance to play a bit of First-Class cricket, I'm extremely confident his average will go up again very quickly.

 

[adharcric]

How has he come crashing back down?

 

[Richard]

My mistake, the first part of that post I was talking about Sehwag. I've just re-read it and of course you were talking about Karthik.

 

[SJS]

Just now Ravi Shastri was talking to Bhogle and Bumbles just now after the game against England.

Talking of Sehwag, Shatri said, "If you wanted to punish him for beingcareless and thowingaway his wicket, you have done it enough. He has been punished enough. Its time to bring him back in the side. I just cant understand why he is not in the ODI squad"

Ravi Shastri is an absolute insider. So this is a clear confirmation of why Sehwag was dropped in the first place.

Then Ravi said he just didnt understand why he was not being bowled.

Bumbles said that he was an outsider but he just couldn't understand why someone like Sehwag is outside the Indian squad. He said that if you want to give a 'slap 0n the wrist' to someone you took them out of the eleven and made them sit outside the ground. You didn't drop them from the squad itself. He hoped Sehwag was strong enough to not let this break him.

Sehwag had just been interviewed before this and said that he was very frustrated having to sit out and watch India playing its games on TV. He also mentioned that i the lasttwo games in T20 (against NZL and England) he had asked (the skipper) that he could bowl a couple of overs. He felt confident of bowling and felt that in this format spinners like him came as a change that the batsmen did not find easy to adapt and hit.

Very interesting indeed.

 

[Richard]

Ravi and Harsha in the same place?

 

[SJS]

Ravi and Harsha in the same place?

Why? Why are you surprised ?

They areboth contracted by StarSports/ESPN and are together on TV every single day !

 

[Richard]

Have only ever heard them on the same team in SA in 2001\02 TBH (and NS Sidhu was there too...) - it's always Ravi on TV and Harsha on radio on the (quite a few) occasions I've come accross India.

 

[SJS]

Have only ever heard them on the same team in SA in 2001\02 TBH (and NS Sidhu was there too...) - it's always Ravi on TV and Harsha on radio on the (quite a few) occasions I've come accross India.

Oh no. They are there every day.

Star in India has Bhogle, Gavaskar, Shastri, Ian Chappell full time on its team.

 

[Agent TBY]

Oh no. They are there every day.

Star in India has Bhogle, Gavaskar, Shastri, Ian Chappell full time on its team.

Nah, that's ESPN.

Star has Arun Lal and the likes.

Just being nitpicky.

 

[pup11]

Big blow for Australia, it has been announced that Ponting would miss a good chunk of this series due to the hamstring injury that he suffered during the T20 game against Pakistan, Australia are definitely gonna miss Ponting's leadership qualities during this series, i hope Gilly does a good job.
Anyways Tait is also not gonna be a part of the squad for this series and he has been replaced by Ben Hilfenhaus, though Tait has started bowling again the selectors wanted him to get some games under his belt by playing for SA before playing international cricket.

 

[Matt79]

See - this is why Twenty20 is stupid!

 

[adharcric]

Just now Ravi Shastri was talking to Bhogle and Bumbles just now after the game against England.

Talking of Sehwag, Shatri said, "If you wanted to punish him for beingcareless and thowingaway his wicket, you have done it enough. He has been punished enough. Its time to bring him back in the side. I just cant understand why he is not in the ODI squad"

Ravi Shastri is an absolute insider. So this is a clear confirmation of why Sehwag was dropped in the first place.

Then Ravi said he just didnt understand why he was not being bowled.

Bumbles said that he was an outsider but he just couldn't understand why someone like Sehwag is outside the Indian squad. He said that if you want to give a 'slap 0n the wrist' to someone you took them out of the eleven and made them sit outside the ground. You didn't drop them from the squad itself. He hoped Sehwag was strong enough to not let this break him.

Sehwag had just been interviewed before this and said that he was very frustrated having to sit out and watch India playing its games on TV. He also mentioned that i the lasttwo games in T20 (against NZL and England) he had asked (the skipper) that he could bowl a couple of overs. He felt confident of bowling and felt that in this format spinners like him came as a change that the batsmen did not find easy to adapt and hit.

Very interesting indeed.

Dropping Sehwag was not (or should not have been) a "slap-on-the-wrist" measure. He was dropped because he was not making runs with any consistency whatsoever. Every cricketer feels "frustrated" after they are dropped - why is there such a hue and cry in Sehwag's case? He may well have earned another chance in the one-day side by the end of the Twenty20 WC but let's not make things up now. Sehwag was dropped because he wasn't doing his job and he did not have a strong case for a call-up coming into this tournament.

 

[Johnners]

awta, injuring our best player for the sake of some hit 'n giggle tournament.

(agreeing with Matt79 btw)

 

[SJS]

Dropping Sehwag was not (or should not have been) a "slap-on-the-wrist" measure. He was dropped because he was not making runs with any consistency whatsoever. Every cricketer feels "frustrated" after they are dropped - why is there such a hue and cry in Sehwag's case? He may well have earned another chance in the one-day side by the end of the Twenty20 WC but let's not make things up now. Sehwag was dropped because he wasn't doing his job and he did not have a strong case for a call-up coming into this tournament.

hmmm. Its another view

Wonder how bad a job he was doing in test matches. Any idea ?