***Official*** England in India

[Scaly piscine]

I hope the India first teamer cull doesn't stuff up my fantasy league challenge...

 

[kvemuri]

And btw putting Lee in that group is an insult to the other 3.

LOL! will give you that..should've been a Symonds or a Hussey.

 

[kvemuri]

I tell you, the end is near for Agarkar..

I thought with RP Singh, Sreesanth, Munaf and Powar THAT was the end of the Pathetic AA. By repeatedly selecting him over the likes of VRV and Abid and even Chawla, the selectors keep missing a trick. As I said he is simply waste of space.

 

[silentstriker]

I'm really glad they rested Dravid and brought in Vikram Singh. I tell you, the end is near for Agarkar.
In the rest of the series, Sehwag and Kaif need to play every match to regain form. Uthappa, Raina, Dhoni and Powar should also be played in every match. Yuvraj, Pathan and Harbhajan should be given a rest for 1 match apiece to accomodate Venugopal as well as RP Singh, Munaf Patel and Vikram Singh.

I'd like to see the following team for Guwahati.
Sehwag*, Uthappa, Kaif, Yuvraj, Raina, Venugopal, Dhoni+, Powar, VRV, Munaf, RPS

... and for Jamshedpur ...
Sehwag*, Uthappa, Kaif, Raina, Venugopal, Dhoni+, Pathan, Powar, Harbhajan, VRV, Munaf/RPS/Sreesanth

This is an excellent opportunity to build bench strength. Who knows, VR Singh might come up with something big and further deepen our pace reserves.

They need to rest Pathan for all three games as well. He bats a lot, and he bowls a lot too (although, he bowls like a spinner, so maybe its not as taxing).

 

[adharcric]

I thought with RP Singh, Sreesanth, Munaf and Powar THAT was the end of the Pathetic AA. By repeatedly selecting him over the likes of VRV and Abid and even Chawla, the selectors keep missing a trick. As I said he is simply waste of space.

Well the selectors have shown that they'll go for the young talented prospects whenever they have the option. Till now, Pathan, then RP Singh, then Sreesanth and finally Munaf had secured their spots in contention, but that's only 4 seamers and we go in with 5 seamers in the squad these days. If VRV impresses, he'll be that 5th seamer and Agarkar can kiss his career goodbye when Dravid returns from the rest. As for Nabi, he's not seasoned enough yet to be playing for India, hasn't done much of note domestically but is a real talent and hopefully he'll shine at the Challenger Series this year.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Also I agree with Deano's comments that England don't have a lower order batsmen who can do a Razzaq, a Lee, a Dhoni or an Afridi. Throw caution to the wind and go aerial route. Blackwell is capable of doing it but he isn't. So instead of getting Vaughn, Shah, Bell or even Solanki they should look for someone like that.

That's sort of what KP specialises in, if he's still in at those stages...

 

[kvemuri]

That's sort of what KP specialises in, if he's still in at those stages...

What happens when KP goes out before the later stage.....Eng fold up. Happened 3 times this series.

 

[vic_orthdox]

What happens when KP goes out before the later stage.....Eng fold up. Happened 3 times this series.

Potentially, Fred.

It's the other blokes, IMO, who aren't doing the job, and setting up Fred, and KP, to be able to do the most damage they can.

 

[kvemuri]

Potentially, Fred.

It's the other blokes, IMO, who aren't doing the job, and setting up Fred, and KP, to be able to do the most damage they can.

The way the ODIs have evolved over the past few years is resulting in each team having batsmen and/or sloggers at the top and also at the bottom if possible. Aus, Ind, Pak have that, SA are slowly evolving to that (they were horrendous in VB series were in every match the responsibilty fell on Boucher and Pollock) with the likes of Kemp, Telemachus, Van Der Wath etc. Eng doesn't have them..once Freddie is gone there is no one down the order who can up the tempo..hence the over reliance on KP and Freddie to up the tempo. Particularly in this series with no Tresco up top to push the tempo England are completely at sea with no one down the order to push tempo too.

 

[maxpower]

I tell you, the end is near for Agarkar.
.

Blasphemy!!!!

 

[HowsThat]

Botham is full of himself too. Someone needs to remind him there's no such thing as 'we' or 'our team' in the Com box..Also can he explain the statement "the best teams in world don't change for test & ODI's, we do".

 

[marc71178]

LOL! will give you that..should've been a Symonds or a Hussey.

Shouldn't really have been any Australian to be honest, but the difference there is that they have a top batting line up anyway so the lack of that sort of player isn't a big worry for them.

 

[marc71178]

That's sort of what KP specialises in, if he's still in at those stages...

The problem is, KP isn't the sort of player to bat through the innings (due to overconfidence IMO) - so if people want him to go in early, he almost certainly won't be there by the slog overs.

Incidentally I don't think people have given Dravid enough credit for his use of power plays yesterday - definitely thought a lot about how to do it, and it worked a treat.

 

[steds]

Gojo out. Thigh problem.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Honestly, does it get to a point where the English support staff have to be held responsible? This sort of injury count can't all be put down to "bad luck" IMO...

 

[Autobahn]

Honestly, does it get to a point where the English support staff have to be held responsible? This sort of injury count can't all be put down to "bad luck" IMO...

Well Vaughan, and Giles are both suffering from long-term injuries, tres is out with "personal problems", I think Harmison's problem has history and gojo's injury is more general wear and tear you get with a long tour like this one.

Only really Simon Jones was what you term unlucky becuase he had just recovered from one injury and gets hit by another.

 

[honestbharani]

I think INdia should play this side on Sunday:


SEhwag
Uthappa
Kaif
Yuvraj
Rao
Raina
Dhoni
Harbhajan
Powar
Patel
Sreesanth


Pathan needs a break. YUvraj can be rested for the last two games probably. Pathan can come back for the last game so that he is back to match practice for the Abu Dhabi series.

 

[silentstriker]

Jones is out as well.

 

[steds]

Honestly, does it get to a point where the English support staff have to be held responsible? This sort of injury count can't all be put down to "bad luck" IMO...

I agree. I wouldn't, but just as I read your post, I remembered how they handled Fred's ankle spur. They decided to rest him in the Natwest series, then did a U-turn after losing a couple of games in the series, playing him purely as a batsman. Then he's back bowling in the Tests against the West Indies. Then he misses the ODI series in South Africa because he needed surgery on it. If they'd decided that in the first place, it'd have saved a huge amount of trouble.

 

[steds]

Jones is out as well.

Gojo out. Thigh problem.

Keep up.