***Official*** England in India

[SJS]

i must say india are favourites rite now..

Hmmmm.....I doubt that very much.

297 in a day, on a fifth day wicket, at 3.3 runs per over ...very very unlikely. Not impossible mind you but highly unlikely. If they do it, it would be a GREAT win but as of now (a couple of hours before play starts) England appear to be clear favourites.

 

[Achtung Baby]

Indian ODI Sqad

I give my Thumbs down to this selection team headed by Kiran More. First of all inclusion of agarkar is beyond my understanding. We already have 4 medium pacers. We need not have one more that too someone who has not been balling well instead we should have had one more batsman. Secondly Kumble doesn't find the place in ODI squad after such amazing performance by him by both bat and ball. More bizarre was the reason given for his (Kumble) exclusion that they want to preserve him for test matches.

 

[adharcric]

I give my Thumbs down to this selection team headed by Kiran More. First of all inclusion of agarkar is beyond my understanding. We already have 4 medium pacers. We need not have one more that too someone who has not been balling well instead we should have had one more batsman. Secondly Kumble doesn't find the place in ODI squad after such amazing performance by him by both bat and ball. More bizarre was the reason given for his (Kumble) exclusion that they want to preserve him for test matches.

I'd say that this selection committee has done well, for once. Agarkar isn't going to last long because he'll clearly get beaten out by Vikram Singh or another young pace prospect soon enough. For now, he has bowled well enough of late, regardless of what anyone thinks. Is he underpowered? Yes. But his recent record says enough. In the ~20 matches since Chappell took over, he has an overall average around 26 and a non-minnow average around 30. Honestly, that doesn't merit exclusion from the one-day squad. Look, I too want to see Vikram Singh in there instead of Agarkar because he is the future and Agarkar clearly isn't. Be patient.

As for the extra batsman, including a middle-order bat would be useless as we already have Yuvraj, Dravid, Kaif, Raina and Rao to possibly compete for only 3 middle-order spots. That means we could've gone in with another opening batsman behind Sehwag and Gambhir. Who are the options? Jaffer, who is more of a test player. Ganguly, who has made a fool of himself lately in domestic matches apart from one solid knock; besides, he's a distraction right now. After that, Uthappa, Dhawan, Pujara and Dhiman come to mind. They haven't been tested at all. Better to bulk up the bowling than include that extra batsman, especially since we have seen India go in with 4 seamers lately.

As for Kumble, well the guy is 35 and we need to look to the future. We cannot do without Kumble in test matches, he is still one of the best around at this point in that form. In one-dayers though, we have Bhajji, Powar and Chawla as younger players who represent the future of Indian spin. We usually only play 1 spinner and Bhajji will get the nod at this point. Ganguly, Laxman and Kumble don't stand much of a chance now.

 

[SJS]

I give my Thumbs down to this selection team headed by Kiran More. First of all inclusion of agarkar is beyond my understanding. We already have 4 medium pacers. We need not have one more that too someone who has not been balling well instead we should have had one more batsman. Secondly Kumble doesn't find the place in ODI squad after such amazing performance by him by both bat and ball. More bizarre was the reason given for his (Kumble) exclusion that they want to preserve him for test matches.

I am also surprised at persisting with Agarkar. I can only think that the management is very happy with his attitude and work culture. He cant be there on cricketing merit and I dont subscribe to political selection theory. It is sad that VRV has to sit out when we are looking to the world cup.

I am not so surprised with Kumble. With due respects to this great bowler, he does need a longish time to get a grip over the batsmen. He doesnt bowl unplayable deliveries (not on the batting surfaces one sees in ODI's) but wears down the batsmen with persistence. For this he needs to "keep at it" for a longish spell. This is not possible in the one day format.

 

[SJS]

I am not convinced that exposing young Chawla to the ODI format so early ios a godd idea. It will be very disappointing if this promising leg spinner starts becoming more and more defensive (a need in ODI's) and we lose a great prospect for test matches. He shpould have played ODI's only after getting the confidence of a settled spot ion the test squad and with the experience behind him.

We may live to regret this.

I hope he does not play...for his own sake.

 

[adharcric]

I am also surprised at persisting with Agarkar. I can only think that the management is very happy with his attitude and work culture. He cant be there on cricketing merit and I dont subscribe to political selection theory. It is sad that VRV has to sit out when we are looking to the world cup.

I am not so surprised with Kumble. With due respects to this great bowler, he does need a longish time to get a grip over the batsmen. He doesnt bowl unplayable deliveries (not on the batting surfaces one sees in ODI's) but wears down the batsmen with persistence. For this he needs to "keep at it" for a longish spell. This is not possible in the one day format.

Brilliant assessment of Kumble there. VRV is in the squad for the warm-up match and if he does well, I think he has a genuine chance to replace Agarkar for the remaining four ODIs.

 

[adharcric]

I am not convinced that exposing young Chawla to the ODI format so early ios a godd idea. It will be very disappointing if this promising leg spinner starts becoming more and more defensive (a need in ODI's) and we lose a great prospect for test matches. He shpould have played ODI's only after getting the confidence of a settled spot ion the test squad and with the experience behind him.

We may live to regret this.

I hope he does not play...for his own sake.

He certainly does neet to mature and gain experience before he is thrown to the wolves. Still, the guy has made his reputation thus far more on the basis of one-day cricket than test cricket and I would think he knows how to deal with the one-day format. At least we'll get to see him in the warm-up match as well. Really looking forward to that one.

 

[SJS]

He certainly does neet to mature and gain experience before he is thrown to the wolves. Still, the guy has made his reputation thus far more on the basis of one-day cricket than test cricket and I would think he knows how to deal with the one-day format. At least we'll get to see him in the warm-up match as well. Really looking forward to that one.

We have lost more cricketers to early induction than have lasted. Tendulkar is the one main example of the latter.

Siva and Manninder come quickly to mind and they were playing relatively less one day cricket in those days.

Piyush hasnt even played much first class cricket.

When he goes back to the circuit there will ba many heavy scoring (for first class cricket) batsmen with double and triple hundreds behind them who will pounce on him and try to thrash the young upstart. Believe me this does happen. A vewry young India player does face a lot of hostility when he goes back to the circuit. Its worse for bowlers and much worse for spinners.

That maturity comes only with time. Spinner prodigies need to be handled with care.

 

[SJS]

He certainly does neet to mature and gain experience before he is thrown to the wolves. Still, the guy has made his reputation thus far more on the basis of one-day cricket than test cricket and I would think he knows how to deal with the one-day format. At least we'll get to see him in the warm-up match as well. Really looking forward to that one.

We have lost more cricketers to early induction than have lasted. Tendulkar is the one main example of the latter.

Siva and Manninder come quickly to mind and they were playing relatively less one day cricket in those days.

Piyush hasnt even played much first class cricket.

When he goes back to the circuit there will ba many heavy scoring (for first class cricket) batsmen with double and triple hundreds behind them who will pounce on him and try to thrash the young upstart. Believe me this does happen. A vewry young India player does face a lot of hostility when he goes back to the circuit. Its worse for bowlers and much worse for spinners.

That maturity comes only with time. Spinner prodigies need to be handled with care. Its fine for us to watch with anxiety , which brings its own thrill and excitement, as the youngster is put through his paces, but its a career thats at stake and a burn out is not to be risked. We have too many already.

 

[adharcric]

Agreed. Agreed again. I think I get the point.

 

[cricketboy29]

Hmmmm.....I doubt that very much.

297 in a day, on a fifth day wicket, at 3.3 runs per over ...very very unlikely. Not impossible mind you but highly unlikely. If they do it, it would be a GREAT win but as of now (a couple of hours before play starts) England appear to be clear favourites.

I dont think you could call England favourites, SJS, for me i think the match is on an even keel.

 

[adharcric]

Let the excitement begin. Kumble and Jaffer in the middle now.

 

[silentstriker]

We don't need a single that bad.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

First job done, Anil gone. Now then, Rahul, the key man, if we get him early it should be England's day.

 

[silentstriker]

Bye bye Kumble....I thought that was missing leg though.

 

[Achtung Baby]

The great Indian fall begins with the dismissal of the 2nd best Indian batsman(according to current form).

 

[pug]

Aaah, kumble. A few runs from you would have made my morning.

 

[Sanz]

So two main Indian batsmen are out.

 

[pug]

So two main Indian batsmen are out.

Yup, Pathan and Kumble. They did much of the scoring last innings.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

Fred and Hoggy right on the money this morning.