***Official*** India in England

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Very impressed with Flintoff's comeback, he ususally seems to take a couple of games to get back into his stride with the ball but he was right on top of things yesterday.

I actually think that there's more to come from Flintoff. He lost his run up a few times in this ODI and when he actually gets it right, and has confidence in getting it right every time, he'll probably get another couple of kph out of himself.

Strange not to let Bopara have a bowl when Colly was getting smacked

 

[honestbharani]

India are not going to win too many ODIs with this bunch unless they really improve their running between the wickets and fielding basics. I am not asking them to become Jontys all of a sudden, but surely, doing the basics right is not such a hard part.... Maybe we can get in Powar for Gambhir for the next game? Thoughts?

 

[adharcric]

Definitely. Karthik is in top form and has shown the ability to counter England's pace attack - he should come up the order.

Ganguly, Tendulkar, Karthik, Yuvraj, Dravid, Dhoni, Powar, Agarkar, Chawla, Zaheer, RPS

 

[PhoenixFire]

India are not going to win too many ODIs with this bunch unless they really improve their running between the wickets and fielding basics. I am not asking them to become Jontys all of a sudden, but surely, doing the basics right is not such a hard part.... Maybe we can get in Powar for Gambhir for the next game? Thoughts?

The amount of times India misfielded and dropped the ball after it had hit the ground was pretty awful tbh.

Ganguly was run out because of arrogance and laziness, Agarkar because of Karthik selling him out IMO.

 

[jammay123]

India are not going to win too many ODIs with this bunch unless they really improve their running between the wickets and fielding basics. I am not asking them to become Jontys all of a sudden, but surely, doing the basics right is not such a hard part.... Maybe we can get in Powar for Gambhir for the next game? Thoughts?

sure they might not be up to jonty rhodes standards but yesturday they wasnt even up to monty rhodes. they need to improve soon

 

[Prince EWS]

Raghav supports Nz, India from now...

Well that certainly lasted a long time.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Definitely. Karthik is in top form and has shown the ability to counter England's pace attack - he should come up the order.

Ganguly, Tendulkar, Karthik, Yuvraj, Dravid, Dhoni, Powar, Agarkar, Chawla, Zaheer, RPS

Gambhir still deserves a crack at the top of the order imo, i'd have Sachin batting at 4 tbh

Gambhir
Ganguly
Karthik
Tendulkar
Dravid
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Powar
Chawla
Zaheer
RP Singh

 

[Perm]

Gambhir still deserves a crack at the top of the order imo, i'd have Sachin batting at 4 tbh

Gambhir
Ganguly
Karthik
Tendulkar
Dravid
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Powar
Chawla
Zaheer
RP Singh

Yuvraj is too low, he has been India's best ODI batsman of the last few years and should be up the order.

 

[Pup Clarke]

revised line up...yeah I agree that Yuvraj should be batting 5 at the lowest

Gambhir
Ganguly
Dravid
Tendulkar
Yuvraj
Karthik
Dhoni
Powar
Chawla
Zaheer
RP Singh

 

[Perm]

Personally, I'd be inclined to go with this lineup.

Sourav Ganguly
Sachin Tendulkar
Dinesh Karthik
Yuvraj Singh
Rahul Dravid
MS Dhoni (wk)
Ramesh Powar
Piyush Chawla
Ajit Agarkar
Zaheer Khan
RP Singh

India have a decent enough batting line-up that Dhoni can be at #6 IMO, and it allows them to play 5 bowlers and not have to rely on 10 overs from Tendulkar/Ganguly/Yuvraj, even though the option is still there to bowl any of them if one of the main bowlers is taking some stick. Personally I don't think Gautam Gambhir is good enough to warrant a place in the starting XI, even if India were to play 6 specialist batsman so Dinesh Karthik gets a chance at #3, after proving in the Test series he can handle the respsonsibility up the order.

Sachin and Sourav pretty much pick themselves at the top, while Yuvraj and Dravid are certainties to bat in the middle order. I've opted for Yuvraj at #4 due to his good form over the last few seasons and Dravid has made a good fist of #5 in the past. Two spin bowling all rounders in Powar and Chawla are at #7 and #8, providing some depth, while the fast bowlers pick themselves at the moment given Munaf Patel's lack of match fitness.

If I were the Indian selectors I would definately look at giving Rohit Sharma or Robin Uthappa a couple of games, depending on how tight the series turns out to be.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Don't too sure i'd have Agarkar in there tbh, would probably play with four specialist bowlers and have fill in overs from Ganguly, Yuvraj and Tendulkar. Powar at 7 is also a bit of a worry imo

 

[pasag]

England were great last night. Could have improved in certain areas of batting, but no side is perfect and everyone can improve. Probably the best I've seen England play all-round as a team in a long time. Anderson is a gun ODI bowler, very underrated for mine because of being nothing special in Tests but deserves more credit in ODIs these days than he gets.

 

[Chubby Rain]

I think we should all pool in our resources and convince Agarkar that the ICL would be a good career move for India him.

 

[Perm]

Don't too sure i'd have Agarkar in there tbh, would probably play with four specialist bowlers and have fill in overs from Ganguly, Yuvraj and Tendulkar. Powar at 7 is also a bit of a worry imo

It is too much to expect ten overs from those three IMO, you'd be better off going in with specialists and then maybe giving one of those part-timers a bowl if Dravid feels the need or one of his main bowlers is getting hammered. What's wrong with Powar at #7? He's a fairly solid (excuse the pun) batsman who is capable of scoring quick runs.

 

[steds]

I think we should all pool in our resources and convince Agarkar that the ICL would be a good career move for India him.

 

[honestbharani]

It is too much to expect ten overs from those three IMO, you'd be better off going in with specialists and then maybe giving one of those part-timers a bowl if Dravid feels the need or one of his main bowlers is getting hammered. What's wrong with Powar at #7? He's a fairly solid (excuse the pun) batsman who is capable of scoring quick runs.

I agree with the line ups posted by Perm and Adharcric...


SRT
Sourav
DK
Yuvi
Dravid
Dhoni
Powar
Chawla
AA
RPS
Zak


for me...

 

[Salamuddin]

revised line up...yeah I agree that Yuvraj should be batting 5 at the lowest

Gambhir
Ganguly
Dravid
Tendulkar
Yuvraj
Karthik
Dhoni
Powar
Chawla
Zaheer
RP Singh

That's a seamer short.....particularly for English conditions.

India's choices are very limited; they didn't pick a seam bowling all-rounder which I think is a must here in England.
I would drop Gambhir and pick Ramesh Powar for the Bristol game.

The bowling needs bolstering and while Powar's fitness is a disgrace, he is a reasonable bowler and should give Dravid some more options in that regard.

Gambhir IMO is just not international standard.....nearly all his runs have come against the likes of Bangers and Scotland.


Backing England to win this series 5-2.....imo, India really need to start making some tough decisions regrading certain players and investing in new guys....., you just can't compete at ODI cricket anymore if your fitness, your fielding and running between the wickets are not upto scratch.

 

[Poker Boy]

I wouldn't panic if I wasd India yet (although there must be a better third seamer in the whole of India than Agakar). It was one of those games where everything went right for England. A run out for PANESAR! A wicket for MASCARENAS! (surely the most embarrasing moment of Dravid's career) One should not expect those events to occur again. But Cook and Bell were encouraging - especially the former who now should now if you can't supply rapid cameos at the top of the order (and he can't) you have to bat through most/all of the innings for a hundred. It was alos encouraging that Flintoff was reaching 90 mph and Anderson gave us early wickets but one good performance does not a ODI team make (play like that on Friday and I'll be more confident) and India can't play that badly again....especially their fielding which always surprises me as someone wrote in the Telegraph that because cricket is the No 1 sport in india it attracts the best athletes. Well if that's India's best athletes...

 

[Salamuddin]

I..especially their fielding which always surprises me as someone wrote in the Telegraph that because cricket is the No 1 sport in india it attracts the best athletes. Well if that's India's best athletes...

No, not a chance.....India may not be very good technically at football but any of our footballers or hockey players would lick the cricketers for fitness and physical conditioning.

THe Telegraph ?? Isn't that the paper Scyld Berry writes for ? That guy has a real colonial chip on his sholder when it comes to writing about India.....

 

[aussie]

Not the most keen follower of Indian cricket & i'm well aware of the reasons why Sehwag & Kaif are currently not in the Indian side, but has Harbhajan gone that bad that he can't even be selected in the ODI side?