***Official*** India in Pakistan

[Arjun]

For the Indian team, the batting is not much of a worry– despite Gambhir's struggles (also Sehwag's) so far– and the reserves are also competent. The main concern will be the pace bowling. You can't expect Kumble and Harbhajan to run through teams consistently, so pacers have to contribute more often. Irfan can get good swing and on a good day even some extra pace, but he can't make much of an impact alone. He needs support, and one pacer isn't enough– and having Agarkar for support is as good as not having any. RP Singh can bowl at decent pace, but his main strength is the movement he gets off the pitch. VR Singh is an ideal choice as a power player, and is a lot faster than any of the pacers picked for India so far. A chance of Zaheer's return to the Test side will depend on form, fielding and fitness. Balaji has had success against Pakistan, having taken 5 wickets in Mohali in early 2005, but the one bowler who has to play in the XI is Joginder Sharma.

He's in very good form in domestic matches and can provide very good support to Irfan and his strike partner. He can also score more than a few runs- the runs he scores along with Irfan will be as valuable as those scored by a sixth specialist batsman. He's an outswing bowler like Balaji and bats like Kaif. He should be in the Indian side, if not for this series, at least for the one against England.

 

[no1_gangsta_786]

Pakistan should stick with the same test XI that beat England(excluding Shabbir Ahmed and including Shahid Afridi) as we need to keep a team that is high on confidence to match India's test team who are also high on confidence.

 

[Pratters]

Pakistan's Best XI (Tests)

S. Butt
N. Rana
Y. Khan
I. Ul-Haq
M. Yousuf
S. Malik
S. Afridi
K. Akmal
A. Razzaq
S. Akhtar
D. Kaneria

In that order.

WEAK bowling line up.

 

[no1_gangsta_786]

Why is Umar Gul still not playing for pakistan...is he still injured?

 

[Mecnun]

Between Zaheer, Irfan, Balaji and Nehra (where is he these days?) India can muster a decent enough seam attack. Ramesh Powar also looked a handy cricketer with bat and ball last series in Pak.

For Pak we need more than just Shoaib in the pace dept, Razzaq is not going to cut it in the tests as a bowler. You need specialists in tests not bits&pieces players. In shabir's absence perhaps Umar Gul could be brought back since he has come out of his injury and has been playing domestic cricket last I heard.

 

[adharcric]

Agarkar has made things a bit tougher with his blistering 48-run cameo against Sri Lanka yesterday. Granted he hasn't fulfilled his primary role in the team - that of a strike bowler - you still get the feeling that the selectors will consider this vital contribution when naming the squad for Pakistan. In the Dravid-Chappell era (vs zim, vs sl), Pathan has averaged nearly 15 with the ball, while Kumble has averaged in the low 20s and Harbhajan Singh nearly 25. Agarkar, meanwhile, has a dreadful average in the high 50s. He is not particularly young (28?) and he doesn't carry the significant 'experience' factor which one would associate with the likes of Tendulkar, Kumble, Dravid or Ganguly. While Nehra and Balaji seem to have lost their way with fitness issues at the moment, Zaheer Khan has been in roaring form in the domestic circuit recently. The selectors seem to be particularly interested in the Punjabi paceman VRV Singh, and two others to keep an eye on are all-rounder Joginder Sharma and another Punjab bowler who was on the national scene some time back, Gagandeep Singh.

Gautam Gambhir is undoubtedly a talented batsmen who needs some refinement; although he has been guilty of some foolish strokeplay lately, he's been getting his share of bad luck (and a bad decision by the usual suspect - Nadeem Ghauri - yesterday). Still, if the selectors are maintaining a high standard for Ganguly, they must do the same for everyone. In the same D-C era, Gambhir averages 28, Sehwag averages 32, Ganguly averages 40 and Yuvraj averages 38 (Kaif has made scores of 4 and 9 in his lone test, not really a fair run). Wasim Jaffer should certainly open with Sehwag against Pakistan. Also, the Dravid-Tendulkar-Laxman-Yuvraj middle order is clearly the best we've got. The question is, what about Kaif, Gambhir and Ganguly? Ganguly in my opinion deserves a recall as the reserve middle-order batsman, but it's also not fair to drop Kaif without giving him at least one more match. Gambhir can be dropped if the management has confidence in Jaffer, but he needs to be backed and assured that he can regain his spot if he shows marked improvement in his batting technique. There is no question of other middle-order options (raina, rao etc) at the moment, as Kaif and Ganguly are more than enough. Also, guys like Uthappa and Jadhav probably won't strike it big yet; the selectors would make Gambhir backup if anyone at all.

These are the two big selection issues as far as I'm concerned, let's see how it goes.

 

[Prince EWS]

WEAK bowling line up.

Its not as weak as it may look. He opened the batting with Rana Naved for some reason.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Its not as week as it may look. He opened the batting with Rana Naved for some reason.

Based on one knock for his county side? (I assume)

 

[Jono]

Its not as week as it may look. He opened the batting with Rana Naved for some reason.

Even with Rana its 3 specialist bowlers with three batting allrounders. Not strong enough IMO. Pakistan should go with 3 specialist fast bowlers IMO, and then have Kaneria and Afridi. Its tempting to have Razzaq in there too, but I'm not sure. I'm happy I'm not a Pakistani selector actually, because they have good bench strength. Remember Asim Kamal is there too.

 

[Prince EWS]

Even with Rana its 3 specialist bowlers with three batting allrounders. Not strong enough IMO. Pakistan should go with 3 specialist fast bowlers IMO, and then have Kaneria and Afridi. Its tempting to have Razzaq in there too, but I'm not sure. I'm happy I'm not a Pakistani selector actually, because they have good bench strength. Remember Asim Kamal is there too.

I'd try opening with either Asim or Younis to be honest. They are clearly better candidates for this position than Shoaib Malik.

Im not quite sure which way to go after that though, in regards to balance. I guess that with Malik now out of the side, four specialist bowlers should be picked. So I'd go with:

1. Salman Butt
2. Asim Kamal / Younis Khan
3. Younis Khan / Asim Kamal
4. Mohammad Yousuf
5. Inzamam Ul Haq
6. Shahid Afridi / Abdul Razzaq (depending on the pitch)
7. Kamran Akmal
8. Rana Naved
9. Shoaib Akhtar
10. Mohammad Asif
11. Danish Kaneria

 

[irfan]

well wat about yasir hameed - he looked quite good in aus wen he came - made a couple of stylish fifities. I think S Butt/ Y Hameed is a good opening combo even if Yasir a boundary-dominant batter

 

[marc71178]

Agarkar has made things a bit tougher with his blistering 48-run cameo against Sri Lanka yesterday. Granted he hasn't fulfilled his primary role in the team - that of a strike bowler

If he were given a chance to do such a job it'd help.

6 overs in the first innings out of 63.2, and so far 2 out of 63.1 in the second!

He's being used almost as much as Symonds for Australia, difference is, he's a better batsman than Symonds!

 

[Nate]

He just broke a big partnership. Never doubt the legend that is AA.

 

[duffer]

Any Aussies know if Fox Sports are covering this series at all? I sent off an email and they haven't replied back yet.

 

[Jono]

It makes no sense for them not to, because Australia will be having the VB Series at the same time. So its not like they have any other committments. England don't have a test series, and SA will be here, so they have no other priorities.

 

[duffer]

Spot on Jono mate, but I can't remember the last time they showed an all sub-continental series live so I'm not too hopeful of it.

 

[Jono]

You know what annoys me more though is that they dropped showing highlights of other tours too. In early 2004 when Australia toured SL, India also toured Pakistan. Obviously their priority was Aus in SL, and they showed those tests and ODI live. But what they did which was really awesome was they showed two hour highlights of every ODI, and every day of test cricket. For some reason they didn't do it when Pakistan toured India in 2005, and I don't think they've done it since actually. They only show highlights of matches they are already covering, which, while handy, I'd much rather they show their live cricket, and then highlights of other matches they aren't showing live.

 

[duffer]

From what I gather, they're preference with regards to coverage goes; Australia, England, NZ and SA while the rest are sort of disregarded as they don't believe there's enough genuine interest to justify the coverage.

Bit of a shame considering some of the other stuff they cover that they pass up big series like these.

 

[Dasa]

From what I gather, they're preference with regards to coverage goes; Australia, England, NZ and SA while the rest are sort of disregarded as they don't believe there's enough genuine interest to justify the coverage.

Bit of a shame considering some of the other stuff they cover that they pass up big series like these.

I think they'd have a significant audience for subcontinental matches as well...certainly as many as would've watched England vs South Africa and the like.

 

[no1_gangsta_786]

Does anybody know what channel live coverage of this series will be shown on in the UK?