*Official* India in Sri Lanka 2010 - Tests

[G.I.Joe]

Someone like Zaheer who understands bowling (bowl full when you need wickets, bowl accurate, not quick, bouncers, etc), is ideal. However, someone who performs well in FC cricket, over a season would be a start.

Its not how you bowl, its what you have to show for it.

 

[Shri]

Ajit Agarkar will save us all!

 

[Sir Alex]

Sreesanth can win the odd Test (two), but for the most part, he is dire. He has never taken consistent wickets for Kerala, how is he expected to do it for India? He'll bowl the odd good spell, but if you want someone to take you through the next few years of Test cricket, you need a bowler who is consistent. It is not a case of sitting through bad performances and waiting for a good one - in a game with four bowlers, a useless bowler can be very damaging.

Show me an Indian bowler who has been more "consistent" than him at this age? Don't give me the odd Joginders they are nothing at International level.

When has Sree been given a consistent long run in tests as well?

 

[G.I.Joe]

Zaheer - 3.69 wpm, 32.98 ave.
Sreesanth - 3.63 wpm, 32.01 ave.

It shouldn't matter if Zaheer understands bowling better, as long as Sreesanth does as well as him, he deserves a place in the XI.

 

[Sir Alex]

Zaheer - 3.69 wpm, 32.98 ave.
Sreesanth - 3.63 wpm, 32.01 ave.

It shouldn't matter if Zaheer understands bowling better, as long as Sreesanth does as well as him, he deserves a place in the XI.

 

[Teja.]

Zaheer - 3.69 wpm, 32.98 ave.
Sreesanth - 3.63 wpm, 32.01 ave.

It shouldn't matter if Zaheer understands bowling better, as long as Sreesanth does as well as him, he deserves a place in the XI.

Makes it even more intresting if Minnows are removed off the bowler's records

Zaheer - 3.22 wpm, 35.03 ave., 64.1 SR

Sreesanth- 3.62 wpm, 31.25 ave., 55.9 SR

 

[Xuhaib]

Sree is good bowler being a natural outswinger means he will have a lot of success at international stage if he gets it right since most modern day batsman are susceptible to an away going delivery more then incoming one.

 

[Manee]

Zaheer - 3.69 wpm, 32.98 ave.
Sreesanth - 3.63 wpm, 32.01 ave.

It shouldn't matter if Zaheer understands bowling better, as long as Sreesanth does as well as him, he deserves a place in the XI.

Zaheer had a poor start to his career and picked it up since then. You know that, everyone knows that.

Since the beginning of 2007, the year in which Zaheer improved beyond recognition, he has 113 wickets at 29.43 with a 4.03 wpm.

 

[pasag]

Fixtures

1st Test - Sri Lanka v India
Sun Jul 18 - Thu Jul 22
04:30 GMT | 10:00 local | 10:00 IST
Galle International Stadium

2nd Test - Sri Lanka v India
Mon Jul 26 - Fri Jul 30
04:30 GMT | 10:00 local | 10:00 IST
Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo

3rd Test - Sri Lanka v India
Tue Aug 3 - Sat Aug 7
04:30 GMT | 10:00 local | 10:00 IST
P Sara Oval, Colombo

Why no ODIs?

 

[Sir Alex]

Why no ODIs?

Good one!

 

[Xuhaib]

maybe because they have already played billion of odi's this year.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Zaheer had a poor start to his career and picked it up since then. You know that, everyone knows that.

Since the beginning of 2007, the year in which Zaheer improved beyond recognition, he has 113 wickets at 29.43 with a 4.03 wpm.

Manee, that shows how poor Zaheer was before 2007. If he deserved persisting with before 2007, why not persist with Sreesanth who's already much better than Zaheer was at a similar stage in his career?

Besides, take out the 4 Bangladesh Tests, and there's little to choose between even Zaheer part II and Sreesanth.

Who's the competition for Sreesanth? Of those tested already, only Ishant comes close, and we have all seen how he's gone off the boil. Sreesanth deserves his spot in the team.

 

[Pratters]

Zaheer had a poor start to his career and picked it up since then. You know that, everyone knows that.

Since the beginning of 2007, the year in which Zaheer improved beyond recognition, he has 113 wickets at 29.43 with a 4.03 wpm.

This.

Zaheer was absolutely crap for the better part of his career before he improved his fitness issues and the issue of putting on weight periodically. Zaheer didn't deserve the several chances he was given in his career part 1. Just because Zaheer improved, doesn't mean Sreesanth will. The inconsistency which plagues Sreesanth is unreal. He can go from a very good spell to an extremely bad one. The extremes of his performances means I would choose a lesser erratic bowler like Ishant Sharma atm despite being off the boil as GI Joe puts it. I do believe Sreesanth has truckloads of talent though and I hope he does justice to his talent when it's all said and done. I don't think Sreesanth will be dropped though.

 

[Teja.]

Zaheer had a poor start to his career and picked it up since then. You know that, everyone knows that.

Since the beginning of 2007, the year in which Zaheer improved beyond recognition, he has 113 wickets at 29.43 with a 4.03 wpm.

This.

Zaheer was absolutely crap for the better part of his career before he improved his fitness issues and the issue of putting on weight periodically. Zaheer didn't deserve the several chances he was given in his career part 1. Just because Zaheer improved, doesn't mean Sreesanth will. The inconsistency which plagues Sreesanth is unreal. He can go from a very good spell to an extremely bad one. The extremes of his performances means I would choose a lesser erratic bowler like Ishant Sharma atm despite being off the boil as GI Joe puts it. I do believe Sreesanth has truckloads of talent though and I hope he does justice to his talent when it's all said and done. I don't think Sreesanth will be dropped though.

Removing minnows,

Zaheer II(From the beginning of 2007) - 3.75 wpm, 31.75 avg., SR-58.7

Sreesanth- 3.63 wpm, 31.25 avg., SR-55.9

Still, statistically pretty identical.

 

[Pratters]

That's the stats of Zaheer since his return in the team? Surprising but ok.

 

[Manee]

Removing minnows,

Zaheer II(From the beginning of 2007) - 3.75 wpm, 31.75 avg., SR-58.7

Sreesanth- 3.63 wpm, 31.25 avg., SR-55.9

Still, statistically pretty identical.

Who are these Test match minnows? A Test is a Test, imo. The fact that Sreesanth got carted by Bangladesh should not work in his favour.

 

[Manee]

Manee, that shows how poor Zaheer was before 2007. If he deserved persisting with before 2007, why not persist with Sreesanth who's already much better than Zaheer was at a similar stage in his career?

Besides, take out the 4 Bangladesh Tests, and there's little to choose between even Zaheer part II and Sreesanth.

Who's the competition for Sreesanth? Of those tested already, only Ishant comes close, and we have all seen how he's gone off the boil. Sreesanth deserves his spot in the team.

The fact that Zaheer has played more often emphasises that his stats have not been boosted by one performance, as Sreesanth's have. Moreover, Zaheer was not worth persisting with, he actually was dropped, went to county cricket, improved and earned his place. As for the competition, I'd start with Kulkarni and Vinay Kumar, although I'm sure you'd dismiss both as trundlers, which is a conversation that has been repeated all too often.

 

[Teja.]

Who are these Test match minnows? A Test is a Test, imo. The fact that Sreesanth got carted by Bangladesh should not work in his favour.

Sree has played only one test against Bangladesh and admittedly has not put in the the best of performances, Zaheer's stats are wildly exaggerated by the truckloads of wickets he takes against B'desh. Even if Sree's pathetic performance against B'desh is included and compared to Zaheer's performances elsewhere, there is not much of a statistical difference between the both of them. All that said, in present form, Zaheer is easily better, but Sree is a close second as far as Indian Pacers are concerned.

 

[Shri]

The one positive to take from Sreesanth's career so far is that he has not let injuries stand in the way of his bowling speed. He has consistently bowled in the 135-140 kph range. Something that Zaheer , Srinath etc were famous for. Swing can come and go with form if you keep working on it. Just needs to get more consistent with his performances to seal his spot as the country's second pacer.

 

[honestbharani]

Zaheer had a poor start to his career and picked it up since then. You know that, everyone knows that.

Since the beginning of 2007, the year in which Zaheer improved beyond recognition, he has 113 wickets at 29.43 with a 4.03 wpm.

yep.. lets have a look at the stats since Sree's debut for the two for comparison.. or even better, lets take a look at the tests when both have played together.