biased indian
International Coach
this should be a sticky now
When the Ashes is going on, nothing else is important....this should be a sticky now
I can understand them combining as 5th bowlers but you have only 3 specialist bowlers, which means these two, along with other part-timers will be bowling 20 overs amongst them. And if one of the specialist bowlers has an off day, may be even more!The objective behind this selection is to get the batsmen who can bowl (particularly Yusuf and Nayar, neither of whom are frontline batsmen) to bowl like proper bowlers. You can then keep the bowling tight and steady without calling in a fifth bowler.
You have two options- either play five bowlers and have the opposition batting in check, or play six (or seven) batsmen to strengthen your batting. The Indian team management seems to have chosen the latter, so this plan was drafted to aid that.I can understand them combining as 5th bowlers but you have only 3 specialist bowlers, which means these two, along with other part-timers will be bowling 20 overs amongst them. And if one of the specialist bowlers has an off day, may be even more!
I don't see that helping either the bowlers or the team .... tomm, you will say that we need to improve some of the bowlers batting as they are not good enough to be in the side for just their bowling so let's play 7 of these guys with an objective to make them bat like proper batsmen. Such exercises are probably like giving invitation to trouble
I don't mind experimenting but that would be in form of trying out new players like Pandey .... I wouldn't focus on trying to turn guys who are not good enough to bowl their quota in to regular bowlers or vice versa unless they are batting/bowling better than a specialist who is out of form or not delivering and when there are no other optionsYou may find this plan weird, but this is an exhibition tournament. The Champions Trophy is not too far away. They have to get their team ready and in proper shape until then. They need five proper bowlers in action, or at least a batsman replacing one of the bowlers and keeping it tight. Right now, they have none. That gap has to be plugged.
ya trueWhen the Ashes is going on, nothing else is important....
Did you notice how cricinfo has only just made this series a 'current' series? This was while the Ashes has been listed as a 'current' series for the past few weeks.
Some of them are good enough to bowl their full quota of overs. Their captains at Ranji, Duleep, India A and IPL use them fully, and the Indian captain should too. Besides, Irfan Pathan was the best full-fledged all-rounder at hand, but has been dropped because he isn't getting wickets for some time, so a replacement is necessary.I don't mind experimenting but that would be in form of trying out new players like Pandey .... I wouldn't focus on trying to turn guys who are not good enough to bowl their quota in to regular bowlers or vice versa unless they are batting/bowling better than a specialist who is out of form or not delivering and when there are no other options
Much better? That's a contentious issue. More often than not, these bowlers have been a little better than average, with few wickets to show in comparison to a Murali, Mendis, Mitchell or Lee. They're not great, and not so much better than Yusuf or Nayar, on form. The idea is to get a genuine all-rounder, a proper replacement for Irfan Pathan and to have proper bowlers bowling all 50 overs. Rather than have Yuvraj or Rohit under pressure by getting them on to bowl, when they are your batting mainstays (and no good with the ball), you can get the relatively under-used Yusuf (who hardly gets to bat) or Nayar (who'll get even less to bat) to bowl more.ret said:Guys like Ojha, Nehra, RP and Praveen are capable of bowling much better than YP or Nayar on a consistent basis. I would rather play them to improve their form and confidence in a meh series like this than play YP and Nayar as specialist bowlers in their place and hope that they come good .... Even Robin Singh wasn't good enough to bowl is quota of 10 overs on a consistent basis, expecting these two to do that at international level is having high hopes
Some typically odd selections here.Offiicial Windies squad for 1st 2 ODI's:
Chris Gayle (Captain)
Denesh Ramdin (Vice Captain)
Lionel Baker
Darren Bravo - Fantastic selection. The Bravo brothers to the fore.
Dwayne Bravo
Sulieman Benn
David Bernard
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Narsingh Deonarine
Runako Morton
Ravi Rampaul
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Jerome Taylor
no dude after seeing wat of jadeja looks like a star in the making for odi/tests.Ravindra Jadeja, and Nayar are overrated limited overs cricketers, imo. Good to see Nehra and Karthik rewarded for strong IPL stints (Karthik found good form and Nehra was tremendously impressive) and Badri kept on the scene, though would prefer to see him in Test colours. Just remembered, where is Virat Kohli, he surely > Nayar and Jadeja.
Sounds suspiciuosly like a back handed tactic to draw attention to the series itself, by kicking up a stink about a non-existent threat.Hearing on Geo news that there might be something fishy going on with the matches maybe not happening. Heard a mention of swine flu in passing. Will update if I hear something else.
EDIT: Haven't seen anything since then. Might've been something Geo jumped on without any proof.