***Official*** Indian Domestic Thread 2012/13

[centurymaker]

Yeah.. just in time for the IPL

hmmm

 

[Arjun]

hmmm

Yeah.. just in time for the IPL

Yadav is back! Gun news.

He was back just for a single game. Maybe he's trying to conserve his energy for the more gruelling IPL, which he actually needs to play to get into active cricket fully. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is a joke of a tournament, played on college/club grounds, at peak season for the national team, with even the state associations fielding weaker teams. He was just warming up.

In case anybody wants (semi-) live scores from this tournament, whatever it is worth, go to the official BCCI site. They update their scores occasionally. A match between Baroda and UP finished on the last ball, and one between Odisha and Kerala finished with four balls to spare. Bengal are in trouble against Karnataka and Vidarbha a bit patchy against Gujarat.

How's this for a joke selection? I'm not sure if he made it because of a very impressive club cricket record in the state, but seeing someone with such mediocre statistics hang on to his place is a bit disappointing. He's not even that new anyway.

 

[Arjun]

It's raining centuries in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The latest to join the list is Manprit Juneja of Gujarat, whose century single-handedly won the game for them against Kerala. Nobody in the Kerala side could stand up to that. Gujarat now have two very capable T20 batsmen in Manprit Juneja and Asad Pathan.

Talking of Asad Pathan, he and Karnataka's Mayank Agarwal are now more or less T20 specialists. They hardly play List-A cricket, practically (in Mayank's case, exactly) never figure in FC games, and figure regularly in SMAT, and if lucky, make it regularly in the IPL teams. Do you think it's a good thing? While a pool of T20 specialists is a good thing when it keeps the country's Test players away from this three-and-a-half-hour stunt series, it raises the debate about whether players have chosen to leave aside first-class cricket for the lure of T20. This domestic T20 tournament has no lure whatsoever, and is merely a stepping stone to the IPL, where young and long-serving Indian domestic players are often consigned to the bench.

Elsewhere, Gurkeerat Singh has scored a match-winning 96 (hello, Kings XI) to win a game against Uttar Pradesh, who have been patchy in the Super League.

 

[Arjun]

Gujarat and Punjab meet in the finals. Delhi lost again, this time, to Vidarbha, who had no contribution from Umesh Yadav or the benched Srikant Wagh. Elsewhere, Baroda defeated Karnataka, but it didn't help them qualify for the final.

Mehul Patel is the leading wicket taker with 18 wickets in 7 games, but he won't make any IPL squad. Like Aditya Waghmode, who hasn't been signed up by anyone.

 

[Daemon]

His economy rate is pretty high though

 

[Arjun]

That's been the problem throughout the games in West Zone as well as some Indore games. Bowlers have gone for plenty. While an economy rate of 8.64 is quite high, it's obvious that batsmen are slogging off Mehul Patel and not staying long enough, which keeps his strike rate down to under 10, which is very good. That's a freak statistical combination, but not something that should keep him out of IPL sides.

Four more 'strangers' are in the top ten wickets tally- Sayan Mondal, Surya Pradhan, Amitoze Singh (who's done well as a bowler here) and Rajwinder Singh. None likely to figure in the IPL. Nor are any of the top ten run-scorers bar Chand, Agarwal and Pandey. I'd prefer Aditya Waghmode play for an IPL side. He's been very impressive in his T20 career so far, and will make an ideal replacement for Dhawan, whom I'd prefer to keep away from T20Is to protect his Test performances.

Manish Pandey is not only one of the top run-scorers this season, but has also picked up plenty of wickets. He has, however, been bogged down by a poor strike rate with the bat. What do you make of this?

 

[honestbharani]

That's been the problem throughout the games in West Zone as well as some Indore games. Bowlers have gone for plenty. While an economy rate of 8.64 is quite high, it's obvious that batsmen are slogging off Mehul Patel and not staying long enough, which keeps his strike rate down to under 10, which is very good. That's a freak statistical combination, but not something that should keep him out of IPL sides.

Four more 'strangers' are in the top ten wickets tally- Sayan Mondal, Surya Pradhan, Amitoze Singh (who's done well as a bowler here) and Rajwinder Singh. None likely to figure in the IPL. Nor are any of the top ten run-scorers bar Chand, Agarwal and Pandey. I'd prefer Aditya Waghmode play for an IPL side. He's been very impressive in his T20 career so far, and will make an ideal replacement for Dhawan, whom I'd prefer to keep away from T20Is to protect his Test performances.

Manish Pandey is not only one of the top run-scorers this season, but has also picked up plenty of wickets. He has, however, been bogged down by a poor strike rate with the bat. What do you make of this?

Manish Pandey bowls?

 

[Arjun]

Gujarat won easily. They restricted Punjab to just 122, and took eight wickets, and cruised home in the eighteenth over, with the loss of just four wickets. This time, Manprit Juneja didn't score much, but Asad Pathan played a breezy knock of 32 at the top of the order.

Manish Pandey bowls?

He's taken 10 wickets in the series, and bowled in seven matches out of nine. Average of 15, strike rate of 12, but a high economy rate of 8. He's also scored 256 runs at an average of 32, with only two fifties, and a poor strike rate under 110.

 

[honestbharani]

He just seems to bowl some offspin filth like Raina.. Now Rohit, on the other hand, I think he has a bit of potential with the ball.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah Rohit's always looked like he has a bit of untapped style to his bowling, although you could say the same for his batting. And much like his batting he's been outperformed internationally by Raina despite looking a league above him.

 

[honestbharani]

yeah.. lets see how he goes in his latest incarnation as a LO opener for India.

 

[Daemon]

Honestly want Pujara to open instead. He'll be gun with those fields in the powerplay overs.

 

[Arjun]

I'd prefer a completely different team for T20Is, from the Test side. Let's keep the Test players focussed on the five-day effort. The T20I side should be composed exclusively of non-Test players, such as Raina, Rohit Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, young Aditya Waghmode and Ian Chappell's favourite, Unmukt Chand. Then again, we'd prefer to have some older players in the T20I side, so that younger players don't get stuck in T20 mode and miss out on FC performances.

 

[honestbharani]

I don't see any reason for a Pujara/Sharma combo to not work out in ODIs at all, tbh. But we have to manage Pujara's workload given his dodgy knee.. Also, there is a nice progressive line if we have our openers lined up something like this in our first choice XIs as of today..


Tests:

Vijay
Dhawan


ODIs:

Dhawan
Rohit


T20s:

Rohit
Rahane

 

[Arjun]

At the top, I'd prefer to have the top two of Vijay, Rahane and Dhawan for Tests as well as ODIs, and the pair of Aditya Waghmode and Mayank Agarwal for T20Is. Vijay would be an ideal T20I specialist, though.

ADD-ON: Siddarth Kaul is one to watch for the next season. Hopefully he'll keep up the good form next time too, unlike several debut season wonders (ahem, Dhawal, ahem, Mithun) who struggled in their next dig. Likewise Ishwar Pandey.

 

[Cevno]

Probables: M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Jalaj Saxena, Parvez Rasool, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Shami Ahmed, Irfan Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Ishwar Pandey, Sidharth Kaul.


ODI probable list for Champions trophy.

Harbhajan, Sehhwag, Zaheer and Pujara left out.

Some interesting selections and some good ones.

 

[nsniks]

Probables: M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Jalaj Saxena, Parvez Rasool, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Shami Ahmed, Irfan Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Ishwar Pandey, Sidharth Kaul.


ODI probable list for Champions trophy.

Harbhajan, Sehhwag, Zaheer and Pujara left out.

Some interesting selections and some good ones.

Hope Pujara is left out because selectors doesnt want to select him until or unless they have reports about his knee.

 

[Cevno]

Apparently they want to send him as Captain with India A to South Africa. Dhoni seems reluctant to use him in ODI's for some reason.

 

[Manee]

Apparently they want to send him as Captain with India A to South Africa. Dhoni seems reluctant to use him in ODI's for some reason.

At least he's doing something. Such overwhelming evidence that defensive Test batsman can make the transfer to ODI cricket though, look at Dravid, Trott and Amla. More than anything else, I don't like the school of thought that keeps him out of the ODI side, it is flawed.

 

[honestbharani]

IF that is indeed the reason, then its lame.. But I think it has more to do about managing his workload and his knees.. ODIs are a bit more action packed than tests and you don't want him doing his knee again this soon...