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***Official*** South Africa in India

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Can Ganguly really hide behind the guise of being a 'non-opener' considering he is one half of the most outrageously successful ODI opening partnership of recent times, the way someone like Dravid or Laxman probably can? .
Yes, he can. Test opening is a world apart from ODI opening.
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
if the pitch is flat, we have no chance of taking 20 wickets and will lose the series...it needs to turn appreciably and have some uneven bounce from at least the 2nd day onwards for india to have a chance...
 

ret

International Debutant
Yes, he can. Test opening is a world apart from ODI opening.
Ganguly has batted at #3 position in tests during the 1996-2002 period, and averages 46.18 ..... iirc, he made is debut batting at 3 and went on to score a 100 .... so he has batted in the top order in tests

If Ganguly doesn't open then do you want Dravid to move up? Or continue with Jaffar?

If the pitch is flat at Kanpur then do you want to play 7 batsmen [including Jaffar so its just 6 in practice] and see those guys hit 100s and draw the game and let SA walk away with the series?
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
Yes, he can. Test opening is a world apart from ODI opening.
Come on 9146 runs from 236 matches batting at 1 or 2 in ODI's must surely count for something when it comes to opening in tests.
I consider it an anomally that a guy who has openned that may ODI innings has only opened in one test match
 
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ret

International Debutant
Come on 9146 runs from 236 matches batting at 1 or 2 in ODI's must surely count for something when it comes to opening in tests.
it does if you want to make it count .... trouble with India is that it would rather open with duds like Jaffar, Rathore, Gandhi and so on than take risk with opening with an icon player and give a break to talented batsman in the middle order as he might play well and take the position away from the 'icons'

look at the scorecards below:

scorecad

above they have opened with Nayan Mongia, along with specialist Rathore, and the other regular opener Jadeja is batting down the order :laugh:

fast forward to 2008 and we are opening with Jaffar :lol:

But the sad thing is that when a middle order bat like Sehwag goes on and becomes successful as an opener, many criticize him of his technique rather than appreciating what he is doing .... if Sehwag is doing it then why can't Ganguly
 
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funnygirl

State Regular
If the pitch for the third test is flat ,i am gonna shoot those curators :@ .No looking back ,break or make ,prepare a WACA there .
 

nexxus

U19 Debutant
- Sehwag
- Dravid
- Kaif
- Ganguly
- Laxman
- Pathan / Yuvi
- Dhoni
- Kumble
- Chawla
- Ishant
- Munaf

Thats^ good enough to pull one back :D
Err, ok. So you're going to start off by making your best, most reliable #3/#4 open with a suicidal hit or misser in Sehwag. Then you're loading up your side with batsmen and chucking all your hopes on a bits & pieces all rounder or a guy who got stuffed in Aus. To top it all off, you're dropping Harbhajan for an inexperienced youngster & replacing the guy who a few months ago, caused SA all sorts of torment with Munaf "Only Frankenstein fields worse than me" Patel.
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
My XIs

SA
Smith
McKenzie
Amla
Kallis
Prince
De Villiers
+Boucher
Morkel
Harris
Steyn
Ntini

India

Sehwag
Ganguly
Dravid
Laxman
Kaif
+Dhoni
Pathan
Kumble
Harbajan
Sharma
Sreesanth
 

ret

International Debutant
Err, ok. So you're going to start off by making your best, most reliable #3/#4 open with a suicidal hit or misser in Sehwag. Then you're loading up your side with batsmen and chucking all your hopes on a bits & pieces all rounder or a guy who got stuffed in Aus. To top it all off, you're dropping Harbhajan for an inexperienced youngster & replacing the guy who a few months ago, caused SA all sorts of torment with Munaf "Only Frankenstein fields worse than me" Patel.
haha, if the team is that bad then i don't know why you should be complaining :p

That suicidal hit and misser has better Test record than any of the SA openers .... Dravid is in early anyways .... if SA can go in with Harris then whats wrong with Chawla, who is a better wkt taking option than Bhajji .... Munaf is taken for his bowling, he is pretty accurate, picks up wkts, good with reverse swing iirc and will compliment Ishant well :D
 

ret

International Debutant
India

Sehwag
Ganguly
Dravid
Laxman
Kaif
+Dhoni
Pathan
Kumble
Harbajan
Sharma
Sreesanth
^ thats a good 11

though in that I would have Kaif at 4, Laxman at 5, Pathan [or Yuvi] at 6 and Dhoni at 7 .... Chawla and Munaf in for Bhajji ang Sree respectively
 

funnygirl

State Regular
IMO throw out that coach Gary Kirsten .We were doing so good without these coaches ,in comes another foreign coach ,here starts bad shows:@ .
 

ret

International Debutant
IMO throw out that coach Gary Kirsten .We were doing so good without these coaches ,in comes another foreign coach ,here starts bad shows:@ .
I wouldn't blame the coach for that .... and Gary was selected more for his willingness to work for the players rather than force his ideas and make the players work for him
 

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
My XIs

SA
Smith
McKenzie
Amla
Kallis
Prince
De Villiers
+Boucher
Morkel
Harris
Steyn
Ntini

India

Sehwag
Ganguly
Dravid
Laxman
Kaif
+Dhoni
Pathan
Kumble
Harbajan
Sharma
Sreesanth
Is Dhoni batting well enough atm to have him as a test match number 6? I haven't got the channel that's bringing it into Australia so I haven't seen him batting.

My concern, if you run with that 11, is you've got a (possibly) out of form Dhoni at 6, Kaif at 4 still trying to establish himself and Ganguly batting out of position at the top, all against a farily rampant Dale Steyn.

Might be a risk worth taking, but it seems a risk nonetheless.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
well, when you are trying to square a series and your plan A has been shot through full of holes, you have to take some risks..... :)
 

ret

International Debutant
Sree vs Munaf, which one should India play on the Kanpur pitch? This is assuming that Ishant is playing

Sree ---> looks to ball full and get that swing going

Munaf ----> looks to hit the deck and bowl at the right length .... though can swing and reverse swing too

I think Munaf will be more useful on that kind of pitch .... if he can get back to his old ways then there would be nothing like it


and Bhajji vs Chawla, would be a good one too, along with whether to play with Jaffar


knowing Kumble, the likely X1 would be

- Jaffar :yawn:
- Sehwag :batman:
- Dravid :)
- ?
- Laxman :artist:
- Ganguly :boat:
- Dhoni :smartass:
- Kumble :king:
- Bhajji :wheelchai
- Ishant :cowboy:
- ?
 

ret

International Debutant
Harbhajan has been bowling with a bit of flight again, and has bowled pretty well. He shouldn't be dropped.
thats nice to know .... I m not watching the games live so that comes of as a refreshing change to his monotonous and restrictive bowling in tests
 

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