***Official*** Sri Lanka in India

[honestbharani]

I thought Sharma had potential, but he will have to fight it out with JP Yadav. Mishra can be a risky proposition in ODIs. He is essentially the same as Kartik (from the matches in which I have seen him), and relies on flight. He could be carted around easily on a flat track, something that often happens to Kartik as well. At least Kartik has had some experience now and may be able to adjust better.

 

[Pratters]

What does every one think of Raina now? I have been a huge supporter of this guy ever since I saw him play in the under 19 world cup. People may remember I have been asking for him to get a spot in the team months before many had heard a lot about him.

Also I think the three one dayers gives a good chance to try Sehwag at no. 3.

My line up would be like this:

Raina
Dhoni
Sehwag
Dravid
Kaif
Gambhir (to put him in the spot and see how he performs in the last overs so to say)
Rao
Pathan
Agarkar
Harbhajan
SreeSanth

sub : Yuvraj

This is a team IF no changes are made to the squad except bringing in Kaif for the 6th and 7th matches.

A fair bit of experimentation there.

 

[Pratters]

And some more Dhoni:

For the fourth time in his ODI career, Dhoni (45 not out off 43 balls) hit a winning hit as six.

 

[SJS]

What does every one think of Raina now? I have been a huge supporter of this guy ever since I saw him play in the under 19 world cup. People may remember I have been asking for him to get a spot in the team months before many had heard a lot about him.

yes I remember.

But not many people had seen him before. I hadnt for one. And then the junior cricket shows up so many youngsters. Remeber Shikhar Dhawan and Robin Uthappa. They remain in the mind. Yet he made it before them.

He wasnt bad in the small innings of 30 odd he played for India in an earlier game in an earlier series but he seemd to play too much in the air and seeemed a bit lucky to get away with it and managing to avoid the fielders. Day before was different. It was THE CRUCIBLE. Failure could have meant losing the game. Losing the game could have meant giving Sri Lanka the opening they needed so desparately to get a toe in.

And he did it !

He showed pluck the way Kaif showed when he first came to the Indian side. Somehow he reminds me a lot of the early Kaif. If he goes to Kaif's level it would be great and who knows he may go beyond.

A lot is talked of his bowling too but I havent seen him bowled yet in this series (or it is so little that one has missed it). I wonder why? It would be great if he bowled a few overs.

Talking of bowling, I think Yuvraj needs to either take his bowling more seriously or give up on it. He is no Tandulkar or Sehwag in batting (yet!!!!) to take it as an optional. He may strengthen his position if he could send down 5-6 overs regularly (sometimes the complete lot) or else he needs to work totally on his batting and stp expecting his fielding to keep him in the playing eleven for long.

It may appear otherwise, but I am quite fond of this cricketer but like Ganguly, he has disappointed one immeasurably and makes it worse with his seeming disregard of his poor show.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah, I don't think it would be a bad idea to have Rao as the super sub and use Raina in the field. He is a brilliant fielder and is known to be a decent bowler at the FC level. Why not use those points? Rao seems to be a batsman only guy. I am not sure how much bowling he does at Ranji level.

 

[adharcric]

I think Rao can bowl a bit too, maybe a little less than Raina. But Rao is also a solid fielder and hard-worker in the field, so if he can find a place in the regular eleven it would be ideal. I'm so glad we have all these young, athletic players coming in and pushing Yuvraj for his spot in the team. Sachin, Sehwag and Dravid are solid veterans, and add to that Kaif, Yuvi, Raina and Rao, along with the excitement of Dhoni, and you've got a deep pool of talent. Of course, there are the likes of Gambhir, Ganguly(?, comeback), Dhawan, Uthappa, Laxman (maybe done but never doubt his talent), and others. Things looking good for India. If Raina can develop into a guy that can bowl 5 overs a match regularly and bowl them well, India can just insert him into the #7 spot instead of Yadav. Think about how great this would be:
Sehwag, Tendulkar, Kaif, Dravid, Yuvraj/Rao/Raina, Dhoni, Rao/Raina, Pathan, Agarkar, Harbhajan, VRV/Zaheer, SuperSub: Sreesanth? Powar? Raina/Rao? who knows?
As you can tell, I'm excited about the fresh talent we have here.

 

[nikhil1772]

My team for next ODI's would be

Tendulkar
Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
Kaif
Raina
Yuvraj/Rao
Dhoni
Ajit Agarkar
Irfan
Karthik
Harbhajan

Super Sub : Gambhir or Sreesanth

I dont like the current Super-sub rule of naming one super-sub...what I suggest is you dont name any super-sub,let the captain bring on any player he wants as the supersub from the 3 extras in the dressing room...that way you never know what to expect and also prevents the wasting of the sub when the team is batting/bowling first/second.

 

[Arjun]

A lot is talked of his bowling too but I havent seen him bowled yet in this series (or it is so little that one has missed it). I wonder why? It would be great if he bowled a few overs.

When Robin Uthapa raced to that century in the Challenger series, he plundered some 23 runs off one Suresh Raina over. Would you play HIM as a full-timer? Maybe not. That makes his bowling redundant.

I think Rao can bowl a bit too, maybe a little less than Raina.

None of the FC teams for which he plays rate his bowling too highly, which can be noticed in their selections- Rao often plays in teams with five bowlers.

Talking of bowling, I think Yuvraj needs to either take his bowling more seriously

That's asking for the moon. He wouldn't get wickets in club cricket.

 

[Arjun]

HB, how about the Haryana duo of Joginder Sharma and AMit Mishra ? Do you see them as ODI prospects ? Still a bit unconvinced about Murali Kartik.......

Joginder Sharma is a good outswing bowler, and gets good shape with the new ball, and bowls wicket-to-wicket. However, the new ball isn't likely to go from the more experienced bunch (even Balaji and Nehra would get the new ball instead, despite their problems with it), so he'll have to come on first-change. When he bowls with an old ball, he loses swing, seam and control, and can't do much with it. His batting is very much like that of Kaif, picking gaps and running hard between wickets, but lacks the big-hitting ability that Yadav, Irfan, Yusuf and Bangar have. He's very good on the field.

Amit Mishra is a leggie who turns the ball a lot. He flights the ball a great deal, but that's often a target for big-hitting batsmen. A risky choice in ODI'sm, except that he's a decent batsman (tailender) and a better fielder than Kumble and Karthik.

 

[Arjun]

Few things the Indians can do different in the forthcoming ODIs:

1. Try out the opening combination of Sehwag and Gambhir, keep Yuvraj out
2. Rest Agarkar (West Zone will need him more) and bring in RP Singh
3. Give JP Yadav the new ball for two overs each time, and set attacking fields for him
4. Sehwag should stop batting like a pinch-hitter and start looking for more singles
5. Have JP Yadav batting at the start of the 40th over irrespective of how many wickets have fallen
6. Yadav should look to hit straight, rather than just swing the bat
7. Don't use the super-sub batsman unless necessary

But not all at a time!

 

[Zinzan]

Who would have thought India would be up 4-0!!!.........especially after seeing them in the tri series against NZ last month admittedly without Tendulkar.

Are Sri lanka just playing badly or have India just improved a lot??

 

[SJS]

Who would have thought India would be up 4-0!!!.........especially after seeing them in the tri series against NZ last month admittedly without Tendulkar.

Are Sri lanka just playing badly or have India just improved a lot??

Sri Lankan bowling has been mediocre and Indians have batted brilliantly and deep and consisitently and with a confidence not seen for a long time.

 

[Hit4Six]

Sri Lankan bowling has been mediocre and Indians have batted brilliantly and deep and consisitently and with a confidence not seen for a long time.

and agarkar is bowling well

 

[Jono]

Sri Lanka have been pretty poor, but if India had just won 1 or 2 games, then I'd be like "maybe SL are just underachieving", but 4-0 definitely suggests a large Indian improvement. It can not be better seen than in the 4th ODI when India were under the pump and fought back to win.

 

[Sanz]

Actually Sri Lanka were pretty good in last two games, its just that Indian youngsters played better. SL hasn't beaten India outside of SL for a while infact India have won comfortably against then in last 4-5 years (after Sharjah thrashing we got from them) everytime we have played SL outside of SL.

I wouldn't have thought of 4-0 but my prediction was for 4-3 series win as India were in with lot of new comers.

 

[Sanz]

Greg is capping it for good

By: Debasish Datta

Though it is not an uncommon sight to see a debutant being presented his country’s cap in countries like Australia or England, Greg Chappell has introduced a more meaningful cap-related system in the Indian camp.

It is learnt that the India coach asked batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar to hand over the India cap to debutant S Sreesanth before the first one-dayer against Sri Lanka at Nagpur.

Tendulkar was only too glad to oblige.

Chairman of selectors Kiran More appreciated Chappell’s decision. “Greg is trying to make small changes but very important ones in the dressing room.

Like More, dasher Mahendra Singh Dhoni appreciated the gesture too. “I remember getting the India cap in my kit bag. Nobody handed it over to me. Getting an India cap is definitely a dream come true for any cricketer. So, if an all-time great, hands it over to you, it’s more significant,” said Dhoni.

An emotional Sreesanth said: “I was really fortunate to receive the cap from Sachin. He told me to try and respect it since it is really hard to earn. ‘It’s a dream for every cricketer, but a few reach here. Sachin said ‘you have toiled hard for it and deserve it. Now try to respect it till the last day of your life. You should always be a proud owner and that pride should reflect in your performances.’ ”

For long now batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has been trying to make cricketers understand the importance of the India cap. Sunny will be delighted for sure to see this being introduced by Chappell.

http://web.mid-day.com/sports/national/2005/november/122578.htm

 

[JASON]

India are playing quite a lot of ODIs in the next few months which I feel are crucial to the career of Sourav Ganguly .

If India continues thrashing the opposition (as they are now) , I feel Ganguly will not be able to find his way back to the ODI team and his Test chances were even lesser before he lost his Captaincy.

Hence this may be a crucial few months in the career of Ganguly , and possibly a prolonged period out of the national team is a definite possibility.

 

[JASON]

Who would have thought India would be up 4-0!!!.........especially after seeing them in the tri series against NZ last month admittedly without Tendulkar.

Are Sri lanka just playing badly or have India just improved a lot??

Its a combination of both. SL are playing the aged (cricketers -long past use by date ) while India's star Sachin has found his magic touch again and the leadership Team (Chappell/Dravid) are brilliant and a few new future stars of World Cricket have emerged in India - MS Dhoni / Venugopal Rao etc.

 

[honestbharani]

Actually Sri Lanka were pretty good in last two games, its just that Indian youngsters played better. SL hasn't beaten India outside of SL for a while infact India have won comfortably against then in last 4-5 years (after Sharjah thrashing we got from them) everytime we have played SL outside of SL.

I wouldn't have thought of 4-0 but my prediction was for 4-3 series win as India were in with lot of new comers.

Actually, Sanz, I think SL have done well in India whenever they have been here in ODIs, from memory at least. I am not sure if INdia defeated SL too much in that tri series in 99, leading upto the WC which was held in India and which Pak dominated, but SL defeated INdia twice IN India in the 96 WC, and also trashed INdia in the Independence Cup in 97 and I don't think they have been here since then, except for 99.

 

[honestbharani]

By: Debasish Datta

Though it is not an uncommon sight to see a debutant being presented his country’s cap in countries like Australia or England, Greg Chappell has introduced a more meaningful cap-related system in the Indian camp.

It is learnt that the India coach asked batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar to hand over the India cap to debutant S Sreesanth before the first one-dayer against Sri Lanka at Nagpur.

Tendulkar was only too glad to oblige.

Chairman of selectors Kiran More appreciated Chappell’s decision. “Greg is trying to make small changes but very important ones in the dressing room.

Like More, dasher Mahendra Singh Dhoni appreciated the gesture too. “I remember getting the India cap in my kit bag. Nobody handed it over to me. Getting an India cap is definitely a dream come true for any cricketer. So, if an all-time great, hands it over to you, it’s more significant,” said Dhoni.

An emotional Sreesanth said: “I was really fortunate to receive the cap from Sachin. He told me to try and respect it since it is really hard to earn. ‘It’s a dream for every cricketer, but a few reach here. Sachin said ‘you have toiled hard for it and deserve it. Now try to respect it till the last day of your life. You should always be a proud owner and that pride should reflect in your performances.’ ”

For long now batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has been trying to make cricketers understand the importance of the India cap. Sunny will be delighted for sure to see this being introduced by Chappell.

http://web.mid-day.com/sports/national/2005/november/122578.htm

I am so glad to hear that.