England in India

[cricket_lover]

Is Blackwell a real specialist spinner or a little bit more than a part-timer?
I would like to see England play Panesar because England do need a regular specialist spinner.
Will be nice to see a couple of centuries from English batsmen today against CCI XI. I want England to play hard like the Aussies did in 2001.



Time to let Laxman go and bring the future prospect Kaif in. Don't see much of a future for Laxman. Sehwag shouldn't open, we need to groom Akash Chopra, Gambhir, or Jaffer as specialist openers. Would like to see a couple of new pacers out of RP Singh, VRV Singh, Munaf Patel, and Sreesanth. Agarkar is OK for ODI's, Zaheer needs to be talked to BigTime. Does Zaheer want to be India's Strike Bowler? He needs to change a few things.
Last but not least, what about Ganguly?

Why change?
Sehwag will remain as the opener, probably forever.
Laxman will remain in the team as long as he scores and as long as the selectors feel he is needed.
Ganguly might make it into the eleven if Yuvraj is not going to play.

Zaheer will need to spend more time in test level. ODI's are not the best way to judge the bowler. He did get murdered in most matches but was in fine form in the tests.

 

[m_vaughan]

Blackwell might not be a very good turner of the ball, but he has the ability to deceive the batsmen, which I think is crucial.

 

[SaiSrini]

Zaheer can be best used as a back up option, thats all... He is decent, but not a frontline bowler because he has lost all that zing and zip that he had in his bowling.

Ganguly most probably will play if Yuvraj doesnt play! But u cant say anything with this team. Probably they will bring in Kaif for Yuvraj. This was the team in the Karachi test against Pakistan

V Sehwag
R Dravid
VVS Laxman
S Tendulkar
S Ganguly
Y Singh
MS Dhoni
I Pathan
A Kumble
Z Khan
RP Singh

If Yuvraj is not fit in time for the first test, then I see Wasim Jaffer or Gautam Gambhir replacing Yuvraj Singh in the above eleven and opening with Sehwag! And I expect a surprise here. Mohammed Kaif might get the chance and might replace Ganguly!

 

[vibs89]

Rahul Dravid has a good stats that had led Indian team on top.

ODI's = Total ODI played= 17
Total ODI Won= 12
Total ODI Loss= 4
Draw= 1

So when Dravid captain India from starting od India-SL till now won 12 ODI's out of 17 and one was draw.


Test Match = Test Played= 6
Test Won= 2
Loss= 1
Draw= 3

From staring of India vs SL and has won 2 out of 6 and one loss, 3 draws.

If he contributes like this and keep on going then I'll be happy as hell. Hope India can win both ODI's and Test.

 

[SaiSrini]

His stats after taking over as full time captain is certainly very very impressive!

He is going to be our captain in the mega event at the Caribbean in 2007 when Chappell's frontier of the World Cup is being approached!

Under Dravid, the team has a performing captain and feeds off that confidence quite a lot!

England not only have to face extreme Indian conditions but will have to fend off this newly built Indian team which is really dangerous and is now getting more consistent at winning matches!

 

[vibs89]

His stats after taking over as full time captain is certainly very very impressive!

He is going to be our captain in the mega event at the Caribbean in 2007 when Chappell's frontier of the World Cup is being approached!

Under Dravid, the team has a performing captain and feeds off that confidence quite a lot!

England not only have to face extreme Indian conditions but will have to fend off this newly built Indian team which is really dangerous and is now getting more consistent at winning matches!

Well I watching Aaj Tak news channel so the correspondent were having few opinions from the Delhi fans and saying thet India will win the WC 2007. I was like Impossible I know we beat the N0.2 spot but we can only say after India vs England like I said Dravid contributes like he's going currently right now then I will belive India has a stronger chance of winning the WC 2007.

 

[s2sschan]

Since a green wicket is expected in Nagpur, I think India might field three seamers and only one spinner. Kumble might be the lone spinner to play. Irfan, Sreesanth and RP Singh might play!

Why the Hell are we preparing green wickets for tourists? Do we get Dustbowls at Headingley or Perth?
The Nagpur wicket MUST be shaved. Our strength is unfortunately Spin and we have to play to our strengths. I say unfortunate b'coz Spin by itself won't get us that far.

Why change?
Sehwag will remain as the opener, probably forever.
Laxman will remain in the team as long as he scores and as long as the selectors feel he is needed.
Ganguly might make it into the eleven if Yuvraj is not going to play.

Zaheer will need to spend more time in test level. ODI's are not the best way to judge the bowler. He did get murdered in most matches but was in fine form in the tests.

Sehwag himself says he's a middle order batsman, we can't afford to loose him against the new ball. We need him to pile on big ones.
They say Laxman is great only on flat tracks...but fails when the ball moves a bit.

 

[SaiSrini]

Well I watching Aaj Tak news channel so the correspondent were having few opinions from the Delhi fans and saying thet India will win the WC 2007. I was like Impossible I know we beat the N0.2 spot but we can only say after India vs England like I said Dravid contributes like he's going currently right now then I will belive India has a stronger chance of winning the WC 2007.

We will be able to talk abt our World Cup chances only before the mega event starts! Till then, its all the building phase that we have to go through! There are a lot of blocks to be brought in to the puzzle that will lead us to the World Cup! We have just put 2 to 3 blocks in it. Still a lot more to go!

Dravid needs to be the captain for the World Cup! The Indian board need to know that and appoint him till the mega event! At least in the ODI's till the World Cup. Its less than a year now to go for the World Cup. We cant afford a new captain coming in now and taking over the reins from Dravid and settle down and get experience. So Dravid is going to be the man and the selectors and the board needs to decide on it and make the big decision! Appointing him as ODI captain till World Cup will help him focus on the bigger job and keep improving himself and his team!

 

[ronny_kingsley]

Sehwag himself says he's a middle order batsman, we can't afford to loose him against the new ball. We need him to pile on big ones.
They say Laxman is great only on flat tracks...but fails when the ball moves a bit.

Whoever says that must be an idiot.Laxman has been Indias second most consistent batsman after Dravid in Tests be it India or overseas.

I would rather have Laxman or Kumble as out Test vice captain rather than Sehwag.


ALso your comment about "UNFORTUNATELY" is unfortunate in itself. Why should we be ashamed of our spin.Why isnt it going to take us far ??

Kumble has shown in recent past that he is an asset anywhere and taking nearly 500 wickets is no mean feat.

 

[SaiSrini]

Why the Hell are we preparing green wickets for tourists? Do we get Dustbowls at Headingley or Perth?
The Nagpur wicket MUST be shaved. Our strength is unfortunately Spin and we have to play to our strengths. I say unfortunate b'coz Spin by itself won't get us that far.



Sehwag himself says he's a middle order batsman, we can't afford to loose him against the new ball. We need him to pile on big ones.
They say Laxman is great only on flat tracks...but fails when the ball moves a bit.

We will most probably have a spinning wicket at Mumbai.

Actually in hindsight, its a better idea to have such green wickets! The current Indian team players need to get accustomed to such wickets. Such wickets are slowly being implemented into the domestic level to help the upcoming players be good at playing on such wickets! But the current Indian players might not have had that luxury of playing on such wickets when they were coming up! So they need such wickets to get used because they are going to lead us to the future also!

I dont think the wicket is going to be green the whole match and its not going to be hard as in Australia or South Africa. As Gavaskar said, green tops in the sub continent are a joke! They will remain green and will be helpful to the bowlers on the first day and then will dry out to be good for batting for the rest of the match! And the rolling of the wicket during the match will decide how much spin the wicket takes on the 4th and 5th days!

So its a sporting wicket with help for batsman and bowler! Which is good for cricket!

Spin wont take us far? Its a great art that has been India's strength till now! Just deceiving the batsman in the air and with the turn gives a spinner immense satisfaction! We have had great bowlers like Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekar, Venkataraghavan, Kumble, etc who are all great spinners! A spinner can surely run through a batting line up when the wicket provides him assistance!

Good spinners can turn the ball on any surface and get help from it! Spin is our strength and we need not be ashamed about it!

 

[sohum]

Well, I disagree with your last comment. Good spinners are able to deceive batsmen on pitches that don't spin. Spin bowling is not all about making the ball move. It is very rare that extreme movement fetches you wickets--even with pace bowling. To deceive the batsman enough to get an edge, you need it to deviate just slightly from the path the batsman expects it to take--too much and you get a play-and-a-miss.

 

[puddleduck]

I've seen people mention wanting to see the England batsman scoring some centuries, but try to remember this is a 3 day warmup game, once a batsmans had a good 50-100 balls at the crease they want the next man in to get a similar length of time, they won't learn anything new scoring an extra 50 runs on top of a 50. Why burn themselves out early?

England seem to be using the warmup game correctly, they've let their quicks all have around 8-15 overs each so they can get used to the heat without bowling too many overs, then the spinners all bowled the rest as they battle for their place. The batsman are all quite happy to score quickly, so they must be reasonably confident on the surface. Only KP and Flintoff havent reached a 50 yet, with Collingwood hitting a 47n.o and at lunch on this third day, Jones on 33n.o.

So far so good for a warmup game.

In regards to the spinners, I think it is a valid point, Harbhajan has often struggled outside of India, and that only leaves Kumble to get your wickets if your quicks aren't threatening. Something he has often done as he bowls more with change of pace and bounce. If any of you watched the U19's final, Chawla looks a highly talented player, will hopefully be coming into international cricket just as Kumbles retiring.

Full agree with Saisirini that it is only going to benefit Indian cricket and indeed their potential to produce quality quicks now that they produce some green wickets. I wouldn't expect to see much for the test series, as was mentioned England won't turn headingly into a raging turner, but for their domestic circuit the more their batsman play on those surfaces the stronger they will be on their travels. Will also be likely to see less injuries to their current crop of quick bowlers, who must have to really put the effort in to get anything out of most of their home pitches.

 

[sohum]

Chawla has been phenomenal. I'd never heard of him until Sai mentioned him offhand in the India-Pakistan thread (before it had started) and after that I have just kept hearing his name over and over again! It's good to have someone to step into Kumble's boots in the future, though those are big shoes to fill!

 

[puddleduck]

I've heard even in the Challenger Series he was troubling such mighty batsman as Sachin, highly accomplished players of spin! As long as he develops correctly in the next few years, he could be yet another quality Indian spinner, they must have some kind of mine somewhere that churns them out

 

[Sureshot]

Is Blackwell a real specialist spinner or a little bit more than a part-timer?
I would like to see England play Panesar because England do need a regular specialist spinner.
Will be nice to see a couple of centuries from English batsmen today against CCI XI. I want England to play hard like the Aussies did in 2001.

Well i wouldn't call Blackwell a part timer, for 2 reasons.

1) He's better than a part timer
2) He bowls more than a part timer.

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