England in India

[m_vaughan]

England struggling against a pretty strong Board President's XI side. Munaf Patel bowled well showing good pace, but its Vikram Singh who gets the nod into the senior side.

Nevertheless, England's primary problem right now is injuries to several key players. Unless they field a strong side for the first test, I dont see them winning this series.

Wonder what they put in the food to get the England players sick?

 

[Sureshot]

Lol, as KPs is only cramps he should be alright as long as he keeps hydrated.

 

[aditya123]

England struggling against a pretty strong Board President's XI side. Munaf Patel bowled well showing good pace, but its Vikram Singh who gets the nod into the senior side.

Nevertheless, England's primary problem right now is injuries to several key players. Unless they field a strong side for the first test, I dont see them winning this series.

Wonder what they put in the food to get the England players sick?

Finally, it seems India have found a genuine quick bowler or maybe even 2 (VRV and Munaf) .
I would have liked to see Munaf in the lineup as well.

I read on Cricinfo that VRV was quick as well an that augurs well for Inian cricket.
Maybe its time now that India hae found the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle .
Once they do find the last piece , they will be a real tough lineup to face.
Piyush Chawla, if he is played in the XI will be tough to face for England on these turners .
Iam very satisfied with the squad .
England have a task on their hands.

 

[m_vaughan]

Vikram Singh dint bowl that well, infact early on he was being smashed all over the park.

 

[bharat]

The match was shown live on DD Sports!

 

[Gunner786]

have they announced the uk tv rights yet?

 

[ZoraxDoom]

The match was shown live on DD Sports!

And Ten Sports
I must say, Munaf looks like a wild man while bowling. Really tall too!
And Paensar has a nice little bowling action too

 

[sohum]

I feel bad for Munaf, not getting picked after that 5 wicket haul. Any news on how fast these guys were bowling? As for Ganguly's exclusion, I don't agree. And for Piyush Chawla's inclusion, I think this is a precaution in case one of our spinner's get injured. I don't see us taking 3 spinners into a game, especially without Ganguly. Our pace bowling unit looks pretty inexperienced, though, and if they get caned early, we could be in trouble.

 

[SaiSrini]

Fantastic team selection for the first test against England at Nagpur! Hats off selectors, Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid! The promising players, most of them, have been brought in and the weak links have been eradicated! Great thing that Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar are shown the way! If they still have cricket left in them, let them go back and work on their game. Zaheer Khan needs pace and a good attitude to get back into the team and I wont rule out him getting that back! But I dont have any hopes of Ajit Agarkar getting what he wants to be back permanently into this Indian team! He is OVER! And only politics can get him back in!

Great thing that Piyush, VRV, Sreesanth and Raina are included in the test squad! Playing test cricket will strengthen these guys and make them perform even better! Test cricket is what you call the most pressure of the two formats and facing the top most pressure hardens a player. If Sreesanth and Raina play test cricket, their performances in the ODI's might get a boost which already was good enough for Team India!

Only sore point however is the big one - the exclusion of Ganguly! Oh come on, Ganguly was ready to slog it out, he was playing with whole hearted determination in that Karachi test which was the only test where he got batting opportunity! He was engaging in the field, doling out advice to Dravid and egging his team mates on! Had he been dropped for the Pakistan tour, that would have been fine. But after doing his reputation no harm and in fact after enhancing it, dropping him is certainly very harsh.

More has said "We are not going to look back from now onwards". Niranjan Shah says "His (Ganguly's) career is more or less over and thats what the selectors feel so". Indeed if this is the final nail in the coffin, we should stand up and applaud a spectacular career who has brought India many great wins and made India what it is now (Remember the Team India concept?). He still finds a place among the legendary players of all time cricket to me! He has been a great great batsman! I feel really sad for him!

Why cant the Indian board offer a final swansong for him? Or is he rejecting them stating that he still has cricket left in him? I hope Ganguly finally gets wiser and asks the board for a final swansong! This is not doing him any favors with the selectors repeatedly axing him and leading to wide spread protests!

 

[gaurav_indian]

DD Sports will be showing India-England series?DD Sports sucks.

 

[cricket_lover]

I don't think it was a "fantastic team selection".

Dropping Khan based on his ODI performance just goes to tell you how great the selectors are. People, don't cling on to that ATTITUDE thing. How on earth do we his attitude? its time that people shut up and do not talk about things we do not know.
Dropping Ganguly wasn't very clear but i'm sure its more based on Chappell/Selectors opinion and feelings rather than looking Ganguly as a cricketer.

Selecting Raina/Kaif was good. They need to play atleast one test, because they deserve it. It is time to get them into the test level, so they get acclimitized to the pressure and other areas.
Sreesanth's selection also makes sense. He deserved it, and the team deserves to have a variety.
I'm not sure if Chawla will get a chance to play the test...but atleast i hope the team management will not replace Kumble with Chawla (Who knows...they might! saying they care about the future )

Finally, VRV. May be just sheer pace...but we do not know much about this guy. Considering the bowling attack we are going to have, he should be carrying drinks. But atleast it'll give him some hope.

Lot of youngsters in the team. It is both positive and negative. It will be positive if their talents are fully utilized, at the right time.

Great thing that Piyush, VRV, Sreesanth and Raina are included in the test squad! Playing test cricket will strengthen these guys and make them perform even better! Test cricket is what you call the most pressure of the two formats and facing the top most pressure hardens a player. If Sreesanth and Raina play test cricket, their performances in the ODI's might get a boost which already was good enough for Team India!

In the past, lots of promising bowlers and batsmen got chances at test level. They played couple of matches, failed and then kicked out.

You do not want that to happen to these guys.

 

[sohum]

I just hope we haven't made too many changes in one go.

 

[gaurav_indian]

I'm not sure if Chawla will get a chance to play the test...but atleast i hope the team management will not replace Kumble with Chawla (Who knows...they might! saying they care about the future )

I agree :cool:

 

[cricket_lover]

I just hope we haven't made too many changes in one go.

I hope too. Too many changes will only increase the entropy. We don't want that to happen. When you have so much talent, it is essential to harness it, effectively.
We can only comment on that after the first test or the test series.

 

[m_vaughan]

This would be my England XI for the first test

Marcus Trescothick
Andrew Strauss
Michael Vaughan (Paul Collingwood if MV's knee doesnt become better)
Ian Bell
Kevin Pietersen
Andrew Flintoff
Geraint Jones
Ian Blackwell
Monty Panesar
Simon Jones
Steve Harmison

I know its a bit harsh to drop Hoggard, but the two spinners have done a good job so far. If England do go in with Hoggard, Blackwell will most probably be dropped even though he has been the best player in the warm up games.