England in India

[SaiSrini]

Oooh, less than a week to go and I'm excited. I hope this test series turns out better than the Pakistan one. Of course, I'd love to see India thrash England, but it'd be even better if the match was undecided going into the last day.

I am sure it will turn out more exciting than the test series in Pakistan in which two tests were played on lifeless pitches. I dont think Nagpur is going to be a batting beauty. And neither does Mohali harbor any hopes of being a batting paradise! So the series most probably will be more exciting.

England hold the advantage with their team composition but India start off as favorites because of home conditions! But England wont go down without fighting.

i watched the total match live on ddsports munaf patel was around the 140 km/hr while vrv touched 145 km/hr with average speed of 139 km/hr



Mate,we will be seeing a very closely fought series.don't worry




the team management should go by form so raina should be picked or they should play 5 bowlers 3 spinners and 2 pacers as dhoni and pathan are pretty good allrounders in these conditions

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

Mate,he was pretty unlucky to have kevin dropped .he was really banging it in short of lenght with pace and getting high bounce .i have not seen any bowler getting so much bounce on a slow track not even harmisson could manage such bounce.as he builds and gets experienced he might be india's strike bowler

It was a slow track? I thought it was a hard green top!

Anyways, dont judge VRV by his performance in the first day of the practice game here at Baroda! He has pace and has shown control too (without it, how could he pick wickets consistently at domestic level?). I am hoping for him to get a game against England!

Did you guys watch Chawla's final exploits? Wow.....Wow.....Wow...... He is amazing!! That googly which got him his second wicket was a big beauty! Unbelievable! And his final wicket, that flipper was super fast! And his batting looks really good. He was holding fort when others were falling like nine pins. Very promising all rounder for India!

India should play 5 bowlers in my opinion. India can go in without both Kaif and Raina! Here is what my team for the first test would look like

Wasim Jaffer
Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
VVS Laxman
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Irfan Pathan
Piyush Chawla
VRV Singh
Anil Kumble
Harbhajan Singh

Piyush Chawla can bat and we have batsmen till No.7 (Dhoni and Irfan). I will select VRV ahead of Sreesanth because VRV is faster and can score some good runs. So we have a good batting line up and more importantly 3 spinners with two seamers!

 

[cricket_lover]

We shouldn't need three spinners at Mohali. If selected, Raina, along with Tendulkar can look after the 5th option. We need bowlers who can bowl for a longer time, apart from Kumble. If VRV is selected, he should do short, fast spells. Bhajji/Pathan at one end and Kumble at the other can do the trick for India.

 

[puddleduck]

Nagpur should be a batting beauty for 3 days and then turn into a raging turner, all grass was removed from the surface, and the Groundsmen is under pressure after getting in trouble when Australia toured and he gave them a green top to get at Dalmiya. I can't image he'll be making the same mistake again, especially with Englands pace attack.

Englands best chance is definately Mohali, if they can win the toss and get lucky, who knows but it will always be an uphill struggle, as India will aways fancy their chances bowling last, whilst Englands spin attack looks far less likely to exploit later day pitches. And not only because they lack experience being able to bowl on 5th day turning pitches. Neither Blackwell or Panesar have ever played a 5 day test match, and certainly not in India.

 

[s2sschan]

So flat dry pitches are alright by me for time being till India re-discover their game on bowling-pitches.

"re-discover their game on bowling-pitches"???
When did India have a "game" on bowling pitches?

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!

Final Swansong??? You can't have a coffee and cake retirement party in the intense and insanely competitive world of international cricket.

 

[ronny_kingsley]

I think this slection has been highly politicised. Raina (3rd highest scorer of Ranji season) is given the nod ahead of the highest run scorer ie Amol Mazumdar who many believe is better than most of the guys India is playing (Laxman,Dravid included).

Also CHawla has just played 9 first class games,is it enough to judge a spinner or should we have gone gor Powar.

Team has 4 UP players ,bizzare they have won Ranji for the first time and teams who have won before havent got much of thier share.

VRV picked ahead of Munaf simply takes the cake.Munaf has been the best fast bowler (with Trivedi) this Ranji season,took 5 wickets against England(4 of which bowled) still doesnt get the nod.But the guy who got soanked with 7 rpo gets selected.

West Zone has been getting the brunt of the selection commitee for seasons now and this again prooves it.

 

[cricket_lover]

"re-discover their game on bowling-pitches"???
When did India have a "game" on bowling pitches?


Final Swansong??? You can't have a coffee and cake retirement party in the intense and insanely competitive world of international cricket.

Well, yea, they have to "discover" their game on good tracks. If not, same thing that happened in Karachi will happen. I'm sure the Indian batsmen are way more than capable of handling sportive wickets but no practice, no pay-off.
May be BCCI can shed some light on this one.

Now, is Ganguly going to retire? I highly doubt it but unless he pulls off some big scores in whatever chances he gets, i doubt he'll make it to the test level.
I still believe he can make into the ODI team, sometime...but in the near future, its a big NO.

I think this slection has been highly politicised. Raina (3rd highest scorer of Ranji season) is given the nod ahead of the highest run scorer ie Amol Mazumdar who many believe is better than most of the guys India is playing (Laxman,Dravid included).

Also CHawla has just played 9 first class games,is it enough to judge a spinner or should we have gone gor Powar.

Team has 4 UP players ,bizzare they have won Ranji for the first time and teams who have won before havent got much of thier share.

VRV picked ahead of Munaf simply takes the cake.Munaf has been the best fast bowler (with Trivedi) this Ranji season,took 5 wickets against England(4 of which bowled) still doesnt get the nod.But the guy who got soanked with 7 rpo gets selected.

West Zone has been getting the brunt of the selection commitee for seasons now and this again prooves it.

You have a point there, with the selection. Its the politics, isn't it. Very simple. It has always been the case in India, sometimes things start to change and then someone comes in as a hurdle.

UP has, all of a sudden, become the superpower among domestic circuit. A challange to Mumbai? What happened to players like SS Das, when he was still young, scored a 250+ in a 2002 Eng. tour match but never got selected?
Yet, they choose Jaffer after some fine performances but failed one's during his days at test level.
A change has to come in BCCI...unless the public takes a note of it, BCCI will just create tunes to which all players and the public will dance.

 

[SaiSrini]

We shouldn't need three spinners at Mohali. If selected, Raina, along with Tendulkar can look after the 5th option. We need bowlers who can bowl for a longer time, apart from Kumble. If VRV is selected, he should do short, fast spells. Bhajji/Pathan at one end and Kumble at the other can do the trick for India.

We are playing at Nagpur first. I am not looking into the team for Mohali yet!

I think this slection has been highly politicised. Raina (3rd highest scorer of Ranji season) is given the nod ahead of the highest run scorer ie Amol Mazumdar who many believe is better than most of the guys India is playing (Laxman,Dravid included).

Also CHawla has just played 9 first class games,is it enough to judge a spinner or should we have gone gor Powar.

Team has 4 UP players ,bizzare they have won Ranji for the first time and teams who have won before havent got much of thier share.

VRV picked ahead of Munaf simply takes the cake.Munaf has been the best fast bowler (with Trivedi) this Ranji season,took 5 wickets against England(4 of which bowled) still doesnt get the nod.But the guy who got soanked with 7 rpo gets selected.

West Zone has been getting the brunt of the selection commitee for seasons now and this again prooves it.

I dont see politics here! Why should they ignore West Zone when the president is from the same zone and the chairman of selectors is for the same zone?

It seems ur bias is against UP rather than players from West Zone not getting due recognition! I dont see a genuine concern here but to me, it seems to stem from jealousy!

chawla is more promising than powar... and regarding vrv getting selected, well they seem to have gone for more pace... i think vrv is faster than munaf

Well, yea, they have to "discover" their game on good tracks. If not, same thing that happened in Karachi will happen. I'm sure the Indian batsmen are way more than capable of handling sportive wickets but no practice, no pay-off.
May be BCCI can shed some light on this one.

Now, is Ganguly going to retire? I highly doubt it but unless he pulls off some big scores in whatever chances he gets, i doubt he'll make it to the test level.
I still believe he can make into the ODI team, sometime...but in the near future, its a big NO.



You have a point there, with the selection. Its the politics, isn't it. Very simple. It has always been the case in India, sometimes things start to change and then someone comes in as a hurdle.

UP has, all of a sudden, become the superpower among domestic circuit. A challange to Mumbai? What happened to players like SS Das, when he was still young, scored a 250+ in a 2002 Eng. tour match but never got selected?
Yet, they choose Jaffer after some fine performances but failed one's during his days at test level.
A change has to come in BCCI...unless the public takes a note of it, BCCI will just create tunes to which all players and the public will dance.

is that sarcasm? i hope so...

 

[puddleduck]

The reason VRV struggled against England in the warmup game, or certainly a reason, is that I believe he is returning from injury and was told to bowl a bit slower to ease himself back in.

 

[cricket_lover]

I did not mean sarcasm there...don't know why you felt that way :

It has always been the case...i'm seeing a change but not very significant.

 

[Adarsh]

Good news for English fans. Skysports has secured the tv rights for this series and the next tour to India

 

[jonah]

Good news for English fans. Skysports has secured the tv rights for this series and the next tour to India

Excellent! Did I also read earlier that Atherton is joining the Sky commentary team, but Mark Nicholas isn't? It just gets better .

 

[makaveli19]

last night sidhu said that ganguley is a good test player but a great test player so maybe he should be in the one day squad

 

[sohum]

BPXI are playing pretty well. Not sure how much effort the English are putting in, though.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I think this slection has been highly politicised. Raina (3rd highest scorer of Ranji season) is given the nod ahead of the highest run scorer ie Amol Mazumdar who many believe is better than most of the guys India is playing (Laxman,Dravid included).

Also CHawla has just played 9 first class games,is it enough to judge a spinner or should we have gone gor Powar.

Team has 4 UP players ,bizzare they have won Ranji for the first time and teams who have won before havent got much of thier share.

VRV picked ahead of Munaf simply takes the cake.Munaf has been the best fast bowler (with Trivedi) this Ranji season,took 5 wickets against England(4 of which bowled) still doesnt get the nod.But the guy who got soanked with 7 rpo gets selected.

West Zone has been getting the brunt of the selection commitee for seasons now and this again prooves it.

How old is Amol Muzdamar? Ih he is 27 or less, he definately should be called back.
And it turns out the reason Munaf Patel wasn't selected is because (And I quote from an interview on Zee News):

He will get more chances this year. He will get chances with the A squad and a lot more chances this year

The A squad. Is India A playing any tours this year? I'm thinking CHappel doesn't want to force him in (After all, he's just back from injury) and wants him to play a few more matches before retaining a place?
And Chawla was fantastic in the U-19 world cup. Sensational. Figures like 8-3-8-4 aren't flukes. Besides, he won't be playing unless both Harbhajan and Kumble get injured. He's just there to gain experience.
Raina has been electric in the field, his younger than Muzdamar and that knock against Pakistan displayed his talent.
Besides, what ever happended to SS Das??

 

[genghis_khan]

i wouldnt read too much into it...id expect the poms to take it up a notch come the national indian team.