ICC Champions Trophy 2013 - England & Wales

[greymatter776]

I would say that the Indian squad selection is good . First ICC Championship India going to face after Tendulkar's retiring and after Sehwag and Gambhir taken out for youngsters.Would love to see Young India lifting the trophy.

 

[Aalay]

Group B is really filled with unpredictable teams by looking at their squad. It can be any two teams. Pakistan and South Africa both have good bowling attack but Pakistan's batting is not that good and they are likely to struggle in those conditions. South Africa have a decent batting attack so they are likely to go through. West Indies are totally unpredictable so it's hard to predict anything about them. I don't know what to say about India. The team is fairly inexperienced but still apart from Dhawan, BK, and Umesh everybody has played in England. The bowling attack is looking good this time but the batting is looking scratchy this time. If batsmen can handle the conditions, then they have a chance.

So I would say from group B, South Africa are likely to go through but any team can take that 2nd position.

 

[sifter132]

^But then again...this is a global tournament. Not sure South Africa can be relied on for anything

 

[Aalay]

^But then again...this is a global tournament. Not sure South Africa can be relied on for anything

Hah yeh and just realized that now they are missing both Smith and Kalis.

Champions Trophy 2013 : South Africa missing twin pillars Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis | Cricket Features | ICC Champions Trophy | ESPN Cricinfo

So now they lack the experience of Kalis and Smith in the batting department. So apart from AB and Amla, it is hard to find stability in that batting order of South Africa. So I feel that group B is really open and any 2 team can make it to the semi final.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

So apart from AB and Amla, it is hard to find stability in that batting order of South Africa.

David Miller has been performing well for Kings XI Punjab in the IPL and he has experience of playing county cricket in England with Yorkshire so he can add some steel to the batting order.

I still fancy England to win though

 

[vaibhavtewatia]

Hah yeh and just realized that now they are missing both Smith and Kalis.

Agreed with that!! Open group. But then Gruop B also has 2 dark horses!!
Not really fancying India to make through. Given Pakistan's & SAF's bowling line-up.

 

[Warner Watson]

very glad to hear that Michael Holding said that England,South Africa,Australia and Pakistan are likely to be the semi-finalists

 

[Satan666]

Members have been complainging that Bangladesh shouldve been included in this championship i think Zim shouldve taken part in this, first decision in a long time the ICC has made correct in excluding the Bangs from this tournament, theyre too weak.

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very glad to hear that Michael Holding said that England,South Africa,Australia and Pakistan are likely to be the semi-finalists

Holding knows best.

 

[macintosh]

Talking about the Indian team selection

I agree with Sifter, Gambhir should have been there.

And Yadav's selection is not a good sign for other youngsters, he is just there because he bowls a few yards quicker compared to others, Praveen Kumar should have been there in his place.

And I wonder why people are considering Jadeja a direct choice for the playing XI, we will be playing only one spinner because the conditions won't be very useful for spin bowling, so either Mishra or Ashwin should be preferred. In case we choose to go with two spinners, we can pick both Mishra and Aswhin and both can bat and are way better bowlers.

Irfan has just came back from an injury, he had done pretty well before that and in English conditions he will be even more useful, he can bat at no 7 with Ashwin at 8, Bhuvaneshwar at 9 allowing India to go with 5 bowlers and provide a bit more flexibility.


The main issue will be death bowling,

Bhuvaneshwar has improved his death bowling(same can be said about Praveen Kumar but he is not in the squad), Ishant can also bowl at the death(even though he was thrashed the other day), but its a bit scary that no one apart from these two look good enough for that job.

Irfan can bowl anywhere except the last 5-6 overs, same goes for Mishra and Ashwin, and Yadav is pretty wayward and lacks the control required for ODIs. Can't say much about Vinay Kumar(or why he is even selected), he is a regular wicket taker but his economy rate is always bad.

It will be interesting to see who makes the cut for the playing XI.

 

[sifter132]

If I were India I'd play to their strengths and play both Jadeja and Ashwin, especially against South Africa in game 1. West Indies and Pakistan may play spin a bit better, and the pitches for those fixtures might be better suited for fast bowlers anyway. But Cardiff generally takes spin.

Agree with you about the death bowling though...maybe Ashwin will bowl more at the end.

 

[Aalay]

And Yadav's selection is not a good sign for other youngsters, he is just there because he bowls a few yards quicker compared to others, Praveen Kumar should have been there in his place.

And I wonder why people are considering Jadeja a direct choice for the playing XI, we will be playing only one spinner because the conditions won't be very useful for spin bowling, so either Mishra or Ashwin should be preferred. In case we choose to go with two spinners, we can pick both Mishra and Aswhin and both can bat and are way better bowlers.

Irfan has just came back from an injury, he had done pretty well before that and in English conditions he will be even more useful, he can bat at no 7 with Ashwin at 8, Bhuvaneshwar at 9 allowing India to go with 5 bowlers and provide a bit more flexibility.


The main issue will be death bowling,

Bhuvaneshwar has improved his death bowling(same can be said about Praveen Kumar but he is not in the squad), Ishant can also bowl at the death(even though he was thrashed the other day), but its a bit scary that no one apart from these two look good enough for that job.

Irfan can bowl anywhere except the last 5-6 overs, same goes for Mishra and Ashwin, and Yadav is pretty wayward and lacks the control required for ODIs. Can't say much about Vinay Kumar(or why he is even selected), he is a regular wicket taker but his economy rate is always bad.

It will be interesting to see who makes the cut for the playing XI.

Ha just because Yadav was expensive today does not mean he lacks control. He has been excellent as a death bowler for Delhi throughout this IPL.

It will be ridiculous to have both Ashwin and Mishra in playing 11 especially when we are playing in England. I don't understand how the hell Mishra is a batsman. He surely knows how to play out few overs but this is not a test match.

Neither Bhuvneshwar nor Praveen can bowl at death. They both still needs a lot of work at their death bowling. If you saw the home series against England, Dhoni sometimes had to bowl out Kumar by 25th over simply because he hasn't been good enough at the death. Death bowling has always been an issue for Indian team and it is no different this time as well. I was hoping Varun Aaron to be fit for this Champions Trophy because in our thin fast bowling stock, he is the only bowler who can bowl well at the death but god knows what has happened to him.

 

[vaibhavtewatia]

Yadav's selection is not a good sign for other youngsters, he is just there because he bowls a few yards quicker compared to others, Praveen Kumar should have been there in his place.

Irfan has just came back from an injury, he had done pretty well before that and in English conditions he will be even more useful, he can bat at no 7 with Ashwin at 8

I don't think Irfan has played ever in England apart from the 2004 one-day series and the Champions Trophy!! Although it will be good to see him swinging the bowl there.


IPL should never be the point of discussion for selection basis!!
Not only quick, Yadav can swing the ball with it, and bowls a heavy ball!!
He's undoubtedly a future pace-bowling star for India.

 

[macintosh]

Ha just because Yadav was expensive today does not mean he lacks control. He has been excellent as a death bowler for Delhi throughout this IPL.

Firstly, I have nothing against Yadav nor do i think he will never be a good ODI bowler, as Indians, we just love it when one of our bowlers can hit the opposition batsmen on their helmets and beat them with pace, but we shouldn't get carried away with it, Yadav can bowl fast, but at the moment he doesn't have that control which is needed in limited overs format, in tests, it won't hurt the team if he gives away a few runs and takes wickets regularly, longer format would also allow him a lot more freedom and he looks to attack the batsmen more, let him play tests only for now.

Out of the 17 ODIs that Yadav has played, he has finished his quota of ten overs just 5 times despite of playing as a front line bowler, and his economy rate has been 6 or above in 12 matches out of the 17 he has played. I would have still given the benefit of the doubt to him if he had picked a fair amount of wickets, but he has just taken 18 wickets in his 17 matches.

It will be ridiculous to have both Ashwin and Mishra in playing 11 especially when we are playing in England. I don't understand how the hell Mishra is a batsman. He surely knows how to play out few overs but this is not a test match.

My main point in saying all that was that we can choose to go with 5 specialist bowlers since we have guys in out lower order who can bat and leaving out Jadeja won't affect the batting much.

I haven't said that both SHOULD be in the playing XI, I have just said that in case we want to go with two spinners, we can go with both Ashwin and Mishra because both are far superior to Jadeja with the ball,
and i have never said that both are proper batsmen, I have said that both CAN BAT,

If you look at our batsmen from number 7 to 10 its

7- Irfan
8- Ashwin
9- Bhuvaneshvar
10- Mishra(if he get a game)

Since the batsmen we have from number 7 - 9 are all good enough to contribute a few runs, we do not need to pick Jadeja for his batting, we should rather go with Mishra IF we are looking to go with two spinners or we can go with 1 spinner and 4 pacers. Again, Jadeja is a very talented player, but with the kind of team we have, we can have a much better combination without him.

Neither Bhuvneshwar nor Praveen can bowl at death. They both still needs a lot of work at their death bowling. If you saw the home series against England, Dhoni sometimes had to bowl out Kumar by 25th over simply because he hasn't been good enough at the death. Death bowling has always been an issue for Indian team and it is no different this time as well. I was hoping Varun Aaron to be fit for this Champions Trophy because in our thin fast bowling stock, he is the only bowler who can bowl well at the death but god knows what has happened to him.

None of our bowlers are really good at death bowling, but Bhuvaneshwar is much better as compared to others and Ishant is another bowler who can bowl at the death.

Praveen Kumar, in this year's IPL games has looked better that before, we cant look into the IPL performances much as international cricket is much tougher, but he has shown signs of improvement after he has came back from his injury, he has been bowling good yorkers at the death and is looking much better now. Its just my observation, time will tell if he has actually improved or not.

I agree with you that Aaron is our best death bowling option, but he is injured at the moment.

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IPL should never be the point of discussion for selection basis!!
Not only quick, Yadav can swing the ball with it, and bowls a heavy ball!!
He's undoubtedly a future pace-bowling star for India.

I haven't judged anyone from their IPL performances ONLY, if that was the case, then I wouldn't have backed someone like Ishant Sharma because he has just bowled the most expensive spell of IPL against CSK recently,

And Yadav does have the potential to be a lethal pace bowler, but I don't think he is ready for limited overs cricket right now.

 

[vaibhavtewatia]

Out of the 17 ODIs that Yadav has played, he has finished his quota of ten overs just 5 times despite of playing as a front line bowler, and his economy rate has been 6 or above in 12 matches out of the 17 he has played. I would have still given the benefit of the doubt to him if he had picked a fair amount of wickets, but he has just taken 18 wickets in his 17 matches.

Statistically, it is worrying. But I'd bet on Yadav playing in English Conditions because-
1. Forgetting how fast Yadav bowled this IPL (I'm sorry I don't know, not an IPL fan), the last time Yadav played, he was consistently in the 138-142 region, and showed good ball control as a front-liner. He showed signs of improvement, moreover his action is much like that of a bowler who can swing the ball, his seam position was far much better.
2. He also tends to bowl a 'heavy ball', like Pattinson. I would personally love to see him generate the pace and bounce there.

I agree with you that Aaron is our best death bowling option, but he is injured at the moment.

Don't really get to know the reason as to why he is the better in death. We haven't seen him since long.
As in, the only thing concerning me, is the death bowling. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has his own limitations. Though he generates the 135 mark when he knows the ball wouldn't do much. Alot is expected from Ishant tbh.

My main point in saying all that was that we can choose to go with 5 specialist bowlers since we have guys in out lower order who can bat and leaving out Jadeja won't affect the batting much.

Really like your point there. Personally, sometimes it feels- 'Yeah he's the guy!!' while sometimes'Why is he even in the XI?'. But in all probability , MSD will go with Ashwin and Jadeja.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

And, BCCI is pulling out India from Champions Trophy This is a warning sent by BCCI to ICC