I'm really tempted to go along when they're playing in glasgow.
it might be worth a peak. In a few years I might be able to brag about seeing one of them (pandey is tipped for big things yah?) before they were even full internationals and how "even then they looked class" even though I have no real ability to discern raw talent at all, but I can lie. you didn't see this post.
Well, all the batsmen are great at domestic level. So you can choose who you want to support.
My two favourites are Manoj Tiwary and Manish Pandey. Tiwary is Bengal's lone warrior with the bat generally, and plays at the Eden Gardens, where batting isn't so easy at times. He idolises Kevin Pietersen, and plays in a fashion similar to KP. Has been great the last few seasons, and he averaged 99 in one season, where Bengal lost in the finals to Mumbai, and he hit a superb 95 in that match too, in a big partnership with Ganguly. Tiawry generally bats at 4, but with the amount of batting in this India A line-up, they've made him bat 6, which is interesting to say the least.
Manish Pandey, on the other hand, is an attacking middle order batsman who has just finished his first proper season with Karnataka. Had a few games last season, but didn't get a first team slot. It was his IPL 100, the first Indian to score one and the only in foreign South African conditions, that brought him into the spotlight. Pandey has all the shots in the book, and he plays some really good cheeky strokes as well. His trademark is the half-sweep, half-flick, where he gets ready to sweep, but at the last possible moment flicks it fine. Pandey is just 20 too, so he has time on his side. He was also part of the U19 World Cup winning squad,which Kohli and Jadeja were a part of, although he didn't influence the victory as much as them. Mukund and Saurabh Tiwary were also a part of this squad. The great thing about Pandey is that his runs have come on his home ground, which is seamer friendly, thus making it a challenge for any batsman to bat on. And a lot of his knocks have come when Karnataka have been in trouble. Pandey also looks to have a lot of time to play shots, which is usually the mark of a class batsman. Pandey is probably one of the best fielders in India too, besides Kohli, Raina and Manoj Tiwary. His knock in the Ranji final this year was brilliant, although Karnataka lost by 6 runs.
Ranji Trophy final: Manish Pandey on track for national reckoning | Cricket Features | Ranji Trophy Super League 2009-10 | Cricinfo.com
This is a great article on Pandey. And, why he's so highly rated.
Rahane and Pujara are the other highly rated ones, although I don't really rate Rahane because he continuously fails in big games, so I question his temperament. Pujara is Dravid-like. Rahane averages 63 I think, and Pujara averages 57. Saurabh averages 50, Pandey averages 50, Manoj Tiwary is 53 I think, Mukund averages 55. So yeah, all these guys are pretty good. Dhawan averages only 45 though. Jadhav is somewhere up there too.
It's the bowlers I'm worried about.
Kulkarni and Tyagi are good though, so let's see how they go.
Coming back to the match, Dhawan's made a century already and Mukund got out for 91. This is not Yorkshire's first team though I think, and it's really a warm-up match for these guys. Rahane and Dhawan are batting right now.
