India in England/Ireland/Scotland

[Cricketman]

i don't see how Pawar is picking himself.
He's not that good to keep over an extra batsman, at this stage.
Rohit Sharma can come into the side as an extra batsman and can bowl a bit.
Or Irfan..

 

[Eddie]

i'd say the only indian bowler who "picks themselves" is zaheer khan, the rest of the places look up for grabs..

Powar looks like agood ODI bowler, but his fielding+ batting is poor.
Chawla also looks promising but has been expensive, doesn't look like making many runs..

the other bowlers are poor in all departments of the 1-day format..

India have some real ballance issues to address in the line-up.

 

[SaiSrini]

@.Mob: Ganguly seems to be more rejuvenated these days. Sachin seems more tired and slow according to me. Dravid will survive the longest from now on.

I am surprised at the media saying directly or indirectly that India are in danger of losing the series just because of fielding. We have won many series when our fielding has been worse. Being a 7 match series and we are only trailing by 1 game, I still feel we can make it to a series win. India need to get their combination right.

For the next match, I would drop Munaf Patel and bring back Agarkar. As much as I am not in favor of Agarkar, the fact that he is a better fielder than Munaf favors him. Munaf also went for 7 runs an over in the last game. So Agarkar for Munaf. Chawla and Powar have done well in this series to pick themselves for the next game. And if India win the toss, immediately chose batting first. We batted well in the last game. We couldnt carry it for a bit longer because of a combination of our mistakes and England's fielding. If we get lucky with the toss and if we bat first, we can make a big total and put England under pressure. Even if we bat second, we have the batsmen to score runs for us and fight for victory.

I would also give Dinesh Karthik one more chance and if he does not score, bring in Uthappa for Karthik. I am not fond of Karthik's theatrics on the field. He is acting as if he is one of the best fielders in the side, but regularly makes mistakes. If he doesnt score next game and continues his mistakes, I would drop him for the 5th game. We also need a better fielding coach than Robin Singh.

i don't see how Pawar is picking himself.
He's not that good to keep over an extra batsman, at this stage.
Rohit Sharma can come into the side as an extra batsman and can bowl a bit.
Or Irfan..

When other bowlers have gone for big runs, this guy has stemmed the flow of runs from his side. He is economical, and going by this series, we need such guys.

It took a single series for the Sri Lankans and the South Africans to show at least signs that they were begining to improve, and those series were far shorter than the tour of England that India have undertaken. Is the fielding in Indian domestic cricket this bad also? Because if it is then there's your problem.

Yes, fielding is not being inculcated well to players when they start out on their journey in cricket. This problem is in the grass root level and it can be solved in the long term if the board introduces intense fielding drills for its domestic players. The grounds in India also need fast upgrading so that fielders are not afraid to dive around.

It was even better during the John Wright Era. Under Ganguly's captaincy, India reached its height in ODI cricket and peaked in the 2003 world cup. Since then, it's gone backwards (fielding at least).

I think a full time coach who is more similar to Wright than Chappell would work, I think. Such a full time coach with a bowling and fielding coach would work better. Borde knows he is a stop gap arrangement. But he has done very well with this team so far. But a full time coach is needed. Because today's boys need some one to encourage them. The minds are more wavering today than it was before.

 

[harishankar]

I still don't understand the obsession with foriegn coaches though. India have proved that they can play as well or even better under Indian coaches and in the final analysis I don't think a coach matters so much for the senior side. Made India "A" need a coach and a mentor, but not the senior side.

As far as being worried about fielding is concerned, I think it's a genuine concern because we concede all those extra runs which add so much pressure to the batsmen. As you saw, those 15-20 runs in the end can be the crucial difference. If the fielding doesn't improve, the batting and bowling will always be under that extra pressure.

Do we need a specialist fielding coach to teach the players at the International level? I don't think so. All they need to do is do the basics right. They don't have to be spectacular or diving around all the time. All they need is to do the basics right and not commit mistakes. If a player doesn't know the basics of fielding, I cannot imagine what he is doing in the national side in the first place. Of course, nothing can coach somebody to become quicker or faster than he actually...

 

[sohum]

i don't see how Pawar is picking himself.
He's not that good to keep over an extra batsman, at this stage.
Rohit Sharma can come into the side as an extra batsman and can bowl a bit.
Or Irfan..

Powar is a genuine wicket-taker. Even if he goes for runs he will pick up wickets. The reason he is being kept over an extra batsmen is because he dismissed the players that can make the batsmen's job even tougher. Rohit Sharma can hardly bowl and he has something like 2 wickets at domestic level. Irfan Pathan is just a clutch for something that is out of reach. It seems like people are just taking digs at the line-up because the batsmen have shown that they are in fact not as good as they are made out to be. I can promise you that everyone will be all over the back of Robin Uthappa and Rohit Sharma if they, to everyone's horror, fail.

i'd say the only indian bowler who "picks themselves" is zaheer khan, the rest of the places look up for grabs..

Powar looks like agood ODI bowler, but his fielding+ batting is poor.

Powar's fielding+batting is not horribly worse than Zaheer's. The only reason he is being highlighted is because he is being asked to play a role (all-rounder) that he shouldn't be. As a bowler in the squad, he picks himself.

Chawla also looks promising but has been expensive, doesn't look like making many runs..

He's not expected to be making runs. He's expected to take wickets and he's done that. Spinners are expected to be a tad expensive in ODI cricket especially if they're tossing it up to get wickets. Otherwise you'd end up with a Harbhajan Singh who started bowling flatter to stop the runs and in the end forgot why he was picked (to take wickets).

Do we need a specialist fielding coach to teach the players at the International level? I don't think so. All they need to do is do the basics right. They don't have to be spectacular or diving around all the time. All they need is to do the basics right and not commit mistakes. If a player doesn't know the basics of fielding, I cannot imagine what he is doing in the national side in the first place. Of course, nothing can coach somebody to become quicker or faster than he actually...

Well Indian players aren't exactly brought up in a culture of great fielding so I think a specialist fielding coach is very much an applicable concern. I still don't understand why Munaf pitches the ball in underarm from the boundary--I would think that is the first thing Robin Singh would have sorted out. Players should not be taught the basics of fielding because they will know that as that was sufficient for state cricket when they were not constantly under the media gaze. Now, they have to learn techniques to field more efficiently. They have to learn to throw their bodies around. It is harder now but we cannot say, "well they should have learned it earlier so f*** that" and move on.

 

[.Mob]

I think Munaf just has a really weak arm.

Also take notice, that in his action, his shoulder generates most of the speed.

 

[sohum]

I think Munaf just has a really weak arm.

Also take notice, that in his action, his shoulder generates most of the speed.

I'm not confused by that as his excuse. Most fast bowlers have the best throwing arms in their teams whereas Munaf has probably the worst throwing arm in our team.

 

[harishankar]

Well Indian players aren't exactly brought up in a culture of great fielding so I think a specialist fielding coach is very much an applicable concern. I still don't understand why Munaf pitches the ball in underarm from the boundary--I would think that is the first thing Robin Singh would have sorted out. Players should not be taught the basics of fielding because they will know that as that was sufficient for state cricket when they were not constantly under the media gaze. Now, they have to learn techniques to field more efficiently. They have to learn to throw their bodies around. It is harder now but we cannot say, "well they should have learned it earlier so f*** that" and move on.

In that case, we have to improve the quality of domestic grounds and then coach good fielding at that level.

At the international level, I don't think it's appropriate to teach players how to field. And first they need to learn to run before they learn to dive.

So many Indian fielders dive around, but they are so slow that they usually do so after the ball is well past them.

Technique of fielding cannot be taught at the international level. If a player has a fielding problem so bad, he should go back and work at it in the domestic level.

Unfortunately hard as that reality is, I don't think great fielding sides learn the craft at the highest level. The quality of the national side is highly dependent on the culture of cricket played at the domestic level and the change has to happen at the lower levels to filter through effectively at the national stage.

I cannot imagine that any fielding coach will have any significant effect on Munaf Patel or Ramesh Powar in the middle of a tough ODI tour. One can expect minor mistakes to be corrected, but the culture of good fielding cannot be inculcated by the time a player is ready to play international cricket.

 

[irottev]

Wow, I can;t believe India have 4 seamers in their squad. Thats really strange. I guess picking the extra spinner makes that a bit of a problem. With 2 part time spinners in the side, it seems strange to play 2 spinners with them.

How many matches til they change the squad? Or was their squad for 7 matches. I can never understand how all that works.

 

[karnog]

India are in a selection dilemna. Sacrifice a bit of fielding for bowling or sacrifice bowling for batting. Its a problem. India are not well balanced but i think india proved that the only way to win is to bat. And to bat well. Create pressure on england's batting order because although the top order is firing, they're still brittle and thats due to inexperience. India can capitalise on that. They could've won in the 3rd odi if their fielding was up to scratch. Dhoni needs a good kick in the ass... As for powar, so what if he's fat. His awesome economy rate and odd wicket here and there are seriously a huge benefit. Chawla is too expensive but he seems to have pieterson's and collingwood's card which is even better. RP singh has been india's best seam bowler. Munaf Patel has to be dropped because his bowling does not rectify his poor fielding. Zaheer Khan is this form isn't as effective so dropping him for someone erratic (sreesanth) might be an option.

In england's case they've got to be careful. They can't let india crawl back like in the 2nd odi. Anderson i think holds the key to england's bowling success. No flintoff i believe so anderson is the go to man. Sachin and Dhoni seem to be his guinea pigs which is great for england. As for batting its got to be a collective effort. Bell will fail soon, no doubt but it could be at a crucial game and that could make the difference in this series. If pieterson and collingwood find form england will be hard to beat. Shah i believe is a good option at 4 if mascareheis (pardon my spelling) doesn't play because i think england need to utilise such a good player of spin.

 

[surendar]

Its really suprising and sad to see that team which has the world record of highest number of chasing wins is struggling to win these days by chasing. But ya.. Unless bowling improves, there could be nothing done about it

 

[Eddie]

Colly might miss game tomorrow..

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/engvind/content/current/story/308861.html

who is the vice captain ??

i guess maybe Bell or KP would captain if Colly is unfit to play....no one else has enuff experience..

 

[Leggie]

i reckon KP will be captain....but i think colly will play..

 

[evertonfan]

They'll probably go back to Flintoff again.

 

[manee]

They'll probably go back to Flintoff again.

Never!(). He was 'stripped' of the Vice Captaincy if I recall correctly after Fredalo.