India Team Discussion

[grkrama]

raina certainly looks jaded to the cheerful cricketer he used to be, he certainly needs a break to work on his game! He used to be great in the field before, seems ot have added on weight as well!

 

[wtachetna]

I don't know about the best batting position. But one thing I am sure about is that Kohli is going to be a superstar cricketer of India. He has got looks and skills both.

 

[SaiSrini]

I don't know about the best batting position. But one thing I am sure about is that Kohli is going to be a superstar cricketer of India. He has got looks and skills both.

Looks? As in physical looks or batting looks? If you're talking about physical looks, better looking people than him have not achieved super stardom.

 

[Satan666]

Yall got a coach yet?

 

[zwarrior]

Young cricketer from Jammu & Kashmir shot dead | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

I saw some news yesterday abour an England cricketer getting shot. Today, an Indian cricketer in JK.

 

[Aalay]

So I was just thinking about our team for ODI format. Our next ODI series will be against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in June. It will be interesting to see what team selectors decide to go with if they go with a full strength squad. The players who are a certainty in the line-up will be Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Ashwin. However, all other positions are somewhat shaky.

Shikhar Dhawan has been in a horrible form in last few months and has started IPL horribly. This is Dhawan's best format and he has played some amazing innings in ODI's. However, if we go by the form, he does not deserve a spot in the team especially when someone like Rahane is on the bench. I feel that Rahane should open with Rohit and also best position for Rahane to bat is opening the inning.

Number 4 is another spot where we have some competition. Raina's form has been horrible and Manish Pandey scored a century in Sydney batting at number 4. So you expect Manish Pandey to come back at that spot. Manish Pandey does look a good player, he is an amazing fielder but he doesn't bowl. This is where we will miss Raina's offies which were quite handy for Dhoni in numerous occasions. Dhoni also said after he retired from tests that he wants to bat at number 4 in ODI's but if someone like Manish Pandey is there, it is unlikely that Dhoni will bat at 4. Mandeep Singh can be another option as a back-up batsman who also had a very good Vijay Hazare trophy.

I am thinking that Dhoni will bat at number 6 so we need another batsman at number 5 who must be flexible if Dhoni wants to come in early. We had Gurkeerat Singh Mann in Australia series but I don't think he is quite there yet in terms of international level batsman. This is another spot where Raina can come in because he has so much experience in limited overs format. I also don't see many options in domestic who can bat at this position. Let me know if you can think about someone.

For all-rounder's place at number 7, I feel it's a toss up between Jadeja and Hardik Pandya depending on the conditions. Again Jadeja has so much experience but his batting has gone downhill because he doesn't get much chance to bat. Hardik is not an internal quality bowler yet but I still feel India has to stick with him because he can be the all-rounder India has been looking for so many years. Rishi Dhawan played at this position in Australia. I have been very vocal about Rishi Dhawan in past but since I have seen Hardik Pandya, I feel that Pandya is at least better suited for limited overs format.

For three fast bowlers, my choice would be Shami, Bumrah and Saran. We had Saran in that Australia ODI series and he bowled decently. He is there to provide the left arm variety to the bowling attack. Bumrah has been the find for me in the last season and I feel he is a must when it comes to limited overs format. Shami has always been a reliable bowler for us before he got injured. I saw him bowl yesterday against RCB and he bowled very well. He was bowling at a sharp pace and bowled well at death. So these three would be my choice.

Back up fast bowlers we have are Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohit Sharma. For Bhuvneshwar Kumar, he has lost the ability to provide that early breakthroughs that he used to do earlier in his career. He has added pace to his bowling which eas evident in the South Africa ODI series last year but he didn't sswing the ball. The same thing happened in Australia. His strength is swing and if he is not doing that then it's hard to see him in the squad. I saw him just bowl today and he nails that yorkers perfectly at death but sometimes becomes too predictable and is not consistent with his death bowling. Umesh Yadav is just not the same bowler under Dhoni as he is under Kohli. I don't know what the reason is but he bowls absolutely horrendiously when he is playing under Dhoni but when I see him play under Kohli, he looks a much better bowler. His line and length is very incosisent and with the pace he bowls, it's just going to disappear. Ishant Sharma is a very incosistent bowler and I don't want to see him anywhere near the limited overs format again unless he can become a little consisten and improve his death bowling. I don't know what to say about Mohit Sharma. On some days, he looks a very good back up bowler but on the other days, he looks very ordinary.

This is the team that I think looks the most balanced based on the resources that we have available.

Rohit
Rahane
Kohli
Pandey
Raina
Dhoni
Hardik Pandya/Jadeja
Ashwin
Saran
Bumrah
Shami

Dhawan/Chand, Mandeep Singh, Hardik Pandya/Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Feel free to toss up any names that you feel might come in the line-up.

 

[Targaryen]

So I was just thinking about our team for ODI format. Our next ODI series will be against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in June. It will be interesting to see what team selectors decide to go with if they go with a full strength squad. The players who are a certainty in the line-up will be Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Ashwin. However, all other positions are somewhat shaky.

Shikhar Dhawan has been in a horrible form in last few months and has started IPL horribly. This is Dhawan's best format and he has played some amazing innings in ODI's. However, if we go by the form, he does not deserve a spot in the team especially when someone like Rahane is on the bench. I feel that Rahane should open with Rohit and also best position for Rahane to bat is opening the inning.

Number 4 is another spot where we have some competition. Raina's form has been horrible and Manish Pandey scored a century in Sydney batting at number 4. So you expect Manish Pandey to come back at that spot. Manish Pandey does look a good player, he is an amazing fielder but he doesn't bowl. This is where we will miss Raina's offies which were quite handy for Dhoni in numerous occasions. Dhoni also said after he retired from tests that he wants to bat at number 4 in ODI's but if someone like Manish Pandey is there, it is unlikely that Dhoni will bat at 4. Mandeep Singh can be another option as a back-up batsman who also had a very good Vijay Hazare trophy.

I am thinking that Dhoni will bat at number 6 so we need another batsman at number 5 who must be flexible if Dhoni wants to come in early. We had Gurkeerat Singh Mann in Australia series but I don't think he is quite there yet in terms of international level batsman. This is another spot where Raina can come in because he has so much experience in limited overs format. I also don't see many options in domestic who can bat at this position. Let me know if you can think about someone.

For all-rounder's place at number 7, I feel it's a toss up between Jadeja and Hardik Pandya depending on the conditions. Again Jadeja has so much experience but his batting has gone downhill because he doesn't get much chance to bat. Hardik is not an internal quality bowler yet but I still feel India has to stick with him because he can be the all-rounder India has been looking for so many years. Rishi Dhawan played at this position in Australia. I have been very vocal about Rishi Dhawan in past but since I have seen Hardik Pandya, I feel that Pandya is at least better suited for limited overs format.

For three fast bowlers, my choice would be Shami, Bumrah and Saran. We had Saran in that Australia ODI series and he bowled decently. He is there to provide the left arm variety to the bowling attack. Bumrah has been the find for me in the last season and I feel he is a must when it comes to limited overs format. Shami has always been a reliable bowler for us before he got injured. I saw him bowl yesterday against RCB and he bowled very well. He was bowling at a sharp pace and bowled well at death. So these three would be my choice.

Back up fast bowlers we have are Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohit Sharma. For Bhuvneshwar Kumar, he has lost the ability to provide that early breakthroughs that he used to do earlier in his career. He has added pace to his bowling which eas evident in the South Africa ODI series last year but he didn't sswing the ball. The same thing happened in Australia. His strength is swing and if he is not doing that then it's hard to see him in the squad. I saw him just bowl today and he nails that yorkers perfectly at death but sometimes becomes too predictable and is not consistent with his death bowling. Umesh Yadav is just not the same bowler under Dhoni as he is under Kohli. I don't know what the reason is but he bowls absolutely horrendiously when he is playing under Dhoni but when I see him play under Kohli, he looks a much better bowler. His line and length is very incosisent and with the pace he bowls, it's just going to disappear. Ishant Sharma is a very incosistent bowler and I don't want to see him anywhere near the limited overs format again unless he can become a little consisten and improve his death bowling. I don't know what to say about Mohit Sharma. On some days, he looks a very good back up bowler but on the other days, he looks very ordinary.

This is the team that I think looks the most balanced based on the resources that we have available.

Rohit
Rahane
Kohli
Pandey
Raina
Dhoni
Hardik Pandya/Jadeja
Ashwin
Saran
Bumrah
Shami

Dhawan/Chand, Mandeep Singh, Hardik Pandya/Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Your analysis is quite ordinary and doesn't have proper points to cover your arguments.

Firstly, let me tell you that Bhuvneshwar Kumar has obviously increased his pace. You are still stuck with Australia tour. We all witnessed that he was swinging the bowl with the pace in Asia Cup.

Dhoni will not be opting for Rahane keeping in mind the right hand-left hand combination. In the IPL, almost all the teams (except RCB) have played 3 rounds. Gautham Gambhir being a left hand Indian batsman has scored runs with couple of half centuries and is the holder of orange cap. Chand is not a batsmans at all at this stage and is too young with his cricketing skills unlike Virat or Raina or Gambhir at their early days in the national team.

Sran is a good bowler and is a good assest to the team. He bowled well in the condition where it was a hell for bowlers and paradise for batsman. It is very unlikely that Pandya might be dropped from the team unless he fails in this IPL. Manish Pandey will be a good addition to the team and can do the finishing job aswell. Raina must find his form or else he might be choked for a long leave from the team.

Other things are perfect. I have a strong feeling that all the star players will be rested considering the restless games this squad had to play for the past 4 months - Australia tour, Asia cup, ICC WT20 & IPL. Zimbabwe is a good uprising team which can be taken care by our Virat army. He picks a young-talented squad and always succeeds.

Hope he gets an independent ODI series to manage in the absence of Dhoni.

 

[Aalay]

Firstly, let me tell you that Bhuvneshwar Kumar has obviously increased his pace. You are still stuck with Australia tour. We all witnessed that he was swinging the bowl with the pace in Asia Cup.

Just to let you know, Bhuvneshwar Kumar played 1 match in Asia Cup and that was against UAE. Not the best team to judge his bowling against I would think. He was very good today for Hyderabad but didn't start the IPL well. If you see, I have still picked him in my squad out of all the other back up bowlers I have listed because I think he has the ability but just needs to get those early breakthroughs to get back into the Indian line-up.

Dhoni will not be opting for Rahane keeping in mind the right hand-left hand combination. In the IPL, almost all the teams (except RCB) have played 3 rounds. Gautham Gambhir being a left hand Indian batsman has scored runs with couple of half centuries and is the holder of orange cap. Chand is not a batsmans at all at this stage and is too young with his cricketing skills unlike Virat or Raina or Gambhir at their early days in the national team.

I would not really care about left hand right hand combination if Dhawan is not scoring runs. I would rather have both right handers if they are both scoring runs for the team. I picked Chand because he had a decent Vijay Hazare trophy where he was the highest run getter as an opener after Mukund. Either it's Chand or Mayank Agarawal so take your pick.

It is very unlikely that Pandya might be dropped from the team unless he fails in this IPL.

even though I covered both ODI's and T20's, the post was originally written looking at our ODI team. Pandya hasn't made his debut yet in ODI's. Jadeja has been a regular in our ODI team so it will be difficult for Pandya to get him out of 11 straight away unless the conditions are very pace friendly. I also expect Pandya to be in squad especially after the season he just had.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

More the Hardik Pandya, I feel that his brother Krunal Pandya would be getting a call soon. He is an all rounder too and is a big hitter like Hardik but he is a spinner. If both brothers play well both should be in the squad and be into the 11 based on the pitch conditions.

 

[Till Valhalla]

I don't think Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah will be in the team for a long time.

 

[Aalay]

I don't think Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah will be in the team for a long time.

Would you mind providing a reason as to why you think they won't be in the team for a long time? I don't think there is any death bowler better than Bumrah right now in India.

 

[Aalay]

More the Hardik Pandya, I feel that his brother Krunal Pandya would be getting a call soon. He is an all rounder too and is a big hitter like Hardik but he is a spinner. If both brothers play well both should be in the squad and be into the 11 based on the pitch conditions.

He is more in Jadeja category so it will be very difficult for him to get into the line-up just because of the fact that Jadeja has so much experience. However I see where you are going because he can be a good back-up but he definitely needs to prove himself much more in domestic season rather than just one IPL season.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

He is more in Jadeja category so it will be very difficult for him to get into the line-up just because of the fact that Jadeja has so much experience. However I see where you are going because he can be a good back-up but he definitely needs to prove himself much more in domestic season rather than just one IPL season.

Agree he needs more grooming. I am inclined to say that Krunal is better then Hardik because he is more sensible hitter and not wham bam Afridi kind of which is exactly what Hardik is as he is more predictable. But as I said Krunal needs to be more groomed.

 

[Targaryen]

Just to let you know, Bhuvneshwar Kumar played 1 match in Asia Cup and that was against UAE. Not the best team to judge his bowling against I would think. He was very good today for Hyderabad but didn't start the IPL well. If you see, I have still picked him in my squad out of all the other back up bowlers I have listed because I think he has the ability but just needs to get those early breakthroughs to get back into the Indian line-up.

Yeah. He has lost the ability to get those early breakthroughs. But still can be handy in the conditions where it is much for bowlers than batsman.

I would not really care about left hand right hand combination if Dhawan is not scoring runs. I would rather have both right handers if they are both scoring runs for the team. I picked Chand because he had a decent Vijay Hazare trophy where he was the highest run getter as an opener after Mukund. Either it's Chand or Mayank Agarawal so take your pick.

You don't care but Dhoni does. That is why he introduced Dhawan (left hand) after Gambhir where he had option like Murali Vijay/Ajinkya Rahane who were really fantastic in IPL at that time.

even though I covered both ODI's and T20's, the post was originally written looking at our ODI team. Pandya hasn't made his debut yet in ODI's. Jadeja has been a regular in our ODI team so it will be difficult for Pandya to get him out of 11 straight away unless the conditions are very pace friendly. I also expect Pandya to be in squad especially after the season he just had.

Dhoni don't leave his buddies out. Look at Pandya, Dhoni is moulding him to be an allrounder like Shane Watson.

 

[zwarrior]

I feel even Hardik Pandya needs to be groomed. He hasn't played well so far in IPL. I know he was sent early to bat which is not his regular place, but still he didn't utilize the chance he got. I would not include him right now in ODI yet. He should play more domestic cricket and do something good to get a call up for the national team. I don't like players to be selected based only on considering IPL performance when they have not played enough domestic cricket. He has to be much more consistent in domestic cricket. Also, he doesn't have much variation in bowling. He generally bowls lot of short balls. In T20, it's just a maximum of 4 overs. But in ODI, he just can't survive without variations in bowling. So, I don't want to see Pandya in ODI yet. Let him play another season of domestic cricket. We don't want to push people into national team when they are not ready and being dropped after a series or so which will affect their mentality too.

Yes, jadeja hasn't batted since a long time and he might actually have forgotten to bat, but he should be in the team. He was more consistent than Ash since Australia tour. He is a wicket taker and we need him in the team.

Coming to Raina, he has been in horrible form. He needs to do something special in IPL to deserve the place in the Indian side. He is an all rounder. So, it will be important for us to have him in the team iff his form is good.

As we are touring Zimbabwe, I feel Rishi Dhawan if not Mann to be included in the team. He is not a big hitter, that's the problem. He is a decent bowler. So, if he can increase his strike rate, he will be an great asset to us. In domestic cricket, he has been consistent with both bat and ball. He has SR of 90+ in domestic. So, we should give him another chance in the team. I really feel, he will be good if he gets some chance.

Coming to bhuvneshwar- Yes, Bhuvi hasn't been himself lately. But against UAE even though it's not a good team, he bowled excellent. Even in IPL so far, especially last match, he was good. If it wasn't for his last over against RCB, he was good in that match too. I think he deserves another chance considering he bowls decently if not good in this IPL.

So, I pick my squad in general. Not keeping Zimabawe tour in mind.

Rahane. (Yes Dhawan needs to go. It's time)
Rohit
Kohli
Pandey
Raina (if he is good in IPL)
Dhoni
Jadeja (I am not marking him as all-rounder)
Ashwin
Shami
Sran/ Bhuvneshwar
Bumrah

Backup- (On the bench)- Murali Vijay, Yadav or Ishant, Amit Mishra, Rishi Dhawan.

That's my 15 men squad.

One of the place worrying me is Raina's. If he isn't good in IPL, I am really not sure which all-rounder to be chosen. As I mentioned above, I don't want to see Pandya in the team right away. He is not at all consistent which is understandable given his experience and his role in the team. But still, I feel he shouldn't be in ODIs. If we want purely hitter in Raina's place, we can include Uthappa. But, he can't bowl. So, he will be ignored. Rishi Dhawan can be considered as an option if he succeeds in Zimbabwe tour considering he gets picked for that tour. Other option is Irfan Pathan. Pathan can hit or support other batsmen. He can play in both the role and he can be good with new ball. The only thing in doubt is, his form. He was good in domestic cricket. If MSD gives him more chance in IPL, we can analyze whether he is good enough for Indian team. Now don't start MSD vs IP war.

If we look at the team, we have 5 genuine bowlers. So, we need someone who can bowl some 5 overs max and hit big shots. From the top of my mind, only players whom I can think are Irfan, Yusuf ( considering they play well in IPL), Rishi Dhawan ( need another chance), Pandya ( I feel, he isn't ready).

Feel free to comment. This is just my opinion.