India's tour of Australia - December/January 2015

[SaiSrini]

I am excited about Karn Sharma's callup, but I dont see the reason for retaining Jadeja thereby taking 3 spinners to Australia. Its a huge luxury. Whats it with this love for Jadeja? Its so clear that he is being favored by someone from within the administration. Just to fit him into the squad, they have picked a 18 man squad for this tour. And I would not be surprised at all if Jadeja is preferred over Karn Sharma if at all India decides to not play Ashwin or play two spinners.

Good to see KL Rahul get the backing. I dont see him immediately getting a game, but if I were Kohli, I would punt on Rahul a little early (in the Brisbane test itself) over Shikhar Dhawan. Kohli can possibly make such "young blood" decisions. The pace attack looks awesome. Finally we have a pretty well rounded attack. Three raw pacers (Yadav, Aaron and Shami), one "hit the deck and extract bounce" guy (Ishant) and one swing and utility guy (Kumar) if conditions help.

 

[PokerAce]

MSD's absence is a very very curious one. There are some whispers that perhaps the Mudgal committee is involved in some way.

Infact some talk that during IPL MSD was approached by a Bookie and he didn't reprort this approach like he should have had. Not that he fixed just that he didn't report.

There are also whispers that MSD in the past has gone on record to say that Meiyyappan was just a cricket enthusiast, or something in favor of Meiyappan. Now with Meiyappan nailed, ppl are taking a closer look at why MSD was defending Meiyappan to begin with.

Its worth watching this space.

 

[PokerAce]

Oh for the squad named, I am kinda with it more or less. I would leave Jadeja behind, but well the team likes him so its not like ... you Know.

Rahul's inclusion is great.

GL

 

[Epic]

This is quite an odd situation with Dhoni, I haven't followed the Mudgal report at all and have no connection to the Indian media so I pretty much have no idea what that's all about other than the basic that it has to do with the whole Meiyappan fiasco, so I'm just going to buy that there's an injury, but it's weird how he won't be travelling with the team for and before the 1st Test and there will be questions raised if we win in Brisbane under Kohli and say he performs well with both the cap and the bat, whether Dhoni should takeover in the 2nd Test at all, something to think about. Love Rahul's inclusion, we've been scratching and clawing to find a proper young opener to put our trust in and back who will hopefully see us through this decade and beyond, was hoping Chand would've been that guy, but clearly that hasn't come to fruition, so I'm happy we've found someone. Our pace attack of all things is the most exciting talking point for me, the the pace attack that should've been picked for the tour of England is now picked for the tour of Australia.

Oh and I don't have any problem with Jadeja's inclusion, it's an 18 man squad, a few of those players are just not going to get a game, Jadeja and Raina in particular, but the upcoming World Cup is in Australia (and New Zealand), so the more time they spend bowling/batting on those pitches the better for me.

 

[abhi_jacko]

there will be questions raised if we win in Brisbane under Kohli and say he performs well with both the cap and the bat, whether Dhoni should takeover in the 2nd Test at all

Add to that, if Saha scores a ton. That would add to the confusion

 

[lion100lion]

Add to that, if Saha scores a ton. That would add to the confusion

You are kidding. Dhoni is out due to injury and even if Saha breaks Lara's 400 run record, it will not stop Dhoni returning to the team. May be in that case, Saha may be considered for some other player.

 

[abhi_jacko]

Ofcourse MSD will still walk in. But it would still be quite the conundrum

 

[Epic]

Add to that, if Ohja scores a ton. That would add to the confusion

No tweaking idea why it's not Saha...

You are kidding. Dhoni is out due to injury and even if Saha breaks Lara's 400 run record, it will not stop Dhoni returning to the team. May be in that case, Saha may be considered for some other player.

In that case we drop Kohli and Saha will bat at #4.

 

[Aalay]

India Cricket News: MS Dhoni suffered a 'hairline crack' in thumb | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[abhi_jacko]

India Cricket News: MS Dhoni suffered a 'hairline crack' in thumb | ESPN Cricinfo

Hmmm .. very rarely have I seen Cricinfo using unknown "sources" to make news reports. They almost always report official news confirmed by legitimate resources, instead of such vague news. Very weird

 

[namin96]

I am excited about Karn Sharma's callup, but I dont see the reason for retaining Jadeja thereby taking 3 spinners to Australia. Its a huge luxury. Whats it with this love for Jadeja? Its so clear that he is being favored by someone from within the administration. Just to fit him into the squad, they have picked a 18 man squad for this tour. And I would not be surprised at all if Jadeja is preferred over Karn Sharma if at all India decides to not play Ashwin or play two spinners.

Good to see KL Rahul get the backing. I dont see him immediately getting a game, but if I were Kohli, I would punt on Rahul a little early (in the Brisbane test itself) over Shikhar Dhawan. Kohli can possibly make such "young blood" decisions. The pace attack looks awesome. Finally we have a pretty well rounded attack. Three raw pacers (Yadav, Aaron and Shami), one "hit the deck and extract bounce" guy (Ishant) and one swing and utility guy (Kumar) if conditions help.

Rahul probably won't even get a single chance in the test series. This is always the problem with India, they select new cricketers for a series only to have them sit in the dressing room for the entire series. Why even take them if you don't want to sub them in for another batsman? It's just completely stupid to get the young lad extremely happy and then not have him play in any match. The wise thing would be to have Rahul play the first test, just think what a confidence boost it would be for him and you never know what he could do with such confidence, but like I said India is still going to stick with Dhawan even though he is certain to get out for less 10 runs.

 

[namin96]

India's Test squad for Australia MS Dhoni (capt), Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha*, R Ashwin, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron
*Ojha has been included only for the first Test.

Looks a good squad.I persume the final XI for first test to be;

M Vijay
S Dhawan
C Pujara
V Kohli
A Rahane
S Raina
W Saha
R Ashwin
B Kumar
M Shami/ Varun Aaron
Ishant Sharma

If any of the seamer under performs in the first test,Umesh Yadav or Aaron may replace him accordingly.

Your starting XI looks good but I don't like the idea of having only 4 main bowlers, just look what happened in New Zealand. Zaheer and Ishant each bowled some 40 overs in a single innings in that second test and they were not looking good physically. If India want's a chance at winning overseas, you need to play with 5 regular bowlers so I would take 4 fast and 1 spinner (Ashwin) even though knowing Dhoni this is unlikely to happen. Maybe Ravi Shastri might make a difference this time in the final XI selection.

 

[lion100lion]

I am excited about Karn Sharma's callup, but I dont see the reason for retaining Jadeja thereby taking 3 spinners to Australia. Its a huge luxury. Whats it with this love for Jadeja? Its so clear that he is being favored by someone from within the administration. Just to fit him into the squad, they have picked a 18 man squad for this tour. And I would not be surprised at all if Jadeja is preferred over Karn Sharma if at all India decides to not play Ashwin or play two spinners.

When a team goes overseas, it usually lacks good net bowlers. I mean that the host fail to provide quality bowlers. So that's the reason for extra spinners in 18 men squad.

 

[Yuvi.]

With Jaad & Ash in the squad , there are very minute chances of Karn getting a place in the playing lineup atleast of this series.

 

[angryangy]

I don't think the spin is such a crazy idea. You utilise your strengths, whatever they are. Bad pace bowling might not take wickets anyway. El Nino is coming and the weather has been dry. Even though wisdom might suggest to expect grassy wickets, it might be hard to maintain them in dry 30-40 degree heat. So it could be very sensible to pick two spinners, and the leg spinner might even be of more use than the finger spinners in the conditions. But also you need to manage team balance, so all-round performances ought to be key at selection.