Story Its India, the World Champions. ***FAREWELL SACHIN***

[Prithvi]

This story is promising. Please don't abandon in between.

I'll never let it happen. Since it is so simple, I'll update it every now and then.

Disappointed not to see UAE and Afghanistan in the Asia cup.

They will participate in the ODi series with India before IPL.

 

[Fenil]

Indian Squad for the Asia Cup, Bangladesh, 2012.​

The BCCI selection committee has announced a 15 man squad for the forth coming Asia Cup to take place at Bangladesh. The 15 man squad does contain all the big names of Indian cricket, with Harbhajan Singh and Cheteshwar Pujara earning a national call. Indian selectors said that India were having a very huge strategy to see that team doesn't collapse after the exit of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman, who are likely to retire at once.

India
Virender Sehwag (VC)
Sachin Tendulkar
Gautam Gambhir
Virat Kohli
Suresh Raina
Cheteshwar Pujara

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C)
Parthiv Patel

Irfan Pathan
Ravindra Jadeja

Zaheer Khan
R Vinay Kumar
Praveen Kumar
Harbhajan Singh
Ravichandran Ashwin
​

Selectors are hoping the best from these bunch of players, since they are the best available players at the moment for team India. The Asia Cup will have an India Pakistan match, which makes the tournament itself a huge highlight, since India-Pakistan aren't playing bi-lateral tournaments due to political tensions between the countries.

Are you sure Yuvi won't be fit to play the tournament?

 

[Prithvi]

@Fenil: Even though this is virtual, I want to maintain bit of reality by keeping Yuvi aside till he returns back in real life.

 

[Prithvi]

Asia Cup 2012, Squads.

India:
Virender Sehwag
Sachin Tendulkar
Gautam Gambhir
Virat Kohli
Suresh Raina
Cheteshwar Pujara

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C)
Parthiv Patel

Irfan Pathan
Ravindra Jadeja

Zaheer Khan
R Vinay Kumar
Praveen Kumar
Harbhajan Singh
Ravichandran Ashwin

Sri Lanka:
Mahela Jayawardene (C)
Upul Tharanga
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Lahiru Thirimanne

Kumar Sangakkara
Dinesh Chandimal

Angelo Mathews
Farveez Maharoof
Thisara Perera
Sachithra Senanayake

Lasith Malinga
Dhammika Prasad
Chanaka Welegedara
Rangana Herath
Nuwan Kulasekara

Pakistan:
Misbah-ul-Haq (C)
Imran Farhat
Asad Shafiq
Azhar Ali
Mohammad Hafeez
Shoaib Malik
Younis Khan

Umar Akmal
Adnan Akmal

Hammad Azam
Shahid Afridi

Abdur Rehman
Aizaz Cheema
Junaid Khan
Saeed Ajmal
Umar Gul
Wahab Riaz

Bangladesh:
Alok Kapali
Imrul Kayes
Tamim Iqbal
Shahriar Nafees

Mushfiqur Rahim

Shakib Al Hasan
Naeem Islam
Mahmudullah
Nasir Hossain

Rubel Hossain
Suhrawadi Shuvo
Nazmul Hossain
Shafiul Islam
Farhad Reza
Abdur Razzak
​

 

[Fenil]

No Rohit again. Raina is having some favor from the captain to be in the team with such poor record from past 13-14 months or so but its (the tournament) in subcontinent and here he has always done well so lets see...

----------

@Fenil: Even though this is virtual, I want to maintain bit of reality by keeping Yuvi aside till he returns back in real life.

Fair enough. Hope this Jadeja doesn't spoil the fun. He can't bat in international games. He can't accelerate the scoring, he can't save his wicket. He doesn't bowl well consistently too.

 

[Prithvi]

Fair enough. Hope this Jadeja doesn't spoil the fun. He can't bat in international games. He can't accelerate the scoring, he can't save his wicket. He doesn't bowl well consistently too.

That is Jaddu bhai in overseas. But he really is a talented ODi player when he plays in SC.

 

[RPHKR]

Raina does well in the subcontinent and no one rates Raina outside SC.

 

[Fenil]

That is Jaddu bhai in overseas. But he really is a talented ODi player when he plays in SC.

I've seen him playing right from his domestic days and well your post made me laugh to be honest especially when you have him in the allrounders space. (He can bowl good in International games in subcontinent but batting? Well thats another story for him). He is way different performer in International games than in the domestic ones.

 

[Prithvi]

Asia Cup 2012 Fixtures:​

League Stage:
India v Pakistan at New Delhi.
Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Chittagong
Sri Lanka v India at Galle.
Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dhaka.
Sri Lanka v Bangladesh at Pallakele.
Bangladesh v India at Dhaka.
Sri Lanka v Pakistan at Colombo.
India v Sri Lanka at Hyderabad.
Pakistan v Bangladesh at Chittagong.
Bangladesh v Sri Lanka at Dhaka.
Pakistan v India at Chittagong.
India v Bangladesh at Cuttak.

Finals:
TBA v TBA at Colombo.
TBA v TBA at Bangalore.
TBA v TBA at Dhaka (if required).


Matches to start soon, all Non India games will be come under "Around the grounds" update.

 

[Fenil]

Other teams are pretty much the same. Would have loved to see some changes especially in Srilankan side like giving a chances to the likes of Binuka Rajapaksha or the test player Tharanga Paranavithana would have been interesting. Mendis too missed out the buss.

----------

I'd have loved to see Rayudu instead of Parthiv in the team as well. He (Rayudu) has been very consistent for long time now.

 

[Prithvi]

Match 1 of the Asia Cup 2012,
India v Pakistan
Live from Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi.​

Pitch Report:
This is a brand new pitch, which has been re done after the IPL 2011, since the pitch was favoring bowlers. The new one is absolutely flat track, absolutely nothing for bowlers. It would be interesting to see how bowlers perform on this kind of track. The out field is also very quick one, so fielders are expected to have a tough time as well, until and unless they are really quick. The pitch is expected to remain the same through out the game.

Toss:

Saurav Ganguly: Good afternoon everyone, we are now in New Delhi for the first and foremost encounter of the Asia Cup 2012, India taking on their arch rivals, Pakistan. Now I have the match referee, both the captains for the toss. Dhoni to spin the coin, Misbah ul Haq to call. Here you go Dhoni.

Misbah ul Haq: Heads!

Saurav Ganguly: Tails it is, and India have won the toss. Dhoni, what would you opt?

MS Dhoni: We will chase. We are bowling first.

Saurav Ganguly: A bit unexpected decision Dhoni, any reasons behind it?

MS Dhoni: Well of course, we are like more of chasing the target, since we don't know the nature of the pitch. As the pitch will not change as the climate changes, when you are batting doesn't really matter.

Saurav Ganguly: Whats the composition of your team? How many bowlers are you playing with?

MS Dhoni: Well, with inclusion of Irfan Pathan, we are now almost set. We now have five quality bowlers, so not a big problem when it really comes to bowling. We have both Sachin and Sehwag playing, along side Gautam Gambhir, which means Rohit Sharma is sitting out. Was bit tough to choose between Kohli and Rohit, but home advantage gets Kohli into the XI.

Saurav Ganguly: Well, good luck Dhoni!

MS Dhoni: Thanks a lot, dada.

Saurav Ganguly: Now we have the Pakistani captain, Misbah ul Haq with us. Misbah, batting first, are you happy with this or you wanted to bowl as well?

Misbah ul Haq: Well, I'm happy with what we have been enforced with, I mean I'd love to bat on this type of pitch. But I echo Sangakkara's words, with this kind of pitch, even 350 is not enough as we are playing India in their own den.

Saurav Ganguly: What is the secure score according to you?

Misbah ul Haq: May be somewhere above 350 would be a safe score.

Saurav Ganguly: Whats the composition of your team?

Misbah ul Haq: Well, the major change is we are playing Afridi as a bowler, as per his request. He had few batting concerns lately, so, he requested team management to play him as a bowler rather than a batsman. We respect his decision by playing him as a bowler. No other big changes to specify.

Saurav Ganguly: Thanks for your time, Good luck Misbah.

Misbah ul Haq: Thanks a lot mate.

Saurav Ganguly: Well the news from the center is India have won the toss and decided to bowl first.

Playing XI's:

|

India​

|#|

Pakistan​

|
|Virender Sehwag|1|Mohammad Hafeez|
|Sachin Tendulkar|2|Imran Farhat|
|Gautam Gambhir|3|Shoaib Malik|
|Virat Kohli|4|Younis Khan|
|C Pujara|5|Misbah ul Haq| (C)
(C)?|MS Dhoni|6|Umar Akmal|?
|Irfan Pathan|7|Asad Shafiq|
|R Ashwin|8|Shahid Afridi|
|Praveen Kumar|9|Umar Gul|
|Harbhajan Singh|10|Saeed Ajmal|
|Zaheer Khan|11|Wahab Riaz|

 

[Dipak]

Good update. But one thing. ganguly will never call MS Dhoni as Dhoni, he'll rather call him MS or Mahi since they're old teammates.

 

[Prithvi]

Good update. But one thing. ganguly will never call MS Dhoni as Dhoni, he'll rather call him MS or Mahi since they're old teammates.

The "MS Dhoni" was the part of role play, not what Dada called. What Dada calls will be in the text after Saurav Ganguly.

 

[Dipak]

Saurav Ganguly: Tails it is, and India have won the toss. Dhoni, what would you opt?

Look, he calls him Dhoni.

 

[RPHKR]

Good and quick update there. Would like to see an upset.