New Zealand Tour of India, November 2010/11

Kohli may be in form, but isn't he a bit raw for the number 4 position?

Yuvi has the most experience and should be there, but he is prone to failure.

MSD could go there, but he's far more valuable as a finisher.

Raina too has technical issues although he has shown the temperament to be a good number 4.


Given the current side, Virat Kohli is currently the on-song batsman for India and to deprive him of a good batting position would be like kissing Goodbye to the World Cup.

As you mentioned Yuvi-Raina-Dhoni can occupy either of 5-6-7 positions. If Yuvi and Kohli are both played int he same game, it eliminated the need of a Yusuf Pathan or even the great Sir Ravinder Jadeja.

Yuvraj's bowling has improved of late. If Dhoni can get 10 overs-which he will out of 5 part-timers - Sachin, Sehwag, Yuvraj,Raina and even Kohli, the other two are definitely not needed

You mentioned a reserve keeper. I have a very strong feeling that Karthik or Saha might get in the side. Parthiv has just been drafted in as a replacement for Saha. There is no chance that he will make it to the team unless he scores brilliantly in the next two games.
 
Kohli may be in form, but isn't he a bit raw for the number 4 position?

Yuvi has the most experience and should be there, but he is prone to failure.

MSD could go there, but he's far more valuable as a finisher.

Raina too has technical issues although he has shown the temperament to be a good number 4.

Whatever way it works out, numbers 4 - 6 should be the trio of Raina/Kohli/Yuvraj in any order, with MSD to follow at 7.

As for reserve batsmen...that's tricky. It would be tempting to have Vijay as a reserve, but given that we already have 3 openers in the top 3, it is a bit unnecessary. He'll only play if one of Viru/Sachin/Gambhir are out injured. I don't like the idea of Rohit Sharma given his repeated failures. Pujara/Rahane/S.Tiwary are untested at Nat level, so to see them in WC squad would be quite a jump. And Jadeja and Yusuf shouldn't be anywhere near to squad ATM.

Guess the reserve batsmen will be Sharma and Vijay. Don't know who will be picked as backup keeper, I guess it's going to Parthiv Patel since he was preferred over Karthik and I doubt Saha will be going to the WC.

That leaves us with needing 6 bowlers. Zak, Bhajji, Ojha, Sreesanth, Nehra, PK. Looks very likely. Yuvi/Raina/Viru/Sharma the part time spinners and Kohli with some medium pace.

So the likely squad is going to be Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvi, Raina, Kohli, MSD, Bhajji, Zak, Sree, Ojha, Nehra, PK, Vijay, Sharma, Patel.

The only change I think we'll see is Patel out for either KDK/Saha, and Vijay out for one of Yusuf/Jadeja. This is tricky, because the selectors might not believe that Yuvi/Raina/Sharma/Viru would do a good enough job as a fifth bowler. In which case one of the two 'allrounders' will play. While I'd feel more assured with Jadeja batting in the top 7, because he can rescue use from a collapse, Yusuf's bowling has been more effective recently. But Yusuf in the top 7, even if it's at number 7, doesn't feel secure, especially since he has been found out. You want your numbers 6 and 7 to be able to haul you out of a top order collapse, and Yusuf has shown that he can't play a long innings at international level. But for Jadeja, on the other hand, his bowling is fairly rubbish at the moment, so while he can be relied on to steady the ship if needed, and we have enough hitters so that he won't be required to accelerate at the end, his bowling might not be much better than just using the 4 part-timers.

Ashwin is very unlikely to get a look in, unless it's at the expense of Ojha, because I don't think India will be secure with either Bhajji or Ashwin batting at 7. Also, it's seems too late of a return for either Irfan or Chawla.

Will be interesting to see who makes the squad at the end.


First three positions aren't gonna change. The trio of Sachin-Sehwag-Gambhir is going to the top 3 for us in the WC no matter what except injuries. And it is pivotal, if India changes this then kick your own ass.

The vital 4th position should be occupied by Kohli. He is the inform guy, high on confidence, has the class and temperament just lacks experience. But on Indian pitches he is great and should bat ahead of Yuvi because as you said Yuvi is prone to failures. He is lacking the confidence while playing the last few games, playing too slowly and not looking settled for the pitch. If he by any means comes to his blitstering form, he should bat at no.4. But ATM Kohli is the best choice.

The 5-6-7 positiong can be occupied by Yuvi-Raina-Dhoni with Dhoni at 7 and the two lefties batting ahead of him.

Now In this case Dhoni have to rely heavily on part time bowlers to deliver 10-15 god overs, 15 in case if any specialist bowler fails to do the job, then partimers can get a look.
So I don't see any place for Yusuf Pathan or Ravindra Jadeja as of now, not needed I have to say because Yuvraj can do their work in bowling with Sehwag/Raina/Tendulkar capable to deliver a few. Also moving Ashwin or Bhajji up is like playing with your chances.

In the bowling, it's crystal clear that Zak and Bhajji are gonna be the leaders. No question about Zak. But despite Bhajji's bad form, I don't think that Kirsten gonna make him sit back and play Ashwin/Ojha in his place. They can come in as second spinner which is unlikely as three seamers are most probably going to play.

Coming to the two seamers, I thing Nehra is sure to play with Kumar, but after Sreesanth's good showing in these two matches and he's gonna bowl at juicy tracks of SA, then he might be looked as the third seamer.
IMO, if Sreesanth can bowl like he did recently then he should play ahead of either of Nehra or Kumar. Can't really say about third seamer but Nehra-Zak is going to be opening combo.

Conclusion is this, we just have to wait for the selectors, and I think top 7 are confirmed.
 
I personally prefer Raina coming in at number 4, ahead of Kohli and Kohli coming at number 5.
 
Nehra,Praveen,Zak and Singh is going to be our Bowling.

Sreesanth can lose the match on his own!! He is no good fielder too!!

Also, Nehra has improved his batting a bit as well as fielding tremendously.

Praveen can come handy lower order with Singh.

They both can be devastating on their day. So this looks perfect IMO
 
Also, Nehra has improved his batting a bit as well as fielding tremendously.
Are you joking???

And do you think that Nehra and Kumar are good fielders ?:sarcasm
If Sree is not a good fielder, than both of them are worse.

But yeah Kumar can handy with his batting, hitting a few out of ground.
 
Yes mate, he has improved!!
 
The series has been already won. Time to test out a few players who might just be able to book their WC slots.

Vijay hasn't really dominated as he did in Test matches and would not surprise me if he is dropped for the next two games. Jadeja can be dropped too and the captain has the option of choosing between Tiwary and Sharma for the same position.

Dropping Vijay will mean that India needs another opener which is readily available in the form of their new keeper- Parthiv Patel.

He sucks as a bowler too.

His bowling has actually improved of late. Agreed that he was really bad initially, but now he is quite good.
 
He is better than our other bowlers, but he stil truly suck at death.

Also Vijay should be these two ODI's, Parthiv shouldn't be near the team until WC.
 
I am no big fan of Nehra either. Our team has no future with him, we'll be better off ditching him for good after ths WC and groom a bowler for future. He can then indulge in pub brawls with no objections and show his grins in IPL matches.
 
I agree to the fact that Nehra isn't gonna do anything good for future, probably a younger bowler should come in his place with more pace.
But as fas as our WC is concernedm Nehra is going to be our second seamer behind Zak and he can actually do good in powerplay overs. He sucks at death too much.
 
Uthappa as te reserve batsman anyone ? Can keep too ...

Would probably be the most explosive batting lineup in the world, Uthappa, MSD, Yuvi, Sehwag, Raina ...

Thing is with Kholi at 4, I would rather have Yuvraj, because he will go for broke once he is in. Once past 30+ Yuvi knows we need a big score because our bowlers are not up to scratch. If he scores 100, it will be at 100+SR for sure.

Does Kohli have the same thinking? I would rather have Kohli below Yuvi for that reason, if Yuvi fails, Kohli can bat like he has been doing recently.

My batting lineup would be :

Sehwag
Tendulkar
Gambhir
Yuvraj
Kohli
Raina
Dhoni

(Really want to put in Uthappa for that huge impotous at the end.)

Also, where can we fit Pathan ? Big batting problem this ... :yes
 

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