Monday, March 06, 2006
The Great Indian Rope Trick
The Indian selectors do it again!They have lived upto their reputations in selecting the team. This time the axe fell on the unsuspecting Vikram Singh. He did nothing wrong, didn't even get a chance to play, but was replaced in the squad with Munaf Patel.
I am not questioning the credibility of Munaf to be in the test squad. Of course, he deserves it for the spirited performance against England in the parctice match. But, then the selectors could have chosen him for the first test squad, but then they stuck with V R V Singh. Its bad that a person, after getting selected is omitted without even given a chance to prove his worthiness. V R V Singh, so far has always been at the wrong end, either due to injuries or some brave team selection by More and co. Hope he will be able to make up for it in the future.
There is going to be dilemma for the team selection in the second test (the playing eleven). With Yuvraj back from injury, and Kaif grabbing the opportunity given to play a match saving innings in the first test, the coach and the captain will have to take a bold decision. I guess the person going to sit back is V V S Laxman, one of the victims of bad umpiring in the first test. But I feel India has no other choice. And if this happens, I guess Laxman's career is hanging on balance, as he will find it tough to come back to the squad. One thing he can be assured is he won't get the great treatment the team accorded to the former captain Ganguly, since he has strong backing from Dravid.
I feel Yuvraj should be in the team for three reasons:
1. He is in the best patch of his career now. After getting back to back man of the series awards and scoring a century in Pak when all others failed, his confidence is sailing high.
2. He is a left hander, and India doesn't have any other left handed specialist batsman in the squad. This will make a huge difference as it will add diversity to the batting line up
3. He is a very good player of fast bowling. This has been the highlight of his career so far. I place him very high on his ability to play strokes against fast bowlers like Harmison and Flintoff.
And replacing Kaif with him will send wrong signals to the players, which leads to the natural omission of Laxman.
The selection of the bowlers also needs to be watched out. India, I guess will mostly go with two pacers and two spinners format, as they dont have any batsman who can open the bowling with medium fast if we select three spinners. This means Piyush Chawla has to wait a bit long before making his debut. Pathan, Kumble and Harbhajan will mostly make it to the squad. The fourth spot will be a trade off between Munaf Patel and Sree Shanth, both of who have bowled well in this series.
Let us wait and see...
I am not questioning the credibility of Munaf to be in the test squad. Of course, he deserves it for the spirited performance against England in the parctice match. But, then the selectors could have chosen him for the first test squad, but then they stuck with V R V Singh. Its bad that a person, after getting selected is omitted without even given a chance to prove his worthiness. V R V Singh, so far has always been at the wrong end, either due to injuries or some brave team selection by More and co. Hope he will be able to make up for it in the future.
There is going to be dilemma for the team selection in the second test (the playing eleven). With Yuvraj back from injury, and Kaif grabbing the opportunity given to play a match saving innings in the first test, the coach and the captain will have to take a bold decision. I guess the person going to sit back is V V S Laxman, one of the victims of bad umpiring in the first test. But I feel India has no other choice. And if this happens, I guess Laxman's career is hanging on balance, as he will find it tough to come back to the squad. One thing he can be assured is he won't get the great treatment the team accorded to the former captain Ganguly, since he has strong backing from Dravid.
I feel Yuvraj should be in the team for three reasons:
1. He is in the best patch of his career now. After getting back to back man of the series awards and scoring a century in Pak when all others failed, his confidence is sailing high.
2. He is a left hander, and India doesn't have any other left handed specialist batsman in the squad. This will make a huge difference as it will add diversity to the batting line up
3. He is a very good player of fast bowling. This has been the highlight of his career so far. I place him very high on his ability to play strokes against fast bowlers like Harmison and Flintoff.
And replacing Kaif with him will send wrong signals to the players, which leads to the natural omission of Laxman.
The selection of the bowlers also needs to be watched out. India, I guess will mostly go with two pacers and two spinners format, as they dont have any batsman who can open the bowling with medium fast if we select three spinners. This means Piyush Chawla has to wait a bit long before making his debut. Pathan, Kumble and Harbhajan will mostly make it to the squad. The fourth spot will be a trade off between Munaf Patel and Sree Shanth, both of who have bowled well in this series.
Let us wait and see...
Comments:
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I think leaving Kaif would be the right move, I know and you know that Kaif is no where near Laxman as a ODI batsman or a test batshan, he can't stay in the test team for one performance or for his fielding.
ButKaif has a good score behind him, it will be highly unfair to leave him without giving him enough chances.
Kaif doesn't have the elegance and class that Laxman has,but he still scores runs in a different style.We don't know about Kaif's temperament to play longer innings (he played a good innings in Nagpur, but in tests, u are expected to make bigger scores).So, I feel he should be given a fair chance before taking a decision.
Kaif doesn't have the elegance and class that Laxman has,but he still scores runs in a different style.We don't know about Kaif's temperament to play longer innings (he played a good innings in Nagpur, but in tests, u are expected to make bigger scores).So, I feel he should be given a fair chance before taking a decision.
These are my reasons, why Yuvraj should not be not be in the team.
1.Can't play good short pitch stuff, tends to hold out.
2.His drives on the up dont look pretty when the end up in hands of slips.
3.He is atrocious while playing spin.Any Test Match playing spinner will queue up to bowl to Yuvraj.
Kaif is a better bet in Test matches.
Kaif as we now know had a good run in the first Test
1.Can't play good short pitch stuff, tends to hold out.
2.His drives on the up dont look pretty when the end up in hands of slips.
3.He is atrocious while playing spin.Any Test Match playing spinner will queue up to bowl to Yuvraj.
Kaif is a better bet in Test matches.
Kaif as we now know had a good run in the first Test
Hey I think as it turns out they left Kaif, Yuvraj played a good innings only when there was absolutely no pressure on him in the third test with no chance of India winning. On the other hand Kaifs innings against the Aussies in Chennai were one of the finest considering that he was fasting.
And India did the positive thing by playing 5 bowlers and having enough faith in Pathan to play him as a regular #7.
As an after thought why is so much made of playing 3-4 left arm seamers??? You had 4 right armers in the Ashes Flintoff, Jones, Harmison and Hoggard and no one asked for variety then!!! Or even for that matter no one dropped Thompson or Lilee coz they were both right handed or for that matter Pollock and Ntini (by the way the SA team does not have a left arm seamer and they too play 4 right arm seamers)....Far too much is being made out of playing more than one left arm seamer!!
And India did the positive thing by playing 5 bowlers and having enough faith in Pathan to play him as a regular #7.
As an after thought why is so much made of playing 3-4 left arm seamers??? You had 4 right armers in the Ashes Flintoff, Jones, Harmison and Hoggard and no one asked for variety then!!! Or even for that matter no one dropped Thompson or Lilee coz they were both right handed or for that matter Pollock and Ntini (by the way the SA team does not have a left arm seamer and they too play 4 right arm seamers)....Far too much is being made out of playing more than one left arm seamer!!
Munaf Patel was rightly included in the team. Dont you think he deserves a place in the team after that 10 wt performance ? Regarding Laxman I do feel time has come to drop him (If the same criteria that were applied to Ganguly's exclusion applies to him too). Regarding Yuvraj i dont think he is a Test standard player . He is weak playing spinners (that means thats not much of a problem against Engaland)but may be handy if India goes in to attack mode especially in the 2nd Innings. About Kaif and Raina I feel they do deserve place in the team. Sadly , I also feel time has come to give Sachin a warning.
# posted by 
: 5:42 PM
: 5:42 PM
@Sreejith:
I think currently Indian team has enough batsman and better batsman, before we need to look at Kaif, personal opinion
@Caleb
As you say weird are the ways of Indian cricket selection
@Tarun
Somehow no stats or whatever cricket we have seem to suggest that Kaif is in anyway better than Yuvraj
@Anonymous
I nurtured similar doubts as you but I think he handled spinners very well against SL and then Pak.
@Nightwatchman
Nice quote
I think currently Indian team has enough batsman and better batsman, before we need to look at Kaif, personal opinion
@Caleb
As you say weird are the ways of Indian cricket selection
@Tarun
Somehow no stats or whatever cricket we have seem to suggest that Kaif is in anyway better than Yuvraj
@Anonymous
I nurtured similar doubts as you but I think he handled spinners very well against SL and then Pak.
@Nightwatchman
Nice quote
@ Caleb: They were not left with any choice here. The team felt that the bowling needs to be strengthened, and thus came in the fifth bowler.
So Kaif gave way to a fifth bowler and out went Laxman for Yuvi.
@tarun: Yuvi stuggles against short balls, but I guess it troubles him only in the beginning of his innings. And Yuvi is fortunate to be in Indian team, as he need not face Kumble or Harbhajan. His pathetic performance against spinners need not be an issue to be worried, as not many tams have a warne or murali with them, and he is ok with mediocre spinners.
Kaif also has flaws in his batting, he tends to shuffle a lot in the beginnning, and sometimes play away from his body.
@nightwatchmen: Yuvi has just made a start for his test career (at the expense of Sourav), and this is the second or third instance where he is picked for consecutive tests.
He didnt get much of a chance in the first two tests, and in the third test, he proved his worth.
Moreover, he played well in the series against SL before, and those were crucial knocks from him.
Kaif needs to get a longer run I guess before we come to a conclusion.
And about the left hand seamers issue, there is nothing wrong in playing 3-4 left seamers, but if we got a choice of playing right handers as well, why not take it? In that way, batsmen will get lesser time to get used to the lefties, and thus they will not be overexposed.
In case of South Africa or England, I feel they dont have many southpaws to choose from.
Anonymous: I agree munaf patel deserved a chance, but dont you think it was unfair for VRV Singh, as he get chosen and dropped without getting a chance?
So Kaif gave way to a fifth bowler and out went Laxman for Yuvi.
@tarun: Yuvi stuggles against short balls, but I guess it troubles him only in the beginning of his innings. And Yuvi is fortunate to be in Indian team, as he need not face Kumble or Harbhajan. His pathetic performance against spinners need not be an issue to be worried, as not many tams have a warne or murali with them, and he is ok with mediocre spinners.
Kaif also has flaws in his batting, he tends to shuffle a lot in the beginnning, and sometimes play away from his body.
@nightwatchmen: Yuvi has just made a start for his test career (at the expense of Sourav), and this is the second or third instance where he is picked for consecutive tests.
He didnt get much of a chance in the first two tests, and in the third test, he proved his worth.
Moreover, he played well in the series against SL before, and those were crucial knocks from him.
Kaif needs to get a longer run I guess before we come to a conclusion.
And about the left hand seamers issue, there is nothing wrong in playing 3-4 left seamers, but if we got a choice of playing right handers as well, why not take it? In that way, batsmen will get lesser time to get used to the lefties, and thus they will not be overexposed.
In case of South Africa or England, I feel they dont have many southpaws to choose from.
Anonymous: I agree munaf patel deserved a chance, but dont you think it was unfair for VRV Singh, as he get chosen and dropped without getting a chance?
Assume you are not dropping VRV Singh? Whom do you drop then ? Sreesanth ? or Pathan ? :)
# posted by : 11:25 PM
: 11:25 PM
What do you guys feel about Sachin ? Dont you guys hink its time to drop him ?
# posted by : 11:26 PM
: 11:26 PM
Lets hope Yuvraj plays well.He is out for paltry 15 today.
Kaif is better in Test.Yuvrak is brilliant in One Days.
I dont see them changing roles.
Kaif is a better bet then Yuvraj
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Kaif is better in Test.Yuvrak is brilliant in One Days.
I dont see them changing roles.
Kaif is a better bet then Yuvraj
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