The below are my players for the test series and this is the team for the whole series as i have never believed in selecting a team for the first 2 tests and leave doubts in the minds of the players.
- Kumble (Captain)
- Sachin
- Dravid
- Sehwag
- Laxmaan
- Gambhir
- Raina / Ganguly
- Dhoni
- Harbhajan
- I.Sharma
- Z.Khan
- Kholi / R.G.Sharma
- Ohja /Sreesanth/R.P.Singh/
I think this will be his last series as captain and may be he will lead against England before Dhoni takes over or may be the selectors may surprise by naming Dhoni as captain. In my view Kumble should continue to be the captain for the Australia series and Dhoni can take over the captaincy against England. I have a feeling that Ganguly may get the axe from the team and Raina will take his place and get a chance to play in the XI depending on whether india wants to play 5 bowlers. I feel it will not be fair to select Ganguly and keep him out of the playing XI. As almost 10 of the 13 virtually take their place, its going to be either Kholi or Sharma to play the 12 man and the other bowler in ohja/R.P.Singh/Sreesanth to be the other reserves in the squad. As the series progress we will have choices in making changes depending on the performance. As we are playing in Mohali and Delhi where the ball seams and swings a bit we may even play 3 fast bowlers.
If Dhoni and the top order (Gambhir,Sehwag,Sachin,Dravid & Laxmaan) comes up with good scores, we can even go with the 5th bowler dropping the 6th specialist batsman.
| OCT -Thu 9 - Mon 13 09:30 local, 04:00 GMT | 1st Test - India v Australia M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore |
| OCT- Fri 17 - Tue 21 09:30 local, 04:00 GMT | 2nd Test - India v Australia Punjab Cricket Association Stadium,Mohali, Chandigarh |
| OCT-Wed 29 - Sun 2 09:30 local, 04:00 GMT | 3rd Test - India v Australia Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi |
| November 2008 | |
| Thu 6 - Mon 10 09:30 local, 04:00 GMT | 4th Test - India v Australia Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur |
Badrinath Fails Again
Its sad that Badri has failed yet again and i am sure this failure is not going to do him any good when the test squad is selected. Kholi has come with a fine unbeaten half century and in all probability will feature in the test squad with shear performance. Badri reminds me of Sharath who scored tons and tons of runs in the domestic cricket but when ever there was a chance against the visiting team he failed and never got a chance to play for India. I wish Badri does not repeat the same mistake again and feel pity for himself, its not going to do any good for his future.
3 comments:
@Dhoni, Is he really has the capacity to captain the side in longer version of the game ?
The pressure in Test matches is not that much when compared to ODIs and he is known to lead well under pressure.... Will he show the same caliber in test ?
@Badri, he has played only 2 to 3 matches and juding from the same will be too harsh.......
Karthik.
Agreed that badri has played only 2 - 3 games but the problem is players from TN get only that many chances, one has to prove himself with the minimum chances that come your way. If you had read my earlier post on the TamilNadu cricket you will understand that the past cricketers from TN has not good for the selectors to pick our players.
On Dhoni, yes you are right that he may not be the correct person to lead the longer version of the game but we don't have many options. His attitude towards test cricket has also raised few doubts after he rested himself for the srilanka test series but sadly there is no other person who can be thought of leading the team !!!
The top 4 is moving towards retirement and you cant risk Viru's form for captaincy, so its only matter of time that he takes over. As you said even i have my own doubts on his ability to prove himself in the longer version of the game even as a player.
Vasu.. this seems to be a well balanced team. Now, that Ganguly is out Raina/Yuvaraj will get a play. But, i feel that Badrinath will be very well suited to that role, as he is a natural accumalator, who can settle in and play a long innings, unlike Raina or Yuvaraj. He can also chip in with some overs.
Regarding Dhoni, it will be better if he continues to be Kumble's deputy and take over this role after one year or so. But, i dont accept the argument that he is not the correct person. Even many eyebrows were raised when he was awarded the T20 or ODI captaincy. But, he carried on with aplomb. Who knows, that may be carried on to the test as well. Coz, many a times he has proved that he is a silent weapon.
Post a Comment