Skip to main content

Yusuf, Raina could do with some competition

As has been written about quite a bit, the Champions Trophy showed up India's bench strength quite starkly. In the absence of Yuvraj, Sehwag, and Zaheer and with Ishant and Harbhajan being so off-colour, the second rung couldn't quite pull together a single performance worthy of a world-beating side. Both the batting and bowling are to blame but I think the former has not got as much attention as it merits because the bowling was so dreadful.

An initial look at the potential line-up for the 2011 World Cup would suggest Tendulkar (assuming he's fit and still around), Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, and Dhoni as certainties. A strong batting line-up that but very often, the difference in crunch games comes from who's at 6 and 7. Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan currently occupy those spots but neither of them have made too much of their chances there. Raina averages 35 after 71 matches and while those are not bad figures, he has not played a match-winning hand often enough from that position. Virat Kohli averages over 42 (albeit after only 9 games) but also over 50 in domestic 50-over games. Similarly, Yusuf Pathan averages a little over 20 after 30 matches and picks up a wicket only every other game on average. His fielding too is not really upto scratch and it is a pity that Ravindra Jadeja hasn't been picked more often for a similar role. Yusuf would be one of the first names on my team-sheet for a T20 tournament but 50-over cricket requires a more adaptable temperament and Jadeja seems a likelier candidate for that role.

The Australia series represents a good chance to have a closer look at Kohli and Jadeja and to see if they have "the right stuff". Lets hope the selectors are bold enough to go that way.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Much ado about a run-out

Judging by the amount that's been said and written about Ian Bell's run-out-that-wasn't at Trent Bridge, you would think that it has been the most significant occurrence of the series so far when nothing could be further from the truth. Andrew Miller  and Samir Chopra seem to be of the opinion that it was the crucial turning point in the match, which I completely disagree with (the post-tea sessions on days one and two were far more critical and momentum shifting). Andy Flower says that if Tendulkar had been run-out similarly in Bombay, it would have caused an international incident. He's clearly feeling the effects of having been in the England cricket set-up for too long given that a) its very improbable that Tendulkar would do something as daft as Bell did, and b) when a controversial run-out (but within the laws) did happen to him (against Pakistan at Eden Gardens no less), Tendulkar went out to the crowd and appealed to them to calm down and let the game proceed...
Post a Comment
Read more

A kick up the backside

Its very interesting (and revealing) that so many Indian cricketers pull up their socks and become better players once they've been dropped from the side and left out in the cold for a while. The trend is even more prevalent currently when the selectors have a larger pool of good players to choose from. Dravid (from the one-day team), Kumble, Ganguly, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan, the list goes on. In fact, the only people I can think of who haven't been dropped at any point in recent years are Tendulkar (in any form of the game), and Dravid (from the Test team). This article in the TOI attributes their post-drop performance improvements (at least in Yuvraj's case and a few more as well) to anger. I'm not too sure I agree. I think its more a generic Indian mentality of taking things easy and getting soft and comfortable too easily. Its a national trait and one that needs great guarding against. I've discovered the hard way how getting physically unfit or slack...
Post a Comment
Read more

First thoughts on the Ashes

The only minor surprise for me in the 2013 Australian Ashes squad announced last week was the selection of James Faulkner ahead of Moises Henriques as the second all-rounder. Minor because given  the Shane Watson shenanigans of recent times, I would have thought that Inverarity and co would have opted for a second batting all-rounder (which is what Henriques clearly is). Instead they've gone with a bowling all-rounder in Faulkner and it'll be interesting to see what happens if Watson's batting woes in Test match cricket continue in the first two Tests. As for the rest of the squad, given the way the inexperienced batting performed in India, Rogers and Haddin were always going to make it in to the team and the choice of Khawaja over Smith appears sound too given that the latter's strength is in playing spin bowling. The batting still looks as unsettled and shaky as the Indian fast bowling line-up and its here that the series will be won or lost for the Aussies. The retu...
Post a Comment
Read more