This has been on my mind for quite some time now. I was wondering does India have enough bench strength so much so that, a new eleven can be picked up in place of the existing eleven. This, of course, I have done for the Test team. Despite all the hype, fun, and ever growing popularity, T20 is anyone's game and ODIs are becoming representative of T20 psyche more often than not. So, I restrict myself to the test teams, for now. Barring Murali Vijay and Piyush Chawla, I have wanted to pick guys who have not played in tests for India before, but who could make it big next. Piyush Chawla might draw some strong reactions/emotions, but my belief of him is that he was drafted in to the team too early, and age is on his side for him to pick it up from here. Pragyan Ojha should deny him a place in the side for long, but so might be true of several others finding a mention in this side.
But, there is one thing that has made me worried. It was quite easy to select the bowlers, for there are hardly any. Despite the repeated assurances we give ourselves, truth is we have a not very consistent bowling attack of the top four teams in the world today. And that there is no encouragement about an exciting prospect in the leagues, is depressing.
So, here it goes:
1) Murali Vijay
2) Abhinav Mukund
3) Rohit Sharma *
4) Cheteshwar Pujara
5) Manish Pandey
6) Ravindra Jadeja
7) Pinal Shah +
8) Pradeep Sangwan
9) Bhuvneshwar Kumar
10) Piyush Chawla
11) Sudeep Tyagi
Badri can't be so unlucky to even miss out on ur second XI man....poor guy, he'll have a heart attack if he takes this seriously...
ReplyDeleteI'll have Badri instead of Manish Pandey (he's looking good for sure but its a little too early I guess).
Now that you selected Murali Vijay and Piyush who have already represented India, take the same liberty with a few more people. I would have Ojha ahead of Piyush, Munaf (if u think he's played enough for India to be considered fringe, maybe a gamble with Abhimanyu Mithun - what say?) instead of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Dinesh Karthik instead of Pinal Shah. Hell, too much of Tamilnadu players in the team man - may be Abhinav Mukund is a bit of a lazy pick. Thats what happens when we follow only some sections of the domestic cricket I guess...
you seem to be bitten by the same bug that bit our selectors of the late 90's... every bowler who took Sachin's wicket in the challenger trophy was selected to play for India - David Johnson, Nehra, even Piyush Chawla came through that scheme! I hope Bhuvanesh Kumar doesn't turn out to be one more in that list...
Ravinder Jadeja seems a misfit too. Damn I cant seem to remember any genuine all rounder in our domestic scene now, if someone can buffer their memories and recollect a few names for consideration pls...I hope Arun doesn't come up with Laxmi Ratan Shukla here!
On a lighter note, what about Ranadeb Bose????
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ReplyDeleteAs I said last night, Badri is the perennial 12th man dude! Such a good player and he is accused of not being up to the mark, which he never got to prove for a lack of opportunity. Does not even look like he will get one.
ReplyDeletePragyan Ojha is already there in the team, but lets see how consistent he can be now. Dinesh Karthik??!! I am not too sure dude. He drops such sitters on a regular basis.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has age on his side to pick up pace and his ability to move ball both sides makes him my choice.
And you said the right thing, Ranadeb bose, and he should be partnered by Syed Shahabuddin ;-)
If not Dinesh Karthik, how about Parthiv patel?? Oh yea he's blind too... well then atleast Wridhiman Saha, definitely not pinal shah mate... Irfan pathan has only himself to blame for everything that happened to him, but he deserves a place ahead of Sangwan... Sangwan's got the age so let him perform consistenly in Ranji, same goes with Tyagi aswell, am not too sure about his domestic record but I haven't really heard anything BIG bout him and certainly Bose deserves a place ahead of him and would rather do well if he can add more pace to his bowling to go with beautiful outswingers he's already got... Bhuvaneshwar kumar, chawla, Irfan pathan would help me not choose an allrounder at 6, so Jadeja might make way for Badri.
ReplyDeleteC.Ganapathy has been in pretty good form this season with the bat and ball, but may be he needs to be a bit more consistent but i've got a feeling he might make it to the Rest of India squad if TN doesn't win this yrs Ranji.
If you think Bose deserves a place then so do I!
ReplyDeleteThe last ball that he bowled to Sachin in the nets in England a couple of years back is yet to reach him it seems.....
Those dolly swingers anyone can bowl man. His physical appearance is as contradictory to his bowling as possible. Looks three quarters Merv Hughes and bowls slightly faster than Chris Harris!
How about the lanky paceman siddharth trivedi who looked impressive in IPL...hes not been doing too bad for Gujarat in the ranji lately ...If i remember right he took a 5 for in a recent match ....In fact the self proclaimed cricket connosieur THIRU HESH also had a few good things to say about him the other day...
ReplyDeleteThats a good point. Siddharth is quite promising. I just hope he is nurtured well unlike how Munaf was left to himself to pick up the pieces when things were not going his way...I would have Siddharth ahead of both Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Sangwan.
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