three impressive selections -
The India Squad for the Tri Series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan
Squad Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha.
Emerging Players Tournament
Squad for Australia Parthiv Patel (capt), S Badrinath (vice-capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Manoj Tiwary, Abhishek Nayar, Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Pankaj Singh, Manpreet Gony, Siddharth Trivedi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Iqbal Abdulla, Ravinder Jadeja, Pinal Shah.
Tour of Israel
Squad for Israel Jaydev Shah (capt), Swapnil Asnodkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravi Teja, M Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Rajat Bhatia, Yogesh Takawale (wk), Rakesh Dhruv, Mohnish Parmar, Vishal Bhatia, Basant Mohanty, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashok Dinda, R Vinay Kumar
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There have been a few quibbles ( not entirely unjustified) about the non inclusion of Badri and Tiwary and Gony for the national cap. However, I feel that the selectors have got it right.
Badri and company will be more severely tested playing Australia and South Africa and New Zealand at Brisbane than they will be playing UAE in Lahore. And, from a medium and long term point of view, this series should benefir them more than playing against Bangladesh or a now weakened Pakistan or a HongKong.
The one issue I had was the selection of Jaydev Shah as captain of the team for Israel. Granted that it is but an exhibition match(es), but I could not escape the feeling that Mr Shah was in the squad ( and leading it ) because he was Mr Shah's (Niranjan) boy ( and remember that Vengsarkar and Niranjan have had their run ins regarding Jaydev's selection before).
Having said that, Jaydev was captain of a Saurashtra side that made it to the semi finals of the Elite League of the Ranji Trophy in what was one of the closest ( if not the closest) Ranji Championships ever.
Therefore, apologies are in order.
Overall though, I am pretty impressed by the teams selected. And Sachin's injury could not have happened at a more opportune time ( unlike 2004 ).
We have a good mix of players now, and a roster that is fairly deep. Which augurs well for the rest and recuperation periods of our Test team. Who need to be at their peak against the spinner less Australians, come October.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Three teams
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10 comments:
Good to see guys like Gony, Dinda, Saha, Bhatia in the two teams going to Aus and Israel. But I think Shukla should have been there.
The Transmitter,
Thanks for your comments.
LR Shukla did not have a good year in domestic cricket last season - 221 runs at 22.1 and 2 wickets at 31 apiece
And Bengal got relegated to the Plate League.
Cheers
Top-end series, 2 years ago was great for Gambhir, Uthappa, Badrinath, Rohit and Chawla. India had a mix of 4-day and 1-day players and that worked well.
Rahane/ Parthiv opening combo is more suited for FC. Dhawan, Badri are in top form. Tiwary is off-colour. Nayar and Kohli have a gilt-edged opportunity with bat and ball. That's my 7.
This squad lacks good pace bowlers. Trivedi & Kulkarni don't have pace, whilst Pankaj has disappointed in ODs. Mishra & Abdulla are an excellent spin combo. It's just a matter of fitting them in. Manuf and VRV Singh will be missed, though they don't need this exposure. Issacn
Cricket administrators in the subcontinent have gone mad. Cricket in the subcontinent in June? Badri et al are lucky in more ways than one.
That is some bench strength!
wonderful! finally, badrinath is an emerging player.
at this rate he should fully emerge in a few years
Anonymous,
Thanks for your comments.
Granted that the pace attack is not up there, but since the tourney is an ODI one,the overall team looks right.
Cheers,
lol Samir.. Welcome to the world of the FTP :)
Cheers
Q,
a few more "A" tours before we can fully assess the strength and the depth of the bench
Cheers,
lol Naked :)
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