With the year drawing to a close and Bangladesh fighting in the first test against Sri Lanka and the West Indies New Zealand game washed off, I decided to put together an India Second XI
India First XI
Gautam Gambhir
Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
VVS Laxman
Yuvraj Singh
MS Dhoni (c)
Zaheer Khan
Harbhajan Singh
Amit Mishra
Ishant Sharma
India Second XI
Murali Vijay
Shikhar Dhawan
Cheteshwar Pujara
Rohit Sharma
S Badrinath (c)
Virat Kohli
Dinesh Karthick
Irfan Pathan
Munaf Patel
Piyush Chawla
L Balaji
Honorable mentions - Ajinkya Rahane, Tanmay Srivastava, Suresh Raina, Md Kaif (c), Venugopal Rao, Manoj Tiwary, Abhishek Nayar, Parthiv Patel, S. Sreesanth, Siddharth Trivedi, Mohnish Parmar.
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Just for kicks..
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
30 comments:
Looks like we have better bench strength than Australia at the moment.
inadeeptrance,
We could actually have 4 XI's right now without too many debates - the only debate will be between who features in what XI :)
Thanks for your comments and welcome to the blog :)
Cheers,
Homer, Parmar shouldn't be in there becos of his chucking. People missing out (even honorable mentions that is) - Abhinav Mukund, Robin Uthappa (played a lone hand for Karnataka this year), D. Kulkarni, Ajit Agarkar, Suresh Raina. Kaif shouldn't be in there and Manoj Tiwary should be out as well (for innocuous performances throughout the year and for his ugly wide bowling to deny Badri his century in the Ranji QF). BTW, should DK be the captain for the second XI or should it be Badri? TN made DK the captain for 3 games and then continued with him even when Badri came back. Seems like the top Indian WKs prefer to be not just WKS but also the captain and frontline batsmen as well!
Homer,
The future is bright.:)
Prabu,
Parmar has been cleared by the NCA and has played both the A games as well as Ranji Trphy. That is good enough for me.
D Kulkari is in his rookie season- he has the tools but too early to call on where he stands. R Uthappa is a good call but then there are Akash Chopra and Wasim Jaffer who have had good seasons too. Uthappa is a bit too flash for my liking.
Tiwary did get a big 100 against TN and has performed pretty okay in the 3 seasons I have followed his game.
Badri captains because he was TN captain and is the A team captain.
Cheers,
Indeed it is Ott :)
Cheers,
Nice to see Kohli in the 'reserve' side. He and Pujara are definitely ones to watch.
Dhawan ahead of Jaffer, Chopra?
I think there are still doubts about Parmar.
Good to see Balaji back.
A P Webster,
It will be interesting to see how a lot of the U-19 alumni progress - Kohli needs atleast a couple of years in the Ranji Trophy before he can be ready.
Thanks for your comments and welcome to the blog
Cheers,
RGB,
Plenty of contenders for the opener slot.. I even forgot ot mention RP Singh :).
I like the look of Dhawan and he is an aggressive left hander. Plus a good arm in the deep and a pretty honest fielder.
Cheers,
y Dravid? Last time I remember you wanted him out?
Mahendra,
Because he is in the playing XI :). And I still want him out :)
Cheers,
PS:- I sent you the e-mail right after you asked me to.. Havent heard back from you yet.
Cheers,
wish you all a happy new year..
The second XI is poised for a promotion and the third XI looks good too. Saahil Kukreja (Mum opener) and Wriddhiman Saha (keeper bat) need consideration as well.
New year greetings to you and yours Homer.
must say the 'kick' looks good... :)
happy new year homer...
Very interesting post. I would submit that Dinda and/or Gony deserve to be in ahead of Irfan. Also I'd play W Saha instead of Karthick at Keeper. Last, I think Ravindra Jadeja and Asnodkar are long term prospects and deserve to be in the team.
I don't understand what Badrinath is doing as a captain. If you insist, D Karthick would be the better choice! In fact, Badrinath has been a failure as a captain (eg EPT, TN, SZ). And who wants a guy that is desperate to chase easy runs (when the opposition has given up) & can't score difficult ones - ie. why Badrinath over Kaif!!
Dhawan & Vijay? Pujara at 3?? Poor choices! Vijay has scored less FC runs than Rahane!! Perhaps Vijay is more composed and a better FSL fielder? Pujara has to be hidden from the moving ball. Dhawan is not top opener for Delhi when GG/VS are back. Select him for ODIs.
Rohit Sharma over Raina? Irfan Pathan is good enough at 7. Since this is about domestic is good enough, Chawla & Praveen Kumar are good enough allrounders for 8, 9- infact, match-winning ones. Admittedly they haven't had the best of seasons with ball. Manuf and Parmar (spinner) are the best other bowlers.
Venu Rao - are you mad!! Ok, I get it, this thread is about what the Chief Selector would have dreamed up. If that's the case, you should add Mukund, Ashwin & Ojha.
Vijay, Mukund, Badrinath, Pujara, Raina (left hander), D Karthik (c), Irfan, Chawla/ Ashwin, Sreesanth, Manuf, Ojha
Issacn
Happy New Year Sir. By the way, can I be considered for the logistic manager's post for that reserve XI?
SB as captain ? not sure if its deserving!!
Happy New Year Srinivasarao :)
Cheers,
SB,
Agreed.
Happy New Year :)
Cheers,
Happy New Year SP :)
Cheers,
Anonymous,
Gony hasnt really made too much of an impression post the IPL. Ditto Asnodkar ( although he suffers from no visibility being in the Plate League).
Otherwise, very good calls - some obvious talent there ..
Thanks for your comments and welcome to the blog
Cheers,
IsaacN,
The post was an exercise on where we stand with bench strength and what our roster depth looks like in batting and bowling.
And I am guilty of omitting more names than I have mentioned :)
And that is what makes the near future so interesting - we have people who are ready to step up to the plate- something that Indian cricket lacked for a long time.
And this is one debate where I would more than welcome being proven limited in my argument :)
Cheers,
Som,
Happy New Year.. Arent you the Media Liaison/Media Manager for all of the reserve teams ? :)
Cheers,
Som,
Happy New Year.. Arent you the Media Liaison/Media Manager for all of the reserve teams ? :)
Cheers,
Sam,
The only reason SB is the captain of my first reserve XI is because he is the A Team captain and was the TN captain.
Cheers,
Happy New Year!
yeah, but then he hasnt done anything significant....
WOW!
Thats all I can say.
And a Wasim Jaffar doesn't even get a look in.
Post a Comment