India has seen its fortunes changed in 2007 and this recent victory against Australia has been of historic proportions. India now has a smart Test captain who has been one of the greatest servants to Indian cricket. The ODI captain Dhoni is also smart, savvy and passionate.
The recent announcement of Ganguly being dropped has stunned many. Already the Indian media and much of the public is fuming over this action by the Selection Committee. Ganguly was the country’s most prolific scorer in 2007 and his form gained much more prominence because of the fact that he made a return to international cricket after being dropped for poor form.
The CF management would like your views on whether dropping Ganguly was a good move. An experienced player is always handy against a quality opposition, but Ganguly does not have the best record against Australia, as his fellow seniors Tendulkar and Dravid do. Is it time to depend on the youth to carry India’s ambitions forward, youth that stirred a worldwide frenzy following the victory in the Twenty20 Cup and much of India’s glory post World Cup 2007?
What are your views on this squad?
Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla
Sehwag’s return as opener following a decent show at Perth, Karthik being retained despite lacklustre form and Raina being included? Also Sreesanth is in the squad now which will be a bonus provided he keeps his cool. Chawla may be another youngster to look out for, as he has been impressive for whatever little we have seen of him.
I fully support Gambhir’s selection because I feel he is India’s best opener for now, ahead of Sehwag, Jaffer or Karthik. The fact that he is left handed also helps. Should India opt for a left-right hand opening combination?
I have the feeling this ODI series may be more competitive than Test series. This means there is plenty of good cricket to look forward to.
rmkrish66,
Kumble did retire from ODI cricket after the 2007 WC. His last game was against Bermuda in the World Cup.
I dont think raina is overrated …. When that kid got break in team india nobody was talking ab’t his batting (rightly so coz he was batting too low)….. everybody praised his fielding and enthusiasm in the field. Then he got stuck in the finishing job and this was the time “guru greg” started defending him like a desperate guru. All this non-nonsensical buzz ab’t him like comparision with sachin and how aussies coach so impressed with raina in abu dhabi …. is solely due to chappell. And then comes media abashment that how chappell ruined pathan and how raina is overrated averaging just 25 odd run in 30 odd matches. But raina takes it very positively after his exit from team … first got his shoulder operated then worked on his technique and got plenty of runs ….but it was the manner in which he got those runs have attracted selectors. In almost every match he counterattacked the opposition thats why his strike rate is almost 100 in this session ranji trophy. Even he scored a double hundred with that strike rate. This is the only weakness i see in him … he plays too many strokes early in his innings. Lets see how he is going to perform in aus. I think Kirsten will be there for odis … and he can get valuable advice from him.
Sehwag is another story …… dont know his form is back or not …. let him perform in adelaide first. His form depends on shot selection … and aussies are not going to feed him loose deliveries like other teams do.
i think kumble has retired from one day cricket.Am i right or not. Please clarify.
Raina scored 683 runs with an average of 48.78 and helped UP reach the Ranji Trophy finals. He scored 3 fifties in 3 games in the Challenger series. He is a better fielder than Ganguly, Dravid or Sehwag. I agree he is over-rated but the selectors could not ignore his good form throughtout the Ranji season. He flashes too mush outside the off-stump and this shortcoming will be exposed in Australia.
As for Sehwag, he should be in the Test team, but I’m not sure about ODIs, where he gets too carried away and gets caught at slip or by the ‘keeper regularly. He can be an asset, but he should be picked in the XI only if he does well at Adelaide.
Javed:
Dipika didn’t killed two birds with one stone in fact she killed three ,the third one is our own Show actor who is still missing in action or AWOL in India. I hope he stays there.
With the exception of dropping Ganguly I think India selected the best they have for ODI’s, Dravid is too slow for ODI’s no doubt he is a great batsman but I think BCCI is on the right track, its better to have a smooth transition rather than an abrupt one.
The other day I was watching a Ranji trophy final and this Suresh Raina guy only scored 16 and was out playing a lousy shot he is
highly over rated and a mediocre player.
Sehawag and Gambhir should open, jaffer has already failed in the tests also he is a nervous starter I think India should opt for Gambhir.
Contrary to what people are saying that they would have selected either Ganguly or Dravid at the expense of Sehwag. I would have never dropped Sehwag, instead I would have never got Suresh Raina in the squad.
This kid was praised so much after one good innings against Pakistan that they started comparing him with Tendulkar. This is the most common and the biggest mistake the sub-continent India Pakistan media makes. They did this to so many players like, Pathan, Munna Bhai Patel, Nehra, Balaji, Salman Butt (as a new found Saeed Anwar) and Sami as the best fast bowler and Sohail Tanvir as budding Wasim Akram and so and so forth.
All of the above names that I have mentioned above, except for Tanvir who is still new and not suffered from the instant stardom syndrome, while the others have had their ups and downs and some like Balaji and Nehra disappeared into oblivion either because of injuries or because of lack of form. But, they were victim of praise. And, Suresh Raina for sure does not deserve that much praise accolades and a recall. Even Dhoni and Yuvraj’s performance has been effected by this media showering praise and accolades which lead the Indian actress Dipika to take a dip in the cricket arena and distract the concentration of both these players. I don’t know whom she targeted but the news is she has killed two birds with one stone!
In my yesterday’s comments on the other thread on Zimbabwe, I wrote something about the announcement of the ODI squad of India which omitted the names of Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman, Kumble etc., and I wrote that what kinda effect this announcement will have on the psyche of these players especially Ganguly and Dravid when they have to play the 4th test? Perhaps Laxman and Kumble knew their fate before hand. But, for G and D it must be a total surprise.
Even if this was to be announced they should have waited till the end of the 4th test because this is not the right time to tell someone you better pack your bags and get ready to go after the 4th test. The selectors in India and Pakistan must be real duds to do this.
I have also read the newspaper clipping posted by khansahab which narrates the row between Sallu and Law-lu. Finally the Ullu interfered and Nullu-fied or diffused the situation. So, the selectors these days are showing off their muscles because their Board’s coffers are full of dollars and they don’t realize the money is coming from the game and, the game is dependent on the players and the audience or fans whatever.
I am not sure whether ganguly was informed or told before his exclusion but they shud have done that. After playing 10 yrs of cricket for his country he deserves dignified exit. Same for dravid. But i do believe its right time for their departure. After all its 8 odis they are going to play on australian soil and giving opportunities to youths to play best opponent on extremely opposite conditions will benefit them as well as indian cricket. Let these guys play and learn the skill … how to beat best in the business, though i am not sure how many matches they are going to win against australia, but its worth to bring youth.
I am happy that they bring raina back. Seriously this guy has got grace in his batting. Only thing of doubt abt him is his temperament. There is always a thin line between aggression and foolishness.
Gambhir is i think playing his best cricket now … selectors cant ignore him. Earlier he was just a mere replacement of ganguly .. but removing ganguly this time …. team has shown confidence in him.
Uthappa seems to be really confused about his role in the team and this results in his terrible bad run in the ranji matches. He hardly scored in double figures in all the ranji matches he played this season. Team management shud address this issue sincerely. Looks like Karthik is struggling with same problem.
Rohit sharma can be a reliable middle order batsman .. team shud persist with him and his role shudn’t be just warming the bench.
Good to see chawla and praveen kumar back in the team. These guys have learnt their cricket in hard ways so no doubt about their characters. Lets see how they are going to perform.
About competitiveness i dont think odis are going to be like ongoing test series. Apart from melbourne, both test matches were highly competitive and adelaide will be like so. But watching odis will be fun for sure if fellow indians take it lightly and support the team.
I think they should have selected either Ganguly or Dravid at the expense of Sehwag. It was a good move selecting youngsters, but in Australia, I feel any 2 of the Big Three must play. Considering that India also face SL and bowlers like Murali and Vaas, an experienced player would’ve been handy. But then again this is the perfect oppurtunity for players like Gambhir and Raina to prove that they really belong here.
Gambhir scored a match-winning hundred in the Ranji trophy final and Praveen Kumar took 8 wickets in an innings in the same match, and Raina too has been in good form this Ranji season and so their call-up was along expected lines. But I suspect Gambhir would have to make way for the more experienced Sehwag in the final XI, a move which could backfire if Viru once again throws his wicket away. The selection of Uthappa and R.Sharma is a bit surprising since they were not at their best in the Ranji Trophy. But I guess they were picked on the basis of their international experience.
The bowling has been slightly weakened by the injury of Zaheer, so it’s time for RP and Pathan to lead the inexperienced attack. It’ll be good if Sreesanth keeps his mouth shut, but knowing him, I think he will have an interesting time in Oz, and I think there will be at least 1 controversy surrounding him.
Overall, I think it’s a very inexperienced squad, led by a player who is touring Aus for the 1st time. I think India are a more balanced team in Tests than in ODIs so I don’t think we should expect miracles from India in the CB series, but if India play like they have been playing in the T20s, who knows.