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Holes in India's ODI line up


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1. The number 7 batsman/allrounder : It's a crucial batting position where the batsman has to take control of the last 15-20 overs at times, bat with the tail, or bludgeon some quick runs from the last 5-6 overs. The ideal fit for the position would be an allrounder who can give the team 6-8 overs and perform with the bat. Or if you think you have a batsman good enough to play most of the facets of the slot, pick him at the expense of weakening the bowling. Yusuf Pathan was tried at the slot and given a long run - he failed to deliver with the bat and his bowling was also not very useful. Jadeja is being given a run right now and has done very well with the ball and is a superb fielder. However, his batting does not seem to be able to fill in any sort of role a number 7 should be able to perform. Perhaps, it is a matter of early career nerves and given that he is bowling well, India should stick with him for this series. Irfan Pathan is another candidate for the spot. He can score quickly, has international level experience, and also has the ability to play out 15-20 overs if needed, something Yusuf was incapable of doing. Abhishek Nayar would be another candidate for the spot - hard hitting batsman who has shown the ability to play longer innings at least at the domestic level. His bowling is unlikely to be a force though and there is a greater chance that Irfan can deliver the 6-8 overs the team would look for from the slot. 2. The pace attack : Nehra has bowled consistently well since his return and Zaheer would be a certain pick when he gets back. P Kumar has done reasonable well while Ishant and RP Singh have been downright pathetic. One can count on one hand the number of times Ishant has been able to complete his quota of overs this year, leaving the captain struggling to fill in the gap for one of his frontline bowler every other match. Till Zaheer gets back, Nehra and P Kumar are certain starters. For the third fast bowling option, one has to think if these continuous hammerings are doing Ishant any good. There appears to be no harm in giving Tyagi or Sreesanth a chance. Specially Sreesanth who has bowled a lot of overs over the last few months to demonstrate his fitness. Irfan can also be played as a third seam bowling option and in that case the team can play two frontline spinners in Mishra and Harbhajan. 3. The spin attack : Harbhajan has to be put under pressure to perform. Being outbowled by Hauritz over 4 matches running should not be overlooked. His batting has started bringing in value at the number 8 spot, but he is a bowler first. Ojha is a good backup, so is Mishra. 4. Backup middle order : As long as the first choice batting line up is available, there are no problems with the top 6. Not too many sides can compete head to head with Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, and Raina. However, in the face of an injury there are problems. Kohli and Sharma are still unproven. Both are very talented and perhaps just need time, but for the moment are bit of weak links. Karthik is decent without being spectacular. Dravid does not seem to figure in the long term plans. 5. Fielding : India are the worst fielding side in the world with the exception of Pakistan. That we have been in the top 3 consistently despite that is a big achievement. Can anything be done to improve this aspect? I doubt it. This is something the team will just have to live with and move on except for some minor technical improvements which can be made. I would like to give the following line up a chance : Tendulkar Sehwag Gambhir Yuvraj Dhoni Raina I Pathan Harbhajan P Kumar A Mishra Nehra Reserves : Kohli Karthik Sreesanth I Sharma R Jadeja

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I cannot agree with you anymore. It is really pathetic that Hauritz has outbowled Harbhajan in 4 consecutive games and I didn't want to bring this up because I know this would turn into stats throwing jostling. You can clearly see Harbhajan is really short of confidence here when he is try to throw darts at batsmen like White (WTF?). There is absolutely nothing from him where he would look to exploit the pitch conditions. I think the faster we learn to live with two "holes" in our cricketing abilities, the better it will be for our future. We seem to produce absolute garbage all rounders and our fielding was never good to begin with. We should stop pursuing a all-rounder and just look for specialists to to their job. As long as the 6 batsmen do their job and 5 bowlers do theirs, I think we will be more than happy to carry such a team around which will guarantee us success more often than not. Off topic: Is it me or do you see Bhajji's wrist jerking while he is throwing his javelins ? I might be wrong here but in today's game I saw him doing that at least 3-5 times in his entire spell and you do not have to take my word for it neither believe me.

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Good summary there Shwetabh. One request though – Can you list what you think would be the most effective Indian line-up? That way it will be easier to relate your opinions to an actual line-up and see for ourselves what the merits/demerits are.

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1. The number 7 batsman/allrounder : It's a crucial batting position where the batsman has to take control of the last 15-20 overs at times, bat with the tail, or bludgeon some quick runs from the last 5-6 overs. The ideal fit for the position would be an allrounder who can give the team 6-8 overs and perform with the bat. Or if you think you have a batsman good enough to play most of the facets of the slot, pick him at the expense of weakening the bowling. Yusuf Pathan was tried at the slot and given a long run - he failed to deliver with the bat and his bowling was also not very useful. Jadeja is being given a run right now and has done very well with the ball and is a superb fielder. However, his batting does not seem to be able to fill in any sort of role a number 7 should be able to perform. Perhaps, it is a matter of early career nerves and given that he is bowling well, India should stick with him for this series. Irfan Pathan is another candidate for the spot. He can score quickly, has international level experience, and also has the ability to play out 15-20 overs if needed, something Yusuf was incapable of doing. Abhishek Nayar would be another candidate for the spot - hard hitting batsman who has shown the ability to play longer innings at least at the domestic level. His bowling is unlikely to be a force though and there is a greater chance that Irfan can deliver the 6-8 overs the team would look for from the slot. 2. The pace attack : Nehra has bowled consistently well since his return and Zaheer would be a certain pick when he gets back. P Kumar has done reasonable well while Ishant and RP Singh have been downright pathetic. One can count on one hand the number of times Ishant has been able to complete his quota of overs this year, leaving the captain struggling to fill in the gap for one of his frontline bowler every other match. Till Zaheer gets back, Nehra and P Kumar are certain starters. For the third fast bowling option, one has to think if these continuous hammerings are doing Ishant any good. There appears to be no harm in giving Tyagi or Sreesanth a chance. Specially Sreesanth who has bowled a lot of overs over the last few months to demonstrate his fitness. Irfan can also be played as a third seam bowling option and in that case the team can play two frontline spinners in Mishra and Harbhajan. 3. The spin attack : Harbhajan has to be put under pressure to perform. Being outbowled by Hauritz over 4 matches running should not be overlooked. His batting has started bringing in value at the number 8 spot, but he is a bowler first. Ojha is a good backup, so is Mishra. 4. Backup middle order : As long as the first choice batting line up is available, there are no problems with the top 6. Not too many sides can compete head to head with Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, and Raina. However, in the face of an injury there are problems. Kohli and Sharma are still unproven. Both are very talented and perhaps just need time, but for the moment are bit of weak links. Karthik is decent without being spectacular. Dravid does not seem to figure in the long term plans. 5. Fielding : India are the worst fielding side in the world with the exception of Pakistan. That we have been in the top 3 consistently despite that is a big achievement. Can anything be done to improve this aspect? I doubt it. This is something the team will just have to live with and move on except for some minor technical improvements which can be made. I would like to give the following line up a chance : Tendulkar Sehwag Gambhir Yuvraj Dhoni Raina I Pathan Harbhajan P Kumar A Mishra Nehra Reserves : Kohli Karthik Sreesanth I Sharma R Jadeja
good starting line up but we need to move on from failures like kohli and karthik and bring in abhishek nayar and manish pandey to bring in some much needed flair however dhobi will not do so
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Yep, good points all of em. Allrounder: An in form and fit Irfan- the one that did so well for a while under Greg Chappel- would help us no end. Youre right RJ isnt a no.7 but cant bat any higher. he does seem to be a good batsman though; just needs to long to settle in Bowling: I still think playing two frontline spinners is the way to go at home- and again having a med pace bolwing allrounder will help. Had Mishra been bowling instead of Sharma today- we'd have been chasing a FAR lower total. Yuvraj is a good part-timer- but thats all he is a part timer. Ishant has been ok though-today aside. Praveen has found his swing again, and Nehra is bowling like his pre injury days. Personally I think Zaheer should retire from ODIs and keep himself fit for test cricket. Back up batting: Yeah, no real bench strength is there...? Not yet anyway. This is where a bit better long term planning would have seen the likes of Vijay and Badri play in a relatively less important series such as the one in WI a few months ago (they were in the squad). Just to see of theyre upto intl standard I heard we fielded better today than the first few ODIs....

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Abhishek Nayar is useless' date=' Dhoni can bowl much better than him...his batting for MI as well as in the couple of ODIs he's played has been pathetic[/quote'] Tall and broad shouldered, Abhishek Nayar is a useful right-arm medium-pacer who has time and again got Mumbai crucial breaktrhoughs in his young first-class career. He does not quite have the pace to be a regular attacking option, but it's with his left-hand batting that he becomes a natural selection. Capable of crease occupation as well as hitting the ball hard, Nayar chipped in with vital contributions in Mumbai's successful Ranji campaign in 2006. The first-class century narrowly eluded him for a time - he made 97 against Gujarat in 2006 - but when it came it was a big one, 152 against Karachi Urban in the Mohammad Nissar Trophy. Nayar was bought by the lucrative Indian Premier League's Mumbai franchise in early 2008 and enjoyed regular playing time as the tournament kicked off. In the final of the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy he made a vital 99 that helped set up Mumbai's 38th triumph and, after being on the fringes of the national side, was selected for ODI squad to tour West Indies in June. Cricinfo staff June 2009 :hysterical::hysterical:jack***
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Rightnow India depends heavily on Dhoni ' date=' Yuvi and Gambhir. Others are not really making their presence felt as often as they should.[/quote'] That will always be the case - very rarely will you have all batsmen in top form. But Tendulkar and Sehwag are class players and it's only a matter of time before they make their contribution in the series. It's in the bowling department which is more worrying where the likes of Harbhajan and Ishant have been bowling crap consistently.
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I agree with all the points mentioned and that echoes my feelings too. I would also like to add the top order to that as that was not discussed. Personally I like the Veeru innings at the start. But from a team point of view I would like to see him batting longer and not growing restless. He scores a quick 30 or so and gives the team a good start but nowadays he is again going back to the form before he was dropped where he became restless and just gifts away his wicket. At the same time, I would like to see a change in the opening pair. Though I have immense respect for Sachin but I cannot live in the past. He was the best opener every produced in cricket. But at the same time, he has changed his style of play in the last few years and he paces the innings very well. And that is the work of a no.3 batsman and not an opener. Previously Sachin used to take quick singles but he is not that agile in taking the quick singles especially at the start. So, I would prefer Gauti opening the innings with Veeru as Gauti is one of the best batsman in taking quick singles and giving the strike to Veeru. At the same time, Gauti also hits the boundaries in between and I have hardly seen him wasting balls at any position he bats. Many people give the justification that Sachin might not be that effective at no.3 but I would not agree to it. Frankly speaking, Sachin has never been played consistently at no.3 . In India the no.3 batsman is very nearly an opening batsman who comes within the first 15 overs. Even in the best possible case, Veeru will only remain for the first 15 overs in say 1 out of 3-5 matches. And that is a fact and that is what Indian team mostly expects from him. 10-12 overs is enough for Veeru to even reach a 50 when he plays his natural game and that is what he normally does. So, Sachin would in most possibilities come within the first 15 overs itself. Anyways that maintains a left-right combination throughout in Veeru-Gauti and then Gauti-Sachin and this both the pairs are the best fitted to the first 10 overs and then the 10-30 overs period respectively. Hope that it is done soon as I am quite sure it would help a lot in the overall balance of the team.

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Good summary. Some other points: 1. Sehwag should be played down the order as soon as he is underperforming. 2. We should play with 7 batsmen until Zak comes back. 3. Should not underestimate M. Patel, Agarkar as bowlers, and Robin Uthappa (as a #7 batsman).

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One more point from my side Batting first and batting big is our strength and hence if we ever win the toss in subcontinent or ongood batting pitches, we should opt to bat hoping to pile up a huge total and hope to bat the opposition out of match. A total of 285-290 will win us 8 out of 10 games even with our average bowling and even if there is too much dew. Bowling second ,especially in d/n matches, also makes our pacers more threatening).

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So' date=' Sachin would in most possibilities come within the first 15 overs itself. Anyways that maintains a left-right combination throughout in Veeru-Gauti and then Gauti-Sachin and this both the pairs are the best fitted to the first 10 overs and then the 10-30 overs period respectively. Hope that it is done soon as I am quite sure it would help a lot in the overall balance of the team.[/quote'] :hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: First of all you don't trust the opening pair of Viru and Gauti yet want to see Sachin coming at no.3 ! Viru-Gauti, Gauti-Sachin, Sachin-Yuvi, Yuvi-Dhoni, Dhoni-Raina, Raina-Virat....Chalo this is how we can upset the rhythm of oppsition bowlers through out the innings :cantstop: So much emphasis on left-right combo!
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