You can have the most power-packed top-order in the world..

[Ram]

.....but if your numbers 7 and 8 are not capable batsmen, then you will lose a lot of ODIs. And with the way things are at the moment, numbers 7 and 8 are one spots too high for Jadeja and Bhajji respectively. Jadeja is an adequate batsmen, but in this day and age of high-scoring ODIs, your number 7 has to be a genuine match winner the bat and Jadeja is far from it. No.8 is about as high as he should bat. And bhajji at no.8? The guy's on a fast-tracked suicide mission every time he holds a bat these days. A while ago, he used to show a lot of pluck, especially in tests, but things have gone drastically downhill. If only we had more capable numbers 7 & 8 in this match, that could have made a difference of 30, even 40 runs. Not to say that would have still be enough, but in more bowler friendly conditions (if there is such a thing these days, especially in ODIs), it could make all the difference. I dont know how serious the Indian think-tank is about winning the world cup, but if they really want to get their hands on the cup, its about time they made some bold decisions. My team would be; Sach Viru GG kohli Yuvi MSD Raina Irfan Bhajji/Jadeja Zak Sree/Nehra/Tyagi If Sachin is resting, then Karthik or another specialist batsmen should replace him.

[Holysmoke]

.....but if your numbers 7 and 8 are not capable batsmen, then you will lose a lot of ODIs. And with the way things are at the moment, numbers 7 and 8 are one spots too high for Jadeja and Bhajji respectively. Jadeja is an adequate batsmen, but in this day and age of high-scoring ODIs, your number 7 has to be a genuine match winner the bat and Jadeja is far from it. No.8 is about as high as he should bat. And bhajji at no.8? The guy's on a fast-tracked suicide mission every time he holds a bat these days. A while ago, he used to show a lot of pluck, especially in tests, but things have gone drastically downhill. I dont know how serious the Indian think-tank is about winning the world cup, but if they really want to get their hands on the cup, its about time they made some bold decisions. My team would be; Sach Viru GG kohli Yuvi MSD Raina Irfan Bhajji/Jadeja Zak Sree/Nehra/Tyagi If Sachin is resting, then Karthik or another specialist batsmen should replace him.

Irfan:hysterical:

[Sachinism]

Replace Jadeja with Irfan, they're both similar bowlers (same speed) Even Aggy could be given a go, he's been performing pretty well for Mumabi

[Ram]

Irfan:hysterical:

You can laugh, but how good are our other pacers anyway these days?

[Clarke]

I do like the lineup, 4 full time bowlers + jadeja was intended to defend middle of the road totals but bowling was never our strength to begin with. The 2003 WC squad comes to mind, Dinesh Mongia (full time batsman nevertheless) was our #7 and we'd back ourselves to chase any total.

[Holysmoke]

Replace Jadeja with Irfan, they're both similar bowlers (same speed) Even Aggy could be given a go, he's been performing pretty well for Mumabi

He's already smiling.

[spectre]

You can laugh' date=' but how good are our other pacers anyway these days?[/quote'] so you want to bring the worst bowler of all just for his limited batting abilities Dont forget he has to bowl 10 golden overs I agree with your point, but unless we see a better bowling effort from Irfan, lets go in with Top 7 batsman and Jadeja at 8 and get max out of part timers, trust me they will be better than Irfan in bowling and someone said SirAggi, thats a real possibility now

[saneindian]

TBH the problem doesnt lie with the no 7 or no 8 batsmen, it lies at the top of the order. As I said in the match thread, Gambhir, Sehwag and Yuvraj have been far too inconsistent in last 6-9 months and that is hurting us badly. Two guys who have done consistently well are MSD and Raina.

[Ram]

TBH the problem doesnt lie with the no 7 or no 8 batsmen' date=' it lies at the top of the order. As I said in the match thread, Gambhir, Sehwag and Yuvraj have been far too inconsistent in last 6-9 months and that is hurting us badly. Two guys who have done consistently well are MSD and Raina.[/quote'] Dude, do you know that in the last 24 months, we have won more ODI matches (proportional to the total number of matches we play) than we have ever done in the history of our cricket? (apart from maybe, the golden run we had in 2004/05, when Irfan batted at no.3) Dont fault our top-order batsmen. They win us a lot of matches. But its only natural that they will fail every once in a while. When that happens, we simply dont have the personnel to mount a significant rearguard action. I repeat AGAIN, if you want to be a world class ODI team that wins more than it loses, then your no.7 HAS to be a GENUINE match-winner with the bat. Sure, he may not get a chance to bat all in most matches, given how he bats, but that is a risk we HAVE to take.

[Ram]

so you want to bring the worst bowler of all just for his limited batting abilities Dont forget he has to bowl 10 golden overs I agree with your point, but unless we see a better bowling effort from Irfan, lets go in with Top 7 batsman and Jadeja at 8 and get max out of part timers, trust me they will be better than Irfan in bowling and someone said SirAggi, thats a real possibility now

Lets give him another chance at the least, to see things have improved. Remember, he was one of our most valuable ODI players during 2004/05. Such a talented player simply cannot whither away that easily.

[spectre]

Lets give him another chance at the least' date=' to see things have improved. Remember, he was one of our most valuable ODI players during 2004/05. Such a talented player simply cannot whither away that easily.[/quote'] I really hope like all of us, that he comes back as a better bowler

[Show_stopper]

How much lower down could Raina bat?? At this rate we'll make a slogger out of him!! #7 seriously!!:wtf: However I agree we need more firepower than we have lower down the order. and Sriram SaneIndian has a point. Top order eespecially Yuvraj hasn't been pulling his weight for sometime now. the last time he did really well was against England ODis and the subsequent SL way series that followed. From the next series onwards(NZ series) Yuvraj has been very inconsistent. His injuries haven't helped. This has resulted in #5 and #6 coming in too early on most occasions. Its only because of Dhoni and Raina's efforts that this has been masked. Infact the other day commentators read out a stat that among all partnerships with 25+ innings..Dhoni-Raina pair average the highest. With that being the case..I think its only fair to sugegst that yuvraj be batted a bit lower down the order..#5 would be perfect for him. Because if there is one thing going for Yuvraj its his ability to strike the cricket ball.

[king2be98]

India have the best top 6 in the world, they honestly don't need to add any extra batting, you guys forget the power in that top 6 and the consistency of it.

[cowboysfan]

whta's wrong with irfan?.he gives us some low order batting and is atleast as good as the tappus bowling right now.

[ViruRulez]

I have never been interested in this worthless series and so wont care much about the loss. But Veeru and UV needs to put a price tag on their wicket. They are regarded as the world's best batsmen but they are not putting the price on their wicket. At least they need to adjust to situations. They cannot play loose shots each and everytime. If the team is in trouble and loses early wickets then they need to play sensibly and not go for loose shots. Both of them are great but both are highly inconsistent. Both of them have great hand eye coordination but they both need to play defensive too when required. Hope they improve. But our bowling has also been quite pathetic. There is not a single bowler who can be trusted to bowl good spells consistently. We are perhaps with our best fast bowlers after many years in Sree, Zak and Nehra at the same time yet our bowling is still looking crap. Tyagi was also smashed for runs in the last two games. Frankly speaking BCCI needs to do something to bring some quality fast bowlers in the lineup.

[ViruRulez]

Lets give him another chance at the least' date=' to see things have improved. Remember, he was one of our most valuable ODI players during 2004/05. Such a talented player simply cannot whither away that easily.[/quote'] I would still wait before giving him another chance. Make him work hard for a position in the Indian team. I want everybody to realize that a position in the team is not that easy and they need to work hard for it. Nobody should get an easy entry into the team. The batsmen work hard and yet do not get a chance. Even Kohli might be dropped from the playing XI in the next series after the return of Sachin. Vijay, Pujara etc. do not get any chances. But the bowlers get into the team with just their average bowling. I want the bowlers to give their full effort to get entry and to retain their spot in the team. The fast bowling dept. is really pissing off now. Let us see if Simons makes any impact as the bowling coach though I highly doubt it.

[cowboysfan]

as of right now we have ZERO chance of winning any tournament let alone the world cup,lets hope our new bowling consultant can help because this stuff is just ridiculous.

[Sachinism]

Everyone chill out. Our bowling is the biggest issue. if our bowling wasn't so bad, we wouldn't panic if one day the batters didn't score 300.

[cowboysfan]

Everyone chill out. Our bowling is the biggest issue. if our bowling wasn't so bad' date= we wouldn't panic if one day the batters didn't score 300.

biggest issue?biggest issue?..that is the understatement of this new decade.

[zen]

it would be interesting to see what the contribution is of #7 and #8 in overall, wins and losses of a team. if anyone has done those stats then it would be nice to take a look at them