Where now for the Fab 4?

[shailesh]

The historic test series win in England is now behind us and it's time to look ahead at the upcoming, exciting battles with Pakistan and Australia. This is also the time to give a serious thought to how and when the Fab 4 - Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman will eventually be replaced. I think we have options that can prove to be able replacements - we have the experienced Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Mohammed Kaif and also the inexperienced but talented Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwarey and S. Badrinath. To me the test series against Pakistan is the right time to get one new face in the middle order. The way things stand as of now, I think it should be Yuvraj to replace Laxman as I feel he is the kind of batsman we definitely need down the order. For Sachin and Ganguly, I think unless both have an exceptional series Sehwag should be drafted in for the tour of Australia to replace one of the two as he has the experience and record to go. Here Ganguly may just have his nose in front as he has rarely looked out of sorts in the middle since his comeback and has delivered under testing conditions. Sachin with his skill and experience can still manage decent performances but he just doesn't carry the kind of confidence which he did for so many years, something very important for a #4 batsman. While no one can deny the amount of experience and past records, the age factor in modern game simply can not be ignored and question needs to be asked if we are really getting the kind of performance which a young replacement can not deliver and more. Look at performences on England tour where we got 50s and 80s but where are the big hundreds which you really need from the middle order? I feel this is something more likely to come from a younger batsman. And anyone who doubts such a move, just look back to the 2005 Ashes series when the experienced Graham Thorpe was dropped in favor of young and inexperienced Kevin Pietersen, and the rest as they say is history.

[Anakin]

You're thinking lots of wrong things dude

[Cricketics]

And anyone who doubts such a move, just look back to the 2005 Ashes series when the experienced Graham Thorpe was dropped in favor of young and inexperienced Kevin Pietersen, and the rest as they say is history.

gone are the days when such lines were used to make ur articles or stories creative.. by saying this u are giving to hype to the matter that we should try new players.. it worked for england.. that too just one player.. kp.... peterson by that time had alredy established himself in odi cricket.. ur plan is to basically finish up the seniorz in test cricket.. pretty much against all seniors.. sucks that.. wee need seniors for test cricket..

[coffee_rules]

Who should be Dravid's understudy? Venugopal Rao could have been blooded for this role in test cricket. That dude was played in a host of ODIs and is now forgotten. He was involved in a famous 500+ run chase iin the 4th innings n England in a preview A tour.

[shailesh]

yes, he was marked as captaincy material by Chappal. where is he? he is not even in the A team?

[shailesh]

gone are the days when such lines were used to make ur articles or stories creative.. by saying this u are giving to hype to the matter that we should try new players.. it worked for england.. that too just one player.. kp.... peterson by that time had alredy established himself in odi cricket.. ur plan is to basically finish up the seniorz in test cricket.. pretty much against all seniors.. sucks that.. wee need seniors for test cricket..

abe if you want seniors then replace Karthik with Borde :hysterical:

[Holysmoke]

abe if you want seniors then replace Karthik with Borde :hysterical:

wow, what a joke

[CC1981]

If anything, the seniors should consider retirement one by one form ODIs and stick to tests...they can do it and keep their performance up if the approached it like Lara. Tests are more mentally demanding but less 'high octane' effort like ODIs and that is where the 10-15-20 year old bodies ( in cricket-age) starts to feel it and break down. The fab-4 can go on for another 2-3 years without much tinkering, except perhaps dropping Tendulkar.

[Ram]

The fab-4 can go on for another 2-3 years without much tinkering, except perhaps dropping Tendulkar.

I dont see Ganguly and Dravid playing past 2008. Laxman will be hoping they retire sonner rather than later , considering the fact that he is the "younger" one of the group. I dont know what to make of Sachin though. He may still harbor minor intentions of playing till the 2011 world cup.

[CC1981]

I dont see Ganguly and Dravid playing past 2008

I think Dravid has atleast 3-4 years in him (but he should retire from ODIs in the next two years or so) and Gangoo is a bit of an unknown since he's started to successfully mould himself into a gritty player. He can have 1 year or 5. Laxman should just stopped getting d!cked around and be more secure in the team than Tendulkar is. Laxman is being severely limited in his performance with all this uncertainty in his test future. He is a confidence player and you gotto back the guy, especially when he isnt hopelessly out of form. If he is handled well, he still has 4-5 years of cricket left in him.

[Mandrake]

Enough ODIs for the seniors....let the young guys take over in the ODI's and Sachin,Sourav and Dravid retire and just focus on tests....we can do with a few more away test series wins before they walk out into the twilight.

[monkeyfood]

yeah i think the young ones can pull this off it would be a good way for them to get experience and all.