Role of Anchor in ODIs..

[dial_100]

Its been lot said about someone being an Anchor of the team and rest play around him. Let us try to list out what qualities Anchor needs, what exactly this role means to the Indian team. Who would you play as your anchor, from the following and why? And the fundamental question, how many Anchors we need in the team? KKD, Gangs, SRT, RD, Yuv GGambi To me, here is the minimum of what I expect from Anchor.

• A good runner,

• A person everyone is comfortable playing with, easy understanding for RBW.

• Senior

• Solid defense, ability to play out some overs in difficult conditions by taking strike through the difficult overs.

• Rotate strike, ability to understand the nature of the game
• Very occasional lead role when others are not able to accelerate.

[Ram]

Good OP Dial. You have listed almost all of what needs to be listed, except the "senior" part. Why does an anchor need to be a senior ? In the Indian team , i think Rahul is best suited for that job and slowly , Karthik will take up that mantle.

[dial_100]

In that case what role others should play.. And basic question is how many Anchors we need??

[Ram]

How many ? Not more than one. And even that one , should have the ability to attack when required ( Dravid , Kallis etc).

[Anakin]

RD should come lower down the order (with about 10 overs left), he's turning out to be the best slogger in the team, and he slogs with classical shots rather than afridi/dhoni type mindless hitting.

[dial_100]

Good point, Ana.. but then whoz your anchor?

[Anakin]

Good point' date=' Ana.. but then whoz your anchor?[/quote'] I'd say our dear Dada :D

[Dravid]

kkd for me.... dada- dosent take singles.. dravid- goes in his shell sometimes.. srt- cant make an ass wooping machine an anchor :P gambhir- should be out of the team.. yuvi- bats at 5..

[Ram]

Ganguly place is in the one day is actually conditional to Sachin's form. If Sachin is in good form , score quick runs to make up for Saurav's "lazy elegant" strokeplay , all is well for Dada. I sincerely hope Saurav doesnt emulate Gavaskar , scoring 35 not out , batting a full fifty overs. :haha:

[veer]

kkd for me.... dada- dosent take singles.. dravid- goes in his shell sometimes.. srt- cant make an ass wooping machine an anchor :P gambhir- should be out of the team.. yuvi- bats at 5..

ditto.. except dravid part..

[Guest dada_rocks]

RD should come lower down the order (with about 10 overs left)' date=' he's turning out to be the best slogger in the team, and he slogs with classical shots rather than afridi/dhoni type mindless hitting.[/quote'] six over cover has to be one of the most difficult shot which he gets right so often these days:two_thumbs_up:

[living]

We need two anchors. One at the top, and one in the middle. And we have the two best ppl for the job, SRT and Dravid. Unfortunately, we can't remove gangs from the team - so we have 3. Also KKD is the only young guy who has been performing consistently so he has to be there too, so that gives us a grand total of 4 anchors. Haha, I pity the selectors who will have to remove some of these stars when they are 40 - the public will still hound them :hysterical:

[Guest dada_rocks]

KKD has been a failure in one day cricket and since when sachin became an acnhor in one day cricket he has always been a$$-whipper took back-stage for a while when sehwag was doing a$$-nuking but rest of the time he had been the assault-man

[dial_100]

I think Dravid going into shell is often called when he gives up on the lost battle way too often. But remember guys, scoring 240 runs @ 6+ is not humanly possible in ODI after you have lost 4-5 early wkts for 35 odd runs. Whatever Bopara and Broad did was quite an easy task on relatively easy conditions @ barely 3.5 rate. So after seeing RD scoring some quick fire runs 2-3 times in this series alone, I hate to think that he goes in shell or anything. Even he had Yuv or SRT or SG following him, he would have gone for that target. He is a fighter for sure.

[dial_100]

That is how I feel too. We have too many people capable of anchoring the team when we only need 1 or 2. I mean imagine, RD or SRT anchoring. As they both have ability to rotate the strike, guide their partners, take occasional lead to quick fire some runs or even slog at the end. Mere anchor is useless if we have a situation (300+ score) or especially when team has to score 220/230 in say 30/35 overs game, these slow anchors are useless. Its more or less like a 20-20 situation. I think trouble with Indian team is adaptability issue. Anchor(s) cannot speed up their innings Sloggers cannot anchor their innings for long Tail enders are unable to score more than 20-40 runs Bowlers are not all rounders, unable to bat Bowlers cannot adapt to new line n length if they are onslaught. The less we talk the better about our fielding. These are way too many weaknesses for ODI version of the game.

[gator]

ur definition of an anchor is a definition of an ideal number 3/4 in the classical sense for odis.... right now, we are playing musical chair for the same position between gambhir/karthik/rd.... to me, Dhoni will be the best number 3.... he has shown tht he can mix good defence with offence while coming at tht number... i would give him a 10 match run at that place.... KKD can be pure dynamite at the finish line... Yuvi has got to come at number 4 and RD at number 5... I have always mentioned Uthappa will be devastating at number 6.... he is ur typical Afridi... he has very powerful strokes, not much of a technique which wont matter in the last 10 overs and run decently.....

[dial_100]

I like that Gator, but then trouble is I see 35 in 10 too often these days. Am I missing something or we are still playing in those 60 overs LOIs era? trouble is who has what role and how rigid are they going to be? meaning, if lose our Anchor early on does that mean we will lose rest because they dun know how to anchor, if our anchor last too long then does he know what acceleration is? I mean look at Aussies man. They almost have the same team for TEST, ODI, and HDIs. They just adapt to the version of the game they are playing. btw, I call 20-20 a half day international, HDI.

[gator]

trouble is who has what role and how rigid are they going to be? meaning, if lose our Anchor early on does that mean we will lose rest because they dun know how to anchor, if our anchor last too long then does he know what acceleration is?

it is not one particular batter, Dials..... any of 3,4,5 should be capable of holding the innings together.... there is no way, u can depend on one batter..... KKD is like RD.... he can either come out swinging or come out totally defensive.... both are best utilised in the last 15 overs.... yuvi and Dhoni are good at mixing aggression and defense depending on the situation, albeit with imperfect techniques... but then, only 10% of the odis are played on testing tracks.... if u can execute perfectly o nthe other 90%, u will still end up with an enviable record....