Pool of players for India for ODI.

[Chandan]

India finally getting a one-day pool HARSHA BHOGLE Posted online: Friday , June 13, 2008 at 2314 hrs IST The fortune teller and the forecaster, each indignant at being clubbed with the other, rarely get it right in India. The world, for example, hasn’t ended yet, thought some might believe we’ve tried hard enough. And the dollar, like an errant child, always goes the other way. And yet, here I am taking a call on the future of Indian cricket. Truly, as modern bards have said, we are like that only! For long, some of us have been hoping that India creates a pool of 20-25 players from which the national team can be chosen, from which any selection of eleven could play to approximately the same level. I know it doesn’t always work that way, Ronaldo would weaken any team by his absence, but good teams hope to get there. I believe that in one-day cricket, India are well on course. The team that beat Pakistan so easily in Dhaka was without Tendulkar, Harbhajan, Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan and RP Singh, five names who would make a first eleven on most days. So here is the list that excites me greatly: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa, S Badrinath, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel. To this list, add test cricket stalwarts Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly and you have as fine a batch of 25 players as any country could hope for. The first thing that strikes you is how young the one-day side is. Even if you take some of the ages with the necessary pinch of salt, it is still a collection that one can look ahead with. Of those that played that game against Pakistan, only Sehwag had made his debut in the decade of the nineties, a mere two years after Harbhajan Singh had first appeared, but a full decade after Tendulkar, who must necessarily be looked at differently while discussing longevity. Happily, there is competition for every spot and that means players will have to be on their toes; a quality that Indian cricket has not always been blessed with. Piyush Chawla is making the most of Harbhajan’s absence and Sehwag and Gambhir could raise questions on how much Tendulkar will be missed. At the moment though, this is an excellent fair-weather batting side and on tracks responsive to quality seam and swing bowling, the top order still needs to prove it can do without Tendulkar. And they can field. Except for RP Singh, Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan, you really don’t need to hide anyone and for the first time, you get the feeling that maybe young Indian players are getting contemporary. It’s a great time though to raise the bar and make this an intimidating fielding side. The bar doesn’t have to be raised by too much but as high jumpers and pole vaulters will tell you it is the last few centimeters that actually make the difference. The key will be attitude and that is the one variable we can look at with great curiosity. Too many players in this side have had slumps that could be attributed to attitude. This is where Gary Kirsten’s real test will come. These boys can play but can they now stretch ambition and show they have what it takes to reach there. I wish the BCCI takes this aspect a bit more seriously. With Harbhajan, Sreesanth and Praveen Kumar, in recent times, they have players who have struggled to cope with the position they find themselves in. And they are by no means the only three. It may not earn anyone any money but it is no less crucial to the strength of Indian cricket that young men learn to cope. To possess aggression but to find the moment to release it is a great, and therefore, elusive quality. I like one other aspect of this side. There is far greater flexibility, there are people who can play in different positions and I believe the Pathan brothers are representative of this. Yusuf can bat anywhere and bowls off-spin, Irfan is ideal in the lower middle order and, if he can’t lay his hands on the new ball, in the middle and end overs. Now if Yusuf Pathan can bowl a bit more and Chawla can bat a bit more, the side will have the perfect balance to it, except for just one slot. A top order batsman who can bowl seam-up. Till that man is sighted, this team will remain far more formidable in Indian conditions than in conditions that favour quicker bowling. I will be very disappointed, given that World Cup 2011 is on the sub-continent, if this squad of cricketers doesn’t make India favourites to win it, recent performances of forecasters and fortune tellers notwithstanding. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unlike Harsha I still believe that lot of pieces still have to fit in get a perfect ODI team. I think that our pace bowlers are not good on flat tracks and we still need Harbhajan badly to stem the flow of runs in middle overs. Chawla has to learn a lot and go a long way before being termed complete. And our bowling at death overs is still terrible. None of the bowlers have perfect yorkers. I was quite encouraged to see the Punjab team bowling in final 5-6 overs and both Sree and Pathan were bowling good yorkers but here in international match, Pathan was still ineffective on a flat track and went for many without troubling the batsmen at all. I was also quite disappointed to see that Pathan was unable to get his indippers going even in earlier overs which he was doing beautifully in IPL. Then batsmen still have to learn to take more responbility if early wickets have fallen. Raina disappointed here. Rohit was not fully in form after his finger injury and can be given a bit more time before we pass judgement on him. What do you all think? Which pieces are missing from completeling the team pool?

[Dhondy]

He's talking nonsense as usual. A pool of 25 players is a non-starter because thae gap between the top 12 and the bottom half is so large that if you invert the teams, the results will be highly unsatisfactory. India need to identify their top seven batsmen and stick with them. Batsmen don't have fitness issues, and it is very unlikely that more than one of them would be unfit at any given point of time. You don't require a pool for that. In any event, excluding Mohammad Kaif for people like Dinesh Kartick and Parthiv Patel makes absolutely no sense at all. Where India do need a pool is with wrt to their pace options. Zaheer struggles nowadays to string two matches in a row, and serious questions must be raised about both his desire and his fitness. That leaves Praveen, our best ODI bowler, Ishant, Sreesanth, RP Singh and Pathan. Not good enough. Not a large enough pool. It's fair to assume that at any given moment, one of the above will be indisposed through injury. That leaves 4, of which Pathan occupies the all rounder's slot. With the inhuman workloads that modern cricketers have to shoulder, we urgently need more fast bowling options to allow us to rotate these bowlers and minimise the risk of injury. That's where vision and planning comes in. Who are the guys with bottle? Who's got a turn of speed or swing? Unless you chuck in another Praveen in the cauldron of international cricket, you are not going to find out. What was the point in taking Gony to BD when he couldn't be trusted even against a side like BD in an inconsequential match?

[Chandan]

I suppose we are strapped in the entire bowling department. Which bowlers can be used? Can we use Munaf, Gony, Trivedi and Dinda in any of the ODIs? Dinda was not chosen either for emerging players squad which will be playing one dayers, not was he chosen in the India A squad which will be vising some unknown venue. Then how on earth are we going to find out the true potential of the bowlers. Obviously T20 bowling counts to nothing when we are talking about one dayers.

[amits]

I suppose we are strapped in the entire bowling department. Which bowlers can be used? Can we use Munaf' date=' Gony, Trivedi and Dinda in any of the ODIs? Dinda was not chosen either for emerging players squad which will be playing one dayers, [b']not was he chosen in the India A squad which will be vising some unknown venue. Then how on earth are we going to find out the true potential of the bowlers. Obviously T20 bowling counts to nothing when we are talking about one dayers.

dinda is in the squad for israel tour

[IndianRenegade]

Its a pitty we didn't have Amit mishra playing had he been playing in the finals we could have won. I don't see him getting hit around like Chawla...

[flamy]

Harsha is too optimistic. We need a spinner and it seems only Bhajji can claim this spot with authority. Also, I was kinda surprised that Gony and Ojha didnt get a chance to play.

[theguyinallblue]

Some how i still think Munaf is too talented a player to be wasted like this.... If he needs some guidance..then people at right positions need to talk to him.... If we talk about ODIs only...then i am quite happy with the batting composition ...Pitches now a days world over...are not mine fields...more or less all the ODI pitches...be it SA, AUS, WI..are flat..full of runs... Its only Eng and NZ that we get swing and seam due to weather conditions... on the spinner department although we have chawla...we should also try Amit Mishra...he did quite well in IPL...Bhajji return will strength the bowling a bit.. if we are to go by 4 front line bowlers then..among the part time bowlers...one seamer should be included... as part time spin bowling will go for runs...and a seamer can give some variety to the attack.. sadly all our part timers are spinners...thats where Ganguly type player could come handy... and i agree with the concern of chandan regarding the bowling at death overs... we have a permanent bowling coach...and still...pathan is struggling with his swing and speed... even RP Singh looked half fit while he bowled...he bowled within himself.... Short pitch stuffs bowled at 130K will be ..like asking to be hit... My only wish in the bowling deptt. is return of speed and swing for Pathan and RP... Fielding has improved considerably in these months...and the trio of Raina Yuvi and Rohit is doing a wonderful job in the inner circle...and even the overall fielding has been good..and intense... so IMO..Indian ODI team will be complete if we could get a seamer part time bowler... Speed and swing of Pathan returns...and RP Singh regains his fitness and form.... so we can rotate Ishant, Praveen, Sreesanth, Irfan ..RP Singh and Zaheer ...for 3 pacers in the team...

[Mr. Wicket]

No Agarkar in that list?!

[Fontaine]

Most of you missed the entire point of Harshe's article: India's pool of players is great for the World Cup in three years! He's not saying these guys are perfect now. On the contrary, he made it very clear from the outset that the young players still need "a pinch of salt." Give these young players like Chawla, Sree, RP, Pathan, etc three more years and you have the makings of a fantastic team for the WC 2011. Especially the bowlers who are all very young and inexperienced. Harshe's point is all the more accurate when you look at the top ODI teams around the world and how they have such a dearth of young talent. Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand all have gone with younger players with mixed to poor results. India is the ONLY team that has won consistently without some of it's top players because they have a very good group of young players that are performing now and getting better and better.

[Chandan]

So, should we add Nayar, Kulkarni, Jadeja, Pujara, Rahane, Yo Mahesh to the pool? Still I can't see good seamers coming through!

[Sachinism]

^^ Since his tons, Pujara hasn't done anything Kinda disappointing. Hope he starts putting in some meaningful performances

[Ram]

So, should we add Nayar, Kulkarni, Jadeja, Pujara, Rahane, Yo Mahesh to the pool? Still I can't see good seamers coming through!

Nayar for sure. Kulkarni yes (he showed excellent temperament for someone so young, bowling in stage as big as the IPL). Jadeja is talented but raw, doubt if he's ready for international cricket. There's nothing special about Yo Mahesh.

[Ram]

But most certainly, if an uncapped batsman needs to be added to India's ODI squad, it has to be Dhawan. That guy is made to be the perfect ODI player. His technique is so suited and tailor made for the challenges of LOI batting. Not to say that he cant succeed in tests, but we must definitely consider him before any other uncapped player.

[diegovegaz]

except for just one slot. A top order batsman who can bowl seam-up.

rajat bhatia is the only answer for your problem

[fineleg]

^^ Since his tons, Pujara hasn't done anything Kinda disappointing. Hope he starts putting in some meaningful performances

which is exactly why Pujara must NOT be fast tracked to Test and ODI team. Let him play couple of years of domestics + India-A matches and then we can see if he can move up the next level.

[Bumper]

Whatever happened to Praveen Kumar ? I dont see him in the ODI squads these days. He will be more than useful when we go to NZ. And Rohit Sharma should be pushed a bit more. He hasnt done much since the Aussie tour.

[Guest Hiten.]

Whatever happened to Praveen Kumar ? I dont see him in the ODI squads these days. He will be more than useful when we go to NZ. And Rohit Sharma should be pushed a bit more. He hasnt done much since the Aussie tour.

I think he was quite rightly dropped in the subcontinental conditions. PK heavily depends on swing and there is hardly anything in the pitches for him to live on. Dhoni should and will pick him for the NZ odi series. I seriously hope our bowlers live up the hype now. Ishant, Zak, Sree (we'll need him as much as ZAK), IKP (looking at his bowling vs Eng 5th ODI...gave me an impression that he has found his inswingers and same old action),PK and Munaf. We seriously do not need any spinners in the squad. UV and Veeru can be our part timers.

[Chandan]

So, nearly an year after this discussion, we had 30 probables for Champions Trophy as: MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, R Ashwin, M Vijay, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, S Badrinath, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh, Wriddhiman Saha, Pankaj Singh. In this, Dravid, Badrinath, M Vijay and Pankaj Singh are absolutely useless. What would you have as 12 top batsmen, 3 top keepers, 7 top pacers and 3 top spinners? IMO it should be: Sachin Sehwag Gambhir Yuvraj Raina Rohit Yusuf Nayar Kohli Rahane Pujara ? Dhoni Karthik Saha Zaheer Ishant Munaf RP Singh Sreesanth Irfan Tyagi Nehra Bhajji Ojha Mishra What do you all say about the pool of 25 players?

[rkt.india]

we lack a seriously express pacer and Irfan pathan is more of a batsman than a bowler now a days

[Chandan]

we lack a seriously express pacer and Irfan pathan is more of a batsman than a bowler now a days

You have to forget this dream for the time being , rkt, because no express bowler is even on the horizon and India has to do with the 7 pacers that I listed above, till the coming WC. After that, I'll not sure if we'll even have the world cups! Can you name any other pacer for the coming WC, and till then the ODIs to be played by India? And ODIs are the kind where express bowlers are hammered more because they have more chance of spraying the ball and on flat decks, the faster they bowl, the faster they go out of the boundary. So, we have just the above 7 bowlers. I couldn't find the 12th batsman, but I think it is okay!