Pacers for Newzealand Tour

[umpire]

Now we have 3 Tests so we need 5-6 pacers. Who will get onto the board. Zaheer Ishant Munaf this 3 are certain I think Balaji may just get into the team, he was fabulous in Quarters and Semis. and he can swing both ways. We should also take Pathan, atleast in the squad. And one more seamer, this could be Dhaval Kulkarni, Siddharth Trivedi. If RP Singh is fully fit, may be he will get on the boat. Now where is Sreesanth.

[Chandan]

Sreeshanth is fit and I suppose one Duleep trophy match would be enough to be back in the reckoning. I won't take Balaji. He bowled at 110-115ks and that will be belted at international level, whatever the condition might be. RP Singh is unfit and so is Praveen Kumar. Dhawal Kulkarni needs to gain more pace to be even considered for international side. I thought Bhuvanesh Kumar was much better than him. So I think Pathan will only be the 5th seamer and no one else. I'm eager to see how he does in the Duleep trophy.

[Shane]

Im bothered only about the Tests Zak Ishant Munaf RP Praveen Kumar (My dark horse for the final slot)

[Chandan]

Im bothered only about the Tests Zak Ishant Munaf RP Praveen Kumar (My dark horse for the final slot)

Shane read my post: RP And Praveen are not fit!!

[Tapioca]

Chandan - can you please explain. They are both playing in the final. Did they pick up some injury during the match ? PK would be a good choice otherwise under swinging conditions.

[Chandan]

Chandan - can you please explain. They are both playing in the final. Did they pick up some injury during the match ? PK would be a good choice otherwise under swinging conditions.

Yes they played the final but RP Singh failed to take field today even when his team was in a precarious position. Perhaps it is the same shoulder injury that kept him away from quarter and semi matches. Praveen Kumar bowled a long spell in the morning but by evening he had completely disintetegrated bouncing at super slow speed. Besides that, Praveen could hardly let his big inswingers going throughout the match. There is something wrong and commentators were talking about him not being 100%. He was injured during the league phase--some ankle injury.

[Sachinism]

there is still time for them to recover

[Ram]

My picks; Zak Ishant Munaf Irfan Sreesanth( if fit and if a 5th pacer is required) I have regained lots of faith in Irfan and I personally think he will be a fine pick for NZ. But for a 3 match series, I guess you're allowed to pick a squad of 15. We probably will pick both Bhajji and Mishra and if we pick 5 pacers, then the bowlers alone will make up 7 of the 15 slots, which is a bit high.

[cochise]

Zak, Ishant and Sreesanth should be the starting 3 pacers. Irfan and Munaf in reserve.

[Fontaine]

Zak' date=' Ishant and Sreesanth should be the starting 3 pacers. Irfan and Munaf in reserve.[/quote'] There is no merit or decency in picking Sreesanth for the tour squad ahead of Pathan/Patel. All "Gopu" has done in the last 12 months is played three tests, a couple of ODI's back in February and he was pretty average to poor. Unless you count getting injured, then getting slapped, and then getting injured again as some sort of criteria for national selection. Pathan has steadily improved this season, especially in domestic cricket and his batting is still good. He's bowling at lively pace and has better control now. Munaf has bowled miles better than Sreesanth in Sri Lanka, then domestic games and then again against England and apart from his usual seam bowling he has even reverse swung the ball. When was the last time Sreesanth bowled well consistently across two back to back matches let alone two series? Let him stay at home so he can practice his dance moves. Dropping him would be the best message to send to this idiot.

[cochise]

Nop. He will do well in NZ.

[Fontaine]

Nop. He will do well in NZ.

So you want to use only one swing bowler out of three in a place where it's cold, windy and one of the BEST tours in the world to swing the ball? Nice one mate. That was really funny. :hysterical: You must be either a huge fan of Sreesanth or high.

[cochise]

Neither. It is my considered opinion that he will do well on NZ pitches. More so than Munaf or Pathan.

[Fontaine]

Neither. It is my considered opinion that he will do well on NZ pitches. More so than Munaf or Pathan.

Then you know very little about bowling in swinging conditions and of Sreesanths previous performances in such conditions. The last two times this guy was bowling for India in swinging conditions Rp Singh/Pathan/Zaheer out bowled him by a mile while Sreesanth was busy experimenting with his delivery action and delivering rubbish. Also where would you have him bowl? At number 3, you know because Sreesanth rarely if ever bowls at number 3. He almost always has to bowl with the new ball because his game is only pace unlike the other bowlers who will have much more variety in NZ. So who would you prefer they took away from the New Ball to accomodate this dancing donkey? Ishant or Zaheer? Hmm . . . ?

[Show_stopper]

Well its pretty clear that Zak and Ishant have to open the bowling.. Assuming everybody agrees on this..i think the only bowler who has the game to be a first-change bowler is Munaf(is not a swing bowler).So i would go with this attack.. Zak Ishant Munaf Mishra(he should be,but will most probably be Bhajji) With Sreeasnth and Irfan as back-up(both of whom are opening bowlers).Its obvious that RP is no longer in the running..his fall has been dramatic to say the least. I have this feeling that Munaf will shine on this tour.

[cochise]

Yawn...another time Fontaine. Show some imagination...don't be formulaic in your approach.

[Ram]

Yawn...another time Fontaine. Show some imagination...don't be formulaic in your approach.

He has a valid point. The last time we played in swing-helpful conditions in England in 2007, Sreesanth was the worst performing bowler of the entire team, even including the spinner Kumble. He was essentially like a blind man firing sniper shots; All over the place. But, in the same tour, RP and Zak outperformed him by a light year. On equal fitness, Sreesanth should come into consideration after Munaf and RP.

[Shane]

Shane read my post: RP And Praveen are not fit!!

Now, the Test series is about 2 months away dude, they should recover by then !!!

[Chandan]

Now' date=' the Test series is about 2 months away [b']dude, they should recover by then !!!

As far as I know, "dude" is used for male gendre and I'm female. And as far as bowlers are concerned, RP Singh has been this unfit since Feb 2008 and hasn't recovered as yet. We thought that he had recovered by playing him in April against SA. He failed miserably. And since then he is struggling to get fit. One thought that he had recovered considerably after resting for more than 3 months after the ODI series in Lanka. But he showed in this match that he was still unfit. If he has struggled to gain fitness since last 12 months, how are you sure that he'll gain it in next 2 months?

[Fontaine]

He has a valid point. The last time we played in swing-helpful conditions in England in 2007, Sreesanth was the worst performing bowler of the entire team, even including the spinner Kumble. He was essentially like a blind man firing sniper shots; All over the place. But, in the same tour, RP and Zak outperformed him by a light year. On equal fitness, Sreesanth should come into consideration after Munaf and RP.

It was the same in South Africa in the 20/20 world cup. I know it's a different format but swing is still swing. Rp, and Pathan were getting the ball to swing, especially RP who was devastating while Sreesanth was sharing the new ball with RP but getting no swing, bowling rank deliveries sitting up to be smashed, and then of course the inevitable happened: Sreesanth started changing his action/run up.

Yawn...another time Fontaine. Show some imagination...don't be formulaic in your approach.

It's a pretty simple mate. I've asked some pretty simple and straight forward questions: 1. What has Sreesanth done to merit selection over the past 12 months (ahead of Pathan/Patel or even RP) 2. How is picking Sreesanth make sense ahead of a natural swing bowler and all rounder in Pathan in swinging conditions? 3. Lastly, does Sreesanth bowl at number 3 or share the new ball because he's rarely ever been used as a first change bowler because his only real skill is to bowl at pace. You can't bowl him for long spells at first change because he has little control or accuracy or stamina. So who would you drop from the new ball? Zaheer or Ishant? I mean these are pretty straight forward questions that I would expect anyone to know if they were specifically backing a player who hasn't seen regular cricket for months. And as far as the imagination part? I showed more imagination in thinking about these issues because no one else has brought them up so far. If you don't know, and just wanted Sreesanth because you prefer him then say so, just be honest. There's nothing wrong in favoring a specific bowler/batsmen over others. :winky: