Guess who's the #1 all rounder in the world?

[f.b.m]

Nobody knows. The way these three have been up and down, with form, with injuries, on the dance floor no one has any idea what these guys are going to do. Would anyone be surprised if Pathan comes on, bowls with a ton of swing or he bowl loose wide deliveries and tries too much variation? Or if Munaf comes on to bowl, gets injured and his fielding sucks? Or if Sreesanth bowls two great overs, then starts dancing and changes his run up and completely looses form? The only consistent thing with these guys is that you can't rely on them. But you're question deserves an answer so I would say either Patel or Pathan simply because they are kind of in form at the moment while Sreesanth hasn't played much cricket and is only getting fit now.

True, there's a lot of uncertainty with most of our seamers. More than any other country except maybe Pakistan.

[Fontaine]

True' date=' there's a lot of uncertainty with most of our seamers. More than any other country except maybe Pakistan.[/quote'] Let me say this to you f.b.m since I do respect your opinions on this. How much importance do you put on the extra 8kph or so that Sreesanth provides over Pathan? You may see something special in Sreesanth and that might partly be due to his pace but I think bowling has changed where pace is no longer the ultimate holy grail. You can't scare batsmen any more with pace. Swing, and more importantly LATE swing is in my opinion more important than pace and that is a gift that Pathan has. Unfortunately though it's rare to see that skill consistently because our young bowlers are so up and down.

[Fontaine]

I will concede that to you Fontaine. Form is probably the biggest issue in determining who is actually fielded.

Don't get me wrong, I don't care who our third seamer is as long as they can bring it on the field and do a very good job abroad like how Rp Singh did against England in the tour there. I just want someone, anyone to step up and prove they belong there.

[cochise]

I just want someone, anyone to step up and prove they belong there.

And someone will...the beauty of the competition for the spot will make one if not all of the prospective candidates stand up to be selected...it raises the standard for all of them.

[DomainK]

Bravo!! Its quite an achievement. The guy has given some very consistent performances to get to the top if tha list. Performing consistently well in a team that performs consistently bad is not easy. Takes a lot of character. Fully deseving.

Now, thats quite original.:hatsoff:

[f.b.m]

How much importance do you put on the extra 8kph or so that Sreesanth provides over Pathan? You may see something special in Sreesanth and that might partly be due to his pace but I think bowling has changed where pace is no longer the ultimate holy grail. You can't scare batsmen any more with pace. Swing, and more importantly LATE swing is in my opinion more important than pace and that is a gift that Pathan has. Unfortunately though it's rare to see that skill consistently because our young bowlers are so up and down.

I think I might have come across as a pace-only freak which is quite wrong and apologies for that. I rate young bowlers by how much they move the ball and especially if they can move the ball around in conditions that dont suit them and if they can run through quality batting line ups if the conditions are made for them. Thats the potential bit anyway. Thats the reason I rate Steyn (who can pick up wickets on dustbowls), Flintoff, Sharma or Morkel (who can seam it even on the most patta tracks). Irfan, unfortunately cant move the ball when the ball isnt doing much. Yes he can get a bit of late reverse swing when the ball is really well maintained but that doesnt happen often enough for my liking. You can see the Banglore test against Pakistan or the Ahmedabad test against SA. In the same test, and in the match before, you can see the monkey man beating the bat of set South African players almost at will. He was just unlucky that he couldnt snap up a few nicks. But then again, both of these were a long time back. I'm basing my opinion on the last test match/series that both of them played. In a place like India, I think the extra pace is needed not to attack but mainly to contain. If we have those 7-2 or 8-1 fields (which I think we will quite often under Dhoni), the bowlers need a bit of pace to keep the strokes on one side of the wicket. At Irfan's 125-130 kmph, the ball can be worked around a lot more.

[cochise]

Now, thats quite original.

Yeah, I was wondering about that post too...you might have a fan Domaink. :cantstop:

[cowboysfan]

What like Dale Steyn, Morkel, Lee all got spanked around in the continent? At least Pathan has some great performances when the conditions were suitable like how he got the hat trick against Pak. I don't see the point in criticising a swing bowler when he doesn't do great on flat pitches with no swing. What would be more pertinent is if Pathan sucked when there was swing on offer but that hasn't really happened all that much. Whenever there were swinging conditions he made the most of it and that's pretty much all you can ask.

i know he is a swing bowler but at least he should bowl good line and length and variations in pace which he rarely does.if he plays in the lankan series i want him to open the bowling this time to see whether he has improved.

[cowboysfan]

True' date=' there's a lot of uncertainty with most of our seamers. More than any other country except maybe Pakistan.[/quote'] this is very true and not a lot of people recognize it.if one of zaheer or ishant goes down and we have to a tour on then we are really on the backfoot.we should keep trying to unearth new fast bowlers and not just rely on the current 3 or 4 and hope to pick the one in form.