India Test Squad Announced (Sri Lanka 2009)

[CG]

Do not agree with the selection of Sreesanth - he has done nothing to deserve it - he should be ripping teams apart in the Plate League and as long as he is not doing that, he cannot be seen as a long term Test option - heck, he did not even perform well for Warwickshire. He has been picked purely on the Irani Trophy performance (one innings!) where Munaf took more wickets than him, and yet, Munaf gets dropped - absolute madness. Even if you can justify Munaf getting dropped on the basis of a lack of Test wickets, Sreesanth can surely not be rationally justified as a replacement. I do not doubt his ability to take a crucial five wicket haul, but while we are looking at long term options, we cannot consider someone who cannot perform consistently at First Class level, and never has. Other than that, it looks a strong squad and I do hope that Yuvraj can show himself a good batsman and that Ishant Sharma can regain his form in Test cricket.

sreesanth bowled well at warwickshire,dude even though munaf got wickets sree was better than him bowling at 135-140km/h and in challenger he was at 140km/h.he has performed at international level who cares if he does not do well at firstclass level.:--D

[msb1991]

sreesanth bowled well at warwickshire' date='[/quote'] Sreesanth took 13 wickets at 32.15 with an economy of 3.81. Look a bit deeper and you'll find that this came in 5 FC matches, which is an appalling rate of two wickets per match, just over one per innings.

he has performed at international level who cares if he does not do well at firstclass level.:--D

It is an interesting point and the first reasonable one I have had in my criticism of Sreesanth. However, if we are to look closer at Sreesanth, it becomes apparent that he had a good 2006 where he took 35 wickets at 24.37, a poor 2007 where he took 11 wickets at 40.54 and a terrible 2008 with 4 wickets at 68.50. I have an inkling that he may do well in this one series, but if we are looking for long term picks, he is not the rational pick.

[Sooda]

Roughly speaking this is how they should all fit in, India A : Shikar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Subra Badrinath, Mohammed Kaif, Suresh Raina, Dinesh kartik, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra India B: Wasim Jaffer, Abhinav Mukund, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Irfan Pathan, Parthiv Patel, M Parmar (if he can keep it going new action and all), Dhawal Kulkarni, L Balaji, S Santh India C: Robin Uthappa, Tanmay Srivastav, Manoj Tiwary, Ishank Jaggi, R Jadeja, Wridd Saha, Sudeep Tyagi, Pradeep Sangwan, Pankaj Singh, R Powar maybe...? Team C is missing a no.3 :hmmm:

[msb1991]

Roughly speaking this is how they should all fit in, India A : Shikar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Subra Badrinath, Mohammed Kaif, Suresh Raina, Dinesh kartik, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra India B: Wasim Jaffer, Abhinav Mukund, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Irfan Pathan, Parthiv Patel, M Parmar (if he can keep it going new action and all), Dhawal Kulkarni, L Balaji, S Santh India C: Robin Uthappa, Tanmay Srivastav, Manoj Tiwary, Ishank Jaggi, R Jadeja, Wridd Saha, Sudeep Tyagi, Pradeep Sangwan, Pankaj Singh, R Powar maybe...? Team C is missing a no.3 :hmmm:

Are you going off pure strength? Ie. The assumption that if all 11 players are injured out of the accepted Test XI, India A would come in. Then India B, then India C? If so... India A 1. Wasim Jaffer 2. Murali Vijay 3. Ajinya Rahane 4. Cheteshwar Pujara 5. S Badrinath 6. Dinesh Karthik (wk) 7. Ravindra Jadeja 8. Irfan Pathan 9. Dhawal Kulkarni 10. Munaf Patel 11. Pragyan Ojha Not happy with the two left arm spinners. India B 1. Abhinav Mukund 2. Shikhar Dhawan 3. Virat Kohli 4. Rohit Sharma 5. Mohammad Kaif 6. Suresh Raina 7. Parthiv Patel (wk) 8. Piyush Chawla 9. Mohnish Parmar 10. S Sreesanth 11. L Balaji I do hope Parmar can rediscover last seasons form. Chawla would be in the A team, but he has not performed within India for a while. India C 1. Aakash Chopra 2. Robin Uthappa 3. Tanmay Srivastava 4. Bhavik Thaker 5. Manoj Tiwary 6. Manish Pandey (?) 7. Wriddiman Saha (wk) 8. Ramesh Powar 9. R Vinay Kumar 10. Pankaj Singh 11. Sudeep Tyagi Powar seems a bit weak, even for a C team and does need some Ranji wickets. Pankaj over Agarkar was a tight one, but Pankaj seems to have been in the wickets for slightly longer than Agarkar has been in his last stretch of good form. Not happy with Pandey at 6 but could not think of who else to put there.

[Sooda]

Are you going off pure strength? Ie. The assumption that if all 11 players are injured out of the accepted Test XI, India A would come in. Then India B, then India C?

Aye thats the theory. Just thought itd be fun to see just how much 'depth' we have got. Also to point out the idiocy of the BP XI (and the selection of Santh), just how far (im my view) Santh and some of the guys picked for the BP team should be from playing test cricket, insofar as a pecking order is concerned. I know Srikkanth was on abt looking at people 'they have not seen before' but the Op to play test class bowlers comes rarely for guys like Dhawan and Vijay, they should have been in the team. I like youre team A actually, nice balance with the two allrounders. IP was MOTM in his last test and Rj deserves his spot there really after his ace season last year. And a good season would push Piyush in the mix too giving the spin attack a better look. Not sure about WJ though, he's had his run and didnt come good when the going went truly tough- in Aus for egs. Thats where MV and SD need to be tried. Still have faith in Kaif, think he was very hard done by. But his time has gone im sure. Rahane > Raina and Sharma you think? My knowledge (or lack...) began to show come team C and I ran out of names. Did think about Pandey- but thats a scary thought. Powar had a decent season last year. I know he is ok, but test class? It kinda shows the paucity of our spin resources when he in a pool of 5 or 6.

[msb1991]

Also to point out the idiocy of the BP XI (and the selection of Santh)' date=' just how far (im my view) Santh and some of the guys picked for the BP team should be from playing test cricket, insofar as a pecking order is concerned. I know Srikkanth was on abt looking at people 'they have not seen before' but the Op to play test class bowlers comes rarely for guys like Dhawan and Vijay, they should have been in the team.[/quote'] Yes, I think we can both agree that it is a stupid XI.

I like youre team A actually' date=' nice balance with the two allrounders. IP was MOTM in his last test and Rj deserves his spot there really after his ace season last year. And a good season would push Piyush in the mix too giving the spin attack a better look. Not sure about WJ though, he's had his run and didnt come good when the going went truly tough- in Aus for egs. Thats where MV and SD need to be tried. Still have faith in Kaif, think he was very hard done by. But his time has gone im sure.[/quote'] Thanks about my Team A, I think it is quite strong. I think a good season for Irfan Pathan could push him back into Test contention. I think he can be a good bowler abroad, keep in mind how good he was in Australia when we were down there. The fact that his new style is not conducive to ODI cricket should not harm his Test chances. Yes, I never rated Jaffer and keep going on about how I penned an article during the England series in 2007 about how he is not up to Test cricket outside the subcontinent due to his poor off stump awareness. However, no one can fault his domestic performances, he has been faultless. Vijay is definitely up there but I am worried because Dhawan has not been shown much notice by the selectors, whereas I think he should be our reserve middle order ODI batsman.

Rahane > Raina and Sharma you think?

It is hard to say. All three are very strong FC cricketers but Rahane's superb record did it, for me. I have no doubts that that record will sink back down toward 40 or 50, sooner rather than later though.

My knowledge (or lack...) began to show come team C and I ran out of names. Did think about Pandey- but thats a scary thought. Powar had a decent season last year. I know he is ok' date=' but test class? It kinda shows the paucity of our spin resources when he in a pool of 5 or 6.[/quote'] Team C was hard for me too. Yes, Ramesh Powar needs a good year here - he was our premier ODI spinner in 2007 and now has fallen away.