Have been longing for this opportunity: Badrinath

[ludhianvi]

Is Yuvraj Singh really that bad as a Test batsman? Also if the selectors are testing Badri, they should give him alteast 2 or 3 series to prove his mettle. A one-off match hardly does justice to a batsman to truly show his batting prowess. Anyway, a look at some Yuvi's recent scores: 14 85* v England 27 86 v England 22 DNB v New Zealand 0 54* v New Zealand 9 40 v New Zealand 68 DNB v Sri Lanka 67 - v Sri Lanka 23 - v Sri Lanka 12 25 v Bangladesh DNB DNB v Bangladesh Series averages : England : 70.67 NewZealand: 31.25 Sri Lanka : 52.67 Bangla : 18.5 Overall : 44.33 That's including his poor one-off match against Bangladesh.

[The Outsider]

Badrinath is all set now, no need to worry on his count : :adore::adore:B->

[coffee_rules]

^^For all we know, he might be saying "This is where I keep the mirror while I shave. I can see 90% of the daadi!".

[zubinpepsi]

here is an interesting article on Badri's net session.. A day before his expected India Test debut, S Badrinath was put through his paces at the nets. N Hunter witnessed the nerves and nudges, the anxiety and anticipation. It's palpable, almost visible. The heavy breathing, the inhaling and exhaling. S Badrinath is restless, nervous on the eve of what should be his Test debut. At 29, it's a long-awaited moment; a domestic giant, with 6187 runs and counting, he's played the waiting game for the past two years. Each time the Test door opened, it shut as quickly. Now the door is ajar once again and Badri's there. He's not alone; he looks around and sees the competition - Rohit Sharma to one side, long-time friend Murali Vijay to the other. Vijay is skipping to ward off tension. Rohit sits, disinterested, shades turned upside down on the back of his head. Badri, almost a different generation, sits down. Then he stands up, does a spot of vigorous shadow practice. The final net session is on, Harbhajan Singh is hitting audacious strokes. Badri waits, strapped into his pads and with his helmet on. The minutes tick by. He kills time, adjusting and readjusting the protective gear. The gloves go on, then come off. He taps the front of the helmet, hits the pads with his bat, stretches forward and back. Harbhajan hits a straight drive, says "last few". Badri nods, right foot in front, ready to get off the blocks. Finally he's out there, taking guard, leg stump. First up, Amit Mishra: A nicely flighted delivery, the perfect legbreak. Badri moves forward a bit, is beaten by the turn. Not the best start to his last nets before what should be his India debut. Then follows a rigorous examination by pace bowling. Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun (the leading wicket-taker this Ranji Trophy season). Mishra and Pragyan Ojha add subtlety to the mix. Badri searches for his groove, the bat starts making the right noises. He's still a little uncertain, though, and the noise is hollow, edgy. Zaheer is nagging at him with accurate inswingers, Ishant is finding a sharp length that consistently kicks the ball over the off stump. The 15 minutes are over. Zaheer pitches it on the seam, the ball rears up. Badri is unsettled, moves inside the line, turns his hips and jumps. He winces in pain as Zaheer smiles. Harbhajan, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag share a joke and there's laughter all round. The nerves come rushing back. "Over," Badri says, seeming slightly embarrassed, and walks out of the nets, rubbing his injured thigh. A few minutes later, passing Zaheer, Badri makes a shy remark: " like that". Then he walks up to Sachin Tendulkar. The Master is cheerful. He nods, shakes his head, gestures with his hands, keeping the smile on all the time, making suggestions, obviously trying to calm the newcomer's nerves. When he walks away, Badri stays put. Well, not really; he's in one place but in constant motion. Hands on hips. Hands behind hips, fists clenched. Hands crossed in front of his chest. He tries to speak to Gary Kirsten, tries to get his attention. The head coach, busy with throw-downs to Vijay, tells him to move away. Eric Simons, the bowling consultant, is ready to give Badri some throwdowns. The confidence has evidently returned; he starts middling the ball. Simons chips in with a few instructions. He points to the advantage of playing with the full bat face open and straight in line, instead of playing away from the body. The problem isn't sorted, though, and another expert eye picks it up. Kirsten turns his attention to the new boy. He passes on his instructions - play the ball with the head in line with the ball and the torso forward, not away from the ball - and takes over the throwdowns. Kirsten is relentless, firing in volleys and shorts balls with the tennis racket at Andy Roddick pace. Badri ducks, weaves, moving forward and back. Test cricket beckons. -------------------------------- umm hes under a lot of pressure.. I think hes gonna get succumbed by the pressure.. evidently time is ticking.. and dhoni is not gonna give him any free rides....

[vvvslaxman]

I know even in Srilanka he put himself under huge pressure. Very nervy. He needs to develop that blooyd mindedness. He should seek advice from Vijay. His nervy debut can cost India big time. He has to realize he cannot afford to fail or bat cluelessly here. Having confidence is half the battle won.

[Karan114]

That article paints a very worrying picture indeed...

[vvvslaxman]

If he can't handle the pressure in the nets how can he handle pressure at the center.

[yoda]

If he can't handle the pressure in the nets how can he handle pressure at the center.

Can you blame him? Having been overlooked for so many years, he now has 2 tests to prove himself. When people keep pushing you down, it is natural for your confidence to be a little shaky. Question for selectors is, why pick a guy at 29 when we wasn't good enough at 24 or 26?

[vvvslaxman]

I wish Dravid had played instead of Laxman. Dravid generally guides the newcomers in a much better way. But Badri should not feel out of place. His captain is not new to him. His state mate is also relatively new at this stage and playing with him.. He has wealth of experience at his disposal in the form of Tendulkar. If these factors are not going to help him nothing can help him. Any newcomer in the world would be dying to play in a team like this.

[Karan114]

Well he has already dropped a catch.

[MUMBAISKIPPER]

as long as lungiwala Anna Srikanth is the chairman of selection committee players from Tamil Nadu will keep getting opportunities irrespective of their "talent"

[The Outsider]

This might be a conspiracy theory out of the Marrirs Mania chronicles, but one reason for his unease and nervousness could be the fact that he doesn't seem to know Hindi, which is the default communication language of the team. Yesterday, was the first time I heard an Indian captain talking to a team mate in English.

[Zap_Brannigan]

as long as lungiwala Anna Srikanth is the chairman of selection committee players from Tamil Nadu will keep getting opportunities irrespective of their "talent"

You mean like Yuvraj Singh, Nohit Sharma, Jadeja, Ojha, Y Pathan?

[vvvslaxman]

as long as lungiwala Anna Srikanth is the chairman of selection committee players from Tamil Nadu will keep getting opportunities irrespective of their "talent"

He got selected on merit. He should have been selected even in vengsarkar's term. But vengy gave some weird reasons for not selecting him. I was also rooting for him strongly until i saw him in couple of domestic matches against our test bowlers. Wasn't really convinced. Dinesh Karthik was far more fluent. I wouldn't blame Srikkanth for selecting him. He deserved it based on his consistent domestic performance. They cannot ignore him based on gut feeling can they?

[rahulrulezz]

One of the major issues with Badri is that sometimes he plays way too defensively and digs a hole for himself.... He needs to make sure to score off bad balls..... from what I have seen/heard' date=' Dravid is like Sehwag in front of Badri when it comes to Strike Rate..[/quote'] exactly my words... Badri seems to be a good prospect but he is toooooo slow..keeps creating pressure on himself..... as Sachin once said, it takes only 1 good ball to get out so make sure to score off the bad ones... Even in the first innings, Badri got most runs in slips/third region area otherwise his strike rate would have been 20s or 30s...

[vvvslaxman]

I have seen Badri quiet a few times. Domestic, international. He works really really hard for each run. I am not sure if it is deliberate. His ODI strike rate was 100 last season. May be he was just nervous. But my problem with badri is timing and placement.

[yoda]

When you keep playing our useless FC bowling till you are 29, it is going a while to adjust to the likes of steyn and Morkell. That said, overall decent first innings outing given our hopeless situation and rather poor second outing. So 5/10 marks for his debut.

[Zap_Brannigan]

I have seen Badri quiet a few times. Domestic' date=' international. He works really really hard for each run. I am not sure if it is deliberate. His ODI strike rate was 100 last season. May be he was just nervous. But my problem with badri is timing and placement.[/quote'] He averages 58 after 10 years of 1st class cricket and been knocking on the selectors door for a very long time. He deserves more games to prove himself.

[teacup]

hmm...let's see, Badri, thus far, has outperformed Gauti, Vijay and Dhoni (though his 2nd inning is still not done) in his debut test against probably the best bowling attack we have faced in a long while but, I guess, that is not enough to give him a longer stint.

[graphic23]

Meh, I think given the situation the team was in, he batted quite well, 2nd innings failure notwithstanding.