A perfect selection storm

[saneindian]

On the brighter side' date=' the last time we had two middle order debutants in a test match, one went on to score a 100 and the other missed a century by 5 runs. Both of them went on to be come legends of Indian cricket in their own rights.[/quote'] Just a mere coincidence, even in 1996 one debutant was from East zone and the other from South zone!! To top it all a batsman from West Zone got injured on the morning of the test to give the youngman from East his debut and the person from South Zone made his debut cos another batsman from North wasn't available :dance: Comeon Saha this is your chance, give it your best shot!

[Karan114]

Stroke of luck for Saha Stroke of luck for Saha http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100207/jsp/sports/story_12075658.jsp LOKENDRA PRATAP SAHI Calcutta: Where ironies go, it can’t get bigger than this: Set for his Test debut, Rohit Sharma collided with Wriddhiman Saha and it’s the 25-year-old from Bengal who got his maiden cap! One can’t recall a ‘cover’, too, being rendered hors de combat in the hour before a Test, but Saha surely isn’t complaining. Not that you can hold it against him. Clearly, a most bizarre situation confronted Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Jamtha, on Saturday morning, when both V.V.S. Laxman and his ‘cover’, Rohit, became unavailable for Test No.1 against South Africa. With no specialist batsman in the reserves, Dhoni and coach Gary Kirsten had no choice but to include Saha, the second wicket-keeper, in the XI. Saha’s debut, incidentally, came at the same venue where Sourav Ganguly had played his final Test, 15 months ago. It’s Kirsten who gave Saha the greatest news of his life, “around five minutes†before the toss. “Rohit collided with me, during the warm-up session, and he’d looked bad... I was throwing some balls to (Amit) Mishra when Gary came up to me and said that I would be playing... Dhoni spoke to me after the toss... Everything happened so fast,†Saha told The Telegraph, when contacted on returning to the Pride Hotel in Nagpur. Who presented him the India cap? “Sachin Tendulkar... At that moment, it definitely felt great... Till then, I’d been quite normal... Sachin also gave the cap to the other debutant, (Subramaniam) Badrinath... Having got this chance, I’m looking to contribute to the team’s effort... Team jate bhalo korte pare... “Today, I’m thankful to so many for their encouragement over the years... My parents (Prasanta, Maitrayee) and dada (Anirban)... My coach for long, Jayanta Bhowmick... It’s a long list,†Saha responded. Actually, not that Dhoni has anything against Saha, but his worst fears came true at much the wrong time. For, it was on the eve of the Test, that he’d told a well-wisher: “Please talk of anything, but injuries ki baat nahin karen...†The Krishnamachari Srikkanth-headed selection committee needs to hold a review. Most important, it shouldn’t pick anybody who hasn’t ‘proved’ that he’s match-fit. Laxman wasn’t anywhere close to that when the selectors chose the XV, on January 2-8. Well, it wasn’t very many years ago that even somebody of Sourav’s standing had to ‘prove’ his fitness. He did so with a hundred in the Duleep Trophy. Speaking exclusively from Nagpur, Srikkanth said: “We were faced with such a strange situation... What happened was very unfortunate and Rohit’s injury has only confirmed that anything may occur... We’ll now have to look at a logical way of avoiding a repeat...†Srikkanth didn’t commit himself on whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India would be requested by his committee to sanction the selection of XVI players for a home series as well. That’s a possibility, though.

[hari504504]

Dhoni should make use of this to bowl a few overs the next time and let Saha keep... you never know with the golden arm..

[thevortex]

No selection storm. Its a straight up defensive tactic. An extremely defensive one. One not becoming of the No.1 Test team in the world. Dhoni and the management must be roundly criticized for this. They want Saha playing as a specialist batsman over having 5 bowlers? That is just monumental stupidity. No matter how many runs he ends up scoring, there is no percentage in the selection. And cricket is about giving yourself and your team more chances to succeed. Not take a wild throw of the dice and see how it pans out! And Dhoni's extreme defensive tactics on the field are no help.

[Gunner_Mania]

The storm is not about Saha playing in the final XI. It is about picking Saha in the first place over Karthik in the squad, it is about drafting Rohit as cover for Laxman simply because he was in the same city not because he was the best available option, it is about picking 7 bowlers in the squad when they probably had made up their mind about only playing 4 bowlers, it is about picking 4 pace bowlers in stead of an extra batsman given that Laxman had to undergo a fitness test. I agree with you Saha v/s a bowler, we probably might have had more chances of a success.

[urbestfriend]

No selection storm. Its a straight up defensive tactic. An extremely defensive one. One not becoming of the No.1 Test team in the world. Dhoni and the management must be roundly criticized for this. They want Saha playing as a specialist batsman over having 5 bowlers? That is just monumental stupidity. No matter how many runs he ends up scoring, there is no percentage in the selection. And cricket is about giving yourself and your team more chances to succeed. Not take a wild throw of the dice and see how it pans out! And Dhoni's extreme defensive tactics on the field are no help.

Absolutely spot on.

[Guest Hiten.]

No selection storm. Its a straight up defensive tactic. An extremely defensive one. One not becoming of the No.1 Test team in the world. Dhoni and the management must be roundly criticized for this. They want Saha playing as a specialist batsman over having 5 bowlers? That is just monumental stupidity. No matter how many runs he ends up scoring, there is no percentage in the selection. And cricket is about giving yourself and your team more chances to succeed. Not take a wild throw of the dice and see how it pans out! And Dhoni's extreme defensive tactics on the field are no help.

There is no way in hell, you could opt for 5 specialist bowlers on the Indian pitches because you are just disabling yourself when it comes to batting. Please check the Aus playing XI for all of the 4 games. Its a 6-1-4 tactics which is what any sensible captain would opt to do given how Indian pitches are prepared these days.

[urbestfriend]

There is no way in hell, you could opt for 5 specialist bowlers on the Indian pitches because you are just disabling yourself when it comes to batting. Please check the Aus playing XI for all of the 4 games. Its a 6-1-4 tactics which is what any sensible captain would opt to do given how Indian pitches are prepared these days.

Doesn't make sense at all... 1) If patta pitches are not suitable for 5 bowler theory, where else you can go with 5 bowlers? If 6 batsmen can't score in flatest of pitches, how do you expect 7th batsman to score? 1) Here we're talking about selection of Saha, a wicket keeper , as a genuine batsman. Another genuine bowler here would've made a difference.

[Guest Hiten.]

Doesn't make sense at all... 1) If patta pitches are not suitable for 5 bowler theory, where else you can go with 5 bowlers? If 6 batsmen can't score in flatest of pitches, how do you expect 7th batsman to score? 1) Here we're talking about selection of Saha, a wicket keeper , as a genuine batsman. Another genuine bowler here would've made a difference.

On flat pitches, it does not matter how many bowlers you have at your disposal, because it simply is an overkill for bowlers. Moreover, we do not have any bench strength in bowling. Had we chosen for a 5th bowler it would have been Tyagi/Mithun (a debutant bowled on a patta wicket), so would you rather have a rookie start his life on a dead wicket or a batsman ? It was just bad luck that RS got injured at the beginning of the game and there is absolutely nothing you could've done over that, because you clearly do not expect a replacement to get injured as you do not carry a replacement for your replacement. If you notice it, RSA too have gone with 4 bowlers with kallis being their 5th bowler. But these days Kallis is not very fit to bowl it seems and I don't see Smith using him for an extended spells like they use to earlier on.

[graphic23]

Yeah right. Like we aren't satisified with 3 out of 4 bowlers sucking. You want a 5th bowler who's giving away runs and not taking wickets? And yes, a 7th batsman makes a huge difference.

[vvvslaxman]

Yeah right. Like we aren't satisified with 3 out of 4 bowlers sucking. You want a 5th bowler who's giving away runs and not taking wickets? And yes' date=' a 7th batsman makes a huge difference.[/quote'] Spot on. If these so called Premiere bowlers suck like this what the heck is our 5th bowler going to do. But i think Dhoni should have bowled himself along with badri. You need to keep the bowlers as fresh as possible.

[thevortex]

The storm is not about Saha playing in the final XI. It is about picking Saha in the first place over Karthik in the squad, it is about drafting Rohit as cover for Laxman simply because he was in the same city not because he was the best available option, it is about picking 7 bowlers in the squad when they probably had made up their mind about only playing 4 bowlers, it is about picking 4 pace bowlers in stead of an extra batsman given that Laxman had to undergo a fitness test. I agree with you Saha v/s a bowler, we probably might have had more chances of a success.

Karthik really got punishment - is what I think. For that awful stroke that he dished out when playing against Bangladesh. Also he was not neat behind the wicket for the Test that he kept wickets for. He was not making clean collections even off the faster bowlers. At this level, that is just not on. He is, in my mind, the best wicket keeper batsman in India in Test matches. But consistency and him are not friends.

[thevortex]

There is no way in hell, you could opt for 5 specialist bowlers on the Indian pitches because you are just disabling yourself when it comes to batting. Please check the Aus playing XI for all of the 4 games. Its a 6-1-4 tactics which is what any sensible captain would opt to do given how Indian pitches are prepared these days.

Blue_brigade - that is a self defeating argument, if I may say so. A flat track demands that your bowlers are rested well so that they can go hard in short spells. And yes, we missed a 5th bowler here. So, am I to understand that you think highly of Saha's batting abilities as a specialist batsman?

[graphic23]

vortex, I definitely dont think a bowler would have helped anymore than what we have right now. That they didn't go with a 5th option shows that they have confidence in their batsmen to do well. What happened with Saha is unfortunate thanks to an unfit player. You cannot blame the team management in this case. On this track, given our stock bowlers, a 7th batsman is far more valuable than a 5th bowler.

[Guest Hiten.]

What you guys don't understand is Saha was in the squad as a backup keeper but we were forced to pick him as a batsman because of the last minute injury to Rohit and we had no time to fly in a replacement batsman.

[urbestfriend]

vortex' date=' I definitely dont think a bowler would have helped anymore than what we have right now. That they didn't go with a 5th option shows that they have confidence in their batsmen to do well. What happened with Saha is unfortunate thanks to an unfit player. You cannot blame the team management in this case. On this track, given our stock bowlers, a 7th batsman is far more valuable than a 5th bowler.[/quote'] Yes, Indeed...Saha would be more helpful than 5th bowler because he doesn't waste any ball out there!!

[yoda]

What you guys don't understand is Saha was in the squad as a backup keeper but we were forced to pick him as a batsman because of the last minute injury to Rohit and we had no time to fly in a replacement batsman.

We could have played an extra bowler given that our 7th batsman is actually no batsman at all.

[youngindia]

That is a dumb reason to pick some one. Just because he hapened to be in the same city where the team is playing.

That's an uninformed intrepretation of yet another clueless journalist. not the gospel for sake! the best players were selected except for saha. but this selection committee has been clueless on one crucial factor all season-playing young players against the stronger cricket of australia and sa. it has been costly all season. can someone hammer it to their thick skulls? this idiocy has been proving costly time and again. even before the toss, i was highly concerned.

[thevortex]

vortex' date=' I definitely dont think a bowler would have helped anymore than what we have right now. That they didn't go with a 5th option shows that they have confidence in their batsmen to do well. What happened with Saha is unfortunate thanks to an unfit player. You cannot blame the team management in this case. On this track, given our stock bowlers, a 7th batsman is far more valuable than a 5th bowler.[/quote'] I dont see any logic in that, I am afraid. I am saying even if Rohit had been available, we should have gone with 5 bowlers. Plain and simple. People like Ravi Shastri are seeing the 5th bowler from only the wicket taking perspective. But see, the 5th bowler's presence will help freshen up our specialists and they dont have to wheel away with more overs continuously and in the long run over 5 days it can and will make a big difference.

[youngindia]

But see' date=' the 5th bowler's presence will help freshen up our specialists and they dont have to wheel away with more overs continuously and in the long run over 5 days it can and will make a big difference.[/quote'] taking wickets is the big difference.others are all supporting parts. when it comes to bowling, penetrative bolwers are the key. not numbers.