Tactics for 2011 world cup

[zen]

I should have posted the following here: With like an year to go for the WC, it would be good to look in to some of the old bowlers like Munaf, IP (Irfan Pathan), etc, unless we don't find anyone special in the coming months. Sree is mostly a test material so should be used for that. If he has to play in ODIs, it shouldn't be on the pitches like the ones in sub-continent. May be over seas in places like SA and Eng Dhoni is not a bad captain but he needs to pull up his socks. There is no point in stuffing the line up with too many bits and pieces players. Guys like YP may be reserved for T20s where their quick 20s-30s and the ability to bowl 3-4 good overs would be utilized more properly than in ODIs where if you are selected as one of the bowling all-rounders, you need to consistently bowl 7-8 good overs, along with having the ability to score 50-60 occasionally (not rarely) as well We need to play 4 specialists bowlers, the ones who are better than the others when it comes to bowling. I don't like when X gets picked because he doesn't do a bad job with the ball and is a better batsman and a fielder than Y who is a better bowler. We need to pick better bowlers, esp those who can pick up wkts. Having 4 specialists bowlers also enables us to look for wkts in the middle overs. It's picking up wkts that derails the opposition more than bowling 2 -3 economical overs as 1-2 big overs can make up for those for the opposition So far from what I have seen my pool of 20 players goes like this (for a playing 11 as shown below): A - 6 batsmen (including wk) from: Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvi, Raina, Karthik, Dhoni, Kohli and Panday B - 1 bowling all-rounder from: Jadeja and IP .... (you can play both in the X1 only if both of them are bowling really well) C - 4 bowlers from: Zak, Nehra, Ishant, PK, Munaf, Bhajji, Mishy and Ashwin ^ That's 19 players, so 20th spot is still open from which one can short list a squad of 16

[The Realist]

^Totally agree^ For ODI cricket you need specialist batsmen and bowlers who can deliver regularly. I don't understand Dhoni's preference for bits n' pieces players - it never works. England in the past have often gone down this route and the lack of success shows it fails. Players who are ok at bowling and ok at batting just don't cut the mustard if you want to be the world's best. It's time there was an actual strategy put in place to try and win the WC and identify a group of players that have the talent and aptitude to be potential winners. Looking at the current squad you feel that is as far away as ever, especially with regards to the very weak bowling resources.

[cowboysfan]

prepare spinner friendly wickets and win the world cup.its a simple concept but will never happen.

[Ultimate_Game]

prepare spinner friendly wickets and win the world cup.its a simple concept but will never happen.

That's the only way we can win the cup. There's no way we can compete with aussies or saffers on a pace friendly pitch and it becomes a lottery if it's a batting pitch as whoever wins the toss can bat first and put the game away. The best way for India to capitalize on its home advantage is to have spinner friendly pitches, play 2 front line seamers and then unleash bevy of spinners such as Harbhajan, Jadeja, Ojha, Yuvi, Sehwag, Raina, Yusuf Pathan etc. to bowl the other 30-35 overs. This is the approach which won SL world cup in 1996 with Vaas as the main seamer supported by Murali, Dharamsens, Aravinda, Jayasuriya etc. and I think our team is best suited to exploit the same strategy. Just imagine what this team could do on a spinner friendly pitch... Sehwag Tendulkar Gambhir Yuvraj Dhoni Raina Yusuf Pathan Jadeja Irfan Pathan/Parveen Kumar Harbhajan Zaheer We bat till 10 and have 6 spin based bowlers: Harbhajan, Jadeja, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Yusuf, Raina. Also, we have the likes of Pathan brothers to pinch hit during the power plays. Let's face it, our specialist bowlers give as many as our non-regular bowlers so why not go with as much batting depth as possible?

[Watson87]

I wouldn't pick Pathan in my side, he's pathetic. 1 Sehwag 2 Gambhir 3 Sachin 4 Yuvraj 5 Dhoni 6 Raina 7 Jadeja 8 Harbajhan Singh 9 M. karthik/ P. Ojha/ A. Mishra/ Ashwin (any decent spinner) 10 P. Kumar 11 Z. Khan

[Ultimate_Game]

I wouldn't pick Pathan in my side, he's pathetic. 1 Sehwag 2 Gambhir 3 Sachin 4 Yuvraj 5 Dhoni 6 Raina 7 Jadeja 8 Harbajhan Singh 9 M. karthik/ P. Ojha/ A. Mishra/ Ashwin (any decent spinner) 10 P. Kumar 11 Z. Khan

Your team is slightly light on batting depth and in case there's a top order collapse will struggle to post 300. Anything less than 300 and don't think our bowling lineup can guarantee a victory no matter how many specialist bowlers we play.

[zen]

Your team is slightly light on batting depth and in case there's a top order collapse will struggle to post 300. Anything less than 300 and don't think our bowling lineup can guarantee a victory no matter how many specialist bowlers we play.

In my opinion, his team is well balanced. Only thing is he has 3 spinners, which are far too many for a regular pitch. You need 3 pacers unless the pitch is spin friendly as Ind also has quite a few guys who can bowl part time spin if needed. Take the first 15 overs, for example, if one of the pacers has an off day and we had only 2 pacers then we would have to introduce spin as early as say 6th over! And bowling at the death if the ball is reversing could turn in to an issue too with just 2 pacers To get to a 300 total, you need the top 6 to do well. If early wkts fall then the 7th specialist batsmen may not be of much help in giving Ind a good total. That's why you need a balanced bowling attack to fight back If the top 6 do well then you need a decent bowlers to see that the opposition don't get past that total, and if they don't you still need decent bowlers to fight back. We also need a decent attack to also see that we don't chase a huge total. Proper bowlers also help when we pick up early wks as they can put pressure on batting and not allow the batting side to come back in to the game which can happen with part time type of bowlers bowling as they usually bowl to contain In an ODI series, it is easy to win the series based on batting strength as the batting can fire in say 3 out of 5 games (and so on) but in KO tourneys you need to be able to attack with both the bat and the ball as a batting collapse in a KO game could prove fatal and in that case it's better to be at the mercy of our bowlers than the 7th specialist batsman. That's why it is imp to have a bowling all-rounder as he can be useful batting at 7 and also lend depth to the bowling

[Laaloo]

This is the team to beat along with the aussies no matter what people say about our bowling attack Sachin Sehwag Gambhir Yuvi Dhoni Raina Irfan Pathan Jadeja Harbhajan PK ZAK

[zen]

This is the team to beat along with the aussies no matter what people say about our bowling attack Sachin Sehwag Gambhir Yuvi Dhoni Raina Irfan Pathan Jadeja Harbhajan PK ZAK

^ If Jadeja and IP are bowling well then that's a pretty good line up as now the bowling is more balanced with 3 pacers and 2 spinners. And also we have decent batting till #8 (IP), along with having 9, 10 and 11 who are no mug with the bat If IP is bowling and batting really well then we can even bring in Mishy in place of Jadeja and that will give us a test match type of spinners bowling in the middle overs. If Dhoni sets aggressive fields then it could put pressure on the batting side With a long batting line up with part timers type of bowlers like YP (Yusuf) bowling 5th bowlers quota, Dhoni mentally is only focused on containment and getting the most out of batting which is one dimensional I think Dhoni right now is working on the old rule that if your bowling is weak strengthen your batting and if your batting is weak strengthen the bowling. But we have come to a point where strengthening the batting is more of an exercise of producing diminishing returns as if you can't deliver with 6 batsmen on consistent basis, you probably won't with 7 or 8. And the weakened bowling tends to give away extra runs which only puts additional pressure on the batsmen, esp when they are chasing. Even when they set up a total, nothing feels safe as with part-timers type of bowlers bowling, the opposition tends to hang on, force a partnership and get in to rhythm to attack at the later stage

[diegovegaz]

sachin sehwag gambhir kohli yuvraj dhoni raina jadeja bhajji zaheer pk this side has plenty of spinners a medium pace option can be groomed, in virat kohli else, irfan or rpsingh could play the 3rd seamer