SA Test squad to face India

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Cricket_Guru]

look, we are trying to improve relationships with our neighbours!

[Clarke]

Quality opener, will be missed by SA.

[fineleg]

ZK will miss his bunny. But I think GS will play. He is a very determined player and will give his 200% to play.

[vamos_rafa]

I think he would play. I recall that when SA lost the 2nd test at Eden Gardens Smith specifically mentioned that he would like to see how the Indians would fare when they tour SA. I think he would still be smarting under the loss. It's gonna be one heck of a series for sure....

[daryl1985]

Billy and Bucknor were the umpires ... enuff said ... I had written a article which I will try to dig laters. He was going thru that phase of serious injury (Tennis Elbow) ... the man was a wreck. But after we got shafted in B'luru and missed out in Chennai due to rain washing out Day5 there was a SOS sent out to SRT to pad up. Meanwhile the freakin Nagpur curator under instructions from Pawar/Shashank Manohar decided to screw our own team by providing a pitch that was tailor made for Aussies to get even with Dalmiya. Ganguly sat out. Dravid captained ... we lost. Only in India can such things happen and there is no shortage of idiots who sing praises of that Aussie team.

Thx a lot for this post!

[vishalvirsingh]

Zaheer would want him to play as I guess Zak will get him out sooner than later. GS has to try real hard if he wanna avoid himself to get out against Zaheer

[achilles]

This is gonna make the SA tour all the more exciting for us, as SA will be missing their star opener and captain. We better make it 2-0 there, this time. @ Boss... Unfortunately, beating an Indian team lacking greats is not reason enough to call the win a farce.

look' date=' we are trying to improve relationships with our neighbours![/quote'] :hysterical: Absolutely BRILLIANT.

[hari504504]

look' date=' we are trying to improve relationships with our neighbours![/quote'] if you were really sincere..you would put Steyn,Morkel and Akhtar in one room.. Akhtar with a bat in hand..

[Online]

captain's been sunk before the ship has set sail.

[Ram]

He will probably bat even if he's only half-fit, but it'd be great if he doesnt play. Such strokes of luck is exactly what you need to start off a challenging series. And btw, the last time a South African player went down, it worked out just fine for an IPL team from down South. :--D

[hari504504]

They may just replace him with an Amla mk II

[EnterTheVoid]

I really hope he plays, I have a lot of respect for him since he batted with that broken arm at Sydney.

[Andy]

Smith to fully recover for India series

Graeme Smith, South Africa's captain, is expected to be fully fit for the series against India that starts on December 16 after being examined by a hand surgeon on the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Medical Panel on Friday. Smith had fractured the ring finger of his left hand during the recently completed series against Pakistan, and there was a concern that the injury might require surgery. "We have been given the assurance that Graeme's injury is healing within expectation and we are confident that he will make a full recovery and be available for the entire series against India," Dr Shuaib Manjra, the chairman of CSA's medical committee, said in a statement. CSA's medical team will continue with Smith's rehabilitation and his condition will be reviewed again in two weeks' time. According to Dr Manjra, the expectation is "he will begin training with the team when they reconvene on December 12, 2010." Mike Solomons, the hand surgeon who saw Smith, told ESPNcricinfo, "he does not need surgery. He will have a few weeks of rest and physiotherapy and that should sort it out." Smith sustained the injury when he was hit by a Shoaib Akhtar bouncer in the first ODI against Pakistan last month, and aggravated it by playing in the last two ODIs of the same series and the two-Test series in the UAE. He has now had five separate hand injuries in the past two-and-a-half years, which have often kept him out of limited-overs engagements but have yet to affect his participation in Tests. The fracture prior to his most recent injury was sustained while taking a catch during the IPL in April. The worrying thing about the latest injury is that, similar to the broken hand Smith suffered twice at the hands of Mitchell Johnson in the 2008/9 season, it was sustained while batting. Once again, questions will be raised about whether it's Smith's technique that makes him vulnerable to being hit or if he is just unlucky.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/current/story/489193.html

[Sachin=GOD]

:two_thumbs_up:

[TumTum]

I really hope he plays' date=' I have a lot of respect for him since he batted with that broken arm at Sydney.[/quote'] It was his hand. You won't be able to hold a bat with a broken arm.

[Feed]

SA Test squad to face India A peek into SA's selections aheah of the announcement of test squad for the home series against Insdia. More... Panel left pondering which lefty to leave out ANDREW Hudson and his selection panel would be forgiven for thinking something sinister was afoot and they had been transported to a left- handed world. TELFORD VICE Published: 2010/12/02 ANDREW Hudson and his selection panel would be forgiven for thinking something sinister was afoot and they had been transported to a left- handed world. Much of their talks at yesterday’s meeting to choose the SA Test squad to face India would have dealt with the merits of picking Lonwabo Tsotsobe or Wayne Parnell, left-arm fast bowlers both. They would also have deliberated long and hard over the merits of JP Duminy and Ashwell Prince, left- handed batsmen both. Of course, all four might find their names on the list when the announcement is made today. But, as the committee was looking to name a squad of 13, it is rather more likely that some of them will be left out. Tsotsobe is favoured to crack the nod ahead of Parnell, chiefly because he had by far a busier time of it against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates . Parnell, who is finding his feet in the wake of a lingering groin injury, played a single one-day international. Tsotsobe appeared in four of the five one-dayers and both Twenty20 internationals, and he bowled impressively. Trouble is, neither Tsotsobe nor Parnell played in the Test matches, and the selectors are in the market for a squad that can beat the world’s top-ranked Test side over five days. So performances in the other formats will not count for as much. The situation is more complicated when it comes to the contest between the in-possession Prince and the in-form Duminy. Prince played in both Tests , but a highest score of 47 not out on the placid pitches will leave many unconvinced that he is in the kind of nick to subdue Ishant Sharma and company on SA’s faster surfaces. Duminy did not play a Test in the Middle East, but in his five innings in the one-dayers he scored 185 runs at an average of 61,66 . Prince is a dogged battler who is most at home in the trenches of defiance. And, lukewarm though he was in the desert, let us not forget the two gritty half-centuries he scored at crucial stages of the Proteas’ previous Test engagement against the West Indies in June. However, Duminy’s pugnacity is unmatched. He is also lethal in the field, and he bowls a decent brand of off-spin — which is not to be sneezed at if, as expected, SA opt for Paul Harris as their only slow bowler. But there could be a large, significant snag to picking Duminy ahead of Prince. His name is Graeme Smith. Or, to be precise, the big left- hander’s left hand. The SA captain is on the mend after sustaining a fracture against Pakistan, but another blow on the same hand could end his involvement in the Test series. That may mean providing cover for Smith in the squad, and his most obvious replacement at the top of the order would be Prince, reluctant though he is to open the batting. This would also keep Duminy in the middle order mix. Either way, Prince should stay. Anything else — picking left-handed Jacques Rudolph, for instance — would be straight out of left field.

[bihutoli]

So SA squad more or less selects themselves apart from 1. Tsotsobe, Parnell or some other as the fourth seamer. 2. Prince or Duminy Some question marks over Smith's participation in the first test. I presume Amla is fit. Peterson Smith Amla Kallis ABDV Duminy/Prince Boucher Morkel Tsotsobe/Parnell/Some other Harris Steyn Strong squad, with a couple of chinks. Should look to blunt Steyn and Morkel. Milk Kallis and go after Harris and their fourth seamer. Batting is formidable, our bowlers will have to bowl out of their skin.

[vaibhav_delhi]

De Wet was pretty impressive last time he played(vs england). Is he fit?

[saneindian]

Does a bowling attack of Steyn, Morkel, Tsotsobe/Parnell, Harris/Botha look as lethal as Donald, Pollock, Ntini, Adams/Symcox or Pollock, Ntini, Steyn/Morkel, Harris? Unless SA produce out and out fast bouncy pitches, their current attack doesn't look as potent as some of their previous attacks that we have faced.