Which team has the best bench strength currently?

[vvvslaxman]

Is it England? SA.. just remove Steyn. They are plain. India.. with out Zak we are weak

[cowboysfan]

england have good bowling depth but their reserve batsmen are not that good.we seem to have the opposite problem.

[kabira]

Well India, just go back 11 months. No Laxman, I believe no Dravid...lalu panjoos like Saha in the team...Badri and Vijay replace Laxman and Dravid and we still beat Saffers in Eden Gardens.. Then move to Lanka...No Zaheer...No SS...Mithunda making debut...we levelled the series. Then against Australia...No Laxman (our crisis man).and no Gambhir ...replaced by Vijay and Pujara....they both nailed them in 2nd innings with the help of God. Lets go forward..3rd Test against Nzland...Zaheer injured..series 0-0...In comes Ishant after a while...blows thru Nzland top order. Oh I forgot contribution of Mr. Ojha......

[Serani]

England have best bowling bench. Not sure we have many high class batsman waiting in the wings if injury, Morgan is pretty average at test level.

[The Outsider]

Bowling : England Batting : India

[Raghav_12]

england have good bowling depth but their reserve batsmen are not that good.we seem to have the opposite problem.

Forget about batting reserves. They have Collingwood in their first 11..:--D:--D

[Serani]

As bad as he is at least he averages over 40, he has a similar record to Ganguly who for some reason has a great reputation.

[prinzo]

remove steyn , wait and see Rusty Theron and Ryan McClaren ,

[Raghav_12]

As bad as he is at least he averages over 40' date=' he has a similar record to Ganguly who for some reason has a great reputation.[/quote'] Ganguly's reputation is more because of his great captaincy rather than great batsmanship. But in any case that doesn't make Collingwood worthy of a place in batting line up of one of the top cricket teams of the world.

[Dhondy]

Bowling : England Batting : India

Agree, England have awesome depth in bowling. Their cup's overflowing and it's good to see the old country making a comeback. It's inspiring the youngsters here no end. But India with it's batting depth? Surely, there must be some mistake. Vijay, Raina, Pujara...this lot couldn't buy a run outside their own turf if their lives depended on it. It's rather scary. Or are we into the "potential" of the Kohlis and Rahanes now? Desperate stuff...Dravid, whose career looks embalmed and tutenkhamised, is actually made to look half decent by some of the "bench strength" on show. More like driftwood.

[Serani]

remove steyn , wait and see Rusty Theron and Ryan McClaren ,

They are both rubbish, Ryan Mclaren is a joke cricketer. Friedel De Wet looked good until he hurt his back, not sure if he has played any cricket since.

[The Outsider]

As bad as he is at least he averages over 40' date=' he has a similar record to Ganguly who for some reason has a great reputation.[/quote'] In matches where Ganguly was not captain, he was a much better player - averaging 45+. I guess the drop in his average as captain was a reasonable trade off for his captaincy, which was genuinely good for a 3-4 year period.

[Serani]

In matches where Ganguly was not captain, he was a much better player - averaging 45+. I guess the drop in his average as captain was a reasonable trade off for his captaincy, which was genuinely good for a 3-4 year period.

In matches where he had his *****y blonde highlights Collingwood averaged 20, its apparent that if Colly was more comfortable with his disabilty (being ginger) he would have averaged 45+ Also colly is one of the best fielders in the world.

[kabira]

^so he is in the team for fielding LOL

[Serani]

Ganguly was in the team for captaincy LOL

[The Outsider]

Agree, England have awesome depth in bowling. Their cup's overflowing and it's good to see the old country making a comeback. It's inspiring the youngsters here no end.

It's very good to see how they have targeted certain bowlers for future roles and have a like for like similar type of bowler being developed in the background. Anderson, Broad, Finn, Tremlett, Shehzaad, Bresnan, Swann, and Panesar - that's a very good group with a lot of cover.

But India with it's batting depth? Surely, there must be some mistake. Vijay, Raina, Pujara...this lot couldn't buy a run outside their own turf if their lives depended on it. It's rather scary. Or are we into the "potential" of the Kohlis and Rahanes now? Desperate stuff...Dravid, whose career looks embalmed and tutenkhamised, is actually made to look half decent by some of the "bench strength" on show. More like driftwood.

To flip it around how many of the reserve English bowlers would be able to come to India and take wickets on their first tours? On similar to Indian pitches, why wouldn't they score runs? Didn't Raina score crucial runs in Sri Lanka, or Pujara and Raina in India? If you expect them to immediately start delivering head turning performances in alien conditions like South Africa, where none of even our first choice cricketers have felt completely at ease, those are unrealistic expectations. It's the equivalent of expecting Shehzaad and Bresnan to run through the likes of Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid, and Laxman in India. It's going to take time for them to develop into final products but in Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Vijay, Rohit, Raina etc. there are enough names for 2-3 to graduate to test level gradually.

[Sooda]

Vijay, Raina, Pujara...this lot couldn't buy a run outside their own turf if their lives depended on it. It's rather scary.

ONE TEST!! Give the guys a chance. Pujara for one looked ok. And we know that him, Kohli and Rahane can score outside India based on what they have done for the A and Emerging players sides

[jusarrived]

Forget about batting reserves. They have Collingwood in their first 11..:--D:--D

Collingwood is pretty underrated , a little inconsistent these days

[kabira]

Ganguly was in the team for captaincy LOL

yes and also batsman who scored plenty of useful knocks....he played for 2-3 years without being captain..Can Colly match that??

[Serani]

yes and also batsman who scored plenty of useful knocks....he played for 2-3 years without being captain..Can Colly match that??

Ganguly is better than Colly, but people talk about Colly like he is a total mongole batsman when his record is decent like Gangulys. Thats the point im trying to make.