Concerned about Zaheer Khan and our bowling in general...

[Ultimate_Game]

Really very concerned about Zaheer Khan and indian bowling and today's warm-up win against aussies has actually raised more questions than answers... 1. Zaheer Khan's fitness - The guy is down with groin strain again and whatever I know of groin strain injuries, it takes a long time to get over one. With Praveen Kumar already out of the world cup, I have no clue who will rein in the run-rate in the opening and the power-play overs. 2. In today's game we actually played 6 specialist bowlers - Munaf, Sreesanth, Nehra, Chawla, Harbhajan and Ashwin. In the tourney we can't afford to play more than 4, especially since our middle order (Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina) is still out of form and our top order has just come back from injuries and need more match practice (Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir). Based on today's game I have absolutely no confidence in Nehra & Munaf and Sreesanth is unpredictable - good one game and woeful another but still our best option. Looks like we will have to go with 2 specialist spinners (Harbhajan and Chawla) and 2 fast bowlers (Sreesanth and Zaheer if he recovers) and instructions should be given to the groundsmen to prepare spin friendly tracks as that's the best chance for us to succeed. 3. Our fielding is beyond belief woeful. Whoever saw Nehra bend down at mid-off like a geriatric and lethargic octageneranian and gift 4 runs, where even a single would have been difficult against better fielding side, would have wanted to smash his/her TV screen. With folks like Nehra, Munaf etc. in the team we have simply too many liabilities to be hidden. I guess best bet for us is to ensure spin-friendly and square turning tracks and field 2 specialist spinners along with part-timers such as Yuvraj, Pathan, Sehwag, Raina filling in as well. To be honest that's the only way I see us winning the cup and I hope our batting finds form as the tournament progresses.

[Sid]

There were 2 things that Dhoni said during post match presentation that were disturbing: 1.Giving seamers rest because their work will start from 19th,indirectly indicating we will still go with 3-1 combo,whch is stupidity in my opinion. 2. Zak has a minor groin strain :nervous:

[DomainK]

This concern is expressed without fail before every major tournament and series in either formats of the game. Our bowling is better than we give it credit for. Lets have some patience and some confidence.

[Ultimate_Game]

We saw the exact same story before T20 world cup with Zaheer not fully match fit and look what happened. I hope BCCI is smart enough to make most of the home advantage - ask curators to ensure a spinning pitch for every India game. Let Saffers, Aussies, English and kiwis cry & whinge about "underprepared", "minefield", "unsporting", "unhelpful" pitches but India should go ahead with their strength which is undoubtedly spin. Dhoni's post-match comments regarding Zaheer's groin strain has basically left us with no other option :(

[cowboysfan]

Groin strains will linger if Zak doesnt get rest,i think he should not play the first 3 matches at all.

[Ultimate_Game]

Groin strains will linger if Zak doesnt get rest' date='i think he should not play the first 3 matches at all.[/quote'] Totally agree and in fact he should only play the last 2 group games to get match-fit in time for the knock-out stages. Our first 4 games are against B'desh (we should be able to manage without Zaheer), England (play 3 spinners on what I hope would be a spinning track) and then against the two minnows in our group (Zaheer should not be required). The game where we need Zaheer is the 5th game against SA so that he can trouble Smith as usual :)

[Manny_Pacquiao]

India should save zaheer and tendulkar for the QFs. they dont need either of them to qualify from the group.

[Ultimate_Game]

India should save zaheer and tendulkar for the QFs. they dont need either of them to qualify from the group.

They need to be match-fit before the quarters and India need a settled lineup before the knock-out stage. I wouldn't want to see a player who's coming off a long break in the team for a knock out straight away. Tendulkar is less of a concern as he's a batsman and we have replacement for him but Zaheer is a major concern.

[pensionplan]

They need to be match-fit before the quarters and India need a settled lineup before the knock-out stage. I wouldn't want to see a player who's coming off a long break in the team for a knock out straight away. Tendulkar is less of a concern as he's a batsman and we have replacement for him but Zaheer is a major concern.

If he(ZK) really is hobbling no point in expecting that he will show up and be his old self down the road. He has a history of breaking down more often than not. Is there a injury report out there on ZK at this point that states he is racing against time to be match fit for some of the WC games? If that is the case why not drop him and get a replacement. Not that we have a stock pile of replacements but still you want fit bodies out there.

[Ultimate_Game]

If he(ZK) really is hobbling no point in expecting that he will show up and be his old self down the road. He has a history of breaking down more often than not. Is there a injury report out there on ZK at this point that states he is racing against time to be match fit for some of the WC games? If that is the case why not drop him and get a replacement. Not that we have a stock pile of replacements but still you want fit bodies out there.

Dhoni mentioned in his post-match comment when he was asked whether we can expect to see Tendulkar and Zaheer in the next warm-up game that Tendulkar should be fine but Zaheer has a groin strain. He's resting Zaheer and hoping he would recover before the opening game against B'desh :( Things don't look good based on Zaheer's injury record/history :((

[Ram]

Really very concerned about Zaheer Khan and indian bowling and today's warm-up win against aussies has actually raised more questions than answers... 1. Zaheer Khan's fitness - The guy is down with groin strain again and whatever I know of groin strain injuries, it takes a long time to get over one. With Praveen Kumar already out of the world cup, I have no clue who will rein in the run-rate in the opening and the power-play overs. 2. In today's game we actually played 6 specialist bowlers - Munaf, Sreesanth, Nehra, Chawla, Harbhajan and Ashwin. In the tourney we can't afford to play more than 4, especially since our middle order (Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina) is still out of form and our top order has just come back from injuries and need more match practice (Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir). Based on today's game I have absolutely no confidence in Nehra & Munaf and Sreesanth is unpredictable - good one game and woeful another but still our best option. Looks like we will have to go with 2 specialist spinners (Harbhajan and Chawla) and 2 fast bowlers (Sreesanth and Zaheer if he recovers) and instructions should be given to the groundsmen to prepare spin friendly tracks as that's the best chance for us to succeed. 3. Our fielding is beyond belief woeful. Whoever saw Nehra bend down at mid-off like a geriatric and lethargic octageneranian and gift 4 runs, where even a single would have been difficult against better fielding side, would have wanted to smash his/her TV screen. With folks like Nehra, Munaf etc. in the team we have simply too many liabilities to be hidden. I guess best bet for us is to ensure spin-friendly and square turning tracks and field 2 specialist spinners along with part-timers such as Yuvraj, Pathan, Sehwag, Raina filling in as well. To be honest that's the only way I see us winning the cup and I hope our batting finds form as the tournament progresses.

I have been saying that for almost a year and a half now. Its good to see the rest of the public opinion catching up as well.

[Ultimate_Game]

I have been saying that for almost a year and a half now. Its good to see the rest of the public opinion catching up as well.

I see this Indian team very similar to the lankan team of 96, in fact better than that. We have explosive openers in Tendulkar and Sehwag, good batting lineup in Gambhir, Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, Pathan and Kohi, one good seamer in Zaheer (SL had Vaas), good spinners in Harbhajan, Chawla & Ashwin and a bunch of part-timers who can bowl spin (Yuvraj, Pathan, Raina, Sehwag). I wouldn't say that ppl didn't know this earlier as well. Everyone knows our strength is spin and we can't compete with Aussies, Saffers and Eng in case of pure pace. Earlier ppl thought that at least we would be able to win on batting friendly surfaces as well but now I think we will need spinning/turning tracks to win.

[Castro]

We should rest Zaheer for the first 3 games. However both Zaheer and Tendulkar need some games under their belt before the all important QF game.

[Ram]

By preparing tracks that have at least something in them for the spinners (we dont want raging dustbowls for the WC, that isnt sportsmanlike behavior), we can at least paper over some of the cracks in our pace bowling and fielding. There are at least 3-4 teams in the world cup that have a better pace attack than ours and 3 of them have a better fielding unit as well. If we're going to make this a world a straight shoot-off between the our pacers and fielding versus the oppositions pacers and fielding, we wont even make it as far the finals. We have to make this WC about batting and spin bowling. That is our strength and more importantly, the main weakness of the more accomplished fielding sides. Did anyone see the Kiwi (during the previous series they played here) and Aussie (today's warm-up) side folded against our spin bowling in the last 3 months? More pertinently, our pacers, put together, bowled only 23 overs in those 2 matches. If this doesnt tell us what is the way to go in this world cup, nothing will.

[Ram]

I see this Indian team very similar to the lankan team of 96' date= in fact better than that. We have explosive openers in Tendulkar and Sehwag, good batting lineup in Gambhir, Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, Pathan and Kohi, one good seamer in Zaheer (SL had Vaas), good spinners in Harbhajan, Chawla & Ashwin and a bunch of part-timers who can bowl spin (Yuvraj, Pathan, Raina, Sehwag). I wouldn't say that ppl didn't know this earlier as well. Everyone knows our strength is spin and we can't compete with Aussies, Saffers and Eng in case of pure pace. Earlier ppl thought that at least we would be able to win on batting friendly surfaces as well but now I think we will need spinning/turning tracks to win.

EXACTLY, I had drawn this analogy as well. The Sri Lankan victory of '96 offers us the best blue-print to WC this time around - Explosive top order batting, strong middle order, power-packed lower order and a spin-dominant bowling attack.

[Ultimate_Game]

By preparing tracks that have at least something in them for the spinners (we dont have raging dustbowls for the WC, that isnt sportsmanlike behavior), we can at least paper over some of the cracks in a pace bowling and fielding. There are at least 3-4 teams in the world cup that have a better pace attack than ours and 3 of them have a better fielding unit as well. If we're going to make this a world a straight shoot-off between the our pacers and fielding versus the oppositions pacers and fielding, we wont even make it as far the finals. We have to make this WC about batting and spin bowling. That is our strength and more importantly, the main weakness of the more accomplished fielding sides. Did anyone see the Kiwi (during the previous series they played here) and Aussie (today's warm-up) side folded against our spin bowling in the last 3 months? More pertinently, our pacers, put together, bowled only 23 overs in those 2 matches. If this doesnt tell us what is the way to go in this world cup, nothing will.

Well said:two_thumbs_up: And to be honest I don't really care if saffers and aussies complain about spinning pitches or dustbowls. The tourney is in India and there will be home advantage for India. Anyone remember the pitch Saffers prpared for India in 2007 T20 world cup which was bouncing and seaming all over the place and SA couldn't even get 126 to reach semis :hysterical:

[Cricketics]

I am actually more concerned about other teams. If Dhoni continues to captain the team like he did today, using the right bowler at right time, it will be too hard for any team to win against us.

[cowboysfan]

The aussies and the saffers have already started whinging about the pitches,they know they cant compete against sub-continental teams on spin friendly tracks.I hope we prepare similar tracks for all our matches.

[Ultimate_Game]

The aussies and the saffers have already started whinging about the pitches' date='they know they cant compete against sub-continental teams on spin friendly tracks.I hope we prepare similar tracks for all our matches.[/quote'] Let them. Who gives a f**k what Smith and Ponting moan about. As long as India keeps on winning I will be happy to see saffers and aussies whining. In fact I would love to see India facing SA or Aus in the final on a pitch turning square from ball one (similar to the test match pitch we played on against Aussies in 2004 where they were bowled out for 90 odd) and India thrashing them royally. It would be hilarious to see the look on Ponting or Smith's face when they moan and whinge about the pitch in the post-match interview :hysterical:

[Chandan]

EXACTLY' date=' I had drawn this analogy as well. The Sri Lankan victory of '96 offers us the best blue-print to WC this time around - Explosive top order batting, strong middle order, power-packed lower order and a spin-dominant bowling attack.[/quote'] Goodness me! Strong middle order? Who are the batsmen in the strong midlle order? Yuvraj who is averaging 28 or so in in last 18 months or Dhoni who is has been struggling to score in last few series and is averaging around 30? Or is it Raina who can't face pace or short bowling even on Indian tracks these days? Please tell me who are the players who form our strong middle order! And power packed lower middle order based on Pathan and Bhajji? Fair enough. But do you expect Bhajji to fire in every match? Nehra and Munaf, if they are played won't contribute with the bat and they are a part of your power packed lower order. Spin dominant attack--only if your skipper goes for two speciacialist spinner, which he'll never go, how is part time left arm spin of Yuvraj and off-spin of Pathan making the attack spin dominant, apart from that of usual darts of Bhajji? Sorry but I don't agree with this analogy at all. There is absolutely no truth in whatever you have said if you analyse today's squad. Maybe it was true 2 years back.