You think India missed a trick by not opening with a spinner?

[vvvslaxman]

I know it is in hindsight. But India should not rule out this option. But you have to bowl extremely slowly ala Ramesh powar providing absolutely no pace whatsoever. I don't suggest this because of Botha's success. You gotta be little more flexible. With 338 runs on the board it will force batsman to take chances. Kevin Pietersen would have targetted spinners. But he would have also given chances. If India goes in with Ashwin instead of Chawla they should consider this option.

[satyam1729]

Nah, the pitches suck. They are absolute roads. Even the best will get hammered. It's time to prepare some rank turners. This is a sub continental tournement FFS.

[Watson87]

Nah' date=' the pitches suck. They are absolute roads. Even the best will get hammered. It's time to prepare some rank turners. This is a sub continental tournement FFS.[/quote'] Word

[Ultimate_Game]

Two comments... 1. Back everything satyam1729 said. The cup is being held in India and we should get home-advantage. Just because Ponting and Smith moan about "under-prepared" pitches after the warm-up games doesn't mean that we prepare batting beauties and undermine our own strength - our spin bowling. Anyone remember the pitch in SA where we played SA at the T20 world cup in 2007. That was a T20 game and the pitch we were offered was a green seaming and bouncy track on Smith's insistence. It's a different story that we beat the cr@p out of them at their own game and SA couldn't even get 126 :haha: If SA can do so why are we deviating from our strengths and trying to please visiting teams? 2. We didn't have a spinner who could have bowled in the power-plays. With just 2 fielders outside the circle we need someone who is extremely accurate and can tie the batsman. Chawla doesn't fit the bill and we left the only spinner in our squad who can do so and has done that in IPL and Champions League - Ashwin. Ashwin gives us the flexibility to go with spin in the power-play overs with his tight line & length along with the carrom ball he has in his armoury.

[ganeshran]

I think that strategy would work for teams who are not renowned spinners. SA for example, If you are playing saffers you would concentrate more on practising against pace, so an opening spinner takes you by surprise and end up losing wickets. But when a team plays against India, most of their pre match preparation would be on how to handle our spinners. So introducing spin at a time when the ball is hard and only two fielders are outside the circle, could be an expensive mistake. If I were opener and see a spinner opening the bowling, my option would be to work them for 2's in the gaps and score the occasional boundary. IMO most batsman get out because they understimate the bowlers and try to go after them with so many players catching close

[ganeshran]

Two comments... 1. Back everything satyam1729 said. The cup is being held in India and we should get home-advantage. Just because Ponting and Smith moan about "under-prepared" pitches after the warm-up games doesn't mean that we prepare batting beauties and undermine our own strength - our spin bowling. Anyone remember the pitch in SA where we played SA at the T20 world cup in 2007. That was a T20 game and the pitch we were offered was a green seaming and bouncy track on Smith's insistence. It's a different story that we beat the cr@p out of them at their own game and SA couldn't even get 126 :haha: If SA can do so why are we deviating from our strengths and trying to please visiting teams? 2. We didn't have a spinner who could have bowled in the power-plays. With just 2 fielders outside the circle we need someone who is extremely accurate and can tie the batsman. Chawla doesn't fit the bill and we left the only spinner in our squad who can do so and has done that in IPL and Champions League - Ashwin. Ashwin gives us the flexibility to go with spin in the power-play overs with his tight line & length along with the carrom ball he has in his armoury.

:dito:

[PakSwinger]

I think they should have opened with harbhajan..could have contained those initial runs...then should have brought in Zaheer since he did good with the old ball..

[pinkfreud]

Nah' date=' the pitches suck. They are absolute roads. Even the best will get hammered. It's time to prepare some rank turners. This is a sub continental tournement FFS.[/quote'] The strangest thing is that the Chinnaswamy stadium and pitch preparation was overseen by Anil Kumble after he became the Karnataka State Cricket Association president. I can't understand why he of all people would be in favour of such a flat pitch.