Should Bhaji be guaranteed a spot?

[fineleg]

I think he is in form.

Yes, dart throwing is his form :cantstop: But can he change to wicket taker!? Teams like SA and Aus or SL will take this bowling attack to cleaners. India cannot seriously compete in WC with such bowlers leading our attack. Problem is no great replacements!

[zen]

How many times does he go around the wkt to left handers? I don't recall seeing him do that often though I admit that I haven't seen too many games of late .... You can pitch the ball on around leg / middle and turn it enough to hit the off-stump or get an edge but I haven't seen him do that to the left handers

[Ultimate_Game]

How many times does he go around the wkt to left handers? I don't recall seeing him do that often though I admit that I haven't seen too many games of late .... You can pitch the ball on around leg / middle and turn it enough to hit the off-stump or get an edge but I haven't seen him do that to the left handers

His is not bowling an attacking leg stump line... he attacks leg stump so as not to give room to the batsmen. He's way too defensive and in a bowling attack where only Zaheer can be termed as a genuine wicket taking threat he needs to step up his game to start taking wickets.

[BERGKAMP]

He has lost his bottle and fearlessness.

[zen]

His is not an attacking leg stump line... he attacks leg stump so as not to give room to the batsmen. He's way too defensive and in a bowling attack where only Zaheer can be termed as a genuine wicket taking threat he needs to step up his game to start taking wickets.

I have seen him attack leg stump line to to the right handers which to me is a waste of delivery .... he should try bowling doosra that pitches around leg and hits the off. With his off spinners, he could do the same to left handers by coming around the wkt

[Ultimate_Game]

I have seen him attack leg stump line to to the right handers which to me is a waste of delivery .... he should try bowling doosra that pitches around leg and hits the off. With his off spinners' date=' he could do the same to left handers by coming around the wkt[/quote'] I was extremely disappointed as he didn't trouble Ireland players as much as a bowler of his quality should on such a track. Granted he wasn't as bad as Chawla but he never looked like taking a wicket. I didn't see too many flighted deliveries from him. It was as if he was fine giving 4-5 singles every over to the batsmen.

[CSK Fan]

this is a very stupid OP plz explain to me how bhajji bowled 'poorly' today. just because someone didnt get wickets doesnt mean they bowled poorly. i dunno if u have noticed, but batsmen NEVER take chances against harbhajan. how many boundaries have u seen batsmen hitting off his bowling? england scored 338 and could hit just 4 boundaries in the 10 overs they faced him. that is astounding. u are wondering why he doesnt get wickets like yuvraj did today. take a look at the shots played against yuvraj. like porterfield hitting his long hop straight to bhajji at xtra cover. or kevin o brien spooning one straight back to him. do u really think batsman would ever try to attack bhajji like that? not in a million years. if u look at the fields dhoni gives him, u will get an idea of why he doesnt get wickets. spinners need men around the bat to take wickets and create pressure. field is spread out when bhajji bowls in middle overs, so he is basically reduced to containing as batsmen have room to work him around for singles. he gave just 20 odd runs today in his 10 overs, and u are bracketing him with chawla, saying he bowled 'all over the place', which is utter garbage. chawla and harbhajan were night and day. sometimes i wonder if some of u ppl on this forum even watch the games.

buddy Harbhajjan is one of our senior most bowler along with Zaheer. Its high time he steps up and takes charge of the bowling. Matches are won by bowlers who take wickets and not those who contain. there is no point in comparing him to newcomers like Chawla, Ashiwn, etc. That will be an insult to him. but we need a bowler who takes wicket and considering the number of matches Bhajji has played, its right to expect him to lead the attack along with Zaheer. i would rather see a bowling figure of 10-50-3 than a 10-29-0 once you have played so many number of matches your responsibilty and role in the side changes. You wouldnt compare a Sachin with a Kohli, would you? So we are very much in the right to expect Bhajji to step up and show some real match winning performances and take loads of wickets. And i am not going to compare him to a Chawla or a Ashwin. He is way beyond that stage

[Manny_Pacquiao]

its easy to say these things as an armchair expert but u need to try understanding the game beyond statistics and scorecards. yeah, i would love to see harbhajan take a 10 wicket haul as much as the next guy my response was to the OP who said harbhajan was bowling poorly and was 'all over the place'. that is nonsensical.

[zen]

I was extremely disappointed as he didn't trouble Ireland players as much as a bowler of his quality should on such a track. Granted he wasn't as bad as Chawla but he never looked like taking a wicket. I didn't see too many flighted deliveries from him. It was as if he was fine giving 4-5 singles every over to the batsmen.

Appears as if the general Indian mentality is to restrict the batsmen. Somehow there is this thinking that dot balls and/or not giving boundaries build pressure which in turn leads to wkts (more of English type of mentality) What people forget that 2 good hits and a few singles in an over can cover up for 2 maiden overs. While stopping runs is imp, there is is substitute for wkt which is why bowlers who look to pick wkts up would always be rated highly and I would usually go for wkt taking bowlers

[yoda]

I watched the match and wasn't impressed with Harbhajan. Seems like either he was a tad short or a tad on the leg side and easily played. Yes Chawla was much much much worse, but expected Harby to trouble their bats better than he did.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

Appears as if the general Indian mentality is to restrict the batsmen. Somehow there is this thinking that dot balls and/or not giving boundaries build pressure which in turn leads to wkts (more of English type of mentality) What people forget that 2 good hits and a few singles in an over can cover up for 2 maiden overs. While stopping runs is imp, there is is substitute for wkt which is why bowlers who look to pick wkts up would always be rated highly and I would usually go for wkt taking bowlers

its not an 'indian' mentality. its MS Dhoni's mentality as a captain. thats it. its clear to anyone who watches india that dhoni is a defensive captain in the field. his entire strategy is based on reducing boundaries and keeping a spread out field. every single indian bowler is a containment bowler. india's tactics are simple - keep the score down, let the batting win you the match. the only xception to this rule is zaheer, who likes to set his own fields. everybody else bowls to a field and tries to keep runs down. whether this approach is right for winning a world cup or not is a different debate, but i am not gonna criticize it too much because india is a top ranked ODI team and wins almost every series they play under dhoni.

[zen]

its not an 'indian' mentality. its MS Dhoni's mentality as a captain. thats it. its clear to anyone who watches india that dhoni is a defensive captain in the field. his entire strategy is based on reducing boundaries and keeping a spread out field. every single indian bowler is a containment bowler. india's tactics are simple - keep the score down, let the batting win you the match. the only xception to this rule is zaheer, who likes to set his own fields. everybody else bowls to a field and tries to keep runs down. whether this approach is right for winning a world cup or not is a different debate, but i am not gonna criticize it too much because india is a top ranked ODI team and wins almost every series they play under dhoni.

You can win a bilateral series by playing percentage game where your batting fires in say 3 out of 5 games to win you the series (even in tests w/ 2 innings), but in a tourney involving KO games (and as many as 3 this time), you have to attack both with the bat and the ball You can even top the round robin group phase by playing percentage cricket but KOs is a different ball game as one bad game ends your story, their is no second chance In order for us to play attacking game we need options that can deliver which is why I usually stress on picking wkt taking bowlers (including playing 5 bowlers if needed), solid cricket at the top of the order, keeping wkts in hand, etc. In return, I usually get response from folks who usually judge things based on how things go in bi-lateral series, where you can be successful playing percentage cricket

[CSK Fan]

^^^ Dude (Manny) you didnt reply to my post. Who has the onus to take wickets. newcomers like Ashiwn without any experience or senior bowlers lile Zaheer or bhajji also, historicaly, which team wins more, teams with bowlers who contain or bolwers who take wickets

[zen]

^^^ Dude you didnt reply to my post. Who has the onus to take wickets. newcomers like Ashiwn without any experienc or senir bowlers lile Zaheer or bhajji also, historicaly, which team wins more, teams with bowlers who contain or bolwers who take wickets

In tournaments w/ KO games, you need bowlers who can pick wkts up

[Ultimate_Game]

Appears as if the general Indian mentality is to restrict the batsmen. Somehow there is this thinking that dot balls and/or not giving boundaries build pressure which in turn leads to wkts (more of English type of mentality) What people forget that 2 good hits and a few singles in an over can cover up for 2 maiden overs. While stopping runs is imp, there is is substitute for wkt which is why bowlers who look to pick wkts up would always be rated highly and I would usually go for wkt taking bowlers

That's the eternal tragedy we are always faced with regards to our bowlers... 1. Our fast bowlers lose their pace 2. Our spinners lose their potency and become defensive & restrictive spinners

[Manny_Pacquiao]

You can win a bilateral series by playing percentage game where your batting fires in say 3 out of 5 games to win you the series (even in tests w/ 2 innings), but in a tourney involving KO games (and as many as 3 this time), you have to attack both with the bat and the ball You can even top the round robin group phase by playing percentage cricket but KOs is a different ball game as one bad game ends your story, their is no second chance In order for us to play attacking game we need options that can deliver which is why I usually stress on picking wkt taking bowlers (including playing 5 bowlers if needed), solid cricket at the top of the order, keeping wkts in hand, etc. In return, I usually get response from folks who usually judge things based on how things go in bi-lateral series, where you can be successful playing percentage cricket

any bowler can take wickets if he is backed up by an attacking field and if there is pressure from both ends. india doesn't do either of these things consistently. this is why all indian bowlers dont look like getting wickets at times. dhoni's captaincy is what produces these results. u cant always blame the bowlers, they are just doing what they are being told to do. its not that harbhajan or zaheer or xyz arent what u call, 'wicket taking' bowlers. they are just being used in a certain way, being used to contain most of the time. thats it. india doesnt play an attacking game when they are in the field. they do their attacking with the bat. thats the reality. u are corect in your comment on series being won on percentage cricket. i only brought that up to say that i trust dhoni. maybe dhoni thinks india will give up runs if they try to attack, especially on flat beds like bangalore was against england. he could be right or wrong. i dunno. we'll see how far india goes in this tournament. but the point is, indian bowlers are always gonna bowl a certain way because of the team's tactics. dont expect the captain to change his thinking. this is why it doesnt make sense to criticize individual bowlers

[NareshK]

this is a very stupid OP plz explain to me how bhajji bowled 'poorly' today. just because someone didnt get wickets doesnt mean they bowled poorly. i dunno if u have noticed, but batsmen NEVER take chances against harbhajan. how many boundaries have u seen batsmen hitting off his bowling? england scored 338 and could hit just 4 boundaries in the 10 overs they faced him. that is astounding. u are wondering why he doesnt get wickets like yuvraj did today. take a look at the shots played against yuvraj. like porterfield hitting his long hop straight to bhajji at xtra cover. or kevin o brien spooning one straight back to him. do u really think batsman would ever try to attack bhajji like that? not in a million years. if u look at the fields dhoni gives him, u will get an idea of why he doesnt get wickets. spinners need men around the bat to take wickets and create pressure. field is spread out when bhajji bowls in middle overs, so he is basically reduced to containing as batsmen have room to work him around for singles. he gave just 20 odd runs today in his 10 overs, and u are bracketing him with chawla, saying he bowled 'all over the place', which is utter garbage. chawla and harbhajan were night and day. sometimes i wonder if some of u ppl on this forum even watch the games.

Do you want to discuss things or just abuse people on this forum ? Its not about the runs he has given, he never looked like taking a wicket. He never bowled a consistent line and length. Most of the time, he drifted down to middle and leg and gave the batsmen easy singles. He neither put pressure on the batsmen by stifling runs or any stage beat the batsmen or forced them to play a false shot. And yes, I did watch the match when Bhajji was bowling. He was pretty poor for a strike bowler and if he does this against quality batsmen who play spin well, he will get murdered.

[The Realist]

It’s up to the strike bowlers to take wickets and that is what Singh is in the team. If he is not fulfilling that purpose, then there is no reason for him to be there. The role of part-time bowlers is to contain the flow of runs and if they pick up any wicket then it is a bonus. Singh is selected to take wickets, if he can’t, then pick somebody else. It’s that simple.

[vvvslaxman]

Harbhajan can take wickets provided he alters his trajectory.

[Silva]

It’s up to the strike bowlers to take wickets and that is what Singh is in the team. If he is not fulfilling that purpose, then there is no reason for him to be there. The role of part-time bowlers is to contain the flow of runs and if they pick up any wicket then it is a bonus. Singh is selected to take wickets, if he can’t, then pick somebody else. It’s that simple.

I dont think its that simple at all. Going under 6 an over can be valuabuale even for a specialist Bowler if playing on a pitch were the par score is 320+. IMO a bowler should either contain or take wickets. Bhajji has been containing and who knows maybe if the likes of sreesanth and chawla weren't leaking so many runs he would have some more wickets to his name as well because it would force the opposition to take more risks against him.