Should Ganguly go to England for Tests??

[theguyinallblue]

We know Ganguly is in the team because of politics.,.and some selfish and slow scores... but England will be very different from Dhaka.. Flintoff, sidebotton :cantstop:..Harmisson...etc will be more tha handful for Ganguly... so shouldn't we take VVS in place for him..and how we can drop Sehwag from test side..when going abroad... More importantly... Will Sachin and Ganguly score the same amount of runs...TRIO scored during last tour.. i doubt.. i am sure..Ganguly will deliberately fail in this tour so that Team India..UNDER DRAVID..will not repeat the success...Ganguly had...thus undermining Dravid's position as captain... obviously Sachin, VVS and Ganguly do not need a captain's motivation to score runs.... so will they share the responsibility...this time when they are Playing UNDER DRAVID???? i have put a question mark againt Saurabh Chandidad Ganguly? Its upto him to answer this with positive contribution...with runs...and not with the time spent on crease.

[Ram]

We know Ganguly is in the team because of politics.,.and some selfish and slow scores... but England will be very different from Dhaka.. Flintoff, sidebotton :cantstop:..Harmisson...etc will be more tha handful for Ganguly... so shouldn't we take VVS in place for him..and how we can drop Sehwag from test side..when going abroad... More importantly... Will Sachin and Ganguly score the same amount of runs...TRIO scored during last tour.. i doubt.. i am sure..Ganguly will deliberately fail in this tour so that Team India..UNDER DRAVID..will not repeat the success...Ganguly had...thus undermining Dravid's position as captain... obviously Sachin, VVS and Ganguly do not need a captain's motivation to score runs.... so will they share the responsibility...this time when they are Playing UNDER DRAVID???? i have put a question mark againt Saurabh Chandidad Ganguly? Its upto him to answer this with positive contribution...with runs...and not with the time spent on crease.

If you are basing your opinons on personel preferences , you have a right to do so , but if these observations are born out of the cricketing field -- think again... First of all , this is Ganguly's record in Eng.. Mat Runs HS BatAv 100 50 W BB BowlAv 5w Ct St filtered 6 666 136 74.00 3 3 6 3/71 31.50 0 2 0 Close to 700 runs in 6 matches.. at an ave of nearly 75.. Does this get any better than this ? And all this talk of Sourav and Sachin teaming up against Rahul is all Bull-crap. Niether is Sachin capable of such below-the-belt activities , nor will Rahul put up with such a thing, if it ever existed. He would hav eithr wanted both Sachin and Sourav out of the team or would have resigned from captaincy. And Sourav cant handle Flintoff/Sidebottom/Harmison ? No doubt that his technique against fast bowling is suspect, but he experienced enough to work through it. He was the leading run scorer in SA, an attack that had Ntini , Nel and Pollock.

[kumble_rocks]

Ganguly cannot be dropped after scoring century just recently. That is ridiculous . He should not have played in place of Laxman in the first place. Having said that , it would be inappropriate to drop him now.

[Sooda]

I would select Laxman over Ganguly if it comes down to it...but we will I hope play 6 batters in which case both should play

[King]

I won't drop Ganguly now. I don't see anything wrong with his batting, he is scoring runs these days and can bowl a bit when needed. I'll have him in the team.

[theguyinallblue]

Against Bangladesh...we could manage to win...despite the best afforts of crease time wohre... but against England..we can not afford to have a walking wicket... its good that we are playing a fair amount of ODI cricket to have a alook at the form of players... i just hope some how....sehwag gets a place in the test team.... he is a must player..to have in the playing XI... and i just hope he gets in form in time....he alone can win a test match single handedly... i have absolutely NO hope from Ganguly....we all know...usme kya gul khilaye the county stint me.... for the betterment of Team India...i pray for an injury to Ganguly..so that he misses the England tour... as this tour is very very important for India....and its reputation in world cricket...

[theguyinallblue]

But Ravi..we can not have Ganguly in place of Laxman...and if Sehwag is chosen then we can not drop Karthik as well...for Ganguly... Laxman and Karthik are better than Ganguly...if we look at the value they bring on the field...

[King]

I won't drop Laxman for anyone. No way. Laxman definitely is a better player than Ganguly but both can be accomadated. They take 15 for an overseas tour right? BTW Ganguly scored runs against South Africa in South Africa. South Africa is a far more testing place than England and from what I know he was the highest scorer there. I won't care how good they look while batting, I would be interested in these batters scoring some runs.

[Gambit]

IIRC, you started a similar thread before we left for RSA and we all know what happened. If anything, judging by past performances, he should have failed in RSA and billed to succeed in England. He has always done well in England and has 3 100s there. Also taking into account that we'll be playing there in the second half of the summer, when it's not as wet and windy, I back him to average atleast 35.

[theguyinallblue]

well...i am not against a run scoring Ganguly...but crease time who*e... if you read some of the articles of ex cricketers...none are happy with the kind of innigs sachin and Gandguly played in first test. a boring draw is not the order of the days now a days.... did you see,..how quickly england scored their runs...their RR was above 4 all the time... i am expecting a good performance from Team India...and i do not want to see Ganguly as a culprit if india does not fare well... i would love to be proved wrong by Ganguly..as that would mean that india will do well....and we will have a fare chance at series win.,..

[Guest dada_rocks]

We know Ganguly is in the team because of politics.,.and some selfish and slow scores... but England will be very different from Dhaka.. Flintoff, sidebotton :cantstop:..Harmisson...etc will be more tha handful for Ganguly... so shouldn't we take VVS in place for him..and how we can drop Sehwag from test side..when going abroad... More importantly... Will Sachin and Ganguly score the same amount of runs...TRIO scored during last tour.. i doubt.. i am sure..Ganguly will deliberately fail in this tour so that Team India..UNDER DRAVID..will not repeat the success...Ganguly had...thus undermining Dravid's position as captain... obviously Sachin, VVS and Ganguly do not need a captain's motivation to score runs.... so will they share the responsibility...this time when they are Playing UNDER DRAVID???? i have put a question mark againt Saurabh Chandidad Ganguly? Its upto him to answer this with positive contribution...with runs...and not with the time spent on crease.

I had this bet with few big-mouth on eve of south africa tour that he will outscore the other stalwarts and he did. I have similar feeling again about upcoming Eng series.

[theguyinallblue]

Gambit.. 35..is a too low a target for a specialist middle order bat... i just hope..we do not sacrifice jaffar and DK to accomodate Ganguly... did he deserve to play in place of VVS in BD? Never... why should a specialist middle order batsman play as opener...just to be in the team...? if Ganguly is not an automatic choice for number 4 or 5 the he should not be accommodated at any other place... for how long will we do injustice to VVS..? VVS is 10X better test player than Ganguly in any country.... i just hope we do not pick our playing XI on past reputation and emotions.. like we did i BD..

[yoda]

He is ok in tests, obviously behind VVS in the XI selection order, but shouldn't be in the ODI squad. That's where his ball(s) scratching efforts kill us.

[Predator_05]

Typical anti-Ganguly rant from theguyinblue. Ganguly was India's best batsman in SA. First name on the team sheet - like it or not m8. Plus, he has always done well in England.

[theguyinallblue]

i guess..Ganguly needs to score more consistently and efficiently like The Rahul Dravid to win back the confidence....we all had in him 5 years back... No more selfish..pitch time whoring... No more under 60 SR in Tests and Under 70 SR in ODIs... and he should earn his place in the team.... and Pred..who would be your 3-4-5 in england among ( Dravid, Sachin, VVS, Ganguly)

[Predator_05]

i guess..Ganguly needs to score more consistently and efficiently like The Rahul Dravid to win back the confidence....we all had in him 5 years back... No more selfish..pitch time whoring... No more under 60 SR in Tests and Under 70 SR in ODIs... and he should earn his place in the team.... and Pred..who would be your 3-4-5 in england among ( Dravid, Sachin, VVS, Ganguly)

I'd have all 4 in there and Sehwag/Jaffer as the opening combo No more under 60 SR in Tests ? What a joke. By the same token, we should boot Dravid's @ss out then, shouldn't we ? Because that "pitch time-wh0re" (whatever that means) has a career SR of 40 and is the slowest scorer in the team ? :embaressed_smile:

[theguyinallblue]

if we start looking at career stats..then sachin will never retire.... Dravid has always been scoring runs at a brisk pace since last 7 years... he was a slow starter..but he learnt it..and now he is the master. so IMO its the sinnient of the sin :-) to compare SR of Ganguly with The Wall... Ganguly now can only dream to have his name along with Dravid as his team mate... though..i do not want to bash any indian player...so won't say any thing harsh..but he better proves me wrong

[CC1981]

People who worry about strike/rate while batting in tests clearly don't know what test cricket is all about.

[Holysmoke]

We probably wont go in with 2 spinners in the 11 in England. 3 seamers + kumble/bhajji/powar. That makes place for 1 batsman. I think the team will be Karthik Jaffer Dravid Sachin Sourav VVS Dhoni Seamer1 (Zaheer) Seamer2 (RP Singh..(county experience would help him there)) Seamer3 (Sreesanth)(VRV if Sree isnt fit) Spinner (Kumble)(maybe bhajji, if he shows improvement) That is also what i think it SHOULD BE We went in with 5 bowlers due to the intense heat in Bangladesh. That is why Laxman missed out. We wont go in with 5 in England.

[gator]

i would pick Saurav for england tour.... tht is the only country in the world suited to his bowling.... he will add the balance by acting as the 5th bowler.... and if anything, tht is the place, where his battingg has flourished too... his highest odi score was also achieved there... i would pick him....