Zaheer and Sreesanth ruled out of the Test series against West Indies

[The Outsider]

This is terrible news - an overseas test series is always tough and our team is going to be very inexperienced. Guys like Kohli, Sharma, Raina, P Kumar, Munaf have decent ODI experience to carry the team through tough situations but test matches are a different catch altogether. The team will rely heavily on Dravid, Dhoni, Harbhajan, and Laxman. Looking at the likely starting XI besides these 4, we have : 1. Vijay - 9 tests 2. Mukund - 0 tests 3. Kohli - 0 tests 4. Raina/Badri - 8/2 tests 5. Ishant - 31 tests 6. Mishra - 10 tests 7. Munaf - 12 tests Even the semi experienced ones like Ishant, Mishra, and Munaf have been in and out of the side a lot. I just hope they manage to win somehow.

[rkt.india]

Mithun? How stupid is this! Regionalism must be used to help the team' date=' not to gift the cap to the mighty Indian genuine phast bowler from South who bowls at a dastardly speed of 135kph[/quote'] The biggest mistake here is Praveen Kumar...if he plays any test, i am sure he will be thrashed on these dry and flat pitches with his 120 K dollies and then selectors may not even pick him for England where he can be effective. It can harm his chances for England tour.

[achilles]

The biggest mistake here is Praveen Kumar...if he plays any test' date=' i am sure he will be thrashed on these dry and flat pitches with his 120 K dollies and then selectors may not even pick him for England where he can be effective. It can harm his chances for England tour.[/quote'] PK has one advantage. He bowls with discipline and he has played enough cricket to adjust to the longer version, I feel. Picking Mithun is absolutely retarded. They didn't even pick him in the previous series and picked Unadkat in his place. So much for confidence ! And now suddenly he gets picked again. As in, seriously, are there NO bowlers worthy of a test spot that we send a completely novice attack to WI? Why not RP Singh? Irfan Pathan? Why specifically Mithun?

[cowboysfan]

You sure? Since his comeback, 21 matches, 34 wickets@24 Now if that doesn't deserve anything, wonder what will. On topic, disappointed with Sree's injury. He has hardly played since the SA tests, didn't play SA ODIs, played 2 matches in the WC, hardly played in the IPL. Looks like he spent the time on bench doing nothing when he should have spent it on getting fitter and stronger. It's good to be talking crap on twitter but high time he practiced some of those things that he writes there. Zaheer should not have been there in the first place, so that's the right decision. Glad to see Mithun and PK being picked. Both should have been picked for the SA tour as well but we went with two complete rookies. Good to see the mistake being corrected. But, as many have said, both of them could be on bench during the tests with Ishant and Munna looking like our 2 pacers alongside Mishra and Bhajji.

outbowled by vinay kumar,aravind and no name bowlers from the opposition when he was supposed to be our strike bowler in the QFs and semi finals.

[rkt.india]

PK has one advantage. He bowls with discipline and he has played enough cricket to adjust to the longer version, I feel. Picking Mithun is absolutely retarded. They didn't even pick him in the previous series and picked Unadkat in his place. So much for confidence ! And now suddenly he gets picked again. As in, seriously, are there NO bowlers worthy of a test spot that we send a completely novice attack to WI? Why not RP Singh? Irfan Pathan? Why specifically Mithun?

Mithun is a better choice because of his stamina to bowl long spells and at sustained pace, may not be express. With how he bowled Sl, i am sure he will trouble inexperienced WI batsmen more than what he did to good SL batsmen.

[cowboysfan]

Mithun will not even get a game unless the windies pitches magically improve overnight.

[punjabi_khota]

Paki team can beat this Indian team now.

[The Outsider]

Mithun will not even get a game unless the windies pitches magically improve overnight.

The first two tests are at Sabina Park and Barbados - we might be forced to play 3 fast bowlers there.

[Guest Gunner]

The first two tests are at Sabina Park and Barbados - we might be forced to play 3 fast bowlers there.

Isn't that pitch a lot slower these days? I remember that pitch was so hard in the 90s that the surface used to reflect on the first day. I am not sure whether it looks like that anymore.

[Zelig]

Roach + Rampaul + Sammy + Bishoo vs Ishant + Munaf + Bhajji + Mishra :hmmm: We should still win this :isalute:

[The Outsider]

Isn't that pitch a lot slower these days? I remember that pitch was so hard in the 90s that the surface used to reflect on the first day. I am not sure whether it looks like that anymore.

Probably - the last test I remember watching there was ours in 2006 when the pitch had a lot of unpredictable bounce though was not really bouncy like the 80s/90s. At that time we played two spinners, but since both Kumble and Harbhajan rely on bounce it made sense. Not sure if it's going to give too much help to Ojha and Mishra.

[suraj]

Come on Ishant- rock the Windies' world anyway Gayle not playing

[cowboysfan]

The first two tests are at Sabina Park and Barbados - we might be forced to play 3 fast bowlers there.

I cant comment on the pitch conditions right now but both SA and windies played 2 spinners in the last test at barbados.The windies will prepare quick pitches if they are really smart.

[kabira]

our trump card will be Mishra. Its better for us not to play in remaining ODIs and keep him hungry for Tests.

[Guest Gunner]

I cant comment on the pitch conditions right now but both SA and windies played 2 spinners in the last test at barbados.The windies will prepare quick pitches if they are really smart.

I am counting on barbados to be a quick pitch. Not lightning quick but fairly pacy.

[jairamesh]

What's the point of having Sharma, Munaf, and Mithun in the same line-up. I understand PK's selection but the wrong choice imo. Should have gone for all conditions swing bowler like RP (not PK, his effectiveness at Test level will be negated after 15 overs). Or else if ever there was a time this was the ideal opportunity to try unproven swing bowlers like Chahar or Unadkt. Not like against South Africa like Unadkat was, stupid:headshake:

[Cricket Tragic]

U-mad-kat? U mad, bro?

[sarcastic]

Munaf, Praveen, Harbhajan, Mishra. dont play ishant, he has been shyte in test cricket. I Sharma Records type bowling analysis Start of match date between 3 jan 2010 and 10 jun 2011 12 matches -- 36 wickets -- 38.30 Average -- 61.4 strike rate

That's pretty decent Strike Rate IMO!!! Yes the average is bad and wickets should have been a bit more but then there were some roads that some of the test matches have been played upon!!!!

[jairamesh]

U-mad-kat? U mad' date=' bro?[/quote'] well it was just an example to point the fallacy of playing unadkt vs South Africa in SA where more likely than not he was going to fail, and failed he did, spectacularly. But vs West Indies, it would be ideal to throw in an unproven bowler. I would still have Mithun, it's the right call, but would have also gone for another inexperience or debut fast bowler in place of PK (Chahar, Pankaj Singh, Kulkarni, Arvind, U Yadav, dare I say U-mad-kat (The boy needs to put some weight on, Akram suggested). PK was the low-risk approach to play it safe by selectors with a hint of regional bias.

[pensionplan]

About time ZK announce his retirement from Tests. In the last 4-5 Test series how many times did he break down or dropped out because he is not fit enough. Since fitness is a part of game there is no point relying on aging injury prone players which ZK happens to be one at 33.