What we learnt from the WI odi series

[Ultimate_Game]

Though the Indian team didn't perform as well as we expected them to - I thought India would win the series 4-1 as WI were without Gayle, but we learnt quite a few things which is what this series was primarily about. The Good 1. Rohit Sharma finally did justice to his talent with 3 crucial 50s and was the MOS. He was the best batsmen from either side. He looks to be a contender for the India team especially if Pathan continues to waste his opportunities. 2. Mishra was amazing and has to be a serious contender for Test matches. He was definitely way better than Chawla and WI batsmen couldn't read him all series. 3. Munaf & PK were decent as usual. 4. Kohli underlined why he's the batsman to look out for in the future with 2 solid innings (81 and 95) out of 5. 5. Ishant Sharma. IMO he's not fit for shorter format and should only be saved for Tests or in case the matches are played in Aus or SA where his bounce can trouble batsmen. On regular pitches he's way too expensive to be of much use. The Bad 1. Dhawan didn't do much other than one 50 and doesn't look the part at intl level. 2. Ditto for Manoj Tiwary though he only got 2 games and one as an opener. 3. Parthiv Patel looked good in a few games but he still throws away the wicket and doesn't go on to get big scores. It's the same problem as Dinesh Karthik and I don't think he has distanced himself from Karthik as the backup wk. 4. Raina. Maybe it was the captaincy but he tried playing big shots as soon as he arrived at the crease and generally got out without troubling the scorers much. Maybe it was due to captaincy. Anyways I wouldn't be too worried about Raina as he has at least showed us what he's capable of at intl level. The Ugly 1. Badrinath. The guy simply didn't look comfortable and 4 failures against a mediocre WI attack on not so difficult wkts may have ended his intl career (in the odis at least), and he has no-one but himself to blame. He should have managed at least one 50+ score given the no. of opportunities. 2. Vinay Kumar. He showed us in T20 cup (also held in WI in 2010) that he can be hit by all and sundry and he showed that nothing much has changed. His array of full tosses - some high, some low, some slow etc. were hit for 6s and he was the main reason we lost the 5th odi. He is not intl class and I hope selectors have seen enough. 3. Indian fielding. It hasn't improved much and in the last odi it was abysmal with overthrows, misfields and dropped catches all over the place. Biggest contributor in losing India the 5th odi along with Vinay Kumar. 4. Indian Power Play batting. It still hasn't improved and we still lose too many wkts during powerplay overs. And the scary part is that our lower middle order and tailenders don't even apply their brains. They know there are 3 overs still to go and instead of trying to play out the overs and score as many as they can, they still try to hit out as if they are facing the last ball of the innings. 5. Yusuf Pathan. The guy simply doesn't know how to bat according to the situation and build an innings if the situation demands it. He is fast becoming Indian version of Afridi without the matching bowling ability. With Rohit Sharma coming leaps & bounds this series his days may well be numbered in the Indian team. 6. Bowling at the death. We don't have any bowlers who can bowl at the death with both Munaf & PK too predictable and likes of Vinay Kumar too poor. Going with spinners is a big risk at the death, especially batting powerplay and we somehow need to find some decent fast bowler who can bowl at the death. Maybe RP Singh needs to be brought in.

[WC2011INDIA]

I bet if RP goes for runs in death overs, ICF will declare him to be a *****y bowler too. The truth is that we will never have an excellent world class pace bowler who can take quick wickets and is excellent in the death overs.

[cowboysfan]

I am obviously not real happy with the last 2 games abut i feel some of them mailed it after going 3-0 up,its understandable.the Raina captaincy should never have happened,it should have been Kohli .I am pleased that the pretenders are hopefully weeded out,there are more deserving candidates waiting in the wings .

[Ultimate_Game]

I am obviously not real happy with the last 2 games abut i feel some of them mailed it after going 3-0 up' date='its understandable.the Raina captaincy should never have happened,it should have been Kohli .I am pleased that the pretenders are hopefully weeded out,there are more deserving candidates waiting in the wings .[/quote'] Best things for us were that we will never see Vinay Kumar back in India colors and emergence of Rohit Sharma as a reliable & dependable middle order bat. Lack of bowlers, especially at the death is a big worry though. The only reason I am rooting for RPS is that he has shown us what he's capable of during T20 Cup where he was outstanding and during the last Ind-Eng Test series. Other than that we don't have too many options unless you want to go back to Ashok Dinda :haha:

[Cricket Tragic]

Good thread and I agree with most if it. :nice: We need to find an ODI reserve opener. If Mukund does well in the tests, we can try him out. Good List A stats and also a lefty. Rahane is another option. Dropthiv is a good player in tests even though his keeping is mediocre. I'll keep him as the test reserve. I'm not sure about him playing in ODIs though he hasn't done too badly since the NZ series. He cannot bat outside the top and even there he doesn't convert starts. I'd give Saha a go and if all fails, DK is always there for any job. This would allow us to play 2 proper openers who get big scores. The huge worry is the bowling. Zak is needed mostly for tests and we cannot risk him in all ODIs. So we need to find 2-3 decent seamers. Munaf and PK but who else is around? Spin is better since we have Harby, Mishra, Ashwin and Ojha. We can rotate them around and see who is the best over the next 12 months or so. I reckon we've seen enough of Dhawan, Badri and even Pathan. Time to move on to other players. Tiwary is not ready imo but he only played 2 games. You could give him another series to see how he goes.

[Sir_Afridi]

Never under estimate your opponent.

[Desi Cartman]

Vinay kumar and Dinda kind of bowlers are a pain to watch. These guys should work on their pace .. they have absolutely nothing to offer at the moment. BTW I am also disappointed by Ishant Sharma, if an experienced bowler like him couldnt take wickets against this West Indian side then he doesnt have much hope.

[Zero_Unit]

I hope this bunch of players are not the one who will represent us in the test match against WI cause then we might go home crying.

[CoverDrive]

- Raina is not a serious contender for captaincy - guy loses his head while people like Dhoni Gambhir step up when they are given responsibility. Kohli may get a lookin as a cap - Badri has temperament issues playing at international level. - Yusuf Pathan needs to do something soon or else he is going to join his brother on the sidelines. - Dhawan and Tiwary are not the same class as Kohli and Rohit and currently cannot be relied upon to make big scores. Time to also try guys like Rahane and Pujara for ODI's - Munaf Patel has been slowly improving and Mishra is class - Ashwin is overrated and needs to start taking some wickets. he seems to have the potential but maybe too much T20 is affecting him.

[saket123]

I see kohli donning the captain's hat.. but not for another 4 to 5 years. The guy definitely has a lot of potential and a good cricketing brain/temperament.

[saneindian]

The biggest lesson was that the young players need to show hunger to go for the kill despite having won the series, especially those who had failed in the early part of the series. Rain's batting was the biggest surprise, kept getting out to ugly hoicks so very uncharecteristic of him. Also based on his form, he should not be playing test matches. Does not deserve it. The 5th bowler continues to haunt us. That's where the importance of Yuvraj's bowling in the WC becomes such an important factor. He kept taking wickets during the middle overs which we failed to do in the last 2-3 ODIs here. The other big problem is the handling of the batting powerplays. Batting PP continues to be a problem area for us. We should not be taking it before the 45th over unless we are 1-2 wickets down by then. We lose too many wickets in that batting PP nearly everytime. Having said this though, we won the series 3-2, so well done to the young team. Some of the mistakes in the last 2 ODIs can be down to complacency, hopefully the coach has taken a note of that. Kohli and Rohit showed that the future is bright for us, Mishra's return to form is a welcome sign, Parthiv Patel is a good enough batsman. All in all a mixed bag for us. The 10 ODIs vs England and WI in India later in the year will give us further chance to give some of these young players another opportunity and gain experience. The likes of Dhawan and Badri etc may not get another chace soon and instead we may see the likes of Rahane, Pujara and Rayudu coming in.

[Sidhoni]

:agree: with you on most points, but Manoj tiwary got atleast one start when playing as a non-opener, and he was given only 2 chances, so you are being harsh on him IMO. The biggest disappointment for me was Badri because he showed us in the T20, just what he is capable of and lost the plot in the ODI's.

[Pagalpanti]

One thing I hope the selectors have learned. To not make Suresh Raina captain ever again. He was literally clueless on most occasions and if it wasn't for Rohit's heroics we would've gone down 2-3 to WI right after World cup success.

[TheWall]

raina, pathan, dhawan, tiwari... total flops... only rohit, kohli did well...

[Karan114]

One thing I hope the selectors have learned. To not make Suresh Raina captain ever again. He was literally clueless on most occasions and if it wasn't for Rohit's heroics we would've gone down 2-3 to WI right after World cup success.

True to an extent, but there was definitely an air of complacency in the fourth and five ODIs, especially in the fielding (which was pretty good in the first three ODIs). That cost us the final couple of games as much as anything. For a young team, the majority of them trying to break into the first choice Indian team, there is no excuse for such complacency even in dead rubbers.

[daryl1985]

Dhawan - Proved that his call-up was not merited. Parthiv Patel - Solid performer but failed to kick on. Kohli - Couple of superb innings and continues to look like the best young talent in world cricket. Tiwary - Only had 2 innings, can't say much about him. Badrinath - Major disappointment. Rohit Sharma - Man of the series. Showed his undoubted class, hopefully he can kick on and become a massive player. My one worry is that he is a bit of a horrible starter. Suresh Raina - Not captaincy material and has returned to the patchy form he displayed before the World Cup. Seemed to rate his bowling more than anyone else in the world. Yusuf Pathan - Back to being inconsistent. Raina should have let him bowl a few more overs. Harbhajan - Generally bowled well and kept it tight. He is still our best off-spinner. Mishra - Superb tour for him. He is a genuine wicket taking threat, hope he can develop some consistency. Ashwin - Economical but not enough of a wicket taking threat. Vinay Kumar - Started well yesterday but bowled a pile of **** at the end. Will probably never see him playing for India again. Munaf Patel - Solid performer and established as a 1st choice bowler. Praveen Kumar - Shrewd operator who keeps it tight and is a real wicket taking threat early in the innings. He is not great bowling at the death. Ishant - Keep him away from limited overs cricket.

[Karan114]

^ Would agree with all of that, Daryl. Mishra did indeed bowl well and he will be vital in the Test series given our weakened pace bowling. Hopefully he can replicate this form against stronger teams - he has struggled in the past bar the Aussies in 2008.

[mishra]

I bet if RP goes for runs in death overs, ICF will declare him to be a *****y bowler too. The truth is that we will never have an excellent world class pace bowler who can take quick wickets and is excellent in the death overs.

Where did you got the enlightenment? We allways had one... But sadly only one at a time. Amount of cricket we play we need atleast five or six.... We overuse that one guy and then say our chaps are prone to injury....

[mishra]

OP is where discussion starts and ends... Cant argue with any point.... Agree with them all... Raina kept on bowling so many overs in last game, makes me think he was stressed, didnt know how to use regular bowlers. Dhoni rarely uses Raina as bowler.... All the batsmen (Badri,Sharma,Tiwari,Dhawan) together should also improve and share about 12-15 overs of bowling between the them.

[jairamesh]

3. Indian fielding. It hasn't improved much and in the last odi it was abysmal with overthrows, misfields and dropped catches all over the place. Biggest contributor in losing India the 5th odi along with Vinay Kumar.

This is worrying. Especially yesterday, considering this team had Rohit, Kohli, Raina, Tiwary, and Dhawan. Fielding should have been top notch, but it wasn't, especially Kohli and Rohit dropping catches you would expect them to take. It seems like they just switched off in the field after game 3. In the first three games fielding was right there at the top-end. There was alot of complacency on part of the fielders that WI would be unable to chase down 250.