Should India Play 5 Bowlers on a Flat Pitch?

[G_B_]

The answer is in your first post itself "If the pitch is flat and our top 5 are doing well with the bat, is it time to gamble and go for..." Our top 5 hasn't been in great form for quite sometime now, add to it MSD's batting form and we have a batting line up thats under pressure..can't see 5 bowlers playing. Also, we are not going to see flat pitches on this tour. Expect grassy tracks everywhere.

I think what I read about the first warm up our batters appear to be in good nick. Obviously the second warm up will tell us more as the calibre of opposition will be much better. Sehwag IMO has regained his touch in the ODIs v WI and appears to be back from an operation. Had a good WI series which was his comeback. Went for his shots regardless and i am sure he will be better v Aus. But obviously, if its a green pitch with grass. 7 batsman for sure. Nobody is debating that. Personally i would welcome green pitches. IMO we have the batsman capable of dealing with that.

[Lord]

Nahin yaar' date=' read somewhere that 'soft instructions' (whatever that means) have been given to the curators of the 4 test venues to prepare bowler friendly tracks.[/quote'] bowler friendly doesnt mean green,after experience of NZ they'll be wary of a greentop.it will be hard n bouncy but not green

[G_B_]

Perth I feel will have a lot of bounce. SCG historically has had spin. A lot will depend on the remaining two venues.

[CoverDrive]

going by recent track record in shield games and NZ tests pitches are not going to be as flat as previous two tours

[Needforspeed]

bowler friendly doesnt mean green' date='after experience of NZ they'll be wary of a greentop.it will be hard n bouncy but not green[/quote'] Yeah and the Aussies are going to come hard at our batsmen with sustained short pitched bowling. We really need the extra batsman. As for 5th bowler, we are struggling to find 4 fit & good bowlers. Mithun and VK are going to be useless anyway..better to play the extra batsman and maybe get Kohli, Sehwag and Tendulkar to bowl a few overs.

[Ultimate_Game]

Don't tinker with our tried and successful formula, especially in the opening match of the series and that too when our batsmen have struggled recently overseas.

[Pagalpanti]

No but if Ishant is injured they should rather play Ojha than VK/Mithun.

[Cricket Tragic]

No. It's a struggle to find 4 decent bowlers, let alone 5. There is no point in playing an extra bowler just for the sake of it.