No further T20s for Sehwag, Zaheer, Gambhir, Dhoni, Bhajji, Balaji and Rohit please

[Crookbond]

Okay Dex,just got tired of this rain fecked us argument of Dhoni,we played poorly and deserved to lose that game Coming back to the focus of the article,Dhoni has the chance to redeem himself but for that he and the selectors have to be bold,Sehwag and Gauti are taking their places for granted,time to kick them out and make them earn their spots,and we need to try out some new bowlers,Zak cant be relied upon anymore

Which format are discussing? I assume it is T20 - I think India needs to start fresh. Let us pick the best 20 T20 players in the country. The only way to do so currently is to look at their IPL record. Can we list them down?

[GautiMaan]

Which format are discussing? I assume it is T20 - I think India needs to start fresh. Let us pick the best 20 T20 players in the country. The only way to do so currently is to look at their IPL record. Can we list them down?

India still have a decent ODI unit which will get stronger with Yuvi coming back,its tests and t20's where we have a problem An Indian IPL XI:hmmm: Mayank Aggarwal Mandeep Virat© Raina Uthappa Naman Ojha(w) Irfan Pathan Awana Nadeem Yadav Aaron

[CG]

People got to understand its not only about t20 specialists ,Its about good cricketers look at the teams who have won t20 world cups there best players have been guys who are good in three formats or atleast two.In t20 you need good bowlers also which we are lacking ,when we have won any major tournament our fast bowlers have done well be it t20 wc in 2007,cb series,2011 wc.

[jairamesh]

There is nothing India could have done to win this World T20 when the selections were so heavily influenced by emotional bias and random hope. For feck sakes we had Chawla, Yuvi and Bhajji in the squad!!!! We deserved to loose all games. Granted IPL should provide guidance who should be selected, but overall current form through all formats must be taken in consideration, and this is where I question the inclusion of Rohit Sharma. He was mentally shot and ability to play cricket gone in SL ODI tour and yet he gets in. And one off Yadav, Ishant, or Awana had to play. Bowling pedestrian 130 kph will only get you so far.

[jairamesh]

Also, we need a proper power hitter capable of smashing 100m plus sixes. Just looking back at the past winners each team had it least one in form: India - Yuvi Pakistan -Afridi England - KP WI - Gayle, Samuels, Pollard, Andre Russell. It's a high risk strategy and could end up being a waste of space, but that's what T20 cricket is about. In this World T20 we didn't have anyone with enough power to top edge a ball for SIX.

[Crookbond]

People got to understand its not only about t20 specialists ' date=Its about good cricketers look at the teams who have won t20 world cups there best players have been guys who are good in three formats or atleast two.In t20 you need good bowlers also which we are lacking ,when we have won any major tournament our fast bowlers have done well be it t20 wc in 2007,cb series,2011 wc.

We just need to pick players who are likely to do well in T20 irrespective of how good they are in Tests or ODIs. Someone may be a good T20 player and may or may not be a good ODI player - does not matter.

[Crookbond]

India still have a decent ODI unit which will get stronger with Yuvi coming back,its tests and t20's where we have a problem An Indian IPL XI:hmmm: Mayank Aggarwal Mandeep Virat© Raina Uthappa Naman Ojha(w) Irfan Pathan Awana Nadeem Yadav Aaron

Lets get down to our core group of players first. I am picking keeping in mind the next World T20 is in Bangladesh and the conditions out there Batsmen - Kohli, Yuvraj, Raina Bowlers - Ashwin So essentially, we have four slots filled. All the rest are up for grabs in my books.

[Lord]

Lets get down to our core group of players first. I am picking keeping in mind the next World T20 is in Bangladesh and the conditions out there Batsmen - Kohli, Yuvraj, Raina Bowlers - Ashwin So essentially, we have four slots filled. All the rest are up for grabs in my books.

I would add Irfan as well.

[GautiMaan]

Also, we need a proper power hitter capable of smashing 100m plus sixes. Just looking back at the past winners each team had it least one in form: India - Yuvi Pakistan -Afridi England - KP WI - Gayle, Samuels, Pollard, Andre Russell. It's a high risk strategy and could end up being a waste of space, but that's what T20 cricket is about. In this World T20 we didn't have anyone with enough power to top edge a ball for SIX.

Yuvi and Dhoni can hit these 100m hits,but Dhoni prolly needs a yellow jersey to pull it off Uthappa and Yusuf are the only other guys who i can think of,maybe Chand in a few years

[GautiMaan]

Lets get down to our core group of players first. I am picking keeping in mind the next World T20 is in Bangladesh and the conditions out there Batsmen - Kohli, Yuvraj, Raina Bowlers - Ashwin So essentially, we have four slots filled. All the rest are up for grabs in my books.

The problemis that Sehwag,Gauti,Rohit will continue to excel in IPL and get selected for the Wc,i mean Gauti was excellent in the ipl but flopped big time here:facepalm:

[Crookbond]

I would add Irfan as well.

Considering we are in Bangladesh I will not add him - Sri Lankan wickets are different to that of Bangladesh. Those wickets literally offer no swing - day or night.

[Crookbond]

The problemis that Sehwag' date='Gauti,Rohit will continue to excel in IPL and get selected for the Wc,i mean Gauti was excellent in the ipl but flopped big time here:facepalm:[/quote'] I did not add tried and tested players - I am tempted to even add Tendulkar to that list to be quite honest.

[Crookbond]

Apart from Virender Sehwag in the top-order and Suresh Raina and myself in the lower-order, all our other batsmen prefer to face a few deliveries before going for the big hits. So, if either I or Raina goes up the order and gets out, the other batsmen come in to bat in the 13th or 14th over. In such situation, how many runs can we get on the board? Not many. Currently, we are utilizing most of the players to the best of their potential. Virat Kohli needs to bat at No 3. If, in the first six overs we lose too many wickets, Rohit Sharma goes in at 4. If not then Yuvraj Singh goes. More than the number at which one goes in to bat, it is the number of overs left that we take into consideration. Sometimes, a bit of change is needed also depending on the kind of bowlers the opposition has. It is always good to have a left-right combination because if the spinners are operating, at least one batsman can go after them. If you want to use the strength of the batting line optimally, you have to do a certain things in a certain way. If you see the stats you will say that Virat Kohli is our best batsman. But if he was batting at No. 5 or 6 where would he have stood and how much of an advantage could he have taken of the kind of form he is in? One of the reasons he is performing so well is because that position suits him and he can exploit the bowlers more batting at No.3.

http://bcci.tv/bcci/bccitv/index/viewarticle?article=506c2a754d4b7-dhoni-defends-his-team-strategies.html

[jairamesh]

The problemis that Sehwag' date='Gauti,Rohit will continue to excel in IPL and get selected for the Wc,i mean Gauti was excellent in the ipl but flopped big time here:facepalm:[/quote'] It needs a balanced view. IPL should influence the decisions but so should players playing currently in ODIs leading upto to World T20. That's why we have selectors to make the most sensible decision, not bring out of the blue Piyush Chawla or a recent cancer victim into physically demanding international cricket.

[Crookbond]

MS Dhoni On India’s inconsistency in WT20s despite playing a lot of T20 cricket in IPL

IPL is very different. Whatever said and done it is a domestic tournament. Although there are a lot of international players participating in it, the domestic players play a very important role. And when you are playing against an international side, the bowling attack of the oppositions is quite good. If the wicket doesn’t support our bowlers, we struggle a bit. We find it more difficult to bowl on a flat wicket than a seaming one. When we played in the first edition [World T20, 2007], 90 per cent of our matches were in Durban where our bowlers were very effective. That meant, whatever we were scoring we were able to defend it. So if you ask me, I would prefer a turning track or a seaming wicket for a Twenty20 game because it suits our bowlers more as compared to a flat track.

http://bcci.tv/bcci/bccitv/index/viewarticle?article=506c2a754d4b7-dhoni-defends-his-team-strategies.html

[CG]

We just need to pick players who are likely to do well in T20 irrespective of how good they are in Tests or ODIs. Someone may be a good T20 player and may or may not be a good ODI player - does not matter.

How many so called good t20 players have done well in international t20s?If you look at all world cups its the established odi and test players who have done well and the t20 specialist are in minority.Also in t20 world cups its the side with good bowling attacks that have won rather than batting sides.

[Lord]

http://bcci.tv/bcci/bccitv/index/viewarticle?article=506c2a754d4b7-dhoni-defends-his-team-strategies.html

thats defensive thinking imo.u cant fear failure.Raina had to be given chances early,if he did well,we would hv a big total,if he got out early,others like Rohit n Virat would hv consolidated anyway n got to roundabout the same score,the first instinct has to be aggresive

[Crookbond]

How many so called good t20 players have done well in international t20s?If you look at all world cups its the established odi and test players who have done well and the t20 specialist are in minority.Also in t20 world cups its the side with good bowling attacks that have won rather than batting sides.

:wall: I said pick the ones who do well - simple. Why should we not pick those few players however small they may be if they are good at T20 but not good in ODIs or Tests? Why miss them? :dontknow:

[vamos_rafa]

Dhoni: from instinctive to inflexible The metamorphosis of MS Dhoni from a long-haired pinch-hitter to a suave captain couldn't have been more fascinating, particularly for those who have seen him from close quarters. In 2004 he arrived on the scene as a small-town boy, with his bold helicopter shot and a natural affinity for hitting the ball. He soon turned into the perfect antidote for a team struggling with an over-reliance on senior players. He came armed with new ideas about endgame tactics, had the ability and conviction to take risks, backed players fully, and it all worked out well for him. I remember first meeting Dhoni - reticent and self-conscious back then - on an India A tour to Kenya and Zimbabwe. We shared a room for over a month, which gave me an opportunity to understand why he was an extraordinary player. Dhoni was the second-choice keeper on the tour after Dinesh Karthik. While Dhoni spent a lot of time honing his skills behind the stumps, as was expected, he was also the first in the nets to try his hand at fast bowling. I told him his bowling stints were futile, but he was having none of it. In fact, he happily bowled to Karthik, his competitor, who was vying for a place in the Indian team by spending extra hours in the nets to work out problems in his batting. Many of us thought Dhoni was being foolish. but we failed to read between the lines. In his late teens, he had already realised that life in sport was going to be a daring adventure - you punt, win or lose, or play it safe and lose more often than not. Here was a small-town boy who was the opposite of how you expected him to be: raring to go, secure in his cricket, unruffled by the world's view of him, not caring what others, including his competitors, were doing. That made him extraordinary. Karthik got a call-up from India, so Dhoni got his chance with the A side, and that's when I first glimpsed the brilliance in his batting and the astuteness in his cricket thinking. India played a triangular involving Pakistan A on that tour, and I saw Dhoni paddle Iftikhar Anjum, a reasonably quick bowler, for a boundary, and then, to my utter disbelief, reverse-sweep him for another because the third man had been brought inside the circle. This was a shot most people hadn't seen before, and it told me that Dhoni was here to stay. He wasn't afraid to try new things and was a gambler by nature. When he saw third man was inside the circle, his gaming instincts made him try something unconventional. It wasn't a percentage shot, but if gamblers start worrying about the odds, they would never gamble. Dhoni went on to play this way even after he donned the India colours. He trusted his instincts and wasn't afraid of risk. As captain, in the World Twenty20 final in 2007, he opened the batting with the less-fancied Yusuf Pathan and threw the ball to Joginder Sharma for the last over. Some will argue that Virender Sehwag's unavailability and Harbhajan Singh's ordinary form made Dhoni's decisions look straightforward, but I thought they were brave moves in the face of adversity. It takes immense courage to not bowl the more experienced bowler when a World Cup is at stake, even if that bowler has gone for a few in his previous over. Dhoni's move to promote Cheteshwar Pujara to bat at No. 3 against Australia in the Bangalore Test in 2010 revealed an incisive mind. It was an instinctive decision, and he took it. It's not every day that a captain asks Rahul Dravid to move down the order. Dhoni went on to lead India to the No. 1 ranking in Tests and a World Cup victory after 28 years. My heart was in my mouth when I saw him walk out of the pavilion ahead of the in-form Yuvraj Singh in the final in Mumbai last year. Again a gamble. And the world would have crucified him had the move gone wrong. But Dhoni, never shy of taking on his responsibilities, stepped out with an unwavering spirit. His tactical brilliance came to the fore a lot more in the IPL and the Champions League, because the T20 format rarely follows a set pattern, and it demands a lot more from the captain. Since every over in a T20 game is 5% of the total innings, a single mistake in judgement can cost you a match. Dhoni opened the bowling with R Ashwin, made Suresh Raina a better bowler and manoeuvred his batting resources to get the best out of everyone. It's true he had a talented side at his disposal, but so did Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders. Yet, none of the others delivered similar results over five seasons. Unfortunately all that, though glorious, is in the past. Of late, the flexibility that was Dhoni's forte seems to have deserted him. I'm not a huge fan of a captain being too flexible, since it can betray a lack of conviction, but rigidity isn't good either, for that stems from arrogance. In the 2011 World Cup, Dhoni persisted with Piyush Chawla for as long as it was possible, though Yuvraj, a part-time spinner, looked a lot better than Chawla. Dhoni was also too stubborn to use Ashwin till he was forced to. It wasn't a coincidence that the team that played the final Test in Adelaide in 2011-12 was nearly identical (except for missing Dhoni to a one-match suspension) to the one that played the first Test of the tour, in Melbourne, even though India had already lost the series 0-3. The obstinacy continued during the one-dayers that followed. Even if Dhoni adopted the much-publicised rotation policy at the top, he refused to allow Manoj Tiwary a hit in the middle, though Raina and Rohit Sharma were failing consistently. Later, in spite of the failures in Australia, Dhoni chose to travel with the same personnel to the Asia Cup. In the inconsequential one-off T20 in South Africa, where the hosts rested their senior pros, India fielded their best XI. Rohit's presence in all five ODIs in Sri Lanka, despite having failed for the longest time, was also inexplicable. All this raises the question: is Dhoni being rigid in his thought process or is he just afraid of losing? Agreeing to call off the Test match in Dominica when India needed a little over a run a ball with seven wickets in hand was an example of Dhoni's changing mindset. In an IPL game against Pune Warriors, Dhoni didn't bowl Ravindra Jadeja because the left-handed Jesse Ryder was on strike. Trying Jadeja may have been a gamble but playing it safe only delayed the inevitable. Jadeja didn't bowl in the final against KKR either. More recently, in the match against South Africa in the just concluded World Twenty20, it was baffling to see Ashwin bowl after Rohit. Also, Dhoni's top three bowlers (Zaheer Khan, Ashwin and L Balaji) were left with an over each in hand even after South Africa crossed 121. Was defending 121 the objective or winning the match, even if it meant India went out of the tournament? Looking on from the outside, it felt like the latter. Perhaps Dhoni's inclination to always have a back-up plan if things go awry explains his reluctance to promote himself in the batting order in T20s. It is sad to see Dhoni succumb to a safety-first approach - one that promotes complacency, where guarding an advantage becomes more important than acquiring one. In life, as one achieves success, the ability to take risks falls in almost the same proportion. When Dhoni first became captain there was very little at stake, so he could punt without worrying too much, but as the stakes got higher, every defeat was ruthlessly dissected and criticised, which may have led him to believe defeat was not an option. Since the Indian team is going through a transition, it will need Dhoni's gambling instincts as a leader more than ever, for now he may have to make the team punch above its weight often. I'm eagerly waiting for him to stop playing the percentages and start following his instincts instead. Instead of being vocal about wanting rank turners at home, it would be better if he starts addressing the big issue, which is to build a team that will also succeed overseas.

Nice piece this. Source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/582651.html

[Crookbond]

Hit the nail on the head.