India must take a call on Sehwag's spot - Dravid

[Ultimate_Game]

but he is not in list of openers to begin with.. he is in squad to come in middle order

Who's not in the list of openers? I was talking about the SA tour, not the current Aus series. Sorry, I lost you there with your last post.

[Old guy]

Who's not in the list of openers? I was talking about the SA tour' date=' not the current Aus series. Sorry, I lost you there with your last post.[/quote'] rahane people are confusing him being opener in odis and tests he will open for us in odis but not in tests..something like tendulkar and jiwanjot needs 1 more season definitely not ready for steyn and co dhawan can be tried but i have no hopes from him .. honestly batting looks bleak unless we play rayadu and rahane in next 2 matches and give them some sort of experince before that tour opening will be vijay and probably gambhir if he does well in a tour

[Lord]

i think there regular opener was not avalible and they choose very mediocre player and rahane had perfect chance to open also like i said some players succeeded but most dont like it.. u cannot force nay one to open

are you talking about Irani Trophy? anyway,hes not captain,not even senior player,just 24 yr old.I doubt he'll get it even he asks.They probably felt they didnt want to disturb his normal position.just like I dont want to do with Pujara as some people say. The way I see it is performance matter more than position,hes been performing for years now so deserves his place,if only spot left is opening,so be it.Dhawan or Vijay OTOH havent been consistent even in FC n I doubt they are long term option even if they are specialist openers Rahane should get atleast one chance to see whether he adjusts.Its all upto individual.some adjust,some cant.If he doesnt,we can always shift him back to MO when Tendulkar retires

[Ultimate_Game]

rahane people are confusing him being opener in odis and tests he will open for us in odis but not in tests..something like tendulkar and jiwanjot needs 1 more season definitely not ready for steyn and co dhawan can be tried but i have no hopes from him .. honestly batting looks bleak unless we play rayadu and rahane in next 2 matches and give them some sort of experince before that tour opening will be vijay and probably gambhir if he does well in a tour

But I already said if he doesn't want to open, don't make him and only consider him as a middle order bat :dontknow: How did Rayudu even come into discussion? Our depth chart for middle order batsmen should be Rahane, Rohit and Tiwary unless someone brings down the proverbial door by scoring tons of runs in domestic cricket.

[Old guy]

But I already said if he doesn't want to open, don't make him and only consider him as a middle order bat :dontknow: How did Rayudu even come into discussion? Our depth chart for middle order batsmen should be Rahane, Rohit and Tiwary unless someone brings down the proverbial door by scoring tons of runs in domestic cricket.

maybe u missed the last match all these guys played...rohit was so awesome that even his die hard fans gave up :D and rayadu was by far the best batsman.. i dont know what u have against him but ur def not counting conditions he plays in (compared to mumbai pattas ) and team he plays for (he scores all the runs alone :cantstop:) also im big fan of tiwary and always backed him but on form rayadu was better and outscored him too and looked much much mroe comfortable also tiwary is injured in irani trophy only 2 batsmen looked ready for tests one was rahane who was wrongfully given out in 80's another was rayadu who played well in both innings threw wicket away in first but scored 100 in 2nd innings which was totally chance less and rohit did wht i always suspected..just read comments in match threads :) played awful shots got under pressure and got out..same way in odis.. im sure lord can give more details as he saw match more then me :P or maybe outy :)

[Lord]

yes that was pathetic stuff from god gifted talent:facepalm:

[Old guy]

also dont wanna turn it into another rohit sharma thread but forget him he needs to improve a lot before test selection and about rayadu he performed in a tours he performed in irani trophy and he has been doing well in ranji too..also he iwll never average like rohit or rahane cos he does not bats on mumbai pattas as simple as that mandeep singh scored 200 in mumbai was flop in most of season other then that. just to give u bit of prespective

[Old guy]

yes that was pathetic stuff from god gifted talent:facepalm:

it was jsut awful awful dismissal worst part..it did not just happened once:hysterical:

[suraj]

good points by Dravid I see nothing but doom at opening slot for India in SA; Vijay's latest innings not withstanding he does not have ability to fight the pace and swing of Steyn & co. Sehwag in form wa sour only hope but he only looks fit for a spot in lunch room. Sachin is the only one closest to soem kinda technique to face the pace with new ball but he is unwilling to move.

[Lord]

Rayudu has problems of conversion though,14 tons in 42 50+ scores.thats only thing I can find wrong about him

[Lord]

good points by Dravid I see nothing but doom at opening slot for India in SA; Vijay's latest innings not withstanding he does not have ability to fight the pace and swing of Steyn & co. Sehwag in form wa sour only hope but he only looks fit for a spot in lunch room. Sachin is the only one closest to soem kinda technique to face the pace with new ball but he is unwilling to move.

lol you want 40 yr old Sachin to open?

[suraj]

lol you want 40 yr old Sachin to open?

as if the 21 yr olds are knocking it out of he park what I said was atleast he has the ability and technique; if he is accepatble to be in the team as a 40 yr old how does it matter- atleast with him I see the ability to see off the new ball otherwise pujara is pretty much playing an opener at 1 down

[Old guy]

Rayudu has problems of conversion though' date='14 tons in 42 50+ scores.thats only thing I can find wrong about him[/quote'] i agree but i can find few reason one is that his team is weak so lack of support anyway i believe he improved a lot and form being just a talented youngster now he is complete batsman.. also u just cannot ignore performances in a tours away from home only guy other then pujara to show some fight when conditions were tough (in different tours ) every one scored runs in last match on flat pitch in nz but only he scored before that on tough tracks

[cowboysfan]

I really dont see anybody in the horizon who can be a permanent replacement for Viru,all i see is temporary plugins who will not succeed overseas but we have no choice really.I am hoping we blood some young openers who have talent but haven't played a lot by keeping them in A tours instead of guys like Mukund,, vijay etc.

[carnish]

Sehwag needs to be dropped. He can only improve if he is dropped now. We may still take him to South Africa but unless he is dropped now, he wont work too hard in the gap of 7 months from now to December. He needs to understand that he is not guaranteed a place unless he improves.

[Ultimate_Game]

I really dont see anybody in the horizon who can be a permanent replacement for Viru' date=all i see is temporary plugins who will not succeed overseas but we have no choice really.I am hoping we blood some young openers who have talent but haven't played a lot by keeping them in A tours instead of guys like Mukund,, vijay etc.

Sehwag at his peak was one of a kind, and there hasn't been that kind of a player in the history of the game - an opener averaging 50+ with a SR of 80 and a knack for big scores. We are not going to replace him but we have to find the best possible opener we have.

[nevada]

Let Sehwag open in SA also. No point in throwing inexperienced new openers into the lion's den. I don't think the remaining 2 matches in this series are sufficient to groom a new opener.

[Sooda]

^Sadly it has come to that, what we should have been doing is grooming a good young opener- Mukund in my view- so that they would go to SA with experience of having faced good new ball attacks albeit at home. That should have happened Since the NZ series. t was clear GG/VS combo had run its course. Vijay, Mukund and Dhawan should all tour SA with the A team give them that exposure, Vijay will almost certainly be touring with the senior team now it seems. Anyway Dravid is saying nothing earth shattering here- in fact he is happily sitting on fence. Should he be dropped or not? Should he be in the middle order or not? No real answers from Dravid everything is a possibility. I guess it is not fair to expect him to call for an old team mate to be dropped.

[Vanarp22]

Dravid speaking sensibly.

[Crookbond]

A lot of people are talking about grooming a new opener. How would you groom a new opener for SA in Test matches at home? At EOD, it would again come down to performance in overseas conditions. The 'groomed opener' should actually happen on away tours and home Test matches should be used as a feel for Test match cricket. We currently have very limited options - Gambhir who has technical flaws and skeptical of his improvement, Dhawan who I'm not sure would stand to the rigors of Test match cricket let alone ODIs and Rahane who is not an opener to start with and had his technique exposed in the most recent ODI series. Given these options, Rahane seems to be the best bet but an opening batting of Gambhir/Rahane/Vijay (assuming no Sehwag) still doesn't cut it out in South Africa for me.