Seniors facing the heat...

[Ram]

Let me show you where you are going wrong Sriram. Amitabh Bacchan movies are a blockbuster in India..Does that also mean that his movies are big hits in Kerela? Errr no. Same here. The success of Sachin against England does not automatically equate to success against Australia. For the past 10 games, the stats have been put, he averages a solid 20 somethings and has two good innings which were played 40 months back. If you still insist have him in the team when we play England next, or when we play South Africa minus Shaun Pollock but he has failed for the past 8 occassions, including today, against Australia, how many more chances do you think he deserves? xx

Lurks , dont you realize that there is one fundemental drawback in your argument, which is that we dont have good enough replacements. Yes Sehwag is there and i have always maintained that he should play instead of Ganguly. And please quote me the name of Gambhir. His game his flawed in so many ways that its just a matter of time before he loses form again and dumped from the team. And bear in mind , its not as though our other batsman distinguished themselves in flying colors in the last game. Maybe the Aussies bowling was too good. Sachin was the sole reason why we lost 3-4 to England. Or else , the scoreline would have been 1-6 or 2-5

[jf1gp_1]

why just blame sachin/rahul ? yuvraj, gambir scored nothing. When chasing 300+ with 6 batsman and 2 top order batsman apart from sachin fail there isnt much a team can do. India were scoring at 5 an over when dravid got out they just failed to build an inning.

[Bumper]

^Exactly, horses for courses. Wouldnt we want Sehwag back, if the opponents were Pakistan ? Sehwag's recent form would have nothing to do with that call. SRT, Gangs & RD are walking wickets against the Aussies. Even if one of them do well, it usually doesnt help us clinch a win. It takes a herculean effort from atleast two of the top order bats to pull off a win. Am sure, i dont have to look for that two among these three.

[Bumper]

Lurks , dont you realize that there is one fundemental drawback in your argument, which is that we dont have good enough replacements. Yes Sehwag is there and i have always maintained that he should play instead of Ganguly. And please quote me the name of Gambhir. His game his flawed in so many ways that its just a matter of time before he loses form again and dumped from the team. And bear in mind , its not as though our other batsman distinguished themselves in flying colors in the last game. Maybe the Aussies bowling was too good. Sachin was the sole reason why we lost 3-4 to England. Or else , the scoreline would have been 1-6 or 2-5

Colvoluted logic Sriram. If you go by recent performances, wouldnt Ganguly automatically make it (as he is one of our best bats in either forms of the game, recently) ? And why do we care about flaws & holes in our batsmen. What have we achieved with our technically sound trio against this neo Aussie team ?

[Lurker]

Lurks , dont you realize that there is one fundemental drawback in your argument, which is that we dont have good enough replacements. Yes Sehwag is there and i have always maintained that he should play instead of Ganguly. And please quote me the name of Gambhir. His game his flawed in so many ways that its just a matter of time before he loses form again and dumped from the team.

Sriram, Lets be clear on one account - SRT can NOT be replaced. I mean seriously man this is the man with most runs in LOI and one of the most in Test cricket. By most accounts Sachin and Viv fight for 1-2(or 2-1) in most cricket fans book when it comes to all-time LOI batsmen. So no you can NOT replace SRT pound for pound period. However you can, and should, try with the youngsters. Bradman or Sobers could not be replaced but did they play forever? No. Did Warne/Mcgrath play forever? No. Heck all these players went out on top, in case of SRT he is actually failing. His stats against England have necome irrelevant when he seems to fold up in every match against Aussies. Also realize that SRT had a grand average of about 32 in his first 80 LOI before he was promoted up the order. He was NOT winning us matches before, surely we can give the youngsters that kind of band with to settle down and who knows maybe we can get another Sachin? xxx

[fineleg]

lurker, Well Said. Applause!

[Ram]

Colvoluted logic Sriram. If you go by recent performances, wouldnt Ganguly automatically make it (as he is one of our best bats in either forms of the game, recently) ? And why do we care about flaws & holes in our batsmen. What have we achieved with our technically sound trio against this neo Aussie team ?

I am calling for Sehwag to replace Ganguly , despite his record in the last 3-4 months BECAUSE 1) I did see how Ganguly bat and feel that his record looks as good as it is due to the fact that batsman have attacked around him. He was allowed to play in that manner because other batsman covered up for his mis-givings 2) This is the important point. His replacement is Sehwag. If Sehwag werent in the reckoning now, Ganguly stays for me.

[Ram]

Sriram, Lets be clear on one account - SRT can NOT be replaced. I mean seriously man this is the man with most runs in LOI and one of the most in Test cricket. By most accounts Sachin and Viv fight for 1-2(or 2-1) in most cricket fans book when it comes to all-time LOI batsmen. So no you can NOT replace SRT pound for pound period. However you can, and should, try with the youngsters. Bradman or Sobers could not be replaced but did they play forever? No. Did Warne/Mcgrath play forever? No. Heck all these players went out on top, in case of SRT he is actually failing. His stats against England have necome irrelevant when he seems to fold up in every match against Aussies. Also realize that SRT had a grand average of about 32 in his first 80 LOI before he was promoted up the order. He was NOT winning us matches before, surely we can give the youngsters that kind of band with to settle down and who knows maybe we can get another Sachin? xxx

Lurks , you are talking as though Sachin's time at the international level is over. That aint the case. He still has lots left to give. You just had to have watched the England series to understand what i am saying. Youngsters are VITALLY important. They should be groomed, but not at the expense of a established player who can still win us matches. As i have always maintained , Sachin should play ODI cricket for another 12-15 months , and then retire from that form of that game for good. Who knows , we might even see a surprise announcement at the end of this tour.

[Chandan]

Why are you people getting so animated? At least two out of the 3 batsmen you're mentioning will be rested after the 3rd ODI. That is what Vengsarkar said. So many youngsters will be getting chance in this series. I want Badrinath to be tested too. The way he played against SA A was just amazing! And one more request: please stop this senior junior thing. In a team we have 11 players--no one is senior or no one is junior!