India's Tour of Zimbabwe, 2013: 5 ODIs

[G_B_]

This series is being billed as the audition for the next in line group of players for the Indian team. I have to say' date=' if this is how future is going to look, it is not looking too bright. If you ignore the [b']usual suspects like Kohli, Rohit, Pujara, Jadeja etc, it is quite hard a spot a talent that you can feel excited about, especially in the bowling department. Amit Mishra is not a ‘future prospect’. He has had his moment, but has disappointed largely. Karthik’s issues with batting consistency is world famous. Rayudu is reliable without being spectacular. No disrespect to Unadkat or Vinay Kumar, but they clearly are well below international standards.

yeah but thats the thing, the usual suspects are quite young and have the potential to be there for a decade...... I thought Unadkat was good today. Bowling a lot quicker than what i expected

[Ram]

yeah but thats the thing, the usual suspects are quite young and have the potential to be there for a decade...... I thought Unadkat was good today. Bowling a lot quicker than what i expected

I am not sold on Pujara’s ODI capabilities (yet). Hence, it makes even more sense to give him as many opportunities as possible, to show us all what he has got.

[youngindia]

it is quite hard a spot a talent that you can feel excited about, especially in the bowling department.

u got it totally totally wrong. a more promising,exciting generation with less weaknesses is taking over .dhawan,karthik,rayudu(2004u 19),rohit,pujara(2006) ,kohli,jadeja 2008 are filling our lineup now. rayudu scored 177 in a 50 over u 17 game to win a improbable chase and was since hailed as the next big talent. he or karthik could have made it much earlier.but it does not matter as long as they do in the end. your comments are pointless.most players grow up to be established players only with a lot of pain. not everyone is a Tendulkar or kohli. as for the bowling, it is well known.shami and rasool are decent prospects. yes vinay and amit are waste of space as they will serve no long term purpose. the fact is the system is still batting heavy an the bowling quality is growing gradually not dramataically..

[G_B_]

I am not sold on Pujara’s ODI capabilities (yet). Hence, it makes even more sense to give him as many opportunities as possible, to show us all what he has got.

sure i am all for it. But the core of our ODI team like Kohli etc is quite young. I dont think we should be too worried about the future as of now. Even our bowling attack Bhuvi is 23 Ishant is 24 and Umi is 25. Quite young. If Aaron can make it there is another young option.

[G_B_]

Did people even watch the match? Shami and Unadkat were bowling at similar speeds. They are not trundler.

[Ram]

sure i am all for it. But the core of our ODI team like Kohli etc is quite young. I dont think we should be too worried about the future as of now. Even our bowling attack Bhuvi is 23 Ishant is 24 and Umi is 25. Quite young. If Aaron can make it there is another young option.

I think you are being extremely generous and optimistic in your assessment. Of the names you listed, apart from Bhuvi, pretty much everyone else’s ODI credentials are dodgy. Ishant’s been around for nearly 7 years now and is still mostly rubbish. Umesh has clearly shown that he’s nowhere near a finished ODI product.. And Aaron.. Well, let him walk 20 yards without getting injured. We shall talk about bowling later.

[G_B_]

I think you are being extremely generous and optimistic in your assessment. Of the names you listed' date=' apart from Bhuvi, pretty much everyone else’s ODI credentials are dodgy. Ishant’s been around for nearly 7 years now and is still mostly rubbish. Umesh has clearly shown that he’s nowhere near a finished ODI product.. And Aaron.. Well, let him walk 20 yards without getting injured. We shall talk about bowling later.[/quote'] you are right, I am generous and optimistic about our pacers. But then again when have pacers been our strength as an ODI team? We have decent spinners who are young in Sir and Ashwin. Our batsman at the moment are not too old. Look at south africa. Dont have good spinners. Have no new good young batsman coming through but have a good pace attack. Every team has some faults at the moment.

[jashan83]

wow, nice story

[Chandan]

I don’t think the word ‘outstanding’ is the right adjective for him.. Maybe ‘Above average’ suits him better. I watched plenty of him in the last few years of IPL. He’s solid without being spectacular. He may have the batting capability' date=' but I have question marks over the mental aspect of things.[/quote'] IPL is not a place to judge a batsman if you want him anywhere near Indian team. Sorry.

[gakgupta]

I don’t think the word ‘outstanding’ is the right adjective for him.. Maybe ‘Above average’ suits him better. I watched plenty of him in the last few years of IPL. He’s solid without being spectacular. He may have the batting capability' date=' but I have question marks over the mental aspect of things.[/quote'] He is an outstanding batsmen.....He is one of the very few Indian batsmen, who has pretty good back-foot play. His value will be better known, when played in bouncy pitches. Judging him by IPL performances is just insane. You would get to know, only so much by a T20 match. By that logic, Dravid would have been a very mediocre batsmen but he isn't. Need of hour for India is being Solid, not Spectacular. There are too many stroke makers right now in the indian team. I think he has fixed the Mental aspects as he was very consistent in last too seasons and got big hundreds

[carnish]

Sikandar Raza hungry for more

A maiden international fifty against the world champions would give most cricketers cause to celebrate. But for Sikandar Raza, reaching the 80s and not going on to a hundred left him bitterly disappointed. "A friend of mine just asked me something," he said after Zimbabwe's six-wicket defeat to India. "He asked me: 'How did it feel when Virat got his hundred?' I tell you, that question stung me properly. I'm going to remember that for the rest of my life. I'm not going to find these opportunities a lot, so when I do I'm going to have to make sure that I convert them." Raza is no stranger to disappointment, and perhaps it is a residual memory of the failed eye test that quashed his childhood dream of becoming a fighter pilot in Pakistan that motivates him so fiercely. Or maybe it is the sheer amount of hard work he has had to put in to get this far as a cricketer. Either way, at 27 years old and now only beginning his international career, he knows he has got to take every chance he can. "I'll definitely be in the nets after this press conference," he said. "I've got a few areas to brush up on, so that if I find myself with the same opportunity, I'm not putting myself under pressure and neither am I putting my team under pressure." After losing the toss on a lively pitch first thing in the morning, Zimbabwe were indeed under pressure from the very start. "History tells us that at [Harare] Sports Club batting first is always very tricky," Raza said. "It was nipping around. From one side it was skidding and from the other side it was not coming on to the bat. That was happening, along with the movement and seam, so it was quite tricky to bat. So what we decided was that we're going to keep wickets in hand, because that would give our team a better chance to post a competitive total." Sticking to such a defensive gameplan couldn't have been easy for a batsman who built his domestic reputation upon innings of daring adventure. He sums up his batting technique as "see ball, hit ball, and try to survive mate", and once shared a partnership of 98 with Brian Lara - a batsman known to play a few shots himself - in Zimbabwe's domestic Twenty20 competition to which Lara contributed just 11. Today, he played more blocks than slogs but still finished with a strike rate of 73.21 and eight boundaries. "The flair will stay there, and I hope it stays there for the rest of my career," Raza said. "But the fact is when you're playing international cricket at such a high level you're not going to get bad balls and if I'm trying to make something out of nothing I'm going to throw my wicket away. "I would love to play my cricket with a lot of flair but unfortunately that doesn't always happen after just four [ODI] games. Hopefully as I keep on playing, I can start playing more shots. But at the moment, the plan we set, we have to stick to that so that it gives me and my team the best opportunity." With his brother and several cousins - all wearing 'Team Raza' t-shirts - cheering him on, Raza was in sight of his ton when he swiped across the line at a delivery from Mishra that skidded on to rattle his stumps. Raza trudged off, his head hung in disappointment, and conceded that with the big-hitting Elton Chigumbura at the other end, he probably should have been looking for a single. "I just wanted to give Elty [Chigumbura] the strike. Elty was hitting it so well that when I was standing at the other end I was slightly scared [what would happen] if he hits one straight back. Maybe I was trying to be too smart. I saw a gap and I wanted to pick two or three there. Maybe I should have just kept it simple and let Elty do the power hitting." Raza will get another chance to prove himself on Friday, but insisted that success in this series is more important to the team and cricket in Zimbabwe than it might be to him personally. Zimbabwe have struggled to attract elite opposition - and the TV rights cash that comes with them - and they understand what a big opportunity a visit by India presents. "This is a massive tour, for Zimbabwe to start with and then individually for me as well, because it could be make or break for us," he concluded. "So if we do really well here, hopefully we'll have more cricket coming to us, which could only help us improve."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe-v-india-2013/content/story/654877.html

[carnish]

'More than nervous, I was emotional' - Rayudu

Ambati Rayudu's personal history has all the makings of a classic bildungsroman. The early promise of a teenage prodigy, the growing pains, the rebel years, and now redemption. The final chapter of his story is yet to be written, but now that he's enjoyed a successful debut for India, it's a lot more likely that his ending will be a happy one. "It feels marvelous," said Rayudu after he shared a match-winning 159-run stand with Virat Kohli to help thump Zimbabwe by six wickets in the series opener at Harare Sports Club. Kohli departed before the match was won - though not before racking up a 15th ODI century - but Rayudu stood firm and hit the winning runs off a Tinotenda Mutombodzi full toss. "It's been pretty emotional," he said. "More than nervous, I was very emotional." If that was the case, he hid his emotions well after entering with India at 57 for 2 with the openers back in the pavilion. India weren't exactly under intense pressure at the time, but the match was far from won. With Kohli stroking the ball supremely at the other end, Rayudu was afforded the luxury of time and space to play himself in, and left three of his first 10 deliveries alone. Placing the ball and running well, he left the bulk of the aggressive stroke play to Kohli and reached a debut fifty, off 74 deliveries, in the 39th over. "I think he's playing the best cricket possible," Rayudu said of Kohli. "I definitely feel that he's the best in the world right now in the one-day format. He made it a lot easier for me, and I was just looking at the way he was constructing his innings. It's a very good learning experience." Rayudu's clashes with authority over the years have been well documented, and a large tattoo on the side of his neck completes the 'bad boy' image, but it was at the IPL that he found a support structure to temper his fiery side and harness his potential. Whether the tournament helps or hinders young cricketers' development is a deeply divisive issue, but in Rayudu's case the Mumbai Indians set-up seemed to bring out the best in him. "My family, my friends and especially the Mumbai Indians support staff [have been there for me]," Rayudu said. "Sachin [Tendulkar] and Robin Singh especially. They've helped me a lot, and I'd definitely like to thank them for that. "I always had the belief that if I could get things right and I could get my mind right I could make it into the team one day, and I'm really happy that I got my chance today."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe-v-india-2013/content/story/654911.html

[rixxuu]

nice story, and good luck for him, i know how it feels when discarded after coming so close to your desired goal.

[fineleg]

Is Rayudu decent backup keeper? can ChePu play instead of KKD? 1. Is Rayudu decent backup keeper? How is the keeping skills? 2. can ChePu play instead of KKD? Need to give 4 consecutive games to ChePu resting KKD, or Raina or Rohit in some matches. Two seperate questions,.

[kubrickian]

1. Is Rayudu decent backup keeper? How is the keeping skills?

No, he is not as good as a regular wicket keeper from what I've seen in IPL. He could give away a few extras and could also miss a crucial catch or two. If he is just standing for a seamer, he could do a decent job but standing up to spinners is much tougher and he could mess it up. But in case of an emergency, he could don the gloves.

[Texan]

considering Karthik's less than average keeping and his habit of scoring runs in meaningless practice matches and then flopping when it matters, Rayudu IMO is a better back-up keeper option especially for ODIs/T20s.

[JaFanatic]

considering Karthik's less than average keeping and his habit of scoring runs in meaningless practice matches and then flopping when it matters' date=' Rayudu IMO is a better back-up keeper option especially for ODIs/T20s.[/quote']DK is less than average and rayudu is a better keeper ? :facepalm: stupidity at its best :wall: you should watch some cricket instead of posting such dumb posts

[JaFanatic]

On topic - no rayudu is even worse than khatmal in keeping cant risk playing him as specialist keeper. its not DK's mistake that he is the only wicket keeper in the squad

[JaFanatic]

rohit dhawan virat rayudu raina DK rasool mishra shami mohit unadkut :om:

[jf1gp_1]

Bench Raina and play pujara