Can we field a full strength team for Aus tour or will injuries plague key players?

[fineleg]

MSD is key player #1 Bowlers too Look at our crappy BCCI schedule. We need to rest MSD for *full* Pak Test series. Mark my words, if players are not rotated, key bowlers like ZK, RPS,SS(for Tests) will not make it injury free to Aus Tour. Same for others too. REST and ROTATE the players, else u will field Ishant Sharma in the 11 in Australia for TEST matches!!!

[fineleg]

Many here think we can fight Aus in ODIs and Tests. Not if our players are not fresh. Darn BCCI greed may trouble us in Dec/Jan.

[Ram]

Rest MSD ? Are you kidding ? He is one of our trump-cards and you want him to be rested for the Pak series ? No way ! Zak was rested for the 20/20, so he had a decent break after the english series. RPS and Sree have been in and out of the one-day team, so they shouldnt feel too jaded. Kumble hasnt played international cricket for nearly 2 months now. Amongst the batsman , Jaffer plays only tests. Karthik is in and out. The Big three didnt play 20/20 at all. If anything , the pak series should help us to warm up for the Aussie challenge, provided we do well against them.

[sm332]

i think some of the bowlers may start feeling it which is why it would be good to get some other guys for the ODIs for the tests we will need our frontline attack in .... I am keeping my fingers crossed that Zak or RPS dont pull up lame a fortnight before the tests in Oz

[King]

Rest the likes of RP Singh, Zaheer, Sreesanth for the ODIs. Also rest Tendulkar, Ganguly and Rahul Dravid for the ODI series. If at all India wins the ODI series early enough MSD can be rested too. The rest should be fine playing.

[Bumper]

I dont care about the Australian series. We arent good enough to beat them. I'll focus on Ind-Pak series. Hopefully it will help us renew our bragging rights for another couple of years

[fineleg]

Rest MSD ? Are you kidding ? He is one of our trump-cards and you want him to be rested for the Pak series ? No way !

MM, Look at MSD since England! The guy will break down by Aus tour if not rested for full Pak tests. He is managing a bad back many matches.

[Dooks]

I dont care about the Australian series. We arent good enough to beat them. I'll focus on Ind-Pak series. Hopefully it will help us renew our bragging rights for another couple of years

:two_thumbs_up:

[Bumper]

MM, Look at MSD since England! The guy will break down by Aus tour if not rested for full Pak tests. He is managing a bad back many matches.

Leave Dhoni's back to Deepkia :P. Dhoni is fit as an ox. He'll be fine

[Ram]

MM, Look at MSD since England! The guy will break down by Aus tour if not rested for full Pak tests. He is managing a bad back many matches.

F'leg, dont you see that what you are advocating is almost impossible to follow ? Say we rested Dhoni for the pak series and then we lost a series. He comes back for the Aussie series and we lose that too. Imagine how stupid BCCI's policy would look ? We need to win as many test matches as we can. If any resting should take place, its gotto be in one-dayers.We must field our BEST eleven for every test match we play.

[fineleg]

MM, We can say what we want. I see two choices: 1. Make tough decisions (who said its simple to drop MSD against Pak)...its tough but make a call. Keep him ready for Aus tour. 2. Dont make decisions - keep playing your best 11. One day he (and others) will be injured. Then there will be a forced break. It may come during Aus tour, or he may survive. Then whether we like it or not, we'll be playing second string. Approach1: You make the choice, and try your best to make sure best 11 is there for Aus Approach 2: You keep playing these guys, "hope for the best", and if things break in "untimely situation" - blame hard luck rather than having devised a clear policy.

[Ram]

MM, We can say what we want. I see two choices: 1. Make tough decisions (who said its simple to drop MSD against Pak)...its tough but make a call. Keep him ready for Aus tour. 2. Dont make decisions - keep playing your best 11. One day he (and others) will be injured. Then there will be a forced break. It may come during Aus tour, or he may survive. Then whether we like it or not, we'll be playing second string. Approach1: You make the choice, and try your best to make sure best 11 is there for Aus Approach 2: You keep playing these guys, "hope for the best", and if things break in "untimely situation" - blame hard luck rather than having devised a clear policy.

You are asking something that is very very tough to implement - rest one of our best players for a home series against pakistan. Not many people will buy into that.

[fineleg]

You are asking something that is very very tough to implement - rest one of our best players for a home series against pakistan. Not many people will buy into that.

MM, I realize the fact "one of the best players" - precisely the reason I'm floating this proposal now (before it is too late and God forbid, he becomes unavailable for Aus tour). Infact same goes to our key bowlers as well. I have floated this idea here in this thread - BCCI ofcourse cares two hoots abt fineleg, or MM. So they will play him. But incase MSD (or some other key bowler/bat) is injured and we get the "news" from the idiot Niranjan Shah or Vengcircus during Aus tour, lets remember we had a choice. PS: If you want to really protect certain player(s) from injury, rest them for Test series (just ODI series resting wont count)

[King]

Unfortunately Finey, none of the established players are going to be rested against Pakistan. I've not known an Indian team that would take even a single game against Pakistan easy. I bet none of the Indian players would want to rest either against Pakistan. Although ideal India won't be resting any of their established players against Pakistan.

[Ram]

MM, I realize the fact "one of the best players" - precisely the reason I'm floating this proposal now (before it is too late and God forbid, he becomes unavailable for Aus tour). Infact same goes to our key bowlers as well. I have floated this idea here in this thread - BCCI ofcourse cares two hoots abt fineleg, or MM. So they will play him. But incase MSD (or some other key bowler/bat) is injured and we get the "news" from the idiot Niranjan Shah or Vengcircus during Aus tour, lets remember we had a choice. PS: If you want to really protect certain player(s) from injury, rest them for Test series (just ODI series resting wont count)

I do understand what you are saying , but a test series against Pak is like the world cup of one-dayers. Cant rest our key players for that. The selectors will get a lot of flak if we do that and lose the series.

[MundaPakistani]

Rest the likes of RP Singh' date=' Zaheer, Sreesanth for the ODIs. [b']Also rest Tendulkar, Ganguly and Rahul Dravid for the test series. If at all India wins the ODI series early enough MSD can be rested too. The rest should be fine playing.

why? don't IND want to win the test series?

[jf1gp_1]

MSD is key player #1 Bowlers too Look at our crappy BCCI schedule. We need to rest MSD for *full* Pak Test series. Mark my words, if players are not rotated, key bowlers like ZK, RPS,SS(for Tests) will not make it injury free to Aus Tour. Same for others too. REST and ROTATE the players, else u will field Ishant Sharma in the 11 in Australia for TEST matches!!!

when you say rest did you mean not play Dhoni at all or play dhoni as batsman with Kartik as keeper ?

[fineleg]

when you say rest did you mean not play Dhoni at all or play dhoni as batsman with Kartik as keeper ?

I actually meant not at all. Get him refreshed (maybe send him on a vacation with Deeps, actually no, if that is the case, play the MSD till his back breaks...geez i'm jealous and green with envy...) But you bring up a good point, KKD as keeper is the next best idea. Atleast that will give some respite for MSD.

[yoda]

finey, you've lost it.

[jf1gp_1]

Dhoni being the captain is an important member of the team but given his recent performance in ODIs and the surface that awaits him in Aus i would rather play him at home (even if as a batsman) against Pak than Aus.