Badrinath should be next in line

[bharat297]

I know many here believe Yuvraj should be the next in line in the test team, however Badrinath has just rattled off another century (143) and a strong performance in the 2nd innings. I know Yuvraj's form in ODI & T20 has been excellent , however there is a signficant difference between ODI, T20 and test players, and a good example of this is Nathan Bracken. He has been a consistently good ODI player for many years and over the last 2 years has been one Australia's best, if not the best, ODI bowler. However at the moment there are at least 5 people ahead of him in terms of Test selection ... Lee, Clark, Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Tait and possibly also Doug Bollinger. I dont mean to be harsh to Yuvraj, however I feel that someone who has been in first-class cricket for nearly 7 years now, averaging 57 , with a solid technique who keeps churning out runs in domestic cricket should be rewarded. At 27, he is at an age where you know he is quite mature and traditionally the late 20s , early 30s are regarded as the best years for a batsman in Test cricket ... so his best cricket may be ahead of him. In my opinion Badrinath should be the next in line for Test selection.

[Predator_05]

Have you ever watched Badrinath play ? and no, an 8 minute long highlight video on youtube doesn't count

[The Outsider]

Badrinath has logic on his side, Bharat, but poster boy has the glamor of his ODI and T20 hitting. There is nothing which can displace poster boy from his perch of a reserve middle order batsman till he actually gets a run of a few tests and flounders again.

[The Outsider]

Have you ever watched Badrinath play ? and no' date=' an 8 minute long highlight video on youtube doesn't count[/quote'] I watched him play an entire innings last year during the Irani Trophy match.

[bharat297]

I have watched 3 or 4 complete Badrinath innings (from a few years ago) and about a couple of you tube videos.

[Predator_05]

I have watched 3 or 4 complete Badrinath innings (from a few years ago) and about a couple of you tube videos.

I watched him play an entire innings last year during the Irani Trophy match.

...and who were the bowlers ?

[bharat297]

I cant remember exactly but one of the games I saw was against Rest Of India. But clearly if he has averaged 57 for nearly 8 years he has faced about the best bowling in India anyway, so I am not sure what u are getting at.

[Predator_05]

I cant remember exactly but one of the games I saw was against Rest Of India. But clearly if he has averaged 57 for nearly 8 years he has faced about the best bowling in India anyway' date=' so I am not sure what u are getting at.[/quote'] I don't know much about the guy (apart from the fat average you guys keep mentioning) so please fill me in with the details.

[Chaos]

badri atleast proved in domestic he can be good. Did yuvraj proved it in domestic yet? NO

[Chaos]

his shots remind of our own dravid, very good defense and aggresive when needed to be!

[bharat297]

He did up to 2004 ... then he didnt play a game for Punjab ... and even in those tour games for India he hasnt done much. If Yuvraj were scoring well in domestic form and it was a toss up between Yuvraj and Badrinath then its fair enough to go with Yuvraj because of his ODI experience ... otherwise ... its a pretty lousy message you are sending to those in domestic cricket. Badrinath has done the hard-work more than Yuvraj and has earnt it more I feel.

[Bumper]

Yuvraj is the next inline. He has been unfairly dumped for failing in a couple of series. He is in sublime form at the moment. Unfortunately with Ganguly & Laxy doing well, Yuvraj will likely not get a chance (unless Dravid opts to open and KKD makes way). Infact Dravid opening can solve multiple problems. Laxy can bat at 3. Yuvraj can play and we can likely deny our opponents a free wicket. The fact that Dravid isnt our main bat anymore coupled with the fact that he virtually comes in within the first 3 overs to bat, means this aint such a bad move afterall.

[Predator_05]

Forget Yuvraj. I just want to know why this guy Badrinath deserves a shot in Test cricket. I have only seen him bat twice - that was in the EurAsia Series against Pakistan 'A' and he didn't even make 5 runs in both matches played against them. He also made a duck against England playing for the Board Presidents' XI when they toured in '06. This is why i need convincing. What kind of bowlers does he score against in domestic cricket ? What kind of bowlers have you watched him score off in Irani trophy games ?

[Yuvraj4Captaincy]

Keep dreaming..lollll Indian test batting will revolve aroudn Yuvraj very soon as Kumble pointed out.

[Yuvraj4Captaincy]

Forget Yuvraj. I just want to know why this guy Badrinath deserves a shot in Test cricket. I have only seen him bat twice - that was in the EurAsia Series against Pakistan 'A' and he didn't even make 5 runs in both matches played against them. He also made a duck against England playing for the Board Presidents' XI when they toured in '06. This is why i need convincing. What kind of bowlers does he score against in domestic cricket ? What kind of bowlers have you watched him score off in Irani trophy games ?

Yup that needs to be answered. Scoring aganst no namers/medium pacers aint no where close to batting at top level.

[Predator_05]

Yup that needs to be answered. Scoring aganst no namers/medium pacers aint no where close to batting at top level.

Have you watched him play ?

[The Outsider]

I don't know much about the guy (apart from the fat average you guys keep mentioning) so please fill me in with the details.

It wasn't the best bowling attack in the world, it was UP's bowling attack but the batting conditions were tricky. UP were bowled out for 150 odd in the first innings and ROI were 100 odd for 7 before Badrinath with the tail put on another 100 runs. Superb strokes off the backfoot on a wicket with bounce, some tremendous flicks through the on side. Best part was his composure. Never looked troubled by the circumstances and really built the innings with the tail. Scored some 90 odd I think.

[Predator_05]

It wasn't the best bowling attack in the world' date=' it was UP's bowling attack but the batting conditions were tricky. UP were bowled out for 150 odd in the first innings and ROI were 100 odd for 7 before Badrinath with the tail put on another 100 runs. Superb strokes off the backfoot on a wicket with bounce, some tremendous flicks through the on side. Best part was his composure. Never looked troubled by the circumstances and really built the innings with the tail. Scored some 90 odd I think.[/quote'] Were any of those UP bowlers anywhere near international class ? Praveen Kumar must have been there. We all know he is a useless trundler, even though he takes plenty of wickets

[The Outsider]

Were any of those UP bowlers anywhere near international class ? Praveen Kumar must have been there. We all know he is a useless trundler' date=' even though he takes plenty of wickets[/quote'] None of them would make the Indian bowling side in general but on that wicket they were at least as good as Zaheer Khan at Kotla( not in style because it was obviously a different type of wicket but in substance). The match was played at Nagpur on a track similar to the one used against the Aussies.

[bharat297]

Yup that needs to be answered. Scoring aganst no namers/medium pacers aint no where close to batting at top level.

Slogging pace bowlers around in ODI and T20 when the field is spread doesnt automatically mean you will be a good test batsman. I just think that consistent form in domestic cricket needs to be rewarded in Test selection rather than the glamorous one-day cricket, and especially not T20 (where swinging wildly at everything suddenly makes you a good batsman :hysterical:). Besides doing well against every bowler in Indian domestic cricket, I have seen Badrinath do well against South Africa A (containing some of the SAF team such as Langdvelt), New Zealand A (containing some of the current NZL team like Gillespie and that) , Kenya too. Also Badrinath has scored runs against Australia A in Australia (back in 2006). Even though India A did badly against Australia A, Badrinath was one of the better performers in that series in Australia. Simply put ... as good an ODI player as Yuvraj is , in my opinion he hasnt yet shown he can be a long-term prospect in the test side yet. How can he do this ... by scoring runs for Punjab in domestic cricket, and making some big scores. Its unfair to use Yuvraj's ODI and T20 form because Badrinath is not really a one-day cricketer, and will probably never really get a chance there. Purely on what they have shown in the longer format, Badrinath is ahead of Yuvraj. I know this will hurt FIGJAMs ego but since he got dropped he hasnt done much in the longer format. In Yuvraj's last set of tour matches (in England), these were his scores ... 31, 18, 59, 6*, 15*, 33. Now they arent bad, but given that this is his main opportunity to prove he is a test player they arent that impressive (and he was batting at 3,4 and 5 alot of the time). In Badrinath's main opportunities to impress he rattles off centuries. If you look at Australia ... Brad Hogg is a better ODI bowler than Stuart MacGill, but because Hogg's first-class record isnt super-impressive and MacGill is considered a better bowler and has a better first-class record and is deemed more suited to test cricket, MacGill got the nod. Allan Border once said "I would hate for their to be a day when Test batsman are judged on their one-day form". Isn't that what we are doing here with Yuvraj. We are putting Yuvraj's form in T20 (which isnt even cricket) and ODI over the form of domestic 4-day cricket when it comes to choosing a player for the 5-day team. Its going to hurt FIGJAMs ego but the guy has to learn that a Test spot isnt earnt by consistent quick fire 60s and 70s (usually when a platform is set and the field is out) but big hundreds, which I havent seen Yuvraj do consistently.