Aakash Chopra's performance thread, 07-08..

[Bumper]

Chopra:hysterical::hysterical: The guy is the most overrated opener we've ever had. Put Chopra alongside any opener but Sehwag & see how ineffective he is. The guy is a strokeless wonder, hits all his boundaries thru the slips. Can never carry on from his starts to make a 50, leave alone 100, on a consistent basis. Chopra just sticks to the crease like a glue, leaves all deliveries outside off stump all day, plays with a defensive bat at anything straight and at best does the job of holding one end up (even that is not guaranteed). He expects his partner to do all the scoring at the other end. It'll work, only if his partner is in good form and is an aggressive scorer. Dont be fooled by what we saw of Chopra-Sehwag in the last series Down Under. Its not an indication of what can be expected of Chopra, when you put him alongside KKD or Jaffar.

[The Outsider]

Chopra had instructions to just hold one end up. I am not saying he is a swashbuckling opener but he is one of our best bets to see the new ball off in Australia, which is crucial since the Kookaburra becomes a spongy donut and is completely ineffective after 30 odd overs on those flat Aussie tracks.

[kumble_rocks]

Chopra:hysterical::hysterical: The guy is the most overrated opener we've ever had. Put Chopra alongside any opener but Sehwag & see how ineffective he is. The guy is a strokeless wonder, hits all his boundaries thru the slips. Can never carry on from his starts to make a 50, leave alone 100, on a consistent basis. Chopra just sticks to the crease like a glue, leaves all deliveries outside off stump all day, plays with a defensive bat at anything straight and at best does the job of holding one end up (even that is not guaranteed). He expects his partner to do all the scoring at the other end. It'll work, only if his partner is in good form and is an aggressive scorer. Dont be fooled by what we saw of Chopra-Sehwag in the last series Down Under. Its not an indication of what can be expected of Chopra, when you put him alongside KKD or Jaffar.

Why is that such a bad thing. If you watched past successful openers like Gavaskar or to some extent Shastri play , they did exactly that. It was not like Gavaskar had 10 strokes for every ball or his S/R was way better than Chopra in tests. The only beef one should be having with Chopra is his poor average and not converting starts to big scores.

[guju24]

chopra is a good player....when in the begining he came to indian team...he was performing awesome but as he started to play matches....his failure started plus he was so slow that his strike rate was under 30...no doubt u were playing test match but now days even in test matches strike rates are atleast above 50...one time i remember i was watching india vs aus test match in 2003 where chopra and sehwag open the batting....when sehwag reached his 5o and got out...chopra was still under 10 runs...i think he is beyond test level....may be he can be for like 6 or 8 days game lol

[Shehezaada]

Chopra Sehwag was a fantastic combo. Bumper, you say that we can't judge him because of his performances with Sehwag. How then can we hold it against him if we havent even seen him play with anybody else? As for Kartikh, he pisses me off. His voice is almost as annoying as AKmal's, and he'll dive around all over the place without stopping the ball

[Sachinism]

you guys have got to remember, last time in aus, chopra was dropped many times else he may not have held an end as long as he did

[Guest dada_rocks]

Chopra had instructions to just hold one end up. I am not saying he is a swashbuckling opener but he is one of our best bets to see the new ball off in Australia' date=' which is crucial since the Kookaburra becomes a spongy donut and is completely ineffective after 30 odd overs on those flat Aussie tracks.[/quote'] IN fact Sehwag even suggested him to go beyond brief and start playing shots after seeing through the new ball because people forget 30,40 pretty soon..

[Bumper]

Why is that such a bad thing. If you watched past successful openers like Gavaskar or to some extent Shastri play ' date=' they did exactly that. It was not like Gavaskar had 10 strokes for every ball or his S/R was way better than Chopra in tests. The only beef one should be having with Chopra is his poor average and not converting starts to big scores.[/quote'] You back an opener like that on history, ONLY if they have achieved something extraordinary. Chopra just played second fiddle last time around. Another partner could have easily exposed Chopra's inadequacies. But Sehwag was a diff breed. Chopra is being lauded for the partnerships that he helped build with Sehwag, in which Sehwag scored 90% of the runs. Chopra's contribution to those partnerships is just holding one end up and rotating the strike. You cant assume Chopra's partner will succeed all the time. What if his partner fails 50% of the time ? What do we expect Chopra to do in that case ? Will he go on to make a big 50 or a 100 ? Consider the prospect of Chopra & Dravid batting together after an early loss of a stroke making opener. Who will do the scoring ? One dimensional openers like Chopra are LIMITED in value. We just got plain lucky last time because Chopra's career happened to coincide with Sehwag's surreal ascendence as an opener. Chopra must show that he merits his spot as an opener, based on his OWN DOING (by scoring big 50s & 100s when set).

[Bumper]

Chopra Sehwag was a fantastic combo. Bumper, you say that we can't judge him because of his performances with Sehwag. How then can we hold it against him if we havent even seen him play with anybody else?

We cannot afford to try Chopra against every possible opener to figure out the best combo for the team. This is not a Chopra rehabilitation program. See what Chopra has done by himself. An avg of 23 after 10 tests, almost all of which were played with Sehwag on the other side. How much more easy can the task get for an opener than batting alongside an all time great opener in brilliant form ? If he could not cash in, on that golden period, what good is he to merit any further rope ? Chopra's only strength (of holding one end up), deserted him, the moment he came up against quality pacemen. Remember Multan, Lahore, Bangalore, Nagpur ? He was rightly dropped after these failures!

[living]

Chopra should definitely be on the plane to Aus.

[beetle]

Chopra should definitely be on the plane to Aus

agree....

[The Outsider]

He is showing he can score big runs in domestic cricket and given that his role last time was strictly defined to holding one end up, he deserves another chance.

[Bumper]

He is showing he can score big runs in domestic cricket and given that his role last time was strictly defined to holding one end up' date=' he deserves another chance.[/quote'] But where is the Sehwag to go with the Chopra ?

[beetle]

He is showing he can score big runs in domestic cricket and given that his role last time was strictly defined to holding one end up' date=' he deserves another chance.[/quote'] He definetely deserves it ahead of yuseless......

[The Outsider]

But where is the Sehwag to go with the Chopra ?

Maybe he doesn't need one. How will we find out if we don't try? I would want Sehwag to be there but let's face it he won't be selected. I think Chopra is our next best option to get throught the first 30 overs of the Kookaburra.

[dial_100]

I dont see a problem if he scores @30.... but i have a big problem with guy who will score his 30 runs in 7-8 overs so overall impact is that these 30 runs Aussies will score in 7-8 overs anyway because this guy made their job lot easier. Aussies only struggle with VS factor when he played longer innings. Now they need longer time to score those runs where our bowler gets some breathing. But thats very very unlikely looking at his form. On the contrary AC will play as many overs as he could. So less # of overs for Aussies to play. With their bowling attach we cannot compete with them. We want to nullify their bowling by just playing those important overs out. The real game will only start after 30 overs. Only these first 30 overs is what the difference is between #1 team who has ICC rating of 140 in test vs us who are at 110 ratings #4-5 team. Bumper thinks that Sehwag is the difference between India and Australia...Where as Aussies have played against many like Sehwag in the last decade. They have sorted them all out, Lara, SRT and RD as well. Now they will also work on VVS and Ganguly, Jaffa. too.. Our main strategy is to play out as much at the biginning and once they are tired, then we can compete with their batting 1 on 1.

[DesiChap]

Having Chopra will be a big mistake. He has shown time and again he is good forr 20-30's I would rather have Sehwag for the 20's or 30's. Hopefully Gambhir and Jaffer open in Australia. Gambhir will be in the 15 for sure He has been in very good touch this season.

[Cricketics]

btw.. i have a feeling selectors would give karthik another chance.. may be if scores a fifty or ton in the 3rd test then offcourse he is goin to Aus from Selectorz pov

[SachDan]

Having Chopra will be a big mistake. He has shown time and again he is good forr 20-30's I would rather have Sehwag for the 20's or 30's. Hopefully Gambhir and Jaffer open in Australia. Gambhir will be in the 15 for sure He has been in very good touch this season.

his 20+ in every game will be better than scoring 2 fifties in eight innings.in 2003-4 he made sure that our TRINITY was not that exposed to the new ball. Jaffer can play the attacking role. I like Gambhir but not in tests.He is a poker outside off stump..its a no-no vs Aussies.

[guju24]

sehwag and jaffar combination will be rock solid against AUS...as Keishshrikanth told us in one of the post that y he was success in aus bez of his attacking batting puting aus in pressure...and here to do that we need sehwag and on the other hand jaffar who can be attacking and defending also...