First test in Melbourne ... team, plan, tactics?

[siddhu]

Ironically' date=' I back the Indian team to pull off a win on pitches which do a bit as opposed to dead pitches. It narrows the gap between our pace attack and the oppositions while our batsmen are still capable of putting up a decent 300 runs for the bowlers to bowl at. Look at Nottingham, Johannesburg, and Sabina Park for examples over the past year.[/quote'] For that to happen, our middle order's form is very important.. and ofcourse the openers

[The Outsider]

It will be a screw up of the magnitude of 9/11 if Indian choose to go in with 3 lefties. All they need to do is watch some video tapes of Karachi 2006 to realize the magnitude of the folly.

[Ram]

^ I dont Ishant can handle the pressure of playing in the first test in a series in Aus yet. He is just way too young for that. If he is erratic, that might cost us the test match.

[kabira]

I am watching Ashes 2005 highlights and Aussies were constantly troubled by swing..Do we have swing bowler?

[The Outsider]

I am watching Ashes 2005 highlights and Aussies were constantly troubled by swing..Do we have swing bowler?

There is hardly any swing in Australia and specially with a soft Kookaburra. No doubt the Aussies don't find swing comfortable but any swing bowler needs suitable conditions to some extent. Brisbane is where it swings the most and we aren't playing there. Melbourne and Sydney will give a bit of swing and for that we have decent exponents in Zaheer and RP Singh.

[kabira]

Is Pankaj Singh Swing bowler??

[The Outsider]

Is Pankaj Singh Swing bowler??

Yeah, from the little I have seen and read, his main wicket taking delivery is the outswinger, though I haven't seen it swing a great deal.

[Cricketics]

kabira, that time it was bowlers like simon jones who could yards away.. and aussie batsmanz have improved their game since that 05 series.. u see Michael Clarke, he failed in that tournament, today he is a strong bat in their middle order.. btw, talkin about Bajji, even if the pitch is built for spinner, we should not play bajji.. instead we can play sehwag who could bat/ball both..

[bharat297]

Yeah definitely would not play Bhajji ... in Sydney I would play Sehwag , who can spin the ball, and of course Sachin and Yuvraj can also spin the ball. So along with Kumble, thats about 3 or 4 spin options. Basically, the question I am asking myself is ... is it better to have 3 lefties or 2 lefties and a right-armer with a big question mark over his head? I myself don't know the answer. If Pathan was a right-armer, despite his recent form, I am guessing he would be picked. However, the fact is we have 3 lefties. Is that a lot different to Australia during the Ashes series last year who had 3 righties? However, the other question is ... what does Pathan offer that is different to what RP and Zaheer offer? To be honest, the answer is not a lot. Sharma and Pankaj at least offer a bit of height and bounce. If Pankaj's main wicket taking delivery is the outswinger, then he would be more dangerous than Sharma as the outswinger can trouble even the best of batsman.

[fineleg]

Bhajji is the worst bowler we have. He should not play in any of the Tests down-under.

[RockStar]

If bhajj uses his fast fuller ball as a suprise delivery along with the doosra he has some chance of doing well as i have seen aussies use thier feet a lot against the spinners.. especially clarke n ponting

[Bumper]

I am watching Ashes 2005 highlights and Aussies were constantly troubled by swing..Do we have swing bowler?

Swing wont work in Aus land, except perhaps at Sydney. Zaheer & Ishant, with their ability to hit the deck hard can extract seam movement (hopefully). How i wish Sreesanth was around. With his ability to land the ball on the seam every time, he'd have been handy in these conditions. Even Munaf would have been good, too bad his senile instincts got the better of him.

[Shehezaada]

hey guys...what are the timings for the matches...6pm EST?

[Chandan]

As per the attack, it is now clear that it'll be Tait vs Hogg. The batting line up is the same. I'm more concerned about our bowlers being hammered to black and blue than our batting being wiped out by thunderbolts. I reckon we have no reply to that.

[bunny]

3 left armers isn't that big a deal since RPS and ZK can come around the wicket and move the ball both ways. However, if I had my way I will play 7 batsmen, Dhoni/Karthik and ZK, RPS, AK in the 1st test (unless the conditions are bowler friendly). I don't expect PS, IP or IS to take more than 2-3 wickets per test, and they don't contain the runs as well. It might be better if we let SG be the 4th bowler backed up by the seam up and leg spin of SRT, off spin of VS and left-arm spin of Yuvraj. Of course, there's a practice match and we can see the form of various players to come to such a conclusion.

[bharat297]

3 left armers isn't that big a deal since RPS and ZK can come around the wicket and move the ball both ways. However' date=' if I had my way I will play 7 batsmen, Dhoni/Karthik and ZK, RPS, AK in the 1st test (unless the conditions are bowler friendly). I don't expect PS, IP or IS to take more than 2-3 wickets per test, and they don't contain the runs as well. It might be better if we let SG be the 4th bowler backed up by the seam up and leg spin of SRT, off spin of VS and left-arm spin of Yuvraj. Of course, there's a practice match and we can see the form of various players to come to such a conclusion.[/quote'] Its not so much about 3 left armers as it is about what each of them offer. Does Pathan offer anything different to Zaheer and RPS.

[bunny]

Its not so much about 3 left armers as it is about what each of them offer. Does Pathan offer anything different to Zaheer and RPS.

He doesn't. Only if the ball was swinging a lot he used to have the ability to bring the ball into the right handers on a consistent basis. But that's not gonna happen in Aus. However, from what I have seen of IS I got an impression that he will leak runs badly in Aus. Hence, I said we should play 3 bowlers only and go for an additional batsman who might have much more to offer.

[Chandan]

So finally it looks as if the team is settled: Jaffer Dravid Laxman Tendulkar Ganguly Yuvraj Dhoni Kumble Zaheer RP Singh Pathan/Ishant/Pankaj Plan: win the toss and bat first as the curator has ruled out a green-top and hence the possibility of too much seaming. Tactics?? Anyone?

[theguyinallblue]

i would settle for a draw in the first game....first game of this tough tour ..we should concentrate on our strong points... nerves..excitement..weather..conditions..everything will be settled by the time we play our second test.. so its very important from the series point of view that we go to the second test with score 0-0... from there on we can think of attacking aussie players... i would include pathan in our playing XI for the first match just to make the batting more solid... My XI would be.. 1. Rahul Dravid 2. Wasim Jaffer 3. VVS Laxman 4. Sachin Tendulkar 5. Sourav Ganguly 6.Yuvraj Singh 7. MS Dhoni 8. Irfan Pathan 9. Anil Kumble 10 . Zaheer Khan 11. R P Singh although we will have 3 left arm bowlers....but out batting will be solid..till 9..anil Kumble.. also ganguly can do some right arm medium stuffs...and Yuvi and sachin can share some unorthodox spin bowling... Our aim going in the first test should be to bat BIG..score 550-600 runs in the first chance of our batting... this type of score will settle any kind of nerve..and we will be set for next 3 matches... so we must strengthen our batting...and must score big...to unless victory comes on a platter...we should be satisfied with the draw in the first game... so my trump card will be Irfan Pathan in the first test.

[Ram]

A long batting line-up is useless in test cricket. If you want to win a match or stay competitive, your top order must do the job.