Does India have the best bench strength that covers all combinations?

[sourab10forever]

Saha-Injured

Rohit- Injured

Dhawan- Injured

Shami - Injured

Jayant - Injured

Rahane- Injured

Rahul-Injured for a couple of matches.

 

We still were able to put up a world class team every match. Don't think any other team has so many reserves that cover all positions.

 

All these are good backup options ...not saying they are the first choice but decent OPTIONS

Wks- Parthiv

Openers - Dhawan/GG/Parthiv

Middle Order : Manish Pandey/Nair

Spinners : Mishra

Seamers : Ishant/Bhuvi

[vvvslaxman]

I am not sure everyone is "actually" injured lol

[CG]

vijay also is injury prone.

[goose]

Your third seamer needs to take a lot of wickets on green wickets. India aint doing that with Ishant. I haven't seen much of Bhuvi lately but even in Eng not every wicket aids the swingers. So i don't see the bench strength abroad sadly.

[CG]

1 minute ago, goose said:

Your third seamer needs to take a lot of wickets on green wickets. India aint doing that with Ishant. I haven't seen much of Bhuvi lately but even in Eng not every wicket aids the swingers. So i don't see the bench strength abroad sadly.

I hardly see green wickets anywhere be it Sa,Aus even in england except trentbridge.On green wickets anybody can pick wickets bhuvi will do fine in such conditions anyway.Indian teams have generally done well on such tracks.

[BeautifulGame]

We don't have a premier seamer like Starc or Rabada or Broad .

We have a good 2nd seamer in Shami and pretty good depth for 3rd seamer with Umesh , Ishant and Bhuvi .All 3 of them bring different type of qualities but as support bowlers .

Our batting looks very good.But even there we desperately need a good wk bat who can bat at six to solidify the batting line up.

Our spin base is excelllent and are good batsmen either which gives us batting depth .

[BeautifulGame]

We don't have a premier seamer like Starc or Rabada or Broad .

We have a good 2nd seamer in Shami and pretty good depth for 3rd seamer with Umesh , Ishant and Bhuvi .All 3 of them bring different type of qualities but as support bowlers .

Our batting looks very good.But even there we desperately need a good wk bat who can bat at six to solidify the batting line up.

Our spin base is excelllent and are good batsmen either which gives us batting depth .

[BeautifulGame]

We don't have a premier seamer like Starc or Rabada or Broad .

We have a good 2nd seamer in Shami and pretty good depth for 3rd seamer with Umesh , Ishant and Bhuvi .All 3 of them bring different type of qualities but as support bowlers .

Our batting looks very good.But even there we desperately need a good wk bat who can bat at six to solidify the batting line up.

Our spin base is excelllent and are good batsmen either which gives us batting depth .

[CG]

We don't have a premier seamer like Starc or Rabada or Broad .

We have a good 2nd seamer in Shami and pretty good depth for 3rd seamer with Umesh , Ishant and Bhuvi .All 3 of them bring different type of qualities but as support bowlers .

Our batting looks very good.But even there we desperately need a good wk bat who can bat at six to solidify the batting line up.

Our spin base is excelllent and are good batsmen either which gives us batting depth .

Broad I can understand deserves the tag but Starc and Rabada have done nothing to be mentioned in the same breath in test cricket as broad.They both are raw and starc have much to prove.

[CG]

Starc is a spray gun in tests when under pressure.let's see I think Shami will outbowl starc when aus tour here.

[BeautifulGame]

Broad I can understand deserves the tag but Starc and Rabada have done nothing to be mentioned in the same breath in test cricket as broad.They both are raw and starc have much to prove.

Much to prove ? Yes agree.But also huge potential and have genuine X factor that elevates the attack .

We need these type of bowlers if we are to succeed overseas particularly on flat wickets that we get.

[vvvslaxman]

Shami is a world class fast bowler

[Mosher]

Shami has all the skills to be a world class bowler. Only thing is he has to improve his fitness.

[fineleg]

2 minutes ago, MultiB48 said:

we need 6 good pacers and 2 pace bowling allrounders given the workload.

Yes need to build a pool of pacers and seam allrounders. There is a lot of work BCCI and selectors and NCA have to do in this area.

[rkt.india]

23 minutes ago, BeautifulGame said:

 

 

Much to prove ? Yes agree.But also huge potential and have genuine X factor that elevates the attack .

We need these type of bowlers if we are to succeed overseas particularly on flat wickets that we get.

What did Rabada and Starc do on flat pitches in India on last tours? Pitches that Rabada and Starc played this season in Australia weren't exactly flat. Starc didn't do too great on those pitches in 2014.

[vvvslaxman]

Starc has pace. He is not a thinking bowler like Shami. Hazlewood is good though. 

[BeautifulGame]

What did Rabada and Starc do on flat pitches in India on last tours? Pitches that Rabada and Starc played this season in Australia weren't exactly flat. Starc didn't do too great on those pitches in 2014.

I am talking about winning in places like Australia or South Africa .

We don't need seamers like them to win on India .We have Ashwin and Jadeja for that .

Also Starc was excellent on the spinning tracks of Sri Lanka earlier this season.

[BeautifulGame]

Starc has pace. He is not a thinking bowler like Shami. Hazlewood is good though. 

Hazelwood is no different than Stuart Clarke.Looks good when there is help for seamers and no good when the conditions .

Ishant is a arguably similar type and similar level of bowler to Hazelwood.Only difference is he plays more in conditions that suit him .

[express bowling]

Let us study the good  substitutes  for outside Asia tests  -

 

Openers -

1) Vijay

2) Rahul          Parthiv, Mukund  ( Parthiv is 1st as he is already in the team )

 

Middle-order batsmen -

3) Pujara

4) Kohli

5) Rahane         Nair

 

Spinner / All-rounder -

6) Ashwin          Jayant / Jadeja ( Jadeja is not good as a no.6 batter though, so Jayant it is for me )

 

Seamer / All-rounder-

7)  Pandya         no-one  ( so, maybe Jaddu  or  Nair  will play in case of injury )

 

Wicket-keeper-

8) Saha           Pant / Parthiv / Naman

 

Pacers-

9)   Umesh / Bhuvi

10) Ishant

11) Shami                        1)  Bhuvi / Umesh,    2) Shardul,    3) Aaron   ( 2,3  have been the pecking order in our A team  )

 

 

So......

 

• Good back-up for middle-order batsmen,  decent one for opener,  good one for spinner / all-rounder, decent back-up for wicket-keeper
• We don't have a back-up seamer / all-rounder  ( even the first choice is a rookie ) 
• First choice pacers' ability to assume primary responsibility outside Asia against strong teams is unknown
• If one seamer is injured then we have a decent back-up, if 2 are injured then we go into choosing pacers who have either not played at all or have not played for India in a long time. So, it is important to play Shardul and Aaron in some games before the SA tour in November 2017.
• Shami staying fit, is key for us as we don't have a fast bowler of his calibre when playing away.

 

Edited December 20, 2016 by express bowling

[tweaker]

Also there are more backup options which are good but not tried in this series

 

Shreyas Iyer

Mukund

Kuldeep Yadav

Pankaj Singh

Shahbaz Nadeem

Shardul Thakur 

Naman Ojha