Quote:
Originally Posted by cricmahanty
I'll be keeping my eyes on Shahbaz Nadeem, the Jharkhand skipper. Haven't seen him bowl enough but telling only from limited experience, he can develop into a good test match bowler if nurtured well.
As for the Ashwin/Ojha duo, I'm glad that people now realise how Ojha is a more reliable option of the two. Ashwin bullying WI and NZ batsmen at home had made people think of Ojha as sort of secondary, or a more run-containing defensive bowler. Ashwin needs to concentrate more on his stock delivery rather than his carrom-balls and other variations. In test match cricket, you'll have to think proactively what the batsman has in mind. And currently, Ashwin doesn't seem to be doing that well enough. He's very inaccurate with his lengths too.
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Nadeem has a shout. Hopefully he'll pinch a few against top sides in the quarters and beyond.
We're jumping the gun on Ashwin's place here. Fair, he has to reinvent himself as a Test bowler, fair, he's not the best spinner in India, but he's just had one horror series, and if he can work on what went wrong, he can be at the very least a handy alternative to Irfan Pathan, who's still injured. I wouldn't want him to be bowling fifty overs an innings, as that's catastrophic. Ojha, on the other hand, isn't good enough, and is in only because he's young (as 'young' as Adrian Shankar and Piyush Chawla?) and he's in Dhoni's inner circle. Mishra should never have been dropped for this bloke, and of course, not for Ashwin either. More on Mishy later.