Nayan Mongia Retires from First Class Cricket

[Richard]

Sadly he didn't cash-in against Bangladesh the way I was hoping he might.

 

[Arjun]

Or maybe because Parthiv is from Baroda, as is Kiran More (selector). I cant help but feel money was involved. Especially since More shot down Kirmanis suggestion of dropping Patel long before he ultimately was.

Parthiv is from Ahmedabad, but surprisingly, More supported him ahead of Nayan Mongia.

There was Vijay Dahiya...did nothing wrong in his stint, yet was dropped in favour of Patel.

He could hit the ball hard, but didn't convert starts. Moreover, he was one of the slowest wicketkeepers to have played in the recent past for India.

Dighe, Dahiya, Dasgupta, Ratra, Patel - none really convinced me I've gotta say - Dasgupta mostly because he was one of the worst wicketkeepers I've ever seen asked to keep wicket in international cricket - yes, worse than Dravid.

Dighe was a good batsman- the best among the keepers, but was not given a fair try. He was picked at a stage where most cricketers retire, particularly from the subcontinent.

The lesser said of Deep "The Drop" Dasgupta, the better.

Ratra was fast and had the best reflexes on the field after Reetinder Sodhi, amog all players to have been picked in the last 4 years, but his technique was not good- he was quite scratchy, and depended on speed and reflexes a lot more. He struggled to score two runs for a long time, which didn't help him either.

Patel was slow, and he wasn't flawless on debut either. He was picked on the basis of his batting- it was not good enough to make a top-6 of the Indian team. He couldn't even hit a six, and still can't. After his keeping was found wanting for a whole year, the selectors had to consider other options.

Hopefully Karthik and Dhoni might put that to bed but, sadly, neither have exactly distinguished themselves against the might of Bangladesh.

Karthik is a good wicketkeeper, and has done little wrong with the stumps, but the unfortunate thing about wicketkeepers these days is that they're judged on batting rather than keeping, and he hasn't done much with the bat. He has had a good FC record before his Test debut, so he can bat more than just a bit. By the way, why is Irfan Pathan let off the hook? He too has not scored too many runs!

Dhoni is one of the harder hitters of the ball in the Indian team, making his place in the side more relevant. He is an easy-going batsman who's hardly under pressure anytime. When Kaif saw him hit an unorthodox boundary, he asked him if he knew what he was doing, to which he replied- "You haven't seen me bat!" The next shot would suggest Kaif would not want to! However, he has a good List-A average, and did VERY well as a hard-hitting batsman in a triangular A-team series in Nairobi, taking the Pakistan-A attack to the cleaners a few times. Give him four tournaments, and he'll be a vital player in the national team.

 

[Richard]

The reason Pathan hasn't been criticised for not scoring runs is because he took a stack of wickets - so he didn't need to score many this time.
Karthik, being a wicketkeeper (with a First-Class average over 40) is always going to be expected to score runs against such a weak side.

 

[marc71178]

Add to the fact that Pathan's career record isn't actually that good so they can't expect too much from him.

 

[Richard]

Nonetheless you'd hope that if any improvement was going to come that it might just start against Bangladesh.
Sadly not.

 

[Craig]

We'll probably never know why he was'nt selected for the Indian team towards the end.

Didn't he and Ganguly fall out towards the end of his career (Mongia)?

Also in his last Test the fact he went out to bat not wearing his country's helmet is pathetic IMO.

 

[Richard]

Certainly a touch on the unneccessary side.

 

[Arjun]

Didn't he and Ganguly fall out towards the end of his career (Mongia)?

Also in his last Test the fact he went out to bat not wearing his country's helmet is pathetic IMO.

Does anyone remember the time when Hansie Cronje and Daryl Cullinan wore red helmets when they played in a Test series? Why was nothing said then?

 

[Deja moo]

Azhar wore that sky blue helmet on many occasions.

IMO there must have been something more to it than simply an argument over helmets.

 

[Craig]

Does anyone remember the time when Hansie Cronje and Daryl Cullinan wore red helmets when they played in a Test series? Why was nothing said then?

Personally I find it wrong and pathetic for anybody not to wear your countries Test helmet on any occassion. Maybe unless all of your Test helmet's got flogged, but you could just borrow one of your team mates.

 

[Deja moo]

Didn't he and Ganguly fall out towards the end of his career (Mongia)?

Also in his last Test the fact he went out to bat not wearing his country's helmet is pathetic IMO.

I think he also made a huge fuss of being hit on the helmet in that test....he walked off the field "injured" if I remember correctly.

 

[Richard]

Personally I find it wrong and pathetic for anybody not to wear your countries Test helmet on any occassion. Maybe unless all of your Test helmet's got flogged, but you could just borrow one of your team mates.

It is inconceivable indeed that there would not be one available that had the right design.
There is a reason why most people wear clothing and protective stuff representative of their country's badge\colours - and if anyone (whatever country) did so it's really inciting disharmony in the team.