**Official Tri-Series in Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka, South Africa, India)**
 

Schedule:

Squads:

India (report): Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Dinesh Mongia

Jamee will be delighted. ;)

Surely there's another group stage match, though? Or do Sri Lanka reckon they need four games and the others three if the hosts are to make the final?

Some interesting politics going on around it, too - the first four matches were apparently moved from Dambulla by the SLC interim president, and then he was deposed just before the elections and replaced by another interim committee headed by Ranatunga. :wacko:

Interesting to see Mongia got a call up. Have noticed him performing decently in England, and wondered why he wasn't at least close to the Indian team.

Somebody's observant... :D

The Indian selection is not too bad, but the recall of Dinesh Mongia is a massive step backward. This bloke's proven useless as a bowler at ODI level and won't last more than three overs, when the four frontline bowlers, already under enough pressure, need a stock bowler to support them. His batting is nothing special, and some may say, not fit for one-dayers, and his running between wickets is slow– for an ODI prospect, he actually drops his bat in the crease! Given so many chances in the past, he's just made two significant scores against non-minnows, out of four over 50. If you expect him to do well as a batsman, that's not much of an issue, but there's one too many. If you expect him to excel as a bowler, you'll be disappointed.

No chance of Ganguly, Laxman, Kumble or even Zaheer returning to the side may surprise a few. Frankly, given how many catches were dropped and how many singles gifted in the West Indies, getting even one of them back would make things worse, since they're all deficient on the field. Zaheer's form in county matches may be an eye-opener to some, but in ODI's, that third skill is critical, and he's been found wanting in that. Nehra or even Balaji may be unlucky to miss out, the latter being a reasonably good (although inconsistent) fielder, although Nehra's fielding has improved these days. Both can do a more-than-useful job with an old ball. Nehra's bowling figures in a final are the best among the current bunch.

What do you do with Irfan Pathan? Well, whatever you do, don't drop him after a few failures, for team's sake! The so-called team management have done him (and the team) no good at all by demonting him from a frontline all-rounder to a mere specialist bowler and then to the bench. Imagine, they suddenly expect him to bat like Richards and bowl like Holding, then drop him after he's fallen short of expectations. Is it fair? When that little dwarf of a fast bowler gets chance after chance, despite doing nothing productive except crunch his figures?

And of course, there's the return of the legend. However, you shouldn't expect something fantastic out of Sachin when he walks in to bat each time. Rather, expect him to get the job done just right. He may have had a long break, but he's still a much better batsman and even a better bowler than the other one on a comeback.

Sachin fit.

Oh yes.

It's good to see RP Singh stay in the national team. Not so good to see him struggle in Australia in the last two matches. He's got more pace than some India regulars and has-beens, and he's also quite tall. Decent pick as a second or third seamer. His fielding will make him quite important in one-dayers.

While we're talking of Irfan's all-round ability and the expectations from him, why have the selectors dropped JP Yadav and Sanjay Bangar without giving them much of a chance? Currently, any of them can fit in nicely, as a batsman who can score in chunks at seven and then bowl a stock of overs. That way, the load on Irfan, as well as the other strike bowlers will reduce. You don't lose much by picking one of them. Imagine, the likes of Yuvraj, Kaif, Agarkar, Pathan, Balaji, Zaheer and Nehra were given countless matches eevn in bad form, but one or two failures get Yadav and Bangar out quickly. Hopefully we'll see Powar last longer.

I have a bad feeling abt this series as an Indian fan. I think we are in for more disappointments. :(


BTW, Mongia can easily bowl 8 overs every match. Those grounds in Sri Lanka are quite big and the ball comes off slowly off the track and he is exactly the type of guy who can use those conditions. I will be really surprised if he gets hit around or anything of the sort.

South Africa one-day squad

1 Mark Boucher (capt, wk), 2 Boeta Dippenaar, 3 Loots Bosman, 4 Herschelle Gibbs, 5 A.B. de Villiers, 6 Shaun Pollock, 7 Johan van der Wath, 8 Robin Petersen, 9 Andrew Hall, 10 Andre Nel, 11 Makhaya Ntini, 12 Ashwell Prince, 13 Roger Telemachus, 14 Thandi Tshabalala

Full link and article regarding Boucher’s captaincy for the series...

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/slvrs...ry/255193.html

India for me please!!!!

Interesting choice, Boucher. Though going through the squad I couldn't see an obvious other choice if you ignore the test captain and Shaun "D/L" Pollock.

Is Boucher confirmed as the wicket keeper? I'd suggest while he's captaining the side, AB De Villiers can keep wicket.

He is still the keeper according to today's report on the Captaincy selection (as pointed out by TT boy)

Yeah, I saw that, I was just wondering whether that was CricInfo absently typing 'wk' following his name or a part of the actual SA press release.

should be an interesting series. Hope India win all the way! However, IMO, they will find it tough against a confident sri lankan side. South Africa are really good at ODIs and their recent performance against Sri Lanka in the test match doesn't really reflect the enthusiam they have for ODIs.

Anyone heard about the ODI series between India, West indies and Australia?