BCCI finally seems to getting it's act together.

[honestbharani]

I do think if the oldies retire, there might be a case for India to play 5 bowlers, with a 6,7,8 of Dhoni, Ashwin and Irfan. It won't fare any worse than our current weakest bat, IMO...

 

[Arjun]

This. Give him a young team and then judge him, FFS. Chances are, he is not that good but at least give him the sort of team he is supposed to be good at coaching and then see.

Oldies still hanging on? South Africa do well with Kallis, Boucher and Smith. England are just fine with Strauss, Pietersen and Trott. Australia ate up the visiting Indians with Ponting and Hussey leading the charge. Why should India's oldies have to let go? Rather, those spoilt young brats should be kept away from the India cap and their entry should be made tougher, so that they understand the value of the India cap.

Would you have Mukund and Rahane facing Steyn and Morkel? Or Pujara and Rohit sweating it out against Broad and Bresnan? Or any young Indian bowler, let's say, Dinda, facing Watson and Warner on a flat SCG wicket? Tough call.

 

[Arjun]

I do think if the oldies retire, there might be a case for India to play 5 bowlers, with a 6,7,8 of Dhoni, Ashwin and Irfan. It won't fare any worse than our current weakest bat, IMO...

You've got Irfan, Ashwin, Mishra, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Yo Mahesh, Pankaj Singh and Iqbal Abdulla to choose from, for run-scoring bowlers. The only non-Zaheer bowlers who can't bat that should be in contention are Ishant, Umesh and Varun Aaron, all of whom are decently fast.

 

[Spark]

Oldies still hanging on? South Africa do well with Kallis, Boucher and Smith. England are just fine with Strauss, Pietersen and Trott. Australia ate up the visiting Indians with Ponting and Hussey leading the charge. Why should India's oldies have to let go? Rather, those spoilt young brats should be kept away from the India cap and their entry should be made tougher, so that they understand the value of the India cap.

Would you have Mukund and Rahane facing Steyn and Morkel? Or Pujara and Rohit sweating it out against Broad and Bresnan? Or any young Indian bowler, let's say, Dinda, facing Watson and Warner on a flat SCG wicket? Tough call.

Sorry, what? Boucher doing well?

Pietersen and Trott old?

Really?

 

[uvelocity]

ponting and hussey leading the charge too sparkeh

 

[Spark]

Haha I was gonna comment on that too but I decided to focus on the really, really dumb ones first.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Oldies still hanging on? South Africa do well with Kallis, Boucher and Smith. England are just fine with Strauss, Pietersen and Trott. Australia ate up the visiting Indians with Ponting and Hussey leading the charge. Why should India's oldies have to let go? Rather, those spoilt young brats should be kept away from the India cap and their entry should be made tougher, so that they understand the value of the India cap.

Would you have Mukund and Rahane facing Steyn and Morkel? Or Pujara and Rohit sweating it out against Broad and Bresnan? Or any young Indian bowler, let's say, Dinda, facing Watson and Warner on a flat SCG wicket? Tough call.

Both Ponting and Hussey were on strict notice prior to this tour and have only just escaped by the skin of their teeth.

I'm not nearing my 40s just yet but I do believe that once you start getting on in years, you have at most one or two windows of opportunity for cashing in. Sachin may be an exception, but this certainly holds true in Dravid's case who had a great year in '11 but is looking clueless now. Same applies to Laxman. It seems logical that once your reflexes and coordination start to go in your late 30s, it becomes that much harder to recover them. It's basic physiology.

The biggest DUH thing you seem intent on ignoring is that we don't play significant overseas tours for the next two years, and persisting with the oldies will serve no purpose whatsoever since they'll surely be gone by the time we start travelling again. Why not invest in and groom youngsters then so they would've had at least some taste of international cricket by '13?

 

[nsniks]

Nice start by PCA
India news: Punjab bars Under-21 players from Twenty20 | India Cricket News | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Spikey]

seems like an over-reaction.

 

[marc71178]

You've got Irfan, Ashwin, Mishra, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Yo Mahesh, Pankaj Singh and Iqbal Abdulla to choose from, for run-scoring bowlers.

Having seen the performance of some of those bowlers I'd suggest you'd be better off looking for bowlers who can you know, bowl rather than picking them because they may score runs.