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India's #6 batting spot- a revolving door that shouldn't exist?

Daemon

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Surely there's an allrounder in India with a decent FC batting and bowling average who sends down some mediums?
There's probably a hundred of those around. Nayar, Bhatia, B Kumar, Rishi Dhawan, Rana, Surya Yadav etc etc
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Sehwag at six is a waste of space. You're sending him down because he's struggling- guess what, the opposition bowling side can just reintroduce pace bowlers and catching positions and prolong his struggles there. Besides, we want 20-30 overs an innings, not two or three across a series. He's struggling for form as a batsman alone, so it won't do him good. He should either be restored to top form as an opener or benched (or axed) altogether, but the Indian way of axing non-performers permanently has cost this team several good players.

Dhoni should step down from captaincy and retire from Tests. This bloke has much better FC stats and is winning matches for his state team this season. He also keeps wickets.

There are all-rounders other than Irfan who bowl seam-up. Rishi Dhawan is in good form, with two centuries and two five-wicket hauls (and also second-best in the wickets tally) this season. He's been good with both bat and ball for over eighteen matches. The only downside is that he's in a team in the weakest tier. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has a slightly less impressive record, but plays in a tougher group. The others, not quite. By the way, Irfan scored a century in the first Ranji game, but is out of the season due to injury. He's been stupendous, with bat and ball, when he plays in Ranji, only for his team to miss the knockouts often.

Look at Ashwin's batting record in Tests itself- an average of 40 and a century, in addition to playing as a frontline spinner (fair, he's been poor this series), should surely get him into that difficult place which has an average of 36 when VVS Laxman doesn't play. Even video replays show him to be a very qualified batsman, and Harsha Bhogle said there were shades of the same VVS Laxman in him. While that's a huge comparison, Ashwin as a batsman is surely at least a few feet ahead of Yuvraj and Raina, who've looked absolutely poor, isn't he?

Even if you dispense with Sehwag, Gambhir and Tendulkar, a top five of Rahane, Dhawan, Pujara, Tiwary and Kohli can't be too weak. You can fit in Ashwin or Kaul or BK or Riddler after them. There's no need to sacrifice a promising young batsman at the dreaded six.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Sehwag at six is a waste of space. You're sending him down because he's struggling- guess what, the opposition bowling side can just reintroduce pace bowlers and catching positions and prolong his struggles there. Besides, we want 20-30 overs an innings, not two or three across a series. He's struggling for form as a batsman alone, so it won't do him good. He should either be restored to top form as an opener or benched (or axed) altogether, but the Indian way of axing non-performers permanently has cost this team several good players.

Dhoni should step down from captaincy and retire from Tests. This bloke has much better FC stats and is winning matches for his state team this season. He also keeps wickets.

There are all-rounders other than Irfan who bowl seam-up. Rishi Dhawan is in good form, with two centuries and two five-wicket hauls (and also second-best in the wickets tally) this season. He's been good with both bat and ball for over eighteen matches. The only downside is that he's in a team in the weakest tier. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has a slightly less impressive record, but plays in a tougher group. The others, not quite. By the way, Irfan scored a century in the first Ranji game, but is out of the season due to injury. He's been stupendous, with bat and ball, when he plays in Ranji, only for his team to miss the knockouts often.

Look at Ashwin's batting record in Tests itself- an average of 40 and a century, in addition to playing as a frontline spinner (fair, he's been poor this series), should surely get him into that difficult place which has an average of 36 when VVS Laxman doesn't play. Even video replays show him to be a very qualified batsman, and Harsha Bhogle said there were shades of the same VVS Laxman in him. While that's a huge comparison, Ashwin as a batsman is surely at least a few feet ahead of Yuvraj and Raina, who've looked absolutely poor, isn't he?

Even if you dispense with Sehwag, Gambhir and Tendulkar, a top five of Rahane, Dhawan, Pujara, Tiwary and Kohli can't be too weak. You can fit in Ashwin or Kaul or BK or Riddler after them. There's no need to sacrifice a promising young batsman at the dreaded six.
I know it's India we're talking about, but just how bad are you expecting your main bowlers to be if you want your 5th bowler to bowl 20-30 overs an innings?
 

cnerd123

likes this
Assuming an innings last 100 overs, I think expecting about 15 of them from the 5th bowlers sounds fair.

The problem with going by Ranji stats, is that batsmen often don't turn out to be as good as their averages suggests, and pace bowlers tend to be very one dimensional and lacking in the skills needed to perform in conditions all over the world. Generally they happen to just be bowlers with a bit of pace or swing about them, and they capitalise on impatient batsmen or those with poor techniques.
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Gambhir is a borderline case now. I shall personally prefer Murali Vijay over him because Vijay has the better technique for an opener IMO.
Vijay ahead of Gambhir ? Just no, unless he improves drastically.

Mukund should be ahead of Vijay, imo.
 
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Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
There's probably a hundred of those around. Nayar, Bhatia, B Kumar, Rishi Dhawan, Rana, Surya Yadav etc etc
JP yadav is still around at some level. Not sure What Joginder sharma's status after his serious accident is though.
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah. Wasn't suggesting him as a serious option but just adding some names to those Daemon mentioned.
 

Salamuddin

International Debutant
Just ****ing play Rohit and Rahane. Sachin will retire soon enough and Yuvraj should be sent the door.

Then stick with these guys for a fair amount of time. Pujara, Kohli, Rohit and Rahane. Give them a go to build something, along with Saha. Dhoni can stick to winning India ODIs off the last over and winning matches for the Chennai Superkings in the IPL.

Sehwag and Gambhir, for all their flaws, can be retained to keep experience in the team.
Good call Jono as usual.
A middle order of Pujara, Kolhi, Rohit and Rahane could be quite formidable in years to come.

The one thing I'm not sure about are the openers. If I were India I'd starting grooming Unmukt Chand - he's raw yes but ther's way more chance of him geting runs against intl bowlers than Vijay and Mukund.
 

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