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**Official** Indian Domestic Season 2013/14

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
There may be a lot wrong with Bhajji's captaincy, but sending Jaskaran at 11 isn't really one of them- maybe next time, he'll do it right. But about this issue, I feel it's more of a celebrity/personality trap of sorts, that the selectors are obliged to appoint the international player as captain, or he won't really feel good about it. This reminds me of reports of Azhar deliberately under-performing under Sachin's leadership.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Harbhajan's captaincy is questionable, but he's bowling rather well. Plenty of drift, and he's trying hard on a pitch that doesn't turn. Good stuff, although a comeback is still not likely. Compare that with Jadeja, who is completely clueless when it doesn't turn, but still has a permanent place in the side.

Just how good is Manish Pandey? Career average of 53, series average of 51, yet another fifty, a score over fifty in at least three innings. Top notch. He's also sufficiently experienced, with over 50 FC caps. Plenty of fifties in this description. Pity it runs out when you look at his limited-overs figures, but at least we have a Test specialist prospect, especially with Manoj Tiwary's frequent injuries.

Sandeep Sharma is also very impressive. In his 20th FC game, he's swinging the ball at a decent pace, and also gets good bounce. This is his second season, and he's been good in both. He's also had success in the limited IPL chances he's got.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Maharashtra are in the finals on account of some rather poor cricket played by Mumbai and Bengal and already they've got a new-found over-confident fan following on Cricinfo, who feel they are the team to beat, and they've won against extreme odds and they will win the trophy. Overstatement, surely. They have to face Karnataka, who are not playing so poorly, and have topped Group A and been doing well in the knockouts against good teams, if they make it. Even Punjab isn't really a pushover, and Maharashtra will still have their task cut out for them.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Bad light stops play as Karnataka are at 446/5. Time to declare, as Punjab have more or less given up, with Gurkee and Taruwar bowling nearly 30 overs. Only one day left. Punjab can't win from here.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Karnataka through by bad light. If they don't do silly things like what Mumbai and Bengal did, they can easily take out Maharashtra. I wonder what Hyderabad will serve this game- yet another belter, or something sluggish? Manish Pandey is in some seriously good form, even now. With Manoj Tiwary's serial injuries, he should be in the running for a place in the Test side.
 

Daemon

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Zol's been asked to train with the U19 squad ahead of the WC instead of playing the Ranji final.
 

karan316

State Vice-Captain
Maharashtra are in the finals on account of some rather poor cricket played by Mumbai and Bengal and already they've got a new-found over-confident fan following on Cricinfo, who feel they are the team to beat, and they've won against extreme odds and they will win the trophy. Overstatement, surely. They have to face Karnataka, who are not playing so poorly, and have topped Group A and been doing well in the knockouts against good teams, if they make it. Even Punjab isn't really a pushover, and Maharashtra will still have their task cut out for them.
I think you are really underestimating the Maharashtra team, they have done well this season and deserve to be in the finals. Their batsmen have shown a lot of improvements and are quite consistent, bowling lineup is good if you consider the overall conditions and domestic cricket standards.
Mumbai and Bengal were simply outplayed by them, whether they beat Karnataka or not is another thing, but they've reached the finals by doing well throughout the tournament.
 
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Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
I think you are really underestimating the Maharashtra team, they have done well this season and deserve to be in the finals. Their batsmen have shown a lot of improvements and are quite consistent, bowling lineup is good if you consider the overall conditions and domestic cricket standards.
Mumbai and Bengal were simply outplayed by them, whether they beat Karnataka or not is another thing, but they've reached the finals by doing well throughout the tournament.
When a team with no India prospects (fair, I'll push for Kedar and Khadiwale as prospects) makes the final of the Ranji Trophy, it's not really encouraging. If you read match reports, you'll find Mumbai and Bengal batted poorly, and Mumbai were also very defensive against Maharashtra in the final innings. Good for Maharashtra, that they've made the finals, but not good from the point of view of building an Indian team.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Jammu and Kashmir have a problem-ridden State Board. As many observers pointed out, it's on life support, and cannot breed quality cricketers, so they should move out. Yet, they've impressed everyone by coming to the quarters, and actually challenging a team that was playing good cricket. They don't have too many prospects- just Rasool (Ram Dayal, Sami and Mudhashir are only gentle medium pace, while Reshi isn't relevant), but it's a remarkable rise from where they began. Maharashtra, though, seem to have good facilities and plenty of money, but the management there has been rather poor- ex-Mumbai player Bahutule settled there for a while, but left, citing poor management. They're not on oxygen like J&K, but are perpetually sleepwalking.

I can imagine Kedar Jadhav playing ODIs for India, but Samad Fallah opening the bowling? Not quite. Shrikant Mundhe bowling first-change and batting at eight? Too much. Chirag Khurana as all-rounder? Long shot even to replace Jadeja or an off-form Ashwin. Khadiwale? Maybe, but he was stifled by an ageing Zaheer, so he's not really perfect.

Talking of Rasool, of all the all-rounders we've seen play over the last two years, he's been very impressive. Scoring plenty (over 1200 runs), he can be India's six or seven. Should make it as a batsman first, who can also roll down plenty of overs to support the lead spinner. He's had a relatively poor run with the ball this season, though, but putting both seasons together, his figures all round are a huge improvement over his career average. His OD figures, though, are poor, but it's difficult to take OD figures in Indian conditions seriously- it's such a lottery. And, of course, there's Rishi Dhawan, who's been getting better, but won't get much room to improve when he still palys for HP, a bottom-tier team. Definitely, we should have Kedar, Rasool, Dhawan, Pankaj, Pandey (both) and maybe Harshad in India's 2015 World Cup plans, and near Test selection. Grumpy Gauti, though, may stage a comeback, since he's scored 500 runs across the season on pitches that he wanted bowler-friendly, to take his FC team ahead.

Plenty were pushing for Manpreet Juneja's India debut, on account of his stupendous debut season. His follow-up season, though, was dire. Don't know what to make of Jalaj Saxena- although a good batsman, he's been dire throughout his career with the ball, and has come good only this season, a patchy one with the bat. At least he's been performing in a higher tier, unlike Rasool and Rishi. Also Sandeep Sharma, very productive over two seasons, but only medium pace, and swings it a little, and he's also just two season old.

Here's an article on Daljit Singh's push for sporting wickets yielding results from Yahoo. It's a welcome sign. It hasn't really thrown up oddball successes as is often the case in some North Zone games, but we're seeing some decent bowlers leading the pack.
 
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Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Something to think about. Murali Vijay has played 44 ODs not in India uniform, and in these, averages 50 and strikes over 81, with six centuries and seven fifties, and is also the Test opener, for now. Not bad at all. Surely, in the post-Sehwag era, he can step up to open for India? Alternatively, Robin Uthappa has averaged a little less than 50, with six centuries and four fifties (how's that for conversion?), and has opened regularly, although Karnataka seem to play three different openers in their games (they also have T20 specialist Mayank Agrawal and fresh recruit Lokesh Rahul) so he's not a permanent opener. Besides, Grumpy Gauti has had a very good, if not great, Ranji season, although a bit patchy. Better than continuing with an out-of-place Rohit Sharma, who actually has much better figures at number five. Who's your ODI opener for India?

Another point to note is that many of the best players in Ranji, particularly in the last two seasons, have very poor OD figures. Ishwar Pandey has an average of 30. Rishi Dhawan, over 30, a wicket a match, and unimpressive, tail-end batting figures. Parvez Rasool, more matches than wickets, average of 45. On the other hand, the folks who have tasted success in the domestic ODs have been oddball cases, who've done well only in one season- Pritam Das from Assam, Aussie scholarship holder Shrikant Wagh from Vidarbha and the much-taunted Sachin Baby from Kerala being examples. Would you then base your ODI selections on what you get out of these odd results?
 

Shri

Mr. Glass
Gambhir is India's Katich. Use him as long as he is available in decent touch for the next 3-4 years while grooming someone else for the openers role in domestic cricket(Chand/Zol or other youngsters who might not make it to the test side since other slots have pretty much closed off atm in the top/middle order) . Don't make the same mistake that the aussies did. Play him in both formats if possible. Anyway, read an article on India's Ranji pitches this season. Good stuff.
 

Daemon

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Yeah this season has been much better.

Hopefully in the future we're able to get a good enough side to prepare more varied test match pitches.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Gambhir has a chance. He's asked for dicey pitches to help Delhi make the quarters, and though they couldn't, he's averaged a little less than 50 this season. An opening partnership of Gambhir and Dhawan may be right for the 2015 World Cup. Sharma moves down to five, where he can play freely.

Rishi Dhawan, Ishwar Pandey, Parvez Rasool, Pankaj Singh and Kedar Jadhav should be in the running for World Cup slots. They've had two great Ranji seasons in a row, in their respective capacities. The lack of spinners in the top performers over both seasons is disappointing- most of them (Jalaj Saxena, Amit Yadav, Vishal Dabholkar and by a long shot Iqbal Abdulla) have come only this season. Maybe Rakesh Dhurv can be picked only for ODIs till the World Cup, depending on how fit he is. Four seamers may be a possibility in Australia. Whom can they replace? Jadhav can replace Raina, while the others can make it in place of the existing bowling attack, which needs a complete overhaul, not just a replacement for Ishant.

There's also that bit about the great FC stats with poor OD stats hanging on. All of the top performers over the last two Ranji seasons (bar Saha, Saurabh Tiwary and Kedar Jadhav) have great FC records, but in ODs, they're not quite good enough. Would you keep them out of the ODI side because of that?
 
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Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Both Harshad Khadiwale, a high-scoring opener little is spoken about, and Vijay Zol, a two-season-old young prodigy a lot is spoken about, have been dismissed by Karnataka's opening bowler Vinay and first-change bowler Aravind. Maharashtra are at 54/2. Mithun struggling for rhythm, bowling really slow.
 

Daemon

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Gopal is so erratic. Those that are tossed up accurately are looking great though.
 

Daemon

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Jadhav is just toying with these guys. Dude is the goods, looks way too good for this.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Hindi commentary, enjoy PEWS
They'll cave once I start giving them infractions for not posting commentating in English.

Should I finally go the whole hog as a cricket fan and learn Hindi? I already know all the words to some of the more frequent Hindi ads despite not knowing what they mean; it's a start. :p
 

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