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L. Balaji

Raj123

U19 Debutant
I think team management is going to have a problem when all the injured medium pacers come back. The biggest head ache is that they are all average and no one really stands out consistently.

Balaji shouldnt be in tests so that makes it easy.
attack should be: khan, agarkar, nehra/pathan

but in 1 dayers who do you pick is you are going in with three:
agarkar(strike bowler but economy goes out the window)
khan(selectors wont let him get fit completely)
pathan(can loose the game single handedly)
balaji(effective if batsmen are kept quiet from the other side. can go for plenty if the batsmen decides to get after him)
nehra(probably the best bowler, but shouldnt be in any international team)

nehra,khan,pathan is too one dimensional
ajit,khan,pathan all are attacking so can go for plenty
ajit, balaji,khan (how can you have a bowler,pathan, who showed so much promise out of the team)
ajit,nehra,khan (same as above)
balaji, nehra,khan .... no strike power

i have no idea......
 
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harry674

School Boy/Girl Captain
i thought that too balaji should have come up much up in batting order,. someone said kaif is good runner, guys watch balaji running in that game he was at strikers end before ahkter's ball reached batsmen :O

i think solution is simple we donnot need 7 batsmen we have people like pathan,balaji,agarkar,nehra who all can bat.
 

Raj123

U19 Debutant
kaif can strike the ball hard if he wants to and effortlessly at that.

nehra, com'on the guys averages 2 or 3 with the bat. And is they do pick 6 batsmen then the 7th has to be a wicket keeper and not another medium pacer
 

harry674

School Boy/Girl Captain
yeah right kaif ! does he even have strength to hit fours.

we could have scored more runs having balaji and co up the order. and btw if u wanna see nehra bat chack vb second final, we could have not reached 151 without him.
 

Raj123

U19 Debutant
yeah right kaif ! does he even have strength to hit fours.
world cup nz game is the best example. rotates the strikes for the whole match and when the rain starts, bang bang bang, three fours and the game is all over
 

ReallyCrazy

Banned
I am not saying kaif cannot hit sixes or fours. But he is not the type of guy who can just come in start hitting immediately. He needs time to get into the groove first. If you see, in every innings, he starts off very slowly and tentatively.
 

Raj123

U19 Debutant
i thought that was his forte. i remember numerous occassions where he made 20 off 10 30 off 15 etc. If he cant do that why would he be a no. 7 batsmen to start off with...i dont think he is there to consolidate innings, he is chosen to provide a flourish
 

harry674

School Boy/Girl Captain
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Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
'Costed' isn't a word mate.

Balaji and Pathan are good pinch hitters, but if India needed 40 runs with 5 overs left against Australia in a World Cup final, I guarantee you 99% of the people here would rather Kaif out there in the middle at number 7 rather than Balaji or Pathan.

Why do people forget how good a fielder Kaif is too? :rolleyes:
 

harry674

School Boy/Girl Captain
<its interesting you picked gavaskar over kaif cos he is one player who struggles to clear boundaries. He is more a nudge and run sort of player.>


u missed his sixes in vb series.

fine keep kaif ,how abt. firing ganguly
 

Raj123

U19 Debutant
yeah i saw his one six over the midwicket off a spinner, but then so did laxman in the same game and he is the weakest in the indian team.

cant fire ganguly.. the team will lose direction
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
cant fire ganguly.. the team will lose direction
If the players put in enough effort and play as a team, they will keep their direction under anyone, even Dravid. There is not much wrong with Dravid's captaincy, at least he is flexible in methods.

yeah i saw his one six over the midwicket off a spinner, but then so did laxman in the same game and he is the weakest in the indian team.
He won't start blasting right away, he'll look to build an innings and when he's done, he'll start hitting.

Balaji and Pathan are good pinch hitters, but if India needed 40 runs with 5 overs left against Australia in a World Cup final, I guarantee you 99% of the people here would rather Kaif out there in the middle at number 7 rather than Balaji or Pathan.
Look at Kaif's average v/s Australia, then the VB innings of Pathan, and you'll know why Pathan's a better choice in this scene.

i thought that was his forte. i remember numerous occassions where he made 20 off 10 30 off 15 etc. If he cant do that why would he be a no. 7 batsmen to start off with...i dont think he is there to consolidate innings, he is chosen to provide a flourish
Here, Kaif gets his runs between the wickets and not over the boundary, well, not that often.
 

Raj123

U19 Debutant
i'm not saying dravid is bad, infact technically dravid is much better captain. but there are things ganguly does(which may not be correct all the time) which are good for the team. like persisting with harbhajan over kumble, bringing back yuvraj, persisting with kaif, pushing sehwag to open in tests, bringing in zaheer as first change behind two rookies. i'm not sure if others would do the same.

He won't start blasting right away, he'll look to build an innings and when he's done, he'll start hitting.
during vb series one the commentators apparently asked sachin about gavaskar and he said that gav is nudge and run sort of player. that is what i based my argument on. I've seen him only twice (22 off 22 and 50 off 50something) so cant make my own judgement

Here, Kaif gets his runs between the wickets and not over the boundary, well, not that often.
i've looked up some of the matches where he made decent scores. let me know what you think:
R M B 4 6
87 109 75 6 2
111 135 112 8 1
31 19 18 5 0
68 149 129 8 0
95 143 103 7 3
64 108 5 0
46 72 56 4 0
71 79 77 8 0

this is only 8/64 matches but i am just trying to prove his ability to score in boundaries if needed
 

ReallyCrazy

Banned
If 40 runs are needed off 5 overs, I would have Balaji in the middle rather than kaif. Because we need some extreme hitting in this scenario and balaji is better at this as he has shown consistently. If you saw the 3rd match of this series, balaji smashed sami for a six with a good looking on drive which went very long. And when sami bowled a short and fast one, he moved to the off and hooked him for a four. Normally, you'd think a tailender would just duck and get out of the way.
 

harry674

School Boy/Girl Captain
marc71178 said:
So for one game you're prepared to hang, draw and quarter him?

so for one fluke natwest game ur worshipping him.

i agree he should stay for his fielding, i think ganguly is all-round bad player== bad fielder, bad runner, lately useless batting, big mouth, and sometimes balatant cheating. he should get his ass kicked.
 

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