Should India play 3 spinners and Australia 2

[SJS]

Of course, one can play two leggies, but if there are three who are equally great, it is not a bad thing, but a good thing. If you lose a leggie to injury, having one in reserve will always help. That mental block about variety in attack should be out- you have to play your best bowlers.

You win

Oh for a Stuart McGill !

 

[Arjun]

Its not a bad idea if we want to play an extra spinner. He could fill in for the seamer who was replaced. You are right about his not having done enough work on it.

I dont know if it is true but he does give the impression of not being a hard working guy. Maybe that explains his not having worked on his bowling. He is not much worse than someone like Eknath Solkar or ML Jaisimha who opened often for India with the new ball. Even Mohinder Amarnath for that matter.

I dont think it is injury. I think he is scared he will be hit. So he will bowl as a last resort, and take himself off the moment the batsman hits him for a couple of boundaries. Actually if he bowled more often we could manage with four other bowlers a keeper and six bats very well.

Interesting points. Not so hard working, that may also have spread to his fielding. His bowling action is not the cleanest, and only looks silly, and may need to change- Bangar's action was not so bad.

 

[Arjun]

Oh for a Stuart McGill !

Warne and MacGill actually bowled in the same team once, against the South Africans in Sydney. That combination was effective to some extent. It also worked in Sri Lanka, where they had 9 wickets in an innings together.

 

[SJS]

You win

Oh for a Stuart McGill !

Here is my all time great Indian side in batting order

Gavaskar
Azharuddin
Dravid
Tendulkar
Laxman
Vishwanath
Kirmani
Kumble
Bedi
Prasanna
Chandrashekhar

12th Man Kapil Dev.

Gavaskar and Bedi to open the bowling.

Azhar to clip those outsinging yorkers to midwicket .

Treat for the Gods.

 

[SJS]

Warne and MacGill actually bowled in the same team once, against the South Africans in Sydney. That combination was effective to some extent. It also worked in Sri Lanka, where they had 9 wickets in an innings together.

You are remarkable Arjun.

I suppose they also opened the bowling and did so regularly.

Did one of them keep wickets also ?

 

[Arjun]

Here is my all time great Indian side in batting order

...

12th Man Kapil Dev.

Gavaskar and Bedi to open the bowling.

Azhar to clip those outsinging yorkers to midwicket .

Treat for the Gods.

Luckily, you also have Shastri, who can open the batting and bowl left-arm spin. With players like Kapil Dev, you can play an extra bowler, mostly a spinner, in place of a batsman, so you should make use of that!

Did they open the bowling or keep wickets?

No, not that far. Although one of them would be wicketkeeping in ODI's if he played for India!

 

[iamdavid]

I dont think there is any chance of Australia taking two specialist spinners in , the selectors have realised their mistake in not picking MacGill and I think the tour party has agknowledged that neither White nor Hauritz are quite ready to play at this level yet.

As for India , they will hopefully not overlook the value of variety on this pitch , if they win the toss and bat with 3 spinners then all is well and good , but if they find themselves in the field first with 3 tweakers they could be in a bit of strife , I dont think the pitch is going to take quite as much spin as appears likely , at least not early on.
Irfan Pathan would then come under alot of pressure (remember he is still relatively unproven) and after Ganguly there are no backup seamers (short of getting Dravid or Yuvraj to roll their arms over with the seam up).
Ganguly is a handy 3rd or 4th seamer and he can be difficult to get away in the middle stages of a one day game , but he wont strike any fear into the Australians in these circumstances and I dont like his chances of containing them early on either.

 

[Arjun]

Australians should just play to their bowling strength. If it is pace, they should pick a relatively pace-heavy attack. In the past, they always played three seamers, and had just 2 spinners in their full team, of which one would play. Kasprowicz seems a dangerman on these tracks.

 

[Neil Pickup]

It would make no sense at all to omit any of McGrath and Gillespie - who are proven class - or Kasprowicz, who's in excellent form in his International rebirth. It would also make no sense to pick Hauritz or White, who'll get mullered, and Lehmann/Katich is quite enough reserve twirly option.

If India were to play three spinners, it would mean that either they would require two seamers - and hence Patel, Pathan and Agarkar at six, seven and eight - which is exceptionally weak, or one seamer and Ganguly to open the bowling - which if it's as raging a bunsen as reports suggest, may not be such a bad idea as he's only going to need five or six overs. The other call is the 2/2 attack - Kumble, Harbhajan, Pathan and Agarkar/Zaheer (I'd tilt towards Agarkar for his record against the Aussies), with Sehwag and Yuvraj providing spin cover.

I would tend towards the three spinners/one seamer approach.

 

[biased indian]

As for India , they will hopefully not overlook the value of variety on this pitch , if they win the toss and bat with 3 spinners then all is well and good , but if they find themselves in the field first with 3 tweakers they could be in a bit of strife , I dont think the pitch is going to take quite as much spin as appears likely , at least not early on.

some thing like this happend in 98 when we played 3 spinners in calcutta and had to bowl first.even though we diid well then

 

[Richard]

You win

Oh for a Stuart McGill !

Yeah, he's just the sort of bowler India need on this surface - along with the wickets any fool will take if they can put some spin on the ball, gifting a scoring-rate of 4.2-an-over!
Anyway, WRT the actual question (why can't it be discussed in the *Official* Thread, BTW?): yes, I think India should play Kumble, Harbhajan and Agarkar, and Australia should play Warne and Lehmann (plus Katich and Clarke to do the part-time job).
Langer Chopra
Hayden Sehwag
Katich Dravid
Martyn Laxman
Lehmann Ganguly
Clarke Yuvraj Singh
Gilchrist Patel
Warne Pathan
Kasprowicz Agarkar
Gillespie Kumble
McGrath Harbhajan Singh
Best bet IMO.

 

[marc71178]

In the background, when the A-team is in action, they should pick one bowler or two and play them as regular batsmen at 7, and use them as pinch-hitters in limited overs matches. It worked last time with Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni, so it could work with Irfan Pathan (after this series), Joginder Sharma and Gaurav Dhiman.

Oh yes, burn out the 19 year old by making him play for the A team as well, on the off chance of turning his so far not that impressive batting into something good.

 

[marc71178]

What do you think of Ganguly opening the bowling? He had a lot of potential as a bowler and could have been the all-rounder the team needs,

Depends whether you want an all rounder good in both batting and bowling or not.

 

[krishneelz]

looks like india need three spinners zaheer and pathan arnt doin anything

 

[Arjun]

Oh yes, burn out the 19 year old by making him play for the A team as well, on the off chance of turning his so far not that impressive batting into something good.

No, drop him from the senior team for some time, till his batting improves. He's done nothing special so far.

Depends whether you want an all rounder good in both batting and bowling or not.

It helps a lot if your top-6 batsman can support your strike bowlers by bowling tight spells for long. It will keep the bowlers fresher and a lot less tired.

 

[Deja moo]

No, drop him from the senior team for some time, till his batting improves. He's done nothing special so far.

.

So you would drop the only effective quickie India has just because he cant bat well ?

 

[Arjun]

He's not that great a bowler either. His Test average is 38, and may only go higher up after this Test.

 

[Richard]

I'm not Pathan's greatest fan either but even I would not dispute that he merits his place in the Indian Test-side.

 

[Arjun]

I'm not Pathan's greatest fan either but even I would not dispute that he merits his place in the Indian Test-side.

How can someone who averages less than 5 wickets a match and 38 runs a wicket stay in a Test team?

 

[Richard]

Because it's not just the overall picture that counts - Pathan's more recent games have produced figures that should keep any bowler in the side.
I won't be too surprised if the average goes up after this game, either, but the fact is it'll only begin to reverse the trend of the last 3 games.