Group A - India, England, Australia, West Indies

[PhoenixFire]

I don't really know that much about Indian cricket, by why is Agarker considered an all rounder by some people? He clearly can't bat.

 

[Jono]

You just don't drop a player who made a 60 odd chasing in a big game against the Aussies under tough conditions and then expect to win games. Neither can you just keep sending in someone who is, at best, a lower order batsman, at no.3 in tough pitches against the new ball and expect it to click everytime. If you are so damn particular about having a proper batter at 7, then just pick 7 batsmen and hope that Viru, Sachin and Yuvraj and Mongia will do the job with the ball. Everything that India have been doing recently has been wrong. I know it seems a fine thing to be saying now, but that is just how it has been. Pathan is losing confidence both as a batter and as a bowler. He was never gonna be a really good batsman with a couple of obvious weaknesses. The best that could have happened to him would have been him continuing to be a threat with the new white ball and then, some of that confidence could have crept into his batting. His hitting in the lower order can be essential on tracks like these and the ones we may encounter in the caribbean. At the top, we need someone like Dravid or Kaif at 3. They can play the anchor role, Kaif more than Dravid because Dravid has other gears while I am not sure Kaif does. This side might be the best we can put out on the park right now:


Sachin
Viru
Kaif
Yuvraj
Dravid
Mongia
Dhoni
Pathan (if he is in decent bowling form)
Harbhajan
Agarkar
Munaf

The reserves could be:

Raina, Sreesanth, Powar


And for the WC, we can maybe bring in another batter or keeper.

That's a good team, with Irfan, Powar and Sreesanth interchangeable dependent on conditions and form. That's a very good team in fact.

Kaif and Mongia have been screwed by the selectors because of Raina's apparent "match-winning ability", but he's only 19 for Christ's sake and he hasn't exactly won too many matches. He's been put in the team solely on potential and the fact he's a more aggressive batsman than Kaif, but he's clearly not as good.

Look I'm not going to bad-mouth Raina, he's a good kid who will likely be a good player in the future. I'm not going to start slagging off Indian players who aren't performing, especially when they're 19, I just blame the selectors and Dravid/Chappell. They've been a bunch of dumbasses.

I pretty much solely agree with everything you've said Honest. You don't drop Mongia when he played such a wonderful knock against Australia, you don't send in Pathan at 3when you lose an early wicket (only ever consider it when its a flat track and India are off to a flyer (say 80/1 after 11)) and you don't play Raina when he's not ready.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Actually I just thought of something. Another option India could consider would be to drop Sehwag for Mongia. Lets not forget Mongia has opened the inning for India before and his highest score of 159* was made opening. He is also avg over 41 opening in 9 innings. I highly doubt the selectors would drop Sehwag but it could be considered.

Mongia hasn't opened for India in about 4 years though. And aside from his 159* (against one quality bowler - Heath Streak), he's scored 25, 45, 4, 30, 1*, 5, 0, 20. Not exactly prolific up there.

 

[social]

Saw the highlight of WI innings earlier and does anyone know the reason for the entire crowd booing after Lara's dismissal?

As far as I could tell, Lara dragged an horrible ball on and Pathan carried on like a pork chop in celebration - cant believe the crowd were booing Pathan though.

 

[Dravid]

Saw the highlight of WI innings earlier and does anyone know the reason for the entire crowd booing after Lara's dismissal?

As far as I could tell, Lara dragged an horrible ball on and Pathan carried on like a pork chop in celebration - cant believe the crowd were booing Pathan though.

I don't remember a boo.

 

[social]

I don't remember a boo.

On tv, sounded like whole crowd

Also, what was the story behind Samuels' reaction at the end - he top edges a horrible ball for 4 to win, gives AA a gobful, then does the same when AA tries to shake his hand when they come off the field.

Either something untoward went on earlier or Samuels has forgotten that he's a talented batsman that's now regarded as a bunny and a fifth change bowler.

 

[Sanz]

To be very frank it has been baffeling to see Kaif and Mongia sitting out in place of a mediocre player like Raina. I dont see much potential in him unless he goes back to domestic cricket and plays couple more season in Ranji trophy for his state.

 

[R_D]

Harbhajan started hitting right away cause India had very few overs left. Dhoni and Raina were doing the right thing and trying to bat out the 50 overs.

i understand that but maybe bit of attempt to score runs would've been good. Raina totally looked lost out their, he had no idea how to score a run. Just couldn't find the gaps.
Time to bring back Kaif and Mongia i guess.

 

[Jono]

Saw the highlight of WI innings earlier and does anyone know the reason for the entire crowd booing after Lara's dismissal?

As far as I could tell, Lara dragged an horrible ball on and Pathan carried on like a pork chop in celebration - cant believe the crowd were booing Pathan though.

Indian fans love Lara.
Indian fans believed match was over anyway and figured India had no chance.
Indian fans wanted to see Lara score runs.

Seems the logical explanation.

 

[Jono]

Apparently Munaf Patel has a sprained wrist and is in doubt on Sunday, and Agarkar has a hairline fracture in his thumb, and will likely be replaced in the squad for Sreesanth.

Man if Patel doesn't play, that means RP Singh has to play

The bowling line-up will then likely be:

Pathan
Sreesanth
RP Singh
Harbhajan
Powar

 

[Dravid]

No!! Patel needs to play. It will hurt India a lot if he doesnt play.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Saw the highlight of WI innings earlier and does anyone know the reason for the entire crowd booing after Lara's dismissal?

Surely it would have been due to the desire to see Lara bat.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

No!! Patel needs to play. It will hurt India a lot if he doesnt play.

It will hurt India more if he plays with a sprained wrist.

 

[adharcric]

If Patel doesn't play, we'll lose the match. I can guarantee it.

If we can get Patel, Sreesanth and Pathan to play with Harbhajan, we have a shot.

Raina looks out of touch right now, before we went to the West Indies he looked really good at rotating the strike fluently. All that isn't there right now.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

But surely it's not worth risking further injuring your best bowler to get into the semifinal of the Champions Trophy. He also surely won't be much use with an injury.

 

[silentstriker]

To be very frank it has been baffeling to see Kaif and Mongia sitting out in place of a mediocre player like Raina. I dont see much potential in him unless he goes back to domestic cricket and plays couple more season in Ranji trophy for his state.

And Kaif is not mediocre?

 

[Turbinator]

A middle order with Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif/Mongia, Dhoni looks so much stronger than Dravid, Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni.

 

[shankar]

I think unless the ball is moving around a lot, Dravid needs to bat at 5 cause if both him and Sachin get out early, there's a distinct lack of class in the rest of the batting. He had his best phase in ODIs batting there and is pretty good in the slog overs as well. Raina/Kaif/Mongia can come in at 3.

 

[aussie]

Umm.. no... neither Smith nor Samuels is presently being picked for batting. They're picked because they're both bowling really well.

you sure about that?, i would think they are picked for their batting with their bowling being a bonus if it comes off. But even if that is the case having 2 main bowlers & a set of part-timers isn't going to work all the time at least one of Samuels/Smith should be dropped to accomodate either Edwards/Collymore.

 

[adharcric]

A middle order with Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif/Mongia, Dhoni looks so much stronger than Dravid, Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni.

That doesn't mean anything. In fact, going by "looks" Raina should be in the team because he's quite talented. The key issue here is performance and that's why Mongia should replace Raina.