India's opening pair

[iamdavid]

I notice this is something being debated alot , in the last couple of years Sehwag , Bangar , Das , Ramesh , Jaffer & now Chopra have been used as openers , none have acheived outstanding success in the openers role & I thinks its time the Indian managment made a long term decision , you cant go to Australia without a setled lineup , I think Ramesh & Das are the answer long term , Sehwag isnt an opener & I havent seen enough of Chopra.

 

[lord_of_darkness]

Ramesh and Chopra are a better choice..

Chopra has what it needs to be an opener.. patience.. and the right strokes.. and ramesh has been a good opener over the years for india but not given enough chances..

Das certainly isint consistent enough.. and i would rather have sehwag go 3 instead of going out 1st early and getting the indian team in panic mode..

well thats my thought anyway.. we will have to see how that goes..

Nz to beat India 2nd test

 

[marc71178]

If Sehwag doesn't open, I'd like to know where he'd fit into the team.

 

[Mr. P]

Yeah good point marc....i went for sehwag and chopra.

 

[age_master]

everyone has voted different places thus far

 

[Mr. P]

Yeah they have. You voted for Ramesh and Das, right?

 

[V Reddy]

Sehwag will continue to open as there is no place for him in the middle. I voted for Gambhir and Sehwag.

 

[Mr. P]

Nice to see someone agrees with me on Sehwag and Chopra.

 

[esgallindeion]

I agreed on Sehwag/Chopra because if they both do well, it'd be amazing for the team.

And also they have been selected for the Ind-NZ series. No point in changing openers every series. Let 2 guys get used to it for a while.

 

[gibbsnsmith]

IMO
1.Dravid
2.Chopra/Gambhir
3.Laxman
4.Tendulkar
5.Ganguly
6.Sehwag


should be tried...

but for now sehwag and gambir or chopra are the bets choices

 

[Richard]

The way I see it selecting openers for India is almost a lottery. There are so many capable players, batsmen who can average 50 in First-Class-cricket. Sridharam Sriram's average is over 60 and he can't get a look-in in the Test team.
Gambhir, Chopra, Jaffer, just three of many who have been bandied-about in recent years.
The one thing I will say on the matter is that I don't think makeshift openers are worth the bother. Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman - all middle-order players. If you can't find a place for them in the middle-order, you've just got to leave them out. Even Parthiv Patel was tried there recently - honestly. None of them are good enough as openers IMO, and there are hosts with FC-averages of 50 queuing-up.
Sanjay Bangar and Deep Dasgupta are two who have also been tried recently, with moderate success on occasions, less on others. However, neither have especially impressive FC records.
Personally I would go for Shiv Sunder Das and Sadagoppan Ramesh, simply because the first time I took a serious look at an Indian card they were the incumbants. Neither have especially brilliant FC-records, and neither have been consistently succesful at Test-level, perhaps not surprisingly. Their predecessors were Mongia and Sidhu, incidentally.
It really is very simple for me - just keep trying someone else if the incumbant fails regularly. There's nothing more you can do, but the most important thing is: don't waste Dravid or Laxman there. These two at three and five are an imperative part of India's batting-line-up.
My Indian card would be:
Das
Ramesh
Dravid
Tendulkar
Laxman
Ganguly (just about good enough, and certainly his captaincy weighs in his favour)
Some wicketkeeper - not sure about Patel. Mongia was always my favourite, but he didn't exactly distinguish himself in his recent forays. Never thought much of Dighe, Dahiya, Dasgupta (who did?), Ratra or that MSK Prasad fellow.
The one thing I would commend the Indian selectors on is that they have resisted the temptation to give Dravid the gloves in Tests. While his 'keeping is just about ODI standard, I highly doubt it would stand the rigours of Test-cricket and may well have a detrimental effect on his batting.

 

[Anil]

Ideally two specialist openers: any two of Gambhir, Chopra, Das , Ramesh & Jaffer.

However, that leaves the question of where to put Sehwag.....because of Ganguly he doesn't have a spot in the middle order.....tough situation....the compromise solution is Sehwag and one of the above mentioned players to open as is happening now....although I don't think we will get to see Sehwag's best in that position.....sad...

 

[marc71178]

The way I see it selecting openers for India is almost a lottery. There are so many capable players, batsmen who can average 50 in First-Class-cricket. Sridharam Sriram's average is over 60 and he can't get a look-in in the Test team.

I think most people would agree that's because the standard of FC Cricket in India is not the greatest?

 

[Richard]

I think most people would agree that's because the standard of FC Cricket in India is not the greatest?

This much is true to an extent IMO, though it's not as bad as in Pakistan or England.
Why, however, is another question. The only answer is there is simply not the mindset - no problems with attitude, like in England, that's unthinkable - just the problem of getting youngsters to bowl seam-up. If you listen to some people, 1 in 2 youngsters wants to be Tendulkar or Laxman, the the other wants to be Harbhajan Singh or whichever spinner is currently top of the public admiration role.
The giveaway fact in England is that there are so few batsmen averaging over 40 season-in-season-out, yet neither are there bowlers averaging under 27. The odd one, yes, but you'd expect it to be one way around. In Pakistan, there are plenty of bowlers with good strike-rates, but too many with over-expensive economy-rates. In India, at least it's biased in favour of getting batsmen who average 50 all over everywhere.
But until India start producing some seamers who can exploit the conditions - Kapil Dev and Srinath are just about the only ones in the last 20 years to do it with any consistency (even they averaged over 29 in their Test-careers) - they will probably continue to struggle.
It could be argued that pitches turn too much at times and rarely (if ever in some cases) offer movement off the seam. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have always been spin-dominated countries, and to try to change that would be a combination of an act of vandalism and a hopeless case, but you must have some variation.
The same problem has been encountered in England with too much help for seamers in the '90s (the last 2 seasons it's been the opposite - not enough help for them) and will soon, in my view, be encountered in Australia with not enough help for seamers or spinners.
The key to producing a high standard is to have some variation in the typical conditions. In Sri Lanka, India etc. there should and very probably will always be more help for spinners than any other bowler. But you need just a bit of alternative, just to keep everyone alert to all possibilities.

 

[Salamuddin]

some thoughts on this subject

1) It is true that atm the standard of fc cricket in India is not great.
However, I feel that India could Potentially form a very good first class comp if they restrict their elite division of the Ranji trophy to an absolute maximum of 8 teams.
So a division composed of say Mumbai, Karnataka, Delhi, Punjab,
Baroda, Bengal, Railways and Tamil Nadu would actually be quite good.
Of course, you need to have decent wickets to play these games on but I'll save that for another thread.
2) I Can't believe people are suggesting Ramesh for the opener's slot.
Sure the guy has an impressive test record on the subcontinent.
But anyone who saw him play in wc'99 or on the Australian tour of 1999-2000 would realise that the guy's technique is gonna let him down bigtime abroad.

 

[masterblaster]

Well Sehwag has just scored another scintillating ton.

3 centuries as a 'make shift' opener all over the world is rather impressive dont you think?



I think he's okay in that position for now. If he plays like a Herschelle Gibbs/Sanath Jayasuriya in that position, I dont mind at all, and I dont think Indian fans mind that either. He's aggressive, he should play that way, and he can turn himself into an aggressive opener of some quality.

 

[gibbsnsmith]

oh no..i totally regret voting for him and chopra after that performance from them two...

Sehwag should be looking to make a very big score [200 not 400]

 

[Richard]

Re: some thoughts on this subject

1) It is true that atm the standard of fc cricket in India is not great.
However, I feel that India could Potentially form a very good first class comp if they restrict their elite division of the Ranji trophy to an absolute maximum of 8 teams.
So a division composed of say Mumbai, Karnataka, Delhi, Punjab,
Baroda, Bengal, Railways and Tamil Nadu would actually be quite good.
Of course, you need to have decent wickets to play these games on but I'll save that for another thread.
2) I Can't believe people are suggesting Ramesh for the opener's slot.
Sure the guy has an impressive test record on the subcontinent.
But anyone who saw him play in wc'99 or on the Australian tour of 1999-2000 would realise that the guy's technique is gonna let him down bigtime abroad.

India have more than enough people to support the number of First-Class teams they have in the Ranji Trophy. Anyway, what's the Duleep Trophy for?
The problem isn't players, it's pitches.
As for Ramesh, I for one have never advocated his selection in ODIs, so WC99 isn't too relevant.

 

[Richard]

Well Sehwag has just scored another scintillating ton.

3 centuries as a 'make shift' opener all over the world is rather impressive dont you think?



I think he's okay in that position for now. If he plays like a Herschelle Gibbs/Sanath Jayasuriya in that position, I dont mind at all, and I dont think Indian fans mind that either. He's aggressive, he should play that way, and he can turn himself into an aggressive opener of some quality.

No denying the fact - as long as Sehwag continues to suceed as an opener, there can't be any justification in not selecting him as such.
Personally I just don't think he's got the judicion of Gibbs and Jayasuriya. Sure, both are strokeplayers, but Sehwag at times is more than that. There are times when you feel he thinks every ball outside off must hit the cover fence.
As for the 3 centuries all over The World - the 106 at Trent Bridge, good as it was with the ball swinging all over the place, was the only one outside India. And despite that and the 82 in the First Test, he didn't manage to average 40 in that series. It is the only innings of restraint I have ever seen Sehwag play, and I saw every ball of it.

 

[Langeveldt]

Sehwag and Chopra for me

A defensive batsman and an aggresive batsman could compliment each other well.. It works with Langer and Hayden, and it worked with Kirsten and Gibbs