Well, I would see it in this fashion...We have 5 sooo good players (with Pathan and Chawla) that playing out 50 overs will not be much of a problem most of the times...Now, we need a big hitter for another spot...Sehwag is miles ahead of others in this regard...Simply based on the role that needs to be played, he should get the nod ahead of others....
Nail on head hb.
I guess it is just perception and perhaps we are talking about different strategies for the team. For me, with Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Chawla/Harbhajan in there, we can afford to play a specialist bat at 6 who can score big and also consolidate if we do have a wobble at the top. And I would be more than happy to try out either Raina or Nayyar or Badrinath in that slot whilst keeping the top 5 in their slots. Maybe in a crisis, put one of these 3 in at 5 ahead of Dhoni but that is about it. With Pathan,Kumar and Harbhajan/Chawla giving us the hitting power for the last few overs down the order, I think this is quite feasible for us to try out. But I can see where you are coming from and I won't mind if he was picked and given that EXACT role. What I don't want is him coming in and score 30 off 45 and then getting himself out. That would be the worst.
True...He should be given that role for a good 5 or so matches and if he fails then your strategy is perfectly OK with me...Though probably I would like a proper bowler over Praveen Kumar...
Agreed completely HB. Badrinath really should be the next guy into the Indian ODI squad. I don't know what Arjun is thinking when he says there is a whole 'queue' of Indian batsmen ahead of him.
We haven't seen enough of Badri, so how do we know he's any better than Kaif? Anyway, he hardly ever hit out when he got to bat, except in two matches.
Name ONE Indian batsman who can handle real pace. We've even seen The Big Four struggle against real pace. And how many bowlers from other teams have that real pace? Only one will last long enough to be a force to reckon with- the others are injury-prone or likely to lose their places in their teams.
There's nothing to suggest that Badrinath won't convert every start he gets, either.
Manhas averages over 50 in List-A, which is something few Indian prospects have achieved. While Badrinath has an average over 280 in FC, that Big Four bastion is still tough to break, and his List-A average is a paltry 37, in this age of flat pitches.
They can't play for India. We'd obviously have to make a few changes.
This is (more or less) the Indian ODI top six
Replacing the internationals with top Indian players
Reading threads before posting = overrated.
I wonder which team you started with, but the selections of Uthappa and Gony need a rethink.
Your every point is based "How do we know Badri will do better?"
I asked specifically about Badrinath. YOu made it seem as though India is bristling with batsmen better than him.. Unfortunately, it is not so. Manhas may average 50 in List A cricket but he hasn't even been able to crack the A side so far. Maybe the selectors know what they are doing and he is just cashing in on tracks such as the one where Jaffar scored 150+ with a strike rate of 150 or so.
Karthik opens in test cricket. Big difference. And he goes around the ODI side as the back up keeper because it was an overseas tour. He didn't get selected for ODIs in India and guess what, when Gambhir was injured, Badri did come in as the replacement. He didn't get a chance unfortunately but it doesn't mean he is out of the selectors' radars. In fact, Vengsarkar often makes it a point to mention about him after the meetings.
I cannot imagine that Chennai Super Kings (since that's the bone of contention) attack playing for India, especially without Ntini, Muralitharan and Morkel. You can't win matches with that bowling!
We still don't know what Badrinath can do that any other batsman-averaging-over-50-in-FC-and-ListA can do. We can give him a chance, but the Test Middle Order Bastion is almost impossible to crack, and the ODI team is also relatively settled. If they play more mickey-mouse tournaments like that one in Bangladesh, they can play him for some time until the Champions Trophy.
