Sport Today

FS09

Robin Uthappa, the 20-year-old from Karnataka is one of the rising
stars of Indian cricket.

Uthappa shot into fame in the four nation Under-19 Asia Cup held in
Pakistan in November 2003. Coming in as an opener in the final he
blitzed the Lankans with a superb 88 in just 86 balls which included 13
boundaries. Uthappa's power hitting helped India beat the Lankans by
eight wickets with over five overs to spare.

He was declared the man of the match for his superlative effort. Tall
and well built, Robin is a stylish right-handed batsman who can bowl a
bit too.

Robin Uthappa made his first class debut in 2002-03 and notched up 445
runs in nine matches. His highest was 162 against Madhya Pradesh in the
Ranji Trophy. An added feather in the cap was the six*** catches
behind the wickets.

His ODI record were brilliant as well with a strike rate of 111 and a
career high of 160. A product of Brijesh Patel Cricket Academy, Uttapha
began his cricketing journey with St. Joseph Boy's High School (Dravid
is an alumni of the same high school).

Uthappa considers Rahul Dravid as his mentor - and he has reasons for
it. Both hail from the same state- Karnataka, although Uthappa is an
attacking batsman. The fact that he can keep wickets and stand up to
any challenge thrown at him makes him similar to Dravid. If Uthappa
comes anywhere close to Dravid's contribution, he would have done
Indian cricket a great service. He surely has it in him; the fact that
he is just 20 makes him an ideal candidate for Team India. *** him
now and reap the riches later.

Robin horned his skills at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai under
the watchful eyes of former Australian coach Bob Simpson. A strong
player both off the front and the back foot, Utappa is clearly in it
for the long haul. Add to this his gift of stealing singles and Uthappa
can well be counted as one of the show-stoppers of the future. While
fielding he regularly stands at point or gully where can pounce on any
ball coming his way.

In the recent England Under 19 Test series at home in January, Uthappa
made useful scores to make the selectors take notice. In the first Test
at Bangalore he opened the innings scoring a solid 59 in the first
innings in just 54 balls with eleven boundaries. India thrashed England
by a massive 293 runs.

Uthappa can bowl handy medium pacers which can prove to be handy in
situations when our main bowlers tire. He has all the ingredients of a
quality all-rounder which India so desperately lacks down the order. A
good technique and a sound temperament makes Uttapha an ideal
candidate.

Robin Uthappa, the 20-year-old from Karnataka is one of the rising
stars of Indian cricket.

Uthappa shot into fame in the four nation Under-19 Asia Cup held in
Pakistan in November 2003. Coming in as an opener in the final he
blitzed the Lankans with a superb 88 in just 86 balls which included 13
boundaries. Uthappa's power hitting helped India beat the Lankans by
eight wickets with over five overs to spare.

He was declared the man of the match for his superlative effort. Tall
and well built, Robin is a stylish right-handed batsman who can bowl a
bit too.

Robin Uthappa made his first class debut in 2002-03 and notched up 445
runs in nine matches. His highest was 162 against Madhya Pradesh in the
Ranji Trophy. An added feather in the cap was the six*** catches
behind the wickets.

His ODI record were brilliant as well with a strike rate of 111 and a
career high of 160. A product of Brijesh Patel Cricket Academy, Uttapha
began his cricketing journey with St. Joseph Boy's High School (Dravid
is an alumni of the same high school).

Uthappa considers Rahul Dravid as his mentor - and he has reasons for
it. Both hail from the same state- Karnataka, although Uthappa is an
attacking batsman. The fact that he can keep wickets and stand up to
any challenge thrown at him makes him similar to Dravid. If Uthappa
comes anywhere close to Dravid's contribution, he would have done
Indian cricket a great service. He surely has it in him; the fact that
he is just 20 makes him an ideal candidate for Team India. *** him
now and reap the riches later.

Robin horned his skills at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai under
the watchful eyes of former Australian coach Bob Simpson. A strong
player both off the front and the back foot, Utappa is clearly in it
for the long haul. Add to this his gift of stealing singles and Uthappa
can well be counted as one of the show-stoppers of the future. While
fielding he regularly stands at point or gully where can pounce on any
ball coming his way.

In the recent England Under 19 Test series at home in January, Uthappa
made useful scores to make the selectors take notice. In the first Test
at Bangalore he opened the innings scoring a solid 59 in the first
innings in just 54 balls with eleven boundaries. India thrashed England
by a massive 293 runs.

Uthappa can bowl handy medium pacers which can prove to be handy in
situations when our main bowlers tire. He has all the ingredients of a
quality all-rounder which India so desperately lacks down the order. A
good technique and a sound temperament makes Uttapha an ideal
candidate.

The tall and robust Robin Uthappa has, for a while, been talked of as a
batsman who cannot be kept out of international sport for long.
Although his record in domestic cricket - a first-class average of 32
from 20 matches with just one hundred - is modest his numbers in the
limited-overs version recommend him well. He averages a touch under 40
with a highest of 160 and his runs come at a strike rate of over 93. At
one time a wicketkeeper-batsman, Uthappa has since given up the big
gloves to concentrate on batting, and now occasionally bowls
mediumpace.

As a batsman he has always been attractive to watch, hard-hitting, with
every shot in the book, unafraid to hit the ball in the air. If
anything it is his temperament that has come under question and stopped
him from claiming higher honours thus far. A useful member of the India
under-19 team that won the Asia Cup, Uthappa first caught the eye when
he made a brilliant 66 in a losing cause for India B against India A in
the Challenger Trophy in Mumbai in 2005 against an attack that included
Zaheer Khan, Murali Kartik and RP Singh. But it was in the subsequent
edition of the same tournament, in Mohali in 2006, where he cracked a
matchwinning 93-ball 100 for India B against an India A team.

from different sources.

Wow, can bat, can keep, can bowl! If only he gets some umpiring skills,
he will be a complete all-rounder on field! And coming from Dravid's &
Chappell's hometown, he is pretty resourceful too. Now having seen the
resume, time to see the man in action.

Uthappa was out second ball to karthik in his 66, but played VRV and RP
well. i do not remember wether Khan bowled to him much in that brief
innings of 66.

well only time will tell if England will have a sumptious repast of
uthappa or Uthappa will prove the "new prawn" in English dinner.

His achievements against england U-19 should be taken with pinch of
salt, certain Pujara scored 240 odd. INdia dropped their first U-19 and
used their second u-19 and even they thrashed one of worst england u-19
teams ever to set out.

regards
Pranshu B Saxena

Will put pressure on Dhoni!  Also having a backup wk in the regular XV
allows Dhoni rest in the WC and Dravid relief about not having to wear the
gloves.  Best of luck, Robin!!

DB.

Robin doesnt keep for his home state. Pinal Shah keeps wickets for
India U-19. Right now i dont see him challenging Dhoni even as a
batsman. Here are his stats for the Ranji trophy:

AR Uthappa            6    8   0   278   96   34.75  62.61   -  2    6
- KNTKA

After his 86 in 95 balls on a debut match.
Selectors know what they are doing. They don't go by domestic scores -
look for the class.

Uthappa looks quite good - his shots and mainly his temperament -
started with a few fours, but then stuck it for a while taking singles,
some nice lofted shots esp. after his 50 and seems a powerful striker.
Certainly should now be a serious contender to keep that slot or as a
backup opener when Sachin comes back. I think Gambhir and Ganguly can
all but forget about coming back as openers (for the moment). Gambhir
has had enough chances (this is what I liked about Uthappa on debut -
batted all the way till the score was 150+) and Ganguly, well no one
knows what will happen but with the current selection committee he is
not coming back.

Sehwag is also in danger - has had too many chances. Kaif, imo should
be kept out of the ODI team. Keep Dhoni / Kaarthick combo going.
Kaarthick was superb yesterday (it has been a while I have seen some
excellent wk'ing by an Indian keeper) and Dhoni can use a break esp. in
WC type competitions. Powar needs to show he can bend, his fielding was
sloppy - 2 mis-fields (because he was not bending), one dropped catch -
looked difficult but I think he was not running fast enough and one
opportunity to save a four - was running with the ball and saw it all
the way to the fence.

Rahul Dravid has shown that as captain he has done quite well so far -
taken over so well that no more comparisions with Ganguly are made.

Btw, Arun Lal as a commentator is really bad.

- Ravi

Lost test series to Pakistan.
Only managed to draw test series with England.

Won the home series against SL. Does not change my the substance of my
point.

That depends on what the substance of your point was.

If you are saying that no more comparisons with Ganguly are made
because it's been proved that Ganguly had a far superior record
as a test captain, I fully agree.

Ganguly started with a test series win against Australia at home
when Australia fielded one of the more powerful teams to ever
have played test cricket. Then won a match outside the
subcontinent which India was doing was 15 years or so.

I think Dravid has proved that he is here to stay, carries his weight
both as captain and batsmen and has done well so far. Things are
looking better and that is the point. If there had been any major
doubts I am sure the media and even rsc would have seen at least
hundreds of articles and posts. Silence is sometimes very indicative.

It was not meant to be a statement comparing his predecessor as much as
the fact that he has taken over the reins successfully.

- Ravi

Except that they aren't looking better as far as tests go.

Except for the fact that he hasn't.

You mean inferences - facts are known. Anyway that is where we
disagree. Not more to say.

- Ravi

These are the facts
1) Won home series vs SL 2-0
2) Lost away series vs Pak 1-0
3) Drew home series vs Eng 1-1

This is far worse than what the
previous captain achieved.

Winning a home series is no big
thing for India - the only thing you
have to do is toss the ball to Kumble
& Harbhajan.

He is confused between the test and the one day performances. Not the
first one.