Sport Today

Sourav Ganguly (capt), Rahul Dravid, Shiv Sundar Das, Connor Williams,
Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Deep Dasgupta,
Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Sarandeep Singh, Sanjay Bangar, Iqbal
Siddiqui, Tinu Yohannan.

Interesting to see that none of the pacers of the SA squad have made
it to the
14. Good to see new bowlers being given a chance.
Assuming India will go with 2+2 bowling attack, wonder which bowlers
will be
picked? Bangar, Siddiqui, Yohannan all have bowled well against
England, who
will be the unlucky one to be left out? Also, what will be the spinner
combination AK-HS, AK-SS or HS-SS? Most probably they will go with the
first
one. In the extremely unlikely scenario of a 3+1 attack, which spinner
will be
picked?
On the batting front, I do not see any place for Sehwag in the batting
order.
Williams has done reasonably well in the second innings of T3 n he
deserves
a few more chances, with Sehwag keeping the MO batsmen under pressure
to perform. Atleast this will be the most logical way to go about it,
unless BCCI
is determined to go on a collision course with ICC. Another point of
interest
will be Ganguly's form in the series. My initial guess would be that
he would
do well in the series, scoring at least one century.
And finally, going by the current performance of the English team the
most
likely result of the series will be 3-0 in favour of India.

AP
--
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not
sure
about the the universe - Albert Einstein

I find this squad unbelievable. Not because of Sehwag,
there are still games going on there.

But we go to RSA with 5 (count 'em, 5) medium pacers.
One of them (the best, of course, why have anyone else
get injured) is unavailable, so we clean house, dump
the other 4, and bring in a whole new squad of medium
pacers for a Test at Mohali? Has Khan, in one year,
gone from being our only medium pacer (against the
Aussies; Srinath was unavailable) to 7th (or lower) on
the totem pole? Or are Nehra and Khan injured?

Why didn't they clean house with the batsmen, who
failed on decent wickets against a limited attack?
(Rhetorical question, of course).

Nothing wrong with testing new medium-pacers.  They should have done the
same with the batsmen too.

The bowlers have failed (mostly) everywhere even
in India. The bats have atleast scored in India.

Nehra's dropping however seems a bit harsh.

Siddiqui & Bangar seem to be too old to be a serious
prospects.

Bangar seems to be in the robin singh mould - neither a
good bat nor a good bowler.

And the medium pacers selected are irrelevant anyway.
We will see SCG opening the bowling & 3 spinners playing.
Only one other Medium Pacer will play, mostly.

good to see this squad.  young bowlers can not do any worst than what
zaheer/nehra/agarkar did.  also good to see sarandeep in the squad.

india should go with three spinners + one or two seam bowlers.  at
home, india's strength is spin bowling.

team for first test:

das, williams, dravid, sachin, ganguly, dasgupta, harbhajan,
sarandeep, kumble, siddiqui, bangar. 12th man sehwag

i don't have sehwag in XI not because he is banned but there is no
place in the team.  the only way he can come in is in place of a
spinner and then use him as third spinner.  no room for laxman.

rakesh

No, I think if Sehwag were eligible, Dasgupta would open, and
he would play.  Is Dasgupta can open with great success IN
South Africa, he can certainly do so at home..

Bharat
--

"It is true that one may become rich through practicing evil,
but the power of Truth and Justice is that they endure ...
and that a man can say of them, "They are a heritage from
my father."            ___The Instruction of Ptahhotep,

With this rate of the bringing "NEW TALENT" for fast bowlers, I am
seriously thinking of registering my name with BCCI for future calls....

I guess, the selectors wanted to give a message to the pacers that they have
to do better to keep their place in the team. Also, with the fitness record of
our pacers it is absolutely essential that there are at least 4-5 bowlers
(with international exposure) available all the time. And IMO this is the
best series to experiment with new bowlers (we can always go back to spinners
if the pacers fail).

I am all for this proposition also, but it would be too much to ask from the
selectors to even touch our *star studded* batting order.

Well I didn't know that one has to register his name with BCCI to be
considered for any team selections!!!

FWIW, I agree completely.

Exactly. Theyve gone back to their "lets try everyone and maybe
we'll hit one by chance" method. Neither Nehra nor Zaheer are
injured, I dont think - only Srinath and possibly Prasad are.

So now in the past 4 months or so, we've had...hm...10 pacemen
in the squad? Amazing. Five for RSA, three new ones here, plus
Mohanty and Harvinder?

Yohannan is young and a real long-term prospect - but at 22 he is
only 3 months younger than Zaheer, and 2 months older than Nehra! He
has played only 8 fc matches in his career, and has never even played
for South Zone - earlier this year in the Duleeps, South Zone used
Srinath, Prasad, Ganesh and Kumaran ahead of him.

Yohannan looked very good in the Iranis against Baroda this year -
but even there he had 2/70 and 2/90 in the 2 innings (and apparently
didnt look very good in the 2nd innings). They thought of taking him
to RSA based on that performance but decided he wasnt ready. And, since
then, he's played one game - against England at Hyderabad - and looked
poor there (11 overs, 0/57; 7 overs, 1/38). He's a terrific long-term
prospect, but surely it would have been better to give him exposure on
a tour, or as maybe a 3rd seamer behind Srinath etc, than to throw him
into the deep end and expect him to lead the attack? I mean, the guy
hasnt even led his zone's attack yet, at least try and maximize his
chances of success!

Siddiqui used to be considered a great prospect about 7 years ago, when
he was fresh out of the India U19 side (he was Man of the Series against
England Under 19 in England, when their batting was opened by Trescothick
and Vaughan, and India had VVSL in its ranks). But he was discarded and
ill-treated for a very long time. He was always sort of over-aggressive
as well, and it didnt serve him well. He has bowled better over the last
few months - he was very good in the Ranjis last year, and just took
9 wickets (out of 13 to fall) against Bombay last week. He seems to
be a smarter bowler nowadays (though before the end of the Ranjis last
season, he took 8 wickets at 54 in the Duleep Trophy, worse than Zaheer
or Agarkar bowling for the same side).

But still, Iam convinced Siddiqui made it in almost entirely because
of one spell yesterday! On a very helpful pitch, he bowled 10 overs
on the trot to start the day, and claimed 4/19 with one dropped slip
chance. Excellent bowling, and great reward for someone who has worked
hard - but surely it should require more than that? We should have
treated him better over the years, should have nurtured him and allowed
him to develop etc. We didnt. But by the same token, to pluck him out
of the blue now instead of 3 far younger prospects is an unusual
decision, to say the least.

As for Bangar - yet another hard worker who has made something of himself
over the years. His bowling has improved a lot over the seasons. Would have
been ideal for the ODIs - he has actually been a performer lately, compared
to say Reetinder Sodhi, and is a similar type of player. But Bangar is
another who didnt even play for Central Zone a few months ago. His batting
is solid, but he is certainly not worth a spot in a test side on batting
alone - not in India. And while his bowling has improved, it isnt near
good enough for him to be a pure bowler for the national side either. So
he is the "all-rounder" - and we have been desperately looking for one,
but I still think you have to truly excel in one department.

Bangar has gotten quicker than he was - he looked better in the Ranji
finals last year, but he used to be a real pie-chucker, so that isnt
saying much. And he is a committed and smart cricketer who knows how
to bowl now - he will move it a little, keep it in the corridor, be a
good 3rd seamer type. Always will keep working, keep plugging away, and
that is a very good quality in India on the kinds of pitches he's seen
in his years. I hope he does well in this series, because Ive admired the
guy for a long time - I like the hard workers. But at his age and his
long-term upside-level... I just wish we hadnt abandoned all our RSA
pacemen so quickly. This was a bit of a chance to let our future high
upside guys have exposure, after all. Bangar might be a great 3rd
seamer who bats well in good bowling conditions (ie England next year?),
and hopefully a very useful allrounder if he develops. But Zaheer, Nehra
and Agarkar are all better long-term pure bowling prospects than he
is, surely - and that department probably requires more building than
anything else does.

Because India never cleans house with its batsmen. That is a menial
job, meant for bowlers only :-)

Sadiq [ 3 pacemen without a test cap between them - if Mohali
      is a green-top, does England build an early 1-0 lead? :-) ] Yusuf

Actually, Yohannan didnt do very well against England at all. Yohannan
and Bangar played on the easier batting track, Siddiqui played on the
difficult track. Their performances were:

at Hyderabad:
Bowling             O      M      R      W
Yohannan           11      2     57      0 (7nb)
Bangar             16.4    3     34      2
--
Yohannan            7      1     38      1 (4nb)
Bangar             14      6     32      5

Yohannan was very poor, losing control very often and having trouble
with overstepping (11 no balls in 18 overs). Bangar was the first-change
seamer, and tight and controlled in both innings, with medium paced
seam mostly. In the 2nd innings (on the last afternoon of the game), he
started getting reverse-swing, and took all 5 wickets in one spell -
he kept the ball right in the perfect spot, apparently, and used the
tight line with late reverse swing to get his wickets (2 bowleds and
1 lbw). But note that even in this match, Bangar was only 3rd seamer,
not new-ball bowler - and Yohannan is obviously much quicker and better
long-term prospect. Bangar is just an experienced bowler who knows what
to do, knows his limitations and plays within them excellently.

Siddiqui played on a helpful pitch, and had a great 2nd morning
spell. He showed hostility and stamina - bowled 10 overs on the trot
the 2nd morning, taking 4/19 plus one dropped slip catch. Wasnt as
good in the 2nd innings, getting carried away and bowling too short
too often apparently - his old failing (he was probably e***d and
still high from being picked yesterday).

Bowling           O      M      R      W
Siddiqui         21      5     53      4
Siddiqui         15      3     48      1

It depends on the pitch of course. Mohali, if it is what we think, will
probably be pacer-friendly - but we'll still go 2-2 I think.

Sadiq [ who wonders if there will be 3 green-tops ] Yusuf

Btw, Yohannan is the son of the long jumper Yohannan who represented
India in the Asian games in the 70's/80's, iirc.

 So

I saw Zee News last night on satellite and they interviewed Venkat
Sundaram. Not that I value his opinion, but he categorized Bangar as a
genuine all rounder.He was biased, being his mentor and all that.

Cheers
Arun

Yeah, Tinu Yohannan is TC Yohannan's son. TCY won the gold medal for long
jump at the 1974 Asiad in Teheran and also had the Asian long jump record
for a while.

<snip>

-Samarth.

Well, thanx for correcting me. Can we have a brief history of the 3 new
pacers in the team (in lines of the Kale history u posted a few days back).
Thanx

So again, who will be the 2 pacers? Bangar n Siddiqui have performed well
against England but Yohannan is the only allrounder among the 3 (am I right?).
So do we go by recent performances or do we need to pick an allrounder?