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[kban1]

It wasnt all at once selection. Only one oldie was dropped from the last ODI team and he may have been played one last series but there is nothing much wrong in this decision. It was a sound decision made on cricketing logic unlike last management's decision.
And i am not sure how you forget to keep in mind that aussie pacers are better than ours but do bring in conditions in play, even though they played on same pitch in quite similar conditions. Sky was overcast since start of the game. Every pundit called it a 220 pitch and we came quite close to scoring those many. Actually would have scored more than 220 if it was 50 over game. In a low scoring game only newbiews who did badly were MT and RU and they were matched by their oldie counter part one of whom shown again he isnt fit to play at top in ODI.

Vick, technically only 1 guy was dropped. In reality Dravid was out of the team for only 4-5 games. And the selection was made in light of Yuvi's injury and whats more in light of Yuvi's struggles down under. There are  alot of reasons behind my disagreement with the selection. I have enumerated them several times post selection and also before the selection, given that such discussions have been on in this DG before.

I heard the CH 9 commentators -- depending on who you listened to they said 220-230+ being a decent score. So I have not disagreed with that either. yes it was overcast, but unfortunately conditions were not the same.

We all know Aussie bowlers are better --but that applies all across --even during the 4 or 6 wins out of 24 against Aus that you alluded too. So I am not sure why we need to suddenly allow for equalization factors such as weather and strength of Aussie bowlers when judging our batsmen.

Anyways, lets just agree to disagree --I accept that you think this was a good selection. I dont share that view.

[keep-it-cool]

My assessment of yesterday's match.

A) We ended on a competitive note. It would have been a close one. But, I am worried what would have happened after IS and SS finished their spells. With IKP in the squad, we should seriously look at playing five bowlers. It may not have mattered yesterday if the match had gone ahead as a shortened one, but we will be hard pressed to defend anything small with just four bowlers - especially if IKP is one of them. We need the batsmen to put up bigger scores or the bowling to be strengthened.

B) Among the young batsmen, RS looked the best (and he got high praise from IC, which is a big thing, given that IC is not given to easily throwing out lavish praise), GG did enough to show that he has it in him to make it at this level but needs to tighten up on his concentration a bit more. Manoj Tiwary was horrible - he was a walking wicket and I hope this is not how he normally plays. These guys need to learn how to build a long innings and I am hopeful that by the end of the series, the good would be separated from the average and the bad. Which, essentially, is what I am mainly looking forward to from this series.

C) I really like this line up once YS comes back in. I would swap GG for VS .. VS should come one down ... and get YS in at No4 in place of MT. That makes it a mix of three seniors who have played against Australia in Australia before (SRT, VS, YS) and three juniors (GG, RS, RU) - a fair mix in my view.

Lets see how it goes against the Lankans yesterday.

[broadbat]

No Pain Only Rain at Brisbane

The day may not have evolved as everyone wished and though it was a truncated affair there were still enough nuggets in the game that gave an insight of what we can expect in the matches to follow. Some of them were obvious and others not so much so and a lot depended on what you were looking for really. Let me list what I thought I observed from the proceedings with respect to Team India.

Sehwag- If we are to believe the reports then ‘Coach in waiting’ Kirsten got him to get rid of the ‘upper cut’ during the Adelaide Test. Now we surmise that he will be asked to get rid of the ‘lower cut’ also. Trying to cut balls too close to the body and chopping them on to his stumps is a Sehwag specialty that we have come to expect and know that it come with the ‘Sehwag package’. We must learn to live with it. On another day it could be 4 down to fine leg.

Tendulkar- No doubt that every conceivable record will be his by the time he ends his career and he is working hard towards it. A few more centuries and some more innovative ways to get out will round of his records section nicely.

Gambhir- The only player I know who has patently more guts than skills. While he is there, enjoy him if you can. Being dropped of successive deliveries is no guarantee that he will score runs. So much so that the Aussies are planning to call him ‘Got Him’ Gambhir.

Sharma- Oozes both class and inexperience at the same time. No one from Mumbai after the ‘Record Breaker’ himself has shown so much promise and the team and fans will be in for a treat if he can fulfill the faith that Vengsarkar and Dhoni seems to have in him.

Tiwary- Must have gotten a fair idea about what the ‘crucification’ was all about when he was nailed by a ‘Lee Special’. With his feet going nowhere the long walk back was the only option. At 22 he can take heart from the fact that that the more illustrious state mate of his has scored oodles of runs and his feet too never went anywhere in particular.

Dhoni- Is beginning to look like a heavyweight who jabs his way through 14 rounds before trying to deliver the knock out blow in the 15th. The only problem with the strategy is that he himself is being put out before the last round begins. Generally not scheduled to make an appearance before 30 overs he is now struggling to ensure that the side lasts 30 overs.

Uthappa- Being promoted as a ‘finisher’ in the side he must learn that finishing the careers of older legends in the side is one thing but ensuring that his own does not end prematurely is going to be a tougher ask.

Pathan- Looks like he is one of the more accomplished bats in the Indian line up, which is a good thing as long as he does not forget that bowling is the only thing that can keep him in the side.

Harbajan- Is batting too well for my comfort as there seems to have been a proportionate drop in his bowling skills. However nothing available yesterday to be harsh on him as he probably saved the game for India.

Sreesanth- Does not really need to swing his hips or wag his tongue, as all he has to do is let the ball do the talking. Has I think, one of the best outswingers in contemporary cricket.

Ishant- The find of the season, he is lending credence to the theory that ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it. Where does age come into the picture? Predicted as too raw for top level cricket he gives others like Pradeep Sangwan a realistic chance of breaking into the national side even before he is eligible to vote!

I wonder if India feels that they were lucky to get away with 2 points or that they missed out on 4?

[WicketView]

Vick,
I will shower praises for the newbies when I see the fight. As of now I have not seen it. The scores do not indicate a fight to me. Maybe if the game had gone all 45 overs, I would have been more inclined to say something.

I will say, that I liked RS batting, as I have been saying right from the 2020 days. He had some of the best shots. His defence seems OK too. We have not got a chance to see how his defence/pull shots is in greater detail ... we will see later. But the way or the time he got out was not good. There are three factors in that. One, he did not really need to manufacture shots of every delivery, and his inexperience may have caused him to not get this. However, there are enough experienced players in the side who should have impressed on him, exactly what is necessary. Second, he got out trying to go after the magnificent Lee. This was unnecessary, as it was clear that Lee would have to stop bowling shortly. So,  it would have been good to let him finish. However, all of this is not attributable to inexperience. Experienced bats, the best in the world get carried away in this way so this is all fine.

GG played much better than his usual self. The shots that were noteworthy were the ones he hit between midwicket and mid-on, apart from his trademark off side shots. And of course, the straightdrive. The point of hope is he did play some of the on stump deliveries straight. But not as many as required ... he finally fell in exactly the fashion he has been getting out so often ... trying to nudge a ball on the off stump to square leg. This is also the shot that he usually uses to get his first runs on board. In my view, his innings was a good one in comparison to most of his innings against decent sides (it must be acknowledged that he got about half of his runs against the debutant though), but as a batsman who has played a few ODI and is looking to stake a claim for a permanent place, his innings was a scratchy average one. One that every good batsman is going to have, so nothing terrible about it, but is hardly one that deserves praise, or inspires confidence.

RU got out too quickly falling into the trap of going forward too soon. Again these things happen, and I don't think the selection of RU in the 11 should be doubted, if he plays down the order.

Now, even before the rain interrupted the proceedings we were 128/6 with our 6th wicket down in the 26th over with Dhoni and Pathan edging along slowly ... probably because they were the last recognized pair. The average  runs in an over till the 36th over (after the rain interruption when they learned that the number of overs have been reduced to 45 and threw their bats around) was 2.6 runs. So, if they were to start the slogging (which went pretty well yesterday) at 10 overs before the end this would have continued to 40 overs.

In my book, having the last recognized pair out there in the 27th over batting first is not a fight. So, I will wait and hope that the fight comes later in the series.

I have said earlier that because of the failure of yuvi and GG to show that they are good enough, its even more important to try out new guys in ODIs. Reasoning being we will have to be ready with replacements for our test side in next couple of years. So its a good idea to have more of our batsmen get a taste of International cricket against aussies. After this series if we can find even one good batsman out of 3-4 that will be worth it. I have also offered the reasoning why we should experiment more with ODI team. Reason being the results with seniors in the team have not been great. So trying out new guys may give us not only some future prospects but also an answer to our ODI problems. The risk envolved is much less in this format, but the experience these guys are going to gain will be imense.

Now to the yesterdays game. I agree with you about RS i felt made a bad mistake or was blind to the situation of the game. That may be another reason behind his leck of runs in domestic. I as a policy dont support pushing in U19 guys to the main team after just one season of domestic. I would have preferred Badri over him. But since we picked him and he has shown the promise we should continue and hope he will learn from mistake.
GG in my book has this last chance to cement his place in ODIs, He got to do better than what he did yesterday. I love the guy because he brings to the table several things neccessary to ODI game (quick btn wicket, strong arm etc) along with supburb domestic record. He does have that issue you mentioned and i hope Gary or Whatmore work on it ASAP.

What i heard from Channel 9 commentators 220 would have been a decent score and at one point we looked like getting lot more than that. In the end we reached 195 in 45 which could have well be 220 in 50 so i guess we were heading for a par score.

RU's front foot issues are well known and thats the reason i dont think he is good enough to play at the top, He just came in too early yesterday and we should stick with him at 6 or 7. I will say in defense of these new guys that this was their first game and they have hardly gotten any practice, It will take some time to get used to off the bounce and pace of Aussie pitches and i dont see any reason why they wouldnt be able to well considering most of them did well on their A tour against some the same Aussie bowlers.

There is no need to defend the new guys either. Looking through the posts on the DG it seems the most scathing thing said is of Dhoni's decision to play the just-arrived MT ahead of SR. No one is castigating the  newbies. There were some positives, but there were few things praiseworthy ... from your reply it seems you agree with me on that.

[justforkix]

The 1st test was a practice game as was the 1st ODI.... I will not read too much into the failures of the eungsters after just one game. I think a fair call should only be made at the end of the series and not everytime the eungsters fail or succeed in this series saying - I told you so. This is general comment and not pointed at anyone in particular.

[keep-it-cool]

Btw I was very impressed with Rohit Sharma yesterday. Great poise and the way he tackled one sharp bouncer from Lee, in particular, was great to see.

[pzd]

Btw I was very impressed with Rohit Sharma yesterday. Great poise and the way he tackled one sharp bouncer from Lee, in particular, was great to see.

Even I was impressed with that ... RS,kept his eyes on the ball even when it homed onto his face.

On the other hand I distinctly remember MT just closed his eyes. If he works on that, he might have a good future. But he probably was facing 150K for the first time and that too on a pitch which had some juice in it.

PS:  Ranji Semis & duleep trophy are being played on pitches with something for pacers.. So far, I don't think any team has crossed 350 in their first innings. That tells quite a story

[WicketView]

Btw I was very impressed with Rohit Sharma yesterday. Great poise and the way he tackled one sharp bouncer from Lee, in particular, was great to see.