Print

Please post once and this message will disappear! Introduce yourself, say hello, jump into a discussion...

[kban1]

http://www.deccan.com/Sports/Sports.asp#ICC%E2%80%99s%20elite%20umpiring%20panel%20not%20reliable%20any%20more

Team India in search of all-rounders
   
Guwahati, April 10: Having developed Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni into good finishers, Team India are now looking to groom Ajit Agarkar and Ramesh Powar into genuine all-rounders in the Irfan Pathan mould. “Our aim is to play with five bowlers without compromising on the batting, whatever be the condition and nature of the wicket,” Rahul Dravid said during the ongoing ODI series against England. And at least in this series, India’s strategy of playing with five specialist bowlers has so far paid off.

“Both Agarkar and Powar have the potential to grow as all-rounders,” ex-India opener Arun Lal told this newspaper here on Monday. “If they can develop into match winners with both bat and ball it will definitely augur well for the side,” he added. According to Lal, the side boasting the maximum number of quality all-rounders, will be favoured to win the World Cup. “The Indian top order batting is not firing to expectation. Still we have been winning because the middle and the lower-middle order are performing brilliantly. Now if the top order starts to get going, and we get another couple of allrounders we will be unbeatable,” he contended.

Incidentally, Pathan so far has the scores 28, 36 and 46, and has bagged nine wickets. Agarkar, in two matches that he has played captured two wickets and is yet to get a chance to bat. Meanwhile, three Indians are approaching personal milestones. Pathan is three short of completing 100 wickets in ODIs, Harbhajan Singh three short of 150-wicket mark and Yuvraj Singh is 49 short of completing 4000 runs.

[fineleg]

AA is forever being groomed for "all rounder".
His batting is a bigger disappointment than his bowling.

[devatha]

Kban

You have chosen the right person & the right newspaper to quote. Arun Lal & Deccan Chronicle.

[fineleg]

Kban

You have chosen the right person & the right newspaper to quote. Arun Lal & Deccan Chronicle.

LOL

Prob with AA batting:
Such a stupidly huge arc for a batswing -
Most decent bowlers will get the ball onto stumps before he brings the bat down.

OR, he brings the bat down so quickly to compensate, that mostly he is too early on the shot, and will spoon the catch to mid off, cover, mid on  or midwicket area...depending on where he is trying to go "inside out"

Have u also seen him do these many times?

[Sahir]

AA does have an exaggerated backlift, but he can still be somewhat successful with the bat.  Do remember we are talking about producing an ODI allrounder here, and not a Test allrounder.  Therefore, we do not need him to necessarily perform as well as Pathan with the bat, but a quick 20 runs down the order would really suffice.  He already average 17+ at a pretty high strike rate.  If he could just find a way to improve that extra bit, Indian cricket would be well served.  Of course, his bowling has to be good.  We are generally looking to create a combined allrounder of sorts, playing both Powar and Agarkar down the order, both players with less than desirable batting techniques, but a fair bit of ability to send the ball to the boundary.

[fineleg]

AA does have an exaggerated backlift, but he can still be somewhat successful with the bat.  Do remember we are talking about producing an ODI allrounder here, and not a Test allrounder.  Therefore, we do not need him to necessarily perform as well as Pathan with the bat, but a quick 20 runs down the order would really suffice.  He already average 17+ at a pretty high strike rate.  If he could just find a way to improve that extra bit, Indian cricket would be well served.  Of course, his bowling has to be good.  We are generally looking to create a combined allrounder of sorts, playing both Powar and Agarkar down the order, both players with less than desirable batting techniques, but a fair bit of ability to send the ball to the boundary.

I will make an assumption that G.Dhiman's batting/technique is 'roughly' equal to if not better than AA batting.
Is Dhiman's bowling poorer than AA's bowling? Sahir, based on what u've seen of Dhiman (u've indicated before he is NOT that good a bowler yet), but comparing GD and AA bowling? Would speed tip it in favor of AA?

[Sahir]

fineleg, Dhiman has turned into much more of a batting allrounder than a bowling allrounder.  His batting is much better than Agarkar's, but his bowling is much worse-- not that of a specialist bowler.  If Dhiman makes the team (which I really cannot see happening prior to the 2007 World Cup; maybe in 2008), it will be as a utility player, but primarily as a batsman.  I think a Shahid Afridi-type of player, but before his recent surge with the ball.  More of an impact batsman that contributes more than handily with the ball, bowling seam up, which is important since most of our young part-timers tend to be spinners.

[flute202020]

Whatever I remember of Powar's batting was very good. In Pak, he almost won us a match before Nehra messed up. Long time back, I too broached this topic of making AA a allrounder. Yep, its good idea to groom him to contribute a quick 10 ball 15 runs on a more consistent basis and it did be great. Of course, first he should learn to be more consistent with his bowling and not bowl those '4' balls in every over.

On the whole, I think Powar is more closer to being a allrounder than AA. AA is an enigma, not sure on which side he will play on a given day  

[Sahir]

Speed-wise, there is a major difference.  Dhiman only bowls around 123-127 km/h currently (most U-19 players pick up a little pace once they enter their early to mid 20s).  Agarkar still bowls about 10 km/h quicker, say 133-137 km/h.

[fineleg]

fineleg, Dhiman has turned into much more of a batting allrounder than a bowling allrounder.  His batting is much better than Agarkar's, but his bowling is much worse-- not that of a specialist bowler.  If Dhiman makes the team (which I really cannot see happening prior to the 2007 World Cup; maybe in 2008), it will be as a utility player, but primarily as a batsman.  I think a Shahid Afridi-type of player, but before his recent surge with the ball.  More of an impact batsman that contributes more than handily with the ball, bowling seam up, which is important since most of our young part-timers tend to be spinners.

Alrite, if his bowling is much worse than AA, then that says a lot - so, I'm not so interested in GD in MPA role (medium pace allrounder) in such case, till his bowling becomes a bit better than AA.

[Sahir]

Alrite, if his bowling is much worse than AA, then that says a lot - so, I'm not so interested in GD in MPA role (medium pace allrounder) in such case, till his bowling becomes a bit better than AA.

Yep, it's like I said-- he will make it to the side as a batting allrounder, as opposed to a bowling one.  Let us say-- more of a Scott Styris type of role, except he will probably be called upon to bat at the top of the order smashing it over the top, which really he does not need any second invitations to try.

[kban1]

devatha:

You have chosen the right person & the right newspaper to quote. Arun Lal & Deccan Chronicle.

Sorry,  I missed the joke completely.

Is deccan herald not a reputed media source ? Arun Lal - I know some like him some dont, but he ususally gets the technocal issues right, IMO.

Please provide some explanation into the joke. I don't want to feel like the only Gentile at a Bar Mitzvah 

[devatha]

devatha:

You have chosen the right person & the right newspaper to quote. Arun Lal & Deccan Chronicle.

Sorry,  I missed the joke completely.

Is deccan herald not a reputed media source ? Arun Lal - I know some like him some dont, but he ususally gets the technocal issues right, IMO.

Please provide some explanation into the joke. I don't want to feel like the only Gentile at a Bar Mitzvah 

Kban

deccan.com -- is not Deccan Herald. It is Deccan Chronicle based in Hyderabad. There are lots of jokes on Deccan Chronicle, normally it is not a believable source. Ya, my reference to Arun Lal refers to his some times foolish commentary. Normally, even for a small thing, he says "Only Time will tell" and refuses to predict something. Not sure how much effort he took to predict something i.e Agarkar becoming a good allrounder.

Sorry, if you offended. But the joke was on Arun Lal & Deccan Chronicle.

[kban1]

devatha:

I was not offended in the least. No reason to be. So no worries 

I was just not aware of the joke or the newspaper's reputation. Sidenote -- yes, AL's commentary can be boring, lol

I actually found the article following a link from Cricinfo blogs (did not find the original article --link had expired, but found this one instead). And typing Deccan Herald was a typo --I guess it cropped up because I am more used to browsing the Deccan Herald.

[suraj]

Any association of the word future with AA is a stretch of imagination- past most likely, present very unlikely, future no way.

[fineleg]

Any association of the word future with AA is a stretch of imagination- past most likely, present very unlikely, future no way.

some of us share the feeling of frustration.

[senthilpeter]

i'd sooner believe Powar will become an 'allrounder' than AA. The guy doesn't have the attitude, unless under RD/GC he's forcing to change himself. He is too lax and loose in both bowling and batting to possess the most imp thing that makes you qualify as allrounder - a level of consistency. I think all this talk is just the notion of sending out positive soundbytes to boost people up... give them encouragement and hope that it may pump up the player to push themselves. And then hope that in players like AA's case, it the pumped up work will lead to miracles.

[OldPal]

Any association of the word future with AA is a stretch of imagination- past most likely, present very unlikely, future no way.

True Suraj.
For making him all rounder- We have to teach him batting and bowling.

[devatha]

Not long ago, during Pak ODI series, RD said we are trying to develop SRT, VS & YS into the 5th bowler. Now, he says, our aim is to play with five bowlers without compromising on the batting, whatever be the condition and nature of the wicket. What changed in a month? SRT physically down with injury? and VS mentally down out-of-form? Poor GC & RD. With injured & out-of-form players, they have to change their aims often.

[OldPal]

sooner they make their mind ..
better we can predict teams for the matches .

[fineleg]

sooner they make their mind ..
better we can predict teams for the matches .

For each his own worry! For pankaj, it is the team prediction before matches! LOL