Comments on: Selectors must invest in youth…

By: blogesh

blogesh — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:46:48 +0000

Hmm….it is a bit unusual to name 17 players in a team, even for home games. There are merits to your argument about seniors passing on the experience to youngsters, but I feel having 6 non-playing members in the dressing room is a bit of a crowd.

IMHO, we should follow the Aussie model, where people not in the playing XI or XII should be released to go home to play for their domestic side…(at least during a test series)

By: mohankaus

mohankaus — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:39:24 +0000

gnbmdr, pace is over-rated. Joginder’s pace will do.

Mahesh, the advantage of bulking up the team to accommodate 17 players (at least for home-games) is that the seniors get to pass on their experience (and hopefully not their baggage as well) to the juniors. Don’t you think?

By: mohankaus

mohankaus — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:36:28 +0000

Sam, my plug for Joginder is consistent with my plug for a couple of “allrounders” in the team. For some time now, I have been saying (and so have others) that the team lacks bowling/batting allrounders. They are needed for the ODI game. Australia has Symonds. England has Flintoff. Sri Lanka has Jayasuriya. South Africa has Pollock, Kallis and Morkel. India has no one and so will languish in their current low position on the ODI table unless the team balance is addressed. That’s my hypothesis anyway. So, unless you can show me a better set of allrounders than Irfan Pathan and Joginder Sharma, I will continue to plug for them. They give you 6-8 overs every game and can also tonk the ball in the finsh-overs. I am also placing bets on Praveen Kumar (allrounder from UP). It is interesting to note that Manoj Tiwary has also put his hand up for the allrounder’s spot — he bowls legspin.

– Mohan

By: blogesh

blogesh — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:23:22 +0000

Vish & I were discussing pretty much the same topic a few days ago. The alternative to your approach is basically to tell the seniors (Zaheer Khan included) that they will be selected only for x ODIs in a year to prolong their career and give the youth a chance.

WIth India usually playing 30-35 ODIs in a year, x could be a number between 7 and 10.

By: gnbmdr

gnbmdr — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:43:35 +0000

This would be the time to experiment the rotation policies that have been talked about for a long time. In the past, there no players

2 or 3 of the big 3 could play a given match, while introducing youngsters and also rotation of bowlers.

4 out of the Zaheer, RP, Irfan, SreeSanth, Powar, Harbhajan, Chawla could play a match.

I agree that Joginder is going to be selected. He is apparently a successful bowler in domestic circuit. But he does not have the pace to trouble the batsmen.

But fielding must be made essential for selection in one-day matches and not having to shield players.

Hopefully Suresh Raina, Badrinath, Kaif will also get in the mix.

By: sampath kumar

sampath kumar — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:26:52 +0000

Mohan,

You are as passionate against Agarkar as you are for Joginder. This guy is another Agarkar!!! He runs in faster than he delivers. In the final, in the first two overs–as in the semis–kept bowling wide or full toss and it was sheer luck that batsmen stretched out and negated the wide calls! The last over could have gone either way–who would have thought that Misbah with such a talent try to paddle with 3 balls still left.

I am not sure whether Joginder is capable of scoring 100 when he gets a chance to paly at Lord’s!!