Pragyan Ojha

Cricinfo has confirmed our signing of Ojha for the County Championship and CB40 competitions.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/story/525677.html

I for one welcome the signing of an overseas spinner, but am also worried about the effect on Ansari. Ojha himself is not too experienced, so I am unsure about the guidance he can give to the Gaffer, instead he will probably just keep him out of the team.

On the plus side, it could give Batty a kick up the backside and should push Schofield further down the pecking order (which should please some!).

Overall, if Ojha is good enough to play test cricket for India, he should be more than good enough for us, hopefully he can give us some much needed potency at the back end of a match.

What are your thoughts on the signing?

Tibor

Arafat wont be happy - as soon as he starts playing well, he's immediately kicked out of the team.

I reckon it's a good move as we should finally have a spinner who can bowl sides out and although it may hold Ansari back a bit, no Arafat will help Meaker and Dunn to get more games.

The timing seems very strange, gven how well Arafat did in the last couple of matches. However, we have needed an improvement in the spinning department for a long while now and I think we have enough bases covered in the seam bowling department to cover the loss of Arafat who still averages over 50 with the ball in the CC!

I don't see it as too much of a blow to Ansari as he is still only 19 and has a lot to learn and this will take some of the pressure off him in the CC but I'm sure he'll play most of our CB40 stuff. I haven't ever heard of Ojha so I can't comment on how good a signing it is but hopefully it will be inspired and not another dud!

i think he is a very good signing for surrey, if only grayson signed him up for essex!

I hope you're right CF!

Well apparently Ojha has been called up to the Indian squad, as Harbajhan is out of the series!

We lose our overseas spinner before we even get him

You couldn't make it up! I guess we'll still get him as they have Mishra to replace Harbhajan don't they?

Wouldn't count on it Carrot, here's a quote from the Cricinfo article on the situation:

"Ojha, who was set to join Surrey for the County Championship and the CB40 one-day competition, will now instead join the Indian side."

If he's in their squad he will more than likely stick with the team - by the looks of the series so far, he could have a lot of substitute fielding to do!

Well that's a shame but hopefully Arafat will stay and continue on his improvement in form for the remainder of the season.