Harbhajan and Yuvraj out of Test Series

Bad news about Yuvraj, Mishra/Ojha over Harbhajan makes dropping Harbhajan easier

Thoughts?

Probably doesn't make TOO much difference to India IMO.
Harbhajan has been poor, so Mishra probably won't be any worse, and one of Yuvraj or Raina were always going to be dropped for Sehwag anyway, this just makes the choice easier.

Hoggy_Bear wrote:Probably doesn't make TOO much difference to India IMO.
Harbhajan has been poor, so Mishra probably won't be any worse, and one of Yuvraj or Raina were always going to be dropped for Sehwag anyway, this just makes the choice easier.

Sounds reasonable.

Oh for god sake, get that Abhinav wotsit out of the sqaud.

i thought before the series that india could dominate for the next few years

now its gonna be england

Only side I can see stopping England is South Africa

Liam

SA attack without Steyn is worse than the Indian attack without Zak.In other words they dont have strength in depth nor do they have a world class spinner atm.Tahir is still unproven at Test level.

Liam_Main wrote:Only side I can see stopping England is South Africa

Sri lanka and Pakistan away are both potential banaskins that we havent really been preparing for.
England dont have a second spin option ready to step in ( patel looks like the current reserve, does he convince anyone hes test class?) or batsmen beyond Morgan who can deal with spinners. The Australia tour give me more confidence that our seamers can deal with the heat and flat wickets though.
West Indies at home should be a pushover. Even if the manage to make friends with their best players gaian they are still a poor side. Australia yet again? The worry there is that the Ashes wont be seen as such a big deal and complacency will step in ... an improved Australia could ambush England but I wouldnt bet my house on it.
South Africa in England...if Steyn is fit and they have Morkel back to his best this will be a stern test. England should be favourites but last time they came here those two were lethal. Tahir should be experienced by then , we'll know just how good he is or not. Maybe Kallis will have retired and maybe they will need a new keeper by then, but I suspect if England are numebr one theyd want to keep going to come here.
England in India ...winning there will be difficult. India will have had to replace a few of their big names by then though.

England have a very tough set of tests coming up. If they come through that lot without taking a beating then they really can claim to be a great side.

Liam_Main wrote:Only side I can see stopping England is South Africa

shanky is right lol..
.
south africa has no depth to the seam bowling attack, and until tahir has proved himself at the highest level in tests, all they have is harris and botha....

cricketfan90 wrote:

Liam_Main wrote:Only side I can see stopping England is South Africa

shanky is right lol..
.
south africa has no depth to the seam bowling attack, and until tahir has proved himself at the highest level in tests, all they have is harris and botha....

Maybe they do have no depth but they do have Steyn....its a bit silly to write them off when they have a bowler who can singlehandedly beat any team.

im not writing them off.... im just saying they have no strength in depth.. and of course it matters, cos if he gets injured, then south afrcia have no one decent to replace him!

cricketfan90 wrote:im not writing them off.... im just saying they have no strength in depth.. and of course it matters, cos if he gets injured, then south afrcia have no one decent to replace him!

Think Lonwabo Tsotsobe is being underrated, last time when India went over, they managed to get through Steyn and Morkel up front, but Tsotsobe did them in. He's still fresh to test cricket, and with time at the international level, I think he'll improve.
Its not easy to replace someone like Steyn, but I think SA will have a few decent seamers available. Parnell looked a defenit prospect.
Also Tahir, if he continues the way he started out in ODI cricket, should be a handful.