India's Burgeoning Bag of Injuries

So here we go, Virender Sehwag has touched down on English Soil, Gautam Gambhir is back to fittness, and there is hope on Zaheer Khan. It seemed India has a full squad to choose from.
Alas, not really. Yuvraj Singh, and Harbhajan Singh have joined the list of injured, and will not be available for the rest of the series.
Virat Kohli and Pragyan Ojha are named replacements.
Yuvraj's injury is a matter of concern. The guy had a fantastic World Cup, then got an infection before the WI tour and missed. Because Suresh Raina performed well in the WI, Yuvraj couldn't find a place in India's starting 11 for the first test. Then Gautam Gambhir got injured and Yuvraj got an opening. He made it count, with a timely 62 in the first innings, and doing a decent job with the ball, outshining India's main spinner. And right during that game he got hit, and will be out of action for at least 4 weeks.

Harbhajan has been his usual lackluster self throughout the series, picking up just 2 wickets in the series and leaking runs big time. Its unfortunate for anyone to get injured, and its hard luck Bhaji, but we won't miss you one bit.
Did the selectors get it right with the replacements?
Kohli is a defenit prospect for the future. Although he has already become a good ODI cricketer, the WI tour suggested he has some ways to go before establishing himself at the test level. Also considering Sehwag and Gambhir are getting back from injuries, and Abhinav Mukund hasn't really established himself as the 3rd choice opener, may be there was a case for Wasim Jaffer?
Pragyan Ojha has had his chances in test cricket, and never really nailed down a squad position for himself. He doesn't turn it big, and there is not much of a 2nd string with the bat either. Ravichandran Ashwin, although somewhat unfairly treated, has shown he is up for international cricket. He has decent variations, has done way better than Mishra, Ojhaa, Chawla, and of course Harbhajan in recent times. He slso can score a few down the order. May be he should have been given his first test opportunity. An Offy being replaced by another offy makes sense as well.

Surely Indias team for 3rd tests will be:

Sehwag
Gambhir
Dravid
Tendulkar
Laxman
Raina
Kohli
Dhoni (c + wk)
Mishra
Kumar
Khan
Sreesanth/Sharma

You think they'll have to play 12 players to be competitive Gregers?

Well that'll be the 12 man squad!

Khan will play if fit.

Then Sree/Sharma over Raina or Kohli

This should be Amit Mishra's last chance at redemption. He is a triditional leg spinner who can turn it big. Although he started out with a 5fer on test debut against Australia, Mishra hasn't been able to show enough of consistency so far. He had an outstanding ODI series in the WI, but by the time the test series roled around he bowled as if he forgot how to bowl.
Anyways, thanks Bhaji, not really hoping to see you soon, comeback if only you can rediscover some hunger for wickets. some time out should really help.

If Mishra does well though do you think that will effectivly retire harbijan? Hes gone for teh series now, and can only be described as old.
It would b hard to see him getting his place back after such a sustained priod of mediocrity

Id assume that with all the othr changes Raina will keep his place ahead of kholi who would be a massive gamble anyway.

The choice t seems its between sreesanth and sharma (if khan can play). The big weakness in the side is going to be the lack of places to turn if one of the bowlers, especialy mishra, is getting hit. Again its easy to envisage their main seamers getting fatigued after a good start.
Theres also a lot of pressuree on the top 5 to produce finally, but you have an opener coming back from a long injury in conditons that dont suit hs style wth almost no proper preperation.

Its hard to see them winning this game, although England are prone to havng silly sessions and losing wickets in clusters regardless of who is bowling at them.

As I said, Mishra's problem has been consistency. even if he has a good 2 tests in England, unless he can't reproduce similar efforts consistently, Harbhajan will be back.
India was the land of great spinners, it seems Anil Kumble was the lst of them.

Admitedly playing the moving all hasn't beenVirender Sehwag's greatest strength, but he's one batter who can make conditions irrelevant. remember it was in England that he successfully converted himself into an opener with an 84 at Lord's and a hundred at Trent Bridge.

If Zak is fit, then its a toss between Ishant and Sree. I think the latter just edges it. they both are strike bowlers, and if you want some lower order grid with the bat, then don't look beyond Ishant. But he's prone to the frequent mediocre spels. With Amit Mishra usually going for a few and Zaheer just coming back, don't think India can afford that.

With Yuvraj out, Raina should keep his place. contrary to expectations, Virat Kohli had a real struggle with the short ball in the West Indies against Fidel and co. Raina too has got similar problems, but he sourt of worked out something of a technnique that gets him going. so at least for the 3rd test, I don't see Kohli in the mix.

dhoni will also be concerned with over rates..

he is on a last warning, and india only bowling 12-13 overs an hour, and they should be 15-16

They do keep letting him get away with it, I guess they used the Indias p*ss poor fielding as an excuse...it takes themand etra 10 seconds a ball to get it bak to the keeper even when they are trying.

Given how much slow bowling they use there really isnt an excuse, its not even like tehyve been taking that many wickets. England are getting through more even when having to stop every 5 minutes for a wcket or injury.

There wlcome a point where a match referee will have to have the guts to enforce the rules. Hes already had two warnings in the last 12 months,
the new regulations say 1 warning is all you get ..had they come in sooner he would laready have had his ban.


However I would like to see England face a full strength India side, so it would be sad to see Dhoni banned.But I dont like the idea that they can slow the game down to suit them with no reprecussion...its bad for cricket.

yh but you can only play what is put infront of you lol.....

It'll be interesting to see how the England bowlers deal with Sehwag if he plays in the 3rd Test. When he gets going he can knock any bowler out of their rhthym - well except Steyn . Big test for the English bowlers if he gets a start and knocks them to all parts. Although they have come through every test with flying colours so far.

yes but sehwag wont be match fit, i highly doubt he will be able to play the innings he ususally plays

Yes but that's all the more reason for him to start clattering it around the ground. If he gets to 20/30 he may think he needs to make the most of it because he can't spend long spells at the crease - just one way of looking at it. Depends how well the shoulder has rehabilitated I suppose.

he wont be able to come out and just swing, im not even sure he is fit enough to play to be honest

What's makes you say that? He was given a further 2 weeks off on top of his recommended rehab period so his shoulder should be well mended. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

the player that india will need back is gambhir

liverbnz wrote:What's makes you say that? He was given a further 2 weeks off on top of his recommended rehab period so his shoulder should be well mended. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Depending oin the weather forcast.

If its wet then Indian really can start to feel like all the gods including ours hate them.

Sehwag and Gambhir at the top would give the lineup a lot of confidence. If thy get going, then the solid middle order will have something to build on. If Sehwag gets going, he can take on any bowler. Playing the swinging ball may not be his greatest strength, but he has scored runs in England, South Africa, and Australia. He's the kind of player who can make conditions irrelevant ones he gets going.

msp83 wrote:Sehwag and Gambhir at the top would give the lineup a lot of confidence. If thy get going, then the solid middle order will have something to build on. If Sehwag gets going, he can take on any bowler. Playing the swinging ball may not be his greatest strength, but he has scored runs in England, South Africa, and Australia. He's the kind of player who can make conditions irrelevant ones he gets going.

Sehwag averages 24 overall in SA and 19 as an opener.He averages 20 in NZ.So its clear that he doesnt fancy the moving ball.But I do agree that if he gets going then he will take us apart.We need to get him early.

Thats some pretty shocking stats. It shows just how much he makes mincemeat of bowling when he has it easy though.
Wonder how much Mukund would average in those places though.....

Steyn got him out a whole lot of the last tour if I remember.

It was in SA Sehwag scored his first test ton in his debut match, coming in at 68-4.
Rahul Dravid's first Australian tour produced only 93 runs, and in India's last tour of England, he had a terrible time. Don't think Stats tell you everythig.

The fact he has a century in SA and still avergaes that low shows just how much he has struggled in those conditions the rest of the time.
It doesnt take stats to tell you that big hitting limited over specialists struggle against the moving ball. Everyone does to be fair, but a Boycott type is usually going to do better than a Sehwag.
Alistair Cook being the exception, he cant play in English conditions.

It's generally those with poor/no footwork that struggle against the moving ball. Cook's footwork is quite poor although has improved a little. Sehwag is known for his lack of footwork, although he uses it to his advantage most of the time. Sehwag is a little more than a limited over specialist though.

Sehwag is a far, far better test player than an ODI one. Although he scores his runs at a fine strike rate, his ODI average isn't great by any standards.
Sehwag struggled in SA last time around, and other than his debut series, he didn't play a full test series otherwise. One poor series doesn't tell you much, if that's the case, Sachin Tendulkar who averaged in the 20s in India's 07 tour to SA should have been a nobody.