NZ vs. India at Hyderabad

First topic message reminder :

--So tomorrow starts more test match cricket.....
NZ hit some highs by drawing a series in Aus and holding SA to a creditable draw batting out 4 sessions.....
and then they hot a low losing rather tamely to WI in WI.....
the diffrence I believe between the high and the low was John Wright who they sacked.....
I saw they have some good left arm seamers, and Bracewell is a poor man's Vernon Philander with bat and ball.
In the absence of Vettori....Patel gets a break
Ross Taylor and McCullum are IPL stars and amply familiar with India.

--India is India......back to tigers at home and lambs abroad status after their dabble with status on top on the bac¨k of some overseas wins...courtey Ganguly and Gary Kirsten.

We have to see if even their tigers at home status is unchallenged with VVSL and Dravid gone , Sehwag slowed and Tendulkar not so profilic any more.

England should be monitoring India's new middle order batters very very closely.....who are likely to be Pujara, Kohli and Rahane....exposing these will be Eng's best chance towards a battle of equality later.

What few notice but Kirsten remarked.....India's ascent was on the back of celver use and almost an equal contribution from their seamers, even in home conditions.

Zaheer is the best exponent of reverse after Wasim Akram....and Yadav is as fast as any one in the world on his day......produces half a dozen wicket taking balls...inspite of being expensive.

Indian spinners are not in the quality of Kumble and Harbhajan ( at his prime) anymore......but the pitches will ensure thay are a handful.

The Indian XI will be following.....i do not know enouhg about the NZ team to list the possible XI.

1) Sehwag
2) Gambhir
3) Rahane...althouhg a school of thouhg believes hanae should open and Sehwag to bat in the middle order
4) Tendulkar
5) Pujara
6) Kohli
7) Dhoni
8) Ashwin
9) Zaheer
10) Ojha
11) Yadav

Ashwin will be a real handful for England, but I thought Ohja bowled nicely as well.

If the pitches England play on are similar to this one and India win the toss it's going to be very difficult for England. Although their bowling attack will probably restrict India more (and they'll have the advantage of having seen more of Pujara, so found some potential weaknesses), scoring 350+ is going to be tough.

I hope Raina will be out and Rahane in by the time the England series starts.

msp83 wrote:I hope Raina will be out and Rahane in by the time the England series starts.

Raina is in because of Dhoni...
and Dhoni is stronger with a BIG win...he will keep Raina in...and if Raina scores some easy runs....whihc he might ....he will play agaiunst Eng also.

The worst scenario for Dhoni will be Raina fails in T2 also...and then he is forced by the selectors to bring Rahane in cold without any home games.....against a more organized opponent...albeith I repeat English bowling will not be any more thtreatening barring Finn, if he is played

I see Vettori is in the T20 Team...that plays in 2 weeks...so obviously his fitness level is considred good enouhg that he will be in playing shape in 2 weeks

KP_fan wrote:I see Vettori is in the T20 Team...that plays in 2 weeks...so obviously his fitness level is considred good enouhg that he will be in playing shape in 2 weeks

big difference between being fit enough to bowl in a T20 and fit enough to bowl in a test match to be fair. I'm sure if Vettori were fit enough to play he would do so.

Bowling a 4 over spel is one thing, bowling over after over in a test match is another. Vetori has come out of retirement for this tournament and New Zealand will be the better side because of that.

we are hearing that Amarnath will be sacked from the selction panel...inspite of being the front runner to be the chief selector.

and roger binny might take over from Srikkanth.

Amarnath wanted Dhoni replaced as the test macth captain....but the strong CSK lobby running BCCI...are strongly behind Dhoni.
BCCI is reportedly comitted to dhoni to give him the pitches and team..to win the next 10 home tests.......improve the team record and get the fans to feel-good again about the test matches

I don't think Dhoni should be replaced as captain in any format. The team is going through a period of change and evolution, a leadership change at this stage is not ideal. But at the same time Dhoni will have to give up a bit of stubbornness that he shows from time to time on team composition and roles of players. A bitt more attacking intent won't go a miss either. But at the same time it has to be said that he showed good captaincy skills when provided with a pitch where his bowling unit could do well. If the BCCI has in fact given Dhoni a commitment about maintaining good spinning pitches for the home tests then that is very good news for Indian cricket.

Ganguly makes good points...every Indian captain wins at home.......what makes an indian captain nd his team stand out is how they performa and what success they can deliver in foreign conditions.

Dhoni problems are two:
1) Agenda based selerctions
2) Lack of interest in test matches...

Many believe Saha keeping wkts and Gambhir captain for tests would have be a good way forward.

Howeevr for now Dhoni is looking like aiming for a 10-0....2-0 against NZ....4-0 against Eng and Aus each....get hsi battibg avearge to 42...restore team pride and interest of people in test cricket.

If Dhoni could do that then that would be a huge, never after 1993-4 has India been so dominant at home, even though they have been quite strong at home.
Now as far as Dhoni's strategy goes on selection, I won't call it personal agenda based. But he has shown a tendency to be a touch too stubborn on selection issues. He has tried to give players a long run particularly if they are experienced ones such as Harbhajan Singh who got an underserved extention in my view. Even the selection of Raina over Rahane has a sense of its own although I don't agree with that particular call. The fact is that Rahane has shown inconsistent form in ODIs despite his tallent and weight of first class runs. When he was given an opportunity with the A team in the West Indies he just couldn't find his touch unlike Pujara who was the top scorer of that series. At the same time Raina has been making consistent ODI runs. If they look at Pujara as the long term number 3, then Rahane's place in the side is that of the reserve opener. He has previous experience opening the innings for his Ranji side. Number 6 is a spot that often demands scoring quick runs and managing the tail, Raina can be quite useful doing that, if he could sort his technical issues out. Raina is a good fielder and is a decent parttime bowler with the happy nack of picking wickets and that could be a bonus factor that could go in his favor in a tight selection call.
But the problem is that I am not sure Raina has sorted his technical issues. You can be successful even though you have a bit of a problem with the short ball, ask Ganguly, but if your problem is one of getting caught in between playing or leaving every time and end up doing nothing then that would take some doing to sort out.
Now on Gambhir, first of all he has to regain his consistency and the big runs, he scored a test ton ages ago despite the number of starts he got in recent times. Can think of captaincy later.