New Zealand v India, 1st Test, Hamilton, March 18-22

Grudge.

Dravid and Laxman will be back. The big question is who will be the 3rd seamer to partner Zak and Ishant? Munaf? Dhawal? Balaji?

doremi wrote:Grudge.

I don't bear a grudge. To me a grudge is somewhere you park your car.

Hopefully we'll have more than 40 overs per day.

Would be interesting to see how the pitches turn out. Our attack is superior to theirs, but Ishant looked a bit mediocre in the ODIs. Hopefully that's just the side-effects from the injury.

Indians should win by an innings . . . anything less would be a failure . . .

BanIndia.

The big question is who will be the 3rd seamer to partner Zak and Ishant? Munaf? Dhawal? Balaji?

Indeed. Considering Munaf's mental frailities, Dhawal's newbieness, Balaji may just get the nod as 3rd seamer.

Batting lineup picks itself. This could be make or break tour for Yuvraj's test ambitions.

Isn't Praveen Kumar in the test squad?

Nope, he isn't.

Sreesanth is fit again as well, isn't he? He could cause havoc in NZ conditions like he did in South Africa. Seems like 2 of India's best seamers for the conditions aren't there.

Sree got to sort himself first.

He again embroiled himself in a brawl in a birthday party last week. He was bleeding profusely and had to be taken out on a stretcher.

I feel Munaf will do well in test matches (if he's fit enough). Else, Praveen Kumar deserves a chance. Lot of people feel PK wouldn't be a good test bowler, but his first class record is excellent,, better than any of the indian pacers. And NZ and Eng are the places he has the best chance of doing well.

Sreesanth, if he wasn't such a dumb f@rk, could have been an excellent test bowler.

SG wrote:Sree got to sort himself first.

He again embroiled himself in a brawl in a birthday party last week. He was bleeding profusely and had to be taken out on a stretcher.

He got bitch slapped again?

Henry wrote:Sreesanth is fit again as well, isn't he? He could cause havoc in NZ conditions like he did in South Africa. Seems like 2 of India's best seamers for the conditions aren't there.

3. If it was upto me, I'd have picked RP ahead of Balaji and Dhawal. PK as well, though I thought it was harsh he wasn't picked for the test squad.

Praveen's Ranji form this season was patchy to say the least.

Saw the scorecards for the domestic NZ matches, both Dravid and Mishra seem to have had decent games, and Laxman and Balaji also should be satisfied with the practice.

In any case Mishra would be lucky to play a test in this series.

Yeah, unless Bhajji is absolutely horrible in both the first two tests, I can't see him coming in. Or our 3rd seamer turns out even worse than expected.

we may well go with 2 spinners

praveen isnt much good once the ball loses its shine though is he? i'd give munaf the nod, as long as he's fit

Right, Firstly I'm expecting Dravid to score big in this game. He'll be targeting Mills and Vettori I feel, as they're usually the biggest threats for New Zealand.

Weather permitting, I reckon both teams will score big in their first innings. The 3rd and 4th innings will be where a mini collapse occurs. Not sure where it will come from, because both teams are prone to unstability in the middle order.

Hopefully Mishra will play; as I reckon there'll be a bit of turn because Vettori will demand something (from the Groundsmen) as the match progresses. This being the case then Bhajji will probably get the nod over Mish if there is a tie break.


My Indian attack would be.

Zak
Sharma
Patel
Mishra

with Ganguly and SRT bowling stock.


My NZ attack,

Martin
Mills
O'Brien
Vettori

It does make sense for India to play 2+2 spin/pace combo rather than playing 3+1 just for the sake of it.

Still Balaji has very bright chances of making a comeback to Indian test team as he underwent extended nets under the supervision of Kirsten and Dhoni.

Some stats to ponder,

1) NZ hasn't lost a test at this venue for 9 years. They've won 4/6 tests here in last 9 years.

2) Vettori's last few scores at this ground: 137*, 20, 53, 88 and 35.

3) India is yet to win a test at this venue.

SG wrote:Some stats to ponder,

1) NZ hasn't lost a test at this venue for 9 years. They've won 4/6 tests here in last 9 years.

That's a stat to be amazed by. Didn't think NZ had played enough Tests in the last 9 yeras to have racked up 6 at any single venue.

It's a green top again. Kiwis don't want to take any chances after the one day flop show.

This should turn to India's advantage since we have a good stock of pace bowlers to succeed in such conditions. We have a better batting side again, and if we flop again, we should have no excuses or not winning this time....

Even last time despite the cow pastures we got, technically we had a better batting side on paper and yet we failed to cross 250-300 once and that made all the difference between victory and defeat - our inability to get even manageable 50 run leads that would have been very handy back then.

DJ_Smerk wrote:


My Indian attack would be.

Zak
Sharma
Patel
Mishra

with Ganguly and SRT bowling stock.

Bit mean to call SCG out of retirement and send him to New Zealand of all places