Dravid dropped!

That 75 was scored just minutes before the team was announced.

Or that team announcement was deliberately delayed to give him 1 final chance?

He's never been a great one day player. He might have been better off playing in the early Ranji Trophy games to try and present an un-answerable case to be picked for the Australian tour. I can see what they're thinking though, trying to keep him in and around the Indian team setup.

I guess him and Gambhir will be fighting for a spot in the top 3 in the ODI team.

Despite my reservations over his selection in Indian team, I'd anyday have Sehwag in my team ahead of Gambhir.

Agreed. But I get the feeling Gambhir will start ahead of Sehwag in the first ODI. Probably batting at 3. The team will be something like-

Tendulkar
Ganguly
Gambhir
Yuvraj
Uthappa
Dhoni
Pathan
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Kartik
Sreesanth

May be try Praveen kuman in place of sreesanth for a game or two and open the bowling with Pathan?

Yep, Sree is anyway useless in ODIs and Pathan bowls at his best with new ball.

The question is whether badrinath,tiwary,rohit will retain the favors of some members here if they fail(as they are likely to initially in nonasian conditions ) . Raina is yet to show he can master nonasian conditions for example.

they will take time to get used to less familiar conditions and this may take more than one series.

And another factor is the standard of aussie cricketers is very high and would not be something they have seen before. in domestic cricket they face fit for nothing trundlers like joginder. Its a different ball game when facing Clark or johnson.they will probably take a frightful beating in one series vs australia before getting used to them.

whether this tour should be the one? its for selectors to decide.i think it does not matter giving them a go in onedayers provided they are backed on a long term basis.

trident wrote:The question is whether badrinath,tiwary,rohit will retain the favors of some members here if they fail(as they are likely to initially in nonasian conditions ) . Raina is yet to show he can master nonasian conditions for example.

they will take time to get used to less familiar conditions and this may take more than one series.

And another factor is the standard of aussie cricketers is very high and would not be something they have seen before. in domestic cricket they face fit for nothing trundlers like joginder. Its a different ball game when facing Clark or johnson.they will probably take a frightful beating in one series vs australia before getting used to them.

whether this tour should be the one? its for selectors to decide.i think it does not matter giving them a go in onedayers provided they are backed on a long term basis.

aus 1999 comes to mind. the manner in which the likes of devang gandhi, jacob martin, kanitkar, msk prasad and vijay bhardwaj were exposed was brutal. even dravid and ganguly. only one man stood up.

SG wrote:Yep, Sree is anyway useless in ODIs and Pathan bowls at his best with new ball.

1. pathan has been good at first change, tying the runs down but i feel harbhajan/kartik can do this just as well.

2. santh gives us a wkt taking option which we otherwise lack in the middle overs.

for these reasons i feel santh should come on first change and pathan open with RP or zak - to hell with the left-right combo

You know I was watching re-runs of that series in Star Cricket a month ago and was absolutely appaled by the players we sent there.

Don't remember much of that series (the timing of the matches aren't really the best), but checked a few scores in cricinfo. Brutal describes it well.

But actually two men stood up.

if you mean laxman, then he did sfa apart from that 167 when the series was gone

The series was gone before we set foot on Aussie soil. Still he did decently in a side which batsmen really were atrocious and falling left right centre.

Ganguly didnt do too badly in the first 2 tests of that series. Saddagoppan Ramesh did alright as well, despite not getting really big scores, he hung in there pretty well.

I think India's young guns these days are a much more confident breed of cricketer than the likes of Gandhi, Bharadwaj, Kanitkar, and Martin were.

and the aussie bowling and pitches would be easier. still i wouldnt blood someone into test cricket there. not that any of the batsmen in that series debuted in it. that 1999 indian team went to australia with 6 batsmen averaging over 50. only one returned still averaging over 50

If Josh has his way, that one man won't set foot on Australian soil next month.

Ash wrote:

SG wrote:Yep, Sree is anyway useless in ODIs and Pathan bowls at his best with new ball.

1. pathan has been good at first change, tying the runs down but i feel harbhajan/kartik can do this just as well.

True. Pathan's record in ODIs suggests that he is a genuine wicket taker while opening the bowling.

I still remember Srinath and Prasad reducing Australia to 4/52 within the first session of the first test at Adelaide of that '99 test series, before Steve Waugh and Ponting hitting contrasting centuries to lift Aussies to a score of 440-odd. From that point on in the series, India never recovered.

And a young, 21 year old quick by the name of Ajit Agarkar was being talked about as the next big thing.