India v Pakistan, 1st Test, Delhi, 22-26 Nov

SG wrote:VVS did deserve this chance, though him and Ganguly must be skating on very thin ice atm.

Meanwhile Munaf and Ishant Sharma have been drafted in the squad in place of injured Sree and RPS. Its also more or less certain that Bhajji would partner Kumble as India's second spinner for this test which means that India's starting lineup for this test would be,

Karthik
Jaffer
Dravid
Tendulkar
VVS
Ganguly
Dhoni+
Zaheer
Kumble*
Bhajji
Munaf

Very noble if the captain decides to bat lower than Zaheer, especially considering he scored a century in his last Test match!

Harbachuck is so rubbish these days...... why would India pick him?

It's not going to rain is it? I'm getting up early to watch this.

indias team has a very stale look to it. i reckon pak might surprise us in this series, they look more dynamic

Revealed: India tells curator to shave Kotla grass:

http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2007/nov/21grass.htm

Double failures (Combined with an Indian loss) in this Test could mean Ganguly and Laxman are dropped in favour of Yuvraj pretty quickly. Ganguly looked out of sorts in the ODI's, and Laxman has struggled for Hyderabad.

Id like to see the dynamic Laxman on display in this match, rather than the slow Laxman who tends to be 60 not out off 130 balls at the end of the innings. Id bat him at 3, but it wont happen.

I really like the bloke but i want to see laxman bag a pair.

Him getting axed for the aus tour would be great news for us.

Can't believe Yuvraj has not been picked.

Already?

Aathma wrote:It's not going to rain is it? I'm getting up early to watch this.

No it'll not rain in Delhi. Weather is absolutely fine and pleasant with maximum temperature somehwere around 24 and minimum 12. Humidity is also in acceptable limits at 77%.

I'm a Delhite and hence you can trust me on that.

Word is that Gul is out of this test match due to back strain.

SAMI is being tipped to be his replacement. FFS, is he still the best replacement they've got? What's happened to Pakistan's fast bowling production line? Sounds like it's grinded to a halt.

Henry wrote:SAMI is being tipped to be his replacement. FFS, is he still the best replacement they've got?

Lawsom seemed to be quite happy with Sami's presence in Pak squad. He said Sami is taking bucketful of wickets in Pak's domestic cricket and even took a 8-for in an innings.

We've heard that one before. The fact is, he averages close to 50 with the ball after 20 odd Tests.

Looks like Shoaib is still taking drugs.

Some stats about Kotla,

Pak has played 5 tests against India here and yet to win a single test. They lost 2 out of those 5 tests.

India's new captain Kumble has played 5 tests here and has taken 48 wickets in those 5 tests and whats more India emerged victorious on all those 5 occasions, twice against Zims and once against Aus, Pak and SL.

So Kotla is Kumble's favorite hunting ground.

Henry wrote:We've heard that one before. The fact is, he averages close to 50 with the ball after 20 odd Tests.

He last played a test match 11 months back.

Who knows he might've changed afterall.

Shoaib Malik has won the toss and Pak will be batting first.

The myth about Pakistan's bottomless pool of talent has always been that, just a myth.

if you tell yourself that your team is the most talented but inconsistent in the world you start to believe it.

But the truth is if you keep having to go back to sami and you can't find a decent opener then your talent pool isn't as great as you think it is.

SG wrote:
Lawsom seemed to be quite happy with Sami's presence in Pak squad. He said Sami is taking bucketful of wickets in Pak's domestic cricket and even took a 8-for in an innings.

As those of us in Australia already know and the world is about to find out, lawson has a habit for talking utter rubbish that nobody takes any notice of.

Here are the 2 lineups,

India: 1 Wasim Jaffer, 2 Dinesh Karthik, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Anil Kumble (capt), 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Munaf Patel.

Pakistan: 1 Salman Butt, 2 Yasir Hameed, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Shoaib Malik (capt), 6 Misbah-ul-Haq, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Mohammad Sami, 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 Danish Kaneria.

please don't yell wrote:lawson has a habit for talking utter rubbish that nobody takes any notice of.

I think that was before he was in some official position. He might've changed a bit after becoming coach of a national team.

Will it turn from day 1?

if not sounds like a bad toss for india to lose with only 2 seamers.

Delhi is experiencing start of winter which means some early morning movement for seamers on all 5 days, possibly.

I think it'll turn from 2nd day onwards.

please don't yell wrote:if not sounds like a bad toss for india to lose with only 2 seamers.

I think its a given that India will play atleast 2 spinners in a home test.