India at Adelaide

well, we have to go all-out for the win, that would mean 5 bowlers. who is to be dropped to accomodate bhajji? logically jaffer, but then who opens. dravid? pathan? hard decision, probably pathan i would guess. he has the technique and dravid mentally cant open. no other option presents itself. so

sehwag
pathan
dravid
tendulkar
ganguly
laxman
dhoni
kumble
harbhajan
rp
sharma

In theory this looks like a god line-up, but having two batsmen opening who are more likely to make quick 30s and 40s than centuries is perhaps a bigger gamble than necessary.

However, Adelaide, assuming it is much the same as last year, is just the sort of pitch that could see Sehwag blaze away happily while all the other batsmen struggle to score quickly, so it might just be worth it.

problem is fitting in 5 bowlers and you cant drop sehwag and the big 4. dhoni as wk, and jaffer is the only choice

I'd stick with the same team.

Surely with all four bowlers performing so well at Perth India should be confident in the same bowling line-up. They've also got Sehwag's off-breaks, Ganguly's seamers and Tendulkar's all-sorts so I would resist the temptation to recall Harbhajan. It has been the batting that has looked like letting them down more often and they needed the deep batting to get all of their runs here.

My XI:

Karthik
Sehwag
Dravid
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Laxman
Dhoni
Pathan
Kumble
RP Singh
Karma

Only change is the out of form Jaffer making way for the more attacking Karthik - I think taking the attack to the pace of Lee & Johnson is the best way to go.

I don't see Bhajji fit in. Adelide will be more helpful to Pacers. Jaffar will get the drop I suppose and Karthick will make the squad. The remaining will stay as is...

Same team.

Jaffer was looking woeful in the first 2 tests. He should have been dropped then. He wasn't. Now when he sems to be getting used to it and actually looking a bit decent in the middle, he shouldn't be dropped now, atleast not for another batsman.

I'd go with:

Dravid
Sehwag
Laxman
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Dhoni
Pathan
Kumble
Harbhajan
RP
Sharma

punterb wrote:I'd go with:

Dravid
Sehwag
Laxman
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Dhoni
Pathan
Kumble
Harbhajan
RP
Sharma

India never win tests with 5 bowlers. Not happening. Dravid opening means another defeat. It's a jinx. Nope. We should not play 5 bowlers. We need 6 batters. No more experiments in Aus.