Indian team for the second test

Don't know why they picked Saha in the first place and even more puzzled on why he played ahead of other batsmen. He managed 36 runs ,same as M.Vijay yet gets dropped after one test.

Probably because Vijay looks like a test batsman while Saha doesn't. While making those 36 runs, he was reprieved no less than 2 times in the 2nd innings by umpire. It has nothing to do with them making similar no. of runs.

Saha probably won't play a test again. He was just plain lucky due to Rohit's injury.

What an idiot Srikanth is!!!

Doesn't leave an opportunity to pitchfork TN players in the team. And why the hell does Dhoni require a cover for every test he plays? Simply wastes a slot in the squad of 15. If he isn't fit then throw him out of the team.

But then if they can't even drop the likes of Ishant and Bhajji then forget about Dhoni to be dropped.

And I see FTB is there. What? For tests? He can't even play fast bowling in ODIs and they pick him for tests?

Surely, 2-0 to SA.

SG wrote:

Don't know why they picked Saha in the first place and even more puzzled on why he played ahead of other batsmen. He managed 36 runs ,same as M.Vijay yet gets dropped after one test.

Probably because Vijay looks like a test batsman while Saha doesn't. While making those 36 runs, he was reprieved no less than 2 times in the 2nd innings by umpire. It has nothing to do with them making similar no. of runs.

Saha probably won't play a test again. He was just plain lucky due to Rohit's injury.

But Saha was picked as a second WK and should be primarily be judged on those skills. The comparison to M Vijay was tongue in cheek.

But Saha was picked as a second WK and should be primarily be judged on those skills.

True.

But considering that Dhoni won't be dropped anytime soon and Srikanth's continuing love affair with TN players, it was inevitable for Saha to be dropped.

Raina vs Steyn/Morkel is going to be painful watching.

And they need to play Ohja instead of Harby. At least he'll keep it tight.

Apparently, Srikanth has offered to resign owing moral responsibility of India's rout in the first test but only if someone asks him to do so.

How responsible that stand is!!!!

Dhoni on his business partner,

"He's a great bowler and I'm not worried about that. That's what stats suggest, he's been doing really well, you've always seen him come back in big games, he's a big-game player. He's got the experience because of which he knows exactly what to do,"

Which probably means that his buddy isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

the dhoni honeymoom seems to be ending pretty quickly. hope he realises that soon enough and keeps the team interests in mind

The One wrote:the dhoni honeymoom seems to be ending pretty quickly. hope he realises that soon enough and keeps the team interests in mind

As badly as Bhaji bowled on the first day, he was poorly served by his skipper's tactics - SA were gifted 3 - 4 runs per over without having to break sweat due to some fairly ordinary field-placement.

Despite Indian Cricket making good strides in the last decade or so some of the traditional issues have not gone away and keep bubbling underneath.

1. The excessive focus on batting much to the determent of bowling and fielding skills. A lot of this is due to the fans who glorify batting stats ahead of team results.
2. Fat cat syndrome - Once a player has had some career stats and a reputation, he just cannot be dropped. It can only be through retirement, injury or misertable failures over extended period of time. Fat cats are given long ropes at the expense of team welfare.
3. Regionalism - Power blocks in the influential zones who make up BCCI will need to be kept at bay by an unwritten quota system. Can add Selectors' own regional biases to this.
4. Lack of focus on fitness and fielding. This particular issue will just not allow India to sustain any gains they make momentarily.
Off the potential 12 for the next test from a fielding perspective this is my assessment:
Sloth (lethargy) category - Zaheer, Sehwag, Laxman, Mishra
OK - M Vijay, Dhoni
Just passable - Gambhir, Tendulkar, Bhaji (can be argued that he is a sloth), Ishant
Good - Bardinath, Raina

5. Fitness - What can we say about this perhaps the least fit team amongst the top ones. More so when rules are bent to accomodate the fat cats.

SG wrote:Dhoni on his business partner,

"He's a great bowler and I'm not worried about that. That's what stats suggest, he's been doing really well, you've always seen him come back in big games, he's a big-game player. He's got the experience because of which he knows exactly what to do,"

Which probably means that his buddy isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

It was certain yesterday itself when he said he hoped Bhajji would get his form back in Kolkotta.

can someone twist bhajji's ankle? or his neck

Worst thing with Bhajji is that he doesn't even get injured. I don't even remember when was the last time he was declared unfit against a major test playing nation.

So is this karma striking wrt Bhajji? Had he been disciplined appropriately following some/all of his previous quntish acts, he may well have been dropped or retired in frustration by now.

We were beaten by some excellent pace bowling and lack of batsmen... So what do we do? We bring in the weakest young batsman against pace going about now (and an out of left field selection as well as Rahane, Pujara, Pandey, Kohli probably are in front of him wrt recent form) and another wicketkeeper. Brilliant.

Saha's an excellent keeper and an OK lower order batsman.

raina was picked probably since he's left-handed. i cant think of any other reason why he would suddenly jump the queue

or maybe because he plays for the chennai super kings

Maybe they wanted a like for like replacement for Yuvraj, only shitter in every possible way...

doremi wrote:Maybe they wanted a like for like replacement for Yuvraj, only shitter in every possible way...

Is that even possible?

Of the young batsmen India has, i'll tip Kohli and Pujara to make it.......If they're ever given a chance. From what i've seen and heard, they both have the temperement as well as the technique.

Raina is a slogger. He doesn't even have a great first class record. If they're only picking him because he's left handed then they would have been better off talking Ganguly out of retirement. Actually in reality I think Shikhar Dhawan would have been a better option.

dhoni seems to have his blue-eyed boys. raina is one of them

Losing both the test and ODI series to SA at home may not be a bad thing for Indian Cricket in the long run. But this is on the assumption that the powers to be learn and evolve instead of dismissing this as one of those things.