Tuesday, March 20, 2007

India - What Next?

India have beaten Bermuda and won with the biggest margin of victory ever!

However, the Bermudians sweated it out and it took India almost 44 overs to get them all out.

Ajit Agarkar has always been an elusive enigma and although he picked up 3 late wickets, I do not see any match winner in him and he needs to go before the next match against SL - Pathan should be brought in in his place. Especially against the left handers like Jayasuriya, we need Pathan and we definitely do not not need Hit-Me Agarkar.

Kumble has to play, he is the only spinner India needs to go in playing 11 with. No Harbhajan Singh please.

With Sehwag hitting a wonderful century, winning the MoM and gaining in confidence, it is now difficult to sack him. Also, another interesting fact is that Sehwag has always done well against Sri Lankans and it may play on their minds. So I might actually make a U turn and say that we can keep Sehwag! I think we can bat him down the order as well.

I would recommend replacing Agarkar with Pathan and no other changes in the team.

This group has been an amazing group and things are getting more and more interesting. With three more matches to go, nothing can be taken for granted. One nation's future will depend on how the other 2 nations play against each other. Such a shame! When One Day cricket started, no one would have thought of this term 'NRR'! But now, it is a term which will decide the destiny of an entire nation!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you. Pathan needs a way in, in place of Hit me man. Hitme gives a lot of width and batsmen enjoy the feast.

Bhajji is useless when he is playing under pressure situations. He simply gives up...

Cuckoo said...

I totally agree with you.
We just can't match Kumble with Bhajji.

Agrakar too has enjoyed till now & should be kept out. I don't understand why he was in !

Now that Viru has already scored a ton, do you think he is going to hit a big score again in the very next match ?
I don't recollect him scoring big scores in consecutive matches. To me, he scores only just to keep him in the team when his place is in danger & then sits quietly for next 5-6 matches.

So, if we go by this thinking, Srilankans don't have to worry about Sehwag in the next match. ;)

Unknown said...

Well, you are right for Harbhajan and Agarkar. Kumble is far better when it comes to crunch moment and Pathan is definitely great choice over agarkar when you are playing for regular team like SL.
Let's see what happens against SL. We are not really so worse to get out of super-8. So, hoping for best.

Ranjeet said...

Abhijit:
Yeah. I think Bhajji has lost the knack of 'how to bowl when'. I think we need newer off spinners in the country.

Cuckoo:
About viru, I kind of agree with you, but still would like to retain Viru for the next match only for my gut-feel (no logic, only gut -feel). Am I sounding like Dravid here? ;-) No, my point was that SL really look up to Sehwag ashe has always been their tormentor. So it will act just as a psychological ploy if nothing else and as Prem Paniker says: 'mind is name of this game'
So let us wait and watch!

Santosh:
Honestly, I am not too hopeful about India's chances to enter Super 8's. But I would love to be wrong! :-)

Abhijit Dharmadhikari said...

Ranjeet, we already have a very good off-spinner...Ramesh Powar! No need to find out another new one! Despite his very good performance in the recent past, he has been dropped:-(

Ranjeet said...

Abhijit,

I couldn't agree more with you when you mentioned Ramesh Powar. He is better than bhajji, he flights the ball better, is more traditional and bats better in domestic competition too.
He did deserve the chance as I had mentioned here