Indian domestic cricket/ players

[prasen9]

Sampson is perhaps best suited for T20s. I would not mind giving him a few choices in LoIs because Pant totally loses his head in ODIs and T20Is and hits out irrationally. I would give Pant one more T20I series, three matches provided he bats in all of them. Otherwise, another series. And, if he does not shape up to be responsible, then we should go to Sampson in T20Is to see if he can cut it.

[Sin Hombre]

Scores of 17 year old Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Vijay Hazare cup so far

113(123)
22(33)
122(132)
203(154)

[prasen9]

Generally, I ask for systematic player development but Tendulkar taught me that if there is an absolute prodigy we should fast-track them into the A-team or may be the India-Red/Blue teams and then the A-team. Especially for Mumbai because their players play competitively at a high level and get good coaching in schools, etc. from an early age. So prodigies are more likely to shine at an early age if they are from Mumbai (and other places that have such cricket culture).

[sameerph]

Scores of 17 year old Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Vijay Hazare cup so far

113(123)
22(33)
122(132)
203(154)

He is youngest to score a double century in a list A match. Not heard much of him before but looks a great talent.

[prasen9]

PKB mentioned Shivalkar and Goel with respect to Shahbaz Nadeem. With all due respect, I beg to differ. Shivalkar and Goel had averages under 20! 18 something and 19 something. Nadeem is 28 something. Huge, huge difference even accounting for different eras.

[PKBasu]

The Ranji semifinals are more or less clear. Gujarat (who won by 464 runs over Goa) will play Bengal (up by 443 runs going into the fifth day against Odisha) in one semifinal, while Saurashtra (with a massive first innings lead over Andhra) and Karnataka (with a narrow first innings lead over J&K) will play the other semifinal.

[prasen9]

Sarfaraz Khan of Mumbai has had a fabulous season. He is supposedly fitter too. He should be kept an eye on. Very good domestic FC batting record.

Putting a qualifying of 650 runs, the following are the batting leaders by average: Khan, Dalal, Dogra, T. Kohli, P. Bisht, Mandeep Singh, S.K. Patel. All in the lower division except Khan and Mandeep. These two should be rewarded with A-team spots. While Mandeep is not too young, at 28, he is not too old either.

Putting a qualifying of 36 wickets, the bowling leaders by average are: Vinay Kumar, Udeshi, Unadkat, RS Yadav, HV Patel. All of these are in the lower division except Unadkat, I believe. Unadkat is the only one in the upper division. 65 wickets at 12.16 bringing his team back when Gujarat threatened in the semis. What a season! He should be back in the A-team.

[sameerph]

Saurashtra beat Bengal to win Ranji trophy for the first time. They have reached final 4 times in last 8 years though. This is an article on their captain,Jaydev Unadkat-

Unadkat deserves India call-up again: Ghavri

[prasen9]

Devdutt Padikkal has been smashing things in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 673 runs at 168 average assisted by his teammate Samarth 605 runs @151 average. SRs 95 and 105 respectively. RR Dalal 300 runs @150 (Arunachal) and PP Shaw 404 @135, SR 129 are the other top performers.

[PKBasu]

Shaw made 185* (and Yashaswi Jaiswal, his opening partner, 75) as Mumbai easily beat Saurashtra to make the Hazare Trophy semifinal.

[PKBasu]

The Hazare final will be Mumbai vs UP. The latter beat Gujarat in one SF, mainly by bowling out Gujarat quite cheaply (185), while Mumbai skipper Prithvi Shaw continued his blazing form, making 165 off 122 balls as Mumbai (322) easily beat Karnataka (250) despite Padikkal's run-a-ball 64.

Shaw is showing that he is utterly brilliant at dominating domestic bowlers -- to an extent that very few domestic players have ever been. He has dominated the Hazare Trophy like very few other batsmen have any domestic tournament. Now the real question (which may be answered partly in the IPL) is whether he has really addressed the weaknesses in technique that were exposed last season (and especially in Australia, in the one test he played).

[prasen9]

I don't expect him to be ready for overseas tests. Rohit still is not ready. But, I hope he can dominate in the IPL and then we will have an explosive option at the top of our order. I want him to force his way into the team for the WC in India.

[PKBasu]

Shaw and Padikkal's scores may also simply be a reflection of the poor quality of domestic bowling, in the absence of the large squads that Team India has assembled (and the fact that other India players not in the squad choose to skip the domestic competition). I am watching the Hazare final (switched on the TV with UP at 34 for no loss after 10 overs; they were 7/0 after 6 overs, including 2 maidens from Dhawal Kulkarni). The most interesting feature was the UP opener Kaushik choosing to face Shivam Dube without a helmet; this provoked Dube to bowl a few bouncers, which the batsman easily negotiated, and indeed the two openers hammered the ex-India allrounder for 24 runs in 3 overs. But the umpires told Kaushik (after 1 and a half overs from Dube) that he must wear a helmet when facing a medium-pacer!

UP now 87 for no loss off 21 overs. Still batting too slowly against everyone other than Dube. Shocking number of dot balls; these UP openers have no ability to score the regular singles to keep the scoreboard ticking.

[PKBasu]

Mumbai have an impressive leg-spinner called Prashant Solanki, playing his first season. He has 15 wickets and is now playing his 6th match of the tournament. Solanki and Shaw were absent for the Mushtaq Ali trophy (T20s), in which Mumbai lost to almost every team! Those two seem to have made all the difference.

Priyam Garg is another youngster with an impressive first-class record, averaging over 66. He is a former India under-19 captain. Played well today, but was troubled by Solanki and fell to the other spinner trying to clear the in-field.

[PKBasu]

Madhav Kaushik, who has an utterly mediocre career so far (best first-class score of 92, averaging less than 20 in List A matches) is batting on 86* in the Hazare final. He is the same guy who didn't want to don a helmet when facing Dube. Fine knock from him, after starting very slowly indeed.