India in West Indies, June-July 2011

[PKBasu]

India will tour the West Indies in June and July, to play 5 ODIs and 3 Tests. The Tests are in Kingston, Jamaica and Bridgetown, Barbados -- the two most pace-friendly grounds in the West Indies -- and a place called Roseau (which, according to Wikipedia has a total population of less than 15,000!). Clearly, financial acumen is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the West Indies Cricket Board (with regard to Roseau), although the choice of the other two venues is savvy enough from a cricketing standpoint.

I hope Virat Kohli is brought into the Test squad. Based on domestic performances, Parthiv Patel and Manoj Tiwary should come into the ODI squad, and Saha should probably retain his place as reserve 'keeper for Tests. I think Unadkat should still go on tour, to hone his skills and get ready for the England tour (where he should be useful). Pankaj Singh would appear to be the other pacer with a good chance of getting a look-in based on domestic performances.

[prasen9]

For tests, my pecking order among the bowlers would be Zaheer, Sreesanth, and Ishant in that order for the first test and then if there is a spinning wicket, whoever performs the worse of the latter two gets put out to pasture. Backup R.P. Singh. He was good in England last year. Get his form back. Balaji if fit and does well in the IPL could get a look in. If you are taking 5 pacers, then I have no choice. Unadkat, Mithun, Pankaj Singh whatever.

[Prashant]

No Munaf? I haven't seen the Unadkat and Pankaj types yet, but I think India should be bold enough to take 5 fast bowlers to the Caribbean, at least for the tests. If you're going to give a youngster a chance, do it at a place like Bridgetown which is helpful, and see what he can do. They should play 3 (Zak +2) in every test if possible.

[Atithee]

If we want to be bold, we should rest Zak and let others learn to be strike bowlers. Where else to do this than WI -- the den of fast bowlers (at least it used to be) and arguably the weakest WI team ever.

[gbelday]

I wouldn't drop Zak. Not sure what we would achieve by dropping him. We may end up losing the series. He would not only lose his (deserved) chance of playing, he would also lose out on monetary benefits!

[PKBasu]

I hope the selectors don't pay too much attention to the IPL in choosing our pace bowlers for the Test series. My choice of pacers for the Tests would be (in this order) Zaheer, Sreesanth, Ishant, Unadkat, Pankaj Singh, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh. For a tour of the West Indies, we probably need at least 5, if not 6.
For the ODIs, I would pick (in this order) Zaheer, Munaf, Praveen, Dinda, Vinay Kumar. I feel sorry for Nehra (after his fine 2/33 against Pakistan), but he showed his age in this World Cup (and during the past six months, after a great initial comeback). Of course, the IPL would help sort out choices for the ODI series.

[prasen9]

No Munaf? I haven't seen the Unadkat and Pankaj types yet, but I think India should be bold enough to take 5 fast bowlers to the Caribbean, at least for the tests.

Oh, sorry. I would certainly have Munaf. He is clearly our #4 Test bowler by a distance. So, I would have Zaheer, Sreesanth, Ishant, Munaf, and RP Singh. In that order. For ODIs, Zaheer, Munaf, Praveen, Nehra, and Ishant.

[PKBasu]

It appears that several of our players -- including Sehwag -- have asked to be allowed to skip the West Indies tour. I suppose this was inevitable, given their hectic schedule. Should provide a nice opportunity to blood the next-in-line, although it is sad that we are doing this to the West Indies. (At one time, England regularly did this to us, the last occasion being in 1972-73 when Boycott and Illingworth decided not to come to India, and Tony Lewis of Glamorgan made his test debut at the Kotla as England's captain).

[PKBasu]

Badrinath should surely be on the plane to the West Indies, to play both tests and ODIs. Pujara hasn't done his chances any good (but IPL is the wrong forum to judge him). Kohli too should definitely be in the Test side, hopefully replacing Dravid now (and not too much later). We may need Dravid in England, but should rest him for the West Indies. With Viru and Dhoni likely not to go, my preferred XI for the first test would be:

Gambhir (c), Parthiv (wk), Kohli, Tendulkar, Laxman, Badrinath, Yuvraj (batting allrounder), Harbhajan, Zaheer, Ishant, Sreesanth

12th man: Pujara. The rest of the XVI would comprise Amit Mishra, RP Singh, Manoj Tiwary/Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha. I suspect, though, that the selectors may go with an additional pacer, in which case Vijay/Tiwary would be replaced by someone like Vinay Kumar or Praveen (if fit by then).

[Prashant]

I don't think India should ever go back to the days of having only one specialist opener. Parthiv is not really an opening bat, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise. I don't know who is next in line, probably Vijay. I know that means dropping a middle order bat.

[Atithee]

Has Dhoni also asked to be rested?

[suresh]

Badri won't make to WI. I see a pattern in his non-selection given that Dhoni is his CSK captain. (To illustrate the issue) Somehow Dhoni rates Albie Morkel's batting higher than Badri -- he feels that he can't score fast enough. I strongly disagree because two fours are always better than a six and a dot ball. Not that Badri can't hit sixes but he plays minimising risk and at a brisk pace, if necessary. Seeing him in action after a while, I think he should be in the Indian team, possibly ahead of Raina, in ALL forms of the game!

[PKBasu]

I agree that Badri should be picked ahead of Raina in all forms of the game. But Raina did show excellent temperament when it mattered in the World Cup, so I would want him in the ODI side at #7.

[PKBasu]

Sunny Gavaskar seems to really rate Manoj Tiwary highly. He was wondering aloud on air yesterday why his talent (and consistent performances in domestic cricket and IPL4) aren't grabbing the selectors' attention more.

[PKBasu]

I agree with Bhajji's assessment that Rayudu should be playing for India some day. He did well in the Ranji season this year for Baroda, without dominating (especially in the key knock-out game). His performances in IPL3 and 4 surely suggest genuine talent. There is quite a queue for India places though -- with Badri, MK Tiwary and Rayudu trying to get in behind (or alongside?) Raina, Pujara, Rohit Sharma (plus the fading Sourabh Tiwary). I presume Viraat Kohli is first in line ahead of this entire lot.