Pakistan in India, 2012-2013

[prasen9]

Pakistan selected their teams. See Pak team. Their Shafiq is hurt and our Tiwary is hurt. So, our best available batsmen should be: SRT, VS, GG, VK, YS, SR, MSD. So, there is one place left for a backup bat. The batsman who has been tried and failed is Rohit. One option is to go back to him as the backup. The other would be to blood a new player. Maybe Pujara?

[prashanthm]

I think it will be better to leave Pujara and let him settle and cement his test spot before trying to transition his game for the needs of LOI's....

Rahane would be a very good choice for Limited Overs format....

[PKBasu]

Rahane, Uthappa, Rayudu would be the ones I'd be looking at. And perhaps Unmukt Chand, Mandeep Singh among the younger lot.

[prasen9]

Rahane could be an interesting choice. Rayudu, Uthappa, Unmukt, and Mandeep have not done that well in domestics. So, we will have to take a complete leap of faith that these guys will be able to tackle international bowlers when they have shown they cannot do so for domestic bowlers very well. Uthappa has failed in the ODI chances he got too. Don't know whether he has improved now. The people who have done well in the List-As are Pujara, Mithun Manhas, Saha, Dhawan, Vijay. I'd get Pujara in. He has a calm head and he will do fine. If we are giving chances to Rahane and Uthappa after they did not grab the ones they got, why not throw some to Vijay too.

[ankit1407]

Team for Pak tour of India

T20 squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Parvinder Awana, Piyush Chawla, Ambati Rayudu.

ODI squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shami Ahmed, Amit Mishra.

[prasen9]

So what happened to giving youngsters a fair run? Rahul Sharma got four ODIs. Why not try him for one more series?

I would choose Bhuvneshwar, Shami and Ishant for the ODIs. Dinda is good for T20s only, imho. I do not know how good these guys are, but, our choices were Sreesanth and Nehra. And, the selectors do not want to go back. Oh wait, Rohit and Amit Sharma are in the team. Scratch that. Whatever!

I would play Jadeja in the T20s. From the team for the last match, I would drop Rahane, move Kohli up to open and get Jadeja in. The bowling needs some buffer.

[prasen9]

So, Rohit is back after having played 85 ODIs. I suppose he has not yet been given a fair run. However, Saurabh Tiwary is dropped after doing well in the few ODIs he got. In the domestics this time, he is averaging over 50. What happened to giving people a fair run there? What wrong has Pujara done not to be in the ODI team?

Jadeja has to justify his place as an all-rounder. He has to bat quickly for a cameo of 30 odd when needed and bowl well enough to finish his quota often.

[prasen9]

This ODI team seems much older than our test team. Here are the old guys and the young ones in this team.

Old: Sehwag (34), Dhoni, Gambhir, Yuvraj (31), Mishra (30)
Young: Kumar, Ahmed (22), Kohli, Ishant, Rahane (24)

Ok, this team has two under-24s and the test team did not. On the other hand, it has one more over-30 player and no over-35 player. So, I guess it is hard to say.

The T20I team:

Old: Dhoni, Gambhir, Yuvraj (31), Dinda (28), Rayudu (27)
Young: Kumar (22), Chawla (23), Jadeja, Kohli, Ishant (24)

Now that is a young team.

[kna]

India lost to Pakistan by 5 wickets with 2 balls to spare in the first T20I in Bangalore.

Where do I sign up for the Bhuvaneshwar Kumar fan club? 4-0-9-3 with 2 beauties to get rid of Nasir Jamshed and Umark Akmal. He deserves an extended run.

[prashanthm]

It was awesome to watch the replays of those 'bowled' dismissals by Kumar.....

[prasen9]

Our top four fit bowlers are: Kumar, Dinda, Yuvraj, Rahul Sharma, and Nehra. If Rohit is in the team, he should bowl. He would do okay in the middle overs. The best spinner after Rahul Sharma has been Harbhajan. Although he has lost the knack of taking wickets, he can bowl his fastish off-spinners, keep it tight, and get a wicket or two. Jadeja, Chawla, Ishant, and Ashwin have been pretty bad wrt taking wickets. Bring Rahul back for T20s.

[prasen9]

Oh, I forgot Ojha. Why is Ojha not in the team, btw? He is an excellently disciplined bowler. He should be there. Kumar, Dinda, Nehra, Ojha, and Yuvraj would be the best we have got.

[PKBasu]

The team selection for the T20I against Pakistan was bizarre. Three pacers are needed perhaps only because of the lack of an all rounder among them -- although Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is an excellent choice now. Ishant being picked for a limited overs international was the truly big surprise, especially as he pushed out Ashwin or another proper spinner like Chawla.

But we lost the match because of another inept batting display. Gambhir/Rahane built a superb platform, but the rest of the batsmen failed hopelessly.

[prasen9]

Yes, we sorely missed a top-class spinner. Ojha is the nearest to one. Why don't we have him?

[ankit1407]

because our captain believes in mediocre performers like Jadeja, Ashwin....
btw Ashwin yesterday said in an interview "Even Fernando Torres has to sit out for Chelsea."