Indian domestic season 2016/17

[Prashant]

I remain unconvinced about the keeping abilities of all the contenders, so I would pick Parthiv as a superior bat to the others. In the current Indian order, it would be fine for him to bat at #8 (which is where Saha should be batting anyway).

Now, if Pant is indeed a capable keeper & bat, then of course we should pick him instead.

[prasen9]

If you think the value of a better keeper as Saha (over Parthiv) is not as important and are fine with multiple catches and stumpings regularly dropped every match, you can take a better bat. It may make sense to augment the batting overseas if Parthiv shows he can bat abroad. Thus far, the evidence has been that he cannot bat that well abroad. His average in India is 43 and abroad is 25.5. Of course, a lot of the abroad numbers are from when he was very young. Hence, it may be sensible to send him with an A-team abroad to check out his overseas batting. Parthiv has lots of pluck. However, his technique while keeping and batting is clunky. His initial movements are not natural and smooth. So, I doubt he can keep well on spinning tracks or bat well where the ball is seaming/bouncing. Giving chances to Pant does not mean he is ready now. But, it may mean that we are grooming our next keeper and the experience given to him will be useful in identifying his major flaws or polishing them to make him better. From the little I have seen Ojha keep, he looked to me to be a more smooth keeper than Parthiv --- of course, that is a small sample size. In summary, it may very well be a good decision to keep Parthiv if we don't have anyone else who can both keep and bat, but, I am very skeptical about choosing a keeper only because of his batting skills. Especially, given that Parthiv is no Gilchrist. Heck, he is no Dhoni either.

[PKBasu]

Parthiv top-scored in both innings of the Ranji final (on either side) with 90 and 143. Surely that is as good an indication as any that he deserves a place in the India test squad. Parthiv's 'keeping was a tad disappointing in the tests, so I'd probably pick Saha ahead of him for home tests, but where we are playing more pacers than spinners in our attack, I'd pick Parthiv for his batting.
I like the fact that Pant is coming into the T20I first, to test his 'keeping mettle. If he can 'keep to quality spinners, he could be brought into the ODI and eventually the test side.

[prasen9]

I think Parthiv could do fine as a backup batsman especially with his pluck and experience in conditions abroad. Yes, he is a much better keeper against pacers. But, we have to find out if his batting prowess will also hold up in pacy wickets abroad. Certainly a player to investigate more about via India-As abroad if possible. Sometimes technical deficiencies are overcome by sheer will-power and grit.

I am also not sure about Saha. His batting seems to be weak at the international level. Somehow, I think Saha is a better bat in limited overs where he can overcome his technical deficiencies by intelligent hitting. But, he will possibly never get a chance there due to Dhoni's presence and then his being too old.

[PKBasu]

The Rest of India squad for the Irani Trophy gives a good opportunity to test the second line of first-class cricketers just outside the test squad == especially with a one-off test against Bangladesh starting on February 9th. The selection committee has done a good job of picking those who have impressed in the latest Ranji season.
The Rest of India (RoI) Team: Abhinav Mukund, Akhil Herwadkar, Cheteshwar Pujara (captain), Karun Nair, Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, Kuldeep Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Pankaj Singh, K Vignesh, Siddarth Kaul, Shardul Thakur, Akshay Wakhare, Ishan Kishan, Prashant Chopra.

[prasen9]

Unbeaten 203 by Saha to win the match for ROI after conceding a first-innings lead. Maybe he has earned himself a few more tests. I would like to go on to generation next though.

[PKBasu]

Shahbaz Nadeem was the other player who impressed. It is time he for some chances for India.

[indiansportsfan]

Saha and Parthiv have both consistently shown they are one of the best in the domestic scene at playing the seaming ball. Also other than Shahbaz Nadeem (in 1 inning), Sid Kaul starred in both innings for ROI. Not many positives for Gujarat in this match, they were likely tired from a long Ranji campaign. Not fair for Ranji winners to come back immediately after the finals to be playing such an important match. Chintan Gaja was very impressive in the Ranji finals and in the 1st innings here. He is fairly young, he should be given a break in the A side.
Also Mukund/Tiwary/Nair really disappointed. I think Tiwary has had enough chances, Mukund doesn't seem to put enough effort, and about Nair I am not sure if he is very good against the seaming ball.

For the A team, I would like to see the following players being tried (mostly on the basis of this season):
Seamers: Dinda, Sid Kaul, K Vignesh, Gaja and Shardul Thakur (Thakur on basis of 2015-16 season and decent work with A team)
Spinners: Shahbaz Nadeem, Kuldeep Yadav, Karn Sharma (latter deserves another chance)
Openers: Herwadkar, Pant(w/k), Mukund (not many other options)
Middle Order: Shreyas, Nair, Bawne, Ishank Jaggi and Ishan Kishan (Shreyas on basis of 2015-16 season and Nair to give him another chance at A level)

[prasen9]

ISP, generally agree with your team. I would add a few performers who did well this year.

Here are the top-performers in this FC season:

Batsmen (qual: 715 runs, by avg.): Panchal, Pant, Kohli, G Rahul Singh, Hooda, Pujara, Saini

Panchal had a breakout year. But, he is 26 and a decent but not stellar record. How good is he? G Rahul Singh beat up some weak opposition. But, he is 21 and it is not easy to score over 900 runs in 9 matches even against weak opposition. Not to be rewarded yet, but, keep an eye on him. Baroda's Deepak Hooda has a stellar FC record. He is just 21. Is he worth an A-team spot? He was a big hitter and possibly played U-19 for India. Nitin Saini had a very good year. But, he is 28 and a wicket-keeper. With Saha, Patel, and an emerging Pant, he possibly does not have a chance.

[PKBasu]

The Mushtaq Ali trophy has morphed too (just as the Duleep Trophy has gone from being a tournament among the five zones to one among 3 random teams -- India A, B, C -- which makes the result somewhat meaningless, just like practice matches). It used to be an inter-state tournament, with someone like Mumbai, Bengal, TN winning it. Now, they still have the inter-state matches at the zonal level, but those are then used to pick zonal teams that then play against each other for the Mushtaq Ali trophy (inter-zonal, for a T20 version of the old Deodhar Trophy: I'm not sure any longer whether that still exists!).
Notable performances have been Irfan Pathan taking 3/10 (wickets of Dhawan, Gambhir, Yuvraj) to take West to victory over North. A big innings from Ishan Kishan in East's win over Central, and an even bigger one by Ishank Jaggi (90 off 51 balls) in East's win over South (in which Manoj Tiwary took 3/31 in 4 overs) have taken East to the top of the table alongside West Zone.

[PKBasu]

East Zone swept to the Mushtaq Ali inter-zonal trophy, winning all four matches in a canter. In the match against North on Friday, skipper Manoj Tiwary hammered 75* off 43 balls to take his side to an easy victory, and today Virat Singh and Ishank Jaggi made half-centuries to take East to an emphatic win over West Zone (with more than 6 overs to spare).
Interestingly, Jharkhand finished last in the inter-state version of the league (to pick the zonal squads), but its batsmen (Virat Singh, Jaggi, Ishan Kishan) dominated the inter-zonal section of the tournament (and in fact Jharkhand players were the best-represented in the East Zone team).

Next up is the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the inter-state List A competition. Here the zonal system has been discarded, and all state teams have been divided into 4 pools of 7 teams each. The top two teams in each pool will go into the quarter-final.

[prasen9]

I liked the zonal second round. The top players played against the top players. That is more meaningful. The List-A tournament will be poor because the likes of Parvez Rasool may be in a weak team that does not make the second round. We won't be able to see what he is capable of against tougher opposition.

[Sin Hombre]

Lot of hype around Basil Thampi after this inter-zonal tournaments. Bowled at 140 clicks consistently.

Shreyas Iyer with an unbeaten double century against Australia in the warmup, decent sized queue developing for test batting spots with Nair, Iyer and Pant now.

[PKBasu]

Bengal beat Mumbai by 96 runs in the Vijay Hazare trophy game at Chennai today (with Dinda taking 2/8 in 5 overs) -- thus remaining comfortably at the top of the table in Group C, unbeaten after 4 matches, while Mumbai have lost 2 of their 4 matches, and MP and Gujarat too have lost 2 of 5 matches.
In Group D, both Karnataka and Hyderabad are also unbeaten in 4 matches, but there are no unbeaten sides in Groups A and B.
Bhajji had 4/33 as Punjab beat Haryana comfortably, and there were centuries for Easwaran (Bengal), Parthiv, and Naman Ojha.

[PKBasu]

After most teams have played 5 matches in the group stage, Karnataka (Group D) and Bengal (Group C) remain the only unbeaten sides. Karnataka beat Hyderabad in a low-scoring thriller by 1 wicket. Bengal beat MP by 14 runs to keep their winning streak intact. Rohit Sharma made 16 in his comeback match.