Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Think outside the box, MSD

Sachin and Sehwag injured. No other opener available. So shove the newbie into the vacant slot and let's see what happens. Didn't work? Okay let's try Pathan who has a reasonable technique...
Basically, the injury to Sehwag has exposed the fact that a 16-member team has been chosen with no contingency for an opener getting injured. Now it is left to Dhoni to find a partner for Gambhir by a process of elimination and he has four more shots at it. So I thought we should give him a hand at it.
To me Kohli was the wrong choice for the team itself (as Sampath said in response to my previous post Dumbness at Dambulla), because he hasn't done enough to deserve the position ahead of others available and the selectors should've taken his IPL flops into account.
Now I think they will push Pathan in, but that would be a mistake on two counts: 1) Pathan can use his feet well to spinners, and he can be put to better use if he's asked to chance his arm against Murali and Mendis to throw them off their rhythm, 2) His bowling has become so pedestrian that it may be better to replace him with somebody with more zing, although RP Singh and Praveen Kumar have also gone off the boil.
The out-of-the-box idea would be send Yuvraj in as opener. Think about it. He's a sitting duck for Mendis and Murali, anyway, because it's unlikely he can get his feet moving overnight. He has to go back to domestic cricket and work on his technique against spin. At the same time, with Sehwag gone, there's no harder hitter than him in the team. So why not send him out as opener and give Vaasy the heebie jeebies?

6 comments:

Gaurav Sethi said...

I'm with you on Yuvraj. Drop by at Naked Cricket, my last write is on that.

straight point said...

i agree with you fully...he is walking wicket against m&m anyway...atleast india can utilize him better at top and on his day he can do irreparable damage to any team...

but out of box is bit harsh after just first odi..isnt it...?

Soulberry said...

Basically, the injury to Sehwag has exposed the fact that a 16-member team has been chosen with no contingency for an opener getting injured.

Completely agree on all counts...Yuvraj as opener is a solution. Gambo was out today and an opportunity was there to test Yuvraj as opener without disturbing MSD's pet idea of Kohli.

I agree Yuvraj, in this specific condition, is better suited to play pace, would be more contributory, than against quality spin.

Unknown said...

sp, dhoni is still a work in progress, and on the whole i prefer him to anybody else as captain in all forms of the game

Unknown said...

welcoem naked cricket

straight point said...

me too...i will take a captain anyday to stays there despite his short comings and win you matches than who seems to do right things...atleast he has the guts to stick with his decisions...

he has done it numerous times and will continue to do so...win matches for india i.e.