In a move which oozes confidence and sneers at short sighted doubters like this one here, Rahul Dravid has announced the 12 for the game starting tomorrow morning at Mirpur.
And no, there is no sign of any pressure of having missed chances or the risk of going home 0-0. What there is , is a belief in his men. For anyone who thought that panic would put process in perspective, this is a strong statement.
- VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh and VRV Singh don’t make the cut.
- Wasim Jaffer will still open.
- There will be 5 bowlers.
- One of Ishant Sharma, Romesh Powar or Rajesh Pawar – one assumes – will sit it out.
Basically, Dravid – Shastri and Co are saying that we came here believing that these were all the resources we needed to do the job. And to learn in the process. We still believe so.
If I was in a team, its what I’d like my leader to say.
Sun Tzu says ………..
If a General has confidence in his soldiers and his orders are obeyed, all will gain.
Just another Silly Point 
maybe Ishant will play in place of Zaheer.. And Rajesh Pawar replaces Kumble.
Ishant Sharma, like VRV, is a hit the deck kind of bowler. And he is 6′ 4″.
Now, India does not have the intestinal fortitude to go into a test with two rookies – which means that if we go with a 3 pace, 2 spin strategy, Pawar will miss out ( is it realistic to expect playing two bowlers who spin the ball the other way bowling in tandem?).
Personally, I think the 5 bowler strategy is flawed for this test.
Zaheer has been all over the shop in the last match and while a case can be made for backing players, there is a thin line between confidence and bull headedness.
I would rather go in this match with 7 bats and 4 bowlers. My intent is clear – bat once, bat big, bat quick and take 20 wickets.
To supplement my main bowlers, I will have Sachin and Ganguly turn their arm over. and if my additional batter is Yuvraj Singh, his left arm over is more by way of variety.
Why did we take VVS to Bangladesh? Dont think Bangla is a great tourist destination.. Yuvi at least was in the ODI team.. Well the decision is akin to Hayden being dropped from the ODI squad.. the happiest bunch was the opponents
that anon was self
Unless 6 or more sessions of the match are lost because of the rain, we should have a result.
Assuming all 15 sessions are available, India needs to bat a maximum of 5 sessions or 150 overs – giving them 10 sessions or 300 overs to bowl the opposition out twice.
And if the opposition scores more runs than us in their two essays, we need to have enuf time to overhaul the target.
Now, over those 150 overs, India needs to maintain a consistent rate of 3.5 runs an over atleast, if they have to post any kind of total to challenge the Bangladeshis.
And right now, I do not believe the Indians have the confidence to sustain that run rate over an extended period of time. Which is why a 7th batsman is necessary.
Not because he 7th bat will do anything exceptional, but because the batsmen will not sustain momentum because of the “fear” that the batting does not run deep.
Also, because we score quickly enuf, we should have enuf time to get 20 BD wickets.
And in this context, I think 5 bowlers is overkill.
PS:- If rain intervenes, the numbers will have to be revised according to sessions lost.
Well, there are any number of ways of looking at this –
– he was stubborn about Sehwag and he’s stubborn about Jaffer.
– whats the point , VVS and Yuvi will be in the squad in England so whats the fuss about ?
– what if the middle order fails ? its one thing being confident its another being cocky.
– he needs 5 bowlers because quite frankly he does not believe that any combination of 4 he has can get him 20 wickets.
Of all of the theories, the last one is probably the one closest to the truth.
“It’s a hard decision to take, but we don’t have a choice. Had it been some other place and under different conditions we could have dropped a bowler and played Laxman or Yuvraj, but here we need five bowlers,” said Dravid at a press conference.
So yes, its true, that 5 bowlers is a compulsion and with Sreesanth and Munaf that may not have been the case. That may have allowed the extra bat. And maybe that way Yuvi and VVS wud not have been passengers and some other youngster could have had the exposure of an international tour…
But give credit where its due … Its also an effort – in the fluid circumstances – of trying to win while sticking with the idea that this tour was a stepping stone for the year ahead.
Maybe Ishant will play but there’s the Ireland / England two team option and I guess the pitch will decide.
Sfx,
Here is what I dont get – 5 bowlers plus Sachin and Ganguly gives India 7 bowling options.
if Yuvraj plays in place of a frontline bowler, and we go in with 2 spin 2 pace as an option, we still have 7 bowlers.
And care to elaborate on this – “But give credit where its due … Its also an effort – in the fluid circumstances – of trying to win while sticking with the idea that this tour was a stepping stone for the year ahead.”
Homer… i don’t think the fortitude of the Indian Team Management is in doubt. They’re playing Dinesh Karthik and Mahendra Dhoni in the same side….
Ishant Sharma might play. I was actually quite surprised that Sharma and not Bose were called up to take Munaf’s place.
Homer, I think the answer to the first part lies in the bit that I quoted from the Dravid press conference – he wants 5 wicket taking bowlers ..
And lets not get into a debate about which of those 5 are wicket takers because what he’s saying is that he’s not sure who they are either – thats why he needs 5. The thinking being we just dont have the ammo to stick with 4 “frontline” (purely for want of a better word) and 3 (sachin, ganguly, yuvi for instance) backup bowlers making up the 7 … And so the onus is on the batting lineup to stand up and deliver.
Re my statement – thats going back to what was said at the time that the team was chosen – that they were looking at this as a tour against an “easy” team in a long season. a tour where we were expected to win and a tour where we could afford to blood , test a few youngsters and combinations out. Things have not been easy (fluid) because of three big factors , sreesanth, munaf and manoj tewary ; but they’ve stuck with trying to experiment (5 bowlers ; dinesh karthik being groomed as specialist bat).