my friendly advise to badrinath...

when the experience of over 20 years of international cricket... more than 30,000 runs... and 90 international hundreds... gives you tips... you better pay attention...

on bored: open thread - first test first show...

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the ball is in selectors court...

before a ball is bowled in india vs south africa test series both camps seems to be in a bit of doldrums by some unexpected turn of events...

south africa will be without their regular coach mickey arthur... who authored his resignation just before the start of south africa's tour of india... though the air is still not clear about the exact reason of his resignation... but it is believed that arthur and graeme smith's working relations had reached a nadir and ultimately coach had to move out to make way...

the disturbances in india's camp are more direct that have the potential to impact final results... dravid, laxman and yuvraj injuries have coincided at the same time... and we are staring at the possibility of indian middle order without the likes of dravid and laxman for the first time since as far as my memory goes... though i expect laxman's injury will heal in time and he will be fit to play...

i deliberately not included yuvraj's name in the list of players team india will miss coz to me he has not done anything of note yet to convince me that he really belongs to the highest form of cricket... and even if he was not injured... i would have argued to drop him in first place for the upcoming series... who according to me is blocking a spot of a deserving player more than so called seniors...

what our five wise men failed to do for bangladesh test series... the unfortunate injuries have managed to do that against much tougher opponent... to try and mark some players who can play in middle order when the legends won't be there that is... goes to show even if you fail to show courage to take decisions the circumstances can force you to take them...

the series, in this light, will serve as 'preview' of what can happen when the vacuum will be created by mass exodus of legends if selectors fail to manage the transition...

so i hope and wish when our selectors will meet tomorrow (28th january) to select team india for the south africa test series... they will think out of box  and select the forgotten man of indian cricket... mohammad kaif... along with subramanium badrinath... and of course the steady murly vijay who seems to have become the 'instant fix' guy for team india of late will definitely get a place ...

» on bored:
a reason to celebrate...

its high time selector justify the central contract they have bestowed on badrinath for second successive time... and its high time we know whether badrinath has the game and temperament for highest level that can stand against tougher teams...

kaif has recently scored a double ton and a century in successive innings ... has international exposure and experience of almost all conditions and situations... is still a very good fielder... basically by all means another player who is an 'instant fix'...

so my team india batting order will be... sehwag, gambhir, vijay, sachin, kaif, laxman/badrinath, dhoni, with rohit sharma and/or dinesh karthik in reserves...

it will be interesting what middle order batting combination our five wise men will come up with tomorrow...

update:

the squad for the first test is announced... no sight of kaif even in board president xi... but badinath makes a comeback in team india... with saha and mithun being the fresh faces...

Team India: MS Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, S Badrinath, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhimanyu Mithun, Wriddhiman Saha.

Board President's XI: Abhinav Mukund, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma (capt), Manish Pandey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhishek Nayar, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Manpreet Gony.

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emerging india won...

at the times of ashes where oz is competing with pakistan for who is collapso king at the moment... something in smaller scale but important in context of indian cricket happened...

india won the emerging players title...

it is also interesting to note that to keep the south african cricket tradition alive emerging south africa, the other finalist, lost the only game of the tournament...finals that is...

in batting...virat kohli was the highest scorer of the tournament...not far behind him was ajinkya rahane...

while in bowling...sudeep tyagi was the highest wicket taker of the tournament...amit mishra being the second one...

here are batting and bowling averages of emerging team india...

there were some disappointments too...

one of them is badrinath who ensured that he stubbornly remain what he is...the forever emerging player...there is something about him that whenever the chance comes knocking for him to irresistibly stake his claim for the spot in senior team he develops cold feet...something he urgently needs to address to...coz there is big season of opportunities lies ahead...

another notable failure was of manoj tiwari...i guess he needs to spend more time in middle to grind it out...but unlike badri he has age on his side...so it will be too early to make judgment on him...

so while some players declared that they are really emerging from the shadows of young hopefuls to the serious contenders...some struggled to remain even the emerging ones...

but all in all a good result to indian cricket...now if only our selectors take timely calls on some careers and manage to balance the influx of bubbling youth with the solidity of experience...we can really see india stamping its authority in all forms of cricket...

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is dhoni finishing badrinath or rohit...?

I too noticed Rohit stays and Nair is in for YP. Now folks - is MSD finishing Badri or Rohit?

this deadly question...reproduced here...was put up by fellow blogger late inswing (of 'the morning after' fame) in response to my last post on badrinath...which i thought deserve to be put upfront...for the sheer relevance in context of team india's prevailing (non)selection policy...

badri we don't need to emphasise again...that having been picked for windies tour...and specially after seeing performances of some lessor skilled and jaded players...he should have been playing there...but for his special 'camaraderie' he seems to share with captain dhoni...which is discussed at length here... thereby almost killing his chances to be picked for champions trophy later this year...

rohit...on other hand has done more than enough to warm benches...in fact through his odi performances he has been pleading to be left alone...but still being persisted with in final xi...which again is not his fault...

so who is finishing whom...?

is msd finishing badri or is it rohit...?

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what badrinath needs to do...dhoni...?

you have been openly coming in support of the fact that a player should be given reasonable amount of games to see what he is made of and what he can do for a team...

no problem with it at all...

but tell me what badrinath needs to do to actually appear in final xi...?

...and what else rohit needs to do to be out of it...?

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now that badri is back...

i hope he is given enough chances this time...and more importantly not get treated the way dhoni treated him in last ipl...

i have become stale after seeing lots of flexibility of late......in west indies...hope to see some much needed stability...in thoughts as well as batting order...

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its been a while...

sorry guys...i was away for a while...on forced vacation...in the mid of world cup!! (you can easily understand my plight...)

it seems lots have changed...from being defending world champions...team india now have to defend themselves when they will return to india...against waiting media...

can't comment directly on...coz i missed all recent matches including india's (of which i was (un)fortunate to see last couple of overs of england's innings only)...but here are my thoughts based on perceptions....and some old whines in new bottle...oops...post...

against my wishes team india went on with the mind set of defending world champions title...rather than to win it...they played with the strategy of not losing rather than playing attacking cricket to win it...hence over emphasis on stability (dhoni and later jadeja coming in to 'consolidate' is the point in case...)

dhoni now has become prisoner of flexibility...and of late seems to have developed the knack of fiddling with careers of players (specially batsmen) which is getting increasingly uncomfortable and gaining dangerous proportions...

• he did not let badri settle into any kind of rhythm in spite of him winning a match single handedly for csk...
  
• successfully managed to mess up raina's great form...india's highest run scorer from recently concluded ipl...
• and his latest victim being poor ravindra jadeja...

while india paid the price of playing poor cricket by becoming the first team to exit from super8...i am wondering when robbing singh will pay the price of india consistently pathetic poor performances in fielding department...

i have been mentioning it for a while now at bored...that's why i call him 'robbing' singh...coz now his 'coaching' has robbed us a chance to win and retain world cup trophy...some guys are born with all the luck and permanent position of fielding coach in indian team...

but what about harbhajan singh...? of what little i saw...but for his dart bowling (he gave away 10 runs for leg side wides and also extra runs that were scored coz of wides...) we could have still won despite all the messing up from dhoni, jadeja and robbing singh's pupils...

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'double' delight...

S Badrinath 200 259 24 4 77.22

this is the score of badrinath in ongoing duleep trophy 2nd semi-final between north zone v/s south zone...with good strike rate too...!

has he found form just in the nick of time...?

or was it too easy there, coz dravid too scored 138...?

ok ok bad joke...but still...

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Krisp Sri Can

so we decoded you correctly...

in one stroke you have put an end to never ending ganguly debate which was gaining the prospect of big distraction before india-oz series...but also managed to give us preview of things to come in badri and amit mishra...

mishra ji's selection is specially inspired one...for he was not even included in recent domestic games...goes to show you have keen eye on set of players you are looking for...

it also shows that you see more urgency in looking for another spinner than a batter...

badri inclusion will boost his confidence to no end considering his recent outings were nothing to write about...but you respected his talent and consistent performance over longer period...now he can concentrate on his batting without worrying about his selection call...

but 15 players for home series?

thats one too many...

is your guess is as good as mine who that extra player is? ;-)

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who will be the lucky one...

i must say that the outgoing selectors have stumped many off guard...

when nation was busy discussing when the phasing out of seniors from team will begin...they were quietly making blue prints for smooth transition of test team...

when we all were busy debating who out of badri, raina, rohit and yuvraj will be promoted to the coveted middle order of team india...they have also stumped many by re-introducing kaif into the scheme of things...

i think that ultimately the race will be narrowed down to either kaif or badri...assuming we have only one spot available...

kaif
when you are discarded as spent force...when nobody talks about you...it takes lots of determination and mind strong as steel to keep on performing and keep believing that your time will come...striking at the right moment to show what you can do...so he did against oz 'a' side...

he is what we can term as...ready made replacement...he is experienced...he is less controversial...team man to core...has seen lots of ups and down to value his place...what he sometimes lacks with technique makes up with his strong will, temperament and commitment...not to forget...he is excellent fielder (though one would not like to see him in close catching positions coz of his unique jumping jack style...)

so all in all a package which is not easy to ignore...


badri
no one deserves a spot more than this guy...he has seen seasons coming with hope and going without trace of acknowledgment of his efforts...he too, like kaif, kept himself going for what he says he loves most...cricket...he kept scoring at whatever platform was provided to him...he saw others with less credential taking the cap...went back...scored...but still waiting for a call which seemed increasingly like distant dream...

that's when IPL happened for him...not for he got the chance to play with best in business...not for he performed there too...

but for one prime reason...michael hussy...

don't get surprised...

i read this story at cricinfo that how he got benefited by the experience of hussy who too was ignored for large part of his prime by cricket australia and how he kept himself going...without loosing focus...without loosing hope... and how he finally made it...

this for me is the beauty of platform like IPL where apart from money and fame...has also given hope and novel experience to many careers...which would not have been possible otherwise...which many still ignore to highlight to...

anyway back to point...

will we see badri getting reduced to being our version of michael hussy...?

while kaif has experience on his side...badri has exuberance of youth...better technique and equally good fielder...

will we see kaif making the cut...or will badri make the rank at the peak of his powers...

so who will be the lucky one...

or there is twist in the tale?

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