Danger for Laxman and Harbhajan
VVS Laxman's first-ball duck today at Nagpur follows his twin failures at Karachi. There've been reports about how he could be dumped if he didn't perform against England. His recent series certainly don't bolster his case, in spite of a century against Sri Lanka and a few fifties here and there. I've been a VVS supporter for a long time, but the writing does seem to be on the wall. In addition, he's been dropping too many catches in the slips of late, a very odd thing for him given the general quality of his catching.
Moreover, it isn't even the case of a TINA factor. Suresh Raina is on the fringe, as is Venugopal Rao. Kaif's knock today means that he will continue to be in the reckoning for a middle order slot in the next two tests, regardless of whether Yuvraj becomes fit or not. Aside from all those names is that of Sourav Ganguly.
The other person whose place could be in trouble is Harbhajan Singh. He had an awful tour of Pakistan, gave away over 350 runs without looking like taking a wicket. While he did "ok" at home against Sri Lanka and his overall stats don't show a marked decrease except for the Pakistan fiasco, he is expected to take wickets against a weakened England batting lineup. The sardonic kisses he blew to Harmison on the second day after dismissing him were pyrrhic. Harmison had already caused enough damage with the bat.
Piyush Chawla, a replacement, is ready to fill in for Harbhajan in case he doesn't get back to wicket taking ways. Plus India can always try to play the patriotism card and make Monty play for India!
For both Harbhajan and Laxman, the next two innings in the game are critical. Harbhajan is still not yet 26, so he won't have a problem making a comeback. Not so for Veevers.
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Laxman with an average of around 43 may sit well for most teams. For India that isn't good enough. Specially when you consider his close to 30 average in the last 2 or so years if you exclude Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
If Yuvraj isn't fit, I would like to see Raina get a run cos I have been a huge fan of his and am biased. :D
Harbhajan - I have never rated him very highly. He just lost out on the record of bowling most consecutive balls without taking a test wicket actually. Bring in Chawla. Share your sentiments dude.
pratyush: Unless Laxman comes up with something special to help India out today, I can't see him in the second test. But regardless of whether Raina or Yuvraj play, that makes for a fairly iffy middle order, which would be a worry.
beowulf: Kumble has at least "looked" like taking a wicket ... and if not for a blind third umpire, he would have! Harbhajan hasn't!
By 
Jagadish (5 Mar 2006, 9:06:00 am)
beowulf: Not really. From what I've seen/read, Chawla and Kumble are different from each other. Having the "variety" in the form of an off-spinner hasn't been too useful over the past few tests, has it?
By Jagadish (7 Mar 2006, 11:32:00 am)
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