World Cup - Surprise picks and omissions

Similar to India's 1 surprise pick & Sri Lanka's 2 surprise omissions in their 2011 World Cup squads, most other teams had at least one selection that was odd.

Australia picked Brett Lee and David Hussey, who hadn't played any internationals for nearly 1.5 years. With the tournament being played in the sub-continent, Australia picked 1.6 specialist spinners (Steve Smith bowls 6 overs per game on an average). Now that's a bizarre pick. Australia's part-time spin options are David Hussey (2 overs per game before he was picked in the squad) and Cameron White (2-3 overs per game when he had the skipper's trust and had not even bowled a single ball since August 2009). With 5 quicks & an all-rounder, clearly Australia are relying on pace to win. Seems like a gamble to me.

Despite investing nearly a year in Craig Kieswetter and Steve Davies, England went back to Matt Prior. Other than that, the squad seems reasonably balanced, with a couple of bits-and-pieces players in Luke Wright & James Tredwell.

Luke Woodcock is the unknown player in New Zealand's squad. He hadn't even played an ODI before he was picked. The squad seems weak on the batting though, and the opening slot hasn't yet been sorted out.

Pakistan didn't have any major surprises in the squad, but they did come up with one bolter. They didn't name a captain! That said, the batting definitely looks shaky with only Younis Khan & Misbah having the skills to do a good job with the middle overs. Only 2 specialist spinners were picked, which seems odd for a Pakistani side playing a World Cup in the sub-continent.

South Africa, by contrast, picked 3 specialist spinners, 2 of who are newbies. South Africa's problem is with #6, #7 and #8. Having dropped Boucher, who used to come in at #6 & #7 and salvage a crisis, they don't have too many experienced players to fill up those slots. The batting essentially ends after Duminy (typically at #5).

West Indies have picked just 5 bowlers (3 quicks & 2 spinners) and are obviously hoping that Dwayne Bravo will bowl his full spell and pick up wickets regularly.

The other omission was that of Eden Gardens. The ground won't host the India v England game & the match will now be played at Bangalore. But there seems to be some ambiguity around it. Kyazoonga, the official ticketing partner, doesn't list the India v England game. Does this mean backroom negotiations are still going on, and Eden Gardens will get the game?

Actually, the Cricket Association of Bengal, which is really the main agency to be blamed for the fiasco, should just relinquish its hosting rights for the other games at the ground, each of which is guaranteed to bring in crowds of at least 90000.

Labels: 2011, 2011 world cup, australia, england, new zealand, pakistan, south africa, squad, west indies, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:54 am | Sledge/Read 97 sledge(s)
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2011 World Cup squads - Sri Lanka & India

Around 10 days ago, Sri Lanka announced the 15-member squad for the 2011 World Cup and it contained 2 bizarre omissions - Jayasuriya & Vaas. Now, why would you include these two in the preliminary 30-member squad two weeks earlier and leave them out without them having played any ODIs in-between to improve or worsen their chances of selection?

It's not like they have been active ODI players over the last 1-2 years. Jayasuriya last played an ODI in December 2009 while Vaas last turned out in August 2008! Why did they even get picked in the squad of 30 in the first place?

The BCCI did something similar earlier today. Piyush Chawla, who would most likely be the player Makarand Waingankar alluded to in the context of age manipulation, hasn't played an ODI since July 2008. Yet, he was picked in the 15-member Indian squad.

There are only 2 problem selections in the squad - Piyush Chawla and the absence of a reserve wicket-keeper. I am not sure if the playing conditions have been drawn up, but it is quite likely that if a player is coming into the World Cup with a known injury (i.e. didn't pick it up on/off the field during the tournament), a replacement player may not be allowed. Even when a replacement is allowed, the injured player cannot play any further part in the tournament.

The BCCI selectors are essentially punting on skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni not injuring himself through the tournament. That's a huge risk to take with someone who has played the 2nd most number of internationals since 2008, the triple role he plays and the multiple injuries he has been playing through.

Dinesh Karthik would have been a good 2nd choice wicket-keeper especially given his ability to keep reasonably well and play counter-attacking innings. But his last 5 ODI innings produced 30-odd runs.

With Virat Kohli (unlikely to regularly feature in the playing XI), Suresh Raina & Yusuf Pathan the only decent fielders, and the likes of Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Yuvraj Singh (a pale shadow of his 2000-2006 days), Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh & Praveen Kumar being first XI choices, India's opponents will have loads of opportunities to pick up at least 1-2 extra runs an over without even trying to hit a boundary or six.

Labels: 2011, 2011 world cup, india, squad, sri lanka, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:38 pm | Sledge/Read 8 sledge(s)
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Wanted: Twenty20 specialists for India

I started writing this piece a couple of days ago, after reading reports of how the ECB selectors picked a non-specialist Twenty20 side against West Indies and instead decided that those who played the fifty-over game would also fit into the scheme of things in Twenty20.

This led me into thinking about how the BCCI should also not make the same mistake. There're a few one-day players among those who played against South Africa recently who would be misfits in Twenty20. The list starts with one of my most favourite cricketers of all-time, Rahul Dravid. He's a brilliant batsman, and has totally turned it around in one-day cricket over the past 6-7 years. But he's unsuited for Twenty20. Simply because of his strike-rate (71) is not good enough in a game where teams score at between 8 and 10 runs an over.

The second person who shouldn't figure in the list is Sourav Ganguly, for similar reasons (strike rate 74) and in addition, his average fielding. His bowling is never going to be threatening in a Twenty20 game anyway!

I'm ambivalent about Sachin Tendulkar. He can really score quickly in one-dayers, when the mood seizes him. He's a pretty decent fielder too, especially in the outfield and he's snapped up quite a few nice catches after his return to the slip cordon. I'd pick him for the tournament because of his batting and fielding and I hope he doesn't ask the captain to let him bowl :)

Ramesh Powar has been quite impressive with his bowling, but his batting and fielding have so far been very unconvincing. Hence, he too must not figure in the final squad.

Sreesanth still doesn't seem to have figured out how to bowl in one-day cricket. His bowling length, which is a great asset in test cricket, allows batsmen to belt him around in the limited overs game. Hence, he too must not feature in the final squad.

Update on 7 July

The BCCI announced a 30-member probables list for the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar don't feature in the list, because they asked not to be considered. I'm hoping that the BCCI selectors weren't seriously considering them anyway! While you're at it, you might as well vote on if they should be picking and choosing when/where to play.

The list of probables has quite a few recent rejects: Varinder Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Suresh Raina, Mohammad Kaif and Irfan Pathan. In addition, there're quite a few players from the under-19 and under-22 ranks: Manoj Tiwary (who'd have been cursing himself after injuring himself in Bangladesh), Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Rohit Sharma, Joginder Sharma, etc.

The two interesting names in the list are Aniruddh Srikkanth and Niraj Patel. Aniruddh is the son of former India opener (and someone who'd have potentially felt extremely at home in Twenty20) Krishnamachari Srikkanth. As for Niraj Patel, I've seen him play quite a few extrely mature Bevanesque (or perhaps we can now call it Yuvrajesque?!) innings in a few domestic one-day games and I was wondering if he was lost to Indian cricket. Turns out that he's been very consistent for his state/zone over the past 2-3 years and scored lots of runs, fairly rapidly, in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy last season.

I wonder who the captain would be. My pick would be Yuvraj or Dhoni.

Labels: dravid, ganguly, india, squad, tendulkar, twenty20, twenty20 world cup, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Jagadish @ 5:28 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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Reenen's take on South Africa

I feel very honoured to have been asked to do some WC 2007 guest blogging for Cricket24x7. But here is the reason I am somewhat reserved about SA's chances in this world cup:

South African cricket is, in my opinion, very politically inclined (I guess most teams are). The team has succeeded and everyone's praised them. But when they are not succeeding the racial quotas are raised, the captain and coach are fired (fortunately SA kept Pollock on a player).

But if I look at the SA side I see: 12 players + 3 quota. Loots Bosman, Roger Telemachus and Robin Peterson are fillers ... Specialist fielders if you like.

My prediction is that they (probably all of them, but otherwise two of them) will play in games against the Netherlands and Scotland. After that I pray that SA does not get an injury. AB de Villiers, Andre Nel, Andrew Hall, Charl Langeveldt, Ashwell Prince and Justin Kemp will be the ones will be swapped around, with Prince and de Villiers being the ones with the most consistent spots.

My belief is that if SA is kept injury free, they'll reach the finals. I'll write the first match report on 17 March. I'll be here all world cup to give a SA angle on things.

Labels: 2007 world cup, south africa, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Reenen @ 2:11 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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The Irfan Pathan dilemma

Every game that Irfan Pathan plays in, he reduces his chances of making it to India's playing XI during the World Cup. So, to increase his chance of playing a game, he should be asking the team management to not pick him.

But if they don't pick him now, they probably won't pick him for the real action anyway.

I predict that Pathan will play at most two games in the tournament - against Bermuda and Bangladesh.

He's bowling at around 115 kph. Fifteen kilometres per hour faster than what Anil Kumble possibly bowls after he's been administered general anaesthesia or a sedative.

It's easy to forget that he's only 22. He's not someone I'd call over-rated. He has the ability and the brains. Maybe it was a bad idea to pick him for this tournament when he was clearly not ready to feature in it. Beginning from India's tour to the West Indies last year, he averages 15.6 with the bat and 39 with the ball (economy rate 5.9 and best bowling of 2/20) from 14 games.

The other person who's cocked up in two consecutive games is Sehwag. Maybe someone should make them both injured and India can get some decent replacements.

Labels: 2007 world cup, india, irfan pathan, sehwag, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:03 pm | Sledge/Read 4 sledge(s)
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Some World Cup squad stats

India have the most ODI caps with 2225 (avg. 148), closely followed by Sri Lanka (2217). Australia are a distant third with 1511 (avg. 101). Coming in last is Zimbabwe (490, avg. 33), with even Kenya having more caps (554). Bangladesh has more caps (717) than England (622). Between Australia and Bangladesh are Pakistan (1654), South Africa (1591), New Zealand (1348) and West Indies (1190).

Among these 11 teams (I didn't consider Canada, Bermuda, Scotland and Ireland because their ODI cap numbers would have been pitiful in comparison), West Indies and Kenya are the only teams who've included an uncapped player in their squads - Kieron Pollard and Rajesh Bhudia.

Zimbabwe's Prosper Utseya (59 caps) has the least ODI experience among all these 11 captains. England's Michael Vaughan comes in second with 77. Pakistan's captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq has the most caps (375), followed by India's Rahul Dravid (310).

Not entirely surprisingly, Zimbabwe (21) and Kenya (28) have the lowest standard deviation among the ODI appearances. That's expected since these two teams would not have the huge spread of ODI caps that other teams have.

As an aside, does anyone know why the warm-up games are not internationals? If games to raise funds for tsunami victims and the Super Series games were internationals, why aren't warm-up games official ODIs?

Labels: 2007 world cup, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Jagadish @ 6:39 pm | Sledge/Read 3 sledge(s)
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Shoaib and Asif declared unfit for World Cup

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif will join Brett Lee, and billions of others around the world, and watch the World Cup on television.

The Pakistan Cricket Board said that they had been ruled out since their injuries hadn't yet healed.

They're just being economical with the truth. The very likely reason, like a report in 'The News' around two weeks ago indicated, is that either they failed YAIDT or they still have traces of banned substances in their system and would have failed a drug test (internal or that conducted at the World Cup).

Labels: 2007 world cup, asif, drugs, mohammad, pakistan, shoaib, shoaib akhtar, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:34 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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Stuart Clark replaces Brett Lee

Brett Lee is the first big name to pull out of the World Cup, after doctors warned him against bowling for the next three months. Stuart Clark has been picked as his replacement.

Since the ICC has relaxed its rules to allow teams to replace players (and not bring them back when fit) even after the squads had been named, most teams have chosen to name players not entirely fit. Just sample some of these names. You could get a half-decent playing XI from them - Symonds, Ponting, Clarke, Hayden, Vaughan, Anderson, Lewis, Oram, Pathan, Agarkar, Yuvraj, Shoaib, Asif, Gul and Sarwan. Ignoring Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, it seems like Sri Lanka and South Africa are the only teams without any injury worries!

My World Cup currently-injured (and undecided) XI would be (in batting order): Hayden, Clarke, Ponting, Sarwan, Yuvraj, Symonds, Oram, Agarkar, Shoaib, Anderson, Asif. There's no wicket-keeper. The one I hate the most in that list is Hayden. So I'd pick him as the 'keeper.

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, clark, lee, world cup, world cup squads

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Let's go back to Warne

Ray Chesterton, undoubtedly deeply agonized by Australia's current series of losses, has emphatically demanded that the best way to stem the rot is to bring back Shane Warne.

He sounds pretty desperate, actually. Sample these lines:

• He would lift morale and sharpen the attack.
  
• He is the only option as Australia search for ways to make the team whole again.
  
• When Warne retired from representative cricket last month Australia had just regained the Ashes 5-0 and the future looked secure. Now it doesn't.
  
• Warne would be the lift in confidence this team needs.
  
• Even now, Hughes might well have more control than Australia's bowlers showed.
  
• Someone has to convince him he should. There is no time to waste.

The reference to Australia's bowlers is timely. The Bladder had something similar today in an obviously tongue-in-cheek report titled Buchanan 'within days of pinpointing Aussie problems'.

Buchanan said he would continue his investigation after lunch, which Shane Watson, Nathan Bracken, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait, Brad Hogg, Adam Voges and Cameron White were bringing back from the bakery. "Pies again, fellas?" Buchanan said. "Ah well, let’s hope that helps me think."

Warne's been long retired from one-day internationals. But more importantly, even in the case of injuries to players in the squad of 15, teams aren't allowed to bring in players outside of the preliminary squad of 30 players announced in January.

Then again, it isn't the first time we've heard an Australian seek to move the goalposts. Dean Jones did it two years ago when he wanted two white balls to be used per innings to allow Australia to make 400. Let's not forget that Australia did indeed score 400, a year later, without any change in the number of white balls per innings. But the only problem was that South Africa scored one run more and won the GODOAT.

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, warne, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:01 am | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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World Cup squads: England, Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe

England, Pakistan and Zimbabwe named their squads yesterday while South Africa and West Indies did so today.

England have largely retained the core of the squad which won the triangular series in Australia, shocking everyone! Michael Vaughan (hamstring problem, knee problem and stellar one-day batsman) will lead the side, one of the rare instances where a team would have gone into a World Cup without quite knowing if their leader was a specialist batsman, bowler, fielder or an all-rounder. In fact, England don't even know who their vice-captain is.

<DIGRESSION>I remember reading in Sunil Gavaskar's "Sunny Days" book that there was an occasion when the incumbent captain (Pataudi?) went off the field without letting anyone know who was in charge. There was apparently a lot of humming and hawing and the contenders were Bedi, Venkataraghavan, Gavaskar and Engineer. Then Pataudi sent in word that Gavaskar was to take charge.</DIGRESSION>

England really ought to try and get the rules changed to allow Vaughan to be named as a non-playing captain. Perhaps 18 months ago, they'd have had the BCCI's support, given Ganguly's travails then. Ravinder Bopara was the only sort of surprise. Mal Loye definitely did hit some exhilarating sixes over fineleg off the quicks. But aside from that, he was pretty unidimensional.

Pakistan, totally out of the blue, picked Danish Kaneria in the squad. Kaneria has played just 16 one-dayers since making his one-day debut in 2001. Against the major teams, he's taken 7 wickets from 10 games at an average of 57, economy rate of 4.9 and strike rate of 69. All of which point to a huge punt by the PCB. The fitness status of Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif can at best be speculated, which is what you could say about the potentially scandalous rumour that Asif and Shoaib have failed YAIDT.

South Africa's squad is as predictable as their cricket. Most of the chaps have played a lot of games throughout the summer, against India and Pakistan. They're on a roll, just about everyone is in great form and if New Zealand defeat a depleted Australian side in the Chappell-Hadlee trophy, South Africa will become #1 in the asafoetida brand rankings.

The hosts, West Indies, had no surprises either. Without meaning to pronounce Samuels guilty, I wonder if he leaked out the squad information too! Speaking of West Indies, I remember seeing this Indian-origin fast medium bowler Ravi Rampaul a few times in one-day cricket. He seems to have disappeared after that. The only question that may have nagged the selectors was if they should replace Ramdin with Baugh. That didn't happen.

The last of the full members of the ICC, Zimbabwe, announced a squad which I can barely recognize, with Stuart Matsikenyeri (1 game at the 2003 World Cup) and Gary Brent being the only ones to have made a debut before 2004!

Labels: 2007 world cup, england, pakistan, south africa, squad, west indies, world cup, world cup squads, zimbabwe

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:00 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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World Cup squads: Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka

Australia, who've lost three out of their last four one-dayers, have included Brad Haddin, Brad Hodge and Shaun Tait in the squad and left out Cameron White and Stuart Clark. Gilchrist is expected to join the squad only around the end of the first stage.

Across the Tasman sea, Daryl Tuffey has popped in out of nowhere to be picked in New Zealand's World Cup squad after Kyle Mills' injury last month. In an unprecedented move, Shane Bond has been declared fit to play two consecutive series.

Yesterday, Sri Lanka announced a predictable, well-settled squad for the tournament. Nuwan Zoysa and Upul Chandana have been left out, despite not getting any opportunity to present their cases during the on-going one-day series in India.

Bangladesh, who've won 11 out of their last 12 ODIs (v/s Zimbabwe and Scotland) and lost 13 out of their last 15 ODIs against teams who can play ODI cricket (the two wins coming against Sri Lanka and Australia), have picked Mushfiqur Rahim as the keeper, leaving out Khaled Mashud. Khaled Mahmud's non-inclusion could mean he's definitely retired now.

Labels: 2007 world cup, australia, bond, new zealand, squad, sri lanka, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Jagadish @ 4:06 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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India wins the World Cup squad naming race

Assuming that squad announcements by Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland don't really matter, India are the first major cricketing side to announce the 15-member squad for the 2007 World Cup.

The squad isn't worth arguing about. It's quite predictable, which isn't a bad thing in itself, come to think of it.

In alphabetical order of last name, it reads: Ajit Agarkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Rahul Dravid (c), Sourav Ganguly, Dinesh Karthik (wk?), Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, S Sreesanth, Sachin Tendulkar, Robin Uthappa, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh.

Sreesanth is in, after missing out on the ICC Champions Trophy last year, despite his horrendous run in one-day cricket. Perhaps his showing yesterday at Rajkot against Sri Lanka saved him from being axed.

The selectors have taken a few gambles. There're four possible opening batsmen, with Ganguly set to be a fixture at the top. With Tendulkar doing quite well in his middle-order role, Sehwag will have to compete with Uthappa for the opener's slot. Uthappa has been inconsistent (86, 12, 0, 70, 28, 7), averages 34 and has a frightening strike rate. That description fits Sehwag too! There're at least 4 horrible fielders (Ganguly, Sehwag, Munaf and Kumble). That's four too many for a side which aims at winning a World Cup. There're at least 3 bowlers from whom anything more than 5 runs per game is a bonus (Sreesanth, Kumble and Munaf). Once again, that's three too many!

Yuvraj, Agarkar and Pathan are as yet unfit. But given there're 3 weeks to go before India's warm-up game against the Netherlands on March 6, those are reasonable bets worth taking. But they could be really short of match-practice and a lot will depend on their performances in the two warm-up games.

Outside of this 15, the only ones with a semblance of a chance to be picked were Raina, Powar and Kaif. Kaif and Powar should feel particularly hard done by. Almost everytime they've had an opportunity, they've done reasonably well. If I had to make one change, I'd pick Powar instead of Sreesanth. Even on the smaller grounds in the Caribbean, Powar's more likely to get wickets compared to Sreesanth, who doesn't know what length to bowl in one-day cricket. If the newly relaid pitches in the West Indies aren't going to help fast bowlers, which is very likely to be the case, Sreesanth could be a liability. In addition, India needs someone who can rival Chris Gayle in the 'cool dude' stakes.

Dinesh Karthik and Sourav Ganguly must be pinching themselves. Until as late as 3 months ago, neither would have been close to selection. But a combination of several factors, including their brilliant ability to make the best of the situations that fell into their lap, have ensured that they're on the plane. It's in fact wrong to mark Dinesh Karthik as a reserve wicket-keeper. He's in the side as a middle-order batsman. He's impressed just about everytime he's gone out to bat in the last 2-3 months. He has the ability to score at close to a run-a-ball and hit a few boundaries. For a wicket-keeper, he's one of India's best outfielders.

My predicted XI for India's first league game, against Bangladesh on 17 March (11 years after I was the lone person in a hostel TV room in Singapore watching Sri Lanka beat Australia at Lahore), in batting order, is: Ganguly, Uthappa, Dravid, Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Pathan, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Kumble, Munaf. Unless Sehwag impresses in the warm-ups (Netherlands and West Indies), I can't see how he can get in as a middle-order player (especially when Dinesh Karthik has done more than enough to justify being picked in that slot) or as an opener (if Uthappa does well in the warm-ups too).

I started writing this, saying that there wasn't too much to argue. Now, proof-reading it, I get the feeling there's quite a lot to argue about. So, "I declare the arguments OPEN!"

Labels: 2007 world cup, india, squad, world cup, world cup squads

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:27 pm | Sledge/Read 12 sledge(s)
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