Picking up first 11 from a pool of 15 players is always a tough job for captains, narrowing from 15 to 12 is still relatively less hard but from 12 to 11 is much harder, speaking from personal experience. Well to get to 11, most important thing to look at is the recent form of player in contention and match situation (opposition & ground condition) but if all things equal then it is the gut instinct which you fall on. It comes from past performance, amount of confidence you have on a player, attitude & body language of the player.
Here is my pick.
Batting:
Sachin & Sehwag to open with Gambhir at one down. My choice would be Kohli simply for the progress he has made in last one year and his form, he is full of confidence. Yuvraj & Raina's recent form also helps in picking Kohli a bit easy too. We all know Yuvraj & Raina thrive in such conditions and they can quickly start firing. Dropping Yuvraj is out of question at this time hence would keep Raina out. 5 & 6 can be interchanged between Yuvraj & Dhoni. Pathan at no.7, I think it is foolish to expect Pathan to take on attack successfully every time since most of the quality teams will sort him out quickly hence importance of 4, 5 & 6 increases significantly.
Bowling:
Zaheer is definitely the leader of the bowling attack but if he is still not 100% I would not risk him since plenty of cricket is to be played at latter stage and also I have confidence in other bowling resources to do the job, I will pick Nehra since he has lead bowling attack in the past. Shreesanth would be my other fast bowler just going by his recent form. Harbhajan as a first choice spinner. If we decide to play two spinners depending on the pitch condition then Chawla would be my pick, leg spinners can go for runs but they can also get a lot of wickets.
Fielding:
We will not be the best & agile fielding team on display for the WC but our strong batting & bowling will cover it up. Still taking regulation catches and not misfielding will keep us in good stead.
Lets see if my thinking matches the Indian team's think-tank, come day 1 of the WC.
Here is my pick.
Batting:
Sachin & Sehwag to open with Gambhir at one down. My choice would be Kohli simply for the progress he has made in last one year and his form, he is full of confidence. Yuvraj & Raina's recent form also helps in picking Kohli a bit easy too. We all know Yuvraj & Raina thrive in such conditions and they can quickly start firing. Dropping Yuvraj is out of question at this time hence would keep Raina out. 5 & 6 can be interchanged between Yuvraj & Dhoni. Pathan at no.7, I think it is foolish to expect Pathan to take on attack successfully every time since most of the quality teams will sort him out quickly hence importance of 4, 5 & 6 increases significantly.
Bowling:
Zaheer is definitely the leader of the bowling attack but if he is still not 100% I would not risk him since plenty of cricket is to be played at latter stage and also I have confidence in other bowling resources to do the job, I will pick Nehra since he has lead bowling attack in the past. Shreesanth would be my other fast bowler just going by his recent form. Harbhajan as a first choice spinner. If we decide to play two spinners depending on the pitch condition then Chawla would be my pick, leg spinners can go for runs but they can also get a lot of wickets.
Fielding:
We will not be the best & agile fielding team on display for the WC but our strong batting & bowling will cover it up. Still taking regulation catches and not misfielding will keep us in good stead.
Lets see if my thinking matches the Indian team's think-tank, come day 1 of the WC.
I agree with everything else you have written. As far as selection between Kohli and Raina is concerned, I think in subcontinent I would prefer Raina simply because he can score very quickly. Kohli is a better batsman and in form as well. However, we already have Sachin and Gambhir at the top and with Dhoni acting as the new middle innings builder (rather than slogger), I think we definitely need someone at the later stage to score quickly as Pathan is not very dependable and Yuvraj is terribly out of form.
ReplyDeleteYuvraj Singh is the biggest waste of God given talent. I would not pick him in my team. Yes on a given day he can be a match-winner single-handed but those days are too scarce and to add to that India's batting lineup has Sachin, Sehwag and Dhoni all of whom are capable of pulling a game away from any side. Raina in my view has the potential and hard-working mentality to become India's Michael Bevan.
ReplyDeleteI would actually consider it a tossup between Yuvraj and Yusuf depending on who plays well.
Zaheer to me is the most vital player for Team India and his form to me will decide how deep India will go in the tourney.
Sree-whatever his name is ... I would never pick him in my side. He bowls too short for my liking. Having said that Javagal Sreenath was a similar bowler in terms of pitching it short.
GO TEAM INDIA !
I would drop Gambhir. Given Nehra's form & attitude, I have no idea why he was picked. I would pick Sreesanth purely because he gets under the batsman's skin. We definitely need to play 2 spinners. As much as I like Ashwin's bowling, a leggie adds more variety.
ReplyDeleteMy XI: Sehwag, Tendulkar, Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina, Pathan, Harbhajan, Chawla, Zaheer, Sreesanth