Well the cat is out amongst the pigeons. It did create a little flutter when Sachin and Ganguly were dropped from ODI and Virender Sehwag from Tests in Bangladesh. Harbhajan and Irfan Pathan were dropped from both forms of cricket.
Test squad: Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid (capt), VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble, Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, VRV Singh, Ramesh Powar, Rajesh Pawar, Munaf Patel.
ODI squad: Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Manoj Tiwary, Dinesh Mongia, Piyush Chawla, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh.
We can debate endlessly about the possible combinations. However, Irfan Pathan's exclusion after a dressing room series (World Cup) is not exciting. We also need to get confidence into a person whom we expect to be possibly our next and only all rounder after Kapil Dev.
Recalling VVS Laxman was probably a very creative idea, but the ODI team could have done with Mohammad Kaif. We cannot recall anyone who can match the agility of Australia on the field except for Kaif or Yuvraj Singh. Kaif would be an exciting prospect even for Twenty20. And with the Twenty20 World Cup around the corner, we have to move fast a freeze our team positions soon. So after the World Cup disaster, experiments have to start now.
BCCI has once again wasted an opportunity to make history. Unless the agenda is something else...
ODI Bowler Rankings 2007 (all teams)
The ODI Bowler's Ranking 2007 is out! in the second edition of Vineet’s Cricket Rankings (Check out the ODI Bowler Rankings 2006 here)! And there are lots of surprises here, but then there are some faces we discovered last year and they still maintain their ranking, proving that they were no flukes, and that includes Varaiya of Kenya! The biggest setback was that the bangladesh bowlers who did exceedingly well in 2006 are now languishing with only Syed Rasel remaining near his last year ranking. Instead Sri Lanka has 5 bowlers in Top 30 this time.
Indian cricket players to earn more under the new (proposed) contract
Did they tell you that Indian cricket players to earn more under the new (proposed) contract? Check out some important $tati$tic$ everyone has been hiding...
Sri Lanka is slated to Win the World Cup 2007!
Sri Lanka has been playing cricket like chess. They have been playing upto potential on the field like some other field, but you'd notice a scheming strategist behind their World Cup campaign. We've discussed their strategy earlier too and had always backed them to be the finalists.
