From: pvr@argo.rice.edu (PVR Narasimha Rao)
Subject: Re: INDIAN TEAM to SA/ZIMBABWE
Organization: Rice University
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 04:44:42 GMT


In article <1992Oct1.224016.1@tesla.njit.edu>, kka8934@tesla.njit.edu writes:


|> Those who do not find a place from the team that last toured Aus are
|> Srikanth, Sidhu, Kambli and S.Ganguly.


Also, Vengsarkar (retired), Hirwani and Pandit.


|> Vijay Yadav, I believe, is the other W/K; am not very sure.


Yes, he is. He keeps for Kapil Dev's state Haryana. He is also a good bat.

One interesting thing about this team is that none of the 3 openers in the
team started their careers as openers. Everyone knows Shastri's case. Jadeja
started his career as a first down batsman and later started opening. Raman
bats at #3 (he even batted at #4,5,6) most of the time for TN (with Sri, VB
opening). So, he is also a makeshift opener (but, did a pretty good job in NZ.
Had a classy 97 when India crumbled agaibnst Hadlee).

We'll miss Srikkanth ...

In ODIs, most of the starts are likely to be slow. Raman can do some aggressive
batting, but the other two (Shastri and Jadeja) are rather slow. However, for
the tests, we have atleast one world class opener - Shastri. Let us hope Raman
will develop into a good opener. To be fair to him, he was never given enough
chanmces.

Priobably, the Oz tour will be Hirwani's last. Though he was hardly a great
bolwer, he had his moments of magic and it's unfortunate that he was overexposed
to ODIs (instead of being used selectively in tests) soon after his dream debut.

It's unfortunate that Maninder had to be left out again! But, to quote our
friend Sadiq[ [] ]Yusuf, "what can't be cured must be endured"! :-)

It's unfortunate that one of the two K*MBL*'s in the winning combination in
the second innings of the recent Irani trophy match had to be left out of the
team.

But, it was a tough choice between Kambli and Amre. Both were equally good (or
bad, if you prefer) in Oz within the very limited chances they got. Even in the
selection tournaments, they had more or less equal performances. Kambli, being
a left-hander, might've had an edge. But, Amre is supposed to have a better
temperament (and, he is a better fielder). For Kambli, it's back to basics now.
If Amre establishes himself in the team on this tour, it will be very
unfortubnate for Kambli. One can only feel sorry for him. Let us hope we will
see a good rivalry between Amre and Kambli in future. While Amnre is definitely
a terrific bat with attractive strokes, Kambli is an absolute natural. He is
extremely talented, perhaps more talented than his mate SRT. I wish Kambli was
not selected for the world cup ....

Manjrekar must come good on this tour. Else, he has a danger of being sacked.
He hasn't done much in tests after his phenomenal suceess in Pak.

There is likely to be a competition between Raju and Kumble for the spinner
slot in the team for both tests and ODIs. It's good for both.

I am sure they considered Kuruvilla and Ankola, but they probably thought it
was too early to give them a chance (Kuruvilla made his debut only in last
May. Ankola, though playing for a long time, started doing well only recently).
However, for the next tour, they will be staking their claims and this is
going to be a do-or-die tour for Banerjee and Chetan (and, perhaps, even 
Srinath). Let us hope Banerjee will not be plagued by injury problems [and,
let us hope Srinath finds good south Indian vegi food in SA - sambar, rasam,
idli, dosa and .....? Murali must know it better! May be Srinath should learn
cooking like us the Indian students in USA :-)].

This tour is going to be a vital tour in the careers of several youngsters
(also, for the captain).

One major problem on this tour is going to be the batting order. In ODIs,
Manjrekar and SRT will bat (presumably) at #3 and 4. That leaves #5 and 6 to
Amre and Azhar. For Amre, #3 or #4 will be a better position. Putting him at
#6 will not be too nice (as was seen in Oz). Also, #6 will be too low for Azza.
Even in tests, batting order will be a problem. Though Amre is said to be the
replacement for Vengy, in reality, he'll be batting in a totally different
place. We have to fix Manjrekar, Tendulkar, Azhar and Amre in #3,4,5,6 somehow.

Though it has been 2 years since SRT was promoted to #4, we still don't have a
good replacement at #6 for him (mainly in ODIs)!


|> GOOD LUCK to the Indian team....


PVR
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