From: karnik@exa.cs.umn.edu (Neeran M. Karnik)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Re: INDIAN TEAM to SA/ZIMBABWE
Date: 2 Oct 92 19:57:20 GMT
Article-I.D.: exa.karnik.718055840
Organization: University of Minnesota

In <BvH96J.7n1@rice.edu> pvr@argo.rice.edu (PVR Narasimha Rao) writes:

>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.

	I dunno about that... Raman's had a few chances and hasn't been 
disastrous, but he didn't really do anything of note. I would have liked to
see some fresh face in the opener's slot... Perhaps the selectors are chary 
of experimenting on a tour, and will do that during the England series in
India.

>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.

	I have a feeling he'll be back.... At least I hope so. He's probably
the only genuine legspinner in India today, who could challenge for a Test
place.

>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"! :-)

	Yes, Maninder must have been a certainty until Kumble's heroics
in the Irani trophy. And it would have been unfair to Raju to drop him for 
Maninder at this time.....

>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
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

	Coming from PVR, that's some statement! :-)

>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 

	I was a trifle surprised by the retention of Bannerjee. Did he have
any terrific performances in the domestic season? He was disappointing in 
Australia, and I fully expected to see Ankola or Kuruvilla replace him. But
perhaps this is my Bombay bias showing up :-) Perhaps he did deserve a few
more chances before being dumped.

>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.

	I think Manjrekar is more capable of adapting to ODIs than Amre, on
the evidence of past performances. The real question is, do we want him to?
He's a classic batsman in the Gavaskar mould, and it would be a pity if he
started failing in Tests because of overexposure to ODIs.

>PVR
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Neeran   Karnik  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dept. of Computer Science,      | Email: karnik@cs.umn.edu
University of Minnesota         |        karn001@student.tc.umn.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~