From: sidi@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Sadiq Yusuf)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Predictions + Re: Indian Bowling sucks...
Date: 7 Nov 92 03:54:17 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Nov7.035417.19908
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.

In article <6NOV199216250298@utarlg.uta.edu> d188sid@utarlg.uta.edu (S RAMACHANDRAN) writes:
>INDIAN BOWLING - AN ANALYSIS (PART II)
>=======================================
>	So the Board president's XI  make a comfortable 268 against us!
>It's the same old, same old situation (Motley Crew).We really should be
>doing a lot better against under 25 yr olds...
>

	Actually, I wasn't unhappy with this particular performance - this
side does have a few players I've heard of (Kronje, Koen, etc). And both
got runs - Kronje 73 and Koen 49. Other than that, with a less than full
scale bowling attack, not a terrible performance.
 
>Shows up a few things:
>1) Without K.Dev we are a pedestrian bowling attack. With him too for 
>that matter in many cases.
>
	Well, we've been a pedestrian bowling attack for a long time now!
The guys have to stick to the old virtues of line and length to do the job,
they're not going to tear out the batting attack anytime soon.

>2) Raju is V."P".Raju - guess what the "P" stands for! Once again he 
>probably contained and looked good in patches but...he is really
>"constipated" when it comes to wickets. Raju is our man on a fifth day
>turner in Madras or Bangalore but not against good opposition on sporting
>tracks...sorry guys but Raju like the Admiral(Stockdale) is persevering,
>honest and loves his country but he just won't cut it.
>MANINDER is the only one who could run thru' a team, I believe. Kumble
>would be excellent foil to Maninder.
>
	This I agree with - I said before the tour that Mani would be
missed and there's been nothing to change my mind so far. Mani is
unquestionably the best spinner in India today, it's a travesty that he
hasnt made the team. ( Iam pretty encouraged at the bowling efforts of
Shastri tho- at least he seems to be bowling a bit rather than just
concentrating on his batting !) 
 

>3) Our medium pacers except Manoj cannot be relied upon for 
>consistency.
>
	Not that Manoj is the model of consistency either ! He was great in
Pakistan, OK in NZ, bad in England, nothing much in the one off test back
home, and solid in AUstralia. Lets see what he does thru this tour. 

>Some Predictions and comments in advance of 1 st test:
>
>1) For India to do well in this series the batting better come good...
>b'cos if under 25's can get runs off us imagine what Wessels,Rice,Kronje,
>(I don't know the others) will do to us.
>The Key to the indian batting will be Manjrekar and Sachin.
>
>2) the wkts are going to be green..so we have to play 4 quicks. But it 
>would be great if we can play a specialist spinner as well.
>
>3)India should play all three openers to be fair to Raman(43 ag ZiM) and
>Jadeja (in-form)...Amre sit out please!
>

	Ah, good old "Zakir Abdi" crystal-ball gazing !! :-) Have been
intending to do this for a while now, didn't get around to it.
	Purely my views. I think Manjrekar will be our best bat on this
tour, he's always had the technique and seems to have gotten tthe
concentration back. 
	Tendulkar will not do as well as expected - but only by
the unrealistic standards set for him by the Indian public. They think he's
already the best bat in India, and one of the top in the world. I think
he's got to produce for a longer period and consistently for 3-4 series to
be considered that ! Really, so far he's had one great test in England and
a great series in AUstralia. He's clearly shown the potential to  be maybe
the best bat in the  world for years on end, but isn't there yet. Another
great series here, and one against England, and he'll be there. But we
can't rank him ahead of say Azhar today, when Azhar has a higher average
over a longer period of time ! Plus, I think he's played too much cricket
lately ( Australia, World Cup, English county, back home and straight to
the domestic Duleep, back home and played the Kanga League on Sunday !! - I
saw that one - then to the Deodhars, then the exhibition stretch, and off
to the African safari !! That's waaay too much !) . Anyway, Tendulkar will
do OK, among our top 3 bats on this series, but will not do better than
Manjrekar (and there will be those in India who will say he was a
disappointment for that - and they'll be just as wrong as they usually are
!:-) ) 
	Azhar - Iam a big Azhar fan, but I don't know. He really hasn't
shown it at the test level on fast pitches against top class pace bowling
with any consistency. ( Note - not that he's _never_ done it - just not
with consistency ! He did score a century in Australia, and had a couple or
three big scores against Waqar, Akram, Imran and Javed in Pakistan). Still,
I don't know. I would love to see him do great, but I can't say with any
confidence right now that he will.
	Kapil - will do fine, but not well enough. Will not repeat his
performance of AUstralia, where he was our leading bowler by a clear
margin. ( why not ? I just feel it in my gut :-) And anyway, nobody asked
Zakir Abdi where he got _his_ predictions from , did they ?? :-) ). But,
due to India's paucity of wicket takers, Kapil will still be among our top
guys  - just not #1.  I have a feeling he may even slip to #3 !
	Srinath - will come thru, fulfilling the expectations and becoming
the wicket-taker we look for him to be. The fast pitches will obviously
help him. I still say he was tossed in too early, with the maturity that
he's gained ( which ought to have been gained at the domestic level), he'll
do well. Specially, he'll become the much needed taker of the tail-enders
that India has desparately been looking for. Iam so hopeful about Srinath
that I mentioned the possibility of Kapil sliding to #3 wicket-taker on
this tour - I think Srinath with some luck might edge him out for 2nd spot.
	Chetan- was pretty hoepful about Chetan before the tour began -
thought he'd do really well. But with the performance today, he might not
even make the test team. So, defer on that ( plus the fact that he's not
bowling well ).
	Raman - Well, I know there are a lot of Raman fans on the net, but
Iam, just not convinced he has the technique to open at the highest level on
quick tracks. He's too airy outside the off for me. I'd love to see him
come thru ( for one thing, he's a lefty), but if pushed I'd say he won't do
much and may make way for Jadeja to partner Shastri - might have done so
already !!
	{ Tangent mode on}
	Oh yeah, about playing 3 openers . Why ?? And how ?? Will you bat
them at 1,2 and 3 ?? And then Azhar at 6 ??? What sense does that make ?
ANd anyway, what's all this about being _fair_ to Raman ?? I mean, sure he
got 43 v/s ZImbabwe. But he's an opener - he's supposed to outplay the
other openers to keep his job. If he can't - tough ! Nobody's going to
leave a spot open for him at all times just to be _fair_ ! Unless you want
to play him at #6, if so then do that - but only if you think Jadeja is the
definate choice for opener and will be there for the rest of the series,
after all he ought to be given an extended run too !! And only if you think
Raman makes a better #6 than Amre, which is debatable anyway. 
	The basic point Iam trying to make is this. If this is a
make-or-break tour for Raman (and it probably is), it does NOT mean that he
ought to be played in all the tests to have gotten a fair chance !! He ought to
be played in the tests ONLY if he's among the top 2 openers we have. All
these 3 day games that we are playing, they're all PART of Raman's
opportunity to establish himself. He has to take his opportunity here in
these 3 dayers, and WIN a place in the test team for his biggest chance to
succeed- not have a test place  held for him because we want to be _fair_
to him !! After all, we arent doing those things for AMre or Jadeja are
we?? We cant have one player being the first among equals here !
	{Tangent mode off}
>the "if " analysis:
>===================
>1) I don't know abt you guys but I think it we would have been better
>off w/ Abey Kuruvilla and Venkatesh Prasad rather than Chetan and 
>Bannerjee. Why? b'cos these guys are quick ..as quick as Srinath atleast
>..big 6 ft plus guys who are atleast intimidatory enuff to scare a 
>few under 25 yr olds. Chetan and Bannerjee are seamers who swing and 
>seam...they can be dangerous in helpful conditions but they have
>not mastered swing like Dev and Manoj. It's always prudent to have a
>Quickie than seamer when both are Half-baked, unpolished rookies.
>Anyway a team attack of Kapil, Manoj ,Kuruvilla/Prasad and Srinath looks
>a lot scarier than DeV,Manoj,chetan and Bannerjee.
>I heard that A.Donald,Macmillan and Schnell are really good..
>and u know what that means ...when the going gets tough the Indians
>are outta here!
> Maan something tells me unless we bat really well we're gonna
>get whipped! We will do well in the 1 days ofcourse.
>

	Hah, now we're talking ! I've been convinced for a while that we
ought to have brought a different package of pacemen - tho not Prasad ( my
views on him are well known :-) . No , seriously, he needs at least _one_
decent Ranji season before we give him  test place ! He's quick, but so are
Kuruvilla, Ankola, Zaidi, et al. I repeat. we ought to have come with
someone other than Bannerjee - if I was given just one choice I would go
with Ankola.( Tho Kuruvilla had the most outstanding Ranji season of the lot
last year !). But as for intimidatory enough - I don't think so ! These SA
guys (even the under 24's), arent going to be intimidated in a hurry -
they're all Castle Cup players arent they ? And, if the SA net gods are
correct, we might see some intimidation when the Indians bat - from Tertius
Bosch !! 

>But hey whats the worst that can happen..we will lose disgracefully
>to the relatively inexperienced S.A team ..so what we've lost to
>worst teams. And besides we can always prepare square turners to 
>bugger these teams in India!!

	Oh, I don't know. It's something I've been thinking about lately.
WIll we prepare turners for the English tour ? I guess we might. And what
happens then ?? Will Raju and Kumble outbowl Tufnell and Emburey (who, tho
not much of a spinner, will keep the ball pitched perfectly and might be
deadly on a turner !) ?? I have an awful feeling that they won't !

>Maan..at the beggining of this article I thought I could pinpoint 
>some problems w/ the Ind team and suggest some remedies but I'm more
>confused and doubtful than before I started. but that's the feeling
>of a die-hard Indian fan ..and I guess there must be millions like me around
>..SO THAT'S O.K (Stuart Smiley- S.N.LIVE)!
>
>- Sidd .R.
>
>the Best Indian Test 11
>========================
>1) W.V.Raman.
>2) R.Shastri.
>3) S.Manjrekar.
>4) S.Tendulkar.
>5) M.Azhar.
>6) A.Jadeja.
>7) N.Kapil Dev
>8) M.Prabakar.
>9) K.More.
>10) J.Srinath.
>11) Maninder.S.
>

	Well, agree about the Mani bit. But again, Jadeja has scored all
his runs lately as an opener. He's never really batted as low as 6, I don't
think. Until last years Ranji's , he didn't have a single century ( batting
at 4, I think all the time). Last year he was tremendous all the way thru,
I presume as an opener. Doesnt make a whole lot of sense to carry 3
openers, basically. All IMHO, of course.


				Sadiq [ "pray with me " ?? :-) ] Yusuf