From: govindra@maya.rutgers.edu (S Govindarajan)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Indian team
Date: 27 Jan 93 22:59:19 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

It has been very interesting reading about the Indian team selections
for the Ind-Eng test series. I am contributing my mite to the
discussion on the team selection that is going on in rsc right now.

Basically, since, our bowlers are decided, I would like to begin with
them. 

Kapil, Prabhakar, Srinath, Kumble and one of Maninder/Raju/Ankola.
Personally, I would go in for Maninder on the Indian wickets.

That leaves us with 6 spots among whom the keeper is one.

The choices as I see it are:

Sidhu/Raman/Shastri	(select two)
SRT/Azhar/Kambli/Amre   (select three)
More

There are various choices right now. Since Shastri was not selected,
our choices of the openers are narrowed. Assuming we go in for
specialists, we can take Sidhu and Raman for the openers. Since, Azhar
and SRT are certainties, we have to take one of Amre or Kambli.

Team#1 would be:

1)	Raman
2)	Sidhu
3)	Azhar
4)	SRT
5)	Kambli
6)	More
7)	Kapil
8)	Prabhakar
9)	Srinath
10)	Kumble
11)	Maninder

Team#2 is Amre instead of Kambli.

Alternately, if we include both Amre and Kambli, we have to sacrifice
one of our openers. Most likely it will be Raman. This means that,
team#3 is:

1)	Sidhu
2)	Opener	(Prabhakar/Kambli)
3)	Azhar
4)	SRT
5)	Amre
8)	Prabhakar/Kambli
6)	More
7)	Kapil
9)	Srinath
10)	Kumble
11)	Maninder

The opener would depend on whether we bat first or bowl first. If we
bowled first, then it wouldn't be a good decision to send in Prabhakar
to open soon after bowling. So Kambli would go in first. On the other
hand, if we are batting first, then Prabhakar should open first, since
he has profeesed a liking for the opener spot and also, it would give
him time to relax before bowling (assuming our middle order holds).

Now for the middle order, I would send SRT at #3 since he is not in as
bad a form as Azhar, Amre at #4, Azhar at #5, Kapil at #6, More at #7.
I don't know how comfortable SRT is at #3, but I feel that he is our
best bat right now and should be exposed to the bowling as soon as
possible. If he is not comfortable at #3, he can switch positions with
Amre.

Personally, I would try for the specialist team with the order being

1) 	Raman
2) 	Sidhu
3)	SRT
4)	Amre
5)	Azhar
6)	Prabhakar
7)	Kapil
8)	More
9)	Srinath
10)	Kumble
11)	Maninder



I selected Amre instead of Kambli, since he is a stayer and would
provide a good stability for the innings (like Manjrekar did). If he
doesn't click, we can always replace him with Kambli.

I would also try Srinath as the opening bowler along with Prabhakar to
give him some experience with the new ball. 

Of course, the choice would have been a lot easier if Azhar was not
the captain. Given his recent run of scores, it would do him a world
of good to sit back and sort out his troubles (ala Manjrekar). I feel
that what prevents Azhar from becoming a great bat is his inability to
think ahead and use his experience. For example, he had played in
Australia in '85, so he knew what to expect there (pitches,
bowling,...) but he still took too much time to adjust to the
conditions. Perhaps, the selectors should appoint somebody like
Mohinder, who can spot and sort out problems during the tour, as
Manager.

Discussions are welcome. Flames to /dev/null (of course !).
-- 
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