Indian Domestic : Season 2012-2013

Irani Trophy is out of the way....Challenger is ongoing.......Duleep Trophy will start soon and then the entire Ranji season with a new 3 group and 2 tier structure.
In between there are A tours........India A in NZ and then Eng-A side comes to play India-A.

It warrants a separate thread

Challanger Trophy Started today...they have done away with India-C and replaced with Ranji One dayer champions as the 3rs side...whihc is Bengal.

On a Patta pitch at Rajkot...India-A made 335...and Ind-B came close with 331....Pujara got some batting practise with an unbeaten 158.

Dhawan also made a 152 on the opposing side.......when Dhawan gets runs......you can safely assume these are Patta pitches ( translated to English means roughly Road Strip)

Pace bowlers figures look Horrifc....not good as any kinda indicator...except when a bowler even on a ptich likes this does good figures.
In the context of the game Awana and Yadav stood out with maximum wickets with their pace presumably.

It started yesterday. India A thrashed Bengal yesterday. Ishant took 4 wickets and Ojha 3. Dhawan scored 99 not out yesterday and of course a big knock today.

Rajkot has always produced horrible pitches.
On a side note, I hate when commentators call a stupid flat obnoxious road as a good wicket. Even sensible people, bowlers, like Ian Bishop does it.
Thanks KPF for starting the thread.

^thanks for pointing out shanky that challenger started yesterday....yeah Ishant an Ojha bowled well even on a Patta pitch....

Bengal faces the same problem as Rajasthan did in the Irani trophy.
These are sides that did well in Ranji championship(s) by pulling their weight together as an 11.
Just like Rajasthan were missing Pankaj, Riturak, Menaria and Chopra...
Bengal are missing Sami Ahmed, Dinda, Anustup Majumdar and Tiwari....the heart has been plucked out......and these sides Raj and Bengal do not have the depth to replace their top 4 stars respectively

Really looking forward to see some of our young players kick on to the next level.

well I am hoping the new selection panel is more consistent......
I do have a lot more hope from Patil, Binny and Karim....very well balanced guys....
duno so much Rathore and Hans as individuals...but I am certain that Patil will bring more balance than by the end turned into a comic Bufoon Srikkanth

Our next aim, with regards to the limited overs side, should be the Champions Trophy in England next summer. So need to try and improve the quality of our seam attack. Also Viru opening the innings in England with 2 new balls isn't a pleasant prospect either. I'd like to see us blood a new ODI opener.

BTW KPF, where do you live? India or UK?

My choice for that opener would be Pujara. I know he doesn't open domestically but I think he has the technique to do well as an ODI opener. Great List A record. A bit unfair to tag him as a Test specialist IMO.

ShankyCricket wrote:Our next aim, with regards to the limited overs side, should be the Champions Trophy in England next summer. So need to try and improve the quality of our seam attack. Also Viru opening the innings in England with 2 new balls isn't a pleasant prospect either. I'd like to see us blood a new ODI opener.

BTW KPF, where do you live? India or UK?

I live in Zurich.....and spend quite some time in Holland also.

this thread could possibly go into the county thread.

and we could name that part of the section, 'domestic cricket'?

any good up and coming fast bowlers, aside from Yadav and Aaron in indian domestic cricket??

CF wrote:any good up and coming fast bowlers, aside from Yadav and Aaron in indian domestic cricket??

Awaana, Dinda, Sami Ahmed......tier 1 reserves all capable of hitting 140+...and all had a great Ranji / Duleep show last year.

Rituraj singh, Bhuvnesh, Kumar Pankaj Singh Harshad Patel, Balwinder singh Sandhu Jr....tier 2 bowlers...had a good Ranji season......but don't have the X factor.....need to develop themselves further....

tier-3 are the fallen by the way ex-internationals Munaf, Sreesanth, RPS, Vinay Kumar, Mithun, Praveen Kumar, Balaaji.......medium pacers.....

Of the above I would like to see Praveen get back...for his Lion hearted efforts in tests in WI and Eng in 2011...and Vinay Kumar...who I think has the potentisl to be an ODI and T20 bowler still ahead of likes of Balaaji and few others.

I dunno where to put Ishant Sharma

Challenger ends with two lessons......given the pitches the gigantic batting scores can be largely discounted.....
and that if BCCI are gonna give the 3rd team slot to Ranji champions like Bengal this season...they better ensure full strength Bengal side is present...else those games become a farce.

The only silver lining in India's premature exit from world T20....is that we will see a full strength Duleep trophy....which I hope will be used by the Indian team as their practise for the Eng series.

i dunno what happened with Praveen...he is a tremendous talent, did he get injured and fall away, or was it pure loss in form?

Inconsistency from India with Praveen, who seem unwilling to recall him on grounds of lack of form, whilst Raina, Ishant, Chawla, Harbhajan, Sharma and co. continually get picked regardless

Shelsey93 wrote:Inconsistency from India with Praveen, who seem unwilling to recall him on grounds of lack of form, whilst Raina, Ishant, Chawla, Harbhajan, Sharma and co. continually get picked regardless

Agree to some extend. Raina has been consistent in ODIs though. A bit like the Morgan situation with England. But I really don't see Raina as a consistent and quality test player.
PK has had trouble with injuries throughout last year, such a shame it was his real breakthrough year in international cricket where he proved that he could be a good bet in the longer formats as well. After the England tour it was felt that he could step in when Zaheer will have to go. The kind of pace he bowls at, he really can't afford to lose out on it any further, and I suspect that is one major reason his form has fallen away as following the injuries, he lost a bit of pace.
The 2 Sharmas, Ishant and Rohit, have lots of tallent but they have technical and tempramental issues that need sorting before we could stop talking about potential and start reveling in their actual performances. I am on the verge on giving up on Rohit though.

Praveen had an injury.....and he was brouhg back witthout fully recovering...he was lacking pace ( even lower than his already medium pacve).....and lacking rythm...so he was not picked.....

He's now gotta prove his fitness and form in Ranji and Duleep Trophy this season....and work his way back the hard way.

The way Dhoni made some comments about him in the media.....gave me the impression that he might have had a bit of a fall out with Dhoni....
But the best way to make your point is to pick up bucketful of wickets.....like Zaheer did in Ranji and Duleep when he was dropped

Shelsey93 wrote:Inconsistency from India with Praveen, who seem unwilling to recall him on grounds of lack of form, whilst Raina, Ishant, Chawla, Harbhajan, Sharma and co. continually get picked regardless

Srikkanth led selection comittee was guilty of lack of consistency indeed

Apart from the 2nd spinner issue in home Tests when Bhajji used to be first choice (Mishra and Ojha were playing musical chairs in 2009 and 2010) I dont think there has been a lot of "inconsistency". If anything, they've been a bit too "consistent" and kept on picking failing players. I think the main problem with Srikkanth was the selection of the wrong players in the first place. Raina, for example, should never have played Tests. Rohit should not be playing ODIs. His domestic record tells you a story. Good T20 record, great FC record but a mediocre List A record. Its no wonder he is doing well in T20 cricket at international level but not in ODIs. He should have made his Test debut instead of Raina Sri Lanka in 2010 IMO but they have destroyed his confidence by playing him in the wrong format. Of course, he has himself to blame too. There's no justification for averaging as low as 15 in ODIs this year but the point remains that he hasn't been managed too well.

2nd Test

India A first innings : 433/4
Mandeep 169*
Menaria 164*
Anustup went for 56.

Rayudu has been rested for this match.

Rayudu should have played. He has been one consistent performer in this tour. If he could retain that level of consistency, he should be considered among others for that troubled number 6 spot. Raina isn't good enough to play test match cricket, Rohit's temprament isn't good enough to play international cricket. Yuvraj cannot be considered as an all-rounder at 6 because of his suspect match fitness to play tests. Should they play Rahane at 6? They see him as a future test opener it seems, and the way Sehwag and Gambhir are going, that future may not be so far away. But an in form Sehwag could turn a test all by himself, and his effect is massive at the top and not in the middle order. Of the 2 its been Gambhir who has at least been showing some consistency in ODIs, so I would not drop him as yet for the England series, at least for the first couple of tests.
Perhaps they should play Rahane at 3, Pujara at 5 and Kohli at 6. But the odds of that are less, as Pujara and Kohli have had success in their current batting positions at 3 and 5.
A good show from Ashok Menaria. The guy has shown big match temprament in domestic cricket and he's young. I hope in a couple of Ranji seasons he would improve more and would be up for national consideration.
Players like Manish Pandey should have been given greater exposure on these A team tours. Hopefully the new selection committee will be far more sensible than the previous one.

Pandey is playing stupid challenger on lifeless roads rather than playing in the challinging wickets of New Zealand. His FC average is 54, his list A average is 26. Enough said about the selection committee.

msp83 wrote:Rayudu should have played. He has been one consistent performer in this tour. If he could retain that level of consistency, he should be considered among others for that troubled number 6 spot.

Exactly my thought.....Rayadu should have played to test his consistency and had he performed there would be a solid case for throwing him into the No. 6 slot.
Now Rayadu has missed........ on what appears to be an easier batting pitch......from the look of the score card.

regards

ShankyCricket wrote:Apart from the 2nd spinner issue in home Tests when Bhajji used to be first choice (Mishra and Ojha were playing musical chairs in 2009 and 2010) I dont think there has been a lot of "inconsistency". If anything, they've been a bit too "consistent" and kept on picking failing players. I think the main problem with Srikkanth was the selection of the wrong players in the first place. Raina, for example, should never have played Tests. Rohit should not be playing ODIs. His domestic record tells you a story. Good T20 record, great FC record but a mediocre List A record. Its no wonder he is doing well in T20 cricket at international level but not in ODIs. He should have made his Test debut instead of Raina Sri Lanka in 2010 IMO but they have destroyed his confidence by playing him in the wrong format. Of course, he has himself to blame too. There's no justification for averaging as low as 15 in ODIs this year but the point remains that he hasn't been managed too well.

Inconsistencies have been plenty at the international level......Jadeja, Raina, Rohit, Tiwari, Rahane........glorious cases on inconsitency former 3 beneficaries.....because of their closeness to the captain.

Irfan Pathan...was out for a long time inspite of showing return to form......wasn't even in the Asia cup team until someone was injured.....

RPS pulled in to play test matches in England...when Munaf was being carried around all throuhg the tour......

and when you get down to the A tours, Irani, challaenger selections...........the list of inconsistencies is HUGE

Mandeep Singh seems like a good stroke maker, but I have doubts about his ability to play the short stuff consistently well. He even struggled with them in his first IPL season. Perhaps a couple of Ranji seasons would have improved him, but in my book players like Pandey and Rahane are far ahead in considerations for a test place. But Mandeep is playing in NZ while Rahane, like Pandey is playing Challengeless.

Looking at Sehwag's shot yesterday, I don't think we will ever see him "in form" again. I have time for Gambhir but he needs a season of domestic cricket to sort out his technical flaws that have left him without a Test century for more than 30 months. Yes, its been THAT long. Would be ridiculous to ignore Rahane any longer.

on a more detailed look at the score card of the India-A game vs. NZ-A....I see that Rahul sharma and Sami ahmed have also been rested... Bhuvnesh kumar and Dharekar are in

So it appears...that the qualified successes have been given a break.....sounds good if that is indeed the plan.

Now when they are back......the qualified successes should be the first in line for an India call should a vacany arise.

Here is my choice for the 1st line of rserves for tests or ODIs

Batsmen
1) Rahane
2) Tiwari
3) Rayadu...should probably break into ODis first

Fast Bowlers:

1) Dinda
2) Sami ahmed
3) Awaana

spinners:

1) rahul sharma
2) Dharekar

Not sure about Rahul Sharma in tests. His FC record is poor. Cricketers like Anil Kumble won't come up every day, they have to just let it go. Sharma seems just OK, perhaps he should play a lot more FC cricket, prove himself worthy of being considered for a test place. But his nonturning leggies could be useful in limited over formats.
Would like to see whether Awana would be able to retain his consistency in this Ranji season.

msp83 wrote:Not sure about Rahul Sharma in tests. His FC record is poor..

My argument is based on the A tour performance....where he has delivered
Rahul sharma delivered in WI and then in NZ......he doesn't get you a bumper 5 for the inning or 10 for the match...but ALWAYS gets 2 to 3 wickets per inning regardless of the pitch and opponent.

so questions should have been raised when he was picked in A side...which was presumably on potential more than proven records.....

BUT once he has delivered in A tours....then he has earned the right to be first in the line.....for an India international game call.

Including the performances with the A team, Sharma's FC stats are 34 wickets from 15 matches at an average of 43 and a strike rate of 77.5. He was given a chance based on potential, but there has to be actual performances on field, not 1 or 2 wickets, but more quality performances before he's given an opportunity with the test side. Darekar would be ahead of Sharma in my pecking order, and I would like to see Harmeet Singh given more opportunities with the A side.

India- make a collosal 550.....on the back of 170s and 190s from Menaria and Mandeep...anf then get NZ down to about 200 for 5...not bad from Indian seamers Bhuvanesh and Vinay taking 2 each....Dharekar getting nothing so far.

The noticeable thing about this match has been the RR...India went at about 4.7 and NZ is going at 4.1.....must be a very good batting pitch

Like Pandey, Sharma and Mandeep, I think the selectors have got it wrong with Vinay Kumar. He should have played Challengeless, I don't think he is good test material, the one test he played was more than enough. Could be useful in ODIs though, is a very capable backup option in the limited over formats. Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma should have gone to NZ in place of Vinay and Buvneshwar Kumar.

Harbhajan Singh is appointed Punjab captain for the Ranji Trophy. Mandeep Singh is his deputy. The squad includes Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Sharma and Manpreet Gony. Medium pacer Love Ablish is missing.

Domestic legend Amol Muzumdar has joined Andhra Pradesh after not getting an opening with his former team Mumbai. His massive experience should be valuable for an inconsistent AP batting lineup.

Mazumdar, Bangar, Rajat Bhatia, Aakash Chopra, Kanitkar, LR Shukla, Jaffer, ...Sitanshu Kotak......are PEDs in Indian Domestic Cricket.......Past Expiry Date
Dinosaurs who started in the era when Kapil, Azhar, Srikkanth hadn't hung their boots yet......FC giants in their prime...who never cut it at the top level...still hanging on and giving a reasonable account.....purely on experience of the old days..


Good to see Yuvraj in the ranji side.......want him to play and get back to prime fitness and form.......he is not even in CLT0
He makes a better choice for test matches than Raina ( actually I can find about 6 guys better than Raina for a middle order berth instead of Raina)

I too think Yuvraj is a much better bet than Raina is in test matches. He has to be selected as a batting all-rounder though. On his day he can bat like anyone, but those days are far too rare to select him just for his batting alone. I actually think he would make a useful 3rd spinner/5th bowler, capable of filling in with 8-10 quite overs a day, and a wicket or 2 in between.

For the England Tests, I'd go with

Rahane Sehwag Pujara Tendulkar Kohli Nohit Dhoni Ashwin Zak Ishant/Yadav Ojha

Shanky you mean Rohit Sharma? You can point to his FC record, but even there he has tempramental issues, he's not a big match player, and doesn't really apply himself in a pressure situation. He hasn't played an innings like the one Pujara played against Delhi a couple of seasons ago to secure a draw that looked unlikely, he hasn't played an innings of the kind that Manish Pandey played against Mumbai on a seam pitch. He scores big on flat roads where there is not so much of hard work needed.
I don't think Yuvraj will be match to play the early tests against England, I would go for Rahane in Raina's place, but I am not sure as to where should he bat.

NZ-A get to 424-7......the flatnes of the pitch coming forth .
Dharekar misse an opportunity to impress

Tendulakr meanwhile has declared he doesn't have a lot of future left......and he will reassess his career next month.

Is he alluding to a retirtement

I hope he makes a wise decision before the start of the England series...instead of taking throuhg the ordeal of playing with 3 batsmen short i.e
Sehwag..eye gone
Raina... dhoni bhai's favourite.......
and tendulakr the bowled throuhg the gate candidate

the other problem with Tendulkar is he just arrives in tests without playing any FC cricket.
He should have played the Irani and Challenger trophies to work himsefl into form

^ok I am wrong this time.......he will play two 4 day Ranji games to prepare for England tests...and he has made clear that he will be playing the tests against Eng:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/before-england-tests-sachin-tendulkar-set-for-ranji-trophy-practice/1012076/

With his disappointing performances against New Zealand having come under serious scrutiny, Sachin Tendulkar is most likely to get himself some match-practice before India take on England in the four-Test match series in November.

Tendulkar is intent on ensuring that he’s match-fit and raring to go against the Englishmen by getting warmed-up with a couple of Ranji Trophy games for Mumbai in the interim.

The batting maestro had looked rusty while getting repeatedly bowled in the two Tests in Hyderabad and Bangalore with many experts ascertaining that age had finally caught up with him.

Mumbai are scheduled to play their season opener against Railways on November 2 at home before taking on Rajasthan in Jaipur. He last wore Mumbai’s jersey in the 2009 semi-finals, against Saurashtra.

With the first Test against England starting only on November 15, Tendulkar is keen to get at least two first-class matches under his belt.

The Indian Express has learnt that the 39-year-old expressed his desire to a few MCA officials and teammates to consider him for selection prior to leaving for the Champions League, which kicks off on October 9 in South Africa.

MCA joint secretary Nitin Dalal said that Tendulkar will certainly be picked if he’s made himself available.

“We are yet to speak to him. If he is willing to play then he will surely be included in the Mumbai. His presence will help the youngsters greatly,” Dalal said.

Two games

Prior to leaving for South Africa, Tendulkar indulged in three weeks of intense net sessions at the MCA’s indoor centre at the BKC ground. “He is going to play in two Ranji games and he has also been working very hard in the meanwhile. After the CLT20, he wanted to get some four-day match practice before taking on England,” a source added.

Good move from Tendulkar to play the Ranji matches.

The Duleep trophy match between North and West in progress, north 99 without loss at lunch. North are missing Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh due to injury concerns, rest or the CLT-20.
Ishant Sharma is playing, and Parwinder Awana also has a chance to impress.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are the big names involved with west. Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ravindra Jadeja are all missing due to the CLT-20 or other reasons. Harmeet Singh is getting an opportunity.

North 251-3 at stumps on day one. Shikhar Dhawan scored 101, and Hariana's Rahul Dewan scored 65.
Saurashtra's Kamlesh Makvana picked up 2 wickets, outbowling U 19 star Harmeet Singh in the process. Not a good day for young Harmeet, not only did he fail to take a wicket, but he went at over 4 in his 18 overs.

Meanwhile the A team settled for a rain affected draw against New Zealand in the 2nd unofficial test. skipper Abhinav Mukund scored an unbeaten 132 in the India 2nd innings, Chand scored 44 and Majumdar 32.

Glad that Mukund hasn't been totally forgotten about.

He has a great FC record and I thought the stick he got for the handful of Tests he played was undue, given that all the more senior batsmen struggled during that period too, Anderson and Broad bowled sensationally at him, and it was his first few matches. He also did get a couple of scores somewhere along the way too...

msp83 wrote:The Duleep trophy match between North and West in progress, north 99 without loss at lunch. North are missing Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh due to injury concerns, rest or the CLT-20.
Ishant Sharma is playing, and Parwinder Awana also has a chance to impress.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are the big names involved with west. Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ravindra Jadeja are all missing due to the CLT-20 or other reasons. Harmeet Singh is getting an opportunity.

gambhir, kohli, yuv , pathan and bhaj should have played.
dhawan keeps tonking 100s

North extended their score to 436-7 at tea on the 2nd day thanks to 77 from Paras Dogra and lower order runs from HP's young all-rounder Rishi Dhawan(38) and former India spinner Amit Mishra(32 not out).
Anyone seen Rishi Dhawan in action? He atained some consistency in the last season. Averages 33 with the bat after playing 13 FC matches, and has taken 55 wickets so far.