Indian Domestic : Season 2012-2013

First topic message reminder :

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

Gambhir falls for 47 to ali Murtaza...one time reckoned to be the best SLA in the country...seemes to have moved from J&K to UP.

Gambhir is getting his 30s and 40s......is due to convert them into a real big one

Another unconverted start for Delhi, this time from Virat Kohli. Out for 43.
Sehwag has a finger injury and didn't take the field today. Seems he'll bat if needed, perhaps at 6 or 7.
Zaheer and Ojha have got among the wickets at last.
Vidarbha and Jarkhand have won their matches, the latter with a bonus point for the innings win.

Binny has 6 for the matchin the first inning so far and 50 ...and Pathan has nealrly a 130 runs so far in 2 innings...still batting and 2 wkts in first inning.
This is a game with some contest giving Karnataka an outside chance.

Pankaj singh has 8 out of 15 fallen wkts of Bengal....might not be enouhg to win...Rajasthan have an outside chance thouhg

add to that Rioshi Dhawan the 3rd seam bolwing allrounder on display.......3 wickets in first inning and an unbeaten 102 with the bat

sehwag cracks a hundred a few hoiurs before selectors announce the team..... as he tries to save the game for Delhi.....
Maybe selectors should consider batting him in the middle order for India

Sehwag batted at 6 and scored that hundred. Number 6 is the most troubled spot in that India batting lineup at the moment, of course keeping the troubles at the top aside.
Still, I think Sehwag, if he plays should open, that's where he can make the most impact and set a game up the way not many can do. I am sure the option of him batting down the order will be discussed though, more so after this innings.

well good news for you msp...no Raina in the Indian squad.

a blow for bhai

KP_fan wrote:well good news for you msp...no Raina in the Indian squad.

a blow for bhai

That's good news indeed. But Harbhajan's selection has been a massive disappointment.

msp83 wrote:

KP_fan wrote:well good news for you msp...no Raina in the Indian squad.

a blow for bhai

That's good news indeed. But Harbhajan's selection has been a massive disappointment.

who is the reserve spinner that you would pick up...if not harbhajan ?

KP_fan wrote:

msp83 wrote:

KP_fan wrote:well good news for you msp...no Raina in the Indian squad.

a blow for bhai

That's good news indeed. But Harbhajan's selection has been a massive disappointment.

who is the reserve spinner that you would pick up...if not harbhajan ?

Nadeem? He can also bowl it flat and fast like Bhaji does these days.
Anyways Harbhajan picked up 3 wickets in Punjab's win over Hyderabad, thereby not making the selectors look like complete idiots.

nadeem's gotta make the cut into duleep and Irani and A sides first....he is not your classical test match spinner.

Bhajji took 3-fer...and better than Ojha's 2 for 200 in the same game.
At the start of the Ranji season...the pitches are fresh and the batsmen are less used to the wintery morning swing in the air....hence you can see all the games are dominated by seam bowlers.

That coupled by thw fact that even average ranji batsmen are much better players of spin....unless the pitch is a rank turner like th finals of Duleep trophy where 2 saxenas spin bowling allrounders picked 5'fers.

The only credible spin bolwing of the season so far was Yuvraj's 5-fer against a full strength England side

Patil's first interview.....and unlike srikanth's chaotic monkey business post selection addresses to the media........patil has selectively spoken through BCCI's website.

two things stand out...they are focussing more on series by series...rather then investment for future type selections
and rahane is being looked at as a middle order batsman

http://www.bcci.tv/bcci/bccitv/index/viewarticle?article=50978fef76bd4-sandeep-patil-gears-up-for-a-new-innings.html


Here are the excerpts from his interview:

You have performed so many roles – a cricketer, a coach, an administrator and now a selector. You think you’ve become a complete all-rounder?

I’m thankful to BCCI for showing faith in me in whatever responsibilities the board has given me, starting from my appointment as the coach of the junior team. Now I am the chairman of the National Selection Committee and I’m pleased to have been and continue to be part of the BCCI and Indian Cricket.

How will your previous roles help you as the chairman of selectors?

In my three years at the NCA I had the opportunity to see each and every contracted player from close quarters. I got to know everything about them – their technical strengths and where they lacked, their fitness and mental strength. I could interact with all these players and I got to know them inside-out. That will help me bridge the gap that exists between the selector and the player. I can pass on so much of that information to my colleagues and they will benefit from it too.

When you see a player struggling with some technical or other glitch, do you have to stop the coach inside you from going and correcting that?

You have to restrict yourself. At this stage the responsibility I’m given is that of selecting the team and I will limit myself to performing that role.

A few words on your colleagues in the selection committee

We’re all very like-minded and have played together at some time or the other. Roger (Binny) and I played a lot of cricket together. Saba (Karim) and Vikram (Rathod) have been with me on tours. So, it’s a nice group of five men who share the same thinking and objective.

The Indian cricket is going through a transition phase. Do you think the new committee faces a challenging task?

Cricket is a challenging game, whether you are a player, a coach, a media person or a selector. You have to move forward according to the changing times and the requirements of different formats. I hope me and my committee fulfil our roles efficiently.

Do you see this home season as an opportunity to groom youngsters for tough overseas tours?

We have good established cricketers in the team. The opportunities will come for the youngsters. It’s a long season and everybody will get his due chance whenever a slot opens up.

Is there any specific long-term goal that your team has set?

No, we’re going match by match and series by series. Every match is going to be important and we want the Indian team to do well in each of those matches. Let’s not talk about the season ahead of us but this series against England that is coming up.

Is there anything that the previous selection committee did that you’d like your team to continue?

The previous committee did a fantastic job. They won the World Cup! We’d like to take the good work performed by them forward during our tenure.

What was the thought that went behind the selection of the squad for the Test series against England?

We have selected three openers, not four. Ajinkya Rahane has been picked as a middle-order batsman. We have tried to provide the captain and the team management with a backup option for all departments. We have an extra spinner, top-order batsman, middle-order batsman and pacer.

Far better than the usual garbage from the previous chairman.
And on Rahane, I think they are right. He has been playing at 3 for Mumbai and west zone at 3 for the last few seasons and has been scoring lots and lots of runs. Think eventually he has to bat 3 or 4, probably as a regular after Tendulkar is gone or otherwise if Yuvraj doesn't take his last chance at establishing himself in test cricket. But if Gambhir and Sehwag continue to fail, I would have Rahane open and not Vijay or Mukund.

Do you not think that leaving him as a spare 3/4/5 is a complete waste though? I see no reason why he couldn't open. What more does he have to do to get in the team - FC average of almost 64 from 57 games!

i think Rahane should open.....he has, and he can technically, and I am sure he would be willing to
He does open for India-A


he should talk to his state side and start opening in Ranji also

on a good note...selectors Pecking order for a middle order berth is :
Yuv
Rahane
Tiwari

so no easy entry for Raina

Was Tiwary mentioned somewhere in that Patil interview? Good signs, Raina is not really test class, he has to make some massive improvement in his game to be one.

As I said on Rahane, Yuvraj is not yet established as a test player, and its latter day claims of being a decent batting all-rounder that would have him ahead of Rahane in the test side for me, particularly against a side that hasn't had the best of times against spin in helpful conditions usually. But Yuvraj will have to score his runs and take his wickets, otherwise that door could be opened for Rahane a lot sooner. And if Gambhir and Sehwag can't find enough test runs and consistency, he could be brought up the order.
KPF is right, if Rahane has to be considered for an opening role with team India, he will have to do it for Mumbai regularly. the match just finished was a pretty good opportunity, Wasim Jaffer wasn't available at the top, but Sachin Tendulkar was available to cover for the middle order.

msp83 wrote:Was Tiwary mentioned somewhere in that Patil interview? Good signs, Raina is not really test class, he has to make some massive improvement in his game to be one.

how can he not be in there after making 93 vs Eng

A few more Ranji runs will certainly help his case.

he will play ahead of Rohit in ODIs....and if he continues to score in ODIs......hje will be in the reckoning

All-rounder Irfan Pathan has picked up a knee injury and will be out for at least 1 Ranji match. Unfortunate for Pathan, he had a pretty good start with the bat and did ok with the ball to start the season.

Good he wasn't picked as the 3rd seamer for India.

I believe having a squad of 15 for a home test is an overkill.
they should fialize the 12 and release 3 players on the eve of the test match to go and play ranji

A 14 man squad was enough, and Harbhajan was a needless and useless addition. Not worth the additional expense. Hopefully they'll let the 3 other players play Ranji matches.

KP_fan wrote:Good he wasn't picked as the 3rd seamer for India.

I believe having a squad of 15 for a home test is an overkill.
they should fialize the 12 and release 3 players on the eve of the test match to go and play ranji

Ajit Agarkar is the latest addition to the list of injured players. He won't be available for Mumbai's next match and Rohit Sharma will be leading the side.
The changes brought about to the Ranji format this year are quite sensible, perhaps the BCCI cricket committee can take a relook at the scheduling for next year.

The 2nd round of the Ranji Trophy has started today.
The test stars aren't playing, they are involved in a pre-series camp.
Rohit Sharma who's leading Mumbai in this match, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, are all playing.
Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar are the key players missing due to injury.

Haryana 52/1 in their match against England who scored 521. I know it's not Domestic but there is a nice symmetry there. Both add up to "8"

Also, Haryana should get more than 55 runs.

--Saxena and Kanitkar grind Mumbai minus Aggu and Zaher...waingankar play on his good show against Eng....but where is Sandhu...he wasn't played against Eng inspite of being in the squad nor is playing this Ranji game.....
he was super in the last few games he palyed last season.

--good to see VVSL still shoiwng passion and closing in on a 100

--Parthiv continues to be in runs....as he has gotten rid of wktkeeping.......I thik kaarathik should also do the same....both have a better chance of playing as batsmen...especially Kaarthik
Jadeja is amongst wkts for Saurshatra vs Gujarat

--saha continues to be amongst runs for Bengal vs. Punjab.....he is clearly India's next in line WK for tests inpsite of his 4 fluffed catches against Eng.

Gony is bowling well for Punjab second game in a row...once upon a time he was an India propspect with his brisk Venkatesh Prasad like seam bowling.

--baba aparatjith from Ind-u19 is closing in on a 100.....he will be watched closely as will be otehr star Unmukt chand....who has flundered so far in Ranji and Ind-a games

Badrinath also is in runs...but I think his don't count and he has been written off by selectors.

--Praveen kumar is injured but B. Kumar is still in wickets.....as UP have a tough day on flat Pune pitch v. Maharshtra

Hrishikesh Kanidkar and Vineet Suxena grounded out hundreds against Mumbai who really felt the absence of Agarkar and Zaheer(not that Zak was playing a lot for them), Robin Bisht and Saxena will start tomorrow and they still have Ashok Menaria to come.
Abhinav Mukund scored a 50 for TN. U19 star all-rounder Baba Aparajith scored his first FC 50 and will be hoping to convert it into a big one tomorrow. Karnataka had a tough day against TN, despite an attack that includes 2 seamers who played for India and an all-rounder who is emerging. All 3, Vinay Kumar, Mithun and Binni didn't have the best of days.
For Saurashtra Ravindra Jadeja has picked 2 out of the 5 wickets today. Young seamer Jaidev Unadkat had a disappointing first day. For Gujarat, U19 wicketkeeper Smit Patel and former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel scored 50s. Parthiv continues to keep for them.
For Bengal Saha scored and unbeaten 50 but Manoj Tiwary and Anustap Majundar were disappointing.
Young Jarkhand spinner Shahbaz Nadeem picked up 4 wickets against Asam who were bowled out during the first day itself. Nadeem's performance comes on the back of a 6fer in the previous match.
Starless Delhi picked themselves up from last week's loss and bowled Odisha out for 143 but are struggling at 62-3 in response. Controversial former India batsman Ajay Sharma's son Manan Sharma picked up 4 wickets for Delhi.
VVS Laxman scored an unbeaten 70 for Hyderabad and U19 batsman Hanuma Vihari is giving him excellent company.
UP had a tough day against Maharashtra for whom Kedar Jadhav scored a run a ball unbeaten hundred. Piyush Chawla is back for UP and picked up a wicket but they are really missing Praveen Kumar.
HP's young all-rounder Rishi Dhawan picked up 2 wickets, Arun Karthik, S Badrinath, Harshit Khadiwale, all performed well today.

whens did they rename orissa to odisha

Recently I think under CM Naveen Patnaik's leadership, not more than 2-3 years ago.

Hemang Badani, the former India batsman, scores a ton for Vidarbha. This is Badani's first FC hundred in 6 years.

Wriddhiman Saha failes to reach his ton, out for 98. VVS Laxman closing in on his hundred, 92 not out. U19 star Baba Aparajith has reached his maiden first class ton. Seems like the Chennai track has plenty of help for spinners, will be interesting to see how Aparajith would go with the ball later on.

Tons for VVS and Gujarat youngster Manprit Juneja. Maharashtra's Kedar Jadhav has reached a run a ball double hundred. Baba Aparajith out for 112.

Hemang Badani cracks a 100

Badani, Bahutule and Shiv Sundar Das are still playing now all for Vidarbha

I lost saw them around the year 2000 playing in Ganguly's captaincy for India

Mithun Manhas...cracks a hundred......
I feel a bit sad for Manhas and Rajat Bhatia...when I sawe them in IPL last couple of seasons......and also looking at their consisten season and season Ranji show....I believe they were India potentials.

Missed the bus during the packed middle order......of the 2000 decade

Kedar Jadhav converted his hundred into a real massive one, he was out for 327, and it came of just 312 balls. Hundreds for Dinesh Karthik, J&K's Parwez Rassol, Punjab's Jivanjit Singh who scored a double ton on debut last week, and Delhi's Mithun Manhas as well.

Not many spectacular bowling performances today.

msp83 wrote:Not many spectacular bowling performances today.

pitches could not have flattened within a week ?.....looks like batsmen are more used to the moving ball...in the 2nd round

KP_fan wrote:

msp83 wrote:Not many spectacular bowling performances today.

pitches could not have flattened within a week ?.....looks like batsmen are more used to the moving ball...in the 2nd round

Its the first match in Pune and the first one in Chennai as well. Pune seems like an absolute horrific flat road. Seems the Karnataka bowlers didn't take advantage of the spin available in Chennai and TN batsmen batted really well.
Moreover, the likes of Praveen Kumar, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan are missing due to injury. Yadav, Ishant and Zaheer are involved in the pre-series camp.

^BCCI really needs to do more about the quality of Ranji pitches......

And the balls used. Cricinfo live blog suggests that many matches saw a number of ball changes, as early as the 2nd and 3rd over.

A rather disappoint third day from the Ranji Trophy 2nd round. Most of the matches are being played on horrible, atrocious flat monsters andthe day produced as many as 13 hundreds. Himachal's Paras Dogra converted his hundred into a double, Punjab youngster Jivanjit Singh scored 158. Ravindra Jadeja, Sagar Jogiyani, Rakesh Solanki, Swapnil Asnodkar, Tanmay Srivastava, Mukul Dagar, all have scored hundreds. Yusuf Pathan and Rohit Sharma scored 50s and so did Robin Uthappa. The Gujarat Saurashtra match and the Maharashtra UP matches are proving to be major disasters due to the obnoxious wickets.
The only 2 quality matches in this round are the Delhi Odisha one and the Jarkhand Asam contest. Punjab, HP and Baroda have shown a bit of intent at the end of the day and are in with a chance to force a result. All in all, a rather forgetable day.
Hope the BCCI is taking note and will make the host associations accountable for their atrocious action.

http://www.cricketcountry.com/cricket-articles/Chief-curator-worried-about-Pune-Stadium-pitch/19570

India's chief curator Daljeet singh critical of Pune pitch.....good signs..they pulled up Saurshtra for making a flat road strip in Rajkot earlier during chaleneger series.
Problem idenfication without self denial is half the battle won

http://www.cricketcountry.com/cricket-articles/Chief-curator-worried-about-Pune-Stadium-pitch/19570

and now Raina slams the pitch
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ranji-trophy-2012/content/current/story/590857.html

given Raina's stature as a potential captain of T20 team.......his voice will be heard

Hopefully. And hopefully more people will speak out against this obnoxious nonsense!.

well msp it is getting noticed.....

a lot of people are quick to malign BCCI........they do make mistakes...the old bureacratic system sucks, just like in otehr walks of Life in India.....but BCCIhave been identifying problesm and fixing them recently to their credit: A no. of examples stand out..

1) after the recent debacles in Aus and Eng...suddenly A torus cropped up sending our next in line to NZ and WI ( with special request to WI board to have seam friendly pitches)

2) the amount of planning that has gone in the England home series in terms of selection of practise games compsotions, pitches, Indian team selection with no fuss is unprecedented.

3) formation of pitches committe...changing formats of Ranji...using Ganguly, Kumble, WV Raman, Chopra's inputs to improve the Ranji formats and pitches...

4) Public condemnation of Patta pitches for challangers....

5) effciently and authoratatively nipping the infight / dressing room dissent between Dhoni and sehwag in private......compared to the high voltage melodramatic public domain soap opera played in England with Pitersengate

they can be obnoxious in their Public Relations and Communications....but are taking good steps towards preservation and betterment their cash cow i.e Indian cricket.

KP_fan wrote:well msp it is getting noticed.....

a lot of people are quick to malign BCCI........but ot their credit they make mistakes...the old system sucks.....but they have been identifying problesm and fixing them recently to their credit:

1) after the recent debacles in Aus and Eng...suddenly A torus cropped up sending our next in line to NZ and WI ( with special request to WI board to have seam friendly pitches)

2) the amount of planning that has gone in the England home series in terms of selection of practise games compsotions, pitches, Indian team selection with no fuss is unprecedented.

3) formation of putches comitte...changing formats of Ranji...using Ganguly, Kumble, WV Raman, chopra's inputs to improve the Ranji formats and pitches...

4) Public condemnation of Patta pitches for challangers....

5) effciently and authoratatively nipping the infight / dressing room dissent between Dhoni and sehwag in private......compared to the high voltage melodramatic public domain soap opera played in England with Pitersengate

they can be obnoxious in their PR....but are taking good steps to preserve their cash cow i.e Indian cricket.

There obviously are some changes, the format change in the Ranji Trophy has been the best, although I thought they should have provided for even more points for an outright win. Should have been 8 at least with bonus points for innings or 10 wicket wins.
They did make some noise after the challenger, but then we have this week's utter farce of a 2nd round Ranji trophy. There should be a system in which the host association team would have to face a deduction of points for preparing these sleeping monsters!. I can't tell you how disappointed I was while following cricinfo live blog on Ranji today. It just was so atrocious.

the current BCCI regime has realized that there are two parts to running the cricket in India:

1) the coprporatzion styled contrcats, economics, sposnsorship and financial management which the likes of Pawar and his cronies such as Srnivasan, shah, trhe deceased VilasRao etal are handling

2) then there is a cricket part....scheduling, selection, bowler's fitness, pitches, domestic cricket, competitive ness of the national team, running NCA, running junior cricket, blocking ICC imposed dicates on technical cricketing ground....that BCCI realizes needs to be taken care of...with efficiency...and the politcal / financial minded people are largely keeping away from it...leaving this in the hands of emiment ex cricketers like Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble, Gavaskar, shastri, Patil, Binny etal.

and because there is money...and BCCI is freely spending a signifcant chunk of theeearnings.....these ex-cricketers are getting the freedom and fiunding and shaping the Indian cricket for activities in category 2.

It is a nascent phenomenon...so there are still glitches and slips and sc.rew ups emanating from the old babu-styled bureaucratic culture....but BCCI is quick in fixing things.
because one thing they undertsand that this billion dollar industry and riches for all are dependent on retaining public interest in cricket.

the money and desire to keep that money coming( self sustenance)...retaining public interests..is driving BCCI to do what's essential to be done..inspite of the inherent coorrupt, lazy and inefficient system.