South Africa for WC15

South Africa seem to be in a big confusion going into the WC. Although they have some exceptional /world class players in the team, somehow they are not able to get their act together and are also struggling with their no. 7!

Amla - an exquisite player more suited to hold on the innings. 

DeKock has enough fire as an opener, and his conversion rate of 50's to 100's has been great. but somehow, the 5 match series in australia has been tough, lacking consistency that he showed earlier.

Duplesis and AB Devillers are well set but how much pressure can they carry.

Floaters include Miller, Roussow, Baherdin - who havent been able to show enough consistency which is a major cause of concern. Neither in 1st innings nor 2nd innings. That is making life difficult for the SA selectors.

Duminy will play a crucial role due to his batting as well as 10 overs of spin!

Probably, Steyn, Morkel and philander are their best bet as bowlers for the WC with Mclaren as the floater (bowling all rounder and a decently good death bowler) But they need more with the bowl.

I wonder the big hitting frylinck should be given a chance as a fast bowling all rounder and low order batsman who could also be used as a pinch hitter! He showed some prowess in the CLT20 but havent seen much of him, the SA selectors should know him better!
Tahir and the Peterson (slightly good low order batsman) will probably be the spinners joining in the squad.
Lets see if SA can settle better just in time before the WC.

The key for them is going to be the no. 5,6,7 positions to fit in a better and well balanced playing 11 if they want to stake a claim for the WC15 trophy.

The Curious case of Rohit Sharma

Well, well 264 in ODI against Sri Lanka, that's some kind of a record i must say!

Rohit Sharma has always had this weird knack of producing some incredible innings that one could ever imagine. No wonder SRT said that his record could be broken by Rohit or Kohli.
If you have ever seen Rohit bat, you would see that he always has an enormous time to play a shot. He gets into some tremendous positions to play his shots! Now that is some talent. When people talk about his talent, its the time that he has to play his shots, thats very unique.

Rohit also has this habit to produce some unbelievable innings just before selection and once selected he goes into some kind of a mode where he is able to do nothing. Harsha Bhogle, once said about Kambli and SRT - Kambli was a much more talented player but SRT also had the attitude and the desire to succeed. SRT used to practice, practice and practice. Talent is not everything but your attitude to succeed is what matters. Rahul Dravid is another example, initially he was considered too slow for ODI cricket but he went on to modify and improve his game, he has the record for one of the fastest ODI fifties for India (22 balls against NZ!)

What impact does this have on WC15!
Well, Rohit certainly has made a case for the starting 11 in WC or may be atleast the Aussie tour.
This could mean Rayudu has to sit out in case, the team sticks with rahane and dhawan for opening and rohit and kohli could adjust at no. 3 and 4. personally i feel, Rahane is a much better opener with the new ball, hence prefer Rohit to come in at 3-4. Plus if Rohit clicks, he could provide the team what Yuvi used to provide in the middle overs and thats why Rohit's form and consistency could be critical going into the WC.

Time for Indian Batsmen, Spinners/All-rounders for the WC15

So, previously I covered the tentative fast bowlers that i see going into the WC.

With the 3 ODIs gone, India showed a ruthless approach to their batting as well. These 3 ODIs more or less combined with the 3 WI ODIs have finalized the core of the Indian batting for the WC.

1) Openers - Rahane/Dhawan/Rohit Sharma

Rahane has carried his good form from SA tests to England and now the ODIs. With Rohit Sharma getting injured, it gave a perfect opportunity to try Rahane who is more natural a player against the new ball. Dhawan has cemented his place atleast till the Australian tour with over 270 runs in the 3 ODIs against SriLanka. Rohit Sharma hit a century against Sri Lanka during the warm up match. Moreover, Rohit Sharma is that kind of a talented player who you will atleast have as a backup in the squad, if not in the playing 11. Note that, he can be quite a destructive player once he is set. He might as well shift to the middle order if needed. 

2) Middle Order - Rayudu/Kohli/Raina

Kohli is an obvious choice. No doubts over that. Raina with his left handed pinch hitting is an ideal player in the lower middle order for the death overs and a floater when acceleration is required. Not to forget his handy offspin and excellent fielding. Rayudu has come up to the big stage and more or less made his place in the side with the century against Sri Lanka. Moreover, he also acts as a back up wicketkeeper for Captain Dhoni.

Raina being selected for the test team to tour Australia is an assurance that hes been selected to get some batting practice in Australia.

3) WK and Dhoni - No doubts over that!

4) All Rounders and Spinners - Jadeja/Axar patel/Ashwin

Well well, no doubts that Ashwin is going into the WC15 as the best off spinner in the country and the fact that his batting can prove to be handy enough.

Axar Patel has risen up to the stage with his bowling which gives him slight edge over Sir Jadeja. However, his batting is yet to be tested in the longer run. But he has hit some lusty blows in the past. Also, the fact that he provides just the ideal variation in the bowling with his left arm spin

Sir Jadeja i feel is going to the WC15 irrespective of what he does over the next few months on the tour of Australia. His fielding itself may be an asset for the side, even as a substitute!

Other players would include Robin Uthapa who could acts as a WK batsman and someone who can play anywhere in the top 7 as a batsman. Another few players who seem to be getting a chance for the lower middle order could be Kedar Jadhav who has been selected for the last 2 ODIs against SL. 

Do not forget, Murali Vijay and KL Rahul who are touring Australia as test openers may at anytime get selected for the WC in case of non-performance of any other openers above, purely on basis of recent experience that they may gain in Australia.

It is clear that Captain Dhoni does prefer bowlers who can bat a bit. It is also true that on Australian pitches, a spinner may not be able to do much, hence a slight extra edge in batting would help.

Stuart Binny could spring in a surprise due to his all-round capabilities given the fact that his medium pacers could be handy in Australia. Karn Sharma could get in a look due to his leggies and offcourse hes also one of those handy lower order bats.

I am afraid to say that there is a rare chance for Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra to make a come back to the ODI side! Ojha is missing in the test side again so that Karn Sharma can be tested and may get some practice before the WC.

So, watch out for these players over the next couple of months!

Indian Fast Bowling Unit for WC15

I was just about to write about the India fast bowling core group that i see going into the world cup. But as it stands i am a bit late on it. Nonetheless, will put my thoughts.

Top 5 was a no brainer - Bhuvi, Shami, Umesh Yadav, Aaron and Ishant

1) Bhuvi - offcourse because of his accurate line, length and fact that he can swing the ball both ways. Remember, Praveen Kumar had bowled really well in the tri-series down under.

2) Shami - He is fast, he bowls yorkers and has been the best wicket taking strike bowler for India over the past couple of months.

3&4) Umesh Yadav and Aaron - Both of them consistently bowl in the late 140s and infact Aaron touches the early 150s. Something that we need on the pacy and bouncy tracks of Austalia. In the current ongoing series against Sri Lanka, Yadav showed some great line and length with the ball and his wicket taking ability due to the pace he generates.

5) Ishant Sharma - Perhaps, his rise on the test tour of England has led to his selection. Moreover, after Zaheer Khan gone, he is the seniormost fast bowler in the team. He might not be the first choice bowler and may not be in the playing eleven for the WC but he surely seems to be on the tour. He does have a good pace and an in form Ishant does have a good line and length.

Some of the fringe players who could possibly get a chance due to the long Australian series before the WC and injury prone fast bowlers include - Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohit Sharma, Vinaykumar.

Dhawal Kulkarni is another bowler with decent pace and good line and length, whereas Mohit and Vinaykumar have the variety in their bowling for the limited overs tournament.

Although, i would love the Indian management to spring in a surprise by sending Zaheer Khan as a bowling consultant who has not only traveled across the world but also understands what a bowler born and brought up in India needs to do in foreign conditions. And don't be surprised if he also gets selected in the final 15 for the WC ;)

Watch out for these fast bowlers over the next couple of months!

ICC Cricketer of the year award should go to Angelo Mathews

Nominations for the ICC Cricketer of the Year include - Mitchell Johnson, Kumar Sangakara, AB DeVillers and Angelo Matthews

ICC Cricketer of the year is one of the toughest awards to give considering the player has to be rated on various parameters. That's a tough choice.

My best bet is Angelo Matthews for the ICC Cricketer of the year award. He scores runs, he takes wickets, he fields, he captains, what more can a cricketer provide! The kind of innings that Angelo had to play over the past couple of months were under quite some difficult circumstances. One might argue that Sangakara has done the bulk of scoring for Sri Lanka over the past couple of months, but Mathews who comes in to bat at no.5-6 has played some crucial innings in both test matches as well as ODIs. Whether be it putting up a fighting total or saving the test hes done it all in the past 12 months, As a captain, he also went on to lead Sri Lanka in difficult times. If one takes a look at the Sri Lankan side, it is a lot dependant on Sanga, Jaya and Dilshan to do the bulk of the scoring. But in the past 12 months neither Dilshan nor Jaya have been in great form (not denying that they have played some good innings). So, the Sri Lankan team was largely dependant on the form of Sanga. Apart from that they have a pretty fragile batting line up with most players who do not have an assured place in the team. In such situation, Mathews comes up to the big stage and has scored enough runs at a consistent rate. Moreover, his medium-fast bowling has proved to be more than handy. Mathews has extended this form from tests to ODIs to T20s, hes done it all in the past 12 months.

I would give him a slight edge over Sanga and Mitchel definitely. Now the question, has he been better than AB Devillers? ABD matches Mathews in terms of the runs scored, captaincy and in place of bowling, his keeping substitutes for the added skill. But compared to a Sri Lankan side the South African side is far more settled with one of the best bowling line up in the world - Steyn, Morkel, Philander. As far as batting is concerned, Amla, Du Plesis, Duminy and now DeKock have provided a much healthy and stable batting line-up. That's where Mathews gets the edge for supporting the fragile batting line-up.

People often come up with some other facts that ABD has played a large number of sports at school level and excelled at most of them. As a fact, Mathews was also a similar person and had won an award from Milo(the malt drink) for being the best all round student in SriLanka (this i came across while doing a study on a project for International Marketing as a part of my MBA currciulum :P)

That's it from me with the amateur writing.

Cricket beginnings!

Finally, after a long wait, the my blog is created.

The idea to create this blog is to put forth my ideas about cricket, upcoming players, the state of the gentleman's game and much more.

To start with i will just mention a few headlines of the past week.

1) As in India, we say, the God (Sachin Tendulkar) published his own book - Playing it my way.

A lot of people in the media say that he's timed the book well after retirement to gain as much revenue out of it. Many have disgraced the topic of Greg Chapell. Lot of different ideas and thoughts float around this topic, but i would say it just proves why he is the God of cricket. Still after 24 years of making headlines and front page of newspapers, he continues to do so post retirement. There are a host of topics that could have been discussed all this while but even writers and media personnel have chosen Sachin's autobiography as a topic to write, not because it is full of controversy but more so because he is obviously the person who would catch the news across the length and breadth of the company or even to the extent of cricket playing nations, Anyways, detailed discussion on this topic sometime later.

2) Misbah ul Haq scores the fastest 50 and joint fastest 100 in test cricket, ironically, often when he's known to be a slow player in ODIs. However, he is a far superior and talented player than his critiques may say. He seems to be stuck up in a team wherein he cannot play freely enough. Had he been given the freedom that someone like Ricky Ponting enjoyed in a great team, his records could have been far superior. Too many ifs and buts in that sentence. But i do remember a joke about Shahid Afridi and his age that he never gets older, there are jokes that his age is fake and he is much older. On similar lines, i just feel Misbah seems to have stuck on age 38-40 for quite some time. The way he plays, he might actually be 25 but in his case the age is forged to be on the higher side :P

3) Shakib Al Hasan scores a hundred and takes 10 wickets in a match only the third person behind Ian Botham and Imran Khan. Mind you, its not an easy task. He's been Bangladesh's top batsman for quite some years now and he could also make the cut into the side for being a sole spinner as well. Such a talented guy, feel pity on him that he was banned from the Bangladeshi side for his arrogance. That's been like Bangladesh's problem for ages. Mohd. Ashraful was another example of talent gone waste for the east Asian country. Hopefully, Shakib comes up as a much stronger and sincere player and inspires fellow Bangladeshis and all-rounders across the globe.

That ends a hasty first article. Hopefully next time i will refine and articulate my thoughts better.

Till then Cheers!