Open Middle
By Gaurang
June 4 2012
With the recent retirement of Rahul Dravid, and the uncertainty about VVS Laxman’s place in the side, and the failure of anyone to establish themselves in Sourav Ganguly’s long vacated slot in the middle, India’s middle order is now in a tremendous state of flux.
Interestingly after a long time an India A tour has been organized by the BCCI and it couldn’t come at a better time for India’s selectors. Several players will be competing for up to three slots in the middle, though to start with it may only be one or at the most two.
The fine century scored by young Virat Kohli in the final Test of India’s otherwise hugely embarrassing 0-4 shellacking in Australia, will give the Delhite a bit of breathing room with one of the slots, which by right, should go to him. He has clearly displaced the inconsistent Suresh Raina in the sixth slot in the batting line up, though it may not be such a bad idea to move him up to three to fill in the admittedly huge shoes of Rahul Dravid, and pick another newcomer for the number six slot.
One player who may have a thing or two to say about who should fill Dravid’s shoes would be Cheteshwar Pujara, who indeed has batted in the three spot for India in a Test match, albeit in the much more comfortable home conditions. Coincidentally Pujara is currently leading the India A team in the West Indies, and has every chance to stake his claim.
The other spot to fill could be that of VVS Laxman. The stalwart has had very successful run spree at home against the lowly West Indies, sandwiched between two horrendous tours against much more challenging opposition overseas. Should VVS be given another chance, especially since the next Test series India play is at home? Sentimentalists would argue for that. A more clinical argument would be that it is high time a youngster be blooded to fill Laxman’s giant batting shoes, and what better opportunity than a home series to do that.
The three candidates for that spot are Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, and Manoj Tiwary. Of the three Rohit and Rahane seem to have the better claim, but Tiwary could forcefully state his case, if he does very well in the West Indies. Though if you go by who opened and who played in the middle in the First Unofficial Test in Barbados, Shikar Dhawan is also being considered for a middle order spot. That would be a mistake. Dhawan's technique is too lose for the longer version of the game, and compared to the other three, he is at least a levle or two behind in batting class.
Whatever the selectors finally decide, the Indian middle order in Test matches will be looking very different. The only constant as it has been for twenty three years and counting is one Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, MP.
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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2012:06:18:02:28:15 by Birbal.
1) Sehwag...in case Rahane is turned opener
2) Rahane
3) Pujara
4) Rohit
5) Robin bisht.....the highest Ranji scorer from raj
6) manoj and Saurabh Tiwari
7) nayar
8) Suraj Yadav.....shining new star from Mumbai
9) Binny...a bit of along shot for overseas conditions with his ability to bowl seam up.
Kaif has gone into oblivion, mandeep may be in contention with one more good season with Punjab......Vijay may still be an opti0n...more an option than mukund, whose weaknesses were badly exposed.....in wi and eng.....dhawan, ain't cut out for longer versuin even against mediocre quality bowling at international level.....a space that could have better been given to saurabh or Manish Pandey
At one time the Viru-Gauti pair looked set for a very long run...right now both look a bit shaky...
But then a series at HOME against England may be just the tonic the Dr. ordered for the VG combo...
Only Rohit in the first and Pujara in both innings looked the part...
I would like to at least see Rahane succeed in the remainder of the games in WI.......he is a long term potential both as an opener and as a no.3.
And for the next game I would like to see Robin Bisht play instead of Dhawan
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:06:06:13:26:55 by shilpa.
Anyway, Dhawan flopped again... as did Mukund...
Rohit with one good out of 3 innings....has shown to be too flashy and hence inconsistence...he has the technique and strokes....but just doesn't know how to buckle down.
Puajra is hungry, just perfect for a slot in the test match team...and sensing blood throuhg the middle order openings......he is focussing hard.
Rahane...I would like him to succeed...he has had one Run-out and 2 failures.
Tiwari has not used his chances.....albeit he hasn't looked clueless like mukund and dhawan.
Saha has been at par....the avearging 30 type WK batsman in all conditions that we will want him to be
Kohli has taken one spot and Pujara another... still one spot is open.... right now Dhoni moved up into it... but can't expect him to do the job overseas at No. 6...
24 needed with a bunny coming in at 11? No problem!
So what should the Indian top 6 in Tests look like Post Sachin..
I think the following would be good...
Vijay (with Gambhir available to replace either opener)
Dhawan
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane (Rohit as back up)
Yuvraj (his record is better than Raina)
1) Gambhir/Rahane
2) Dhawan
3) Pujara
4) Kohli
5) Vijay/Rohit..
6) Dhoni
7) Jadeja
8) Ashwin
and then 3 bowlers..
Quote:Meet_New_Mr_India
I am still not sold on Vijay in seaming conditions... he is really susceptible to the moving ball a lot.. May be Vijay can take place of laxman and Rahane can open with Dhawan.. My lineup would be
1) Gambhir/Rahane
2) Dhawan
3) Pujara
4) Kohli
5) Vijay/Rohit..
6) Dhoni
7) Jadeja
8) Ashwin
and then 3 bowlers..
You've forgotten (or perhaps you haven't...) Raina.
India's bowlers, not the middle order, is your side's big problem.
Was nice to see Vinay Kumar still playing international cricket. Has massively changed his technique since I last saw him bowl at the WACA. He's stopped his ridiculous jump, and has lowered his right shoulder and is bowling with a very front on action with his wrist and shoulder getting behind the ball now. While he never should have played that game at the WACA, the loose, wobbly technique he used to have would have allowed him to bowl all sorts of cutters and slower balls. He's never going to be a test standard bowler and even with his stiffer wrist he's not going to get much seam movement, but he was (probably) a useful limited overs bowler before. His new action seems very, very similar to B. Kumar's. If V. and B. Kumar are the two best bowlers you have, then they should be picked. But, it's always useful to have variety in your attack.
Ashwin and Ishant, seem to be the new Harby and Srinath. At best, they can be mediocre. But, typically they are poor to awful, yet get picked for game after game.
When India won the world cup, I thought your side had too many batsmen in it. You were carrying a few "star batsmen" then and couldn't drop your best one day players i.e. Kohli and Raina.
But Yuvraj and a couple of other batsmen bowled well then and got through ~20 overs. And with 7 batsmen + Dhoni, on flat Indian wickets, your batsmen could play strokes freely knowing your batting lineup was very long. India's World Cup victory was a bit of a tactical master stroke. Although I think this "master stroke" was due to India having a few undropable (you know who I mean) batsmen.
Ashwin's an alright test batsmen, but he shouldn't be batting No.8 in one days. Likewise Jadeja doesn't seem in form with the bat.
In the last game, think if Ashwin and Ishant had been replaced with batsmen (and Vinay had been replaced with a better bowler) Australia's score would have been about the same and India probably would have chased it down.
It was a very flat wicket
Apple: Ignoring Shilpa since 27/3/2012 and Birbal (temporarily replying to him since there's no one else here 26/10/2015) since 16/8/2012
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:10:15:08:15:47 by apple.
Pujara, Kohli, Rohit at 3, 4, and 5... looking really, really solid...
Top is looking OK too as well as lower middle order...with Jadeja, Dhoni and Ashwin...
I would like to see a few more FC batsmen putting their hands up... but I have not seen one to really look the part...and I have been watching Ranji matches...
As for a seaming all rounder... I think Tamil Nadu's Vijay Shankar looks very, very promising if selectors decide not to give Binny a bit more rope...
It's a rare combination if he can succeed at the higher level, we could have a Sehwag in our midst....
24 needed with a bunny coming in at 11? No problem!
Also he helped Mumbai chase down nearly 300 in last innings of a match... so has good temperament... will be keen to watch him if possible.