India the Test Future?

[greyblazer]

Pujara did play on couple of greentops in SA which doesn't help. He looked ok at Durban but you need a bit of luck to survive while playing on those tracks.

More than his technique what impressed me was his temperament against OZ in his debut series. The only problem with him seems to be he gets injured too often.

[IndusCreed]

India the future? One word - bleak!

[ddb]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/spor ... 406203.cms

Hmm...

[rich1uk]

i've been an advocate of trying to play more "A-team" cricket for awhile now , and including some of the better associates and even bangladesh in those tours.

too often we see young players who perform well in domestic cricket in conditions they have been brought up in struggle to make the leap to international cricket, especially when playing away from home. i think one of the factors that has helped england has been the structure of trying to blood players in the lions side and having the performance squads training in different countries over the winter months. this allows the coaches and selectors to get a better look at players and their attitude and approach to the game rather than just looking at domestic stats.

[OffStumpYorker]

using the A-Team games to look at emerging talent was used by Australia in the 90's but as the test team became more stable so it seemed that the A-team became less relevant.

We all remember the regular Triangular ODI series between England, Australia A and Australia, where the finals always tended to be Australia vs Australia A after both thrashed England. From memory, the Australian A-team churned out Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Gilchrist, McGrath, Gillespie, Warne and a couple of others.

England simply too the same idea and expanded it with the Performance Squad, which is where promising players get to show case thier ability and develop ahead of going into the Lions.

It would certainly help India to try and arrange more A-team tours to Australia, NZ, SA, WI and England in order to look for new talent.

I've long advocated that any team pushing for Test status needs to be competative against the A-teams of the top 5 countries and be able to beat or draw games against the bottom 5 teams before they are admitted.

[Red Devil]

i've been an advocate of trying to play more "A-team" cricket for awhile now , and including some of the better associates and even bangladesh in those tours.

too often we see young players who perform well in domestic cricket in conditions they have been brought up in struggle to make the leap to international cricket, especially when playing away from home. i think one of the factors that has helped england has been the structure of trying to blood players in the lions side and having the performance squads training in different countries over the winter months. this allows the coaches and selectors to get a better look at players and their attitude and approach to the game rather than just looking at domestic stats.

yes, especially important for Ind given how different the wickets are outside the sub continent. There was a fair bit of this starting to happen before the iPL came along, but it seems to have stopped now. I remember Parthiv doing particularly well for the A team, but still not getting a recall to the test team.

[Red Devil]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v ... 48562.html

interesting thoughts ... will they drop VVS?

[shankycricket]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/content/current/story/548562.html

interesting thoughts ... will they drop VVS?

I agree.Rohit for VVS for me.
Dropping Virat after 2 Tests doesnt make sense.I am sure a Virat hundred would be a better long term sign than a VVS hundred for India.Ditto Rohit.

[ddb]

No. Sorry but 2 youngsters at Perth is asking for trouble really, there's no chance of Virat making runs at Perth either but may be stick with him like they did with Raina, I don't know. VVS and Dravid, you give them at least till Perth then one of them definitely goes at the end of the tour, imo both should go but we'll see.

[dan08]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/content/current/story/548562.html

interesting thoughts ... will they drop VVS?

I agree.Rohit for VVS for me.
Dropping Virat after 2 Tests doesnt make sense.I am sure a Virat hundred would be a better long term sign than a VVS hundred for India.Ditto Rohit.

I agree. I'm a big fan of Rohit and i would play him in the next Test.

There is no point in persisiting with Laxman as he isn't going to be around for much longer. Even if he scores a hundred at Perth, that isn't going to benefit India in the long term so they might as well blood a youngster and see how he goes. Rohit is also in good form whereas Laxman has been scratchy on this tour so far.

It's not as if Laxman is scoring runs for fun. He is struggling like most of the other batsman so there is no harm in playing Rohit and looking ahead to the future.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Don't think India should be looking to the future at Perth. They could still draw the series. They should pick the player they think can do well now. Drop Kohli at least. maybe gambhir as well.

[dan08]

Don't think India should be looking to the future at Perth. They could still draw the series. They should pick the player they think can do well now. Drop Kohli at least. maybe gambhir as well.

India aren't going to draw the series if they continue with this same team. They have to take risks and can't always stay with the safe option in Laxman. If they pick Rohit, they may still lose but at least they took the more positive option and looking at a long term option.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Fair enough if changes strengthen the side. But it's not as if we're looking at a dead rubber. India should focus on the best way to win this game, not team development. They hold the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

[ddb]

Fair enough if changes strengthen the side. But it's not as if we're looking at a dead rubber. India should focus on the best way to win this game, not team development. They hold the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

[Cynomis]

'Away' batting averages for Indian test cricketers in the past 12 months:
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=batting

Laxman averaged 29, but six other batsmen have had worse averages, and only two specialist batsmen had better averages than Lax:
Dhoni 27
Mukung 21
Gambir 20
Sehwag 19
Kohli 13
Vijay 12