India the Test Future?

[greyblazer]

Good news for Ind. fans as McGrath will take over from Lillee as the head coach of MRF pace academy.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/conte ... 80431.html

[meninblue]

Virat knocked a ton in Australia and today at Bangalore. Pujara scored a 150 in Hyderabad. Ashwin and Ojha are doing well as a spin combo. These are the 3 positives IMO.

[andy]

yup adi was just coming onto this thread to say that, Kohli and Pujara'a form this series is very encouraging especially with Rahane waiting in the wings as well.

[Red Devil]

Raina and Gambhir are the question marks at the moment

you'd have to say that it's difficult to see Raina doing well in tests in Aus, NZ, SA or Eng whereas Gambhir has now been having a shocker for about 2 years

[shankycricket]

Sehwag too. No Test ton since Nov 2010 and hard to see him succeed as an opener in SA next year.

[Red Devil]

Personal RD I think that the line up you suggest is not solving any of the questions that India need to address in the near future.

I think that you have to either be ruthless and slash the oldsters in the team and pick a few of the names mentioned, or maintain selection parity and make sure that one of your already capped younger guys gets into the team for 2 years minimum ( Mukund, Vijay, Sharma, Pujara to name some of those players who have been around the team and selectors minds for a few years)....

At the end of the day all that seems to be happening is a full circle effect.... names get mentioned on the short term, a player scores 3 FC centuries in a short space of time and he gets 3 tests to prove himself and then is ditched forever. This type of selection has NEVER worked, for a masterplan and full details of its crap effect see "England 87-01".

There are, imo, two different ways to manage a selection policy. The first is the ruthless approach, I would count Australia's late 90's to late 00's in this as very successful. The key to that was that one man was picked in advance to fill a position and was given 2 or 3 years wait to play. India should be identifying the men now to replace their top 6, and those men picked in squads consistently without fail. When the batsman proves past his worth you are quick to cut him, and your replacement is given time to play unless he dramatically fails. The second key to this plan is the most effective, and that is to rehabilitate the career of the failures.... I have said this countless times on this board, but everyone of those Australian legendary batsman fought for their career, had time out the international game, came back stronger players.... for an Indian example, see Sehwag or Laxman, both had severe lean spells they came back from.

The second policy is to simply give players the time. Kohli looks a talent, give him 20 tests and he will be a world beater, very rarely do you see such a talented stroke player. Give the others a go, I mean I doubt that Mukund's baptism in England vs the Worlds best seam attack, facing the new ball in helpful conditions was an adequate assessment of his worth to the side.... again you could use the example of how England destroyed the mental capacity of their two most talented fc batsman in the 90's by making sure both were always one failed test match away from the chop...

I doubt either of these will happen though because both require a bit of faith, patience, and extreme hard work and synergy behind the scenes, something that only a handful of teams in history have successfully implemented.

SP - i missed this at the time.

I suspect that Kohli and Chet will have a long run now - fair point on Mukund

[Red Devil]

Sehwag too. No Test ton since Nov 2010 and hard to see him succeed as an opener in SA next year.

yep - maybe Viru drops down to bat at 6 - he should be bowling more in tests as well - he's a much much better bowler than Raina

I would have said Rahane to open with Gambhir, but with Gambhir's record over the last 20 odd tests maybe it's time to give Mukund another go

[shankycricket]

Sehwag too. No Test ton since Nov 2010 and hard to see him succeed as an opener in SA next year.

yep - maybe Viru drops down to bat at 6 - he should be bowling more in tests as well - he's a much much better bowler than Raina

I would have said Rahane to open with Gambhir, but with Gambhir's record over the last 20 odd tests maybe it's time to give Mukund another go

Mukund is on the A tour to NZ in September. If he does well, he could sneak his way in ahead of the England Tests. Chand and Mandeep are on the A tour. Maybe its a bit too soon for Chand but I really really do like the look of him. What if he has a stormer in NZ? Be hard to ignore him.

Also agree about Viru's bowling and that he should bat down the order.

[dan08]

Sehwag too. No Test ton since Nov 2010 and hard to see him succeed as an opener in SA next year.

yep - maybe Viru drops down to bat at 6 - he should be bowling more in tests as well - he's a much much better bowler than Raina

I would have said Rahane to open with Gambhir, but with Gambhir's record over the last 20 odd tests maybe it's time to give Mukund another go

Mukund is on the A tour to NZ in September. If he does well, he could sneak his way in ahead of the England Tests. Chand and Mandeep are on the A tour. Maybe its a bit too soon for Chand but I really really do like the look of him. What if he has a stormer in NZ? Be hard to ignore him.

Don't think Chand has a chance. He's only played 11 first class matches. It's not as if he's set the world alight in those. Batting against U19 bowlers is a lot different to batting against Anderson and Finn. I'd give him at least one more Ranji season before being considered. Rahane and Mukund are way ahead of him at the moment IMO and so they should be. No need to rush him in.

[shankycricket]

Sehwag too. No Test ton since Nov 2010 and hard to see him succeed as an opener in SA next year.

yep - maybe Viru drops down to bat at 6 - he should be bowling more in tests as well - he's a much much better bowler than Raina

I would have said Rahane to open with Gambhir, but with Gambhir's record over the last 20 odd tests maybe it's time to give Mukund another go

Mukund is on the A tour to NZ in September. If he does well, he could sneak his way in ahead of the England Tests. Chand and Mandeep are on the A tour. Maybe its a bit too soon for Chand but I really really do like the look of him. What if he has a stormer in NZ? Be hard to ignore him.

Don't think Chand has a chance. He's only played 11 first class matches. It's not as if he's set the world alight in those. Batting against U19 bowlers is a lot different to batting against Anderson and Finn. I'd give him at least one more Ranji season before being considered. Rahane and Mukund are way ahead of him at the moment IMO and so they should be. No need to rush him in.

I'd say a good tour of NZ with the A side is more relevant than a good Ranji season. Agree about Rahane but not sure Mukund should be ahead of him. Don't rate Mukund too highly.

[shankycricket]

My views on fast tracking of youngsters are summed up nicely in Sanjay Manjrekar's article on CI. If the selectors and the captain feel that a guy is good enough, then pick him. I won't set a criteria as to the number of domestic seasons he must play before being considered for international selection.

[Red Devil]

At the moment I'd say that Mandeep should be higher rated than Chand - you've got to remember that before the final Chand had had quite an average U19 tournament.

[shankycricket]

I am not really rating him just on the basis of the U19 WC tbh. The guy oozes class when I see him bat. I think he had a very good U19 tri series earlier in the year against an Oz team that included Pat Cummins, who, when fit, is one of the best fast bowlers in the world, for my money.

[andy]

Rahane still better than chand, etc IMO...and he has to be in that side somewhere!

[shankycricket]

Yes, definitely Rahane should be in the side ahead of Chand. What I am saying is that if the batting failures of the seniors continue and if Chand has an absolute stormer in New Zealand and a great start to the Ranji season, then I won't rule him out for the Oz series.