Australia name their World Cup squad

Monday, January 17, 2011 australia, cricket, rishabh bablani, world cup squad No Comments

Australia's attack will contain some serious pace at the World Cup.

"That's hot" - Paris Hilton on the Aussie pace attack

Now that that's out of the way, I can talk about the others. There was plenty of uncertainty going into the selection, and one or two picks could be debated upon, but I think this is pretty well done.

Shane Watson, Brad Haddin (wk), Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Cameron White, Tim Paine, Steven Smith, John Hastings, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Brett Lee, Shaun Tait, Doug Bollinger.

Xavier Doherty may have been preferred of late, and he may even have (slightly) impressed, but going back to Hauritz was the right call in the end. He may still be shit, but he's the best they've got, and he's been very handy in limited-overs cricket despite his Test form.

John Hastings' inclusion, though, is a bit of a surprise. I haven't seen much of him, and he has only played two ODIs, but he had a good debut against India and was pretty decent when his teammates were getting smashed around. Teammates like Siddle, who has been left out - he can't really plug run flows in the shorter versions of the game. He's like their Sreesanth, but with more six-fors and hat-tricks. And other stuff.

David Hussey and Brett Lee were given the series against England to prove their worth, and while all they've done is prove that they are fit, that seems to be enough for the selectors. Even though they've gone with seven full batsmen (yes, including Clarke) plus Paine, the only two in the squad who can really be called tailenders are Tait and Bollinger. Steven Smith makes the cut as he is both/neither a batsman and/nor a bowler.

You've gotta feel for Callum Ferguson though - he spent a lot of time doing well and cementing his place in the side, then got injured, then wasn't allowed back in after recovering. Shaun Marsh hasn't been rubbish either. Michael Clarke had better score some runs.

Unpredictable Pakistan gear up for World Cup

Monday, January 17, 2011 cricket, pakistan, thomas rooney, world cup squad No Comments

With the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup just around the corner, most of the teams which will be participating are currently honing their skills against the competition. As a result, Pakistan are currently over in New Zealand on a tour with the last fixture set for February 5th. Already they have lost two from their three T20 fixtures, and are currently battling out a two Test series before the real indicator of their expected effectiveness at the World Cup when they begin a six match ODI mini-series on January 22nd.

But Pakistan have not won an ODI series for more than two years, when they beat the West Indies 3-0 in 2008, and as a result most pundits aren’t taking their chances of lifting the World Cup too seriously. But it would not be the first time that they have shocked the cricketing world by shaking free from their perceived underdog status to defy the odds and claim a major international crown. Back in 1992, bolstered by the incredible form of captain and national icon Imran Khan, they defied the odds and claimed the trophy, and more recently in 2009 they recovered from a poor start to triumph in the T20 World Cup. That said, they are not many people's 2011 Cricket World Cup tips.

In the 50-over version of the game, they seem to have suffered a bout of stage-fright at the highest level in recent years, failing to get past the first round of matches in their previous two attempts. The problem with Pakistani cricket - apart from the obvious recent spot-fixing scandals of course - is that with the nation putting so much emphasis on their team's results it's almost impossible to live up to their enormous expectations.

This enormous pressure not to lose makes them appear to constantly be playing in a state of disharmony, with results being dependent on a number of star performers, rather than an all round strong team effort and even the Cricket World Cup betting suggests that people think things will be the same this time around.

As a result, they can be somewhat unpredictable and although they can beat anyone in the world on their day, they have also been known to struggle against minnows of the game such as Ireland - the side which eventually confirmed their elimination from the 2007 World Cup.

India's World Cup squad picked

Monday, January 17, 2011 cricket, india, r ashwin, rishabh bablani, rohit sharma, world cup squad No Comments

So contrary to the recent preparations, India have gone without Rohit Sharma, well done to them. They've gone with three spinners - Piyush Chawla the legspinner and Ravichandran Ashwin to go with Harby's off-spin.

There was no place for Rohit Sharma, who should and will be disappointed, as the only back-up batsman India have picked is Yusuf Pathan.

Well, well. So there were surprises here - Ojha hasn't been picked for the limited-overs side in a while, so his exclusion was expected, but Chawla's been in the wilderness for some time. I'm not sure the latter was needed - maybe a reserve keeper (Patel) or fast-bowler could have been picked, but Chief of Selectors Srikkanth is positively raving about not thinking negatively about injury concerns. Seriously, he's foaming at the mouth as I write this. Courtesy NDTV.

Here's the squad:

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c) (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Ravichandran Ashwin

Expect Ganguly fans to take to the streets again. I'm not sure why, and neither will they.

That's it for now. Dissection later, if any.

India's World Cup Squad

Sunday, January 16, 2011 ashish nehra, cricket, india, rishabh bablani, sachin, sreesanth, world cup squad, yusuf pathan No Comments

No, they haven't announced it yet, and I'm not sure when they'll do it, but it's likely to be soon (Jan 19 apparently), so here's what I think it should (and might) be. Because there just aren't enough opinions going around.

I'll start with the XI: the top 3 pick themselves, and it's arguably the best one going around. Sehwag, Sachin and Gambhir will only have the two practice matches to gel with the rest of the team, though, as they are currently cooling their heels at home, while Vijay is going about his business being inadequate.

Kohli has been stellar at #3, but he will have to move down the order with Gambhir back. This complicates things, as Yuvraj and his ego are at #4, and both can take their time to get going. I think the situation should decide where they bat - Yuvraj first when batting first, and Kohli first while chasing. Exception: Yuvraj first on a flat track, always.

Raina and Dhoni are at #6 and #7, but both are floating finishers, so they can actually pop up anywhere. #7 is a big question: do we go with a batsman or the spinning all-rounder? A month ago, if we were to opt for a batsman, it would be a toss-up between Rohit Sharma and Saurabh Tiwary. Sharma hasn't taken his chances of late (but the series vs RSA isn't over yet) and even though Tiwary did, he has been dropped - so he looks out of contention, which is unfortunate. Yusuf Pathan and his century (just one innings) seem to have nudged ahead, big game-changer that he is. Accommodating him, though, would mean leaving out one of Raina, Yuvraj and Kohli, which looks pretty implausible. Playing 7 batsmen looks extremely likely.

With the stocks so full, we won't have to worry about seeing Jadeja or Ashwin being useless at #7, or at any position for that matter, because Zaheer, PK and Harby pick themselves. Some time ago I might even have said that Nehra picks himself, but seeing his current form (and Munaf's), I don't think so anymore. Nehra can fill in for an opening bowler or be used when conditions favor him, but Munaf, with his accuracy, is a better choice as a first-change bowler.

I looked up Nehra's stats for the post-comeback period (starting 2009), and was pretty astonished at his economy rates (save for 2 series). Yes, there are some high-scoring and some pointless matches in there, but expensive is expensive (killer line, I know). When he's good, he's really good, but there will be these frequent spells where he just comes in and gets the faeces (we like to be technical) smashed out of him. Yes, he's good at the death, but you don't include a player just because he can bowl 2 good overs between 45-50. If you'd done a good job in the first 40 overs, maybe you wouldn't need to shut it down so much later on.

So that's 4 main bowlers, and then Sehwag, Raina, Yuvraj and Pathan/Sharma make one decent 5th bowler between them. That is the XI. The obvious subs are: Rohit, Yusuf, Nehra/Munaf, Ashwin. The others could be a back-up keeper, a batsman, or a fast (not really) bowler. So that's probably Parthiv Patel, Murali Vijay, or Sreesanth. It's unlikely that the extra keeper will be in the squad, so that rules out Patel. Which leaves Crap and Crappier (in no particular order). Sree is no limited-overs bowler, but our bowlers are more likely to be injured (Zak, Nehra, Munaf have the Platinum Healthcare plan), so Vijay may miss out.

Which leaves the squad to be composed. Which means I have to type it out.

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c) (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin.

Can I see some agreement/disagreement/abuse?

Pointless Notes: How awesome would be to see a wildcard like Rahane, Chawla, Irfan, even Dravid? Slightly amusing at first and then the heat would be on. Literally, effigies and all.