A not-so-fictitious look at the future Indian Test Team

So Ganguly has taken the plunge, who would replace him for the England series? In all probability I’d say it would be either Badrinath or Yuvraj… Let us say that Dravid decides to hang his boots after the England series (let us be realistic, after Ganguly he is most prone to being dropped), for the replacement my money would be on the unselected of Badrinath/Yuvraj.

Next up would be the tour to Pakistan where a semi-new middle order would take guard – Laxman, Sachin, Yuvraj, Badrinath with Rohit Sharma as the extra batsman. Laxman would be 35, Sachin would be almost 36; but I’d say both of them would play even the next series against New Zealand. India then does not have any Tests till September end. By then I think Kumble would have retired, and Dhoni would have taken over the test captaincy too. Going by the current crop of spinners, I’d say Piyush Chawla or Amit Mishra would be the most likely replacement for Kumble. Laxman & Sachin would be close to retiring too, with Rohit Sharma, Kaif, and maybe Virat Kohli staking claim to the middle order positions. I’m hoping Zaheer Khan has at least 3-4 years of Cricket left in him, otherwise RP Singh would get another go at Test cricket.

I hope at that time Sachin, Laxman help the test-match newbies to complete their transition from the wham-bam to real Cricket and then retire gracefully by 2009 end or 2010 start & then we would keep our fingers crossed for the next 1-2 years that the Indian Test Team completes its makeover successfully.

By mid-2010, the team would read

• Sehwag
• Gambhir
• Badrinath
• Rohit Sharma
• Yuvraj
• Kaif/Kohli
• Dhoni
• Bhajji
• Ishant
• Chawla/Mishra
• Zak

The bowling is still good, but I am really doubtful about the batsman, except of course Sehwag… I hope this Indian Team’s transition goes smoothly.

Bloglets-2: Of Sports and more Sports

Looking forward to the final race of the season on Sunday. I have no favourites; I just wish that Alonso does not win the Driver’s Championship. Kimi or Hamilton, any one of them would do 🙂

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I want tickets for the Sampras vs Federer match 😦 Will need to check the TV schedules, where and when is it being televised live.

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I understand why there is brouhaha over the senior players in the Indian Cricket team, considering that a team not having any players aged over 30 (not counting Agarkar, as he hardly contributed anything) won the T20 World Cup. What I fail to understand is why are the three (SRT, SG, RD) being treated as one entity by the media? They are three individual players, with very different styles of playing with very different fitness levels. Treat them individually, not as one entity. I still feel SRT is the best batsman India has, although I would not deny he does not have the same destructiveness he used to have in late 90s, but then has the media heard about something called “maturity”. Anyways go and read this, Rakesh puts it in a much better way then I can.

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Viswanathan Anand rocks 😀

Technorati: Sports, Viswanathan Anand, Sachin Tendulkar, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer