Sachin, Sehwag and other guys

After clinching the 3 match ODI series at Gwalior and safe-keeping the #2 position in ODI's India will now tease the Saffers in the 3rd ODI at Ahmedabad. They are going in well prepared to lose at the looks of it. Remember Yuvi, Gauti, Zak are injured now Sachin & Sehwag have been rested quite expectedly. But, look at their replacements.. Rohit the no-hit Sharma is back! and an opening in the team means "Tamilian" festivals yes, you guessed it Murali Vijay is also in the squad Abhishek Nayar ruined his chances by fielding well and making his presence felt 'cos he's been axed mercilessly. Mithun my boy has come in for P.K. that was the only relief. so, whether Saffers play well or not get prepared to lose either ways..

30 Probables announced for the T20 WC

Squad: M.S. Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, S. Sreesanth, Sudeep Tyagi, Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha, Piyush Chawla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Manish Pandey, R.P. Singh, Munaf Patel, Murali Vijay, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Virat Kohli and R. Ashwin

The Jokers at B.C.C.I. are at it again.. News comes in with the 30-man probables list announced for the T20 World Cup in West Indies. I'm not aware what the cut-off dates are to announce the 30 probables but, as always the selectors have left us unsatisfied. Good to see Pandey and Mithun get their neck in. Nayar too has made it, very positive indeed. Saha and Naman Ojha spell disaster in every scale of measurement. Clearly someone was caught napping. The other Ojha is back and Mishra-ji dint have to pay for it. In fact, Piyush "Fuze" Chawla, R Ashwin, add Jadeja to that list.. how many spinners do we need? Durby is the 1st choice in any case!!

P.K., Sree, Munaf, Nehra birds of the same feather... and Ishant is not far behind. Pradeep Sangwan might have been unlucky. But, where is Irfan? Pujara still not finding space in the selector's radar surprises me. Goswami is a talent over-looked as well. Rahane missed the bus. Perhaps the IPL 3.0 will raise more eyebrows in this 30 member squad. Hopefully, the final squad is not a mockery.

Indian Squad for 1st two ODI's

Just when no one seemed to be bothered the national selectors have announced the ODI squad for the 1st two ODI's against South Africa. Yuvi remains injured and is ruled out but joining him is Gauti in that injury list. Bhajji wants to share some brother love so he's missing the ODI series as well to attend his sister's marriage. So, lots of seats up for grabs one might think. Here's how they faired.

• IN

Sachin(yes, as he missed the ODI tri-series in B'desh)
Yusuf P (some mad monkey hitting gets him a berth)
Abhishek Nayar (Finally!)
R Ashwin (spinner & Tamil)
PK (Praveen Kumar)




• OUT

Yuvraj (waiting for IPL)
Gambhir (new delicate dolly of the team)
Bhajji (family comes first, country goto H***)
Ishant (picked, dropped, picked again, dropped again...)
Sree (manages to puzzle everyone)
Ojha (ahem.. who? why?)




• Lucky

DK (still there.. backup wk??)
Jadeja (In the news lately for all the wrong reasons, very very lucky indeed)
Tyagi (dint play much, doubtful that will change anytime soon)
Mishra-ji (now the spin leader, No Bhajji, no Ojha PARTY!! :D)




• Unlucky

Pandey (With 2 batting slots open he should have made it purely on merit)
Mithun (If he was chosen in the Test squad, he deserved a chance here.)

So, the team: M S Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Abhishek Nayar, Yusuf Pathan and Amit Mishra.

• 1st ODI - 21.Feb - Jaipur
• 2nd ODI - 24.Feb - Gwalior

Who is Mithun?

We'r not talking about the "Disco Dancer" Mithun Da.

We are talking about the young rookie Abhimanyu Mithun who has been picked for the 1st test against the Saffers. Oh did I miss the "squad" for the 1st test. Most newspapers fail to see the point in that. Agreed he's been picked in the Indian team but, he's not set to play. Unless, MSD sees the magic in him or he wrecks the Saffers in the Board Presidents XI warm-up game.But, the lad definitely has lots going for him. He picked 47 wickets in the Ranji season. The highest wicket taker this season, one more than state-mate Vinay Kumar. Took Hat trick in his debut match for Karnataka u-19 team. Again a hat trick on debut for Karnataka u-22 side. Then got into the state's Ranji side, and Voila! Hat trick on his Ranji debut as well. So if this is the trend I would play him!! He's got some sting in his bowling, does hit the 140 kmph mark. But, the downfall is he doesn't have much leather ball cricket behind him. Sources reveal that he took up leather ball cricket only 2/3 yrs back. But, he sure has impressed a lot in the short period. Which brings another argument into question, Lakshmipathy Balaji was the highest wicket taker in Ranji last season he dint get a long run, he was just carrying drinks in kiwi-land most of the time. Tyagi has been in the scheme of things, will he be overlooked at this point in time? So, will Mithun make it or will he not, until then Mithun and his folk men are celebrating the good news there is. All the best to him.