Probable team for Ind Vs. Eng Test matches 2006

Here is my prediction of the team composition for the India-England test matches.
If anybody cares.
I am going through this exercise in public to help people choose the right team for their cricinfo fantasy league.

1 st test match- Nagpur:
I think India will want to go with their strongest team for the 1st match and pin England down to earth. Dravid-Chappell may not be inclined to blood too many youngsters in one match. As always you never know but hey we got to try.

The line up:

1. wasim jaffer
2. virendra sehwag
3. rahul dravid
4. sachin tendulkar
5. v.v.s laxman
6. mahendra singh dhoni
7. irfan pathan
8. anil kumble
9. harbhajan (depending on the status of his finger) or piyush chawla
10. rudra pratap singh
11. sreesanth

The first 7 automatically pick themselves. I am pretty sure sreesanth is going to get his test debut because he has performed well in ODIs and want to preserve that c0nfidence by picking him ahead of VRV. Nagpur has historically been a spinnig wicket so I wont be surprised if they go in with 3 spinners and leave out sreesanth but i see that as highly unlikely given India's recent strategy of picking 3 pacers.

2nd test match - Mohali

Mohali is great pitch for pace bowling so i think VRV will definitely get his debut here and I think it is his home ground also.

The lineup:

1. wasim jaffer
2. virendra sehwag
3. rahul dravid
4. sachin tendulkar
5. v.v.s laxman
6. mahendra singh dhoni
7. irfan pathan
8. rudra pratap singh
9. vrv singh
10. sreesanth
    
11. harbhajan

I know i left out Kumble but I think this is the best place to try out 4 a pacer combination.

3rd test - Mumbai:
by this time we have sealed the series and remembering how the mumbai pitch behaved with the aussies i think the team will have spinners galore

The lineup:

1. wasim jaffer
2. virendra sehwag
3. rahul dravid
4. sachin tendulkar
5. v.v.s laxman
6. mahendra singh dhoni
7. irfan pathan
8. anil kumble
   
9. vrv singh/sreesanth ( depending on test 1 and test 2 performance)
   
10. piyush chawla
    
11. harbhajan

I will leave the one-day lineup for later when the team is decided by BCCI.

This is how my fantasy team is going to be and i am going to make big bucks.

BCCI: Busy throwing Crap at Cricket and Indians

Ponting says, "If we're going to be playing more and more of it [Twenty20], we're going to have to look at starting to take the game a bit more seriously" and adds, "Maybe there is a long-term future for it."

BCCI says, "We are very clear that we will not participate in the Twenty20 championship and no one can force us to play," and adds, "This form of the cricket is not played in our part of the world. We don't need this version of the game because one-day cricket is already very popular"

I cannot help but be bewildered with the abject blindness of BCCI to shifting market forces. Michael Porter must be seething with rage.

I love cricket in any form but it is clear that the ODI format needs to be shortened.

BCCI thinks just because Indians are just plain fanatical about their cricket it means they will continue to be so. Granted ODIs have been BCCI's golden goose but its reaching a point where they have the goose by the neck and are strangling it to lay more eggs. Of course, everybody knows what happens next in the story.

Pure market dynamics will drive out interest in ODI in favor of Twenty20. What worries me is that while other countries have already had some exposure to Twenty20 India does not have any experience with it (although, I read something about some domestic Twenty20 matches). Regardless, it took India around 30 years to master the one-day format and I am afraid by being blind to market forces and not adopting Twenty20 they might take another 15 years if not 30 to master the new format. BCCI has never cared for cricket lovers in India so I urge Team India to take up this matter to the board.

Basically, I don't understand why BCCI is so worried about Twenty20. Even if it is played alongside or supplants ODIs; Twenty20 has the opportunity to bring in more money than ODIs because it increases the target audience.

Finally, this is not the first time ODIs saw a change in its format. In fact it has been done before twice: Once while reducing from 60 overs to 50 overs and then from 8-ball overs to 6-ball overs.

Everybody knows most ODIs now have a predictable pattern. The reason ICC introduced power plays was to make the middle overs more interesting. Both ICC and BCCI know there is a lurking malaise in ODIs. While ICC has to be commended that for once they got something right, BCCI seems to revel in its ineptitude.