India A in Zimbabwe and Kenya

[andrew_nixon]

Schedule

24th July: Four-day match v Zimbabwe A at Harare Sports Club
30th July: Four-day match v Zimbabwe A at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
5th August: Three-day match v Kenya
10th August: Three-day match v Kenya

As is usual at the moment, Zimbabwe A is actually the full Zimbabwean side, which will apparently see the return of Tatenda Taibu.

 

[manee]

India A Squad

Apart from Kaif and Pathan, this tour can prove to be a stepping stone for youngsters like Chawla, VRV Singh, Robin Uthappa and Rohit Sharma. Especially since Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of the selection committee, had recently said that the rotation policy is the way to go, keeping in mind the packed international schedule ahead.

The Squad
Mohammad Kaif (capt), Parthiv Patel, Robin Uthappa, Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Rajesh Pawar, Mahesh Rawat (wk), Piyush Chawla, Arjun Yadav, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan, V R V Singh, Yo Mahesh, Pankaj Singh, Niraj Patel

Looks like a pretty strong team, especially the bowlers. Piyesh Chawla will be looking to secure a test match position as Pathan shows off the changes which Dennis Lillee made to his action. VRV Singh will have to work hard considering he is on the fringes of being dropped from the international setup completely after not impressing in the chances he had. Yo Mahesh and Pankaj Singh have also had stints at the NCA and so they just need a good tour to push them on the fringes of selection.

I don't see much immediate promise in the batsman currently, all seem to be young and these may be the select few groomed to eventually replace Ganguly, Tendulkar and Dravid and later, Laxman. The batsman will need to work hard with such injured stars as Manoj Tiwary and Suresh Raina waiting on and eyeing those batting slots, and also Yuvraj Singh, eyeing up Laxman's position up close at Lords.

 

[RoboRocks]

Good to see Taibu playing some cricket again for Zimbabwe.
It is weird that Suresh Raina has disappeared from the Indian side as he looked a good young player.
Chawla is a good leg spinner and could be looking for a test place after Kumble retires.

 

[manee]

Good to see Taibu playing some cricket again for Zimbabwe.
It is weird that Suresh Raina has disappeared from the Indian side as he looked a good young player.
Chawla is a good leg spinner and could be looking for a test place after Kumble retires.

Check my post, Suresh Raina is injured. He won't disappear for a long time, he is being groomed as the next India captain, mark my words

 

[RoboRocks]

Sorry couldn't find it in your post mate.
He's been injured for a while then since he wasn't in the world cup.

 

[rabeta]

Interesting squad that, contains a couple of fringe players, and then others I have never heard of. Very interesting to see Pathan back, and his performances in this series may give a big insight into how he has recovered from losing his action. I also rate Kaif very highly, I think he is a good player, but will need to make performances in series like these to put him back in contention again. Looking forward to seeing how Uttappa adapts to the longer game as well, I have never witnessed him in a longer match before.

 

[manee]

India A: 331/5 at stumps on Day 1

India A Vs Zimbabwe: First Day Bulletin

Good to see most of the batsman get runs especially Uthappa who no doubt will be eyeing up the Indian opening slot which is still not secured by either Karthik nor Jaffer. Sad to see Pujara go early, but that is the price you pay for putting a middle order batsman to open. It was stated earlier that this is the Zimbabwe full strength team under a different name so it is highly promising that these young stars can score 331 runs against them in a day for the loss of just five wickets. With Irfan Pathan and Piyesh Chawla likely to come, I don't doubt that India A can score in the region of 450.

To be perfectly honest, although the batting performance is good, I am more looking forward to the bowling performance because India's bowling has been uninspiring against England and such upcoming stars as Chawla, VRV Singh and Yo Mahesh may change that. I am also fascinated to see how Pathan gets on since his stint in the MRF Pace Foundation.

 

[manee]

Zimbabwe Select 129 for 4 trail India A 489 by 350 runs

Second Day Bulletin

India A continued to dominate on the second day of their tour match against Zimbabwe Select at Harare Sports Club. At the close of play Zimbabwe Select had reached 129 for 4 in reply to the tourists' 489.

It is a shame no elaboration is given to the quality of the bowlers as I think the Indian pace bowling attack on this tour is promising.

 

[aussie1st]

No surprise with that total by India A. At least Zimbabwe isn't all out right now.

 

[andrew_nixon]

No surprise with that total by India A. At least Zimbabwe isn't all out right now.

Actually they are all out. Twice.

Zimbabwe v India A result

India A 1st innings: 489 all out
Zimbabwe 1st innings: 338 all out (Taibu 123)
Zimbabwe 2nd innings (following on): 216 all out
India A 2nd innings: 69/1

India A win by 9 wickets

 

[manee]

Yes. I just did not want to triple post.

It is a shame Irfan Pathan did not bowl well, he had a no ball problem and at his best, he would normally skittle out Zimbabwe. On the other hand, India As batting was tremendous with several batsman racking up fifties. It is sad to see Zimbabwe reduced to thrashings by India A, I guess it is a reminder of how fragile the cricketing and political state of the country is right now.

 

[sohum]

It's Zimbabwe "Select".

 

[manee]

In the style of andrew nixon...

Zimbabwe v India A result

India A 1st innings: 524 for 8 dec (Patel 126, Badrinath 103*, Pujara 100)
Zimbabwe 1st innings: 143 all out (Chawla 4-12, Ojha 4-45)
Zimbabwe 2nd innings (following on): 148 all out (Chawla 6-46, Pathan 3-12)

India win by innings and 233 runs.

 

[angryangy]

It's Zimbabwe "Select".

It's like how on tour matches where they'd be called "The Zimbabweans".

Whatever they're called, this team really needs to be taken out the back and shot.

 

[manee]

I know the margin in which they lost by was alarming but India A have got a very strong team.