Blogs India’s Gain from IPL2009, What Have I Missed?
May 24th, 2009 by kapoorWith the final of the IPL2 season being some hours away and the second edition of this premier T20 event about to end, I wonder what have been India’s gain in terms of having discovered players who could play at the international level. Pandey from the RCB is one young guy, only 19 yrs though, who has caught the attention of many folks. Raina’s consistency is something that has been appreciated by many observers and similarly that of RP Singh. But in terms of discovering outrightly new talent, I guess the gains have not been too extensive.
Pandey is just 2-3 matches old and it is too quick to make any judgments right now. Khan — the left arm seamer from Team Jaipur made an initial impact but it is hard to fathom what the future holds for him with his bowling action being questioned by nearly every reasonable cricketing brain with an opinion. What would have been really useful is the discovery to two reasonable all-rounders who could back-up the present squad for T20 and ODI or at least one real speed-rattling fast bowler. With the kind of batting at Dhoni’s disposal, no one is really looking skywards for another batting hero anyways.
May 25th, 2009 at 2:20 am
India’s Gain from the IPL:
1. Bowling prowess of Raina and Rohit Sharma. We always knew that they can fulfill the 5th bowler’s role, but … after the IPL… maybe India needs only 3 full time bowlers!!!!
2. Irfan again proving that he is a good all-rounder on foreign pitches.
3. RP coming into his own. Dhoni has a (good) head-ache about who will be his pacers (Zaheer, Ishant, RP, Irfan, Munaf).
4. Ojha showing that he is as good as Harbhajan. The race for the specialist spinner spot should be a fight between Ojha, Bhajji and Mishra. I would pick Ojha on current bowling form.
5. Pandey (for the future). Did you notice how well he fields too?
6. Uthappa - In the negative sense. He should not be picked until he improves himself!
No immediate need for out-right new talent. The team as well as the bench is very strong!