r2i forum

Now that the IPL is in its closing stages, its time to move on to WC T20.

The big news is that Sehwag is out of the WC due to a shoulder injury and M.Vijay replaces him. Good move!

Anyone travelling to the windies for the cup?

Vijay is a good move.. He has proved to be a capable player in all forms.

Indian team is experienced in the T20 format but dog tired after the IPL. Can they pull it off again is a big Q, IMHO.

The team is not well balanced. Very few level heads and too many streaky players. Batting could be overly dependent on Gambhir, dhoni and raina, though vijay may provide some stability. Bowling hinges on zaheer and harbhajan. I would have packed the side with allrounders. They all go for runs anyway. Should have taken irfan and ojha (if they needed back up spinner). Most other sides have players who can bat upto 10 and 5-6 can bowl. One other drawback is no time for experiments and either the side picked clicks, or not. Also, too many players who are not in form. Add to that, most teams have figured how to bowl to Indian batsmen, and given the nature of WI pitches (not as fast as they used to be), it will be a miracle if they succeed.

Yes, the Indian team does look a bit dodgy .I don't expect them to reach the SF ( of course, will be glad to be proved wrong)
They play Afghanisthan in their group match... and we might well have a surprise. Afghanisthan has done pretty well amongst the minnow
teams in the recent past.

With Shewag out and Yuvi out of form, we are back to the same place, esp. middle order batting looks weak. Bowling is an area of concern too, puts lot of pressure on Zaheer and Harbhajan. Should have picked Robin Uthappa or Rayudu as a back up keeper. Well the team was picked a month ago, before IPL. Well, have to play with the cards dealt, wish we will make it to Semis though with this team.

India better watch out for Afghanisthan and shed any complacency, otherwise they may be back home by Monday.

http://www.cricinfo.com/world-twenty20-2010/content/current/story/457809.html

The Afghans seem to be a pretty determined bunch.
India seem to be the only team who have not played any warm up match in WI before the WC.
Sure.. all of them are just coming out of the IPL , still the conditions are different and a warm up would have benefitted them

Does anyone know, will T20 world cup video streaming be available on youtube like IPL?

Team India looks a bit out of form. In most matches the playing 11 would comprise of
1)Gautam Gambhir (out of form)
2)Murali Vijay (in form)
3)Rohit Sharma (out of form)
4)Suresh Raina (domestic in form internation = short ball = curtains)
5)Yuvraj Singh (out of form)
6)Mahendra Singh Dhoni (cant say, seems to have lost his boundary clearing abilities of yore)
7)Yusuf Pathan (can tell about his form if he lasts a full 6 balls)
8)Harbhajan Singh (in form)
9)Zaheer Khan (in form)
10)Praveen Kumar (out of form)
11)Piyush Chawla (well well)
Looking at the strips in WI, 2 spinners should be the way to go
Looking overall at the team, it has all the big names and big guns but I just feel that this is gonna be a difficult tournament for us, looking at the out of form certainities. For our sake lets hope that they rediscover touch
And yeah if we do manage to loose to Afghanistan, we should just forfeit the SA match and be back. Wont deserve to play on in the tournament

The conditions in the caribbean are suited for slow bowlers and looks like low scoring venues are on the cards. This makes the selection of chawla and not ojha or mishra more glaring than usual. Asian teams start as favorites with SL and Pak in the forefront. India has tremendous odds against them, fatigue factor, back to back games, no warm up games, unbalanced team, and quite a few out of form. Bowling has always been weak, and is compounded this year due to lack of quality spinners and seamers. Only silver lining could be the slow pitches, resulting in lesser short pitched stuff that troubled the batsmen last time around.