Ok here’s my take for the starting eleven of Bangalore Royal Challengers (eeks – what a seedy name)
Gaurav Dhiman
K B Pawan
Jacques Kallis
Shiv Chanderpaul
Rahul Dravid
Mark Boucher
Manish Pandey
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Nathan Bracken
N C Aiyappa
The bench will have Cameron White,? Wasim Jaffer,? Dale Steyn, K P Appanna and one more batsman (need not be from Karnataka/Goa/Services or U-22; and if they can find someone really good, he might replace either Pawan or Pandey). Whenever Bracken is playing for Australia, his place in the squad will be taken by Vinay Kumar.
And all the U-22 guys I’ve named here are from Karnataka. So if we can find better fast bowlers than Aiyappa or Vinay Kumar, they could make it ahead of these guys. So basically it’ll be 4 specialist bowlers, with Kallis and Dhiman performing fifth bowler duties. They may even think of playing 2 specialist spinners since the part timers are medium pacers.
Remember that it’s a squad of 16, wiht at least 4 local guys and 4 U-22 guys. And at a time, not more than 4 foreigners can be in the playing XI.
Let me know your views on this
I seem to have gotten this completely wrong. I’m told the following things, by various people
- Gaurav Dhiman seems to have lost it since the last last youth world cup, when he opened the bowling with R P Singh
- A reliable source tells me that Praveen Kumar has been signed for Bangalore. An excellent acquisition.
- Swapnil Asnodkar is likely to make the squad – if not for anything else, but to give Goa some kind of representation
- K B Pawan’s strike rate this season at the Ranji Trophy was lower than Yere Goud’s. Which is saying something
- Vinay Kumar’s averages this season were significantly superior to Aiyappa’s.
- Ryan Ninan is this promising offspinning all rounder. And he’s u-22
So here is the revised line-up:
1. Praveen Kumar
2. Swapnil Asnodkar
3. Jacques Kallis
4. Shiv Chanderpaul
5. Rahul Dravid
6. Mark Boucher
7. Manish Pandey
8. Anil Kumble
9. Zaheer Khan
10. Nathan Bracken
11. R Vinay Kumar
Bench:
12. Cameron White
13. Wasim Jaffer
14. Dale Steyn
15. K P Appanna
16. Ryan Ninan