Re: Yeh.....Ajit Agarkar is BACK !!
^ Sirjee...I don't think of Agarkar as an all-rounder. In fact I don't think of him as anything.
Reasons I hate him.
(1) He first played for India in 1998.
NINE YEARS later, he is still to establish his place in the Indian side. This should be reason enough to kick him out for good. All this time, many players more talented than him have been tried and let go but he continues to hang around.
(2) His bowling is way too "friendly". His economy rate in ODIs is 5.03. He bowls at least one FOUR/SIX delivery (half-volley) every over.
(3) Most of his ODI wickets have come from slog overs. I have rarely seen him doing much damage to the opposition's batting at the start or middle of the ODI innings.
(4) His stoop, his run up and his overall body language is extremely passive.
(5) He SUCKS big time with the bat....though he is still categorized as "all-rounder" for some reason.
Finally, it is no secret that he totally SUCKED during the World Cup...and was dropped for the BD tour. Now, please tell me what did he do between then and now to reclaim his place....when a much more talented player like Irfan Pathan continues to get punished for underperforming.
Some1, My honest opinion about Agarkar is that he is not that bad a bowler. I was extremely excited to watch him when i saw him for the first time 1998 sahara cup...(the guy was young, seemed to be enjoying his cricket, looked more aggrasive than an average indian cricket...every think that i look forward to see in Indian cricketer), even though he went for plenty in that series but to me he looked more of a bowler (even in that lost series) than Mohanty, Kuruwella and another singh guy (the trio from 1997 Sahara cup, the one India won) combine.
Thats a very good observation from you about him taking alot of lower order wickets, but these days who is perfectly consistent with new ball these days??
There is no way i would have seen him getting dropped from Eng tour coz this eng tour is happening in later part of the summer and 2 ouutaa three matches are in Lords and Oval, both grounds one needs a bowler who is good swing bowler with new ball and ( and frankly Ajit (when he gets it right) has a beautiful Out swing with new ball ) amd with old ball due to Slingy action can get better reverse swing that what Pathan would. Plus hescored a few runs there when last time he toured with India and has more county/league experince than Irfan. Plus the way i see it is that they will have Zaheer, Sreesanth and RPsingh as Main bowlers, in this case irfan would be thrid L.armer which can lower the effieceny of bowling attack.
So all these things considered i think Ajit is not that bad a choice, atleast for Eng tour. I personally wouldnt role out that Irfan can be sent in later on this this tour as selectors may think that keeping him out of squad perhaps is going to make him re-think about his game and improve on it. So dont be surprise if Irfan still ends up reaching Eng.
