Praven Kumar: The Winter Solution?

Everybody who is following the Indian domestic cricket season and awaiting the forthcoming tours by England and Australia realizes that bowling remains the biggest issue for the Indian team. Firstly, their bowling lacks the pace that can put some sort of scare into batsmen who are becoming more immune to the cricket ball with the T20 vaccine. Secondly, the spinner's lobby too is woefully short of displaying anything pleasing. Considering this scenario and the fact that these two tours will be held towards the end of 2012 and the early part of 2013, the Indian cricket selectors might want to consider Praveen Kumar. Let me explain
what I am trying to say here: during this time of the year, there is going to be a bit of nip in the air and off the wicket no matter how much the groundsmen manipulate them according to the liking of MS Dhoni and those in favor of preparing spin-prejudiced bowling strips. If these weather conditions are factored-in, and Praveen Kumar's ability to swing the ball both ways and bowl well with the old ball analyzed, the selectors might find themselves sitting on a solution that they haven't even considered. Please let us be honest with ourselves. Ishant Sharma is not going to bounce-off the Aussies or Brits on these wickets. Zaheer is as injury-prone he was two seasons ago and Umesh Yadav is still raw, no matter how fast he bowls.

Did you notice any similarities in Tendulkar’s Recent Record-Breaking Moments?

This might have come to your attention if you are a keen cricket follower. Recently, Tendulkar has created two records that would be hard-to-beat any time in the near future. These include his 200+ score in one day internationals and his compilation of 50 test centuries. However, there is an amazing set of similarities when he achieved these two feats: Firstly, his batting partner on each occasion was MS Dhoni—the Indian skipper. 
Secondly, both times, the bowling opposition was that of South Africa. What is amazing is that none of the News channels seem to have covered this aspect when the record was first reported. It was only the next day that some media coverage highlighted this aspect and then, the rest followed. Further, the Protea bowlers never managed to or every tried to bounce Tendulkar. This seemed true for the ODI inning that was played on a very placid pitch but in SA itself, the non-use of neck-high bouncers against the Little Master does seem a bit strange.

MSD: is he overworked

I keep having this feeling that MS Dhoni is being seriously stretched as a player and considering how important he has become to the team as a leader and as the keeper-batsman, any injury to him could seriously hamper the progress of our team. for starters, he should be relieved of wicket-keeping in at least some form of the game. I believe that we need to rear one more keeper batsman who can alterante with Dhoni. further, I remember that Dhoni has bowled a few, test match overs and it would be worth a try to let him try out a new role of coming up the order as a pure batsman and thenr rolling over his arm as a part timer, at least in the one-dayers... is Dinesh Karthick even in the frame of things?