Angelo Matthews to lead Pune Warriors

Angelo Mathews

Kumara Sangakara

Mahela Jayawardhena

3 SL cricketers, also the current and ex-captains of SL. 

But the newest thing that puts this 3 cricketers in a single bracket is that they are also IPL captains in 6th season. 

Kumara Sangakara leads the worst IPL team of previous 2  times -- Deccan Chargers and now Hyderabad SunRisers owned by DMK chief Karunanidhi's grandson (or g.nephew). 

Mahela Jaywardhena will lead Delhi Daredevils and latest Angelo Matthews will lead the Pune Warriors team ahead of Yuvraj Singh.

Aghast decision.  Michael Clarke would have been a natural choice to lead the Pune team, but he is out injured and recuperating for the Ashes campaign later this year. In his absence, Yuvraj would have been a natural choice, given he had led the franchisee in 2011. 

But franchisee said Yuvraj is the most important player for them as an allrounder and he could not be burdened with captaincy responsibilities too. Not sure how Yuvraj will take this news, but this is a very bad decision. 

On two counts. 

Number 1, the leadership abilities of Angelo Matthews are not well known or let's say they are too early to find out.  He is just appointed the captain of SL ODI and Test team and he has not started well.  So we don't know how that limited experience will help him lead an IPL team full of uncapped Indian players, few Indian legends, fringe players and of course international players. 

Number 2, with the ongoing tussle over SL players participation in this IPL, Pune might stand on a losing ground when they play their away games vs CSK who have less SL players, none too important.  Pune joins Delhi and Hyderabad franchisees who might need to play without their captains in the Chennai games. 

Not sure how much of the advantage that will provide to CSK against Delhi and Pune, but surely they will be a sure starters against Hyderabad team. For Delhi, MJ is their best bet, given his success in T20 opening role and iffy form of Virender Sehwag off late. 

It certainly would have been a logical choice to move the entire Chennai games out of Chennai to give every franchisee a fair chance and a level playing ground. But that is very less to hope for as Chennai franchisee owner is also the BCCI president and the most powerful man in World Cricket today. 

He already is responsible for lot of ills in Indian cricket, behind a lot of regional selections in the national team and the latest political row is not helping the other franchisees cause as well. 

It is futile to hope that Srinivasan will provide other franchisees a fair ground to compete as a BCCI chief. Even if he would want to as BCCI chief, the other part of IPL team owner would not want the BCCI side of him to give in. 

Although this drama is far from over, as always Chennai Super Kings team start a notch or 2 ahead of other teams in this year's IPL as well.  

Angelo Matthews leading ahead of Yuvraj Singh is another turn-off for the fans of the poster boy of Indian cricket.  I am sure Yuvraj will take it in a very good stride and will consider this as a nothing event given what he has faced in past few years in terms of health issues and the cricketing form. 

Get well soon Jesse Ryder

My thoughts, prayers and best wishes go to Jesse Ryder to get well ASAP. 

Amen.

Pepsi Indian Premier League Season 6 is around the corner.

And the times for 

Pepsi Indian Premier League

are back.  Version 6 this year, probably last time in India for at least 2 years. 

Next year general elections are due this time. So most probably it will be a repeat of 2009 drama.  Except the fact that there is no Lalit Modi this time who can take IPL to South Africa in a quick matter of few days.

This are the times when we will see again the likes of :

Shahrukh Khan

Shilpa Shetty

Preity Zinta 

in the stands dancing and singing.  And a few Telugu stars suppporting new Hyderabad SunRisers(or SunSetters, given their past 2 season performers) could be seen like Nag, Venkatesh, RamCharan, Chiru, Pavan Teja, Rana Daggubati and Siddharth...

Also the times are back when the Lankan cricketers are not welcome this time around owing to the war crime thing which is bone of contention between India and SL governments and also a muscle flexing opportunity for TN parties -- DMKs and AIADMKs.

Already there are talks of poor Akila Dhananjaya (he is a male player with a female name as is Mahila Jayawardhena) and Nuwan Kulasekara being dropped (source : Times of India) from Chennai Super Kinks...That as a last resort for India Cements to save its Chennai games and of course continue flex unholy muscles through BCCI president..

Also the times are back when a Vice President of a company owning a IPL franchisee will lead its team. Non cricketing captain ? 

Think again. Back to Lucky again, the 0-4, 0-4 loser and 4-0 winner, 2 times IPL champion, 1 time CLT20 time winner and 2 World Cup winner captain MS Dhoni shall lead the CSK again, which will definitely reach yet another final this time.

Also when the sponsor prefixes or suffixes shall be appended in front of every catch, 4 or 6.  We will come to know who are competitors to the iPhone and cheap plastic (Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 etc) in India -- Lava, MicroMax, Karbon etc.....

Also the times are back when ECB shall rant about how bad IPL is for health of Test Cricket and how holy English County Cricket is. 

Michael Clarke shall shun IPL for Ashes (which no matter what he plays or not in IPL shall be kept in England. 

Ricky Ponting shall lead Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Sachin Tendulkar Next (Rohit Sharma) in Mumbai.

Sir Shri Ravindra Jadeja shall ride high on his new found Test success and it is possible he might negotiate with another franchisee for a slight higher paycheck (he might think he deserves a 3 million USD contract) and in the process might get banned yet again.

Probably we will see Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar last time playing together (for opposite teams) and in any form of cricket game.

We will see yet again that our dear old game of cricket is hijacked once more for month and half on the name of "Cricketainment". Who knows this year we might see new faces with the bodies of Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell. (I so much hope that M Vijay and R Jadeja are caught doping and banned forever).

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Indian Premier League is back.

SL are reborn despite a mediocre Test record

A series win against much improved BD and the SL authors are back to declaring emphatic statements "SL are reborn". "Young SL does nation proud" and similar rantings.  If not for some reckless batting by the Deshi kids in the 2nd test, BD would have gone and scared SL in 2nd test as well after setting lot of national records in the first test. 

A lot of new faces were injected in the team, a new leadership team was established and a lot of old faces were missing. The impact was visible on the performance. 

While I won't go in the details of who played well and who was bad, let me highlight the inflated figures of SL cricket in Tests. 

It has been 31 years SL is playing Test cricket.  By the end of this series they have played 222 games, won 66 and lost 80. On the onset the record looks impressive. If you take the older teams and compare this results with them SL's record would look superior. 

But in the old days there were no cheap results, there were no cheap victories and of course no cheap runs and wickets.  There were no Bangladesh and Zimbabwe then. 

Here are some hard hitting facts of SL's test record :

• 23 of those 66 wins have come against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

• They have not won a single test in India and Australia in 17 and 13 tests respectively.

• Their record against Australia (dominant  team in modern era) is pathetic with 1 win and 17 losses.

• They have won 1 test each in West Indies and South Africa. 2 each in England and New Zealand. In all of this countries, they have lost more than they have won.

• They rarely tour West Indies who are no longer strong as in 1980s. In last 16 years, they have played just 6 tests in Carribean islands, won 1 and lost 3. 

• The best overseas country for victories for them is Bangladesh where they have won 4 tests (vs BD) and lost 1 (to Pak). Next comes Zimbabwe where they have won 3 and lost none. In Pakistan they lost 8 but won 6. 

• They have won more against WI than they have lost. 5 of their 6 wins have come at home and when WI were even more weakened due to player strikes and similar issues (2005)

• All 6 wins against India have come in SL on low, slow pitches when Murali used to play. After Murali retired (last test they won against India), they lost 1 and drew 1 against India in SL. Without Murali they are yet to tour India.

• They have lost more than wins against England, Kiwis and SA. Most of the wins against this countries have come in bad pitches of SL, away conditions the team has struggled including their greats Sanga and Mahela Jayawardhene.

Surprisingly Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardhene have been their most successful Test captains with identical number of wins, losses and draws (38 tests, 18 wins, 12 losses). Again the numbers are inflated due to the fact that they play more at home than abroad. And they play BD and Zim frequently than any other team.

While all other teams have played max 10 or less tests against BD, SL has played 14 tests against them.  India and Australia are the teams that have played least against BD ( 7 and 4 tests respectively).

And with all of this mediocre record above and postponed home series, the Lankans are targetting to be one of the top 3 teams in Test cricket. Yeah well they can certainly be. Dreaming does not cost anything and why only top 3, they can certainly rule the Test cricket for next 50 years in their dreams.

Another selectorial gem from Sandip Patil and company

Another gem from Indian selectors : 

Shikhar Dhawan ruled out of the Delhi test, Gautam Gambhir picked. Fine till now. Then left out as he is diagnosed with jaundice. Unfortunate.

But there comes the blunder.

In comes Raina. For Dhawan, in comes Raina. 

A middle order batsman for an opener ? Seriously ? Will he play the final test ? If so at what place ? Will he open alongside Vijay, another CSK player ?

Oh wait, Raina is another CSK player. CSK players come in handy as replacements (no offense against Raina, he is a good player and I back him). 

So if Raina won't open then will he play ? And if he won't play then why have him in the team ? Will he bat at 7 and push Jadeja to 8 replacing Ojha ? Not quite. 

In 2nd innings when Dhawan did not bat, Pujara opened the innings with Vijay. Just like Dravid did when one of the openers used to get injured.  Some habits of Indian cricket don't change. Bad habits of course. 

So in all probability, it is going to be either Rahane who comes in the team and opens with Vijay or if they continue with Pujara - Vijay pair then Rahane shall play in the middle order. And if Raina trumps him in the middle order, then it shall be very unfortunate for Rahane after having being walked over again.....

Sandip Patil is proving to be another Kris Srikanth. Very sad to see the victorious team members of 1983 World cup proving to be disastrous selectors. Vengsarkar first, Srikanth next and now Sandip Patil.

India's 3-0 victory good on paper, not so good in foreign tours context

So India won in Mohali even MS tried hard not to in the final hour of the game. Thanks to the lusty boundaries by Sir Sri Sri Jaddu maharaj, the shackles were broken and the captain got inspired and he hit the winning runs off Starc's over. 

It was a heavy weather made of a modest target and no credit snatched from Michael Clarke who continued to believe they can win, he kept the pressure on. And by Dhoni's own admission, India felt the pressure. And that pressure saw Tendulkar and Kohli loose their wickets. 

India are now 3-0 up, 3rd time they have won 3 tests in row.  They have a good chance to win the 4th one in Delhi, Sehwag and Gambhir's hometown...

Jadeja is now established test player, a spinner though. Calling him an all-rounder would be an insult to the great all-rounders who have graced the game. But he does not solve the overall selection conundrum.  What happens when India travels abroad is a headache question. 

Also the picture on openers is not very clear. Who would be the openers in South Africa ? Logical inputs point to Shikhar Dhawan and the beard master Murali Vijay. That their temperament is questionable on foreign conditions, is another issue altogether. 

Ashvin, Ojha / Harbhajan and Jadeja might win India the 4th test as well, but this combination would not work in South Africa. They will need more of a seaming alrounder, more in terms of Henriques of Australia or Broad of England (allrounders on paper) batting at 7 position, if this combination is what India will look to play in South Africa. 

But we will worry about that later. 

For now its munching time on Aussies. One more win and the revenge will be complete. Even though this 3 victories don't sound as sweet as they often did in the past when legends swamped both teams. Kumble, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman in India. Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer and of course Ponting in Australia. Not to forget Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh. 

But a win is a win. And this win will go a long way in establishing Dhoni's captaincy for another year at least. And so when India tour next in alien conditions, questions will be raised how much India has learnt from those 0-8 scoreline ? And not many fans will remember the possible 4-0 result at home, but most of them shall remember 0-4 in England and 0-4 in Australia.

For record now Australia have lost 7 consecutive test matches in India and if you include draws then they have lost 8 of their last 10 test matches in India. The last win coming under Gilchrist in that infamous Nagpur test match.

Uncle Srini gives an extension to Fletcher uncle

0-4 in England

0-4 in Australia

If that was an away scoreline, then here is a look at home record:

2-0 vs Kiwis

2-0 vs WI

Fine, home victories but against lower opposition. 

1-2 vs England in India. 

Whoops.  A series loss at home after 8 years.  Shameful record.

Few more records:

Failure to make it to the finals of Asia cup and CB series in Australia.

0-3 loss in England ODIs.

1-2 loss to Pakistan in India.

That was the ODI part.

Failure to reach the World T20 semis. But that happened twice under Gary Kirsten.

Above is the record of Duncan Fletcher in the 2 years of Indian coach and the old man has  got an extension of one year owing to the continuity (as per Uncle Srini).  Not worthy of a day's extension as a coach after above pathetic record. 

He did not develop the game of a single young player abroad or improve the defects of senior players in his tenure. Fine there is a logic that the likes of Sachin, Dravid and Laxman (in Australia and England) do not require any batting advice, but then again somebody needed to go and tell them what was wrong with them. 

Another example is of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. Under this guy, their game just went on a downward slide and the guy kept quiet. No inputs, no improvement.  No sight of improvement of form for this duo.

No out of the box strategy to startle the opposition. During England loss in India and in England, the guy did not have an answer to the spin and seam tactics of England. No way to stop Alistair Cook or KP or Ian Bell or Monty Panesar when they were on a roll in India.

So the only reason he must have had behind this extension is some good ties with Dhoni who is said to have recommended for extension to his step father N Srinivasan. And Srini who can't ignore Dhoni provided an extension to the disastrous coach of India after Greg Chappell.

So now it remains to be seen how deep India plummets in the coming year in all 3 formats of game.  Not to stress hard that the planning to retain the World Cup title in Australia shall need to begin sometime this year and again it will be interesting to find out what strategy and plan Fletcher has.

Congratulations Shikhar Dhawan, but the road ahead is tough.

Congrats Shikhar Dhawan for blistering 185* in the debut test and for breaking all sorts of records during this mad innings. After all, you paid off the confidence and trust the selectors, captain had in you. A lot of  your under-19 pals have congratulated you on your blistering knock. 

185* and probably few more runs today on 4th morning will make you a glorious example to emulate for future Test debutants. And there will be a very good chance that a Sri Lankan sometime in future will break the record (how many more runs will you add) playing against Maldives or some hapless African nation when it shall gain test status.

You have managed to become Sehwag - Gambhir v 2.0 with M Vijay. Perfect. And also managed to keep likes of Abhinav Mukund out for some more time. Not to mention Gambhir and Sehwag, the Delhi dashers. 

Hyderabad Sunrisers will be happy franchisee today, only if you could repeat the same innings with them.

Don;t know if your innings today will result in a Indian win as today is day 4. Chance is you might fall in first over itself or continue to bat on and on.  

Forgive my ignorance or lack of praise to your blistering and fantastic debut. I have grown up watching the golden generation of Test cricket in 2000s and have also seen the dark ages of 1990s when many openers busted on international level and faded away later. 

Shiv Sundar Das, Deep Dasgupta, Sadgopan Ramesh and many more. All of this folks excelled in Indian conditions, but when they went abroad, they were found wanting. I hope you don't fall in that league. I hope you keep making runs in future chances also. Next test assignment is against South Africa followed by NZ and then the vengeance in England.  Not sure if you will be around in the test team after the SA tour ends, but next few games shall decide your course, if you can India cement a permanent place in Indian test team or be a 2 innings wonder, like in ODIs and then fade out. 

Remember the # 1 and # 2 spot is legacy of Sunny Gavaskar, Gautam Gambhir and illustrious Virender Sehwag.  If you make runs and perform in all conditions, fine. If you don't then soon the original Delhi dashers shall be back and I hope they are back soon.   So dude, go perform. The fight is too close to be relaxed and the margin of error is very thin. 3 innings of low scores and Sandip uncle shall kick you out of the team.

Missed out on homework, Gang of 4 miss out on Mohali Test

Micky Arthur is no longer a Mickey Mouse. He has come out as a roaring lion in a foreign country, playing everything to the media, in front of media with the blessings of Cricket Australia and backing of Michael Pup Clarke, who himself has graduated to a big black greyhound after the homeworkgate or presentation gate. 

In my career, I was always asked to prepare presentations for the yearly appraisals and I obliged a few times, skipped most of the times. But I was never axed or I never walked out of the job, for it was the only thing that kept my lifestyle going. But then I never play international or state or national cricket. 

Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Khwaja and Mitch Johnson do. They play some serious cricket. Leaving out the Pakistani born Australian player, the other 3 were some serious Aussie cricketers. And as Micky Arthur says they violated the discipline, team ethics and Clarke says the suspension was not based out of one isolated event, but many off the field events. 

Really folks ? Are you that serious ? Are you serious to claw back into the series and try to level it ? And look beyond this series to the biggest test series coming home and away ? Ashes ? You just got rid of your best bowler of the tour who would have enjoyed on the supposedly fast Mohali pitch. You got rid of the only  player other than Michael Clarke to have scored a 100 on Indian soil -- Shane Watson. He is so miffed now that he might leave test cricket and commit himself to T20 cricket altogether. What a loss. 

Arthur has scored a self goal or in cricketing terminology a hit wicket. Whatever be the reasons for the indiscipline or not coming up with the 3 points for self improvement, you don't kick out your players on the eve of the crucial Test match coming up which could be played in typical Australian conditions.  

Look at Indians or Pakistanis or Sri Lankans. They often violate discipline, but they are never thrown out. Look at Pakistani players, they dont talk to each other, but no coach has the power to throw a single Pakistani out of a tour. Heard anytime ?

Micky Arthur joins the list of whacko Australian coaches -- John Buchanan before him who need some wind, some fresh air, some sanity need to be injected in their minds. They don't know a word on player management.  If there was an issue within the team, why throw it open in the media and in a foreign country ? Just because some players did not make a presentation.

Sure there was a breach of coach's orders, but in a situation where you need your best players to stand up to the alien conditions, you need to find alternate ways to crack the whip. Not deselect 4 players, one of which is the vice-captain. And if you ask the players to come up with 3 points to improve, then what the hell are you for ? Are you doing your job Mr Nutcase ? No you are not ? 

As a SA coach, you had the knowledge of Indian conditions, yet when you bring your latest team here, your team folds up without a fight and what the hell do you do ? Suspend 4 players on not doing a homework. Bad ass Mr Arthur. You sound like a sicko principal of school who would not accept anything less than 100 marks out of 100 marks in every subject.

Expectedly the ex-cricketers ripped apart the Mr Bad Ass of Australian cricket, but he got some support from the media.  

In the end the question arises, what if this action was for nothing. What was the cost involved in the axeing of 4 players ?  A series loss in India, a chance to boost Ashes preparations lost ? The next series you play is Ashes in England where the team has lost twice in 2 tours. What would be the result if Pattinson and Johnson were both available to play in Mohali test ? 

You just made a selection harakiri in the 2nd test, lost badly and to cover up your tracks Mr Bad Ass, you axe 4 players on not doing the homework.  Poor call......You ought to lose your job dude.

Ranchi will not host Dhoni's IPL games but his ex-captaincy rival's IPL games

Ranchi too will host IPL games.. But it will not be homeboy's franchisee games. But for the captaincy rival, now ousted, Gambhir's KKR.

It would have been just apt to move a couple of Chennai Super Kings games from Chennai to Ranchi to honor Dhoni's iron fist loyalty to his boss N Srinivasan....But I bet Chennai is CSK's ticket to the finals of IPL every time. That is where Srinivasan can flex some of his power to make some adjustments in the points table when results don't go right for CSK....

Adjustments as in some muscle twisting, pitch doctoring, threats to the other IPL teams (ahead of CSK) to get them banned from next edition of IPL, if they don't comply in letting CSK route them.

Just saying a doubt that millions of Indian cricket fans have in their minds when they see constant inroads of CSK players in the national team.

Sangakara rises from the rubble like "The Dark Knight"

Sangakara quote : 

Gavaskar was a fantastic batsman, and I'm very privileged to have had a career where I am able to go past him. Still I am three centuries behind him, but hopefully I can go beyond him on that count too. I'd still like more runs and more wins. I think that's what motivates all the guys who play."

Yes sir, Sunny Gavaskar was a tremendous batsman in all conditions. Against pace, against spin. In home conditions, away conditions. Excelling against the topmost team of his era -- West Indies without a helmet and scoring 13 hundreds against them. No cheap runs, no cheap hundreds. Grinding hundreds, match saving hundreds.

Sangakara, on the other hand has a lot of cheap runs, cheap hundreds against BD, Zimbabwe. When SL dont find a test opposition, they either invite BD to maul or visit poor Zimbabwe, who are happy to host any team for their lack of cricket and opportunities to budding cricketers. 

He has set a target of "35 to 40 hundreds" to the younger SL batsmen like Thirimanne, Mathews and Chandimal. Hopefully they are not cheap hundreds, if those guys get there when they finish.  Unfortunately the SLC has postponed all home Test series till 2015 in the greed for more money. They do not play more Test cricket after this test series until October and again after that not much tests again (except for a series against Pak). 

A lot has been said on this blog about this 2 SL batsmen (him and Mahela) on how they blabber and make cheap runs.  Only if this folks could have had an appetite for positive cricket, the SLC would not have been deemed as a Test cricket killer board.

Selectors are not making tough calls, they are making stupid calls

Cricinfo mentions that the Sandeep Patil led selection panel is taking hard decisions. It gives the examples of Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Zaheer Khan and latest Sehwag.  Yuvraj Singh did not get a long rope when he made a comeback to the Test team this time and he did start strong with a 74 in Ahmedabad. But later on his form tapered and he was dropped. 

His scoreline read 32, 11 in Kolkata, 74, DNB in Ahmedabad, 0 and 8 in Mumbai.  Average of 25 in 5 innings. 

Who replaced him ?  Shri Ravindra Jadeja. Failure with bat, decent with the ball. He shall be persisted with the rest of the test series vs Australia. And will he go to South Africa ? Probably yes, unless he form does not miraculously fade away. 

He is deemed to be an allrounder. An allrounder who can bowl more than he can bat. They say  he provides the 5th bowler option to the team. But he disturbs the batting balance. He is no good enough to score more than scratchy 20s or at the max 30s. What if the top order fails and #5 and #6 are just done with a match saving (or turning partnership)? Will his batting help  if he continues to make scratchy runs ? 

India's next Test series is against SA, NZ and England away. At the max there will be 1 spinner, top 2 if a turning track is provided. Will Jadeja be good enough to be # 2 spinner in away conditions ? If the selection panel says we are grooming the openers for away series, why not groom the # 2 spinner ? Wait do we need to ? We have 3 spinners already, 3 main spinners who are primarily bowlers. Ashvin, Harbhajan and Ojha, 

Will Jadeja be good enough to surpass 2 of the above gentlemen to be # 2 spinner and still bat at 7 ?  The guess is very simple to make. Like Dravid says, India needs to identify its overseas attack. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar might be handy in seaming, swinging conditions, but India will need a pace bowler too. Some one like Steven Finn or James Pattinson.  Umesh Yadav comes close to that but he is out injured and he would make a comeback through IPL. But is IPL a benchmark to judge Test fitness ?

So coming back to # 7 question, if not Jadeja then who ? Dhoni then will need to move back at 7 and a frontline batsman will need to come back. Either Raina, Yuvraj or Rahane or even Sehwag, form permitting.

Did selectors have a plan on who will partner Vijay in Mohali ? Dhawan or Rahane ? If Dhawan is the answer, as he is a natural opener, then what happens to Rahane ? Is he another Manoj Tiwary ? Why is then Rahane even in the team ? 

If Dhawan plays then will he continue to play in South Africa too even if his form dips in IPL and subsequent domestic season later this year ? For that matter Vijay too ? What if Gambhir finds form in IPL, ODIs in England, SL and then domestic season ? Will he continue to be ignored ?

We never would know the answers to the questions because the Indian selectors do not communicate. They continue to operate in primitive days when communication was hard to make. BCCI does not explain the logic behind selections, omissions.  And god knows till when they will continue to operate in this mode. 

So it is very wrong to say selectors are taking hard decisions.  They are making stupid decisions with no logic in it, no substance to it. 

Sehwag finally dropped

I am little confused over Sehwag's drop from the next 2 Tests against Australia. He was long due for consistency and that was not coming. Too many similar dismissals, too many low scores and after 27 runs in 3 innings in home tests vs Australia the axe was due and that happened. 

I will not go in stats,  they are too visible and available on news channels and cricinfo. 

But guys like Sehwag are beyond statistics and numbers. They are gifted players who arrive once in a while and while they are around, the opposition fear the team. Unfortunately off late his form had dipped to such an extent that the very foundation he and Gambhir led in their prolific times was shaken. The long partnerships were not coming, they were losing their wickets in a predictable fashion and too early. 

When legends were around, a quick wicket or 2 did not matter much as Dravid or Laxman or Tendulkar would control the slide. But now with the legends at 3 and 5 gone and Tendulkar nearing his end of career, the onus was on the Delhi duo to hit the purple patch and be more consistent. 

Unfortunately they lost the runs and form at a very wrong time. As a result the team in Mohali will be altogether a new look one. A new opening pair in Vijay and Rahane / Dhawan followed by run machine Pujara, Tendulkar, Kohli and Dhoni. The number 7 is for a scratchy dog who will scratch, scratch and scratch and then shoulder the arms to ball and get bowled.

The next test tour of India is to SA, NZ and then England in next year and half. With the most prolific openers out of the team, it shall be upto the new pair to establish themselves and settle before the tours begin. But that is too far right now. First there are 2 tests in this home series to deal with followed by IPL, a few A  tours, a monsoon season and the home season.

Logic shall suggest Rahane to partner Vijay in the 3rd Test as he has been in the team for almost a year now and still waiting for his debut. But then it is Dhoni and we never know what he shall think.

On a lighter note, may be Sehwag should start playing for CSK and sign a declaration to MSD and Srini that he does not harbor any captaincy ambitions. That might be his ticket to reclaim his spot back.

Sehwag for sure is not done and it is not the end of road for our guy.  He will be back and will return stronger than ever. Sehwag is one reason I shall continue to watch cricket after Tendulkar retires sooner than later.

England's Ashes bragging begins

Have a look at the cricinfo's page for England vs New Zealand Test series. You'd find a lot of blabbering and noise on Ashes prospects and England's almost sure Ashes win home and away.  

New Zealand has for a start dented the confidence in the start of 1st Test match on day 2. Latest England were 5 for 86.

This constant Ashes bragging is not only belittling of their immediate opponent, but it also is a sign of rudeness.  England have clinched Ashes and they defeated India in India. Great, but they have been pathetic in their home series before Ashes. 

Their best spinner is in doubt for the Ashes and England management has little faith in Monty Panesar.  Stuart Broad has his own set of problems and Steven Finn cannot continue to break stumps and get away. Very soon that shall be termed as a no-ball.

And soon as I write this, the 6th wicket is gone. Compton and KP have scored ducks, hyped Root has scored 4. Cook 10 and Bell 23. The conditions are pretty English, overcast and damp. And still a newbie bowler has troubled England. 

England might still recover and win this test match and probably the series as well. But it shall serve them good if they focus right now on Kiwis series and worry about Australia little bit late.

Shri Rahulji Gandhi is the MoM for Hyderabad Test

So who will be the man of the match ?

Ravinder Jadeja ?

If he is the MoM, then  for sure he will be the keynote speaker in the Wharton university replacing Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. And as a reward he is already standing in the 2nd slip ahead of Tendulkar, who rarely stands in slips. Guess what, he has so quickly replaced the likes of Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman who used to stand in slips in their playing days.

Cheteshwar Pujara or Monk Vijay ?  Monk Vijay should be keynote speaker in IIPM or Kalavati Devi Institute of Technology and Science in Raibareli, UP.

None of the above. 

It will be Shri Rahulji Gandhi, the Congress VP, who has guided Indian team with his ability and silence on a ground named after his dad Rajiv Gandhi to a memorable victory. 

So lets cheer up for Shri Rahul Gandhi, the MoM of Hyderabad Test match, first such instance in the history of Test cricket that a non-player has become MoM.

Chennai Super Kings defeat Australia yet again

Chennai Super Kinks have now defeated Australia 2 out of 2 times. Way to go Uncle Srini. What an inspired selections he has forced. Dhoni in the first test match. Ashvin all over home season taking quick 75 wickets in a year and half,  ignoring all of his overseas failures. 

And then Sir Jadeja. Failing as a batsman, does not matter. Bowling out Clarke 2 times in 2 innings.  12 wickets now in 3 Test matches. I think he is the fastest Indian to reach 12 Test wickets.  

Old Monk, the next one. 167 rums were the best 167 runs any Test player has ever made in the history of Test cricket.   He wanted to show the world what he is capable of. Yes sir, we all know what you are capable of. One century now and he will milk it for next 10 odd test matches. Who knows he might even have earned a ODI and T20I recall. IPL is now less than a month away. CSK are fixed semi-finalists anyways and M Vijay will take them extra yard to the finals.

So who needs Harbhajan now ? Or even Ojha ? Get in any random fast bowler of Chennai Super Kings or a TN fast bowler. Who needs Zaheer Khan ? Or Umesh Yadav.

Meanwhile Australia are disgracing themselves by 1) muddled selections 2) giving wickets to likes of Ravindra Jadeja making him look best ever Indian spinner in eyes of Indian commentators.  

India go 2-0 up and the Border Gavaskar trophy is almost earned back. Thanks to Chennai Super Kings. N Srinivasan will be a hot commodity in England now and for sure ECB will consult the guy to loan his match winners to England team for Ashes series so that England can retain Ashes home and away. In return England might also send few of its players for a full IPL.

Picking up Jadeja is not a best move in interests of Indian cricket in long term

Sir Shri Shri Ravindra Jadeja is bent on proving his critics wrong by performing little bit better than the expectations. But he is excelling only as bowler and underperforming as a batsman. At # 7 he ought to be better than what he is contributing.  He might take few more 2s or 3s in remaining 7 innings of this series and not contribute much with the bat, the captain Dhoni will praise this guy as if he is the best Indian cricketer around. 

But what will happen when India tour SA and NZ next year ? Then will he be needed as 2nd or 3rd spinner ? What if he does not improve as a batsman ? Will he not be a liability then? Should not a batsman be tried out at 6 and Dhoni drop at 7 ? Ojha and Ashvin or Ashvin and Harbhajan are good enough for any touring team. 

And in Kumble's era he and Harbhajan were too good for the visiting lot. But post Kumble, the spin stock in the country has dwindled and Harbhajan is no longer the bowler he was till 2008 and probably he might never be again. And that is why we see selectors making some real comical selections like bringing in Jadeja as allrounder or dropping Ojha or out of nowhere bringing in Rahul Sharma and then dropping him. And yes Piyush Chawla too. 

And Dhoni has been guilty of pushing Jadeja ahead of Harbhajan. Harbhajan is on a comeback trail and he needs his captain's confidence. Very often you see Harbhajan being brought in after Jadeja and Ashvin. That is an insult to the bowler who has played 101 tests and has highest wickets among the bowlers currently playing Test cricket. 

But the best thing Harbhajan Singh can do to get back his lost respect and position is take a 6-for and shut down his critics. And that shall be a warning sign to Sir Jadeja to improve his batting or get lost.