Why does Badrinath fail?

A 30 ball 17 followed by a 28 ball 11 and a run out with bat lost and struggling to make it to the crease even with a dive. 

That figures dont do the justice to the rant "I have made my game suitable to the T20s and ODIs" from a man who has been given ample opportunities in past 3 years and he has fluffed them all. He happens to be from the state which provides national selection committee chairman, the most powerful man in the BCCI and of course the 2 time IPL champion franchisee with a luck that the franchisee is captained by the man who captains India and the stand in skipper is also a part of the same franchisee.

All of that ideally shouldnt matter though, in the long run its the temperament and the attitude that decides if a player belongs at the highest level. And we aint bridesmaid now, we are goddman world champions in the ODIs and top ranked Test team. So no player should come in on the back of few hundred runs in the IPL. To me this man is like Ajay Sharma who scored tonnes of runs in the domestic circuit, but when confronted at the highest level, just came a cropper. 

Why do lads like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina who are way younger than this lad find success at highest level and he doesnt? Why do even contemporaries like Gautam Gambhir find success but he doesnt? Gambhir was also treated in the same way as this lad was, but when he got his opportunity, he seized it and today he is best player of spin in the country after 3 greats and forms one of the vital cogs of India's best Test opening pair and possibly world's best opening pair at the moment. 

Both this lads got their moments on the same tour -- 2008 tour to Lanka. Gambhir got in Tests, this lad in ODIs. Gambhir had been decent in the ODIs then and hadnt got the success in Tests by then. A solitary hundred against BD in 2007 was all he had. Even though he didnt have 100s in that tour, but his handling of M&M when the more famed and great names failed in reading them got him the place he deserved and since then hasnt stopped and looked back. 

So what stops this lad? Self pity? Self inflicted daemons? Whats holding him? Is he scared? Or is he content to just play a few games for India and happy making millions in the IPL? Who would remember him few years down the line? Who remembers Padmakar Shivalkar today in the same breath as say Bishen Singh Bedi or Chandra or Prassana or even Venkat? Or Ajay Sharma? Or Pankaj Dharmani ?

The series is already in the bag and its time to test out the few players who havent got the chances so far. One of them is the original young player well before Kohlis and Rohits made their mark. Manoj Tiwary, who debuted in 2008 (after Rohit) but lost out to injury then.. He would be due to come in for a game or 2 before he heads back to India. So this lad hasnt done any favors for himself by making those slow starts. Yet, the backing he has, he might still get a chance to play the 3 Tests replacing Tendulkar ahead of Kohli. And that would mean there would be at least 1 walking wicket in the Test team.

"Focussed on contributing consistently" making 30 ball 17

I don't want to say what exactly what I want to do. The first thing is that I need to cement a spot in the Indian team. I am just focussed on contributing consistently."

He said he is aware of the need to constantly work on his game and has been seeking the help of coaches in honing his skills to suit all forms of cricket. "I have been working with the coaches. The IPL experience has helped me a great deal. It's been lot of hard work but I enjoy improving my game and want to play for India for as long as possible."

When you make this kinda statements, you'd want to ensure you score runs at good S/R in 50 over game too. Having said that consistent displays of 30 ball 17 isnt going to help this lad any further and to longer extent. 

So buddy backup your words and score runs as much as you can, otherwise 2008 encore is almost inevitable.

India win by 16 runs in the first T20I

India began the tour well by winning the 1 off T20 against a depleted West Indies side. This win was India's first ever in T20Is against West Indies. Strange fact given how weak the Windies has been over years now and yet India had to wait so long for the win. 

The short ball woes, it looked would return again to haunt the inexperienced lads, when Dhawan got out to Samy in 3rd / 4th over. That was a nothing shot and Dhawan had no clue what to do for the delivery. Patel and Kohli then rebuilt for a while before Sammy returned to take 3 more wickets to leave India at 4/56.

Kohli, Raina and Patel dismissed.  And then our Chennai hero Dabrinath settled to a run a ball knock which was sufficient on the uneven, turning pitch and alongside Rohit Sharma he led India to a decent 159/6 after a miraculous 72 runs off last 5 overs. 

West Indies were given early blows by Munnabhai and IPL Ashvin, but Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo batted without sense and urgency till 16th over without losing further wicket and any sense of urgency to win. And when the surge came, it was too late for them as run rate had already climbed 17 a over. Hyatt and Barnwell put up a fight though, it was an easy win for India by 16 runs. 

What is very disgusting to see is 3 good players of T20 -- 2 of them hyped in the IPL were not part of Windies team. Gayle, Pollard and senior Bravo. WICB has to get its act straight to get its best players playing in a team to have any chances of revival in the international cricket, else its all downhill for them.

Difference between Srikanth and Aravind DeSilva as selectors

Asia Cup should be rechristened to Dambulla Cup as all games would be held in the single venue. More to do with the reconstruction of typical Colombo grounds for the WC'11. 

Who is going to watch this miniscule tournament when World  Cup fooshball is on in South Africa. 

I liked Aravinda DeSilva's first press conference on reasons behind every player selection and exclusion. Though his tactical reasons to exclude Ajantha Mendis were a googly, but the logic behind dropping Jayasuraiya, picking up Maharoof and sending centurion Dinesh Chandimal to Australia was awesome.

He also said he would talk to every player to explain the reason behind inclusion / exclusion and what plans selectors have for him in long run.

Thats contrasting with our joker chief -- Mr Srikanth. He chose Asia cup team and did not bother to inform why Yuvraj was dropped or  why M Vijay was dropped despite hailing from Chennai and doing good in EyePeeYelllll.

Mr Srikanth has just one vision -- have guys from Chennai da to crowd in the national team and try to win Borld Cuppa for Tamil Nadu. Not India mind you.

Thats the reason why Dinesh Karthik keeps coming in after sitting out one tour and failing with bat / ball / gloves in domestic cricket or even EyePeeEllll.

R Ashvin goes to Sri Lanka, Naman Ojha is dropped.  Ashok Dinda stays on while Pankaj Singh, other one match bonder is dropped.  Dinesh Karthik is out for Asia Cup but would return for SL tri-series with New Zealand.

Subbu Dabrinath is kept on stand by should one of Rohit / Kohli get injured or be out of form.  Makes sense. Chennai is nearest Indian city to fly in Dambulla rather than flying anybody from say Mumbai or calling top performer from England to SL.   Or who knows Dinesh Karthik would fly in.

He made a blanket statement on Zimbabwe fiasco. He says he now knows who played and who did not. Unfortunately he refuses to see DK and MV in that list.  He refuses to give chances to out of favor seamers like Ishant Sharma or Irfan Pathan to go and play in A team in England and prove something to earn a  recall in national team. 

He got A Mithun travel to Zimbabwe when R Vinay Kumar was injured in Zim. Who was replacement to A team ? Some Ganpathy. Another lad from Tamil Nadu, supposedly an allrounder.

Guys like Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Manish Pandey have been amongst runs in domestic circuit and in A series too, but they aint given any chance. And who are given ? Yusuf, jinxed Jadeja and DKMV.

Where are other players who play in Plate league but fail to make it to the team cos Chief joker refuses to look upwards beyond Sahyadris.

This all examples show how good vision Kris Srikanth has. Something he should learn from Aravinda DeSilva.

Srikanth's grand plans for his croonies

Srikanth was a mighty displeased man and he cried buckets of tears when his croonies -- Vijay, Dabri and KKD did not win any of the IPL awards at stake. 

He was shocked even more when his son Ani's cameo in semi final game did not win him the best debutant award in the ceremony. Why ? There was no such award....

So for this reasons Srikanth has now joined anti Modi camp and alleged him to be anti-Chennai and hurt the feelings of Chennai people. As another mean of protest he is now planning to remove MSD as skipper of India and planning to install Dinesh Karthik as captain of India in Tests and ODIs. He is also heard to have offered VVS Laxman a post in selection committee if he retires prematurely for Badrinath or his own son to be able to play Test cricket for India.

IPL claims one more injury

With Robin Singh clearly defying not to rest any Indian player bound to World T20, the IPL has claimed one more injury to Zaheer Khan, one of the main reasons for super success of MI this season.

Today's game is in Chennai where people are supposed to cheer for CSK, but its also Tendulkar who is playing. So he would be cheered and MSD would be an onlooker, so would be Vijay and Dabrinath.

Sachin renders club and city affiliations null and void.

Semis race hots up!!

With Delhi beating Rajasthan and Chennai beating Bangalore, the race for semi final spots has hotted up again. If that was not all yesterday Ganguly smashed his best T20 innings and won a game for Knight Riders to bring them on 5th spot. 

Mumbai and Delhi are almost there. Today Blore would step one inch closer to the semis spot by humbling Woodanga's team.

Watch out for Yuvraj Singh who is now hurt at the media reports over his insipid IPL performance this year which is actually good for India, he would fire in World T20.

Dhoni has a weak time at his disposal and he cannot always rely on Vijay or Callypso to bail his team out. If Dhoni would want to play good innings then Callypso would run into him and run him out. In this process he might earn captaincy of his home city IPL team......

For now its going to be Kumble's day today who would edge out speaking poker from Lanka who is posing himself as a Punjabi!!!!

IPL Performance Meter

19 games on the IPL has been set to blaze and there have been some awesome displays of batting, bowling and captaincy. The notion that the age plays a big factor in T20 is led to rest and buried deep somewhere in the trenches of Mahim creek in Mumbai. 

The likes of Raina, Sharma, Sharma I, Pathan Y,  Harbhajan Singh have flopped and the likes of Kallis, Tendulkar,  Kumble have prospered.  Rahul hasn’t got chance to spend time in the middle.  MSD, Gambhir are out to injuries. Yuvraj is still finding his feet in the return to the international cricket (IPL is a domestic event).  And the discards like Pathan I, Robin Uthappa have showed enough flair and “character” to be in the fray for the selection to the T20 WC next month.

The TN imports in the national squad – Vijay and Dabri have flopped.  ICL imports Rayadu and Chota Dhoni have prospered.

Will this performance be good enough in the eyes of Cheeka to make some out of the box selections for World T20 so that the crown is snatched back ?

Selectors do not learn

From their selection fiasco. Still no prominent batsmen to replace RD for the second Test. I am sure Cheeka wants to fill in half of Tamil Nadu players in the national team as replacement for every player. Any player gets injured or is dropped DK is in. Not many  days back he was dropped and he hit 2 tons in a futile game (in sense that did not help his team win) to be back in the team again. Amazing. What an effect he has got over the selectors and MSD. The likes of Pandey, Parthiv Patel and others would be scratching their head in disgust to see DK being back in the team. Have we lost the quality players that the likes of DK or Saha are being played ?

DK is not going to score runs in international games. That’s a well proven point. Why not go beyond him and chose Pujara ? What else he needs to do  ? DK has scored two tons in a game. Pujara has scored eons of them in last 2 years, just that he does not have a Srikanth like figure in the national selection committee, he is not able to break in, else he has done everything he could to get a chance. If Badrinath gets in for so called strong domestic performance, then Pujara is no lesser than him. For that matter even Kohli is more deserving than Karthik to be in the team. His strong performances in the last 3 ODI series as replacements are indicative of his claim.

Yuvraj made a strong name for himself in ODIs and then he came into the Test side, for that matter even Kaifu did the same. He was deserving more than DK. Only if somebody from North Zone was head of the selection committee.

Srikanth and DBV were part of the team that changed the fortunes of the Indian cricket 80s ownwards and they were expected to be level headed players or somebody with sane mind who would give more weightage to the form than the region of the player. Unfortunately that did not happen. If likes of Jaffer got umpteen opportunities in place of Sehwag in 2006-07, then the likes of DK, Dabri and Vijay (though he has proved his worth and would be too early to call his axe) have prospered under Srikanth.  DBV was openly critical of Sehwag in 2006-07 when the batsman went through the slump and thus lost the race of captaincy to Dhoni.

It would be very unfortunate to see Laxman and Dravid not play in the Eden Gardens – the same ground which saw them do greatest rear guard action of Indian cricket in 2001.  Its pretty unfortunate that Srikanth and his 4 other men are not ready to learn from the selection blunder they made for the first test and the result is out for everybody to see.

Indian scorecard reads a sorry look

So the selection fiasco paid rich dividends and the most inexperience Indian middle order in long time collapsed to Dale Steyn;s career best figure.

My foot in the mouth. Lol. I know with my style of writing I am bound to win more foes or critics with guns ever pointed to me like the rangers from the neibhouring country sitting at the border sharing with this huge republic / democracy.

So thats not going to deter me from writing my thoughts out, which may appear fucking comical to most who do not take a min to abuse me or call me different adjectives / expletives esp one blogger who presumes herself / himself to be thoughtful.

Anyways chuck that, let the critics have a hearty laughter at my expense, I am glad that I give them a chance to laugh in their otherwise half sad and incomplete life.

Back to the topic, the Sahas and the Badris failed to live upto the expectations the captain and the others would have had with them. I have not seen the scorecard but the comments in one of the previous posts suggest Badri would have scored decent (more than my prediction of 10s or 20s). So good for him. But then situation was tailor made for him to grind and cast a shadow over return of Yuvraj when fit. Unfortunately he did not and like Yuvraj's 3 hundreds which have come up when India were back on the wall (or their faces to wall)...

So I am not sure if he remains a challenge to the likes of Laxman and Yuvraj when they recover from their injuries.

This also proves that the Indian Test middle order still needs the Fab Three for long time than what we would have expected. We do not want to go the first innings way in the future when the debutants fail to live upto their expectations or find suddenly making their debuts when none expected them to.

If Badrinath bats longer for time and in process scores runs and justifies his outburst then its good for the team and most prolly him, but if he does not then he is the man to make the way for Laxman next game if fit. Yup Saha too, but then I am sure somebody else would replace him if RD is not yet fit again.

We need RD and VVS for some time more contrary to what critics and experts might say.

Cheeka must be seeing his blunder most prolly and hope he would rectify the same for the 2nd test when one of the pacer would go and  2 more specialist batsmen plus one buffer comes in. Perhaps he needs to learn some project management from iT managers who always have lots of buffers in their bench so that when a resource goes on leave, the buffers work and keep the show going on.

Most inexperienced Test side of decade (2000s) takes field

The least experienced Indian Test side has taken the field where the GOD is most experienced followed by Bhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag.

Awful selection of 6 batsmen makes a wicketkeeper in the side debut as a specialist batsman.

Actually Dhoni can field and Saha, the other Bengali since 1996 to make a Test debut (no since 2000) can keep.

So now there are 2 lame ducks in the middle order that makes the job of Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhoni and Tendulkar even more elephantine.

Dabri would not cross 10s or max 20s, Saha is unknown. So what beckons is scary. Why no Kohlis or Rainas ? Awful in atitude but they can bat.  Dabri will cry foul over chances not offered, but when given would flop. So he is not a long prospect. Majboori ka naam Subbu Dabrinath.

21 years hence Tendulkar remains like angad's immovable feet while lesser mortals around him go and come. Thats the beauty of this MUMBAIKAR.

BTW Zaks continued the top form of BD here as well and grabbing his bunny Graeme Smith once again.

Actually he has taken last 7 wkts to fall playing against India. Awesome. He has moved past Srinath's tally of 236 wkts and is now country's 2nd most successful pacer.   End of the series he should cross Chandra's 242 and then become 5th highest wicket taker for India.

Contrast this side to first BD test when the tests numbers read 28, 73, 137,161,108,35, X for first 7, now those stats read 30, 75,3,163, 0,0,42 for first 7.  No Dravid, no Laxman. Unusual. Weird and fucking ridiculous.

Wrong selection again

The return of Rohit Sharma in the team on the back of a triple century in Ranji game depicts how short sighted the  5 wise men of the Indian cricket are. There is a man who has churned out triple centuries like sixes from Viru Sehwag, yet he finds himself on the fringes of the selection.  Then there is a man who is the only Indian to score a hundred in IPL and has imposed himself well in the game, there is another man who has evolved in the ODIs off late.

Despite the stuff this 3 are ignored and Rohit Sharma from Thackerayland is in the team as a cover for VVS. The 3 men I talked above are:

1. C Pujara
2. M Pandey
3. V Kohli

Instead we have Dabri and Rohit Sharma in the team to play Tests. Whats the credibility of Sharma ahead of Kohli ? Kohli has hit 2 hundreds and 3/4 50s in crunch situations helping India win the games. Sharma on the other hand has done nothing of that sort off late.

So why is Sharmaji in and Kohli out ?

Its a dangerous proposition to go in a crucial Test series without Dravid and possibly Laxman and even more dangerous to go in with substitutes like Dabri and Sharma, proven failures in international cricket.  There are likes of Pujara who make runs yet do not get a chance, then there are dudes like Kohli who had attitude problems but when thrown in the middle of the fire come out with even golden streak. Now if this players do not get chance who else would ?

South Africa are in a coach and board mess. India are in fitness worries.

The 2nd best batsman of the team is injured and the 3rd best  batsman is back in the team after 10 stiches.

Karthik is out but to balance the state equations other one is in. Dabri. He stands a real chance to replace Dravid / Yuvraj in XI....Bet he wont score more than 50 runs combined in the test or even less.

So one easy wicket for Saffers at least.

Mithun gets a look in and thats a reward for hard work and a spectacular debut. He has had an awesome first class debut and though Test debut seems unlikely, he should be good enough to put the likes of Ishant and Sreesanth on toes.

Wriddhiman Saha is other surprise selection and he should debut should Dhoni get unfit again (will he be unfit for IPL?). And a good riddance of DKNY, Dancing baby, DK, Chennai Duck. At least he was looked through.

Brabourne Test : Nostalgia and Sri Lanka's ambitions

Brabourne gets a test after 36 years and I hope it gets more in the future.

Its a romantic favorite for the old timer and a legacy of Indian cricket.  It ranks amongst Eden, Chepauk in terms of legacy and nostalgia.

Wankhede and Brabourne are almost near to each other in South Bombay.

India would eye a win and they go on top. SL eye their first win in India. It would be like the old Surf ad "Daag dhundte rah jaoge".

So Sangakara and company would keep looking for their first victory in India.

Gambhir goes out and Vijay comes in. No Dabri.

Last time Gambhir went out and Vijay played, India won. It was 4th Test then, last of the series. Today's one is same.

So omens point to India's win.

And Sangakara points out chink in Indian opening slot. Lol.  I mean he says Indian top order isnt same as before. He is smoking marijuana and puking shit.

Right now 'a very shant shree shant' is speaking to dumb damsel on Neo.

M vijay

Is a great prospect and he is just unlucky that he is opener in era of sehwag n gauti. Man from rajni"s land is named on favorite screen name of amitji. Perfect combo of 2 of india"s biggest cinematic icons. May be vijay would walkin front of his room mirror with goggle on n splashing cig in rajni s style and speak " nervous to Bahut honge tum vijay Jo dabri Anna bhi contention me hai ". And then he would walk to god statue n say "ajun talAk Kuch nahi manga apan tumse par aaj mangta jee. Ek spot dila do n ittho century padwa do. Dabri Anna forever ranji khelte rahenge".

Dabri could play his first test

Its a bit of pity that Srikanth's injected men are mere replacements and not first choice players in the XI. Neither is Vijay, Dabri or Dinshaw ice cream.

There have been some news or blog posts being written that Vijay might not be playing and Dabri could sneak in the middle order and an extra bowler could play in.

Is the fascination over Dabri for real or just a vague of imagination :P.

Youngsters to look for next season and Badrinath 's failure

The flavor of the season ahead in India should be :

1) Manoj Tiwary -- the 1st real youngster post 2007 age to make the mark but injuries got him and barring the yorker game in Gabba in CB series 2008, this lad didnt get much chances to prove his talent. This season he should be back in contention given the injury of Raina and ahem ahem uselessness of Rohit Sharma

2) CP : Much said about him on Indian blogs in 2008. before injury got him ahead of IPL, he was in terrific form and he should get chance to prove his worth in ODIs and as a fringe player in Tests.

And those who support Badrinath to be in contention for the place in ODIs or Tests should go look for his score cards in Emerging player tournaments. He is the boss there and doesnt have to deal with the wicked presence of MS up there. Scoreline of 4, 3, 13 in 3 games as skipper obviously wont help his cause and then vocal cords or noise or support of Kris wont help him get even 3 or 4 voices in his favor.

Cmon Dabri, prove it you have got the substance and the mettle. As of now I m grinning cos I know you are useless. Your performances down under are going to turn off ur remaining supporters too.

Selectors err it.

Injury backup players are back in the ODI team. Thats other question what worth while did badrinath do to get in ? Vijay did fairly OK in the Tests, so he is a natural choice to be in the openers' slot in absence of Sehwag. Rohit Sharma thankfully wont open in ODIs. Yeah a guy with an average of 26 and strike rate of 70 isnt a good opener in ODIs.

Nayar is another just for a tour selection. He is one guy who chokes at big stage like Raina. IPL proved it.

Ashish Nehra is rightly back.

The core players should have been rested. And it would have been apt that the IPL successful stars should have been sent with Badrinath as non-playing captain. The flared egos would have been softened.

Not a wise selection.

Appam Hammered!!!

Can somebody ensure we dont see him anymore swearing on opposition batsmen ? I loved Appam being hammered by Haydos. Should have been hit for 6 sixes and then a Bhajji like tight slap down his cheek. Fuck he irritates big time. He is a disgrace.


BTW whatta batting by Chennai Super Kings. So sad that the local lads of Chennai flopped and then Northie MS and Aussie Haydos played rockin innings. All for who said Badrinath is a bright star of Indian cricket. First ball duck to Pathan at his slowest speed.

Quota system back ?

Kris Srikanth is chief selector....
.
Balaji comes in the team for Munaf.

If Vengsarkar was chief selector even now, Dhaval Kulkarni wud have been into the team. The same lame duck bowler in IPL who bowls max 126 kmph fastest and is amazingly highest wicket taker in the Ranjis.

Thats why the likes of Jaffer got the chance when they were ordinary or for that matter Badrinath continues to be in Grade B when he hasnt even played a single decent knock at highest level. How come he is in the central contracts list and no PUJARA ?

Rajput is shamelessly backing Dhaval Kulkarni on a show on Neo Cricket. Mumbai mumbai bhai bhai.