Virender Sehwag

Sehwag is bloody damn good. He is a different player from those boring openers around the world like Paravaraniratne or Taufeek Umar or Hafeez or Hashim Amla or Ali Cook.

He just does not give a freaking chance against him and when you get a chance, you dance high in the air counting how valuable his wicket is.

A 173, 1, 96 in a 3 Test series is freaking awesome. Playing as per conditions. Not a mindless slog as his opponents cast him to be.

Look at Micky Mouse Arthur, he is still getting nightmares from those 319 runs in Srikanth's Chennai that he has written in his autobiography.   He bloody ended career of bearded Saqi Mushtaq as his guru, the GOD did for Abdul Qadir back in 1989.

Sehwag is a unconventional batsman for the modern cricket which is full of players who like to poke out verbal diarohea in the public. Captains talk big things, the bowlers predict big things, an out of form Surd bowler takes himself to be an allrounder,a bowler good enough to bowl in nets at grade C club cricket thinks himself to be a test level bowler.

Sehwag is uncluttered in his mind. He adapts himself to the conditions, stays in a shell for time being and once he feels he has spent time good enough in the middle he comes back to his elements and then mercilessly slaughters the bowlers.

The opposition is so scared of his 100 that they feel they would go to mental asylum if he scores a 100. Evidence of this was evident in Lankan series when Randi bowled a no ball to him delibarately on behest of Dilli babu. Perhaps he forgot he plays for Delhi DareDevils and Sehwag is the king there.

Modern day cricket offers no good sight than Sachin and Sehwag in full elements. Those shots out of nowhere just give you a kick in the butt and you want more of Sehwag, Sehwag.

Just think how idiot Dilip Vengsarkar was who kicked him out and brought in Dinesh Karthik. Asshole.  Look where Bossadeshwar is and where Viru is.  DK is rotting in domestic cricket making single digit figures constitently and Viru, the king is making 100s consistently.

I second Ian Chappell when he says Viru is the most entertaining and rocking batsmen of modern era. And compare that with the likes of Sanga Nanga, Mahila Blabba, Amla Damla, YoYo Bobo. You would see where Viru is.

Champion batsman and a superstar.  Whaddyaplayer. Chuck de phatte Viru de bacche...

His 96 was one classic inning that has brought India back into the game in cyberabad after Zaheer and Bhajji rolled over Kiwis in the morning session.

Asia Cup selections

I think this should be the XI India should target to play for the Asia Cup opener:

·         Virender Sehwag

·         Sachin Tendulkar

·         Gautam Gambhir

·         MS Dhoni

·         Suresh Raina

·         Virat Kohli

·         Rohit Sharma

·         Harbhajan Singh

·         Zaheer Khan

·         Pragyan Ojha

·         Ashish Nehra

The 4 other guys should be:

·         Ishant Sharma

·         Robin Uthappa

·         Yuvraj Singh

·         Praveen Kumar / Ashok DInda / Ashwin

I believe Srikanth would have a strong temptation to retain one of Karthik or Vijay in team or draft in Badrinath as replacement for one to one TN batsman, but that move needs to be countered and opposed. But that’s wishful thinking. Nothing of that sort would happen.

Actually in all recent selection committees, the current panel is most regional biased and more of rag headed.   I thought DBV was one of the selection chiefs who got more Mumbai lads (not deserving) in the team, but given Srikanth ’s track record DBV looked sane enough.

DBV sacked Ganguly and Dravid from the ODI team, removed Virender Sehwag from Tests and installed Gautam Gambhir at the top of Tests in 2008 SL series which reunited the Delhi dashing duo at the top and that move was the master stroke from the DBV panel after promoting MSD to captaincy in 2007 after RSD resigned post England tour.

He got in Rohit Sharma on 2007 tour to England and installed Wasim Jaffer at the top in 2006. He had brief spells of success (super series in India vs Pak and reasonably good one in England), but his Aussie failings saw him axed. Besides DBV also axed Ajit Agarkar(another Mumbai player who seems lot better even today than the current crop of fast bowlers) from the team in 2007 (post T20 WC victory).  DBV wanted to make Sachin captain after Rahul resigned, but later on settled for Anil Kumble which was good move too. He led the team to first victory in Perth (something only WI did in entire 1990s and 2000s) and during the Sydney gate.

Now if you compare KS track record to DBV, KS fails badly.  He not only selected a pathetic team in SA tests just after we went # 1 in Tests but also selected dud teams for both 2009 and 2010 editions of T20 World cups.  He blindly promoted TN players at cost of results in the national team. Nobody resents a player selection as long as its on merit, but if 3-4 players make in the XI just cos the selection chief is from a particular state and the selection moves backfires, then the selections are going to be questioned.

In 2008 Murali Vijay was drafted in as replacement opener in 3^rd Test vs Australia when GG was fined and missed out the Test, but Vijay went on to have a gutsy debut and played couple of more solid knocks to earn praise and even raise hopes of being next Dravid. He was fast tracked to ODIs in 2010 SA series and later on based of a decent iPL run he was moved into the World T20 squad which had no Sehwag.  As a result his confidence vanished and the results in Zimbabwe show a very poor record for Vijay, who still should be a good Test player.   His ODIs average and T20I average read poor readings (below 20s) and the failure in the Ahmedabad Test in SA series dropped his Test average to low 30s.  He has not got consistent run in Tests (and won’t get too since he is an opener and there is no vacancy in the middle order for now).

Badrinath was other player who popped in every time when anybody was injured. He has had decent run in domestic cricket but when played at the top he has found himself in failures.  He might be in the contention for the next Test India plays for # 6 spot. 

Dinesh Karthik, well a lot has been said on him at this blog, but he is just everywhere. He keeps and fails, he bats and fails, he runs and fails. Yet he keeps coming back. Nobody needs him. Go please. Srikanth.

He has made the other committee members irrelevant.  When 2 members of 1980s team took over it was believed that they would think in terms of larger interests of the team than the regional interests as during their playing days a lot of players made into the team on regional basis. Srikanth failed that thinking and it’s the root cause for the T20 disasters and the mauling in 1^st SA test in 2010 and the failures in CT 2009 with the latest debacle in Zimbabwe.

Few hours later he is going to unveil another team for Asia Cup which media reports suggest would mark Dravid comeback and Sachin resting owing to the IPL injury.   KS has always been temperamental in his cricket. Be it during his batting in Tests or ODIs (he at one time was highest run getter for India in ODIs).  And ditto for selection decisions. Some things never change.

Viru's best

Viru's best innings in his 67 Test career :

1. 195 vs Australia, MCG, 2003
2. 201 vs SL, Galle, 2008
3. 180 vs Aus, Chennai, 2004 (or 200 not sure)
4. 309 vs Pak, Multan 2004
5. 153 vs Aus, Adelaide 2008

He is an asset to the Test team and his starts would chalk the future of India in Tests ahead. He should easily finish with 10000 test runs provided he remains fit.

He is close to 6000 runs in 67 tests and had he not missed those 9 tests in 2006-07 when Dilip Vengsarkar shamelessly promoted his state mate Wasim Jaffer on his expense, Sehwag would have got even more big scores.

A big score in Tests is due since long now. Better

A note to Rohit IPL Sharma

Mr Rohit Sharma,

A self righteous individual would take a call now and offer the captain to get himself dropped and fly out the first taxi or cruise back to Borivali(W), contact the local coach and get a few nets in Azad Maidan or even CCI club or for that matter any local Gymkhana in your own surroundings, get a few lads to bowl you underarm, hit a few sixes, smash some windows, get some hits from the fellow society dwellers and then prepare for a long grind in the domestic cricket and pray that in a year or 2, if you regain your never existing silken touch and your spot is still up for grabs by 2010, then you should come back or else we have decided to remove you out of our system.

Its tad unfortunate that you exist in the team even now after long haul of listless performances and its a test of our patience that we have to see your disgusting lovelorn face every time 1 or 3 wkts fall. Dude, the Fashion week is around the corner and then there are lots of hot chics in South Mumbai party circuit or if you cant afford them there are lots of dance bars too open even now in Mumbai suburbs. A lot of them in Dahisar, few minutes walk from your place. You would certainly find few there. After all a cricketer is even a hot property right now. You dont have hunger for runs, albeit other hunger(s) would get satisfied and by chance if you still make it to the Champs Trophy team (you never know DBV could plant you anywhere, even on moon's cricket team) at least you would look happy and I would be able to curse you openly seeing your face.

Right now you look remorse and sad, so i feel pity on you. Right now you look like a daily waged labourer who travels free of cost in Mumbai locals. Hell no, even he pays. What do you do? Do nothing and still grab those fat pay cheques. IPL, tour fee, ad contracts, fashion show invites and stuff. But did you know kid, all this lasts till the runs from your bat flow. If you dream of Rakhi Sawant when you bat, you are gonna get what Rakhi Sawant gets. Bhai, yeh jo IPL ka contract hai na, yeh bhi tab tak hai jub tak aapke paas runs hai. Runs nahi banaoge to ICL bhi nahi lega tumhe mere dost. Fir kisi bridge ke neeche khade hokar tum apne Mumbai Ranji mate ko nahi kah paoge "mere paas gadi hai bangla hai south mumbai flat hai tumhare paas kya hai". And he would reply "Rohit tum aur mai isi Borivali national park ke fly over ke neeche se chale the kisi cricket ground ki aur. Fir tum kaha pahuch gaye aur me kaha chal pada. Aaj tumhare pass yeh sab hai mere bhai, lekin mere paas INDIA CAP aur IPL CONTRACT hai". Tab kya karoge dost? yeah Mahesh Bhatt jaroor koi movie de dega tumhe.

Bhai hume maaf karo aur aapko dekhne ka jo hume majboori hai nee use door karo. Jao bhai kahi aur jao. Wo Kandivali kanda poha club me captain ki vacancy hai, waha kheloge ? Mast captain banke? Gimme a buzz if you want to.

No place for regional attitude in Indian cricket

In India some people still suffer the quota or regionalistic attitude when it comes to cricket. Tamil players not selected or Mumbai players being preferred when a Mumbai skipper was captain kinda talks are so common in India. Cynicism and jingoism are at its best when cricket is being discussed in India. Everybody knows the game more than the selectors and the poor jokers are always trampled by the so called experts.

Unfortunately this age REGIONALISM doesnt hold any place in Indian cricket. Dilip Vengsarkar tried to do it but he wasnt successful. Srikanth tried to stuff in his Tamil players in the team but nobody succeeded. Badrinath was automatic replacement for every injured player in 2008 in Srikanth era as was Rohit Sharma during Vengsarkar era. Chennai, Mumbai.

Why do we need to give regional boundaries to CRICKET in India. It stumps me. And then few jingoist bloggers who blindly support a team and trample others (Mumbai supported, others trashed) leave a bad taste in the mouth. Sourav Ganguly changed the mindset of the Indian cricketing setup, unforutnately the public mindset couldnt be changed.

Mantra according to me is perform and earn your place. Doesnt matter if you hail from Mumbai or Morena or Madurai or Delhi or Dehradun or Andaman...Jingoism, cynicism and regional feudal mindset just doesnt have any place in modern day Indian cricket. The days of Raj are over and so are feudal days.

No wonder supporting the pan Indian mindset has shooed away all the commenters on this blog. Regionalism wins. Go find blogs which whine on Mumbai or Tamil Nadu, they would have all comments, not this one. Fuck who bothers about comments.

Rohit Sharma in Numbers.

Ok, I drew lot of flak for being critical of Rohit Sharma. Not cos I wrote he is a under delivering performer, but bcos he is from Mumbai. Mumbaikars shouldn’t be criticized. A harsh learning. I was thumped loud cos I referenced Mumbai for his origins. So is it that Mumbaikars fail and then they get away with it ? One greater man than this young kid continues to have to prove to his critics that he is worth the adulations and the records, yet he never cares about them. One great man who is an icon for the country who hails from the same city, same terrain, same geography as this Rohit Sharma, but then those detractors keep quiet on different grounds. Youth rules in the country. Being young is in, despite you perform or not. Oldies, move aside.

Alright, then here is dissection of this man’s performance in the ODIs. He is yet to perform in Tests and T20s doesn’t really hold that significance as its too short, so I wont count his contributions for now. Not that he has got a great record there. He has got few hundreds in Ranji games but those 100s failed to give him the confidence and attitude to take the scoring opportunities in SL. I feel this is the worst time in Indian cricket not to perform. Cos if you fail to perform, probability might be that you might never get a chance more to play. Yeah the money would keep coming in from IPL and other sources, but if you don’t make runs, then no endorsements and then no invitations to the parties as well.

Alright again, I shut myself up and let figures speak :

He has played 35 games for 637 runs with the highest score of 70* against SL in SL (2008) with an average of 25.48 runs per game. Great.

Here is his record in India in last 2 years:

filtered

6

103

52

25.75

0

-

-

-

-

1

0

6 games, 103 runs, highest of 52 vs Pakistan in 2007. 4 games against England 50 runs in 2008 (when India won 5-0) and then he was dropped. And 1 run against Australia in 2007. Sumps up to 103 in 6 games. An average of 25.75, 0.27 more than his career average. So slight home advantage for him.

Now lets see for his overseas figures in last 2 years for giving him a bit of benefit of doubt:

29

534

70*

25.42

29 games, 534 runs and highest of 70* with an avg of 25.42 runs. Diseccting more he has got 138 runs in 6 games vs Aussies (take out 66 and then he has 72 in 5 games). Aussies were the world champs (officially still) when he played them last.

Now for minnows Bangladesh : 2 games and 48 runs. Highest of 26. No distinct advantage here too. More trouble. Against HongKong its 11 runs in 1 game.

A bit weaker teams but stronger than Zim and BD (based on ICC rankings).

Vs Pakistan he has played 4 games 91 runs at 30.33 (best average against a country). Vs SL he has played max 14 games and made 238 runs at 26.44. Further breakdown gives him 8 runs against SA (long back in 2007).

He has never hit off. Not scored runs anywhere. Prodigies never average for under 26s for long. They get one defining moment and then the career turns around. 2 years for this man and that moment is still to come. The so called my critics now have the figures to compare and peek through. Judge them for yourself. And if you say still he should be given chances, then go ahead with the opinion. Its pretty clear that he has been given chances in 35 games just cos he is young and for most part of his 2 yr career, Mr DBV was at the helm of national selection committee. It would be interesting to see how Kris Srikanth deals with him.

Rohit Sharma : Time to dispatch him to domestic cricket

This days if you happen to be young lad in Indian cricket and on top of that if you hail from Ranji Champion team Mumbai, then trust me you are going to be in the team for infinite time. Doesn’t matter, if you perform or if you don’t. To add to the toppings on the icing on the pizza cake, if your captain trusts you and ex-chief of selector publicly banks you as next Tendulkar shamelessly and if you once play a 55 in a must win T20 game in world championship and then you make 70 in the company of the BAAP of cricketing knowledge and batting down under (till then down under was big thing winning, this days anybody can do it), then you are in for the team for good.

Doesn’t matter if you average paltry 15 in the ODIs and just 4 in the T20s, you are still high hopes and billed as the next big thing in the Indian cricket. You happen to live in a chawl in Mumbai in not so good conditions and then suddenly you win the T20, be a part of world cup winning team something the greats Sachin, Rahul, Saurav, VVS and Anil couldn’t do, your life changes , you go and live in swanky Bandra apartment and you become a poster boy of media and cricket glitz. Despite all this runs never flow out of your bat and you never take the game to the next level.

Only way then left for the skipper is to drop you out of the playing XI and then for the selectors is to throw you back to the grind of domestic cricket. Yes, that’s what fate lies for you. Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai cricketer, the failure Indian batsman of SL series who neither had any bad decision going against him or neither he was suffering from any distraction. Time is ripe for him to be dropped from the NZ touring party and get another new face mostly Pujara and ask Sharma to get the temperament, attitude and moreover the self-belief right. Till then no place for him in the Indian cricket.

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.

Tidbits all round the cricketing world

So finally the tour to Pakistan has been called off. That was just a formality. I have been a vociferous supporter of this even before 11/26.

Some things never change......in context of pure cricketing sense. All around the world....

Dont agree, have a glance :

1. Dravid's failures. Once a wall ran out of runs and we ran short of brickbats for him. Now the latest buzz is that he would be batting down the order. Laxman for # 3 ?




2. South Africa would be perennial and eternal chokers. They would always speak high about their preparations, their plans, talk absurd of somebody being informer n spy to them, their pace attack, their ambition to go # 1...When it comes to deliver the talk on the field when it matters the most, they choke. 234/3 to 243/8.




3. English media. Anything English is too good for them. Chauvinistic even in modern age. Living in feudal times. Anything scored against England would be huge for them. Be it Smith's 154 in Edgbaston or 103 by Tendulkar in Chennai (Athers calls Madaras)...India vs Australia wont matter much to them. A win and they feel they are ready to take on the Aussies only to end up 0-5.




4. Sri lanka 's eternal love for minnows. If ODIs with Zim when they were embarrased in last 3 ODIs were not enuf, then now what follows a Test series with BD and a tri series with Zim as 3rd team :). They scrapped England tour, agreed for BD tour...meaning more cheap runs and more wkts for M&M. hell, Mahela even bothers to speak to motivate his team against BD.....Wonder has SL confidence came down to this level ? I hate M & M. They pushed Saurav and Anil to retirements.


5. Dilip Vengsarkar's tounge. Continues to remain loose and suffer verbal diaorrhea. Now he questions awarding Mohali the 2nd Test. And he also put a ? on exclusion of some Rahane and Dhawal Kulkarni from Mumbai for central contracts. Ok dude, you love Mumbai cricket but then there should be a criteria to judge the players on quality. Just cos a player hails from your state, he should be given a contract ? Will you accept me in your academy ? I am from MH and have worked in Mumbai for 2 years....Ok if not Mumbai then in Pune, i hv been here for 4 years now........Deal ?

Michael Johnson is the new BOWLER who has now come of age for Australia. Can he step into the mould of McGrath ? Time will tell. But then the signs are omnious....

WI is playing NZ and nobody is bothering.

If there is one team which has been the team of year in every form of game in 2008, then it is INDIA. Wonderful results all the way except SL loss. Victories, home and away. What more you need ?

Pujara not in, Badrinath not out YET!!!

Inclusion of Badrinath over Pujara is a headless chickened stuff and outright example of bias, favoritism, quota system and chauvinsm!! Chief Selector and Badrinath happen to be from same state. And bigger question is what has Badrinath done to be in the squad and what has Chets Pujara not done to be in the squad ? Hitting 3 triple tons in a season half way mark is not enuf for him to be in the team ?

If not then whats sufficient ? Giving away the chances, making 0s, 2s or single digit scores ? Or hailing from the same state from the chief selector ? This is outrageous. Similar to Jaffer when he got aplenty of chances when DBV was chief selector.

Thats narrow minded with no heads applied to the decision. A lot like PCB's Ijaz Butt.....BEsides that the squad is on the expected lines.

Kapil loves Kumble....

"I love Anil Kumble, very few cricketers compare with him."
Kapil Dev comes over all emotional on hearing of Kumble's retirement

Yeah really Dev praji, you along with Dilip Vengsarkar were the first nasty seniors to humiliate him in the dressing room in the England tour of 1990 when AK made his debut and when DK was sliding down the hill after the disastrous West Indies tour. That was that generation of Indian cricketers who got respect to the cricket in India and in the world which had this snooty attitude towards the juniors and then this is the team, unarguably India’s best ever Test side in its 76 years of history which backs the juniors and makes them comfortable……

Isnt that the difference between your generation sans SMG and this generation Mr Kapil Dev ?