The road ahead

With great disappointment and disgust here is my take on the reasons why India lost so miserably in the 3 test matches so far.

Opening Pair is silent

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are best bet when it comes to open the innings in any format for India. This pair has been excellent in Test matches across all conditions barring Australia. This was an acid test for the duo and they have failed miserably in this tour. Not technically for Sehwag, because he doesn’t have much of it, but in mental thought process. Something which is surprising given his exploits in Australia over past 2 tours. Gambhir was expected to have come full circle on this tour, but he has failed to live upto those expectations.  Sehwag and Gambhir haven’t fired together or in solo attempt, which makes the task of ageing middle order a bit tough, something which has happened consistently in this tour. Barring the first innings in MCG, Sehwag hasn’t fired. Gambhir has showed some fight in last 3 innings, but that doesn’t redeem of 3 aghast failures in first 3 innings on this tour.

The reason why India was so successful in 2003-04 in Australia was the start Sehwag and Chopra provided. Chopra didn’t make more than 48 in any innings, but he played out the dangerous span of 15-20 overs from Gillespie, Brad Williams and company.  That Australian team was far superior to the one which beat India blue on this tour.

Sehwag and Gambhir are the best bet to continue opening for India in long run, since they are not supposed to tour for another year or so outside subcontinent, they would need to find their mojo back very soon. The replacements for them, the TN implants don’t look promising either.

Ageing Middle Order

When your middle order is past the prime, the usability date, such failures are long due. And sadly India did not learn through the mistakes of England tour.  No one expected India to lose 0-4 in England and so badly in Australia. Perhaps this was the best chance for India to beat Australia first time in Australia. Instead they ran to their worst defeat in Australia in 13 years.  Dravid,Tendulkar and Laxman are ageing stalwarts and they look no good to extend their career beyond this tour. Tendulkar has been under severe pressure for that elusive 100th century from the media and perhaps that has got to him. As a result the team has suffered. He has been the best batsman on this tour and every time he has walked on the crease, he has looked assured in the start only to grow nervous in the end of the innings. He is going to be 39 in April and perhaps he is the only man who looks to play a few more series at home before he calls it a day.

Dravid has been in superb form in 2011 with 5 hundreds and topping the run charts, but he has been back to 1999 form on this tour. Worst, his defence has been breached. He finds unique ways to get bowled and that is a sign for you to go.  Its time for the fans and selectors to say thank you to the great man and move on. It’s a disgrace for fans, his loyal fans over the years to see him get bowled, given the fact he has been THE WALL and one of the most complete Test batsmen of the history, something very rare this era.  He has made few runs, but they are not enough and they are not the premium that would extend his golden career beyond this tour.   He has to sign off post Adelaide and since he is already 39, he would be remembered to have retired still at top (little lower than that though).

Laxman has to be dropped from the team after the Perth test. He was expected to make runs against his favorite opposition, but he has struggled miserably. Silken Hyderabadi should read the writing on the wall and should announce his retirement immediately. He hasn’t been dropped in ages and if he is dropped for Adelaide, then it would be a blot on his career. Again, a time to say thank you to Laxman for his contribution to the Indian Test arena in past 16 years.

Until England tour, we believed that the golden generation of Indian cricket has turned around the way it plays cricket in away series, but last 2 tours have diminished that notion, that belief which was installed by this very men in 2000s under the lion hearted Sourav Ganguly.  It would now take perhaps another decade or so (less the better) to turn around from this moment of darkness in Test arena.

Defensive Captaincy

MS Dhoni, the ODI captain and MS Dhoni, the Test captain.  Two different personalities, split personalities may be.  MS Dhoni in limited overs is a different batsmen and captain altogether than what he is in Tests. The morning of MCG test, day 4 was the turn around for Indian team which pushed the team to the darkness it find itself in. And the culprit has to be Dhoni himself. Spreading out the field to 10 and 11 is aghast. When you have the last pair of an insecure batting lineup on the crease, you’d rather look for wiping out the tail and have less target to chase than what was actually. But those visuals implant a permanent memory in Indian fans that the captaincy from the world cup winning captain was insipid and timid. The timid captaincy in England and Australia have cost 7 tests on the trot.

Way ahead

The winds of change have to start blowing and the replacements for Dravid and Laxman have to be handy.  Kohli has promised a lot and he should be persisted despite uneven scores in Australia. He is a prodigy and he has to be preserved from the evils of IPL to ensure he is transformed to a complete international batsman in all formats of game.   There is a lot of young talent coming through. Rohit Sharma is certain to debut sooner than later and along side Suresh Raina, provided he cures his short ball weakness, the middle order for Indian Test team should be good, if not as formidable as in 2000s at least for few seasons. It took a few years for the likes of Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly to blossom into the batsmen they were. And similar chances have to be provided to the next generation of Indian cricket.  The good news is there is a lot of young talent that is shining. Ajinkya Rahane,  Cheteshwar Pujara, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Menaria,  Manish Pandey etc are few very good prospects in the pipeline that should find their spots in the Indian team very soon. It’s the dawn of the new era in Indian cricket and it has to be ensured the evil clutches of easy money of IPL doesn’t hamper the transition from golden batting to the new gen batting.

The IPL has to be toned down and one more moderate or flop viewership would ensure that this monster is grounded, if not buried totally.

The ODI team looks well set and the transition from the oldies to the new gen was almost smooth. Sure, there were few hiccups in between, but the victories came more than defeats and the ODIs ahead do look promising and they evoke some kind of hope after the doom of the tests.

May be a different captain for ODIs and Tests could be a theme to follow just like 2007-08 or what South Africa follows, or England follows (they go to a maddening extreme with one captain per format).  MS Dhoni has looked clueless in Tests in batting and captaincy. May be the one test ban might serve as a deterrent for him and he could arrest the slide.  He looks top notch in ODIs, but he has to catch up on the Test front. And if he is making way for another captain, then may be somebody young as Virat Kohli could be an option, but that would be too soon for him for now. Once he finds his mojo in Tests too, he wont make a bad captain. And the need of the hour for India’s test team is to play aggressive cricket, something they did over past 2 tours in Australia.  And they need an aggressive captain for that.

Coaching regime

The coaching regime has to undergo a change and 7 tests is good enough to judge the resume of Duncan Fletcher. To me, he seems the biggest culprit for the disasters.   Something which Gary Kirsten did in 2 years, it didn’t take even a year for Fletcher to demolish all the good work done by Kirsten and of course John Wright. So for sure he needs to be shown the door.  5-0 for England in 2006-07 laid the foundation for their success running into 2011 and similar whitewash for India (England and probable Australian) should lead to a change in coaching regime and a new coach has to be found out.  May be likes of Wasim Akram could be a good option to start with for the bowling department and hire somebody for batting too, as the transition begins. Something which Justin Langer does for Australia.

Duncan Fletcher has escaped the media attention and the buck has to stop at this man, the culprit to sow seeds of disaster by making the team negative and defensive.

The signs were visible in 3rd test in West Indies when India decided to close the shop with 86 runs to get in 15 overs and 7 wickets in hand. In modern T20 era, this is a cheap target and then even though Laxman, Dravid were at crease, the runs should have been gotten. For me that was the turning point when the team stopped belief. And the same set of batsmen performed credibly in South Africa, almost winning the series. And sooner, one tour later, the technique and attitude of the same batsmen were found deficient. Hard to believe. More to do with the external advice coming from the so called coaches.  India struggled to bowl out weaker Windies team in Windies in 2nd and 3rd test and as a result 3-0 became 1-0 and then the famous cold act of R Ashvin which ensured India let go of whitewashing a team again in the return tour.

And not to cite the numerous occasions, which were encountered in England where some defensive and inexplicable tactics led to a 0-4 rout.

Hard decisions bestow,  some culling to follow and probably more than anything else, the mental belief and attitude of winning and aggression needs to return for the remainder of the tour and the next series India plays at home against England and then Australia should dawn the new age and a scoreline of 3-0 and 4-0 should be aimed at least in home.

Eden Gardens Test : Day 2

India have scored the highest score in last 11 games for themselves. And also crossed 300 first time after 10 innings. Something that reflects the torrid times the team had in England quite unexpectedly.  The 2nd day at Eden Gardens saw quite a lot of milestones:

1. Dhoni scored a hundred after 32 innings and 21 months on the same ground. Last one being against SA in that hard fought victory.

2. Laxman scored # 17, 5th in Edens and first in 15 months. He also became highest scorer in any ground in India.

And with a mammonth 631 on board, the bowlers did a good job in sending back 2 West Indian openers to hut for only 34 runs. And then bad light came to WI's help. Else few more wickets would have tumbled.

The biggest thorn in Indian flesh is going to be Shiv Chanderpaul and if he is accounted for soon, then India would have a very strong chance to win sooner than the case when Chanderpaul gets going with his irritating (though effective for West Indies) batting style.

There are few questions going to be asked after this Test is over for Yuvraj Singh -- how many more chances he is going to get to prove he belongs at the Test level. He is  the most talked about player right now in terms of players who are insecure or whose position in thet eam is not secure. There are too many incumbents around to take his place and Yuvraj isnt helping his own case with low scores like he has had in 3 innings so far. He might not be coming out to bat again in 2nd innings, but I feel he should be given a free run of 4-5 tests and then a judgement call be made if he belongs to the test level or not. He has rarely got more than 5-6 Tests at stretch to prove himself. Most of the chances have came after Sourav retired in 2008.

And since then Kohli, Raina and Pujara have been tried for # 6, none being successful to make that place his own for different reasons (form or injury whatsoever). Yuvraj should make it to the touring party to Australia where his left arm spin would be handy to break partnerships. India is not going to play 2 spinners in Australia and most probably its going to be a toss up between Harbhajan(experience), Ojha and Ashvin to occupy that slot of lone spinner. Sehwag has a dodgy shoulder and he doesnt bowl that much now as he used to say a couple of years back. So Yuvraj would be one handy person to turn to roll his arm over to break a partnership. Having said that, the primary responsibility of Yuvraj would still be to score runs and score big. And if fails over course of next 2-3 Tests then may be it would be apt to ignore for the future.

I also feel once the holy trinity of Tests is gone, Yuvraj would be one of the replacements, but again depending on how good he comes through this set of opportunities.

And as of Sachin's most awaited 100th 100, the only folks continue to be worried are the mediamen and those impatient fans. The man himself, as Rahul Dravid mentioned, isnt bothered about the impending milestone. The 100 would come when it has to. The media is continuing to create some needless pressure on the man who today completed 22 years in international cricket.

And Rahul Dravid continues to be in golden run of form when he has almost 1000 test runs and 5 hundreds, most by any batsman in 2011. He is all set to finish up with 1000+ runs and 13000 runs by the year end (2 more tests India plays before year end). He is just 21 runs away from the 13000 run mark -- 2nd Indian and 2nd in the world to do so when he reaches there.

India look good to go 2-0 up

The 3rd and final Test of this series is seeming to be going India's way should weather permit on day 4 and day 5. If weather would have been good all this far, India would have been 2-0 up in the series thus far.

Its just good for India that the man who leads them in all 3 formats of the game and their World cup winning man has got back some form, some runs before the tough England tour begins in few days time. He had been scratchy and pathetic in all the 4 innings before today's 50 and in this process he also got to 3000 Test runs in 57 Tests, not bad for a man who was considered untechnical and ugly to watch when he came 7 years back.

Laxman is continuing his good form in the series and this would only mean better in the tougher England series in few days time. 3 50s in as many innings is sureshot welcome from the man who likes to bat in crisis. He may not need to bat in the 4th innings depending upon the size of lead India gets on day 4.

Raina has almost sealed his place for the # 6 spot in England and he would be keeping Yuvraj out for while from the Test team with a super 3rd 50 of the series. But the biggest beneficiary of the first Indian innings was ABhinav Mukund who not only grinded hard but also made some runs to boost his confidence. Its almost certain he would be walking out in Lord's test with Gautam Gambhir as Viru is yet to get total fit and might not make it to the Lord's.

A lot depends on how much Dhoni and Bhajji make on the first session of the day 4 and another 50-60 runs would be very handy given the brittle batting of West Indies and weather permitting, India shouldnt find going 2-0 up so difficult.

Kochi Elephants led by a Mahila

Kochi Elephants Kerala.

Led by a Lankan World Cup losing captain and a centurion in succesive finals.  Maniacked by insane, lunatic Freesanth, chucked invalid by Muralitharan and silkened by Vengiruppu Venkata Sai Laxman, the only saving grace. But then he is no T20 player.

The team has alreddy being in the controbersy bhen Shashi Pushkar Tharoor did all that crap ad had to lose his job, later he married Sunanda Sweet Equity Pushkar.

Captain: A lady by the name of Mahila Jaya is leading the team in the IPL. 

Indian players:

B Akhil (From RCB), VVS Laxman (Indian great from DC), Some Chowgule, Rao, Jadeja (remember useless?), Gomez,  Kedar Jadhav, Chandan sa Badan Madan Chitwan,  Marathe, RP Singh, Romesh Pawar (Why doesnt he retire?), Vinay Kumar, Tanmay Srivastav and the one and only FREESANTH.

Foreign players:

Mahila Jayablabbawardhene, Chuck Chuckalidaran, Owais Shah, Hastings, Steven Smith, Thisara Hit me Parera, Baz, Brad Hodge, Michael Klinger.

Mahila and Chuck shall always play. VVS wont play. Freesanth shall throw tantrums if not bowled or if he didnt get a wicket. What if he runs into say MS?

They've got a very idiotic dress and their Lankan imports are seen in some comical war pose. 

Dont think they would make any impact in the tournament though they've got a fairly decent opening pair in Baz and Mahila.

All the good work that could be done by the other bowlers shall be undone by the Charlie Sheen of Indian cricket -- Freesanth

Gary Kirsten

Gary Kirsten has farewelled coach of India position and he is off to Capetown, SA to be with his young family. Some time later when he returns to mainstream coaching, he shall more likely than not take up job with SA and he gave a lot of feelers for the same when he departed today.

He has been a major factor responsible for the turnaround India has shown in past 4 years. He gave his everything, worked on every player, worked on strengths of players, gave them confidence, backed them up and what not. Thats why today we find players like Raina, Kohli, Zaheer and others a touch above than they were in the previous regime. He remained a backroom guy and did his stuff wonderfully well but quietly.

The results are for everyone to see. The respect he has got from every one, his contemporaries in Test side, his young lads in the ODIs and everyone have just good words for him. VVS Laxman, Kumble, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid have played against SA side of which Gary has been the part of. Even add Harbhajan, Zaheer, Nehra, Yuvraj in it.  All this players have publicly spoken high about the man.

He is definetely going to be missed and he is going to make the job of BCCI very difficult to find an able and worthy replacement for him before the West Indies tour and I just hope they can avoid the Graham Ford episode and they are able to find somebody who shall accept the position. But 2007 is different from 2011. Then we were first round crashers, today we are world champions.

THings around Durban Win

The Durban Test is conquered and the daemons of 14 years have been buried. And this was done on "one of the greenest ever tracks" we played on. This test was won by a team whose bowlers had a ? on "ability to take 20 wickets".  14 years back, the Donald and Pollock company had buried India for 100 and 66 and that was the worst display by the team ever since I started watching cricket.

Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman were part of that team.

But this team is different. This team is the top ranked team of the world and if there were any questions on the rank, they must be buried now. India bounced back in style on a green track on which Smith and co "have grew up on", yet they have lost last 3 tests in 3 years on Kingsmead.

The likes of Robin Jackman, Shaun Pollock and others were shut up hard when they saw how Zaheer and Harbhajan rolled Saffers for 131 in first innings on a "not so 131 looking pitch".

Shameful isnt it.

Losing in one's own backyard in conditions suiting the home team is a shame.

India has downplayed every achievement it has in past few years abroad. They have now won every where. And given the current form and situations, they should easily win in West Indies and Australia. A good contest would be in offing against England who are pipped for # 1.

England have not won a series against India home and away in 14 years. And so has South Africa in 4 years.

Zaheer, Laxman, Harbhajan, Sreesanth, Pujara and of course Ishant Sharma wrote the script for the victory. Presence of Zaheer Khan showed how much he is valuable to the Indian team. The attack looks potent from average and insipid. Only if Ishant Sharma could discover the form and passion of Australia 08 India's new ball attack would be better than it is right now.

Kallis jumping to form a reverse C would be the marquee vintage image of this series and for years to come. How could he not play short ball? He has grew up in such conditions. And so did Graeme Smith. He got out to a miscued pull off a short ball of short tempered Freesanth.  Only after pointing a bat to him after there was a personal thing between him and Freesanth.

I wont complaint. The situations leading to Cape Town test are similar to 2007 when India lost out on the day 3 and day 4 when Lord Harris strangulated Sachin and Dravid and after a Kallisque effort, SA won by 6 wkts. That was a Jaffer test and a Ganguly series. Coud not believe that Sehwag batted at 7 and BossDK batted at 2.

India had won at Joburg, lost at Durban then. This time lost in Centurion, won in Durban.

If Capetown is won, then this would be the best test series win of the decade. In a land which has tormented the cricket for last 17 years and has made mortals of greats. A 2-1 India would be a fitting result.

India vs SA preview

The battle of champion Test sides begin on thursday and there are clear favorites for this battle. Being an Indian fan, I would always gun for India. The reason being this is the best chance for India to win a series in SA for first time ever in the cricketing history. Last time India came close to do so, but Lord Harris strangled India and later Kallis bhia took the initiative and won the Captown test by 6 wkts for his side to win the series 2-1.

This time around there are lot of changed personnel in Indian side.

• First ever tour to SA with no Kumble. He was part of tours in 1992, 1996 and 2006. He was injured in 2001.
• India for first time has a settled and the best opening pair in the current scnearion in the Test cricket.
• Sehwag is in imperious form in Tests and he seems to be all set to erase the painful memories of 2007 tour when he was dropped following a horrible Test tour. He had made 48 in the middle order and had seen BossaDK promoted to the top along side Wasim Jaffer.
• Sachin Tendulkar would be keen to make his 50th 100 in Tests and move further close to the magical 100 100s mark.
• VVS Laxman would look forward to conquer SA too, something which he has not done in previous 3  tours.
• Zaheer Khan would be the trump to win a test in SA. If he is not around, as cricinfo suggests he is having injury concerns, then India would have hard task to take 20 wickets to win the tests.
• There would be no Ganguly at 5 or 6 to conquer the demons and it would be either Raina or Pujara who would take the guard at 6.
• Most probably the start up attack would be Zaheer, Sreesanth, Ishant and Harbhajan.
• Sreesanth is back to the land where he had got himself reckoned into the mainstream Indian bowling after stellar performance in Jo'burg which India won.

On the other hand SA is also a very high quality side in their own home turf.

They have deep batting line up till 8 and the presence of Kallis allows them to play 5 bowlers. The form of Amla would be tested against the Indians, whom he has developed a special liking.

Dale Steyn, as usual would be the most dangerous threat and if Sehwag is able to contain the man, the remaining bowlers would not be so tough to handle given the fact that the 3rd seamer would be inexperienced in Tsotobe.

The start of the Test would be a good attention seeker from the Ashes hype which has just maddened the old cricket world as if the rest of the cricketing countries do not exist.

Possible teams:

India : 1. Sehwag 2. Gambhir 3. Dravid 4. Tendulkar 5. Laxman 6. Raina 7. Dhoni 8. Harbhajan 9. Zaheer 10. Sreesanth 11. Ishant

South Africa : 1. A Pieterson 2. Smith 3. Amla 4. Kallis 5. AB 6. Prince 7. Boucher 8. Morkel 9. Steyn 10. Harris 11. Tsotobe

India 2 SA 1.

India edge ahead on day 3

Harbhajan Singh is on a roll. Batting wise.

3rd consecutive 50.

69, 115 and now 85 not out. Good enough than Sangakara's scorelines.

Even better is his approach to shield his slapmate Sreesanth, who is restrained so far and has not seen Andre Nel in Arnel, Martin, Southee or Vettori yet.

Tomorrow few more (30-40) runs would put Kiwis to pressure and then IPL Ojha and Harbhajan himself can expect a quick wickets to ensure India does not chase bigger 4th innings total.

The middle order has not been able to impose itself on the inexperienced Kiwi attack -- Tendulkar, Dhoni and Raina have not been able to score as much as they want to...

VVS Laxman scored 74 in his first home test in 14 years of Test cricket. He has been on song off late and would continue to carry this golden run in 2011 too when India play away series in West Indies, England and Australia preceeded by West Indies at home.

Another interesting Test match looms with a realistic possibility of a result.

Motera Musings

India were out of the hole again and the revival was sparked by familiar face in VVS Laxman and new batting allrounder Harbhajan Singh who got a MoM award for batting. Surprisingly he made a 100 and a  50 in a same game to become 8th batsman in the history to accompalish this feat.

The Kiwis were no pushovers and to me following were the high points of this test match:

• Superb fast bowling spell by Chris Martin on 4th evening to give a strong chance out of nowhere to Kiwis to win the test match.
• Match turning partnership by Ryder and Williamson on day 3 to bring Kiwis in touch distance within India's first innings score.
• Spectacular collapse of India in 2nd innings to be at 5/15 with just 43 runs lead.
• The man called VVS Laxman with his awesome 2nd innings record. Enough said.

The low points:

• The Motera pitch : lifeless, dull and flat. Perhaps that prevented MS to declare when India were 200 up in the fourth innings lead and safely out of danger.
• India's impotent bowling attack. Barring Zaheer Khan and to an extent Ojha, the others were insipid. 
• Continuing bowling failure of Harbhajan Singh would soon come to a point where coach and captain would need to decide if he continues to be # 1 spinner in Tests.
• Gautam Gambhir's insipid 2010 run continues.
• Sehwag's 2nd innings record continues to be patchy.
• Sreesanth should now be relegated to dancing on reality shows. He is just no use to India's lineup. Ishant Sharma seems to be better bowler than this guy.

India would be disappointed that they could not beat Kiwis and continue their winning streak. On the other hand, the Kiwis would be more than happy to get the draw with strong performances from Ryder, WIlliamson, Baz and Martin. I just hope no more tests are scheduled in Ahmedabad in near future if it continues to roll out docile, Srilankan type pitches.

Preview : Bangalore Test

The second Test between the 2 best teams playing positive Test cricket starts tomorrow morning India time. And this would be the last one for lot of players in the country on both sides.

After an epic first, the expectations would be high on this series decider.

India has a strong record when they take the 1-0 lead. In last 20 years they have given up the lead only 4 times last being against England in 2006.

There are going to be a few changes in the Indian team and the hero of 9th wicket partnership wont be there. The Delhi lads give way to Southie guys. Vijay replacing Gambhir and Sreesanth replacing Ishant.

Laxman is in some kind of doubt starting tomorrow and if he does not play it would be a toss-up between Pujara and Mukund to occupy his slot. Conventional logic says Pujie should make his debut but we never know with Srikanth at helm and Srini's power could see Mukund make his debut too. (Kidding).

India has got some stupid record in Bangalore with not having won a test in 15 years. This is a great chance for them to rectify the record asap. They've lost to Australia twice, drew once and lost to Fixistanis in 2005.

Possible lineup:

India : Sehwag, Murali, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman / Pujie, Raina, Dhoni, Zaheer, Bhajan, Sreesanth, Ojhie.

Aus : Watto, Katto, Punter, Pup, Mr Cricket, South, Paine, Mitch, Hauritz, Hilfy and Georgie Boy.

It would be one more chance for Marcus North to slide his batting going down south and ensure his berth remains safe for Ashes...

All in all it should be a cracking contest between India and Australia once again and then the rivalry would take a break for one year and then it would kick off once again in 2011 down under. Not sure if the 3 greats would make it that tour.

Now that Mr Character Sanga Singh is injured he should watch this game closely to learn how to play positive cricket.

A monumentous Test match

What a test match it was.  Ful too paisa vasool. As a superstition I wrote on the blog that Australia would win the game while I knew that someone would do something magical cos it was Australia and India can fight back from worst of the situation against this team. Woke up at 2 AM in the night and glued to the webcast till the presentation was made. Every moment of the final session of final day is a picture to cherish for long time to come.

Its the quality of cricket India and AUstralia are capable to produce every time they take the field. Intense, gigantic and great cricket. Even the lesser mortals of Australian team gave a tough fight to Indians. And in the end even though India won, it was Australia too who showed a lot of improved behavior on the field. Especialy Ricky Ponting who did not go overboard to push for the victory.  The scenes of Sydey 2008 are still afresh, but this was a sea change.

Australia did not have the penetration on the final day when it was most required. Bollinger, the to go man on final day was out injured (thanks to CSK campaign) and Hauritz was a no brainer against India.

Johnson struggles on pitches with little bounce and Hilfy did his bit, but in the end Ponting's men ended on the losing side. No disgrace though. Defeats against Australia except 2008 Sydney never hurt as much against Sri Lanka and Pakistan do. But then SL and Pak are no contesters against India.

Everybody contributed in the win right from Sehwag to Ojha except Gambhir who's suddenly developed a lean patch. He is out 2nd time to injury in consecutive Test series. That gives an opening to Mukund and though he wont play, Vijay would partner Sehwag again in Bangalore.

Dravid had his moments in first innings, Tendulkar missed a 100, Raina made a well deserved 86 and Dhoni, though regressed in batting, captained well. Ishant Sharma sprayed balls all over in first innings and had injury to his ankle / knee, he returned back to bowl with heart out and star in that monumental partnership for 9th wicket. Ojha did his bit in 2nd innings with ball and Zaheer Khan, as usual was excellent with old SG ball.

Harbhajan did disappoint with bat and ball in both innings, but the man who would be remembered whenever this great Test match would be mentioned is VVS Laxman.

What a player he is. Underrrated and under praised(whatever). He has now got victories in back to back chases with back to back back injuries. Crisis and adversities make Laxman thrive and excel, that very few players do. But that has been the hallmark of this great Indian middle order. Batting with a runner, with a bad back and scoring runs at almost S/R of 95 is excellent stuff.

That makes him count above the flat track bullies of Lanka. Sangakara and Jaywardhena have scored more runs and hundreds than Laxman, but hardly their innings are counted as in the same breath as in for Laxman.

Bangalore should make another exciting contest and if India wins, then it would be a whitewash of mini sorts for India. But do not under estimate Australians for they would give one more intense shot to the indians to save their pride and gain some confidence for their next Test in Brisbane on Nov 23.

India vs Australia T1D3

The first test between India and Australia is delicately poised and for sure it wont head to a draw, what fucking Sanjay Manjrekar believes. Damn him, he is an eternal pessimist. 

If the lower order of India could have shown the same resolve as in Lanka, India would have had some lead rather than giving away some lead.  Injury to VVS Laxman also did not help. Either of this would have happened, India surely would have surged ahead of Australia in first innings. 

India had 4 half centurions -- Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar and Raina. 

Raina has almost sealed his spot at 6 for at least few more Tests. Failure of Yuvraj Singh in first innings of Irani trophy has not helped his case in anyway.  

Sachin was unlucky to have missed yet another ton this year, although he did lead a good partnerships with Dravid and Raina. 

Only if MSD and so called allrounder Harbhajan could have made some more runs. 

On day 4, the lot would depend on Zaheer and Ojha to make early inroads to Australian 2nd innings. Ishant is out injured and Harbhajan is useless. 

So if this 2 bowlers in addition to occasional off spin by Virender Sehwag should ideally run through the Australian 2nd innings. The match is delicately poised. A session or 2 good for any team could turn the game in its favor. 

And given the rivalry between the 2 teams neither of the teams would like to give an inch to the other. And this is what you call pulsating and riveting Test cricket. Even contest between bat and ball.

All time XI greats for India

Cricinfo has published its all time XI greats for India. Here's the XI :

1. Gavaskar
2. Sehwag
3. Dravid
4. Tendulkar
5. Hazare
6. Mankad
7. Dhoni
8. Dev
9. Sri
10. Kumble
11. Prasanna

Well the top 4 are perfectly fine. No dispute on that.

No 5 and no 6 are problem.

No VVS Laxman in there? Cant imagine the guy who played one of the greatest Test innings ever is not in the all time great list.

How many times Hazare played? And over how many years? Against how many countries and in what conditions ? Agreed he was one of very early Indian cricketers and cricketers across ages are absurd to be compared.

Still when this excersise is being done, then you gotta take consideration of number of Tests played, against whom, the quality of opposition and the time span.

Sanjay Manjrekar had a comment on Javagal Srinath's inclusion in the list. Why ? He certainly was a very good fast bowler given the era he came in. Had injuries not backed him a bit, then he would have had played more tests than he actually did. He got wickets in placid Indian conditions. His two spells of 6-21 and a 8-for in Calcutta vs Pakistan were splendid spells of bowling in Indian conditions.

Perhaps Sanjay was pissed why he and his father were not included who at best played with defensive mindset to draw the games.

I think in place of Hazare VVS Laxman should have made the cut and in place of Mankad it should have been either Ganguly as left hander or if an allrounder was needed it should have been Jimmy Amarnath for his sheer ability to stand up against Windies pacers of 70s and 80s.

Spin attack is already strong with Kumble and Pras to take care of, only thing this team lacks is seam bowlers and in foreign conditions they need 3rd seamer which could easily be taken care by Jimmy Amarnath.

Pity that Suresh Menon did all the writing for the all time XI for India.

Tail Wagging

The tail enders are Indian baits. They have frustrated us over the years.  Malinga and Herath did in the Galle Test, Kamran Akamal and Spinach Razzaq did in Mohali along side Jason Gillespie in Chennai and Sydney.  For a sweet change of fortunes its been Indian tail that has been frustrating Sri Lankans, much to their own medicine in this series. And who are culprits? Mishraji here, Mithun, Ojha and Ishant in the other innings.

Thanks to the glaring partnerships yesterday India managed to sneak ahead by 11 runs and then the best “offspinner in the country” who is also “greatest flat track bully” which would be cherished by Robert / Gill / The abusive commenter (Achettup, you did this) spinned out Dilshan and Paragraph to ensure India have a realistic chance to win provided they get out boring duo of Mahelangakara asap.

A lot would depend on Mishraji who now has a supportive pitch and that would go a long way to decide on his future. If he is among wickets, he would be in contention else he would be eked out.  Ditto for IPL Ojha. He gotta remember that he is playing for India and not Deccan Chargers. Though sight of VVS Laxman could still remind him of Deccan Chargers……

Why we failed in Galle

List of Test matches saved in reverse order:

·         Ahmedabad Test vs SL in 2009

·         Napier Test vs NZ in 2009

·         Bangalore Test vs Aus in 2008

·         Adelaide Test vs Aus in 2008

·         Lord’s Test vs England in 2007

It was Sachin Tendulkar in Ahmedabad, Gautam Gambhir in Napier, Zaheer, Harbhajan in Bangalore, Sehwag in Adelaide and MSD in Lord’s Test 2007.

Neither of this batters are around on the middle now and the patience factor has deserted Indian batsmen in this Test.

Except for Tendulkar, Dravid an Laxman none of the other batsmen played more than 90 balls, most important to save the Test match when following on.  Laxman is baffling still, he has hold on one end yet to avoid the defeat.

Sehwag lasted 30 balls, Yuvraj and Dhoni combined not even 20. Gautam Gambhir could not stay past 1^st over in both innings.  He has had good outing in the first warm up game, yet he made a score line of 2, 0 in the Test, a much rare failure for the Delhiite.

Sehwag got a 100 but threw it away both times when he would have been the key man for India to save the Test in both innings. A big score from him (bigger than 110) in both innings could have meant India would be safe on day 5. But then it was not to be.  Dravid fell both times for his own mistake and Sachin as usual once for a poor umpire decision (lbw both times).

All said and done, this is one Test we would like to forget sooner than later and hope from 2^nd Test ownwards India shows its true class which has made it # 1 in the rankings.

We have got a jacked S bowling attack with none owing up responsibility to be premier strike bowler.   Ojha is not a Test material, forget Tests he is not even an international material. He is good for Deccan Chargers in that overhyped Bollywood hijacked T20 tournament.  Harbhajan Singh badly needs Anil Kumble down the other end to take wickets or to appear as a decent bowler. His ODI bowling is taking a toll on him as a test bowler. ODI bowling as in restrictive role. Line and length ustaad, wicket blub.

Lest bowling attack improves the likes of Lanka would continue to have bat-a-thons and make 500, 600 or even 1000. Our best bet to survive this kind of negative tactics is to bat stronger. We’ve got the best batting order in the world, but at times it falls prey to the bowlers who have forgot to play Test cricket for good 3 years.  But as SP said, India is always vulnerable as it comes out of a long break. Once that cooling period is gone, its tough past getting  the greats. And I bet the Indians would be in their true Test form 2^nd Test ownwards.                      

Just wishing a heavy downpour in Galle NOW.

Baffling Laxman

Laxman’s tactics to expose tailenders to Murali and Malinga is atmost baffling. What is he trying to achieve?  He has never learnt to master the skills to bat with the tail enders, something which Dravid, Tendulkar and Steve Waugh have / had.

He is not playing fast, neither is he defensive. He is just taking single off 2^nd or 3^rd ball or 1^st ball of the over to leave Murali have a go at 800 and Malinga to wipe out the tail. The lunch is just around the corner and the weather who knows can turn bad.

Hang in there dude. For me that’s the difference why Laxman is not counted in the greater bats of his generation despite having had a tremendous rearguard acts in his career.  He does not have the ability to shape up the tail in crunch match saving situations like this one. Remember he even got out on 66 odd runs in the epic Chennai Test of 2001 vs Australia and then Sameer Dighe and Harbhajan Singh had to do the winning task.

Cmon Laxman, you gotta save the Test yourself. Own up the responsibility.

Gearing up for another drubbing

It’s the final day and yet another ODI against Sri Lanka. Yawn.  Limited overs watching in India seeing India play is a painful experience this days.  Half of the side is incompetent and incapable. Most of the lot of that half are either in the team due to regional affiliation to the selectors or due to the over confidence in their limited ability from the coach and the captain.  The remaining lot are just putting in formal efforts to bowl 10 overs just cos they got to.

A lot has been said on few players like Jadeja and Karthik who continue to play every tournament India plays despite their failures and chances provided to them.  No other players in recent memory have got chances as many as this 2 players. Yet they continue to baffle us all with their failures.

Dinesh Karthik fails most of the time he plays and when he succeeds never goes past 50.  Are we getting him in the team to make 20s and 30s. There was a time in Indian Test cricket history in 2000s when one of the Fab 5 – VVS Laxman continued to make 20s, 30s and 40s. He was dropped. This was after he had made miraculous 281 vs Australia in the greatest Test series India ever played.  If Laxman can be dropped, then who the heck is Karthik? Well he is a Chennai-ite hailing from same locality of Srikanth (some unpronounceable locality).

Jadeja is another player hyped and low on substance.  MSD feels he is one player who can be turned to an all-rounder.  A player with a bowling average of 44 and batting average of 33.08 is an all-rounder, that’s baffling. Contrast that to Irfan Pathan who has bowling average of 30s and batting average of 25+ in ODIs. Yet he has not played any game since Feb 2009.  Any day Irfan would be a better all-rounder than what Jadeja could turn out to be( I am damn sure he would never graduate as an all-rounder). His innings in Asia Cup against Pakistan and Sri Lanka depict his limitations as player and moreso his mental approach to the game. Against Pakistan he was not sure what he was trying to do to Ajmal and against SL he began the collapse which turned out to be a hat trick for Maharoof – a player not even regular of SL side.  He bowls and bowls economically, but does not take wickets. What’s the use ? Do we need a restrictive bowler or do we need a bowler who can take wickets ? If Pragyan Ojha could bat a bit, he would be better “all-rounder” than Jadeja.

Fast bowling is another worry for India. Zaheer Khan, Pravin Kumar and Ashish Nehra do not sound fearsome. That’s an ordinary attack. Any one can hit them for runs. Ashok Dinda, high on fire, zero on wickets. He would glare everybody who hits him for fours, but he won’t try to give them a reply a fast bowler typically does – get him out. Dinda sees eye to eye and when it comes to bowling chickens out. Another Sreesanth, just that a little less hyped up and less on theatrics.

Suresh Raina is yet to achieve the consistency of a finisher. He was damn consistent in IPL. But in ODIs he is far away from it. This scorelines wont get him near to the Test spot which is up for grabs for upcoming SL series.  Ditto for Rohit Sharma.  He continues to be careless and temperamental in batting.  He plays his strokes, he has all shots in the book, but he does not have patience.  This players are high on IPL run lists, but low on ODI runs for India.

I am not sure if this players would be around for long to play for India with the intensity as demonstrated by the seniors and their prodigies – Sehwag, Yuvraj,  Harbhajan etc.

Saurabh Tiwary is another passenger on the tour with no chances provided to him.  Ditto for R Ashvin who is warming the benches.  He is being ignored in attempts to give as many chances to Ravinder Jadeja who is ……………

A Mithun, N Ojha, SST,  R Ashvin are in the company of those players who did not get any chance to be in the middle except carrying drinks or towels. In short they were just passengers. No doubt that next series India plays, this players would be dumped and the culprits would continue to play and India would continue to lose.

MSD says Jadeja is a specialist spinner and most usually as 5^th bowler after 3 pacers and one spinner (or 2 pacers + 2 spinners). IMO there is no need to play Jadeja as an allrounder. Play an extra batsman and have Sehwag, Yuvraj, Raina, Sharma bowl quota of 10 overs.   

Something like this lineup would be good:

Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina, Kohli / Sharma, Harbhajan, Zaheer, POjha / PKumar, I Sharma / A Nehra

The inconsistency just boils down to 2 slots – 6 and 7. With Dhoni being the floater and given the match situations – Dhoni, Raina  and Kohli / Sharma can bat at 5,6 and 7.   Once Uthappa is fixed he could be one good player at 7 too.

Meanwhile for now lets enjoy another drubbing at the hands of character rich Sri Lankan team.

Road Ahead

Anil Kumble has been spot on for his evaluation of the T20 debacle.   He is right to say we have not handled pacers well. We’ve lost Munaf (he was fast only when he played tour game vs England), RP Singh (so successful in first winning campaign in World T20 and IPL-2), Sreesanth (disciplinary problems),  Ishant Sharma (poor in LoIs) and many others who shone in domestic tourneys but did not succeed.  Irfan Pathan destroyed by Greg Chappell is seeming to be lost forever. He is million times more useful than his showmaker brother Yusuf Pathan who shows fake aggression on taking wicket of a tail ender.

In one of the other diagnostic article on cricinfo there is mention of this batting line to cope up with the pressure of top side in Tests. Fortunately none of this batsmen boomed in by IPL glitz and glamor play for India in Tests. Neither does Vijay, Raina, Yuvraj or a Pathan appear to be in contention for any Test spot near future.  That rests with Gambhir, who is still a world class batter, Sehwag, the one who was missed, Dravid, who should be back for ODIs world cup, Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni. 6^th spot should be for a debutant sans Dabrinath and Vijay.

So the test team has conquered everywhere – West Indies, England, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.  Reason the work ethics of the top 5 of Indian Test batting line up has been different. The likes of Raina, Sharma lack patience. They come out and try to hit the ball out of park first minute they enter. There is no meaning of settling down or having a grip of situation in the middle. When its against a minnow it might work, but against  stronger team it just wont work.

T20 failure throws up a question on the composition of the ODI side which has to win the World Cup at any side. The oDI record for India is best amongst the top teams. That’s conveniently forgotten. Most of the players in XI chose themselves – Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj (??), MSD, Raina, Kohli.  The bowling attack needs an overhaul. Sorry to say but Harbhajan needs a kick up his back to remind that he is so called best Indian spinner after Anil Kumble. He can never be the bowler Anil was in his peak in 1990s home ODIs when Azhar used to bring him on in the 15 overs and he usually responded with crucial breakthroughs.

Shastri says groom a young captain for T20. MSD is not an old warhorse. And he is a good captain. Remember he is winning almost every ODI and Test series India is playing. T20s are being lost but that should not be that big a disappointment as losing a traditional world cup. We don’t want a repeat of 2007 when India failed to qualify in Super 8s in 15 years.  We need to have a look at the bowling attack and have 2 good fast bowlers who would have pace, take wickets and even though give runs. A figure of 4/55 would be much better than 0/45 and a speed of 140+ than 135.  There are a few players who need discard for good and besides the usual culprits mentioned on other posts of the blog – Pravin Kumar is one such bowler who would be ineffective on flat Indian pitches for WC.

Shastri, Ganguly and Gavaskar have been spot on with their comments, but the likes of Madan Lal or Jadeja, Maninder Singh are fool hardies.

MSD has won more than he has lost. So if he is reeled for this defeat then he has to be commended for other achievements too. If he has been stubborn for few players, then may be he would learn a hard lesson. If he is trying to do a Ganguly to Pathans, Jadejas, Vijays and Pravins then lets not forget that the players Ganguly nursed were awesome then (may be they are poor now), they were serious talents (Sehwag and Yuvraj prove this).

The golden generation of Indian batting prospered in short ball conditions, fast bouncy traks and slow pitches too. The same cannot be expected out of the likes of Rainas and others.  Simple, the work ethic is  the reason. The golden generation of Indian batting prospered in Tests, ODIs and IPL. The current generation excels in just IPL.  The players who made  500s and  400s in IPL flopped in the international format. The guy who made 600 in this IPL has proved what adaptability is and what work ethic is.  It’s a pity that the younger generation of Indian batsmen don’t want to learn from the illustrious men like Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly while sharing the dressing room..

Yuvraj Singh was a special talent and its delightful to watch him in full flow. When he scratches around he seems ugly. Off field reaons play a big reason in why he fails to deliver.  For the time being he is best suited to sit out the team till he solves whatsoever his problems are.

India’s next big assignment is the Sri Lankan Dambulla cup in June July. And that IMO should mark the beginning of preparation for ODI world cup, far bigger and important than the T20I world cup which keeps on coming every 2 years. 

All is not lost and in couple of months now we would be back to backing the team hoping that it learns from this mistakes, chucks out complacent IPL players and gets the dedicated hungry for success players. India can do it and we would still be able to achieve success in the ODI series lined up in next few months.  After all we are # 2 in ODIs and # 1 in Tests. Lets not forget that the personnel for the ODI and Tests, as next assignments would change and hopefully we wont need to see the same usual crop of retards playing for India and thus insulting the meaning of playing for country.

Eden Test preview

India play for pride and SA for the series. If India win this Test, they should retain the # 1 ranking. The batting would be stronger than what it was in first Test. With return of Laxman, it would be interesting to see where he bats. # 3 or # 6 ?

Gambhir and Sehwag failed to give the starts in the both innings of the first test and that was evident in the crumbling of the middle order in Nagpur, so Gambhir would need to find his golden touch soon again, not later than tomorrow if India bats first.

And other player to be on watchlist would be HArbhajan Singh, who has continued failing. Unfortunately Amit Mishra and Ojha have not performed well consistently to put the Turbonator under pressure.

It would be interesting to see if Dabrinath finds a place in the Test XI ?  Most prolly he would play, but would he score ?

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.