India in 2008

The Indian season for the year 2008 is over. It has been a great year for India in both forms of the game. ODIs and Tests. The world champs in T20 lost the only game they played in Australia. Luckily there was no rush to put in more T20Is in the home series against England and Australia.

The best moment in ODIs came when India won the CB series in Australia in March 2008 with Sachin Tendulkar scoring a 1^st hundred in Australia in ODIs and 3^rd of the tour. Never before any Indian team had won the tri series in its 30 years of existence in Australia. What made it more pleasant was the fact that this was the last version of the CB series. And India would always remain the champs. Beating Aussies in their own backyard perhaps began their slide in Tests. May be, may be not.

If that victory wasn’t enough, the even sweeter moment came in November 2008 when India beat Aussies 2-0 in home series for the first time. Aussies suffered their heaviest loss in 26 years and were snubbed out totally. India lost the services of Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly. Sachin Tendulkar had a great run in Tests and ODIs in whatever games he played. Rahul Dravid suffered a slump in the form before making a steady 136 in Mohali which could prolong his career. Laxman ’s love affair with Aussies continued with 2 100s against them, including 3^rd in Sydney and one double in Delhi.

Dhoni ‘s captaincy entered a surreal honeymoon, Yuvraj Singh flattered to deceive for most part of the year until the tour game in Hyderabad vs Australia when he scored a 100 and since then never looked back scoring back to back 100s in Odis vs England and 2 50s in Tests. Young guns in ODIs were flop and it was left to the experienced hands of Viru, Dhoni and Gambhir to achieve the success in ODIs. Bowling attack looked rock solid with Zaheer and Ishant Sharma developing into a very strong bowling unit, best in years India had after 1996-97 when Srinath and Prasad achieved lot of success in England and South Africa. Zaks and Ishant excelled in Sri Lanka, though didn’t have wickets to show up. Ishant had a great tour of Australia with Ponting falling to him consistently. Zaheer managed to win MoM and MoS awards including one today vs England. He not only did mark a great comeback out of injury, but also played a role of senior pro to perfection. 3 short of 200 wkts in Tests and 200+ in ODIs is very good achievement for this lanky fast bowler.

Viru’s 319 in Chennai against SA, Saurav’s 87 in Kanpur, Sachin ‘s 103 vs England, Dravid ‘s 93 in Perth, Viru ‘s 201 in Galle and 151 in Adelaide, Laxman ‘s 100 in Sydney along with Gambhir ‘s amazing run of consistency were the batting highlights in Tests. Opening partnerships in Tests never looked like an issue and after years of round the clock chipping with opening partnerships ,India found one great pair in Gambhir and Viru.

The man of the year for Indian cricket has to be the Delhi lad : Gautam Gambhir who scored 1000 runs in both forms of the game and excelled against top opposition – Australia and England. No cheap wkts for Mishra and Bhajji, no BD series for India to come in next few years, no fear of life in Pakistan, India must look forward to a great 2009 with the World T20 coming up in England followed by a tour of NZ – the only place where India is yet to win a test this decade (given NZ composition a 2-0 win should be a possibility) and home series against relatively easier oppositions like SL and WI should be easy cake walk……

India deserve to be ranked 2^nd in world in both forms of game, alas the rankings favor SA who after beating BD 4 times of 4 this year sit on # 2 slot in the Test rankings. And they are rightly so.

Disecting ODI series

India's 3-2 win over Sri Lanka is a good sign of fortunes for Team India but it doesnt pose a very good picture for the hopefuls that expect to transit into the huge huge shoes of Fab four and the skipper in Tests. A closer look to the results and the detailed scoreboard doesnt at all look good for the likes of Rohit Sharmas, Suresh Rainas, Badris and Yuvrajs.

Lets take a closer look at the gains and losses for India in this ODI series :

1. Batting woes : India has been traditionally a strong batting team. The next generation batters are class behind from the GODs of Indian batting -- Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman. Lack of opening partnerships in all games did dent India s chances of putting a big score in sluggish wickets. Gambhir couldnt carry forward his Test success in ODIs and that was a major blow to India s chances of putting a big score. Virat Kohli by no means looks an ODI opener. He couldnt hit big hits, neither rotate the strike to quick singles if not boundaries. Yuvraj Singh has been a major failure and didnt learn from his mistakes in all the games. Fielding for him was below par and the good starts were vanquished away to Mendis. Rohit Sharma -- well he s been the most hyped player since T20 triumph and he has been the worst performer of the young lot. Barring a 32 in 3rd game he has nothin to show in his CV. God knows how many more chances he is going to get to show his real class.

1. Middle Order Woes : The middle order barring lone warrior Dhoni never really fired. Raina was a bit ok with his 2 stretched 50s but the class or flair the old pros had was never found in the new debutant Badrinath. He played 3 games and a score line of 27*, 6, 3 is the talent he has ? And on basis of this score line he poses a claim to be part of most famed Test middle order ? Nopes, no chance. Virat Kohli did play some brave innings but once Tendulkar and Sehwag return he would be lucky to find a place in playing XI.




2. Peerless Dhoni : He was the saving grace for India. His scorelines of 45, 66, 76 in the games India won depict that he played the anchor role to perfection. And it was to a very well planned innings. The strike rate wasnt compromised and he did rally around himself the entire batting. And there has been a superb transition in his batting. Amazing. Besides being the captain cool, he has been best batsmen for India sans Tendulkar and Sehwag.
3. Consistent Bowling : Bowling has been a revelation in the series. Except for the 1st ODi and then the last 10 overs in final ODI, the bowlers had SL batsmen in snooze. Zaheer Khan led the attack from front with miserly spells and heap of wickets. He did nothing fancy, pitched the ball up and relied on the swing from the wkt to do the tricks. He also continued his supremacy over left handed batsmen after Graeme Smith and Strauss with Sangakara in this series. Munaf Patel came across as a surprise with improved attitude and the zest back in his run-up. Pathan and RP Singh continued to struggle. Harbhajan did make a good comeback and Ojha didnt get to bowl much in the ODI series.

Fielding wasnt at its best. Yuvraj Singh didnt field at his customary backward point area and the impact of knee injury was evident on his mind. Rainas, Sharmas, Badris, Kohlis dropped the catches at will. Are they going to be in the team just for their age and for no performance ? One of the main reasons why selectors groomed this half baked cricketers was the "agile legs" and superb performance in field. That was evident nowhere. No stopping runs and no scoring runs. That makes them liabilities in the field and in the team.

And then this people are expected to take place of the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman in the tests vs Australia ? Today we have an edge over Australia to regain the Border Gavaskar trophy, but with the "fresh blood" we would loose the test series 0-4 and in all within 10-12 days of Test cricket.

Test cricket is not a place where you would give away Test caps at will. The young guns got to prove besides their age that they have the real stuff in them to replace the batting greats.