England continue to confound against spin and collapse on Sunday gives a very good hope for a Test whitewash in the winter. But then the entire batting lineup shall be different to the one we saw fold out for meager 80 on Sunday. Thanks to Dinda, England just managed to get past the lowest ever T20I score. England next are to face Windies and their mystery spinner might be another big challenge to conquer for England. Sunil Naraine had an awful English summer in damp conditions but in SL he shall be a definitive threat to English batsmen. And the spin challenge doesnt stop right there. Mendis or the new spinner of SL await next and then Daniel Vettori in NZ game.
England look sorry and they will not win the World T20 if they continue to fall prey to spin bowling.
And btw, here is a toast to the fighting spirit of Harbhajan Singh for his superb return to the International cricket. But if thats going to be long term, that needs to be seen. Ashvin will return next game and that shall mark an end to Harbhajan unless MS wants to play 2 spinners. 4/12 are the best Indian figures in T20I and also that victory was biggest for India in terms of runs. A T20I win over England in 5 years.
India has its own set of problems. Batting line up looks formidable on paper and despite playing plethora of T20s in a year, India find it difficult to score or accelerate in international T20 games. Low par scores of 159 vs Afghanistan, 155 vs SL in Aug and 170 vs England indicate that India need to pace their innings really well. Another mystery is the strike rate of MSD who has played countless "cool" innings for his IPL franchisee but he fails to repeat that form in T20Is. Or for that matter his ODI form. A strike rate of 110 and a highest score of 48 is under achievement for Indian captain.
The pace department is a poor reading for India. Zaheer Khan is of little value in T20s and less said about L Balaji and Dinda the better. Dinda has quite long runup and a high jump in his action, but his pace is again 130ish. And no wickets either. Umesh Yadav should have been playing this tournament, instead he was playing in pointless Irani trophy fixture. Hopefully with new selection committee getting installed, they will iron out this kind of selection blunders in future.
Australia are top heavy and once the top 3 are gone, the rest are dicey against spin. Perhaps India should look forward to exploit this weakness in their first game of Super 8s. Super 8s is a worry for India since first edition(Super 6 then). They have never won the first game of Super 8s in T20Is and for that matter in past 2 editions they have lost all 3 Super 8 games. Will this be different ? Hopefully yes.
South Africa are next opponents and then there is Pakistan. So if India can win 2 of this 3 games then they would be a very good team to go in the semi-finals. But for that the batting has to click and fast scoring needs to be done. Likes of Gambhir, Raina, Dhoni will need to pace their innings. And a little bit of patience for Sehwag. and with a weaker bowling department, the batting is the only key to a repeat of 2007.
England look sorry and they will not win the World T20 if they continue to fall prey to spin bowling.
And btw, here is a toast to the fighting spirit of Harbhajan Singh for his superb return to the International cricket. But if thats going to be long term, that needs to be seen. Ashvin will return next game and that shall mark an end to Harbhajan unless MS wants to play 2 spinners. 4/12 are the best Indian figures in T20I and also that victory was biggest for India in terms of runs. A T20I win over England in 5 years.
India has its own set of problems. Batting line up looks formidable on paper and despite playing plethora of T20s in a year, India find it difficult to score or accelerate in international T20 games. Low par scores of 159 vs Afghanistan, 155 vs SL in Aug and 170 vs England indicate that India need to pace their innings really well. Another mystery is the strike rate of MSD who has played countless "cool" innings for his IPL franchisee but he fails to repeat that form in T20Is. Or for that matter his ODI form. A strike rate of 110 and a highest score of 48 is under achievement for Indian captain.
The pace department is a poor reading for India. Zaheer Khan is of little value in T20s and less said about L Balaji and Dinda the better. Dinda has quite long runup and a high jump in his action, but his pace is again 130ish. And no wickets either. Umesh Yadav should have been playing this tournament, instead he was playing in pointless Irani trophy fixture. Hopefully with new selection committee getting installed, they will iron out this kind of selection blunders in future.
Australia are top heavy and once the top 3 are gone, the rest are dicey against spin. Perhaps India should look forward to exploit this weakness in their first game of Super 8s. Super 8s is a worry for India since first edition(Super 6 then). They have never won the first game of Super 8s in T20Is and for that matter in past 2 editions they have lost all 3 Super 8 games. Will this be different ? Hopefully yes.
South Africa are next opponents and then there is Pakistan. So if India can win 2 of this 3 games then they would be a very good team to go in the semi-finals. But for that the batting has to click and fast scoring needs to be done. Likes of Gambhir, Raina, Dhoni will need to pace their innings. And a little bit of patience for Sehwag. and with a weaker bowling department, the batting is the only key to a repeat of 2007.
