PCB's sour grapes

The talks of PCB boycotting the ICC awards and instead awarding Ajmal on its own following the snub is a classic case of sour grapes.  Ajmal should have been in the list given his returns in all 3 formats of the game, but the knee jerk reaction of PCB is childish and ridiculous. 

May be Vernon Philander should have made way for Ajmal!!

Leave Sachin Tendulkar alone

Nothing is wrong with Sachin Tendulkar's batting form except the fact that he seems distracted at the moment and his picking and choosing isnt helping him any more. He is an MP, he needs a break to be with his family and then a Test series arrives once in few months. So this is the reason why he is not in the form he should be. It's not the time to go for him. He just got bowled and we are not used to see him getting bowled that often. He did have this kind of spell once in 2002 when in England and West Indies he got bowled few times in row. Pedro Collins and Alex Tudor were the culprits then, Trent Boult and Tim Southee are now.

For the transition phase, Indian test cricket is in, the team needs him and more than ever now. So lets just not get behind him to go but to stay on and focus back on cricket, not put additional pressure than he has already handled in 23 years. For a country lacking genuine heroes and role models here is one man who has passed every stern test and provided millions of cheering and happy moments, so lets not bog him down asking him to go. We're just nobodies compared to his stature asking him to go.

Leave Tendulkar alone and allow him to focus on his game.

Sehwag and Gambhir are 5th most successful opening pair in Tests, very soon they will be 3rd.

Idea of moving down Sehwag to middle order is outright foolish and replacing Sehwag at the top with Rahane, who is a # 3 in domestic cricket for Mumbai, is even more foolish.

The opening pair of Gambhir and Sehwag have added 4028 runs together on top in Tests and they stand at 5th in the all time list of highest partnership runs. And by the end of year they have a very good chance to surpass SL pair of Attapattu and Jayasuriya (4469) and now defunct Strauss and Cook (4711). 

Statistically if you take a look at the topmost pairs then this Indian pair is quickest to reach 4000 runs (79 innings). 33 of 79 innings they have opened together have been 50+ runs (10 hundred and 23 fifty), again that's amongst the best. Their average is the best amongst top 5 pairs. 

More figures can be found at following cricinfo link:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283663.html

Its true they have not been able to replicate the form in last few tests overseas, but then the batting has suffered slump collectively.  

It is very essential that the pair is given ample amount of time to recover its mojo and be back amongst runs. And I am sure they will be back among runs and very soon you shall see the best of this pair. Its in ages that India has got a stable opening pair in Tests after years of frequent changes after Gavaskar and till Sehwag and Gambhir came together. 

Let Rahane be kept to put pressure on Suresh Raina for #6 slot instead.

Shelf Life of a England Test captain

Shelf life of an England Test Captain

Post South African Series loss under old captain -------- Losing South African Series under himself.

Graeme Smith is one helluva happy man after a hattrick of claiming 3 "leader of men"  of England team.  Nasir Hussein in 2003, Michael Vaughan in 2008 and now Andrew Strauss in 2012.

Whatever be the reason behind Strauss's retirement -- loss of form or series loss presented to the media, the real reason seems to be the mishandling of KP episode.  Now that Strauss is gone, KP's return to the England team must be fast tracked !!!

Pakistan have lost their killer instinct

Things on the field have not been GREAT for Pakistan team in terms of the results in their bilateral series. At least in ODIs. They won Asia cup after 12 years, fine. But they lost 0-4 to England and 1-3 to SL and are trailing 0-1 in  their own backyard (middle east is their home away from home since 1980s) against Australia.  True, that there have been very little or no controversies off the field or any act of stupidity from their players like it was at its peak in 2009-10. But results have been failing them off late. 

They have now a stable coaching setup -- head coach is reputed in subcontinent, the bowling coach keeps changing, but do Pak really need bowling coach? Mohammed Akram is their new coach in bowling department. Captaincy hasnt changed hands except Hafiz replacing Misbah in T20Is and later being dumped in shortest format for good (probably).  So what's the reason behind the consistent failures?

The batsmen are collapsing, the bowlers can't bail the team out every time they go in middle. They have a good attack in terms of fast bowling and spin bowling alike, but the selections are inconsistent. Mohammed Sami is back in one series, out next. Spinach man is out one series and in next one.  Umar Gul is failing to find his mojo in ODIs with his stock deliveries regularly failing him.  Wahab Riaz, the WC semi-final hero, is out and in, then out and in thereby losing his confidence. 

Saeed Ajmal is world class bowler, no doubt. And so is Shahid Afridi who is now a true bowler with his batting reduced to ridiculous standards. And their vice captain is surprisingly (underestimated) #1 ODi bowler in world.  Spin department is in good hands, but the fast bowling department is chopped and changed every series. I cant recall if a bowler has got a longer run (2-3 series) in Pakistan. 

IMO the reason they are losing more than they are winning is, the Pakistan team has lost their aggression and killer instinct. Being an Indian follower, I know how much we used to hate Pak winning everything in India in 1990s when they had a superb bowling attack in Waqar, Akram, Aaqib Javed and of course Saqlain Mushtaq. Any bowler out of the blue used to come against India and find himself in wickets. How can anyone forget 7-37 from Aaqib Javed including his hattrick in 1991 Sharjah. Or for that matter the creepy character -- Javed Miandad, Aamir Sohail (1992 and 1996 World cup acts in games against India are still afresh).  Even in the days of Inzamam there was little bit of aggression in the team.  No matter what the situation would be in a match, the team would always put up a fight and more often win from hopeless situations. Now they lose out of winning positions and collapse in heap.  Even in helpful Middle Eastern conditions.

Pakistan look best when they play the game in the way they were famous to play in 1990s. Even though if they lost, they enthralled fans. But now even if they win, they are more boring to watch. Except for Shahid Afridi, there is no player who is exciting to watch in terms of aggression. Kamran Akamal looks foolish when he tries to get aggressive. The poor lad has made a comeback in the team after 18 months after getting clearances from all sorts of PCB committees.   

And hell there is no Ijaz Butt in PCB. Zaka Ashraf is leading PCB with no controversies. And that's making Pakistan cricket a little bit dull to follow.  

Cmon guys show some aggression. Put up some dance upon fall of a wicket something like Shoaib Akhtar did or Afridi does. Run wildly from boundary line to  bowl a ball with jaws and mouth shaking like Waqar Younis and bowl some toe-crushing yorkers making batsmen looking foolish. 

World T20 should be a good place for Pak team to start showing some aggression and killer instinct.

Loud Mouth Ashvin

It will help Ravi Ashvin to keep quiet and let his ball do the talking instead of being a loud mouth in the media. Every day we read some kind of statements from the spinner and mostly it puts him in the bad light. He has been growing tall as a spinner in Tests but his fielding skills remain slow and his running even more ridiculous. Not to forget how big a failure he was in Australia where he leaked 100 runs almost every innings and got very few wickets in return.

"Pressure is off me" said Ashvin a few days back in TOI. Well the pressure of playing for India and succeeding never eases off dude and if you fail few times, a motivated Harbhajan Singh is ready to bounce back in Tests as well. 

So keep the mouth shut and keep taking wickets in heaps of dozen!!!!

Kiwis clipped in BiriyaniLand

The new look India's test team won its first test in 16 years without names reading as RS Dravid and VVS Laxman in the team sheet. And this time the team at opposite end was New Zealand who have their wings clipped and fighting ability abandoned somewhere down in the exotic NZ locales. 

They could not play Ashvin who took 12-85, his best match figures and they collapsed in a heap. Unworthy opponents.

159 and 164. 

No wicket for Zaheer Khan, no runs for Sachin Tendulkar. What next for this lads ?

Srikanth's contribution to the team as a national selector will be continued implants from his home state, while most of them failed (Vijay, Mukund, Badrinath, Dinesh Karthik), Ashvin has continued to find success in home tests at least and is contributing to the wins. So as long as it lasts!!!

The biggest find of this test was indeed the coming of age of the much hyped (on the blogs) Cheteshwar Pujara (who justified the hype) and continued increasing the century count we have been used to see at # 3 spot in Tests for last 16 years.

A tribute to cricketing achievements of VVS Laxman - 1

It was the summer of 1996. School life had just ended and it was a time to step into the college life. The pre-engineering exams were just done. India had lost to SL in the World cup semi-final in Eden Gardens and the agony and pain was still afresh in the mind. In the meanwhile India had played in a couple of meaningless ODI tournaments in Singapore and Sharjah before they embarked on England tour. A 23 year old lad had debuted in the Singapore tournament which was more known for the record Jayasuriya or Afridi created in terms of fastest 100. It was Dravid. And in England touring party one name had created flutter which people termed as "quota selection".  That lad had scored back to back 100s in first 2 Tests in England including one in Lord's. That was Saurav Ganguly.

Few months later, I had just decided to drop out of the engineering college I was in after a disastrous first semester exams to try my luck in another college. And it coincided with the Titan Cup followed by a South African test series, first on Indian soil. It was Ahmedabad Test and a new lad had debuted in that test. Some very long name ending in Laxman.

Yeah right. VVS Laxman. Vangirappu Venkata Sai Laxman, hailing from Hyderabad, then known for delivering Azharuddin to Indian cricket.  His debut wasnt very auspicious. That test was more known for a deadlier spell by J Srinath destroying SA single handed. 6-21 led India to first ever Test win over South Africa.

The class of 1996 had been formed which in future would go onto make a golden history in Indian Test cricket.

The boy was forgotten soon. He continued making Test appearances often and used to get lost in oblivion. The new formidable Indian middle order was just getting formed.  Ganguly was at # 3 then, Tendulkar was immovable at 4. Dravid came in at 6 after Azharuddin.

Tours of SL and WI in 1997 followed and VVS Laxman failed to make any significant contributions in those tours. That was a time of disillusionment in Indian cricket. Lot of new faces came in and they faded very soon. David Johnson,  Dodda Ganesh, Noel "Who" David were few of those obscure cricketers who came in and faded soon. Not to mention Abe Kuruvilla, Sujith Somsundar and of course Vikram Rathore.

The turning point came in Laxman's career in 1998 when it was Mark Taylor's Australia team to tour India for a full Test series after 12 years (ignoring one off test in 1996).  The highlight of the series was Tendulkar vs Shane Warne battle. Nothing else mattered then.

It was Navjot Singh Siddhu and VVS Laxman who formed the opening pair then. Siddhu set the stage in almost every innings with his sixes off the spinners of Australian team. And Laxman quietly did the job with 50s and 30s in that series. 

But his marquee moment was yet to arrive and that was in Sydney 2000.

--- To be continued

India the world champs in U-19 format too

And India are the undisputed kings of 50 over cricket, be it senior level or the kids level at U-19. Winning a world cup in Australia by beating Australia is heroic and the credit goes to Unmukt Chand and his team for doing an encore of what Md Kaif did in 2000 and Virat Kohli did in 2008.

Great stuff guys. 

The victory sounds sweet cos it came in the tough batting conditions of Tony Ireland stadium and the team sweated it out in all games to win the tournament. There were no free wins.  And it was in Australia. 

And if few of this lads could graduate to the national team, especially in fast bowling department, then it shall be a prize well earned. Fast bowlers, I repeat, not the lads belonging to the clan of Venky Prasad, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar etc.

Enuff ranted!!!

VVS Laxman

VVS Laxman is the Kishore Kumar of Indian Cricket. Serene, divine, calming.

Enough Said.