India's Super Eights Issue

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.

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Beat the rowdy Englishmen!!!

No matter how shit Indian bowling is, I'd bet them to beat down the rude English tomorrow in the meaningless last league game of Group A.  Go Indians, nail down that cranky little boy Stuart Broad's rowdy Englishmen. 

Nothing is pacifying seeing the whipped asses of this rowdy Englishmen, who are undeserving #1 in ODIs. And then wont care if Indians are kicked out in Super 8's itself!!!!

Dhoni messes up with Yuvi's return!!

When Dhoni messes up something, he has excuses ready for everything. Like he did have for the bizzare loss in the 2nd T20I yesterday. Pitch got changed when he came to bat suddenly.  He has played his IPL cricket on that damn pitch and if he didnt knew it then he should have drowned himself for not knowing it. He has been a hyped player in the T20 format and he has often gone slow in start. But yesterday he messed it up and team lost the game which it had no business losing it. 

22 off 23 balls might seem a decent score but at one stage it was 9 off 16 balls and thats where India lost the plot. He coming at 5 was also a wrong move if he is to play slow. Irfan Pathan is much of an improved batsman and he should have been coming when Kohli got out.  Sending in Rohit Sharma on Yuvi's dismissal was also a blooper and instead Tiwary or Pathan should have been sent. Dont know what the team management was thinking.

And of course it was a Chennai game, so the local heroes had to play. Didnt matter they turned out to be flops.  L Balaji and R Ashvin were flop stars yesterday.  Now that Srikanth is gone, we expect no freebies rolled out to the failed stars of Tamil Nadu cricket.

Welcome Back Yuvraj Singh

Welcome back to the field Yuvraj Singh. Today is those one of the rare days where turning up on the field would matter the most and whether you make or do not make runs shall not matter. Today's day is an ode to your persona and your spirit.  And that's what the fans are joyed to see.

 

The man of 2011 World Cup final is back and that should be the biggest plot of the day.

 

 

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Apply 25% reservation for Pakistani players in ICC awards

Let the 33% reservation quota in Indian government jobs apply to 25% reservation for Pakistani cricketers in ICC annual awards categories as well. That way the Pakistanis shall be happy given the hue and cry their board and bloggers have created over Ajmal snub!!!

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.