Can't Wait For Boxing Day...

Even as India prepares for the second test match of the ongoing series against Pakistan, 4 fans look ahead to their series down under in less than a month.

Here is an excerpt of their conversation:


Rohit:
John Buchanan’s analysis:
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,22834301-23212,00.html


Manu:
So it begins before the series is upon us


Rohit:
Some more spice:
"There was absolutely no need for a coach at this moment. We're happy with the current support staff (Lalchand Rajput, Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh). We have a high comfort level with them and in any case this being our last tour of Australia, we don't need someone to motivate us or tell us what we're supposed to do," said a senior player, not willing to be named for obvious reasons.


Vinod:
I don’t particularly agree that Prasad and Singh are enough. I really think we need a full-time coach to come up with better strategies. I don’t expect Prasad and Singh to confront seniors as a Chappel or a Wright would do.


Manu:
The blessed seniors have not won anything of note.. they better pipe down and listen to the coach(whoever it is) I want results.. not some ego bloated senior.


Rohit:
I however agree with the statement. The timing is all wrong. Things have been working well for us even without a coach. Let’s keep it that way. Getting a new coach is a major change before Australia.
And the seniors know this is now or never for them. What motivation do they need after this?


Chinmay:
I agree. Indian team has been doing reasonably well without a coach. BCCI should appoint a new coach only after the Australian tour.
What Buchanan has mentioned is nothing new and according to me it applies to all batsmen early on in their innings. I think Tendulkar’s weakness right now is sharp incoming delivery which is mostly due to his slower reflexes.


Rohit:
Let the Aussies feel happy just once that they can get Sachin out with a fixed plan J. They’ve been through 3 tours where they did not know how (other than bad umpiring) to get him out.

What Chinmay says is true. It is not Sachin’s weakness…he has just become slightly mortal after 18 years of international cricket. He is weaker than before. But not weak. And he too is aware of this. And hence we see him changing his game in test matches.

All of Johnson’s successes against him have come in the shorter format of the game when he has the new ball in his hands and Sachin is going for runs. In the longer version of the game, the ball will be older, he will be not as fresh, and Sachin will be more compact.

Laxman at 3! Please!!!!


Vinod:
Actually, I’d not say team is doing reasonably well without a coach. England and Pakistan at the moment are not the best teams around. We lost ODI series to England, although we won the test series. We were outclassed by Aus team. I think playing in Aus is a totally different ball game. Having said that I agree that timing is not correct. It’d not be fair to the coach or the team to gel right away and get results. Unless we have at least 6 players stepping up in each of the test matches, we will probably receive a drubbing.

About Sachin’s weakness: Big deal. Name one batsman who is not tentative in the beginning.


Manu:
Ye of little faith. I think we are going to win in Australia this time around comfortably.. Look at the last test between sri lanka and Australia.. the moment sangakkara jumped on the bullies, they buckled. I can think of not 1 but 3 ( Sachin, Laxman, Dhoni ) who are brilliant counter attackers. The aussie bubble is about to burst. Pity the lankan’s did’nt play a 5 match series. It would’ve been fun to see the outcome there.
All this bluster about plans and opposition team weakness sounds of pre match tension, worries in the home camp. It’s good to see them uncertain of themselves now. The age of the kangaroo is over


Rohit:
I would not go as far as saying we have a great chance of winning. I would love to believe the optimist in your Manu. But I would err on the side of caution.

Hayden, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, Symonds, Gilchrist…wow…can someone convince me that we can get 20 wickets comfortably? J

Sure…our batting of Laxman, Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Dhoni looks impressive as well…but our batsmen are more prone to collapses. I guess the series would be won by the team whose weaker players perform better. By that I mean it is RP Singh, Zaheer Khan, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson. And for India it also includes Jaffer and (dear god) Kaarthik. 1 plus for us is that we have a proven match winner in Kumble. They have none.

For all their confident exterior, I am sure every Aussie knows this is the last chance for the Indian greats to do it. That ought to make them nervous. If they are not…good for us.

All in all, we need to do everything we did in England and then a little more to stop the Aussie juggernaut. We cannot afford to do any mistakes. It took just 2 missed stumpings from the great Parthiv Patel to miss out on a series win the last time. That should not happen again.

It is going to be one helluva series. Bring it on!


Vinod:
More than anything, I’m really hoping that they play with 11 players instead of 13 (2 umpires!)

Time to move on...

Ravi Shastri mentioned in his post-match analysis that it is time for India to move on from the Ganguly-Tendulkar opening partnership. I could not agree more with him.

Move on to whom is the topic of a separate discussion. But I seriously hope we do not move on to a certain Gautam Gambhir.

Gambhir plays for Delhi in first class cricket where he has a reputation of tearing apart sub-standard bowling attacks a-la Virender Sehwag, his opening partner. He scores a lot of runs and he scores them quickly. But as it has been with many players, the step up to the next level has been not so easy for him.

Gambhir made his debut as an opener in a India - South Africa - Bangladesh triangular series just after India's fantastic World cup 2003 campaign. It was a series none of the seniors wanted to play and Gambhir got his break. It was not a lucky break though. He played 3 games against South Africa, and was snared by an away going delivery from Ntini each time. He crossed 20 only once against Bangladesh. This performance and the return of the starts saw his career taking a long 2 year hiatus.

His second innings, so to speak, started in the Dravid-Chappell era, when building a team with youngsters was the buzzword. He got his chance against Sri Lanka after India had already won the series. He made an impressive 100. But it has been slim pickings since then. His weakness of falling over while trying to play in front of his pads to the on-side has resulted in his downfall on a number of ocassions. And when it is not that, it is playing way outside his off-stump and getting caught by the keeper or the slips.

The worst of his dismissals came against South Africa at Hyderabad. This was back in the days when super-sub was part of the game. Gambhir was a super-sub in the game where India lost the toss and had to bat first. So his game was virtually over. But India lost it's way terribly and was reduced to 34/4. India gambled with using up the super-sub for a bowler. Out walked Gambhir to join Yuvraj. He was walking back to the pavilion after adding 1 run to his and team's tally. He had again fallen to a loose and flashy drive outside the off stump and was caught by the wicket keeper. This was the shot of a person who was not aware of the match situation.

And the numbers tell a very familiar story;

He has played a total of 26 games, scored 775 runs, at an average of 32.29, with 2 100s and 4 50s. Not a bad record for someone who has played that many games. But digging deeper reveals the true picture. Against the minnows (Bangladesh, Scotland, Ireland) he has played 6 games, scored 369 runs, at an average of 92.25, with 1 100 and 3 50s. Against the other teams (Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa, England and West Indies) he has played 20 games, scored 406 runs, at an average of 20.3, with 1 100 and 1 50. Of the 24 times he has gotten out, 18 have been caught by wicket keeper or the slips, or bowled/lbw to the incoming ball. That is a staggering 75% of his dismissals.

And to add to this, he does not bowl, nor is he an exceptional fielder.

So the question I want to ask is, how many more times do we want to see him fail before deciding to move on? As far as I am concerned, we have already passed that time. Last season we suffered because of Greg Chappell's obsession with Suresh Raina. I just hope we don't do the same this season with Gambhir.

Robin Uthappa, who was the toast of the nation pre-WC has not played a single game since. The same guy who was picked ahead of Raina, Kaif and Gambhir is now sitting on the sidelines. Why?

A mouth watering prospect

It was on February 1, 2006 at the National Stadium in Karachi that the contest happened last time.

Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the best batsman to have ever played the game, was looking at a certain defeat in a test match. He was up against overcast skies, a bowler friendly pitch and 2 fired up pace bowlers. And his team needed more than 600 runs to win the match in under 2 days and had already lost 2 wickets. It was certain defeat. But Tendulkar was not willing to surrender. He was hit on the head by a fierce Shoaib Akhtar bouncer. But he responded with some scorching backfoot punches and a pull.

The bowler at the other end was Mohammed Asif. A young tall Pakistan pace bowler who was interested more in pitching the ball in the right areas and getting some movement. Rather odd. From the time Waqar Younis came along, every young Pakistani bowler wanted to bowl fast. Asif's partner at the other end was amongst the fastest bowlers of all time.

Tendulkar looked set for a big one, when against the run of play, Mohammed Asif got one to sneak through Tendulkar's defenses and crash into the off stump. The ball had kept low. Tendulkar was literally floored. The replays suggested that the bowler was trying to bowl a short one. The ball did not rise up. The seam was pointing towards the slips. But the ball landed on the seam and came back in.

'The great man brought to his knees', read a newspaper article.

Now Pakistan is coming to India in a couple of months to play 3 test matches. And we will see Asif bowling to Tendulkar.

What makes this contest so interesting?

Tendulkar has shown throughout his career a very strong desire to make a bold statement against bowlers who have gotten him out in embarassing ways. Any average Indian cricket fan would remember what happened to Henry Olonga, Shane Warne and Saqlain Mushtaq. In the one-day series that followed the test matches in Pakistan, at the same ground, Tendulkar thwarted Asif on a seaming pitch with brilliant ease.

Asif has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 15 months. He has become Pakistan's #1 bowler. He has travelled and bowled to batsmen like Kevin Pietersen and Jacques Kallis with much success. He now has the confidence, bordering on arrogance, of a man who knows he can get the best. He is considered by many (and I agree) to be the best young bowler in cricket.

Tendulkar, post world cup, has shown the consistency that had abandoned him since his return to cricket following his shoulder surgery. He is now comfortable playing a waiting game.

And the one thing common between the veteran and the rookie is that they are not going to take a backward step.

Waiting for November....

A victory...well deserved

"This victory will be ranked right up there at the top" said Sachin Tendulkar after India completed a historic series win against England at the Oval. It's no wonder he said that. It was 1986 when India last won a series in England and he was only 13 then. But, it was only after 18 years since the master batsman started his career could he taste the series win on English soil.

Rahul Dravid had mentioned when Indian team left for the tour of England that he has been assigned a job to win a test series in England and one can only say "Job Well Done". It was especially very satisfying after the World Cup debacle not a long time ago.

It all started at Lords, the mecca of Cricket. Rain gods came to the rescue of Indians at Lords. But, we also witnessed Mahendra Singh Dhoni's clear-headedness and ability to adapt to different conditions and why he is an asset to this Indian team.

At Trent Bridge, when English players were busy throwing jelly beans on the cricket pitch, Indian players(barring Sreesanth) were focused on the most important task of winning the test match. It was obvious from the way Tendulkar and Ganguly batted on 2nd and 3rd day and also from the way Zaheer bowled in the second innings. That gave India the 1-0 lead in the series.

Along came Oval and it also brought bad memories of Georgetown in 2001, Melbourne in 2004 and Durban in 2007 where India frittered away the advantage after going 1-0 up in the series.Rahul Dravid won an important toss and decided to bat first. All Indian batsmen batted superbly with all 11 players in double figures. Anil Kumble hit his maiden hundred and India piled up 664 in the first innings. Indian bowlers also bowled very well to restrict England to 330. Then came the all important all-bit controversial decision to not enforce the follow-on. It was understandable from the point of view that Indians wanted to block the last ray of hope for England to win the match and also wanted to make absolutely sure that they hang on to the 1-0 series lead. And something which had not happened for last 21 years happened! A rare series victory for India in England. Although critics can come up with thousand and one reasons why Dravid should have enforced the follow-on, it's still trivial compared to the series win.

This series victory meant something for everybody in this team because it was a collective effort. Unlike the Indian team in the nineties which was heavily dependent on individual performances rather than a team effort. We also saw some personal landmarks being reached.

• Sachin Tendulkar completed 11,000 test runs.
• Anil Kumble hit his maiden century and he also went pass Glenn Mcgrath in the tally of most number of wickets in test matches.
• Zaheer bowled his best spell ever at Trent Bridge.

If we look at history, it all started under Sourav Ganguly's captaincy when India started winning test matches outside sub-continent. They won a test series in West Indies last year and now it's England. Success is a gradual process and one can only say Team India is on the right track. The tipping point may not be far away when this team will travel to Australia in December in all important test series against the world champions.

However, now is the time for this team to enjoy the warmth of success after all the hard work paid off. As Michael Vaughn said in his post-match interview, "Some series wins are far more important".

Agarkar should retire

Ajit Agarkar should retire from all forms of international cricket immediately.

Is he past his prime? Is he not good enough to play international cricket anymore? Does India have really good bowlers to replace him permanently?

No, no and no!

Then why should he retire?

Because there is nothing he can do that will satisfy the cricket crazy (read just crazy) Indian fans. He could take a heap of wickets in a series, or bowl consistently for 6 months, but the next time he has 1 bad game, he will be dropped without mercy.

Let us look at the latest chapter in his cricket career;

Did he deserve to the dropped from the ODI team after the world cup? Would India have qualified for the Super 8s with a different bowler? Would India have managed bowl out oppositions with Sreesanth playing instead of Agarkar?

Let us analyze these questions;

Agarkar bowled as well, or as badly as any other seam bowler on show for India at the cup. He was in fact, the standout bowler in the crucial game against Sri Lanka, keeping Jayaruriya on a tight leash. It is a matter of a separate discussion why he was not bowled out against Sri Lanka. (Munaf Patel bowled in his place and gave away 18 in an over)

The average Indian fan understands the language of numbers. So allow me to use some numbers. In this world cup, this is what Agarkar did:

4 wickets in 3 games, at an average of 28, strike rate of 40, and economy rate of 4.02

How did the other seamers fare?

Zaheer:
5 wickets in 3 games, at an average of 25, strike rate of 34, and economy rate of 4.20
Munaf:
5 wickets in 3 games, at an average of 26, strike rate of 39, and economy rate of 3.98

Do you notice any significant difference?

'It is not about the world cup, Agarkar has always been an inconsistent performer, giving away too many runs'

Is it true? Has Agarkar failed Indian cricket time and again? Let us look at his performance under Rahul Dravid as the captain.

75 wickets in 50 games, at an average of 26, strike rate of 32, and economy rate of 4.81

Zaheer:
69 wickets in 50 games, at an average of 32, strike rate of 36, and economy rate of 5.19
Irfan:
62 wickets in 40 games, at an average of 25, strike rate of 29, and economy rate of 5.11
Munaf:
26 wickets in 20 games, at an average of 28, strike rate of 37, and economy rate of 4.53
Sreesanth:
35 wickets in 27 games, at an average of 36, strike rate of 37, and economy rate of 5.75
RP Singh:
24 wickets in 20 games, at an average of 31, strike rate of 35, and economy rate of 5.13

So, where does Agarkar stack up in this list? I would say top of the pile.

We should not be even talking about his career numbers;

276 wickets in 183 games, at an average of 27, strike rate of 32, and economy rate of 5.02

'What is so special about these numbers?'

Everyone knows he was the fastest bowler in the history of one day cricket to get to 50 wickets. But how many people know he is the 5th fastest to 250 wickets, taking the same number of games as Glenn McGrath. And at the current rate, he is in line to be the 2nd or 3rd fastest to 300 wickets.

He is a few wickets away from breaking into the top 10 wicket takers of all time, currently sitting on #12

He is #7 on the list of best strike rates amongst bowlers with minimum 100 games

Given a chance, he will end up as being India's best one day international bowler of all time. We are talking about Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble here.

But it is not just about the numbers. It is about what he has given to Indian cricket, and what Indian cricket has given back to him.

'He gets out for a duck almost every time he goes out to bat!'

He has always been blamed for his batting failures. Sure he had a lot of potential. But there came a time in his cricket career when he realized he could not be the all-rounder everyone, perhaps himself, thought was possible. So he had to choose between batting and bowling. He chose the latter. And he has tried to remind everyone that he is not a batsman. He would have hoped people would have heard him already.

So he is a bad batsman. Does he not field well? We should try to also note that he is by far the best seam bowler fielder we have. In the time when we have people crying for better fielding, it is strange that we replace him with RP Singh.

What about his attitude? He has been amongst the very few Indian bowlers who has the aggression. How many times have we moaned the lack of aggressive bowlers in our team who can give some back to the opposition?

It should also be noted that after 9 seasons in international cricket, he bowls at the same speed that he started off with. He hits the 140 kph mark with alarming regularity. How much has Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan's pace dropped just 1-2 seasons into international cricket?

He is also amongst the longest serving Indian pace bowlers. How many readers can remember names like Ashish Vaidhya, Thiru Kumaran, Dodda Ganesh, David Johnson, Salil Ankola, Abey Kuruvilla, Debashis Monhanty or Harvinder Singh? How well could some better names hold up? Venkatesh Prasad, Abey Kuruvilla, Ashish Nehra or Laxmipathy Balaji?

So he has given Indian cricket a fantastic wicket taking ability, great fielding, speed, longevity and loads of aggression.

What has he got in return?

He is Indian cricket's biggest sacrificial lamb. Any time there is call for change in the team, he is the first one to be dropped. With numbers like his, in the short term and long, he should have had his place secured in the Indian team. Any team other than Australia would take this performance from their seam bowler.

He still has no respect from the Indian cricket fan or the experts. Not one soul questioned why he was dropped from the team to Bangladesh. Some reports had noted pre-world cup that he was India's standout bowler last season.

If he has a heart big enough to take this total lack of respect with a smile, he should go on for the sake of Indian cricket. He is only 29, and has a lot to offer.

But for his sake, he should quit all international cricket. Maybe play some first class cricket in Australia, the only county that has appreciated him for his strengths, and not ridiculed him for his weaknesses.

What went wrong for Team India in the Caribbean?

"Sri Lanka sinks a billion hopes" read the cricinfo website after India's game against Sri Lanka of the ongoing 8th Cricket World Cup. It ended India's campaign for this World Cup. They became 2nd team after Pakistan to crash out of the World Cup in the first round. India started their World Cup with a surprise loss against the minnows Bangladesh. They then recovered well with a convincing win against Bermuda. But, the real test was against Sri Lanka. They had to win this game to qualify for the next round.

Yet...once again the famous Indian batting line up failed to deliver when needed the most. The Tendulkars, The Dravids and The Gangulys only managed to retain the chokers tag which was given to this team long ago.

So, what went wrong for Men in Blue? Already a billion angry fans/analysts have started to scratch their heads to find the causes. These are some of the top of my head,

• India lacked strong opening partnership. The experimentation of Uthappa failed in all 3 games. The only way Mr. Ganguly can score runs is by hitting boundaries. No quick singles or two's to make fielding captain rethink his field placings.
• Dhoni's failure in both games which India lost. This hit hard as Dhoni had rescued India from difficult situations in the past.
• Rahul Dravid's captaincy. It's too predictable and reactive at times. In the game against Bangladesh, he should have opened with Munaf Patel or should have brought him in the attack early.
  
• India only had 3 wicket taking bowlers. Spinners, especially, Harbhajan Singh failed to maintain the pressure in the middle overs created by opening fast bowlers.
• Indian team lacked discipline in the field.
• The fear of failure.

Indian cricket team has lot of rethinking and rebuilding to do for the road ahead. Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell will have to answer a lot of questions. BCCI president has already announced that they would be making some unemotional decisions.

All said...an avid Indian cricket fan like me has to wait another four years :(

Should Sehwag be included in Indian squad for the WC?

It's a million dollar question..isn't it? My answer to that question is a strong "YES". I know many of you will disagree after seeing the recent debacle in his batting form...but here are few reasons why I want Sehwag to be in the Indian side which will fly to WI for the prized trophy in cricket world.

• He is one of the most prolific batsmen in International Cricket today with career strike rate of 95.
  
• He can take down any bowling attack which is very important against sides like Australia and SA.
  
• He is a handy part time spinner.
• He is probably the best fielder among the seniors.
• He can be unconventional with his field placings.
• There is nobody to replace him in the Indian bench. Uthappa is a handy player but largely untested against better opposition and on bowler friendly pitches. But, we should still take him to WI as cover. Australia has the luxury of strong bench strength. Their A teams are as good as many international sides today. It always keeps their senior players on toes. India, and for that sake many international sides lack that.
  
• India needs experience in WI. Sehwag, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid contribute almost 40,000 ODI runs and more than 700 matches.
• I just think he is far important player to be dropped for a tournament like the World Cup.
• All these reasons are from the perspective of the World Cup. In the long term(which I think should not be considered right now), if he keeps on failing, he will be automatically dropped.
  

Sehwag should have been dropped for the test matches against SA like the way Pathan was. That could have given him more time to work on his batting. Anyway, I just hope he has worked on his batting with his childhood coach to regain that lost confidence in whatever break he got and we will get to see that old Destructive Sehwag against Sri Lanka and also in WI.