Cricket Blog

Looking at the recent India-Sri Lanka test series one can see that pretty soon we will be seeing a majosr shift in the Indian test team’s composition. The Fab 4, aka Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman, have not contributed at all to the team’s win in the second test. Its been 5 consecutive failures by these 4 talented and legendary batsmen.

Tendulkar is coming back from an injury so he would likely take some time to get into some form. Ganguly should hang up his boots and leave now with his pride intact. Laxman still has a couple of years left and needs to get into some sort of form sooner rather than later especially with the Aussies coming to town soon.

Dravid is the main worry for me here. The wall has certainly shown a lot of cracks ever since he renounced his captaincy last year. He has been out of form ever since. I am not sure how long the Indian board is going to wait before axing him from the team.

So, to the future. The Indian team’s bench strength has never looked so promising at it looks right now. Here is my team for the future (next 2 years):

1. Gautam Gambhir - Continues to prove his mettle against all oppositions in all forms of the game.
2. Virender Sehwag - No denying him now that he has found his form.
3. Rohit Sharma - The future wall of Indian cricket, in my opinion.
4. Sachin Tendulkar - What can you say about this man
5. VVS Laxman - Wristy elegance not found anywhere else now.
6. Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Indian cricket’s future.
7. Robin Uthapa/Yuvraj Singh/Irfan Pathan - Pick your choice depending on form and conditions.
8. Harbhajan Singh - Almost 300 test wickets. Need I say anymore.
9. Piyush Chawla/Pragyan Ojha/Amit Mishra - One of these will have to support Bhajji.
10. Zaheer Khan - He is back and he is meaner and leaner than ever.
11. Ishant Sharma - Indian cricket’s true express fast bowler. Ricky Ponting anyone.

Then there are Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel, Manpreet Singh Gony, and more waiting in the lines.

Post your comments on your future Indian Test team.

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Indian Innings

Hong Kong Innings

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A good day for India after they lost the toss. Graeme Smith’s luck with the coin continued yesterday as he won a crucial toss on a pitch that would deteriorate from the first day itself. There was no exception to this as the spinners played an important part in India’s bowling performance.

The opening pair of Smith and Mckenzie started strongly, putting on another 50 plus partnership. Then Amla and Smith combined to score 91 runs. At this stage the South Africans were looking to run away with the match. India had other ideas. Dhoni captaining for the first time in tests, brought in Yuvraj Singh who provided the breakthrough by getting Smith straight away. Amla was then bowled by an Ishant special. Kallis followed soon after. South Africa tumbled down to 161-4 as they lost 3 quick wickets in the space of 5 overs.

Prince, de Villiers, Boucher and Morkel all got starts but none went on to score anything considerable. For India, Harbhajan Singh and young Piyush Chawla combined to pick up 5 wickets. Ishant got 3 to his name and 1 each to Yuvraj and Sehwag. India should now look to capitalise on this strong bowling performance. Any lead would be handy, however a lead of 150 should be match winning. On the other hand, the pitch has had pretty variable bounce on Day 1 itself, so the South African fast bowlers would be looking to use that to their advantage.

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What a superb match and a sensational win to Team India. MS Dhoni’s boys did what previous Indian legends could never accomplish. This win in the best of three finals will rank as high as the Twenty20 World Cup. Massive celebrations at the end of the match clearly indicated the emotions that the Indians were going through. After a controversial summer, the Indians managed to tell the Aussies - Shut the hell up.

Sachin Tendulkar was the standout performer for India and played two dream innings just when it mattered. He silenced his critics, for now, by playing match winning knocks in the crucial finals. But the real heroes were the 19 and 20 year olds backed by their maverick captain. I still remember Dhoni calling this team as “My team” in the presentation ceremony. This performance, coupled with the T20 win, has surely put an end to the One day careers of Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly.

Playing with the most inexperienced side in this tri-series, Dhoni and his “boys” have proven that experience without will and talent is like a glass without water. I, for one, had been extremely impressed by the selectors’ decision to pack the squad with these talented youngsters. The fact was that these players had already proven themselves in the T20 World Cup. How many tournaments have Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman won for India? I am not questioning the talent and experience of these four, but at the end of the day, results matter.

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Well, its time to give out my opinion on the squad that has been chosen for the ODI series involving India, Sri Lanka and Australia. A lot is being said about the exclusion of some “Big” names from the squad and that the players selected are not right for this series. The selectors have flat-out cleared their criteria - Fielding. In a country where people are completely crazy about their stars, this is not a good enough reason. In my opinion, hats off to the selectors for finally putting a greater emphasis on the fielding capabilities of ODI players.

For years we have seen our team to be the worst in fielding, on paper and on Live TV. The bungling old players have had over a decade of playing experience, yet there has been absolutely no improvement in their fielding. Yes they are good in catching, and catches win matches. But catches don’t come every other ball. Every single run counts in ODI cricket, and every time the ball is placed to Ganguly and Dravid, the batsmen always take an extra run.

Well what about running between the wickets. It would be an understatement to say that both Ganguly and Dravid are the worst runners in the Indian squad. Saurav Ganguly has played 311 matches. He has been part of 145 losses. He has been runout 13 times averaging 34.92 every time. Almost once every 11 matches that India have lost. Almost always after getting a good start. Overall he has been runout 23 times. Dravid, on the other hand, has played 333 ODI matches. He has been involved in 160 defeats and got himself runout 20 times. That is once in every 8 defeats. He averages 30.65 and just like Ganguly gets himself runout after getting a good start.

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