Rather than trying to think up all sorts of thories and finding who's to blame, face the facts. One session when the pitch was unplayable indians decided to bat and failed. simple. Win the next test and move on. Look at preparing consistent and sporting pitches. If spin is our strength be unashamed to prepare spinnning tracks and make sure we win at home. of 3 test have one in pacy wicket. prepare pacy wickets for domestic cricket to improve batting technique and improve chances of finding good fast bowlers.
It is indeed necessary to have a proper perspective of what has happened. First, after Australia tors partial success, the stupid stupid media started talking of us as No 1 test side if we beat SA. The selecctors again repose their faith on the old guard of Dravid , Laxman & ganguly, while ignoring the fact that at least one of them could be asked to cool their heals in the pavilion and blood youngsters. Instead we get a dead pitch in Chennai with the same old guard in the team & Sehwag goes and plays a blinder ( literally). Nobody says this, but the fact is a winnable test was drawn due the efforts and effect of Dravids century and 10,000 milestone. On the 4th morning the guy really prodded and plodded so much that the batsmen at the other end were forced to p the tempo and take unnecesary risks. So Sehwag, Sachin and ganguly all go cheaply.Then, we give the chance to steyn to show his prowess and get our seleves in a mind game tangle.Total lack of strategy! Then most woefully sachin gets an injury and sits out.Kumble, on a greentop wins the toss and( horror!) elects to bad.By fr the most stupid decision a captain can make. As expected, the flat pitch tigers Jaffer, Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman Et al. all get out in a jiffy, showcasing their rael class and their famed fighing spirit.Why Kumble should play when his fitness was in doubt? Please see my next linked message
RE:Expected Debacle.
by Srinivasan Krishna on Apr 05, 2008 01:19 PM Permalink
Continuing my Expected debacle..... I am absolutely furious about the treatment meted out to the likes of Dinesh Kartik,Parthiv patel( who can get into the team on his batting ability alone)ec. who have proved teir fighting spirit and abilities time and again for India. If we have to be a world betaing side, we must have the guts to take tough decisions. It is enough cricket for the likes of Dravid, Laxman Etc. Even Harbhajan is very ordinary & Murli Karthik at best ( in mumbai cricket language) a Popat bowler.Kumble is definitely over the hill & it is extrely unfair to expect the kind of workload reqired for winning tests. Dhoni's batting abilities are being reletlessly exposed and we sould accept that he must remain a hitter rather than a grafter.His career will be in jeopardy, if continues in this vein. Lets get some solid young bats and blood them. Let us not blood them in foreign tours!( like what we did with Dinesh kartik, where the poor man manfully performed) and a few bad innings in India & he does not get his place in the team!Let us get Yuvraj in the thick of action & let him perform or perish. Let us acept we hae lost this test, sack kirsten, get back Rajput or Shastri & get on with it. let the match fees be 'performance linked' I am not impresed with Chawla the other leggie. we need to really hunt for disciplined and talented bowlers. Not the likes of Sreesanth or RPSinghs, who do not look like ' lambe race ke Ghode'. I am disappointed to say the least.
RE:RE:Expected Debacle.
by Srinivasan Krishna on Apr 05, 2008 01:22 PM Permalink
Oops! sory to miss out Gautam Ghambir & rohit sharma, both test potential guys.
RE:Expected Debacle.
by Nirpinder Singh on Apr 05, 2008 01:25 PM Permalink
Boy! The Indian players seem to have very sensitive groins. How exactly does one injure the groin?
RE:RE:Expected Debacle.
by Rakesh Narayan on Apr 05, 2008 01:29 PM Permalink
Parthiv Patel, how much of his international career have you watched? He has been a total failure at the highest level, and you want him to replace Dhoni who is improving everyday. HOw cna you forgive him for the numerous catches dropped, notably the easiest stumping ever that could have won India the series at Sydney in 2004. Karthik is unlucky cos of Dhoni. If he performs exceptionally better he may replace him. But frankly how the hell can you just wipe off Dhonis exceptional captaincy in the ODIs where he unleashed one smart play over the other and beat world no 1 and world no 2 ODI teams. If you want to prove Dhoni is a lame duck you have to try harder.
RE:Expected Debacle.
by ben hur on Apr 05, 2008 01:38 PM Permalink
rakesh. what u r talking is of past abt parthiv patel when he was teenager just 17. but after being dropped, he improved n learnt his skill as keeper n batsman as well. dont presume that a player cant improve his skill esp when he is still young n talented. even saurav when taken to the ind team was just 16 n thrown out but after 4 years when he came back he made history scoring back to back centuries in eng.
RE:Expected Debacle.
by Srinivasan Krishna on Apr 05, 2008 02:15 PM Permalink
Rakesh, i never said to replace dhoni! get parthiv in as a batsman. he has been exposed to international cricket at a very young age. when the jackals reatined their places, the poor lamb lost hios place. I do not know if you have seen him bat in recent times. he looks very good indeed. As regards Karthick, i believe we should persist with him in the opening slot. Most unfortunately , good bats are weighed down by their alternate abilities of wicketkeeping! Anyway dhoni has to perform, & the way he labours while batting, it is indeed miserable to wtach him, a free flowing attacking batsman. He is a fighter and i expect him to survive.
RE:Expected Debacle.
by Nirpinder Singh on Apr 05, 2008 01:15 PM Permalink
How did Sachin get his injury? Maybe by swinging his bat around in practice. Why does he not change to a lighter bat?
RE:Expected Debacle.
by Rakesh Narayan on Apr 05, 2008 01:25 PM Permalink
He discussed his groin injury in Australia itself. He played with it. He might have aggravated it sometime. Ive been a couch potato mostly, do play club cricket and sometimes when I get hurt I cant physically play. Maybe thats cos Im human. I guess You are one of those who can play with all the injuries in the world. Or maybe you think he doesnt want his average to go down. Or maybe he wants to save himself for IPL, where 2 sixes maybe enough for anybody to be crowned the best batsman ever, or maybe he wants to do commercials. or maybe you guys can come up with something more interesting.
Interesting point is he had scores of 62,26,154,21,71,13,153,13 against Aus in aus, which for a foreign batter is a decent effort. But why was he so scared of SAf at home. Please enlighten us Nirpinder.
RE:Expected Debacle.
by Nirpinder Singh on Apr 05, 2008 01:36 PM Permalink
No I do not want to run Sachin down. However I would like to say that his physical conditioning many not be up to par. For players susceptible to Sports Hernia and Groin Injuries there are Groin Strengthening Exercises that should be followed. Another thing is that we do seem to treat our players very gently and pander to their whims. I have yet to see a player refuse to do an appearance for advertisement purposes due to injury. Should they not take care of their basics i.e. physical fitness, technique and preparedness before engaging in extra curricular activities?
RE:who is kotak?
by ben hur on Apr 05, 2008 01:13 PM Permalink
its sitanshu kotak from saurashtra. he is definitely good in saving matches but he is a veteran. but i wud suggest cheteshwar pujara teenager, hero n man of the series of wc u-19 team. he has single handedly won and saved matches for his team.
RE:3rd match
by Anjana Suresh on Apr 05, 2008 01:00 PM Permalink
A typical response!! You play badly in one innings and that is the end of the world!! Grow up, Rohinton. There are good days and bad days - if it consistently happens, then it makes sense.
RE:3rd match
by kaushik dutta on Apr 05, 2008 04:46 PM Permalink
Who are these: kotak, tendulak and maumdar???? First pass Class X exams and then come to the blog boards....
remove jaffer for the 3rd test. enough is enough of him being given numerous chances n he is scoring only when the pitch is flattest n dead. ignore his scores on such dead pitches.
RE:RE:remove jaffer
by suneel on Apr 05, 2008 12:54 PM Permalink
y don't they try some of the top scorers of ranji.....???its always a surprise to me y the selectors go for those who performed well in county rather than try those who topped the lists in Ranji league...............
RE:RE:RE:remove jaffer
by Nirpinder Singh on Apr 05, 2008 01:07 PM Permalink
You are right! Steyn put his finger on the matter when he said that the Indian Team seemed afraid. Why persist with the same faces? India managed a win in Australia because the BCCI and Sharad Pawar arm twisted the Australians. No credit to the current team. Why do we not give newcomers a chance? Try at least one new comer in each game till a fair number of good players have been identified. After all Ishant Sharma came good only when they gave him a chance to be on the team.
RE:remove jaffer
by ben hur on Apr 05, 2008 01:10 PM Permalink
rohinton is correct. kotak from saurashtra is veteran but known to save the matches. but if u need young one. there is cheteshwar pujara the very talented boy, hero n man of the series of the u-19 wc. who has been performing very well in domestic ckt scoring big hundreds, n he has single handedly saved matches for his team.
