CricDigs Blogs

If they beat Sri Lanka in the Third Test that has started in Mumbai then India will become the #1 Test side in the World. It has never achieved that position before. It would be terrific if they accomplish that after securing their 100th Test win in the last Test at Kanpur…

Will Team India do this? and Is it truly the #1 Test side in the World? As there is no set rotation or tournament schedule that manages Test Cricket, it is hard to objectively comment on whether any side is the #1 or not, but one thing is for sure, over the past few years Team India has shown ability to win “on the road” and has demonstrated that a few times. It has won Series in England, West Indies, New Zealand and has fought very hard against Australia in Australia. It has also consistently won at Home. It probably has the best batting line-up and has a good variety in bowling attack..

So I really wish that India wins this test and claims the top spot!!

It’s been a roller-coaster kind of a Test Match so far. On the opening day/session it looked like India would get bundled out for a small total, but ended the day very strongly, only be bowled out relatively cheaply during the first hour on Day 2. Sri Lankans have posted an enormous total so far and would surely add a lot more to it, from where they almost can not lose this test.

Now the question is would India be able to save this test match? They surely have the batting line up that can play for days but it has also collapsed unceremoniously a few times. As seen many times in the past, Indian team somehow starts almost every test series badly and then tries to come back.

Would that trend repeat itself in Ahmadabad between today and tomorrow?

Why do we have to go through this pain again and again?? Why can’t Sachin either win all the matches from soup to nuts or somehow give strength to fans like me to handle the disappointment??

We could see it coming…When Sachin kept on batting trying to reach that huge target, you could almost be sure that it is going to end the same way it has ended so many times. Sachin would get out just before the victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat and then it would be all over..It would only be the details that would change..It could be run-outs, bad shots, great fielding, panic and so on…

This is exactly why many of Sachin’s innings get written off as playing-for-himself and not achieving the ultimate target of victory. What is most amazing is that despite all these disappointments, he continues to march on and keep making thousands of runs for himself and his country..

Now the million dollar question…Would Sachin end his astronomical career without having the most coveted trophy in Cricket, The World Cup? Looking at history, it scares me even to think about what will happen in 2011…

Yep, Indian selectors should get rid of all the Kohlis and Karthiks of the world and bring back good old Dravid. He was brought back for the Sri Lankan Series and Champions Trophy and despite playing reasonably well was dropped for the home series…Not fair, I say…

Dravid is probably not a classic ODI player but may be he is the type of batsman you want to come in between (Sehwag, Sachin, Gambhir) and Yuvraj. He also brings in all the experience and is definitely an asset while chasing smallish targets, when he can control the game nicely. He may not be as explosive or aggressive as players like Kohli but he would be much more predictable and consistent…

What do you all think?

They have done it some may times in the past for India and when they are on-song, no target seem unachievable. After India were 50-odd for 3 while chasing a smallish target of 229, Dhoni and Yuvraj came together again and had a big 143 run partnership that all but finished the match for India…

They both have totally different styles, one is a sheer talent and the other sheer determination and cleverness. The one thing common between the two is they can take any bowling attack apart and can change any match in a course of couple of overs.

This was an important match in the series after a 1-1 situation and this very powerful pair made sure India wins it comfortably..

This morning while driving to work, I was lazily scanning through the FM channels and finally got back to the one I end up listening to most of the time even though I don’t like that particular program. It consists of the RJ putting a question/recent news item/fact and asking the listeners to send their opinion on it. Usually the question is about some stupid Bollywood gossip or some irritating piece of sensational new item … hence my aversion to the program. But today’s question was … “India will not be playing any Test Cricket this year… Is this the end of Test Cricket?”

It got my attention. Surely, it can’t be true! The Test Series win in New Zealand was still fresh in my mind. But now that I think of it… it sure was quite some time back. Reaching office, I checked to confirm that the last time we played a test match was in March this year. After that there was the T20 World Cup and the ODI series in West Indies. Of course, if you are an Indian, the IPL that happened in April-May would have attracted your attention as well. So if the claims of the RJ are true, India will not be playing another Test Series until at least March 2010. I further checked the ICC Future Tours program and it showed that India are scheduled to play a Test series against SL at home in Nov-Dec 2009 and another one against SA in Feb-Mar 2010. This gave me some relief, but, can the Futures Program be trusted?

Even if the RJ’s claims were not entirely correct, the fact did come as a surprise to me. So has Test Cricket finally started dying? If a cricket crazy country like India, which produces the most amount of money in World Cricket, does not play even one test match for almost a year, then it definitely is a cause for concern. Agreed that the recently completed Ashes Test series generated a lot of interest, but if you look at the other test series that were being played around the same time (SL Vs. Pak, Zim Vs. Ban, SL Vs. NZ), none of them generated any significant interest. And even the Ashes were hyped so much only because for a change, England were the favourites and finally won the series against the mighty Aussies.

Whether the Aussie reign has come to an end is a topic of discussion for another day. A bigger and more scary question is the future of test cricket. As an ardent fan of the format, I am really concerned about the beginning of the end. My fear increases even more when I meet today’s youngsters (a couple of my younger cousins actually) who were hooked on to the T20 World Cup but could not remember anything nor care less about India’s spectacular win in the Perth Test or even the series win against NZ.

One of the respondents to the radio show summarized my fear aptly - “Who has the time these days to watch one game for 5 days? As for me, I wouldn’t spend even one full day for one game”. The lad did not sound more than 20!

To rub salt into the wound, that respondent won the prize for the best response for the question!

It has now become an established fact that the young Indian top-order struggles a lot against the short-pitched stuff. Keeping this under consideration and the fact that the Champions Trophy will be held on the somewhat fastish pitches of South Africa, the Indian selectors have gone back on the recently, out-of-favour Rahul Dravid. What is even more surprising is the fact that they are providing too many suggestions why his name is there in the 30-man squad after he was, until very recently, looked upon as too ‘aged’ and ‘unfit’ for anything besides test cricket. What happened to all the glory that was heaped on players like Rohit Sharma and the theory that the likes of Dravid and Ganguly were simply occupying positions in the ODI team that was meant for youngsters? A few matches where the India’s batting has struggled and all the supposed long-term planning and futuristic views have disappeared.

I would have like to used the phrase, ‘Battling it out’, but Dhoni’s batting in the ongoing one-day series against the West Indies has been so impressive that I had to make this change. Taking into consideration the fact that he is under constant pressure now and the team is not performing as well it was, just a couple of months back, the consistency in his run-making is all the more impressive. This is probably the best way for him to silence his minority of critics and all those who are jumping to conclusions after our exit from the T20 World Cup. He has batted in each innings as per the demand of the game, foregoing a bit of his natural game to make sure that the team’s needs are prioritized and for me that is the best way of leading by example. Karthick too seems to have made some sort of a mark with his role as an opener and one can only hope that this time he sustains his performance and does not go off the radar.

It was about to happen at any time again — India’s susceptibility to playing too many shots on pitches that were even remotely assisting bowlers was highlighted in the just concluded T20 World Cup and the West Indies used the same clues to defeat Dhoni’s men in the second one dayer of the ongoing one-day series. However, I don’t agree with the experts commenting in newspapers that Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan should bat up the order. For starters, Dhoni is integral to the Indian middle order and Pathan just cannot play the moving ball. It is the batsmen who need to be reconsidered, particularly Rohit Sharma who is always in a hurry for some inexplicable reasons. Maybe, Badrinath or Murali Vijay could be given a chance to try and have someone in the Dravid mould bat at number three, i.e. consolidate at one end while the other stroke-makers play their shots?

Although, MS Dhoni was extremely appreciate of the match-winning effort by Yuvraj Singh for his century in the first of the four one-dayers against the WI, he was quick to add that the team relaxed a bit too much towards the end of the game. In fact, he emphasized that the 20-run win margin was much tighter than suggested by the scoreline, since some of the fielders relaxed a bit too much once seven of the West Indian wickets were down. In a way, you cannot disapprove of what Mahi is trying to say. The team did become a bit too casual once it seemed that WI would fall short of the target and some of the bowling towards the end was very pedestrian. Regarding the bowling, it remains to be seen how effective will the combination of Yusuf Pathan and Jadeja bowling in the middle of the innings will prove, since they need to fill-in about 8 – 10 overs in each of these ODI matches.