Border-Gavaskar Trophy (India in Australia) Dec-Jan 2011/12

[El Loco]

I wonder who has won the sledging contest or 'banter' as Warner puts it more bluntly?

 

[SaiSrini]

Even Zaheer was toothless today. I agree with Ian Chappell's comments in the commentary box when he said visiting teams should not come in too early into the city where they are going to play their next match. They should ideally come a day or two early and hit the nets. This way, they are not too much consumed about the hype over the pitch. The green-ness of the pitch made India play 4 fast bowlers when it was not necessary at all. And also the batsmen saw the green-ness and started acting crazy. The first ball that Sehwag played itself gave the indication. He played the ball on the on-side and started looking up towards the air on the off side to see if the ball was heading off his outside edge towards gully. Even the normally confident and water tight Dravid was looking shaky and vulnerable in his mind. Only Tendulkar and Gambhir looked confident and good in that first session. But no one could go on for bigger things after getting that start, and I won't give all credit for that to Australia. Its in our minds right now. Thats why we need a different environment (which means a different coach and support staff). These batsmen are capable, something is wrong in their mental setup.

 

[sifter132]

^Yes I think you are right to some extent. India's mindset is not quite right, especially when compared so starkly with Warner and Cowan's approach.

The million dollar question of course is what the real issue is and how to fix it? Is it Fletcher's coaching? Or Dhoni's captaincy? Team culture in general? Having 3 old batsmen? Or not enough experience in non-Asian conditions apart from those 3? Fletcher is probably the easiest to change - he is no sacred cow in India like Dhoni or the big 3.

Anyway, the big test will be what India do after this series. Will the selectors have the same attitude that Ishant and Kohli had yesterday in their banter with Warner? ie. that the problems will go away once they get back home. If so, look for the same team to continue into the upcoming home series vs England and Australia. Or will the selectors and administrators start trying to get players to play more long form cricket and more cricket away from home in an attempt to actually fix the problem. Will India do their own inquiry into the problems like Australia did with the Argus review? And even if they do will the BCCI be selfless enough to forgo some profits in order to win some Test cricket again?

 

[VC the slogger]

Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni should take a page out of Warner's book and play their natural game too.

 

[angryangy]

I think with the freshness of the pitch, the ball wear is a bit English. It will swing for quite a while, aided by the breeze, but might take an hour or two for the ball to lose any lacquer. The new ball was a good time for the openers to take advantage, but there ought to be chances for India to come back into the game soon after the start of day 2. The pitch should also be getting sharper, which should aid the bowlers if they are accurate.

 

[aussie1st]

Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni should take a page out of Warner's book and play their natural game too.

I think you will find he is playing his natural game just he's getting out.

 

[SaiSrini]

When Sehwag plays his natural game, he gets out most often. Place Warner in place of Sehwag and let Warner bat against the Australian bowlers on this pitch, he will fail too. Our bowling was so bad that Warner got this many runs. When our confidence was better in the previous two games, we got Warner pretty cheap.

 

[VC the slogger]

I think you will find he is playing his natural game just he's getting out.

In the first innings in which he was out for 0,he tried to play front-foot defensive shot and block deliveries rather than play his 'go after almost every ball' tactic.The commentators of Star Cricket,Sourav Ganguly and Ian Chappell also detected this.

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When Sehwag plays his natural game, he gets out most often. Place Warner in place of Sehwag and let Warner bat against the Australian bowlers on this pitch, he will fail too. Our bowling was so bad that Warner got this many runs. When our confidence was better in the previous two games, we got Warner pretty cheap.

I agree with you.Why can't the Indian bowlers pitch it up like the Aussies.Ishant Sharma is bowling quick but bowling down the legside and short-of a lenght and half volleys that Warner and Cowan can easily put away.The Aussie bowlers Hilfenhaus,Siddle and Ryan Harris and Starc bowled in the right areas most times.Their bowling coach Craig McDermott taught them very well.The Indian bowling coach Eric Simons by the looks of things is not doing such things.....

 

[SaiSrini]

To put it simple - India doesnt have the right support staff in the background to help them with these things. Don't know when will we pick a really good bowling coach. We seemed to have got it really well with the actual coach when Kirsten coached us, but sadly he couldn't continue beyond the World Cup. But I thought Fleming would have made a good choice, but this Fletcher came out of the blue (dont know from where) and has been awful with our team. This is becoming worser than the Chappell era (only difference is, the Chappell era was also mired with controversies and ugly politics that was played out in front of the world).

 

[VC the slogger]

Fletcher is too old also.Stephen Fleming is 38 and I prefer a younger coach.He can help in coaching better that way and was also a veteran of 280 ODIs and 111 Tests and one of the world's best cricket captains.
In the Chappell era,Greg Chappell helped in a way of bringing youngsters like Raina,RP Singh etc on to the international scene.
BCCI could have approached some former England pacers like Darren Gough,Andy Caddick or maybe South African former bowler Shaun Pollock who is the bowling coach of Mumbai Indians.None of these would say no to a chance of being an international coach and a good salary...

 

[SaiSrini]

For a coach, Fleming is a very young guy. He should be younger than Gary Kirsten who was brilliant for us as coach. Shaun Pollock can be India's bowling coach and he would do a good job. I just wish our setup is shaken up soon.

 

[Cricketdude]

I think Dhoni's comments about giving up one format to play the 2015 WC might go against him. Either he will be dropped from test captaincy/team or he himself might announce it pretty soon. Either way, we need a new captain for tests, no doubt about it. And we need a major rehaul of our staff personnel (including Fletcher who has been shocking). Well he was bad even with England during those end years (wonder what made the selectors give him the job). Even in a home series against WI, we struggled to beat them and thats indicative of how bad Fletcher is.

But Sehwag should not be captain. It should be Gambhir. He batted well today and at Sydney suggesting that his form is back. That big knock of a 100 is around the corner. He has more years ahead of him than Sehwag and he can serve as captain till Kohli establishes himself in the test side. Parthiv or Dinesh Karthik or Saha need to be drafted in for Dhoni whose test career should be shut shop. Let him concentrate on ODI and T20. He can make a better name for himself doing that.

Yadav should be captain. Look at his cricket mind, it's amazing. He finds ways and out thinks the batsman. I don't care how young he is, he should be captain.

 

[midgetwars]

When Sehwag plays his natural game, he gets out most often. Place Warner in place of Sehwag and let Warner bat against the Australian bowlers on this pitch, he will fail too. Our bowling was so bad that Warner got this many runs. When our confidence was better in the previous two games, we got Warner pretty cheap.

That's a good point. But the ball that got Sehwag out was there to hit.

 

[aussie1st]

In the first innings in which he was out for 0,he tried to play front-foot defensive shot and block deliveries rather than play his 'go after almost every ball' tactic.The commentators of Star Cricket,Sourav Ganguly and Ian Chappell also detected this.

Warner wasn't going after every ball, he was waiting for the right ones to hit. What you are describing is the way Afridi plays.

 

[VC the slogger]

Yadav should be captain. Look at his cricket mind, it's amazing. He finds ways and out thinks the batsman. I don't care how young he is, he should be captain.

Umesh Yadav??!!You gotta be kidding me!