England In India - October 2011/12

[s2sschan]

Fat?

I know he has not been managed well by the board and selectors, but Zaheer deserves a kick on his back for managing his own body in such a shoddy manner. Look at how fat the guy has become?

Ian Botham, Merv Hughes, and Mike Gatting were big all throughout their playing days.
You don't have to look like a bodybuilder or Bollywood Star with Six Pack Abs to play good cricket.
Just need to bowl or bat well.

 

[Themer]

Bopara is better than Taylor, come on!!

No he isn't. He's bloody awful as recognised by any England fan who's had the misfortunte of watching him play.

This season FC
1669 runs at 83.45 - Trescothick
1215 runs at 54.38 - Taylor
1096 runs at 68.50 - Benkenstein
1080 runs at 60.00 - Compton
1063 runs at 53.15 - Bairstow
1044 runs at 47.45 - Cook
1022 runs at 56.57 - de Bruyn
987 runs at 47.35 - Chopra
966 runs at 43.90 - S Patel
962 runs at 45.80 - Peterson
931 runs at 49.00 - Joyce
894 runs at 42.57 - Suppiah
867 runs at 51.00 - Goodwin
866 runs at 37.65 - Bopara

Says it all.

 

[Aalay]

There you go guys. Dravid will retire after the England series from ODI's and T20's.

 

[Themer]

What on earth is the point of that? Might as well let those who haven't experienced English conditions the chance to learn how to play on 'em.

 

[Rohit Doshi]

Rahul Dravid to retire from ODIs and T20 after England series

 

[SaiSrini]

Its a "two birds in one stone" story. Give Dravid a good farewell in the shorter formats, and also having him in challenging conditions in a team where we have glorified flat track sloggers who wet their pants at the prospect of facing tough conditions. This means Dravid will play in most of the games which means Rohit Sharma is going to find it tough to make it into the side (Raina and Kohli are ahead of the pecking order). Or they can rest Sachin in some games and play Rohit Sharma (Sehwag and Gambhir opening the innings).

 

[Rohit Doshi]

The ODI team would look like this imo

Sehwag
Tendulkar
Gambhir
Dravid
Kohli
Raina
Dhoni
Khan (if fit) / Sreesanth
Munaf
Praveen
Ashwin

 

[BKB1991]

Well with Dravid retiring, his selection makes more sense.

 

[Gaurav_7]

The selectors have called him back as he knows the English conditions well. He might provide that stability which is required and bail India out of trouble if needed. Plus, they might have already informed him about this. Just a guess though. So, two way thing this. Farewell series, plus India actually need him, selectors think.

 

[shravi]

Also, it's good to have some continuity in a long tour instead of having a whole bunch of new players coming in.

Great article Zorax. Dravid is Mr. India. No doubts about it. He has opened, kept wicket and done just about everything for the sake of the Indian team. A thankless servant.

 

[Rohit Doshi]

Indians 352
Northamptonshire 355/7 (83.2 ov)
Match drawn (Northamptonshire won on 1st innings)

India lost this one too

 

[SaiSrini]

The ODI team would look like this imo

Sehwag
Tendulkar
Gambhir
Dravid
Kohli
Raina
Dhoni
Khan (if fit) / Sreesanth
Munaf
Praveen
Ashwin

I quite dont agree with that batting order. Kohli should be No.4 because the guy cant accelerate towards the end (we saw that in the World Cup where he struggled accelerating towards the end). Dravid is far better when he accelerates towards the end (he has 10,000+ runs in ODI's and some fastest fifties too). This would be mine

Sehwag
Tendulkar
Gambhir
Kohli
Dravid
Raina
Dhoni
Praveen
Ashwin
Ishant
Munaf/Zaheer (if fit)

----------

Indians 352
Northamptonshire 355/7 (83.2 ov)
Match drawn (Northamptonshire won on 1st innings)

India lost this one too

Who cares? The worry is, we didn't find solutions to our problems and Mukund's century has posed additional questions.

 

[Sureshot]

No he isn't. He's bloody awful as recognised by any England fan who's had the misfortunte of watching him play.




Says it all.

Bloody awful is a tad harsh. He's got enough talent to succeed at international level (succeed, not star), but he's always been inconsistent and I don't think he has the mental toughness at the moment.

On his day he's as good as anyone, the issue is his day doesn't happen enough.

As I said before though, it was obvious they'd go for Bopara, it's the "safe" option given his test centuries/experience. Given he's not exactly been lighting up the charts, his selection is most odd. I'd have given Hildreth/Taylor a chance.

 

[Cricketman]

Hope Dravid isn't excluded from the playing XI in ODIs now. That would be so anticlamactic.

 

[Themer]

Bloody awful is a tad harsh

He is. Will never succeed at test level, ever.