England In India - October 2011/12

[sami ullah khan]

I can understand frustration of Indian fans over the defeat but that hardly warrants taking it out on Pakistan team and labeling them with things like Druggies and Match Fixers. Druggies and fixers are all out of the team. If three people getting involved in match fixing means that the whole damn team of that country are fixers than I can easily name three Indians.
Stop with the hate and lets concentrate on series at hand. Way things have gone, I don't see Indians coming close to beating England. 4-0 will be very hard to digest for Indian board and fans. I expect head to roll. I don't know whose but it will happen. I quite agree with Kumble that India should start finding replacements of Laxman, Dravid and Tendulkar. We all know what happened to Aussies when MCgrath, Warne, Hayden and Gilly had to go.

 

[Auwais]

Meh, let them. Pakistan's an easy target for them to let their frustration out at.

Just sit back with some popcorn and enjoy the show.

 

[jacobfelix]

And now the news is Praveen Kumar is injured and MAY miss the final test...

 

[sami ullah khan]

It would make no difference whatsoever. Its all about bowling in partnership. One good bowler can not get you twenty wickets. Munaf or RP will come in that means shittishanth will still be in the team.

 

[angryangy]

Might as well miss it

 

[Atharv]

And now the news is Praveen Kumar is injured and MAY miss the final test...

Another one goes down.

 

[angryangy]

@The poll - Just play the England women's team. Or the Indian women's team. Either way you'll get a more competitive Test.

I dunno, the England women have a pace advantage

 

[sami ullah khan]

Also after what Broad did to Indians it will be a messacre

 

[ZoraxDoom]

India's going to enter a rebuilding stage soon.

When the Big 3 go, the young batting talent will take time to find their feet. Kohli, Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Rahane, M.Tiwary, Pandey, Rayudu, Vijay. Hopefully 3 - 4 of those click at the highest level.

Raina and Yuvi shouldn't be in the Test side.

As for bowlers...we have some young bowlers. Sree is annoying. Dump him. Ishant needs some rest and strength/fitness. Habharjan is past his prime. Mishra needs to go back to county/domestic and sort out his own issues. He has the talent but loses his head too soon. Praveen is good enough I guess.

Yadav, Aaron Varun, Vinay Kumar, Chahar, Unadkat are our current young seam hopes.

RP, Irfan, Balaji are kicking about and hopefully they can revive their careers.

As for spin...Ojha wasn't too bad. Atleast he was tight. Chawla has the talent but not the brains. And then ofcourse, Ashwin.

Sigh. Hard times ahead.

 

[Ollie_H]

I'm not sue if this has been mentioned before, but it's hard to argue against England being one of the top sides in the world (not that I don't think any would argue against it) when England have 4 players in the Test Bowling Top 10 and 3 in the Test Batting Top 10.

The batting is matched by South Africa but they have two less in the rankings. Admittedly they do take up the number 1 and 3 positions on the rankings table.

Also, I thought Sambit Bal's piece on cricinfo was spot on and I don't really think any Indian fans could argue with it.

The great thing about the English side is in my opinion it's balance and depth. The top 3 (Strauss, Cook, Trott) are all solid as rocks, and are your typical test match batting that grind out the new ball. Trott and Cook have a serious appetite for runs, I think Cook has now scored 7 hundreds in his last ten tests. Then after that you get the aggressive attacking flair of the middle order and a solid tail. Cook summed it up perfectly in his post-match interview.

No doubt that India are a good side, but as has been mentioned they are starting to look weak and as said before, Bal summed it up. India's batsmen usually make sure they dont lose the match but the bowlers rarely produce match-winning spells. So whilst they don't lose, they also don't win the amount of matches they should.

 

[Sureshot]

Yes it does. Have you ever read the ICC Handbook 2005-06 which the ICC uses to rank teams in the test championship???. It quite clearly states this: ICC Test Championship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



You people need to read up more before you continuously defend this extremely faulty ICC ranking system that made India # 1 before and has ascended ENG to # 1 too quickly.

You perhaps need to read what I actually wrote. It does not just involve matches in the last 2 years.

http://static.icc-cricket.yahoo.net...1FDC31284D768163CA1CBCD_1295335858633_724.pdf

6. How are the results weighted?
All matches included within the Reliance ICC Test Championship will always fall into one of two time periods:
? Period One covers the earliest two years of matches
? Period Two covers all subsequent series, i.e. the past one to two years
Weightings are applied to these two groups of series so that the ratings more fully reflect recent form. The weightings are as follows:
? Period One matches have a weighting of 50 per cent.
? Period Two matches have a weighting of 100 per cent.
In the current table, series completed since last August receive a weighting of 100 per cent.
After next August , the weighting of series being played now will remain at 100 per cent, while the weighting of series played in the year up to
last August will fall to 50 per cent.
The 'match/series total' column in the Reliance ICC Test Championship table comprises a combination of individual Tests and series. This
total along with the number of points earned in each period is multiplied by the weighting factor. For example, suppose a team played 20
Tests and six series in Period One, plus 15 Tests and five series in Period Two. The total matches played for rating purposes is 50 per cent
of (20+6) plus 100 per cent of (15+5), which equals 33. (A small technical adjustment ensures that, for all teams, the total number of matches
and rating points is always a whole number.)

A weighted system makes more sense, giving more value to more recent matches makes sense.

But as said, it doesn't matter how flawed you think the system is. England are #1 by the official system. Thus England are #1, it's not subjective which you seem to have suggested that it is.

 

[cricket_icon]

I can understand frustration of Indian fans over the defeat but that hardly warrants taking it out on Pakistan team and labeling them with things like Druggies and Match Fixers. Druggies and fixers are all out of the team. If three people getting involved in match fixing means that the whole damn team of that country are fixers than I can easily name three Indians.
Stop with the hate and lets concentrate on series at hand. Way things have gone, I don't see Indians coming close to beating England. 4-0 will be very hard to digest for Indian board and fans. I expect head to roll. I don't know whose but it will happen. I quite agree with Kumble that India should start finding replacements of Laxman, Dravid and Tendulkar. We all know what happened to Aussies when MCgrath, Warne, Hayden and Gilly had to go.

Well done for the post Sami. Back to the test at hand...if Kumar is out I think England might not even lose a wicket...I have a very good suggestion, to rest the players, England should just play a random school, under 16 team. That would be one way the Indian batsmen could handle the pace.

 

[Themer]

But England will probably go for 4-0, would be nice but to me it is job done and use the meaninglessness of the last Test to try something and rest players.

The England test team has a rest till January after this match and I want to see England whitewash India. I see very little reason to give them a rest off this match.

Apart from the ODIs here, the two matches against West Indies and ten days in India playing 5 ODIs they all have a big rest till the Pakistan tour.

 

[Atharv]

India's going to enter a rebuilding stage soon.

When the Big 3 go, the young batting talent will take time to find their feet. Kohli, Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Rahane, M.Tiwary, Pandey, Rayudu, Vijay. Hopefully 3 - 4 of those click at the highest level.

Raina and Yuvi shouldn't be in the Test side.

As for bowlers...we have some young bowlers. Sree is annoying. Dump him. Ishant needs some rest and strength/fitness. Habharjan is past his prime. Mishra needs to go back to county/domestic and sort out his own issues. He has the talent but loses his head too soon. Praveen is good enough I guess.

Yadav, Aaron Varun, Vinay Kumar, Chahar, Unadkat are our current young seam hopes.

RP, Irfan, Balaji are kicking about and hopefully they can revive their careers.

As for spin...Ojha wasn't too bad. Atleast he was tight. Chawla has the talent but not the brains. And then ofcourse, Ashwin.

Sigh. Hard times ahead.

I am not so sure abt Kohli . I know this may surprise many people but just like Raina, he too might find things a bit difficult against decent pace bowling.
Murali Vijay does not deserve to be in the Indian team. Any more talk about him is a complete waste of time.
Harbhajan's slide had begun quite a while ago . With England tour it is complete. But I have no doubt he will be back in the Indian team in some time (not in a good way , I mean )
Things are good in the spin department for India. Ojha,Mishra,Iqbal Abdulla,Ashwin.

 

[Gaurav_7]

India's going to enter a rebuilding stage soon.

Yes, and after they go I'd like the selectors to bring in Pujara, Badrinath and Rahane immediately to the test scene. All three are solid players, technically sound. I'd like these 3 to fill 3, 4 and 5 positions respectively. Rayudu should be another player to get a look in as quickly as possible. A solid batsman, can also keep.

Rohit really shouldn't be anywhere near the team. When he bats, he doesn't seem to be trying to earn runs. I mean his approach isn't really that great. Vijay too shouldn't be there in contention. Mukund should be groomed as an opener. I think Gambhir has a lot of Cricket in him. Maybe as an option for Sehwag. Tiwary and Pandey aren't yet ready for it, I think. Tiwary has got a pathetic mind set. Pandey is nice but, not really looking for him when you have got the ones I mentioned.

Agreed with the point that Raina and Yuvraj shouldn't be there in the team. Kohli is there as well and can be a future prospect for the team in tests. But, I'd really love Pujara, Badrinath and Rahane to be there.