England In India - October 2011/12

[ZoraxDoom]

Having said all that, it must be said such a thrashing was not expected when India came over. After all, we had VVS, Sachin and Dravid. If any of those 3 were expected to do poorly, it was Dravid, given his poor form until the WI series.

Ishant and PK looked good in WI, and with Zak formed a potent seam attack. Raina looked like he could overcome his lack of technique with a solid temperament given how he performed in WI and his successes in ODIs. Gambhir was fit an in form, Mukund had potential, and then there was captain reliable MSD. And Bhajji with a point to prove.

Plus from England's camp both Broad and KP weren't in good form at all, let alone the horrifying terrorisers they ended up being.

Things just went wrong from the moment Zak hobbled off. India's depth always looked bad - Sree and Mishra getting caned by Somerset, Yuvi coming in off the WC and IPL and looking rusty in the longer format plus a bit tired...it should have been anticipated that in a 4 day series the Depth would be put to the test and India were likely to fall short. And they did. But one can't plan for VVS and Sachin having such poor series, or Raina being so utterly found out and worked over, or that Bhajji would simply decide not to show up.

But they could have planned for one of the 3 frontline seamers getting hurt and knew about Ishant's lack of fitness and Sreesanth's lack of a brain. They knew MSD was being over-worked. They knew Yuvi was lacking 4 day cricket and Viru was injured.

Bad management and bad luck.

Just such a horrific tour.

 

[Paki007]

England are not untouchable at home

 

[Haarithan]

http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/1973918-post37.html

Et tu Zorax...

 

[Paki007]

^ And we heard it last there

 

[ZoraxDoom]

http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/1973918-post37.html

Et tu Zorax...

Oh c'mon, that was an obvious troll

I wasn't so wrong if you swap England for India, Sachin for KP, and Ishant/Bhajji/Zak for Anderson/Swann/Broad...

 

[sami ullah khan]

^Yeah some minor adjustment and Zorax was right

 

[Varun]

And after a month it's over! 4-0.

England played brilliantly, and were on the top. All of them (except Bopara?) put up a performance. Everyone. Sad that Trott wasn't playing, I wished to see some brawny knocks from him.

India, I'm happy, will not be overrated anymore. I've always wanted that hype about the team to fall down, or say, to come to a middle ground, rather than praising Dhoni when he wins the world cup, and denouncing him when he's lost it. It was a cricket series, someone had to win, someone, to lose. Of course, it's humiliating that that loss is 4-0, and we didn't even put up a fight (except Dravid) and even lost two fried chickening games by an innings. Humiliating, of course, but I feel we still shouldn't overreact on it, but I know all those irate Indian fans would. My hearty thanks to Anna Hazare, for he is going to divert most of the attention.

About this thread, I'm quite happy I didn't post there. Most of the time, full of crap, and puerile posts from everyone, even including the English guys. Still glad that people like User, Shravi, Sureshot were posting quality stuff here.

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And yes, BCCI is a ████. So are the 'paid' commentators, Gavaskar and Shastri.

 

[angryangy]

Mishra and Sreesanth should have killed their test careers right here. Not test match bowlers. Way too inconsistent. Must be dropped and dropped for good. As should Harbhajan who's had a horrid couple of years.

Harsh on RP to expect him to perform given the circumstances under which he was recalled.

I think there are some related elements here. The bowlers just exist in stasis. They're not going away and getting better, if anything they get worse. Nevertheless, they find their way back into the team for whatever reason. It's an unproductive cycle.

 

[Addy]

 

[ferg512]

This is a little off topic and I'm sure has been brought up before but does anyone know why they play the tests first and the ODIs last?? I know in Australia they've always done it that way, but I remember the 2005 Ashes summer and how good that was because their was no ODIs after. And in contrast the Ashes 2009 they had to play that ridiculous ODI series afterwards that no one was interested in, kind of like this series does anyone really care at all about these ODIs??

 

[barmyarmy]

I'm reading some reports that Gambhir and Khan basically chose not to be fit for this series by delaying operations so they could make money in the IPL.
If the BCCI don't value test cricket then fine but don't blame defeat on injuries.

 

[cricket_icon]

Defeat should not be blamed on the fact that a couple players were injured. Was Zaheer Khan going to pick up 20 wickets? I think not. Was Gambhir going to score a century every game? Hell no.
Only Dravid and Kumar leave with enhanced reputations after the test series and I am not sure what Harby can do to rediscover form he had 3-4 years ago.
The big question is how do India replace Tendulkar, Dravid and VVS, to Indian fans, who are the guys that have impressed domestically??
Also, the problem India have always had and I can't see any let up in the future is good fast bowlers. There just aren't any, and they are crucial for wins abroad.

 

[shravi]

Laxman should be the first to be ushered out. His game relies on hand-eye coordination more than the other two and it's obvious those skills are fading. The timing of those pull shots was awful and it's not as if he did it once. He did it time and again. Dravid and Sachin stay because there is no need to replace them. If you're good enough, you're young enough. I don't understand this obsession with youth. Your job is to score runs and these guys are masters at that.

Harby should be replaced by Ashwin, an attacking spinner who is constantly looking to take wickets. Ojha is a container and would only work if we had a strike bowler in the pace bowling department. We don't have that at the moment. He can only work as a 2nd spinner, and that too, only in India/Sri Lanka.

Rest Sachin, GG, Viru, Dravid, Laxman, Dhoni and Ishant for the West Indies series. Take a punt on some youngsters while these guys are given a rest. However, their fitness must be monitored during this period.

 

[Sobi]

This is the summary of English cricket. Can't win any major championships accept that 20-20 slog and then arrange home test series and then get the number one. After you get your number 1 team's mace and then play around with each other in the dressing room

Now back to the topic, yeah they have won but with an injured team but it is not their problem either. India selectors are horrible. They give rest to the top players before important series or they put in injured players in the team. How can you expect players to do good in a series when they haven't played test matches for 7 or 8 months? Ohh well, the series is over and England have won the HOME series, not a big deal anyways. we will be seeing England in India in ODI's so shame that England doesn't want to lose its number one rank soon so they didn't even arrange for a test series in India. Way to go!!!! Tip for England: Keep avoiding test series in India because once you have it, you will lose your number 1 rank

 

[War]

My 4th test and series review

ENGLAND

I'm late and im not sure whether i can bestow any more superlatives on the performances of the England team that many fans and journalist have already said.

But damn, i always expected England to win this series, but its the level of thrashing that they have given India is what i didn't expect.

As i believe Andrew Miller hghlighted in his cricinfo report that this is heaviest series defeat a # 1 team (unofficial or official) has had since when England were beaten 4-0 (5 tests) in Ashes 1958/59 or when Australia lost 4-0 to the South Africa in 1969/70.

Of course in my estimation as most already know India were never # 1, they were the equal best team with South Africa since February 2007. This defeat just is first stage of potential downward spiral for IND were their reliance of certain senior players will be exposed.

England have a team that have all the ingredients to be a # 1 on the level of Windies 76-91 or AUS 95-2007, thus by the end of their dominance we could be speaking about this ENG side as the best ever English side of 1951-1958.

I cant wait until the winter test in SRI and Pakistan start...

INDIA

Gauging the comments of India fans obviously they should be pissed, but really the writing was on the wall since the tour to S Africa this year.

However criticism of certain senior batsmen like Tendy, Laxman are uncalled for really.

Tendy is already a legend of the game and easily one of the top 5 batsmen of all-time. He has nothing more to prove, he has scored hundred against the best of fast-bowlers in tough batting conditions for the last 20 years - so a below par series here means nothing.

Same goes for Laxman too, outside of the 2004/05 series vs Australia. Laxman had handled quick bowling in all conditions very well and is easily one of the most versatile IND batsmen home/away.

Sehwag however can be criticized, i see a few Indian on here and other places beginning to admit he is a FTB. I dont buy the argument that his shoulder injury affected his play, because although he was injured he never once tried to curb his technique and temperament - it was the same all out attack approach which would always get you into trouble vs high quality pace bowler in seaming conditions.

I recall Tendulkar during the 2003/04 tour to Australia, when he had his tennis-elbow woes. In that 241 he made in Sydney he cut out off-side given his elbow problems as affecting his off-side play and although he made easily the most boring double century i ever saw (Cook's 294 is a close second) - thats how you gotta play if you playing through injury.

Big shout out to Dravid though. After struggling for much of the last 4 years, starting with that hundred he made in the caribbean a few months back, this series batting from him as been really brilliant especially given his age.

When i think of an Indian all-time time, i seriously think Dravid should be considered as the strongest contender now to open with Gavaskar.

Gavaskar
Dravid
Vengsarkar
Tendulkar
Viswanath
Hazare/Laxman
Engineer
Kapil Dev
Khan
Srinath
Gupte

This is for an away test. In a home test Vinoo Mankad would come in for a batsman in the top six - most likely Hazare/Laxman, while Prasanna would replace on of Khan or Srinath.