England In India - October 2011/12

[SaiSrini]

Dravid has showed he is good enough to be in the test team and is performing. Laxman has also been performing exceedingly well in the tests in the past year. Sachin has been in a purple patch for the last 2-3 years. Agree with shravi that these players deserve their spots and they are not making mistakes by not retiring. Silly to blame someone for not quitting his job when he is being highly productive.

The idea to play the likes of Raina and Yuvraj in such conditions is illogical. Cant these selectors think that with such fragile techniques, these guys are not going to last very long in these conditions? Why didnt they Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Badrinath, etc (Badri had a bad ODI series in WI and he was dumped, without giving him a chance in the tests). Same with Kohli who was dumped after a poor series in WI. But Raina whose technique is so fragile gets so many chances to cement his spot. In tests, technique is a major precursor to who will succeed and who will fail. No matter what one says, Sehwag is a misfit for the opening slot. We have to build some other guy (Mukund or whoever) for that spot. He is another guy who just survives on great hand-eye co-ordination and relies heavily on his day for him to cause damage. If Sehwag faces a not so new ball more often, he will plunder more runs and that too on a consistent basis. Maybe its good that this is happening to us now. Hope we learn from it and go to Australia a better team. We have an Australia and SA tour coming up soon.

 

[aussie1st]

Looks like England have found their 3rd seamer it will be hard to dislodge Bresnan.

 

[Owzat]

Well, India aren't playing well. But our seam attack has been on the button every innings and our batting has been resilient when it's needed to be against a toothless attack.

Even if India were playing well, I'd still back us in this form. Without sounding too cocky, I am loving this. We've got our tails up (vestigial limbs ftw) and everything is looking good.

England have bowled well, no two ways about it. I don't buy Fletcher's excuses about lack of adjustment to the conditions, THREE batsmen got in and to 20 before getting out.

Dravid in the series has two hundreds, he got in. Tendulkar made double figures every innings so far including one fifty before his dismissal yesterday, Laxman has two fifties on tour, he made it to 30. And that isn't to mention some of the poor shots and shot selection yesterday, excuses plain and simple. We all know why Sehwag failed, their bowlers haven't done too badly although they do miss Khan but spin has not played a part.

Which leads me on to England's instistance on playing Swann regardless. England outgun India in the seam department, they'd be fools to make the pitch take spin so WHY keep playing Swann?!?!?!? Horses for courses, spin on these "courses" has produced :

Graeme Swann : 2 wkts @ 116.50
Harbhajan Singh : 2 wkts @ 143.50
Suresh Raina : 1 wkt @ 112.00
Yuvraj Singh : 1 wkt @ 52.00
Amit Mishra : 0/13



As for India's decline. Could well be, their batsmen are ageing and it might just be they're not many years behind the aussies who lost key players through retirement and the replacements aren't up to scratch. Maybe after years of waiting England are set to boss Tests, with windies no longer a force, the aussies out of the picture of late and India getting old - and Pakistan always in chaos. Shame our selectors are unable to work out ODIs, that is a shambles that needs sorting

 

[macintosh]

Dravid has showed he is good enough to be in the test team and is performing. Laxman has also been performing exceedingly well in the tests in the past year. Sachin has been in a purple patch for the last 2-3 years. Agree with shravi that these players deserve their spots and they are not making mistakes by not retiring. Silly to blame someone for not quitting his job when he is being highly productive.

totally agree with this point.

The idea to play the likes of Raina and Yuvraj in such conditions is illogical. Cant these selectors think that with such fragile techniques, these guys are not going to last very long in these conditions? Why didnt they Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Badrinath, etc (Badri had a bad ODI series in WI and he was dumped, without giving him a chance in the tests). Same with Kohli who was dumped after a poor series in WI. But Raina whose technique is so fragile gets so many chances to cement his spot.

Yap, I really don't understand why Raina is picked in the tests, and the other thing which is even more irritating, is that he bowls so much, why does he need to bowl? doesn't even have the confidence to flight the ball and attack the batsmen. Raina can bat well only when there are good batting conditions, he is not even good enough to be considered for test matches in England,s. Africa or Australia. Then why pick him for tests in the first place.

Rahane, Badrinath, Sharma, Kohli,etc there are so many guys who can be better choices.

Sehwag is a misfit for the opening slot. We have to build some other guy (Mukund or whoever) for that spot. He is another guy who just survives on great hand-eye co-ordination and relies heavily on his day for him to cause damage. If Sehwag faces a not so new ball more often, he will plunder more runs and that too on a consistent basis. Maybe its good that this is happening to us now. Hope we learn from it and go to Australia a better team. We have an Australia and SA tour coming up soon.

Sehwag has performed really well against all kinds of bowling lineups,
even other Indian batsmen are facing problems in the current series considering the England bowlers and the conditions. Technique is not everything, Sehwag has proved himself even in very hostile bowling conditions. He has just played 1 innings in this series and you are starting to question his ability to open the innings. Thats not fair.

 

[ferg512]

Yap, I really don't understand why Raina is picked in the tests, and the other thing which is even more irritating, is that he bowls so much, why does he need to bowl? doesn't even have the confidence to flight the ball and attack the batsmen. Raina can bat well only when there are good batting conditions, he is not even good enough to be considered for test matches in England,s. Africa or Australia. Then why pick him for tests in the first place.

Yeah that also really annoys me how Raina bowls all the time, its like thats who Dhoni turns to when he wants to give up. He offers nothing as a bowler, and almost always get smashed sure hes got a fair few ipl wickets but thats nothing compared to test cricket.

 

[valvolux]

Dravid has showed he is good enough to be in the test team and is performing. Laxman has also been performing exceedingly well in the tests in the past year. Sachin has been in a purple patch for the last 2-3 years. Agree with shravi that these players deserve their spots and they are not making mistakes by not retiring. Silly to blame someone for not quitting his job when he is being highly productive.

The idea to play the likes of Raina and Yuvraj in such conditions is illogical. Cant these selectors think that with such fragile techniques, these guys are not going to last very long in these conditions? Why didnt they Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Badrinath, etc (Badri had a bad ODI series in WI and he was dumped, without giving him a chance in the tests). Same with Kohli who was dumped after a poor series in WI. But Raina whose technique is so fragile gets so many chances to cement his spot. In tests, technique is a major precursor to who will succeed and who will fail. No matter what one says, Sehwag is a misfit for the opening slot. We have to build some other guy (Mukund or whoever) for that spot. He is another guy who just survives on great hand-eye co-ordination and relies heavily on his day for him to cause damage. If Sehwag faces a not so new ball more often, he will plunder more runs and that too on a consistent basis. Maybe its good that this is happening to us now. Hope we learn from it and go to Australia a better team. We have an Australia and SA tour coming up soon.

i agree - dont panic and dump your best players just cause you get beat....ala australia. if you dont have the firepower ready to come in, you shouldn't jump straight into a rebuilding phase...unless the players want to leave. australia was hamstrung cause all the good guys retired rather than got pushed....but they were bloody old and in most cases just as good as what they were 10 years previously.

but then i reckon india were always behind the 8 ball - cause theyve had the same nucleus for yonks. the guys coming in are good, but its not like you can leave it in their hands to keep the winning going.

thats why i reckon this english team is set for 5 years of dominance. they have nucleus of similarly aged guys with lots of cricket left in the tank. their one weakness is maybe finding a replacement spinner of swan's class. but even then, they will win everywhere except maybe on the flat decks in india.

india should smash australia - australia is a joke these days. and its not that they dont have the players - they dont have the mix of experience and youth that you need. they have just started from scratch and its the completely wrong way to go. south africa will be a different proposition - they on paper should be up there with england, but they get murdered by the schedule. for whatever reason they aren't considered alongside england/india/australia who get the cricket in when they need it. but i'd back south africa to beat india at home and away.

dam this english side is good. i really hate them....but i am really impressed with them. and they aren't bad blokes...excpet maybe backstreet boy andersen, champion bowler, but what a twat!

----------

totally agree with this point.





Sehwag has performed really well against all kinds of bowling lineups,
even other Indian batsmen are facing problems in the current series considering the England bowlers and the conditions. Technique is not everything, Sehwag has proved himself even in very hostile bowling conditions. He has just played 1 innings in this series and you are starting to question his ability to open the innings. Thats not fair.

sehwag is indias best batsman i my opinion. as he says himself - if he was protected down the order like sachin, he could've hit 50 centuries by now.

he and gilchrist are the two guys of the modern era who could just destroy any bowlers in any conditions. except sehwag has far better technique. imagine if he came in at 2/300 or even at 6 which tendulker has scored many of his hundreds - he would murder old ball bowling and take the game away from you. he'd have 10 triple centuries rather than the 3 (or 4?) that he already has - and he'd get them in 2 sessions.

 

[Aoun13]

sehwag is indias best batsman i my opinion. as he says himself - if he was protected down the order like sachin, he could've hit 50 centuries by now.

he and gilchrist are the two guys of the modern era who could just destroy any bowlers in any conditions. except sehwag has far better technique. imagine if he came in at 2/300 or even at 6 which tendulker has scored many of his hundreds - he would murder old ball bowling and take the game away from you. he'd have 10 triple centuries rather than the 3 (or 4?) that he already has - and he'd get them in 2 sessions.

What a wasteful post. This is one of those amusing posts which I already read at the start of this thread. Lol 50 centuries? 10 triple centuries by a batsman who is only aflat track bully
I guess then you have to spend more money on ICC and ask them to shift your all matches in India and all series against Bagladesh.

 

[cricket_icon]

A lot of talk here of the Indian big three moving on. I don't think we need to be that hasty. I know many fans, especially Indian fans I know, are calling for some heads to roll but the big point here is that Laxman and Sachin have played consistently well for the last 18 months or so. In fact I haven't seen Tendulkar bat as well as he has over the last year and a half since the glory days of the early millennium.

Dravid on the other hand as had to find some form and he has done. The only problem is, that Tendulkar has seriously struggled on this current tour and he if he carries on in this downward spiral, then there does not seem to be a worthy successor apart from may be Kohli. The same can be said about Dravid and Laxman...who is there to replace them once they go.

But the biggest problem of all is the bowling, without Zaheer Khan and a decent spin attack, they look far too vulnerable.

----------

I can't agree with valvolux there, or the statement that Sehwag has made about not being "protected". The fact is that Tendulkar has made many of his centuries against some epic bowlers, the likes of Donald, Wasim, Waqar, McGrath, Lee, Akhtar, Walsh and Ambrose. Sehwag started his career at the tail end of many of these bowlers and at a time when pitches were becoming far more flat. Sehwag is in many ways a "flat track bully", Tendulkar is in a class of his own.

 

[Aussie Team]

It seems a bit daunting for Indians

 

[angryangy]

Mishra, you unlovable hero

 

[Sureshot]

And the wicket was off a no-ball.

Rare mistake from Taufel.

 

[darthlewis1]

This is pretty poor from mishra, how many no-balls has he bowled now? being a spinner he should never be bowling no balls.

 

[Ollie_H]

So the scores are level and England have lost only one wicket, that to off a no-ball.

Pretty much sums this series up really.

I'm actually incredibly dissapointed, I was so excited for this series with a battle between basically the two heavyweights of world cricket and one of them hasn't even turned up.

 

[valvolux]

What a wasteful post. This is one of those amusing posts which I already read at the start of this thread. Lol 50 centuries? 10 triple centuries by a batsman who is only aflat track bully
I guess then you have to spend more money on ICC and ask them to shift your all matches in India and all series against Bagladesh.

look i def have my own opinions regarding indias batsmen's ability to have such great records if they didn't have flat pitch after flat pitch served up. but it's just my opinion on sehwag having seen him decimate bowlers everywhere. opening batsmen that have such contempt don't have an average of 53 over such a long period unless they are class, even if they are indian.

c'mon india - you are making belly look good!

 

[Sureshot]

Butter those fingers Rahul! That could really deflate India even further. Bell and Cook are picking up the pace as well.