India in Australia

[RoboRocks]

What's wrong with what he said? I'm no fan of Ponting, but I can't see anything in that really that would annoy anyone. All he's actually done is state the blindingly obvious.

I agree with Gilly Fan as well, there was an awful lot said in the build up to this game by India, so even if Ponting was saying anything "controversial" then you can't really moan.

Yeah, India have to admit that batting performance was really awful and he as Stevie says he was stating that.

 

[manee]

The Indian REPORT CARD
Created by: KING CRICKET

Pass Marks: 60/110

1. WASIM JAFFER- 0.5/10: Had an outstanding test series against Pakistan. Don?t know what happened to him in this test.
2. RAHUL DRAVID- 0/10: How slow can a man bat? We must drop him in the second test, or else we will loose again.
3. VVS LAXMAN- 7/10: Average batting in both the innings.
4. SACHIN TENDULKAR- 7.5/10: Played a ?master-class? in the first innings. Looked kind of shaky in the second innings, probably due to enormous pressure.
5. SOURAV GANGULY- 8/10: At least he tried his best to rescue India.
6. YUVRAJ SINGH- 1/10: Before the start of this series everyone had great expectations on him. But he again showed that DREAMS NEVER COME TRUE.
7. MS DHONI- 1/10: Something is affecting his batting a great deal. It may be pressure, it may be captaincy???
8. ANIL KUMBLE- 9/10: Legends always remain legends. He tried his best but was unlucky
9. HARBHAJAN SINGH- 5/10: Average Bowling
10. ZAHEER KHAN- 7/10: Not bad bowling. But needs improvement.
11. RP SINGH- 4.5/10: Poor Bowling

TOTAL---------------50.5/110

F A I L E D

You are not thinking straight at all!

 

[0601731]

india was bad in this match but that doesnt mean they wont fight and i understand the australians being cocky after such an easy win in the face of all that was said before the start of the seires but what is baffling is some of the people from other nationalities talking trash about india.

Congrats to the aussies,they deserved to win.India will fight it out, write off the indian team at ur own peril.

 

[sohum]

Okay, forgot the short leg one. Bowden wasn't the umpire on that one, and again, it was a hard call. And none of those Kumble balls to Hogg should have been given out. Maybe it's the biased Indian in you, but the ball was clipping the edge of the stump at best. No way those should be given out, the umpire had doubt. Do you not know the rules? Therehas to be no doubt. Hawkeye showed them all. You Indians didn't bat well enough, get over it. Benefit of the doubt goes to the batsman.

I'll make it very simple for you.

1. Hawkeye showed it thudding into middle and off every time. The only doubt was whether the ball had hit the pad first or the bat first since they were pad-bat/bat-pad kind of shouts.

2. I'm quite sure I know the rules. The rules state that if the ball has pitched within the line of leg stump and hits the batsman on any part that is not deemed to be his bat, and estimated to go on to hit the stumps, it is out LBW.

3. I think I have made it fairly clear that I am not blaming this loss on the umpiring. If you fail to see this distinction just you can rattle off a series of cliched, "Oh the Indians are blaming the umpire" statements go for it at the sake of looking extremely stupid.

This is what I was talking about with strike-rates. If 2 batsman have got similar averages but one's strike-rate is 40 and anothers is 60 then generally the batsman with the strike-rate of 60 is better.

Not necessarily better all the time, but probably more effective most of the time. Sehwag's got a test strike rate of 76 and an average just a shade under 50 but I think you would take Clarke over him?

This Aussie attack is probably the weakest in over a decade now without their ace leg spinner and McGrath.

I don't know about that. Lee has really tightened up his accuracy and has maintained his pace and Clark has really gained my respect by his consistency. It's a pretty strong bowling attack out there--of course who knows what will happen if someone actually goes after them.

 

[usy]

Indian news Channels make me laugh, no offence.

 

[sohum]

I never thought Yuvraj was all that great anyway.

It's nothing but a Twenty20+ODI hangover. Indians take one-day cricket far too seriously and it seems Yuvraj was ushered into the team more because he was a fan favorite rather than him being the correct guy in there.

You guys talked yourselves up so much before this game that you'd be competitive, but you deserved to be spanked which you were.

Surely you have to agree that we had you with our bowling, though. Our batting failed miserably but how often has a side managed to keep Australia down under 500, forget 400, after they have won the toss and chosen to bat first? Not too often. Not to mention that this is the first time in 5 years that Ponting has scored under double digits in a test match.

Jeez, you Indian fans are like yo-yos. You were high as kites before this series saying how you'd hammer Australia and being dead egotistical. Now your all suicidal and want ridiculous sweeping changes. If you boys could win a happy medium between those conflicting opinions and emotions then cricket in India would go alot further.

Let's continue the generalizations then...

They lost this week. So the coach is useless and the players need to be hung. They'll win a tour match in a couple of weeks or something then they'll be unstoppable and gods and better than us Australian duds because winning that Twenty20 World Cup REALLY DID mean something.

Shows how much you know about world cricket if you think India have a coach.

 

[manee]

Indian news Channels make me laugh, no offence.

Don't worry. There are no Indian news channels on planetcricket.

 

[sohum]

Indian news Channels make me laugh, no offence.

News has become a commercialized product since there are something like 30 news channels now.

As for the Indian performance, I was happily surprised with our bowling performance. Our batting was really bad and I attribute a lot of that to team selection and composition. We had our moments. As any hardcore Indian fan over the last couple of years can attest to--we play our worst cricket when we are trying to be negative.

 

[Cricketman]

Really pathetic performance by the Indian team to fold up within 4 days.

I see this being a long, hard tour unless drastic changes are made.

My suggestions:

1. Get rid of Dravid from the opening slot. Give it to Sehwag or even KKD who seems to like batting with Jaffer. Give Jaffer just one more go. If he fails again, then bring in KKD and Sehwag together to open the innings.

2. Drop Yuvraj singh from the line up. Let Laxman occupy #6.

3. Drop Bhajji - even Symonds' part-time offspin looks more threatening than Harbhajan's bowling.

4. Bring in Ishant Sharma and add some fire to the bowling attack. We need the extra seamer. We can always bowl Sachin Tendulkar's part time leg spin or Sehwag's offspin if Kumble feels the need for an extra spinner.

5. Tell all the batsmen to play positively regardless of the situation.

We need the extra aggression in bowling and batting to take on Australia. Dravid's negativity just acts as a dampener when he opens.

I think Laxman is batting well at three and doesn't deserve to be dropped down the order. It worked for Dravid in 2001 when he was dropped down to six (switched spots with Laxman) and hit a solid 180 and found his feet again.
There will be less pressure if an early wicket falls on him as he's already low on confidence, and will give us stability to our currently weary lower-middle order.

I say drop Dhoni, he can't play short stuff, can't read deliveries, isn't a good test batsman. His keeping is nothing compared to Karthik's either.
If Karthik is willing to open, that's fine. But, I'd rather have Sehwag open and let him stick it to Lee and Clarke early and get at least 100/1 by lunch (the one wicket being Sehwag's).

Yeah, I agree with Jaffer given one more go.

Instead of Ishanth, i'd bring in Pathan. He's a good swinger of the ball, and he's fixed up his speed issues well. He gives us depth in batting. Ishanth is too wishy-washy for test cricket that too in Australia imo.

I agree with everything else. Nice thoughts.

 

[.Mob]

We were shambolic, our mentality was all wrong, I think.

Regardless of what Dravid did this match, I would 100% play him again, he could produce something special any moment, I think. However, Bhajji needs to go, I have no idea why he was playing. His records may be great, but he's hardly doing anything right.

Pathan, Sharma or Singh in for Bhajji.

 

[Cricketman]

Anyways here is my Team for SCG:

1) Wasim Jaffer/KKD Karthik
2) Virender Sehwag
3) Rahul Dravid
4) Sachin Tendulkar
5) Sourav Ganguly
6) VVS Laxman
7) MS Dhoni +
8) Anil Kumble C
9) Zaheer Khan
10) RP Singh
11) Ishant Sharma/Harbhajan Singh

I would drop Harbhajan but Sydney is a spin bowlers paradise so its hard to drop him for that test and although Dinesh Karthik struggled considerably against Shoaib Akhtar in the recent Ind-Pak series I feel he should be given a go, obviously its hard to drop Jafer becuase of his recent form in India, but its almost a whole new bat and ball game for him in Australia because of the extra pace and bounce, and we can see that from him struggling against Lee. Also I think we all got a bit too excited after Yuvraj's performance in Bangalore and I don't think he is that good a test player.

I have 2 words for Team India, and they are CHAK and DE, I still remain optomistic for the series despite this thrashing...

Don't agree with RP Singh. He didn't look good at all imo. He sucked.

Ishanth, not yet.

Give it to Irfan.

 

[manee]

Pathan, Sharma or Singh in for Bhajji.

You are disillusioned if you think that Harbhajan Singh (3 for 162, including the wickets of Hayden, Ponting and Gilchrist) was the sole problem in the Test.

 

[.Mob]

You are disillusioned if you think that Harbhajan Singh (3 for 162, including the wickets of Hayden, Ponting and Gilchrist) was the sole problem in the Test.

I concede that the Ponting dismissal was a beauty, but the others were hardly unplayable deliveries, the Aussies looked hardly troubled by him at all, so playing him again would be quite stupid, in my opinion.

Hayden tried to hit out, and got caught. Glichrist had a swipe at a leg-side delivery and hauled out.

I'm not saying he's the sole problem, but he was a problem, and we need to fix it, it seems as if we are just wasting a place in the team.

 

[Leggie]

I think the four bowler should be these:

Irfan Pathan
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma

We need someone who can bounce the opposition out just like the Aussies do to us regularly, and I think Ishant is capable of this...

And if we need more Spin then Sachin and Sehwag are more than useful, no need for Harbhajan

 

[RoboRocks]

I think the four bowler should be these:

Irfan Pathan
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma

We need someone who can bounce the opposition out just like the Aussies do to us regularly, and I think Ishant is capable of this...

And if we need more Spin then Sachin and Sehwag are more than useful, no need for Harbhajan

I feel you should pick only Ifran since Sharma is still only young and asking him to play against the best in the world this early is a big ask.