India in England Jun-Sept 2014

[SaiSrini]

Guessing your interest in cricket has dwindled, similarly most Indians back home. Think youre getting ahead of yourself though, the pending West Indian tour of India will revive that interest, after the Indians steam roll the number 8 ranked team its gonna be business as usual for the Indian management and their fans alike, perhaps including yourself.

I fully agree that India should ceae playing test cricket as of now, not sure if you can recall I had posted this idea a while ago and received some nasty responses by you guys, its good to see a poster of your stature posting this somehow I feel vindicated today. I had also mention some years ago on this board I think of a propsed two teir system with India playing alongside NZ/BANG/WI/ZIM and perhaps Ireland, the top teir would host PAK/AUS/ENG/SA, in fact there were some columnists clamouring for this set up to happen, sadly with the BIG 3 including India this set up will never happen.

This is the masterplan of the BCCI to kill test cricket, since they can make no money from it and historically India have never been a force to be reckoned with in test cricket.

As of now the only hope for test cricket surviving would be for India to have a top test team, but as you alluded to the BCCI may never allow this to happen......

I was hoping Rahane and Kohli would have been to emulate the Dravid/Laxman partnership against the Aussies in 2001 but so much for that!!!

You clearly don't know me at all. I have always been one of the guys who has given lot of weight to test cricket and to our performance overseas. Ask other members here who have been arguing that "home wins also count for something", and they will tell you that home performances count very little for me.

 

[SaiSrini]

Yeah well done Eng ... tougher tests ahead we will all agree. As for Ind I suppose when you are coming off a disaster tour, getting a win is most important and in that regard the WI series at home has a lot of Importance. Anything other than atleast a 2-0 would be disappointing. Then off to Aus for what will really be a 4-0 series in all likelihood. Also important to remember that Ind beat Aus 4-0 in the last series, so when Ind go to Aus, they will be all out for revenge, and there are fewer scarier things than an Aus team out for revenge. Well there is actually - the prospect of this porus batting line up having to face it !

Expect no favors on that tour.

If the current captain/coach continue, Australia will rout us faster than how England have routed us here. Seems like the captain/coach just rub the rest of the team off in a negative fashion. This "sticking to the process" hogwash could be one of the reasons. What "process" they are following is something the world needs to know. And I am pretty sure no one else will now follow that process (considering the stubborn nature of the captain, he will continue to follow the process). As Leggie said here, he blasted his CSK players by throwing sarcastic remarks on them when they lost the IPL. Care to do that for your own players here?

I dont care if its World Cup Year. Let Dhoni continue as captain for the ODI's. This is what should happen right now (IMMEDIATELY): Sack Dhoni as captain in tests, give the captaincy to Pujara or Kohli (I know both failed this tour; but these two are India's future for sure) in tests. Sack Duncan Fletcher and bring back Lalchand Rajput (our T20 WC winning coach) or Sanjay Bangar as India's manager/coach across all formats. Strip Penney and Dawes from their roles respectively and find someone else for the job. I know doing all this during a WC year is fraught with risk. But with this current setup, we have no hopes even in the ODI format for the WC which is going to be held in Australia. We better start the sweeping changes right now and see if that helps us in salvaging the tour to Australia this year (and the WC next year).

 

[PokerAce]

I am not sure what process we are following. Having said this, we know that nothing major is happening before the WC. Once that is done though, a plan has to be formulated and needs to be stuck to. The plan needless to say has to be formulated now and should be ready to be put into place post WC.

Whatever needs to be done must be done then. If MSD it is felt is not good enough then he has to go. I know I have defended him, but MSD is not getting younger and he is not going to be around come the '19 WC in Eng, so a call on leadership is required at some point after the WC. If a new coach is required, then he has to be gotten. If the IPL needs to be held later in the year to allow for players to go play county cricket or Aus, which all the stalwarts of the last generation did, then that call should also be taken.

Another call could that before every tour an 'A' side consisting of some of the players who are going to play should be asked to tour a few months before. I remember BCCI had sent an 'A' tour team to SA before the tour, and that had Pujara and Dhawan on the tour. Dhawan got 248 in a 50 over match, I think, and Pujara also got a few 100s on the tour. Dhawan failed in the actual tour, but Pujara did stand up and get a few good scores, including a 153. Against Steyn and Co, in SA thats a great knock!

 

[SaiSrini]

Dhoni's comments on test cricket after today's utterly embarassing result!
England v India, 5th Investec Test, The Oval, 3rd day : 'We never really competed' - MS Dhoni | Cricket News | England v India - Investec Test Series | ESPN Cricinfo

"Quite a few of them are going back so we've said our thanks to them but at the same time we have a quite a few interesting cricketers coming in," Dhoni said. "A few more aggressive ones and also the format, it's not really as taxing or demanding as Test cricket. You get the result in one day and if you are going through a lean phase you have five-ten overs to get back to scoring runs. I feel it will be very important to get into our groove and express ourselves on the field and leave the Test cricket behind and enjoy the ODIs and the T20."

The captain throws subtle hints about India's current outlook towards test cricket.[DOUBLEPOST=1408295933][/DOUBLEPOST]

I am not sure what process we are following. Having said this, we know that nothing major is happening before the WC. Once that is done though, a plan has to be formulated and needs to be stuck to. The plan needless to say has to be formulated now and should be ready to be put into place post WC.

Whatever needs to be done must be done then. If MSD it is felt is not good enough then he has to go. I know I have defended him, but MSD is not getting younger and he is not going to be around come the '19 WC in Eng, so a call on leadership is required at some point after the WC. If a new coach is required, then he has to be gotten. If the IPL needs to be held later in the year to allow for players to go play county cricket, then that call should also be taken.

Ha ha... The IPL is not moving to any other part of the year. The BCCI can make big bucks only during that time of the year and will not budge.

 

[grkrama]

"The last three Test matches, I think we were not really up to the mark. By that I mean we never really competed and I think also today's batting was a reflection of a batting order that has lost a lot of confidence over the period of time in the five Test match series.

"There were not enough runs on the board and if you're scoring 150-odd runs or 160-odd runs, that's not really good enough to defend against a home team and I felt that's where we really got exposed. It was the amount of runs that we needed that we were not really able to get."

what more does he have to say call them pathetic like we do easily?

also there is still the odi series in eng so now would not be a good time to put the team morale down, which is why he is the captain and we are arm chair critics.

 

[abhi_jacko]

We have inflicted a long term blow on England - Cook has secured his captaincy for another few series :P Plan B was a success

 

[PokerAce]

Ha ha... The IPL is not moving to any other part of the year. The BCCI can make big bucks only during that time of the year and will not budge.

Even so May - July are relatively free for Ind (expect then they are touring Eng), the players could still use they period. Also I doubt the IPL can work only in the period it does. IPL would usually work all through.

Also remember Ind have 8 very winnable series after Aus tour, so whoever is Capt will end up looking very good during that period.

 

[War]

Yeah well done Eng ... tougher tests ahead we will all agree. As for Ind I suppose when you are coming off a disaster tour, getting a win is most important and in that regard the WI series at home has a lot of Importance. Anything other than atleast a 2-0 would be disappointing. Then off to Aus for what will really be a 4-0 series in all likelihood. Also important to remember that Ind beat Aus 4-0 in the last series, so when Ind go to Aus, they will be all out for revenge, and there are fewer scarier things than an Aus team out for revenge. Well there is actually - the prospect of this porus batting line up having to face it !

Expect no favors on that tour.

I'd be keeping and eye on the windies tour. Last year for that IND/Tendulkar farewell series, they picked a ridiculous squad & were embarassing. But this time around with a new selection panel led by Windies legends Clive Lloyd & Walsh & that Englishman Richard Pybus new director of cricket revamping their domestic structure - they are likely to pick a much stronger team. Sammy is gone, Narine will play, good quick bowling options (Taylor, Roach, Rampaul) & Dwayne Bravo.

So once they don't mentally implode in the test format, i do't think its improbable that WI can't draw that series, even if IND start obvious favourites.

 

[PokerAce]

I'd be keeping and eye on the windies tour. Last year for that IND/Tendulkar farewell series, they picked a ridiculous squad & were embarassing. But this time around with a new selection panel led by Windies legends Clive Lloyd & Walsh & that Englishman Richard Pybus new director of cricket revamping their domestic structure - they are likely to pick a much stronger team. Sammy is gone, Narine will play, good quick bowling options (Taylor, Roach, Rampaul) & Dwayne Bravo.

So once they don't mentally implode in the test format, i do't think its improbable that WI can't draw that series, even if IND start obvious favourites.

Yeah everyone hated the WI team for the farewell tour. For starters we were all looking forward to SRT bat 4 innings, he got only 2 ! A good contest is a must.

 

[Skater]

Wow what a win. We flippin' murdered 'em!

I think there should be more 5 Test series.

 

[grkrama]

We flippin' murdered 'em!

lol you cant murder people on coma, murdering would be something what mitch johnson did last time to you guys, when we are awake and healthy we will tell you, you can have a go at murdering us then...so cee ya oops there is still odi to go which you may not see anyway...

 

[grkrama]

this may sound harsh to eng fans but be warned you guys have done nothing incredible, this was a pathetic absymal performance by india, if you go on believing you guys are on the right track you will be found wanting in lots of departments soon enough, but it may just be that late to stop it.

 

[richowebbo]

India's first two scored 23 this match. The extra column was one behind on 22. Not good.

I'm disappointed that India didn't give us more of a game. Delighted to see the progress of Ballance and of course Joe Root.

Some serious questions need to be asked of India. Getting bowled out so cheaply is an embarrassment.

England fought back very well, and played some very good, high pressure Cricket. But winning is a hell of a lot easier when the opposition roles over for you.

 

[PokerAce]

I think there should be more 5 Test series.

I agree, there should actually be no more series with anythign less than at least 4 tests, ideally 5

 

[grkrama]

two tests is all our indian test team will last, mentally and physically, it was good in a way SA tour was cut short.

We are basically running out of steam byt the third test and become fodder crop for feed to home teams even sides that were struggling like hell.