India in South Africa

[ZoraxDoom]

Kaif needs chances, but both times he got out to lazy shots. You get a chance, you grab it. He seems to be lacking hunger. Dravid and Saching got beauties, not Kaif. He has no excuse.

 

[SaiSrini]

Its a shame that you have reduced ganguly to such status that 45 is a good score for him.Remember in his best form there was no better odi batsman in the world.I myself will want him on the team but by strong domestic performance let him score 4-5 centuries then the selectors will have no option but to select him.i do not want him to go because somebody else is not better than him according to you.

And our politicans have more important jobs than just worry about cricket those stupid ministers what do they know about cricket to comment like this
.People are dying and they are discussing about sports. : :

Yuvraj was in the form of his life he surely could have been great on bouncy tracks.

Chappel has no fault its just that its a genetic problem same as if you played south africa on a turner they could crumble.this is what makes cricket so good when you perform in alien conditions performance is remembered.

And also we need to be patient i think there are enough players in the team who know more about cricket than we do.

And regarding your comments about stoning players houses its pathetic.remember every player out there is playing for their career they need support not threats.its fans like you who are so frickle one day india is the best team the other day they are the worst.

I am not saying that they need to stone the players house. I would be damn hurt if that happens to me, but that treatment made the team turn its fortunes around! i am taking it from the positive viewpoint, thats all!

Chappell IS AT FAULT! His experimentation has shattered the confidence of the batsmen in our team! Clearly, our batsmen are not accustomed to being shuttled round the batting order and it has surely dented their confidence! They need a set spot to play in and they will surely do well in their designated spots! We are right now being subjected to embarassing situations that a guy like Gary Kirsten from the opposition is advicing us on how to play!

100 and 65 is good enough to warrant a Former India Captain a palce in the side :happy

Ganguly has 10,000+ RUNS BEHIND HIM and plenty of experience of playing on such wickets. The matches he played in Pakistan in 2005 for India's test series, he proved that he did not flinch to the barrage of bouncers thrown by the now "BANNED" Akthar! We knew that this tour was going to be a highly challenging one and we knew that we are not known to do well in these conditions. So experience has to be given serious importance even if the player discussed about isnt in great form! No two hoots about that! And as always, our selection exactly happens just before some important domestic match is about to happen (so that its convenient for "someone" to miss out!).

Though I am no fan of Laxman, I feel he would have been way better here instead of Raina or Mongia or Kaif.We werent a great fielding unit when we played under Ganguly-Wright. But we kept winning consistently (except for tournament finals). now we dont get into tournament finals!

 

[Cricket_god]

Yuvi is highly unreliable.
He has been scoring well last year but i still do not see a great batsman in him.

Raina and Mongia are completely gone.I feel Ganguly and Laxman would defiantely be great replacements for them.

Kaif ! Well Zorax there's no need to be harsh on Kaif.Lack of match practise.If you are only going to make him play 1 out 10 matches this is going to happen.



100 and 65 is good enough to warrant a Former India Captain a palce in the side :happy



First things First - Pawar is stupid and lacks knowledge of management.He visits the BCCI office just 2 hours a week !
He is not fit enough to lead the board.
Dalmiya was definately better.

Well,God knows what he meant by " West Indies also went through the same phase "
Does this mean that Indian cricket will have to wait another 10 years until its revival ?
Or are they playing to convert Indian Cricket into Indian Hockey ?

He only had i bad series that too only on bad match in champions trophy and he ibecomes unreliable and players do not become great batsman at 25 they need to mature and at 30 thre true ability comes out imagine yuvraj at 30 he surely would be a great batsman.

I truely feel for kaif he gets 1 match and that too at no 3 :crying :crying

pawar does not need to run the board he does what he nows best really lallit modi is the president of the board he runs all the affairs and he has done a great job.

I am not saying that they need to stone the players house. I would be damn hurt if that happens to me, but that treatment made the team turn its fortunes around! i am taking it from the positive viewpoint, thats all!

Chappell IS AT FAULT! His experimentation has shattered the confidence of the batsmen in our team! Clearly, our batsmen are not accustomed to being shuttled round the batting order and it has surely dented their confidence! They need a set spot to play in and they will surely do well in their designated spots! We are right now being subjected to embarassing situations that a guy like Gary Kirsten from the opposition is advicing us on how to play!



Ganguly has 10,000+ RUNS BEHIND HIM and plenty of experience of playing on such wickets. The matches he played in Pakistan in 2005 for India's test series, he proved that he did not flinch to the barrage of bouncers thrown by the now "BANNED" Akthar! We knew that this tour was going to be a highly challenging one and we knew that we are not known to do well in these conditions. So experience has to be given serious importance even if the player discussed about isnt in great form! No two hoots about that! And as always, our selection exactly happens just before some important domestic match is about to happen (so that its convenient for "someone" to miss out!).

Though I am no fan of Laxman, I feel he would have been way better here instead of Raina or Mongia or Kaif.We werent a great fielding unit when we played under Ganguly-Wright. But we kept winning consistently (except for tournament finals). now we dont get into tournament finals!

Remember at that time he had a good domestic season.Also in india there is too much following of certain star players people want their players in the team they do not think about the team ours is a star crazy country not cricket and shame on those fans.

 

[Manohar]

kaif should be given more chances because he keeps coming in and out..he needs some time...plus his athletic fieldings put him ahead of Raina and Mongia....yuvi and kaif keeps the fielding spirits up...Ganguly should be in the team and because he got expereince that the team really need now to guide young players...well i think Laxman should play tests but not ODI's because hes a slow batsmen...Chappel's should go...never thought he was good for india...Dravid on the other hand should be given time

Laxman's strike rate of 71.25 may not be as high as Shewag, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Sachin but is similar to Dravid, Kaif, Mongia, Ganguly and Raina. In the last few series (Champion's trophy, ODI in West Indies) matches are being won by teams scoring below 250. In these situations one need batsmen who can play in difficult situations. Some batsmen can have high strike rates in flat wickets but cannot survive in bowler friendly pitches. This was the case when the whole Indian team got bowled out for less than hundred and the asking rate was below 5 per over. Below are the averages and strike rates of various Indian batsman.

Name Mat I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St
MS Dhoni 56 50 13 1610 183* 43.51 97.75 2 9 54 11
R Dravid 297 276 34 9578 153 39.57 70.43 12 71 180 14
G Gambhir 16 16 0 409 103 25.56 75.88 1 1 6 -
SC Ganguly 278 269 21 10101 183 40.72 73.84 22 60 96 -
W Jaffer 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 - - - -
M Kaif 123 108 24 2733 111* 32.53 72.24 2 17 54 -
VVS Laxman 85 82 7 2338 131 31.17 71.25 6 10 39 -
D Mongia 54 48 7 1155 159* 28.17 72.59 1 4 21 -
SK Raina 34 27 5 589 81* 26.77 73.07 - 3 14 -
V Sehwag 153 149 7 4554 130 32.07 96.44 7 24 64 -
SR Tendulkar 371 362 35 14479 186* 44.27 85.69 40 73 111 -
Y Venugopal Rao 16 11 2 218 61* 24.22 60.05 - 1 6 -
Yuvraj Singh 159 144 21 4286 139 34.84 85.78 7 25 53 -

 

[aditya123]

Over Reaction ??

First things First - Pawar is stupid and lacks knowledge of management.He visits the BCCI office just 2 hours a week !
He is not fit enough to lead the board.
Dalmiya was definately better.

Well,God knows what he meant by " West Indies also went through the same phase "
Does this mean that Indian cricket will have to wait another 10 years until its revival ?
Or are they playing to convert Indian Cricket into Indian Hockey ?

I agree that the performance in the first ODI was pathetic but the way the Indian public, media and (cough : cough) , the politicians have reacted has been pathetic as well .
We havent been losing for 2 years in a row !
It has just been a bad last 6 months .
Every team (barring Australia) goes through such periods. WE need to learn to be balanced during both victories and defeats with our opinions.

West Indies were horrific for almost 5 years and so are England with their ODI side right now !
Pakistan wre bowled out for 88 at Mohali against SA recently as well.
And even Australia were bowled out for a mere 93 in SA this year.
SA have a bloody good pace attack.

Please, for God sake stop taking issues like this to the parliament and behave as if it were a national crisis of some sort.

Who are these politicians to talk about accountability !
They are the ones who show no acountability to the public.
And there were a few MPs talking about `reservations` in the national side as well .
Who are these politicians to ask for Greg Chappel to quit ?
We`ve been asking for these politicians to quit for years . Thy`ve done nothing for the people.

And we seem to forget that there have been worse performances in the past and India have recovered from that bigtime .
We were going through a lean phase just before Mr.Chappel joined and then had a really great time earlier this year .
Only after that have we suddenly lost momentum.

And iceman, Indian cricket will not go the Windies way or the Indian hockey way, nor will we (or and Asian side for that matter) ever be the most consistent side in the world .
The public interest and the commercial aspect will never let it go the hockey way.


I agree that there are a few selection issues regarding JAffer mainly .
They talk about fielding when it comes to VVS and Sourav but Jaffer is not a great fielder whereas Laxman is a great slip fielder.
How can they pick a player in ODIs who has not featured in the Challenger series this year!
They could have gone with Gambhir , Uthappa or Ganguly.
Laxman instead of Mongia/Raina will make the middle order look much better.

Now, its all upto Dravid, Sehwag or Sachin to pull us out of the mess.

 

[sohum]

Of course there'll be an over-reaction. This is Indian cricket, for god's sake.

 

[icyman]

I definately agree with what all of you have said.
We are not like the Windies to continue in the same reign for years.
I believe we will bounce back.
However,this would require a few changes in the team.

1.The Highly Unreliable middle-order
This has to be sorted out immediately.Raina has been in the team long enough without doing anything great.Mongia ! Well many have raised questions of him being in the team.Dhoni's not firing too.Maybe give Karthik a chance.
The probability of Dinesh Karthik returning to India without plaYING a match is 1.

2.Top Order Blues
Sehwag is injured but someone needs to stand up and deliver.You cannot select a player with a strike rate of 67 to open instead of Sehwag having a strike rate of 80 + .
Also,predominantly Sehwag is an attacking player.Then why not have selected Uthappa or Gambhir who are similar to Sehwag ?
Or the young players like Rohit Sharma,TP Singh and Srivastava ?

3.Bowling.
I was surprised at Irfan's omission from the First match.Zaheer did not look attacking enough.Sreesanth is too aggressive and tends to lose his length many a times.
Maybe reform the bowling.
Get in Anil Kumble or have you taken him to South Africa for sight-seeing ?


Past Performances
THe Chappell-Dravid way has worked for India only at home.

1. Sri-Lanka-India-West Indies Triseries -India lost the Final

2. SriLanka tour to India - 6-1

3.England in India 4-1

4.India in Pakistan 4-1

5.India in West Indies 1-4

6.DLF Cup Didnt reach the Finals

We see clearly that the combo has really clicked outside India.
I don't see them clicking in the Windies thanks to over-experimentation.I believe th eteam doesnt know what is going on.

 

[SaiSrini]

Zaheer did well in the first match. He was coming after a long break, and may be he didnt look threatening. But Zaheer bowled well in the first game. He was attacking in the Powerplay overs and he is bound to go for runs. But he got the crucial wickets of Smith and Bosman (Bosman was batting very well at that time).

Frankly, I did not miss Irfan Pathan in the first match. He has not been in great form these days, and I feel he wouldnt have contributed that much in reducing our humiliation in the first game! I feel if Sehwag doesnt recover again for the 2nd match, Dinesh Karthick should be drafted in for Jaffer. Since Munaf is ruled out now, Kumble should come in for him! The wicket is also said to assist spin tomorrow

 

[cricket_lover]

With Munaf injured, kumble should get the nod.

Sehwag should recover and play, if he doesn't, it makes sense to give Karthik a chance. Cricinfo also predicts Irfan replacing Mongia, so it'll be a 6 batsmen-5bowler combo.

I think Agarkar should open the bowling, with Zaheer and Pathan as first change.

Lets see what heppens.

 

[aussie1st]

I thought Pathan would be more suited to opening as thats when the ball can swing, if hes bowling first change he won't be too threatening would he?

 

[BigCrickNan]

I don't think Kumble should play simply because it's in SA, where pace bowling is the main threat. Pathan should get a go.

 

[Cricketman]

Ok guys, put that last ODI behind you!!! Lets get these dodo heads and win win win w00t!!! w00t!!! w00t!!! w00...meh i'll get on with it.

Indian lineup needs a complete relook.
I'll have one of my famous lineups here. Dhoni, i think should just take a match break. Bring in Kaarthick (talked to him and his dad for like, an hour in india, even invited me to his house . SOOO nice, and he has a sweet car too (skoda)) Zaheer, looked good from what i hear. Agarkar, i don't know, i wouldn't include him
Kumble, I might add him in place for Bhajji. He has the experience, can keep the oppostion in check for a good 10 overs .
BRING BACK PATHAN! 'nuff said!
The batting, don't even get me started.
Drop Jaffer, can't have him opening in ODI's. Sehwag-now heres a big question: Should we have Sehwag in the team, or that too opening? He has Failed for india the last countless matches. Should we try a makeshift opener, AKA Kaif, to replace him? I doubt the selectors would drop him, but idk.

Line up
Tendulkar
Sehwag
Dravid
Kaif
Yuvraj
Kaarthick
Raina
Pathan
Agarkar
Kumble
Zaheer

I would get Ganguly instead of Raina, and possibly Laxman for one of the spinners, or Yuvraj.
LAXMAN AND GANGULY ALL THE WAY!

With Munaf injured, kumble should get the nod.

Sehwag should recover and play, if he doesn't, it makes sense to give Karthik a chance. Cricinfo also predicts Irfan replacing Mongia, so it'll be a 6 batsmen-5bowler combo.

I think Agarkar should open the bowling, with Zaheer and Pathan as first change.

Lets see what heppens.

I would spearhead with Pathan, and let Zaheer share it with him.
Agarkar no. He doesn't swing it much, he skidds (SP) it more.
If agarkar can rediscover that reverse swing from the 90's, we have a chance.

but I think I just jinxed them.

Thanx alot Zorax :

Just looking through the thread here. lots of catching up to do, don't be surprised if i quote from 3-4 pages back.

Don,t you think a guy like gautam gambhir who like to cut and pull should have been choosen ahead of mongia.there is still regional bias.

Gautam Ghambir, DON"T GET ME STARTED!
All he knows how to do is throw away his wicket! He does not play to the game at hand, he's like russian rulet, swing, might get a four, but he'll be out in like 8 more deliveries@!!@@@!!!! He's like a Sehwag thats not fat with a big nose!! !!


still in all seriousness though, what i stated is true.

I definately agree with what all of you have said.
We are not like the Windies to continue in the same reign for years.
I believe we will bounce back.
However,this would require a few changes in the team.

1.The Highly Unreliable middle-order
This has to be sorted out immediately.Raina has been in the team long enough without doing anything great.Mongia ! Well many have raised questions of him being in the team.Dhoni's not firing too.Maybe give Karthik a chance.
The probability of Dinesh Karthik returning to India without plaYING a match is 1.

2.Top Order Blues
Sehwag is injured but someone needs to stand up and deliver.You cannot select a player with a strike rate of 67 to open instead of Sehwag having a strike rate of 80 + .
Also,predominantly Sehwag is an attacking player.Then why not have selected Uthappa or Gambhir who are similar to Sehwag ?
Or the young players like Rohit Sharma,TP Singh and Srivastava ?

3.Bowling.
I was surprised at Irfan's omission from the First match.Zaheer did not look attacking enough.Sreesanth is too aggressive and tends to lose his length many a times.
Maybe reform the bowling.
Get in Anil Kumble or have you taken him to South Africa for sight-seeing ?


Past Performances
THe Chappell-Dravid way has worked for India only at home.

1. Sri-Lanka-India-West Indies Triseries -India lost the Final

2. SriLanka tour to India - 6-1

3.England in India 4-1

4.India in Pakistan 4-1

5.India in West Indies 1-4

6.DLF Cup Didnt reach the Finals

We see clearly that the combo has really clicked outside India.
I don't see them clicking in the Windies thanks to over-experimentation.I believe th eteam doesnt know what is going on.

@ the stats, too bad the team couldn't fire in the Champs Trophy.

 

[s2sschan]

Chappell IS AT FAULT!

Yeah Right! It's his fault the batsmen couldn't cope with bounce. When are we going to stop looking for scapegoats.

Everyone applauded the experiments when India thrashed Sri-Lanka 5-1 in ODIs.

 

[Cricketman]

Everyone applauded the experiments when India thrashed Sri-Lanka 5-1 in ODIs.

That was when they worked! Now all experiments are doing is getting out quickly, shortening the game so all the cricketers can go home and sleep!

...fatty' s....

 

[sohum]

Now that's a brilliant start. I hope this team works out for India. It's got good balance with Zaheer and Agarkar in ODI form of late, Harbhajan (whose been largely responsible for our ODI success) and Kumble, the old veteran. Pathan coming in at number 7 strengthens the batting lineup.

Zaheer Khan started out with a double-wicket maiden, let's see if they can keep up the pressure!