India in the West Indies

[puddleduck]

I certainly hope so. And if he returns, he should be skipper, no question. Dravid is just poor as captain. And if not Ganguly, then Kaif. Look at what he did for UP (Or was it Andhra, I forget) in the Ranji Trohpy. Turned losers into champs, and brought out the best in allrounder Kumar and Raina too.

It was UP.

I feel everyone is being a little harsh on Dravid here, they took a lot of players that could feasibly be playing in the World Cup and made sure they all got experience in the conditions so they are not caught cold when the World Cup arrives.

They came up against a Windies side that had hit rock bottom and was always going to improve with Lara at the helm instead of Chanderpaul, and also found the likes of Gayle, Bravo, Sarwan and Lara himself all playing as though their pride depended on it. Lara would have been fired up knowing it was his last 2 home games in Odi cricket in his island and it seemed for those last two games that both him and Bravo were inspired by that.

Dravid happens to be the captain involved with the record number of chases in Odi cricket. Yet he loses one series as captain and suddenly people want Ganguly back??

The term knee-jerk has never been more fitting.

 

[SaiSrini]

I certainly hope so. And if he returns, he should be skipper, no question. Dravid is just poor as captain. And if not Ganguly, then Kaif. Look at what he did for UP (Or was it Andhra, I forget) in the Ranji Trohpy. Turned losers into champs, and brought out the best in allrounder Kumar and Raina too.

Let him first come into the team, then let us think of re-instating him as skipper..

Nothing to take away from Dravid. His captaincy was sufficient for the Indians in their home conditions and in conditions where the Indians reign supreme. But abroad, something seems to be going really wrong for him. In fact this series, Dravid was more like waiting for things to happen rather than take the bull by the horn and try to make things happen! And this idea of preserving wickets by playing at a slow pace and then launching the opposition out of the world is not going to work always! We need to have a different plan too to keep switching between two plans!

It was UP.

I feel everyone is being a little harsh on Dravid here, they took a lot of players that could feasibly be playing in the World Cup and made sure they all got experience in the conditions so they are not caught cold when the World Cup arrives.

They came up against a Windies side that had hit rock bottom and was always going to improve with Lara at the helm instead of Chanderpaul, and also found the likes of Gayle, Bravo, Sarwan and Lara himself all playing as though their pride depended on it. Lara would have been fired up knowing it was his last 2 home games in Odi cricket in his island and it seemed for those last two games that both him and Bravo were inspired by that.

Dravid happens to be the captain involved with the record number of chases in Odi cricket. Yet he loses one series as captain and suddenly people want Ganguly back??

The term knee-jerk has never been more fitting.

Its not like Dravid didnt do anything and the defeat was due to the other boys. He too deserves to take the blame. We as fans can only lament. We are not strong enough to effect changes. But we can discuss abt it and the truth is, Dravid also needs to take a majority of the blame. His captaincy was not really inspiring, his batting after that 105 failed miserably. whenever Dravid scores, India wins. but this time after that 105, he failed in all 4 innings and that hurt the team badly. Mr. Dependable (as my favorite "Rehan" from Fanaah calls him!) needs to take note of that!

 

[puddleduck]

I think it was always going to difficult for him when Raina, Dhoni and Pathan, 3 of Indias key players in establishing the record number of chases all had poor tours. Pathan in paticular is a key member of the squad and when he bowls poorly and as well as that contributes nothing with the bat he is leaving a large hole in the team.

Dravid hit a 100, and unfortunately, or stupidly depending on which way you look at it, was run out (twice? ) in this series. I am not saying Dravid needn't look at what went wrong and attempt to fix it, but I am saying is to see people calling for Dravids head after one series defeat away from home after having just been involved in a record breaking run seems a little premature and verging on knee-jerking to me.

 

[rocklara]

Yayyyyy windies win. What a great farewell game for Lara, really happy, great to see the resurgence, and now onto the tests. India will fightback though, interesting to see...Don't give up, is all that I can say to my indian mates on this forum...

 

[edgarisapimp]

Hopefully the good form the Windies have will continue into the test series and beyond. I'd hate for this to be a on-off kind of deal. I truly hope (:upray) that this is the start of something good for West Indian cricket.

 

[s2sschan]

Congratulations to the West Indies team and fans. A tremendous comeback after many disappointing years.
As for India in the Tests, I hope they show a different face.
It's too early for a witch hunt in the Indian Camp. Sreesanth, Munaf, or VRV will have to do something really special that they haven't done before. Good Ol' Kumble will take a bucketful of wickets, thing is someone else also has to contribute to that bucket.

I'd like to offer an explanation for India's horrible performance - "Too Many New Players", and as many changes in the roles of team members.
Read the list of names that have come into the Indian side during the last year or two. Raina, Uthappa, Pawar, Munaf, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Dhoni, Gambhir, Jaffer, Chawla, and VRV Singh. This sounds like too overwhelming. Secondly, most of these guys haven't done anything extra-ordinary, Dhoni and maybe Munaf might be the exceptions.
Maybe we are asking too much of them. Are they good enough to fill Ganguly's and Laxman's shoes?
I won't say anything about Agarkar because you guys love him to death. :cool:

 

[newzolt]

The test series will see a slightly different squad from India.Hope they perform well on this front.Kumble and Laxman the old warhorses.

 

[SaiSrini]

OK, moving onto the test series. Lets forget the ODI loss. A victory is what it takes to erase old bad memories.

Laxman should play all matches (unless Chappell comes up with something stupid and gives both Kaif and Raina a spot in the XI). India should play 4 bowlers only and go in with 6 batsmen+Dhoni+4 bowlers. India can bowl Yuvraj and Sehwag more in the tests also. They are expensive in the ODI's but in the tests, they can bowl more economical overs and be useful. Irfan and Munaf should play, if the wicket is lively with pace and bounce, Sreesanth should play instead of Harbhajan with Kumble as the lone spinner!

lets hope India can do well in the test series!

 

[irottev]

Thats not good enough from India. That was a B-Grade bowling attack. No Collymore, No Bradshaw, No Edwards.

But really, all credit to the West Indies. Its good to see them back. This World Cup will be CLOSE!

In the tests, I think the West Indies have as good a chance to win as India do.

 

[sohum]

What about fielding? Fielding cost them a LOT this series. Dropped catches, missed run-outs, sloppy work. It is easy to point fingers at individuals, but when it comes to fielding, the team failed as a unit. India's success vs. time graph is sinusoidal. Remember last season, where we were more or less utterly hopeless? We just need to get that graph moving back up again.

It has often been the case when one of the teams fails, the other succeeds (Tests vs. ODIs). In the recent past, it was India's test team failing, which spurred the ODI team to succeed. Hopefully it will be swapped, now.

 

[Ritwik]

OK, moving onto the test series. Lets forget the ODI loss. A victory is what it takes to erase old bad memories.

Laxman should play all matches (unless Chappell comes up with something stupid and gives both Kaif and Raina a spot in the XI). India should play 4 bowlers only and go in with 6 batsmen+Dhoni+4 bowlers. India can bowl Yuvraj and Sehwag more in the tests also. They are expensive in the ODI's but in the tests, they can bowl more economical overs and be useful. Irfan and Munaf should play, if the wicket is lively with pace and bounce, Sreesanth should play instead of Harbhajan with Kumble as the lone spinner!

lets hope India can do well in the test series!

I completely agree that Laxman should bat in all tests, he's just a much better batsman than either Kaif or Raina, at least so far.

Well personally I cannot really see India winning with only 4 bowlers. Yuvraj and Sehwag may not be really effective in tests because the goal is not to restrict scoring but to take wickets, and they are part time bowlers so it might be too much to expect them to strike regularly. Basically, 20 wickets have to be taken for the team to win. Tendulkar's absence creates a huge void because if he were present, then India could have gone with 6 batsman (including Dhoni) and played 5 bowlers to have a more realestic shot at winning. Now that he is not playing, India will have to a.) either take a gamble and go with 5 batsman + dhoni and 5 bowlers or b.) they can play safe and go with 6 batsman + dhoni + 4 bowlers. The former, if the team clicks will definitely give them a better chance at victory.

What makes things worse is that all Indian pacers except Pathan are very inexperienced, perhaps the selectors have erred in not including an experienced pacer like Zaheer or Agarkar, who the captain could have turned to had things not been going well.

If India are going to play 4 bowlers, then the question arises whether they will play 2 spinners and 2 pacers or 1 spinner and 3 pacers. In case of the latter, who should they play - Harbhajan or Kumble, keeping in mind that Kumble often fails to strike well away from home and Harbhajan has just been failing for some time now. Lots of the isssues for the team management to consider ....

 

[gary0808]

This series has surprised me a lot on how well the Windies have played. To destroy India 4-1 is no mean feat and this might be the start of the ressurgence of West Indian Cricket.

This is bad for India. They needed to perform here to show they can play well in the Carribean before the World Cup. They still have the capability to do well with players like Dravid, Pathan, Sehwag, Tendulkar and Yuvraj but they need to kill teams off when they have the chance. They seem to lose wickets at crucial times.

I think it'll be a drawn test series.

 

[rocklara]

But what had gone wrong with India? Lara spoke about excessive cricket being one of the reasons but added that the main difference had been the absence of one man. "I think the West Indies team is a better one-day team than this Indian team. Sachin Tendulkar will make a difference in any series. He is such a key player. He wasn't there for the Super Series and we lost everything. He has over 300 ODIs and is the best batsman in the world."

Here are a few Lara quotes after the series, where he confirms Sachin as the best...

 

[nightprowler10]

Here are a few Lara quotes after the series, where he confirms Sachin as the best...

They have both complemented and called each other the best in the business.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

The term knee-jerk has never been more fitting.

Actually, I never wanted Dravid as skipper, and also felt that Ganguly shouldn't have been dropped after making those scores in his latest test.