India tour of Bangladesh

[BigCrickNan]

Mortaza's innings :cool: that's entertainment lol. Got the crowd in.

 

[treva]

Serious improvement this series, but they need to be more consistant performing well in both forms of the game. Overall a lot of positives can be taken out of this tour for Bangladesh...

 

[SaiSrini]

Serious improvement this series, but they need to be more consistant performing well in both forms of the game. Overall a lot of positives can be taken out of this tour for Bangladesh...

Positives for Bangladesh? Its back to usual for them, some good performances, but overall, totally insipid. They allowed India to make their win look comprehensive despite India having serious problems in their camp (batting order, etc).

I still would wait and see how Zaheer goes before saying that he is truly back. He performs a few matches and then he gets back to his usual inconsistent ways. Indians are notoriously known for being like this. Some well needed runs for Sachin, though he should not be too elated. His 122 this match was one of the most boring hundreds of Sachin that I have seen of his entire career! I have still not come to terms of seeing a defensive Sachin Tendulkar!

Sharma looks good. Yes, he has this problem as pointed out by the commentators, but he can improve under proper guidance. He bowls good pace. The bowlers in this series constantly strived to bowl at the late 130's and early 140's which is a good sign. May be the change is coming from the inputs given by the new bowling coach. When Sreesanth comes back, India will have a good future bowling attack. Now Bhajji and Chawla need to come into the team for the England tour and our bowling will look even more good.

 

[ZexyZahid]

Bangladesh need to kick out Omar. He doesn't make runs. Tamim Iqbal is a better option. And they should let Mortaza bat at a higher position then number 8. Maybe they actually can build partnerships.

 

[sohum]

^ I think Mortaza is a far better batsman than many in the Bangladeshi team, Bashar included.

 

[Griffo]

People in the Bangladesh squad have said that as well. Whats his averages?

 

[manee]

Positives for Bangladesh? Its back to usual for them, some good performances, but overall, totally insipid. They allowed India to make their win look comprehensive despite India having serious problems in their camp (batting order, etc).

I saw no problems in India's batting order whatsoever. Jaffer has proved himself as a good opener in FC games and the Tests he's opened besides the First Test at Chittagong of course. Karthik has scored 68, 56, 22 and 129, not too shabby.

I still would wait and see how Zaheer goes before saying that he is truly back. He performs a few matches and then he gets back to his usual inconsistent ways. Indians are notoriously known for being like this.

Definately but I believe he has secured his place for the England tour with the match winning performance in the first innings.

Some well needed runs for Sachin, though he should not be too elated. His 122 this match was one of the most boring hundreds of Sachin that I have seen of his entire career! I have still not come to terms of seeing a defensive Sachin Tendulkar!

To establish himself as a good defensive batsman, he is going to have to have Dravid like consistancy which he won't. That being said, his hundred was at a strike rate of over 50, so it was hardly slow.

Sharma looks good. Yes, he has this problem as pointed out by the commentators, but he can improve under proper guidance. He bowls good pace. The bowlers in this series constantly strived to bowl at the late 130's and early 140's which is a good sign. May be the change is coming from the inputs given by the new bowling coach. When Sreesanth comes back, India will have a good future bowling attack. Now Bhajji and Chawla need to come into the team for the England tour and our bowling will look even more good.

I think Bhaji has lost it, he is no longer the wicket taking bowler he was and is more of a containment bowler, of which there is no room for in either Test or One Day cricket. Chawla is good, but I would not play him on a full schedule just yet since he is still young. Rotating him and Kumble (to ease him in and Kumble out) would be the best move IMO. Regarding the pace attack, India have a promising pace attack indeed. Sharma should NEVER BOWL AGAIN if he does not sort out that back foot problem since he will break his back (seriously) and it may be the end of any sort of pace he could have mustered. Sharma is a good prospect and if he grows to about 6ft 6 (he is 6ft 4 now) he could get some steep bounce. If Ishant put on a tiny bit of strength too, he could have some true pace and bounce. No one else picked up on it, but I feel he had very good accuracy. I would not personally lose sleep if the new comers/returners of VRV Singh and RP Singh get the nod ahead of Munaf Patel. Munaf Patel was India's best bowler in England when he was bowling truly very quick, but he has lost that and is a bit of a joke now.

People in the Bangladesh squad have said that as well. Whats his averages?

Not great. Its 12. He scored 1/3 of his test runs in his last three innings.

 

[Griffo]

hes willing to do whats nessacery to get the job done i dont think people like ahmed and ashraful are

 

[treva]

Yes many positives from Bangladesh!

Mortaza in both forms of the game,
Rajin Saleh made a bulk of runs,
Shahadat Hossain in his 1 test,
Mohammad Rafique took some wickets,
They showed that they can bat down the order

lots of positives, they just need to be a hell of a lot more consistant...

 

[Animator!]

Zaheer Khan needs to be kept with for the England tour. He had a great season last year for Worcestershire, and he's your only proven bowler who can bowl in English conditions. When you come here, he should head your attack.

 

[sohum]

I saw no problems in India's batting order whatsoever. Jaffer has proved himself as a good opener in FC games and the Tests he's opened besides the First Test at Chittagong of course. Karthik has scored 68, 56, 22 and 129, not too shabby.

Well, this sort of batting order will work against Bangladesh but it certainly will become problematic if we lose 2-4 wickets in the first session. Our batting ends at 6 and we don't have the cushioning of Pathan or Agarkar either. Kumble can stick around a bit but the others look pretty poor. Powar isn't a long-term prospect either and I would in fact be surprised if he got a game in England.

To establish himself as a good defensive batsman, he is going to have to have Dravid like consistancy which he won't. That being said, his hundred was at a strike rate of over 50, so it was hardly slow.

Statistics don't tell the story, but Tendulkar was outscored in all his partnerships, despite facing more balls than his partners. He hit 4 boundaries and 1 six (quoting from memory, but the figure was something like that) when he reached his century. In humid conditions. A strike rate of just over 50 is clearly slow in a match where all batsmen were quicker than him and all accelerated after reaching their 50. In fact, if a cricket newbie without any knowledge of names watched that innings, he would probably claim that Tendulkar was the worst of the four centurions on display.

I think Bhaji has lost it, he is no longer the wicket taking bowler he was and is more of a containment bowler, of which there is no room for in either Test or One Day cricket.

Errr.... containment is definitely more than useful in One Day cricket. As for test cricket, he last played a test match almost a year back. Kumble has been preferred over him but if you're going to write him off from now, we might as well get rid of all our senior players who are having a rough patch and get in the youngsters.

Zaheer Khan needs to be kept with for the England tour. He had a great season last year for Worcestershire, and he's your only proven bowler who can bowl in English conditions. When you come here, he should head your attack.

Yup, I was just going to say that. He's got the most knowledge of English conditions of all our bowlers (I don't think Kumble played for any counties, did he?) and would definitely be useful. He was also pretty effective in his most recent season, if my memory serves me correctly.

 

[kookaburra69]

Mortaza is more of a lower order slogger and sometimes it pays off,i think he should just stay at number 8 and rely on the Batsmen to score runs.

 

[Griffo]

its really good for a team with limited batting ability like bangladesh to have a strong tail like they do with razzak mortaza and rafique

 

[manee]

Well, this sort of batting order will work against Bangladesh but it certainly will become problematic if we lose 2-4 wickets in the first session. Our batting ends at 6 and we don't have the cushioning of Pathan or Agarkar either. Kumble can stick around a bit but the others look pretty poor. Powar isn't a long-term prospect either and I would in fact be surprised if he got a game in England.

I am pretty sure five bowlers was a direct responce to poor Bangladeshi bowling on flat Bangladeshi pitches.

Statistics don't tell the story, but Tendulkar was outscored in all his partnerships, despite facing more balls than his partners. He hit 4 boundaries and 1 six (quoting from memory, but the figure was something like that) when he reached his century. In humid conditions. A strike rate of just over 50 is clearly slow in a match where all batsmen were quicker than him and all accelerated after reaching their 50. In fact, if a cricket newbie without any knowledge of names watched that innings, he would probably claim that Tendulkar was the worst of the four centurions on display.

After tea in which the message was likely given to speed up the rate, he did speed up the rate and batted at a run a ball. He just didn't see the need to take the initiative to the bowlers before then, especially because he was struggling against Rafique.

Errr.... containment is definitely more than useful in One Day cricket. As for test cricket, he last played a test match almost a year back. Kumble has been preferred over him but if you're going to write him off from now, we might as well get rid of all our senior players who are having a rough patch and get in the youngsters.

Containment should be a given by spinners in ODI cricket in the middle overs and wickets should be what they are looking to get. Looking at statistics, maybe I have been slightly unfair on him since he is quite good in Tests recently...but look! Expensive (3.13 an over) and takes wickets at 40.

home                  31 1561.2  4079 162  8/84  15/217  25.17  2.61  57.8 15  4
away                  26  965.4  3029  76  5/13   8/180  39.85  3.13  76.2  4  0

Compare with Kumble:

home                  56 3090.2  7706 325 10/74  14/149  23.71  2.49  57.0 24  7
away                  59 2883    8073 227  8/141 12/279  35.56  2.80  76.2  9  1

Not nearly as expensive, which is what you want when a bowler is not taking wickets.

Look what I dug up on one Zaheer Khan.

County Championship (4 Day):

78 wickets at 29 with a strike rate of 47.5 in county championship.

List A (one day):

28 wickets at 16(!) and economy of 4.56(!!) and strike rate of 21(!!!).

Twenty20:

...who cares?

 

[sohum]

I am pretty sure five bowlers was a direct responce to poor Bangladeshi bowling on flat Bangladeshi pitches.

It doesn't matter what it was direct response to. The fact is that we have no clue what will happen if our top order fails to score runs. And that problem is still at large. We would never have had an opportunity to find the solution in this series, though.

After tea in which the message was likely given to speed up the rate, he did speed up the rate and batted at a run a ball. He just didn't see the need to take the initiative to the bowlers before then, especially because he was struggling against Rafique.

If he didn't see the initiative, I have to say that he is falling short of what he is striving to be--a successful, experienced cricketer. The Indians may have thought that they would bowl Bangladesh out on what seemed to be a belter, but judging by the pitch, you would think the initiative (after three batsmen have scored tons, no less) would be to pile on the runs quickly so that you have as much time as you can to bowl the opposition out twice.

Containment should be a given by spinners in ODI cricket in the middle overs and wickets should be what they are looking to get. Looking at statistics, maybe I have been slightly unfair on him since he is quite good in Tests recently...but look! Expensive (3.13 an over) and takes wickets at 40.

Containment and wickets? Obviously that is the ideal scenario. But the fact of the matter is that ODI cricket is limited overs and if you can bowl your 10 overs for not too many runs even without taking a wicket, that will help your side nevertheless. Every bowler is looking to give away as few runs and take as many wickets. I think you're being harsh on Harbhajan, claiming that he is not bowling perfectly.

As for tests, economy has far less meaning, which is why I am not concerned with the statistic you put up with regards to economy. But since you were kind enough to post it, you can compare the strike rates (which matter the most, in tests) and you will notice that Bhajji's and Kumble's are remarkably similar. The averages aren't too dissimilar either. Which is why your argument fails from a statistical point of view.

But I don't believe in pure statistics. I would choose Kumble over Harbhajan 8 days a week if I had to choose between them. But to claim that Harbhajan is useless and a spent force in international cricket is to draw the curtains close just when the show has started.

Mortaza is more of a lower order slogger and sometimes it pays off,i think he should just stay at number 8 and rely on the Batsmen to score runs.

He showed better technique in the innings that he played than all of the other batsmen. And as a result, he high-scored for Bangladesh with the bat, as well.