India tour of South Africa - 2013/14

[scratch978]

An all-rounder is almost a necessity in ODIs because of the 10 overs per player rule, no such limitations exist in Tests, and thus a good all-rounder is almost a bonus.

India has got only 4 bowlers and SA have 5(including Kallis).
That means SA bowlers have to bowl 18 overs each and Indian bowlers, 23 overs each. With fast bowlers dominating the day, it means heavy load on Indian fast bowlers which reflects on their performance.

You may argue that Dhoni may also use his part time bowlers, but remember that Kallis has got a large no. of wickets in his gallery, the luxury which part time bowlers can not provide..

 

[Epic]

India has got only 4 bowlers and SA have 5(including Kallis).
That means SA bowlers have to bowl 18 overs each and Indian bowlers, 23 overs each. With fast bowlers dominating the day, it means heavy load on Indian fast bowlers which reflects on their performance.

You may argue that Dhoni may also use his part time bowlers, but remember that Kallis has got a large no. of wickets in his gallery, the luxury which part time bowlers can not provide..

An heavy load that they handle just fine, like I said, since the retirement of Kapil Dev, India have played with 6 batsmen, 1 keeper and 4 bowlers, and this setup is no anomaly, if anything, playing with an all-rounder is the anomaly these days.

 

[Aalay]

What exactly does Pujara need to do to get a reckoning for the ODI team?

Not play short ball well?

 

[bigred]

This series is making me even more furious as an England fan. Fair enough, Australia have a good bowling attack. But India are facing an even better one, and they are managing to put decent runs on the board. Fair play to them.

 

[scratch978]

It is really surprising to see the home captain stopping play in dark with two fast bowlers. Strange tactics or is Smith rattled by Indian batting? Not expected from the No. 1 Test side.

----------

It's been an excellent start to the Boxing day Test for India. Right from the toss, pretty much everything went right for Dhoni's men.

 

[SaiSrini]

Disappointing selection by Dhoni! You put so much faith on Rohit Sharma and hope for him to come good. But you cannot repose half that much faith on a spinner who needs to be given time to realize his potential overseas??

Also now, we are a spinner less on this wicket. SA have Peterson and Duminy (with Faf more than capable of turning his arm around too). We have only Jadeja with no decent part time spinner (Rohit can do it but the way Dhoni gave bowling to Vijay last game, seems like he doesn't rate Rohit's spin much).

 

[Epic]

It is really surprising to see the home captain stopping play in dark with two fast bowlers. Strange tactics or is Smith rattled by Indian batting? Not expected from the No. 1 Test side.

It's the umpire's call.

 

[scratch978]

Disappointing selection by Dhoni! You put so much faith on Rohit Sharma and hope for him to come good. But you cannot repose half that much faith on a spinner who needs to be given time to realize his potential overseas??

It's not only the captain who makes the decision, but the whole Team management(captain, coach, BCCI officials).
Also, the decision is made after a long discussion on every factor.

So you got to have faith in them.
They take all decisions considering nation's benefit, not an individual alone...

 

[Fenil]

Ojha should have played this match. He tries to get turn from off stump of the right handers which looks a very good line to bowl on this pitch. Jadeja is wicket to wicket but this is test match cricket and if someone like Amla or Kallis decide to block anything looking dangerous, I don't think Jadeja will get too many wickets in the first innings at least.

 

[surendar]

Disappointing selection by Dhoni! You put so much faith on Rohit Sharma and hope for him to come good. But you cannot repose half that much faith on a spinner who needs to be given time to realize his potential overseas??

.

That is fine if it would have been a 5 match series, with only 2 test matches I guess it is fine to gamble with Jadeja. Even on Indian conditions there were instances with Dhoni using Jadeja more than Ojha when both were in playing XI. So am not really surprised with his bold tactics.

As much we say, Ashwin needs to be given time for abroad, we can also say 'Dhoni's blind confidence in Jadeja might boost him more to be a potential AR in some near future!'

And I am no Jadeja fan anytime. I just wonder most of the times, what is he even doing.

 

[crazyrahul]

Wonderful start by India yet again, this time solidity from Vijay

Pujara just can't get out-of-form, and poor Steyn wicket less yet again after bowling 16 overs

Bad light sopped play today unfortunately, hope this test will provide result

 

[SaiSrini]

It's not only the captain who makes the decision, but the whole Team management(captain, coach, BCCI officials).
Also, the decision is made after a long discussion on every factor.

So you got to have faith in them.
They take all decisions considering nation's benefit, not an individual alone...

The captain is the guy who makes the decisions primarily. The selectors select the team, the BCCI are not involved in anyway. The coach provides the input, but ultimately the captain is the one making the selection of the XI. I know you seem to be trying to defend Dhoni, but for me, I defend Dhoni when I think he is right, but I would criticize him if I dont think he is right.

This wicket suggests we need two spinners. We should have gone a batsman less on this pitch. With Jadeja being a decent bat and more so on such dry wickets, he would have been a good replacement for either Rahane or Rohit Sharma.

 

[sportzfan]

This is when me will miss Sachin's part time unorthodox spin who used to take wickets when the team needed it. He used to be called man with the golden arms. I don't know why tendulkar didn't bowl much at the end of his career. Did he not want to bowl or Dhoni didn't trust him?

 

[Epic]

The captain is the guy who makes the decisions primarily. The selectors select the squad, the BCCI are not involved in anyway. The coach provides the input, but ultimately the captain is the one making the selection of the XI. I know you seem to be trying to defend Dhoni, but for me, I defend Dhoni when I think he is right, but I would criticize him if I dont think he is right.

This wicket suggests we need two spinners. We should have gone a batsman less on this pitch. With Jadeja being a decent bat and more so on such dry wickets, he would have been a good replacement for either Rahane or Rohit Sharma.

I'm beating a dead horse with this, but if you really think about it, we already have an all-rounder level Test batsman in Dhoni at #7, especially away from home where he averages just 33 with the bat.

1. Murali Vijay
2. Shikhar Dhawan
3. Cheteshwar Pujara
4. Virat Kohli
5. Rohit Sharma/Ajinkya Rahane
6. MS Dhoni*?
7. Ravindra Jadeja
8. Ravichandran Ashwin

A batting lineup along the lines of that overseas puts too much pressure on our top 5.

This is when me will miss Sachin's part time unorthodox spin who used to take wickets when the team needed it. He used to be called man with the golden arms. I don't know why tendulkar didn't bowl much at the end of his career. Did he not want to bowl or Dhoni didn't trust him?

He didn't want to bowl much, something to do with his back I think.

 

[surendar]

This is when me will miss Sachin's part time unorthodox spin who used to take wickets when the team needed it. He used to be called man with the golden arms. I don't know why tendulkar didn't bowl much at the end of his career. Did he not want to bowl or Dhoni didn't trust him?

Tendulkar is really a different bowler, I would call him as suprise package with ball rather than addressing him as a regular one.

In the era, where we lacked all rounders( even now we lack one, but it was worst in late 90s ) we really struggled with that 5th bowler option where Azhar/Sourav used to bring him on most frequently. Under Dada, we even have seen the 5th bowler quota being shared between himself & Sachin sometimes. Hero Honda Cup's last over, Moin Khan's dismissal in test, Steve/Inzi getting irritated with Sachin's deliveries - these used to be classy but Sachin is definitely not in category of All Rounder. He was always in category of a batsman who can bowl a bit. After his injuries in early 2000s, it became very rare to see him bowling regular spells.

Last I remembered his bowling, was the Asia Cup of 2004. I guess that was the last series where he dominated with bat & ball together. Remember this because I was frustrated on MOS decision where Sachin deserved for his AR performance but for some mysterious reasons it went to Sanath.