The lesser team lost at Delhi

Anil Kumble’s honeymoon with the Kotla does not look like going to end before he hangs his boots up. He has the perfect start to his imperfect timing of captaincy career by earning the man of the match award in his first outing as captain against the arch-rivals. Kumble is a seasoned campaigner and is expected to do a decent job at the helm if not spectacular. Nevertheless his captaincy in the 1^st test was spectacular. But more than him the cricket community needs to stay grounded because his master-stroke, as mentioned in most of the columns, of giving the new ball to Ganguly is not going to earn him a couple of wickets in one over everyday. So, rather than hailing his captaincy after just one show, let’s appreciate what we have seen and not increase our expectations more than required.

Honestly this Pakistani team is no match for this Indian team and India should have shut the game in the 1^st innings. Thanks to the Indian batsmen for making the match interesting. Pakistan is playing with one genuine wicket-taker and if our batsmen see his overs through, they can pile up huge totals. Sachin’s run-out in the first innings was unfortunate and after that Dravid should have focused more. He will be the first one to admit that he played a wrong shot considering the team situation in the first innings. Laxman and Dhoni made a good recovery. One logical decisiopn Kumble can take at the beginning of his captaincy career is to promote Laxamn to no. five. Two reasons for this: first Laxman is a better batsman than Ganguly. So, he deserves to bat higher than him. Second, Ganguly’s game fits more for the no. 6 to play with the tail-enders. With the tail Ganguly has the ability to give the ball some thumping which Laxman clearly lacks and believes in rotating the strike even with the tail-enders. You don’t need to look any further than the last Lord’s test to understand how well Dhoni managed his stay at the crease with the tail to save the match for India.

Karthik was predicted to have a great future because of the tenacity he showed in England. So, let’s not be critical of him at the first instance of failure. This series is going to be the true test of his character. People like Sehwag and Gambhir are knocking for another chance. Another reason is that he has never faced someone like Akhtar before. The selectors should have faith in his ability as he has shown a lot of promise till now. Hopefully, he will come out no later than Eden Gardens with flying colors.

Munaf Patel needs to grab this chance as his last hope of breath in international cricket at least to stay in the loop before selectors throw him into the domestic circuit for good. Expectantly the injury concerns of Sreesanth and RP Singh are trivial and they would last at least till the end of Australia test series.

Both teams were competing with each other for the number of mistakes in the Kotla test which eventually made the match interesting. Thankfully, Indian batsmen managed to keep the mistakes to the minimal in the 2^nd knock and India won comfortably. To be precise; the lesser team lost in the end. Hopefully, both teams would be able to raise their game at Kolkota and produce a more gripping contest.

The most lackluster Ind-Pak One-Day series ever

At the start of the one-day series a realistic goal for India was to win the series either 4-1 or 5-0 to believe that we are moving in the right direction. The Indian team needs to be congratulated first for the 3-2 series win over Pakistan in some three decades in its home soil. But where does this win actually stand when we put things in cricketing perspective. It is clearly visible that this Pakistan team lacks punch and the Pakistani youngsters are less impressive in comparison to their Indian counterparts. Moreover they came to India with series losses both in test and one-day matches to South Africa. Sure, India did also loose their last home one-day series against Australia. But South Africa is no Australia especially when it comes to playing in sub-continental conditions in the recent past.

But at the end of the series, here we are celebrating the win. During India’s last tour to Pakistan (2005-06), India won the ODI series 4-1, that to coming back from a 0-1 series opener. That Pakistan team was definitely better than the current team. So, if anything has happened in this series, the Pakistan team with less impressive personnel has moved forward with two wins in the series. What we don’t want at this stage is another false dawn like we felt after all those record wins at the start of the Dravid-Chappel era. If anyone in the Indian establishment believes that we are a competitive team to be reckoned world over after this series win, then that belief is soon going to be shattered as soon as we touch the Australian territory next month. Did not we win both our practice one-day series against West-Indies and Srilanka just before world cup and started mission-2007 world cup as one of the major contenders? So, as long as we don’t start winning abroad in one-day games we can’t be reckoned as a force. The 2-1 series win over South Africa in Ireland was a good display. Making it into the final of the triangular one-day series in Australia with at least two wins against Australia in the league stage will be a good start.

Coming to the personnel gain, RP Singh’s consistency and Rohit Sharma’s batting display in the only chance he got are the two most positive things to emerge from this series. Of course Sachin’s sublime batting and Yuvraj’s consistency are praiseworthy, but now they are expected to perform like this. The moment Sachin stops performing like this, questions will be raised against him. Yuvraj has to take his game to the next level as he is going to be the future batting mainstay. Although Robin Uthappa has caught people’s imagination with his sensational and audacious hitting, whenever he bats in the top order, his faulty technique gets exposed. He has to work on his technique for a permanent slot in the team. Sehwag was disappointing. He gets out in the same ridiculous way no matter who is the bowler. I think it’s time for other youngsters to be given a look in. Zaheer Khan looked a little jaded. I think India should preserve him more for the test matches and can do without him in the one-dayers once in a while. Harbhajan’s true test will be the test series to judge his return to form.

The high voltage drama was missing from the start of this series. This is the most lackluster Ind-Pak series I have watched in my time as a cricket follower. If this is how the future Ind-Pak bilateral contests are going to look like then it does not deserve the term “mother of all battles”. Hopefully the test series will be much better and will show some intensity of the past. Anil Kumble’s appointment as captain is a great decision and he will have to justify it with at least a 2-0 win. I hope the decision to appoint Kumble as the captain is based on cricketing logic and not as a parting gift to the best match-winner India has ever produced.

Funny animation

I just got this funny animation today. So want to share with all.

http://www.endofworld.net/

A Case for Rahul Dravid

The Indian selectors’ decision to “rest” Rahul Dravid for the first two ODIs against Pakistan is appalling to put it softly. The job of selectors in not to please people and a place in the one-day team is not anybody’s birth right, forget about Rahul Dravid. What is Dillip Vengsarkar afraid of and whom is he trying to fool by saying that Dravid has been rested? Does he think that out of all the mad cricket fans in India Dravid himself will take the line that he has been rested? If the selectors are really looking forward and they believe they have to look forward, then please use a straight face and declare that X, Y or Z has been dropped. The chairman of selectors first tells that Dravid has been rested and the next line is he has to prove his form and fitness in domestic cricket. Did he really hear those two contradicting lines in his mind before speaking in front of media? If Rahul Dravid really needs to prove his form and fitness then why was he “rested” from the challenger series? The more I think about this, the more I’m getting convinced that there is more to Dravid’s resignation from captaincy then visible to the naked eye.

By the time anybody reads my blog the team for the last three ODIs might have been announced. I just can’t stop thinking how chaotic that meeting will be. They asked Dravid to prove his form and he did in a way none of the future looking chairman’s recalled players have done. Yes you are right; I’m talking about Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag. Both of these batsmen’s performance in the domestic level had been average when they were called back into the team. The logic Vengsarkar used during Ganguly’s return is that nothing can substitute experience. To his credit Ganguly has performed credibly after making his come back. Even if you believe the selectors are now looking for form and fitness, it’s hard to justify what criteria Virender Sehwag fulfils. To be honest his form in the T20 world cup was just above average and if one half century in the challenger series proves anybody’s form then why the young and in form batsmen like Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary are not there in the team. One can argue Sehwag is a proven match winner. My simple answer to them is that has he won more matches than Dravid for India! Now by performing well in the first opportunity Gambhir has made things more complicated for the selectors. I just want to give one example here to validate why Dravid should be in the team. In the last one-day series against Australia Brad Haddin produced two match winning innings when got the chance because of Ricky Ponting’s injury. But as soon as Ponting became fit, Haddin was dropped and could not get a chance even at the cost of the totally out of form Brad Hodge. Players like Dravid do not replace anyone in the team; they have their own place in the team. Flamboyance aside Rahul Dravid has been the best batsman, best team man, best player for India in the last 10 years and yes definitely better than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar as far as results are concerned.

It was really amusing to see that some in the media are writing that even Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary have scored double centuries in their respective Ranji games. When will our media grow up? It is completely unfair for Raina and Tiwary to get compared to Dravid. They might go on to become the next stalwarts of Indian cricket, but at this point of their career they should simply be compared with each other not with the already great Rahul Dravid. Some argue they should be blooded into the team now otherwise it will be late and they might loose form and interest. If they are playing cricket for any other reason than pure love for the game then they will last the distance anyway. Do our media know how many good seasons like this Mike Hussey and Stuart Clark put in year after year until they earned their Baggy Green? We need players like them if we want to become world beaters.

Although this post is about Rahul Dravid and already long enough I just want to mention one more unprofessional behavior of our selectors. In their last press conference they told that they want to watch Dhoni for two more games before deciding on the test captain and soon after news came in that Sachin has declined test captaincy, Vengsarkar gave the statement that Sachin was the selectors’ choice. They continue to contradict their own statements within a matter of few hours. Although the feelers are already there according to “reliable sources” all over the media that Dhoni is going to be the test captain, I won’t be surprised to see someone else actually becoming the captain.

To sum it up, Rahul Dravid should be brought back into the team at the earliest, not because it is his birth right but because he is still the best number three batsman after Ricky Ponting in ODI cricket.

Sachin, Test captaincy and the right decision!!!

I got up to the greatest logical news this morning as far as Indian Cricket is concerned. I think Sachin declining the test captaincy is the best decision for Indian team to move forward. I’m not against Sachin becoming the captain of the test team even if his record as captain is not very impressive to put it mildly. Making Sachin captain is simply illogical for the plain fact that he is still playing one-day cricket. It will be a clash of personalities and how will Dhoni be able to mould the one-day team into his team with Sachin still around and being led by him in the test team. Neither would be able to make their imprint on the team, because I genuinely believe Sachin has more than 2 years of active cricket left in him. So, I feel Sachin should have either accepted both the one-day and test captaincy or none. Some teams like Australia and England have had different one-day and test captains, but in those teams the test captain is/was not playing one-day cricket anymore, Steve Waugh and Michael Vaughan are the examples here. I’m not saying that what Australia and England have done is the only way to split the captaincy. I’m not against the split captaincy, I just feel Sachin is not the right choice as long as he is playing One-day cricket. I also believe that Dhoni is not ready yet for test captaincy, so we need an experienced guy at the helm of the test team. Please don’t get carried away by the T20 euphoria. If the one-day series against Australia has not opened our eyes, the Australian tour will certainly do. We can see that Dhoni has great leadership qualities from what has been on display till now. But test cricket is altogether different and please don’t shatter his confidence just at the beginning. Were not we discussing his place in the test team just in the last test series in the Lord’s test when he failed in the first innings. To his credit he proved that he is a fast learner and saved the match for us in the second innings. Dhoni is the future; there is not even an iota of doubt in my mind regarding that.

My personal preference at the current scenario would be either Kumble or Laxman. Both have been spoken highly about their leadership abilities and especially Kumble coming for effusive praise from John Wright. If I remember John Wright’s exact words, it is like this, “It’s a pity that Kumble is not considered for captaincy in India because he is a bowler”. I have no preference between these two and would be happy to see anyone of them leading the test team right now and if it is Kumble then at least for next six months to one year and may be more if the choice is Laxman. I read Sanjay Manjrekar’s analysis about the captaincy this morning and he favors Kumble for the reason that Laxman’s place is not assured in the team and Yuvraj Singh is breathing at his neck for a test place. Please for God’s sake stop fiddling with Laxman’s place in the test team. Yes Yuvraj deserves to be given a run in the test team, but if it is done then please do it at the expense of Ganguly not Laxman. How many match-saving and match-winning innings in difficult conditions does that poor guy need to play to prove his worth?

Sanjay Manjrekar has also put a very valid point in his analysis that Sachin should have discussed with selectors regarding the choices if he declines to lead. And if they are going to give it to Dhoni if he says no, then Sachin should have led for at least six months. One would expect that kind of discussion in a professional set up, but knowing the BCCI administrators and the selectors, especially after the dropping of Dravid from the One-day team, who would like to do that is anybody’s guess. Sachin has done Indian cricket a big favor by declining the offer. I feel even if “the bunch of jokers”, as once referred infamously by a great Indian cricketer, do give the test captaincy to Dhoni that would be a better decision than splitting the captaincy with Sachin. Moreover I salute Sachin for his decision and at this stage of his career I expect more test innings like he produced in the last series and prove his critics like Ian Chappel that he is still playing for the right reasons.

PS: Ian Chappel is the best contemporary cricket critic according to me.