Gooch, unfortunately, is very right. Apropos of his comments on the sweep-shot, I remember his own test double-century in India, in which he made VERY GOOD use of it. It appears to me that Kumble and Harbhajan were innocuous because they were unable to make the ball swerve or drift. A classic leg spinner, for instance, should be able to drift the ball in to a right hand batsman. Kumble has never had the ability to do that, because he does not flight the ball. Harbhajan was able to do it in his first few years, but his injury or injuries seem to have put paid to it. Shane Warne, for example, is a formidable bowler even on an unhelpful *pitch*, because he can beat the batsmen in flight. Subhash Gupte, Baloo Gupte, Shinde, Borde, Vinoo Mankad, Ghulam Ahmed, Prasanna, Venkatraghavan, Bedi, Maninder Singh, Chandu Borde, Hirwani, Sivaramakrishnan, all had that ability, and SP Gupte was the grandmaster of that art. It is about time we welcomed Piyush Chawla, Amit Mishra, and Ramesh Powar (who can make the ball drift) and got rid of Kumble and Harbhajan -- and Greg Chappell.
Hi Goochy, Feels great to be able to share a comment with you.Who can forget your sweeping ways to your 333 against Indian spinners !! You are right in your observations that Kumble & Harbachan are like toothless tigers in pitches not so helpful to them. My feeling however, is that on spicy turning & bouncy wickets, the England batsmen would find them too hot to handle.. They are so rooted to their creases to invite trouble for themselves.Paul Collingwood was the lone exception, when he seemed to be bold to attack the spinners, especially in the second innings. Watch out for Sreesanth ! He had been the best trier from the Indian side. Lokk at the way he plotted the dismissal of Pietersen in the first innings. Hoggard had always been pretty successful against the Indians.We do miss Simon Jones ! Cook displayed a good temperament.But would he fit into the scheme of things in the one dayers ? I doubt.If he starts using his feet more against the spinners, he will be exciting to watch. Monty has a hybrid action, a cross between Bedi & Vettori ! If he slightly changes his wrist position before delvering, he can be quite a handful.But Indians have made him bigger than he is !
