It is surprising that no body talks about the reality. India reached the number one spot not with their bowling capability. Even against bangladesh we struggled to bowl them out with our bowling strength. There were some individual brilliant performances in batting, especially from Sehwag, Gambir, Tendulkar, Dravid, which helped the bowlers to manage. On the other hand South Africans have a good batting line up and a strong bowling line up. Hence, no doubt we are not comparable with them on paper first. Secondly, Yes, we lost the services of Dravid & Laxman. Rohit Sharma was not a great performer and just his presence would nothave made any great change in the result. But Dhoni must learn a lesson. Except the two exceptionally good players Sehwag and Tendulkar, no one in the team, including Dhoni is capable of playing real fast bowling. Hence, Dhoni's effort to eliminate the seniors like Sehwag, Dravid, Sachin and Laxman cannot happen now, because the bench strength in batting is not as good as these players.
Re: India's defeat
by ramakrishnan s on Feb 11, 2010 09:14 AM
I fully agree to the first part of your comments. Yes, it is the bowling, specially `fast' bowling which is the cause for concern. We see our former cricketers talking a lot about batting, but rarely has anyon e talked about fast bowling. We have a number of medium pacers in the domestic circuit who are quite ordinary There is no pace, no control and variety in the bowling apart from zaheer. Till, this issue is addressed, we would never be able to be at the top.
Re: India's defeat
by Pathan on Feb 11, 2010 07:53 AM
True, this loss will be dedicated to politics of Dhoni eliminating Senior players like Anil Kumble, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman.....
How dare Srikkanth say selection not an issue?? The selection was the main issue India lost and even at home where pitches are tailor made for India team per special request by courtesy BCCI. Shame on BCCI and selectors. This can only happen in India. Total incompetence.
SAHA was in bought with purpose to FAIL and PROVE that he is NO MATCH to DHOOOgi with the bat, it is a part of that deal srikant has with Dhoogi to do FLIP FLOP WITH karthik and secure both their place....
more can be unRAVELLED ABOUT SELECTION that lot of BIASED PEOPLE WANT TO IGNORE.
they are getting Laxman, Raina,etc to avoid 4) for sake of dhoogi
4) Reliance on dhoogi, did not rotate or eject Dhoogi. Did not groom a new wicketKeeper, just a bargain player karthik who flips and flops as part of srikant's deal with dhoogi.
once they avoid 4) somehow,
THE BUSINESS WILL BE BACK TO USUAL i.e the nexxxus of srikant and dhoogi to slowly but steadily control the selection and control the team makeup their WAY.
THIS IS WHY VVX LAXMAN AND SRESANTH ARE BEING RUSHED FROM the gGraveyard such that 4) does not happen for every match.
Maybe, Raina is picked to the milk the cow!!!
they can also pick Ojha to save srikant and dhoogi aArse, does not matter if they make dhoogi play or sitout for a match.
Re: SAHA was bought to FAIL and PROVE that he cannot match dhoogi
by delguy on Feb 11, 2010 07:10 AM
ED,,whats wrong with you,,,take it easy man,,,,,we all saw the failure of the batting, and even if Rohit wouldnt have injured, he was not going to have any effect on the result,,,,but you are going overboard, Dhoni has done well for the team and himself,,,He was number 1 batsman for a long time,,its not easy,,,,so take a deep breath and relax,,,,
One can think why no one is daring to give fullstop to Fab4's?
Reason is crystal clear...they are also not confident about bench strength..
someone writely said when these fab 4 filled the gaps of their seniors it was immediate as if there was no change in the momentum. I come from the same generation when MB-SRT started showing his genious...He started with great passion, dedication, responsibility and what not?
Other Master was AK ...again what to write about his geneous? Full of dedication, no politics, engineer by profession,with two big glasses, Jumbo kept taking wickets....never bothered about getting captaincy..
Cricket looked so beautiful...
Later on in 1995 the batton was successfully carried by biggies like Prince of Kolkata, Jammy the WALL and VVSpecial man.
Then came the Marathon Veggy, the Virudada.
It was team India..with immense teamwork..
Then someone brought TT the fastfood. This Fastfood was so delicious that everybody stopped thinking about making Chapatis, Paratha's..it was readymade stuff with no efforts put in..
Guys...our Fab4's are still very much capable as they are still eat Chapatis, Parathas and not the readymade decorated stuff..
Youngguns..please extend your hand to them and see that ALL IZ WELL
Lastly...Bowling dept really needs mentoring from Kapil Paji and Jumbo and likes of Venkat/Prasanna/ Chandra/Bedi/ LSRK.
Fielding..No comments. We really need someone like Lt. Eknath Solkar...
4) Reliance on dhoogi, did not rotate or eject Dhoogi. Did not groom a new wicketKeeper, just a bargain player karthik who flips and flops as part of srikant's deal with dhoogi.
SAHA was bought in purpose to FAIL and PROVE WHAT that he CANNOT MATCH upto DHOOOgi with the bat, it is a part of that deal srikant has with Dhoogi to do FLIP FLOP WITH karthik and secure both their place....
more can be unRAVELLED ABOUT SELECTION that lot of BIASED PEOPLE WANT TO IGNORE.
once they avoid 4) somehow,
THE BUSINESS WILL BE BACK TO USUAL i.e the nexxxus of srikant and dhoogi to Slowly control the selection and the team makeup their WAY.
THIS IS WHY VVX LAXMAN AND SRESANTH ARE BEING RUSHED FROM the gGraveyard. Maybe, Raina is picked to the milk the cow!!!
they can also pick Ojha to save srikant and dhoogi aArse, does not matter if they make dhoogi play or sitout for a match.
Another curious case is of selecting Tyagi and Mithun and dropping them without have tried them out. Then why were they both selected at all for the first test if they are not good enough? Why select Sreesanth who is prone to injuries and has the problem of oversteping which results in no balls? Why select Ishant who has lost his form completely and is unable to get a single wicket. Why select Harbhajan who has also lost his form?
If India needed experienced batsmen for at team like South Africa then why was Mohammed Kaif not included? Kaif an experienced test player also has been scoring hundreds in domestic cricket just like Dinesh and is a far far batsmen than Dinesh Kartik or Murali Vijay. Kaif is also a great fielder. Why did not Srikkanth try new batsmen like Badri, Raina and others for a minnows team like Bangladesh? Why try against South Africa? Yes Badri does a deserve a place but he should have been given a chance against Bangladesh.
For all these reasons the present bunch of selectors or jokers have to be disbanded forthwith before they bring more shame to Indian cricket. This kind of selection goofup means India is losing matches before the toss has taken place.
But instead BCCI has now instructed the curator of Eden Gardens to tailor a spinning pitch so India can retain its #1 position. Does India really deserve the #1 status in tests? Shame on BCCI and the selectors.
