All Indians want to be batsmen because Balling is a thankless job. If the team wins, batsmen get the attention and India loses, India needs better ballers. That is why they pick up ballers from minorities. India is by far a team sports country.
Looking at the conditions in Australia, the seamers, even though in the 130 kph range had a better chance than the spinners. Just like the last WC in India the choice of the bowling attack remains inconsistent.
Part of the problem with Dhoni is his strong preference for Praveen Kumar. The arguments for Ravi Jadeja are similar to Kaif and Ajay Jadeja. They are great fielders but leaking 41 runs in 2.4 overs simply just is too much to overcome. Jadeja simply cannot keep his composure.
Irfan and Tiwari should have had some match practice. It is better to start a series with the veterans and then rest them later until the finals again.
India will now have to go with skill rather than fielding ability. Irfan is out of practice, so the lineup has to be
Sachin Sehwag Gambhir Kohli Raina Dhoni
and the bowling attack
Zaheer Vinay Praveen Ashwin and Rahul Sharma
Since Irfan is out of match practice, and though Jadeja is brilliant in the field, India still need to go with batting and bowling skills.
In the last 2 series abroad Indian bowlers were never able to exert consistent pressure on the batsmen. While they may have won a session or two here and there but overall they never dominated. Starting from 1st test in England when they had England on the mat at 124/8, they allowed the tail to wag and score 221. Same thing in 2nd test, they allowed lower order batsmen to score freely. It also happened in the test series in Aus, they took first 3 wickets and then were unable to break through, primarily because they were not disciplined. If one bowler bowls well, the other leaks runs, they never hunted in a pack. It is a fact that Indian spin cupboard is bare. Ashwin has been a big disappointment on the Aus tour so far. He is not even able to contain the batsmen leave alone take vital wickets. He keeps trying too many things and ends up bowling short or wide more often. We don't know how Ojha would have performed on these wickets but he deserved at least one test game. So with these spinners, it will not be easy for India to win even at home against higher ranked teams. The less said about Ishant Sharma the better, he is the most over hyped bowler in Indian cricket at the moment, this guy just can't bowl on one side of the stumps for extended periods. Against this Indian bowling, even the WI were able to score 500 runs twice in the 3 test series in India. If India have to win at home at least, then they need to find some quality spinners quickly.
Re: Rightly said.
by cc man on Feb 07, 2012 05:41 AM
Does whatever we talk on this board, reach media,bcci,cricket experts,indian team management etc? Or we are just wasting time in making unproductive nice views?
Re: Re: Rightly said.
by Jiju on Feb 07, 2012 07:56 AM
Bingo! Your latter part of the message explains it all.... :) 100% unproductive stuff. But we all like that right?
Re: Re: Re: Rightly said.
by Murali Ramakrishnan on Feb 07, 2012 08:47 AM
As good as indian politics. Whatever we speak and mean here has no relevance to that personal or group ever.
But we never forget to vent our anguish or agony here :)
Re: Re: Re: Re: Rightly said.
by Jiju on Feb 07, 2012 09:07 AM
Very true.... That is the only way to relieve frustration nowadays. Specially Rediff is the hub for all sorts of fighting, name calling, etc. One of the worst sites. Still, as u said, we never forget to vent our anguish or agony here :)
Well said Dean Jones- You are spot on right on this issue!. Everybody is talking about Indian batting failure, but a great bowling can unsettle any class batsmen in form. It's not that our top3 were our of form. It is the terrific Aussie bowling with excellent planning to get each batsmen out. See how their bowling line and fielding set up changes for every Indian batsmen. Bowling and fielding, as well as field placements were the serious flaws. We simply do not have bowlers who can get the opponents within 200 runs. Even Zimbabwe/Bangladesh can score 300 against us. You see how Pakistan bowlers can damage the opponents even when their batsmen get all out for 99. They can still pull up a win from that. Neither Ponting, nor Clarke are in that much form to have scored that many runs. If our pacers cannot perform in pace-freindly condition in Australia, then I am not sure where else they can? We dropped catches at crucial points. When Aussie were 50 something for 6, how can they go on to score to 250 in Melbourne. We lost the series in Melbourne itself and the scar from there got worse in the remainder of the series. Also, the field placements were very ordinary. You cannot let them score singles just to prevent boundaries. Because that helps in rotating strikes and bowlers have to keep changing lines which in turn unsettles their rhythm. It's ok if they make boundaries, because only then we create chances to get nicks from their batsmen.
Re: Best Analyses
by cc man on Feb 07, 2012 02:09 AM
Example take the case of recent Pakistan and England Test Series. Pak bowlers consistently bowled in good areas(just on and around 6 meter of 22yrd pitch) with seam,pace,bounce,swing,spin.
Re: Re: Best Analyses
by t xz on Feb 07, 2012 02:21 AM
Yes, that is right. The Pakistani spinners were exceptional in this series. Even when the pitch was not offering them any turn, they were relying on subtle variations on flight and were bowling slower, that enabled them to extract more from the pitches by bowling good old fashioned spin bowling. Everyone knows that Saeed Ajmal is a very good bowler and has a well disguised doosra, but Abdur Rehman was revelation in this series. He was consistently bowling in good length areas and turning the ball well and kept the batsmen guessing. Both of them hunted in pairs and were well rewarded with 24 and 19 wickets respectively.
Well said Dean Jones- You are spot on right on this issue!. Everybody is talking about Indian batting failure, but a great bowling can unsettle any class batsmen in form. It's not that our top3 were our of form. It is the terrific Aussie bowling with excellent planning to get each batsmen out. See how their bowling line and fielding set up changes for every Indian batsmen. Bowling and fielding, as well as field placements were the serious flaws. We simply do not have bowlers who can get the opponents within 200 runs. Even Zimbabwe/Bangladesh can score 300 against us. You see how Pakistan bowlers can damage the opponents even when their batsmen get all out for 99. They can still pull up a win from that. Neither Ponting, nor Clarke are in that much form to have scored that many runs. If our pacers cannot perform in pace-freindly condition in Australia, then I am not sure where else they can? We dropped catches at crucial points. When Aussie were 50 something for 6, how can they go on to score to 250 in Melbourne. We lost the series in Melbourne itself and the scar from there got worse in the remainder of the series. Also, the field placements were very ordinary. You cannot let them score singles just to prevent boundaries. Because that helps in rotating strikes and bowlers have to keep changing lines which in turn unsettles their rhythm. It's ok if they make boundaries, because only then we create chances to get nicks from their batsmen.
England was the perfect team until a month ago..I would like for Jones to say this statement after a series in India. We dont have a Steyn or McGrath to work outside India.. but we are good..
Re: Home turf
by t xz on Feb 07, 2012 02:28 AM
Don't assume that the current Indian team can win easily at home against top sides. We have seen recently against WI how they scored 450 on 2 occasions and in the 3rd test India almost lost chasing 243. The current India spin bowlers are nowhere near the class of Kumble or Harbhajan (at his peak) who could bowl out teams easily.
This is the ultimate cure to the illness of ill-doing by the Indian team. Drop every one because all of them are either sewagh's men or dhoni's men. We want one team and not a collection of teams to make a 11 member squad. Since Dhoni is the best captain around for the time being, keep him and rest all others for the good of Indian cricket.
The whole rest series people were talking about Batting failure, but the real problem is bowling. Had bowlers faired to control Aus batting, it would have been a slight cushion for batsmen. I agree unfortunate that big 3 have failed, but except for big 3, none of the others were test class. So you cant ask them to perform in testing conditions. We were able to count on only Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar. No one expected all 3 will fail miserably. So that gave no hope on batting. But if the bowling had any sting, then Aus batting could have collapsed.
so do look at the bowling department seriously. Zaheer is absolute useless and so is Ishant. So look for some good young bowling lots.
Re: Dean is absolutely Right
by Cricket Fanatic on Feb 06, 2012 10:16 PM
ASHOK Dinda is by far the best bowler in the domestic matches this season. Can Mr. srikanth answer, why isn't he selected in the touring Indian team, where the team is performing at it's all time worst!
Re: Re: Dean is absolutely Right
by t xz on Feb 07, 2012 02:33 AM
I think Dinda was played in one of the ODIs recently and he fared miserably. He was bowling all over the place. There is nothing extra ordinary about him, but I agree that he could be given a few more chances. But no matter whom they select, the bowlers have to learn to hunt as a pack, so should be able to tie one end up (and not end up giving runs by trying too many things) when another bowler is taking wickets from other end. This has been the problem of the Indian bowling for a number of years now - if one bowler takes wickets from one end, there will be 2 others who will leak runs and release pressure from the batsmen.
