suitably sleeping...?

shared by straight point on Monday, August 11, 2008

regulars of this blog knows that i have never been stats guy...it pains me to look for it...

i always goes by my instincts like how player look and feel while playing...his ways of getting out...confidence or lack of it...and how assured i feel knowing he is coming out after a fall of wicket...

but of late i have been hearing from so many (followers) who have termed that its only THIS series which is going bad...they are making us believe that the fall in form is sudden...and temporary...so i against my nature decided to take plunge...

last 20 innings i looked for...or since Ist test of oz series...and here is what i got...

Mat inns nos runs hs avg (drift)

Rahul Dravid
unfiltered 125 216 26 10246 270 53.92
filtered 10 19 2 563 111 33.11 (-20)

Saurav Ganguly
unfiltered 109 180 15 6888 239 41.74
filtered 10 19 1 542 87 30.11 (-11)

VVS Laxman
unfiltered 96 158 21 6000 281 43.79
filtered 10 18 1 708 109 41.64 (-2)

Sachin
unfiltered 150 244 25 11877 248* 54.23
filtered 8 15 1 588 154* 42.00 (-12)

only vvs has more or less the same avg as his over all career...

i wanted to put stats of other two (sehwag and gambirs) but i dropped the idea coz figures were embarrassing to compare...

if you further break it series per series basis...i.e. starting from Oz series to SA to SL series or breaking it from last 20 innings to last 15 to last 10 to even last 5 innings...

whichever way you wanna look at it...i am sure that...the decline will appear more continuously downwards...almost like a pattern...indicating that the fall in form is not temporary...or sudden...as we are being made to believe...

its one thing to worship GODs and its another to follow blindly...

the blogger is and will remain one of better fan of all our GODs...but one thing which needs to be crystal clear here is that criticism never ever amounts to dis-respect...

i rest my case here.

55 comments:

Homer said...

A 20 point drop for Dravid explains why the INdian team is struggling - if the fulcrum around which the team is built is shaky, the rest of the structure will reflect it!

Cheers,

straight point said...

so you mean other 25k international runs experience was there to make numbers...homer?

Viswanathan said...

Isn't it a irony. Our batting woes were always attributed to the inconsistency of our openers.

Sadly, now that we have a semblance of a successful openers our middle order sags.

straight point said...

are they in awe OTT?

coz it increasing it looks like we play on two different pitches one which or openers play and another on which rest of our...

RS said...

Do you think that not playing ODIs is impacting their form - since they now play international cricket once every 3 months or so?

straight point said...

no RS...for god sake don't even think of it...

look around world cricket most teams have different batsmen to suit different requirements of cricket...

they are professional cricketers and if they can not adopt to it or finding it difficult...make way and let play those who are willing...

simple as that...no emotions attached...

RS said...

sp: definitely not asking for them to be in ODI - just wondering how did all of them manage to lose form at the same period - age?

Viswanathan said...

RS,

Old age. :)

Gaurav Sethi said...

sp - go by the same instincts to gauge a player' form, frame of mind. This series, at no point did i feel any good when No.3 to No 6 walked in. As for No. 7, i was beyond feeling by then.

Any series has one Vandort, India excelled in producing five.

Ind next plays a test vs Oz on Oct 9. Let's see what happens by then. Right now, 5 more 70 MM shows coming up?

Trideep said...

SP, The fab-4 have had their time. Guess its time they decide to go. However what do u say to the bowlers? Esp the spinners who failed to impress even on a spin friendly tracks.

Soulberry said...

I guess this time there isn’t any escaping…we are once again at that point where questions are asked and there aren’t any comeback 100s or 200s or match-winning efforts to fall back upon for the fab4.

Anil Singh said...

I agree with SP, the decline is there. But I wish to add a couple of things.

First: rather than going by the unmeasurable standards like giftedness,talent, mavercickness etc. the selectors should go for more measurable ones--like, performance in the last series, performance in the last three series, fitness etc.

Second: On the basis of international and domestic matches a pool of 100 players which include the playing eleven should be made.
Top performers in domestic tournaments should be given opportunity earlier than those who come directly from the sky.The greatest benefit of this rule will be that after a couple of years, players will stop falling from the sky.

Third: Nothing demotivates a guy more than the realization that a top performance in the domestic circuit is not enough to guarantee a berth in the national team.
So any pleas like "even though he didn't play or failed to perform in the domestic tournament, but he is a real talent" should be dumped from the word go. If a guy can perform here, he can perform anywhere. Above all this approach is better than speculation.

Before concluding one more thing.

If Sachin fans or selectors think that, his continuous and unhindered selection to the ODIs and tests will help him play the World Cup 2011; then I'm sorry but no one can be more wrong than that.

people lose confidence not only when they fail to perform on a long run,or when they are considered incapable; they also lose confidence when they are given something, which they internally(I mean conscience)know they don't deserve.

I don' know, what others feel, but if Dravid and Ganguly are shown door now(which logically should be done), and if they have real fire to make a come back , then they will have more chance to play the WC 2011 than anyone in the same boat.

Some will argue that the players with larger than life image always come and go on their will.

Then I can't argue, but can only say, "injuries are a part of professional sports".

When nothing goes right, injuries do happen

Anil Singh said...

@ RS. Sorry to jump in the discussion.
But you have made a very valid point here. Not playing ODIs is definitely affecting their performance. Along with the non-playing duration, it is also the realization that they will be shown the door from the tests as well if they fail here, it is putting great pressure on them. Barring VVS,who is used to being ignored throughout his career, both Gangulay and Dravid are feeling the pressure.
Irrespective of anything, But if the fail to capitalize on the opportunity they are given, then
how can anyone allow them to remain in the team.
After all cut-throat competition is everywhere.

Prabu said...

While it is true that the performance has been down I also think there is an element of imposing the relative failures in IPL onto the performance of these guys in recent times. Our failure to win in subcontinental conditions is a problem that has been going on for at least the last 7-8 years where our fast bowling has really struggled thereby adding pressure on our spin bowlers. When was the last time India won a subcontinental test series in fashion - I mean the way we used to kick ass in the 90s!

While I hope the ODI team does well, you will see everyone talking about the need for seniors in the team if they fail. Wasn't it just a month back everyone said the inexperience of the ODI team is showing up and hwo the seniors would show the way. When they failed, we are back to screw the seniors let's get all the young guns in.

Let's wait till Australia gets here and pass our judgements at the end of this year! At the moment, the best policy is to rotate the new boys in and have the transition done in a controlled fashion rather than dump these guys in a heap. We don't yet have the class of batsmen to replace them.

straight point said...

Any series has one Vandort, India excelled in producing five...

cracker of statement gaurav...sums up the series for me...

straight point said...

tri...yes the bowlers look below par too...but not once we put up totals for them...

and once we did (with courtesy sehwag and gambhir) we won...cant be coincidence?

straight point said...

SB!! i am glad in a way that series ended in this fashion...

a worthy partnership between vvs and rd would have masked all the failures...and some would have said look they are back...

straight point said...

some good points there...AB!!

however even if we manage to make pool of 25 such players i will be fine with that...

straight point said...

a very warm welcome...prabhu...aapke aagaman say hi yeh blog dhannay ho gaya!! :)

if you look at some of my previous posts...you will get more idea of where i was coming from...

regarding the failures of juniors and seniors this will go on and we cant stop that...

i asked for sachin to bid adiew from odi even after failure of asia cup though got lots of pasting from many without even looking into merit of argument...

if you also look into my transition post i too said that irrespective of oz series results...we should introduce atleast one if not two middle order bat for eng series...to make way for gradual transition without compromising much on experience...

the pitches are getting more slow, low and dead as dodo...putting enormous pressure on bowling moresoever...so if 4 out of six take leave without notice we should get prepared to see more of these results...

Swaminath said...

Hi,

Can you please include a link to my blog from yours?

http://meandcricket.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

straight point said...

thanks for visiting and welcome on board...

you are blog rolled...

Swaminath said...

Thanx :)

Anonymous said...

SP,

a cracker of a post there. you do well with stats as well.

pretty ironical that one player who doesn't get umpteen popular support is the one whose avg. hasn't drifted by a considerable margin (read vvs.)

Gaurav,

yes, the van dort statement was a cracker.

Prabhu,

7 years, since India won a subcontinent series in fashion, and what twisted definition of fashion there as well. (i have been trying to find a blog page by you, help me.)

straight point said...

thanks APD

Prabu said...

Thanks SP! Took me a while to decipher what you said though, I almost had to rewind to the days of watching Ramayana and Mahabharatha on TV to get some of the words!

APD,

I guess I am lazy to start a conversation on my own and would rather jump in when you guys start a brilliant convo. Having 2 kids under 4 doesn't help in being regular and hence you will find me wandering in different comments pages. I did start one a couple of years back which met a premature death:

sillypoints.rediffiland.com

May be I will revive it some day.. after my trip to Houston next month.

straight point said...

sorry for inflicting torturous journey onto you...but i was overwhelmed by "parbhu's" presence on my blog... :)

looking fwd to see you initiate a conversation on you blog...cheers!!

Soulberry said...

SP, I'm curious man...about the anthem. I missed something. Can you please e-mail me your views?

Thanks

straight point said...

i have already sent you an email SB!!
please check and confirm...

Unknown said...

very good points made by rs, trideep, and bisht. let me add to bisht's observation. just like icc or tennis rankings, a player's performance should be taken for a certain period of time, and a minimum number of appearances. the problem is that teams like bangladesh and zimbabwe can skew the averages. like sachin's double century not out against bangladesh did. so maybe weightage for opponents should be factored in as well, but that would get too complicated. the end result is that the fab flop continues.

Anil Singh said...

New template SP, you'll definitely be getting feedback on this.

Trideep said...

Times are changing.. Oldies are going out.. New stuff are coming in.. Its getting reflected thru ur template. ;)

straight point said...

welcome again smit...the cricket was missing its keeper!!

sometimes mere numbers wont tell the real contribution...like ishants spell in second test if you look at his spell figures in isolation you will say that he had avergae match but on real terms his spell turned the match for us...

straight point said...

AB & TRI thanks & cheers :)

yes time is surely changing Tri...

AB, what has happened to you man you are in cracking form of late...dishing out a cracker after another at your blog...

the form is temporary...tendulkar is permanent...

really amazing...

but why have you disabled comments feature?

Gaurav Sethi said...

Just saw that, it's wicked AB!
sp - yeah, was wondering the same.

Soulberry said...

Am I at the right place? Looks different. My vote goes to the previous colours! :)

Anil Singh said...

Sorry SP, but I agree with soulberry. :)

Anil Singh said...

@ NC. Is it?

Gaurav Sethi said...

absolutely AB. can't leave comments tho, can we?

straight point said...

SB, AB...

being restless soul i cant stick with one scheme of things for long so the change...

straight point said...

gaurav...as you said earlier...gauti only scores when sehwag is at other end...just dont seems to like the sight of other team mate standing at no striker end?

Gaurav Sethi said...

when viru's unavailable, they should have dhawan to keep gg company. phir dilli dur nahin

straight point said...

they nearly did it gaurav in the form of kohli...but he wont settle with anybody other than sehwag ;-)

Anonymous said...

hehhe...time for some new legs thats what. I was really amazed to see a young lad like Mendis just run over the greats all the test series and now the one days. They are just not able to learn, think, plan and apply.

Whats the use of experience then?

straight point said...

hmmm...good question utp...we all are trying to find ans of...

Anonymous said...

I didn't like your idea about taking behind your steps for showing sehwag and gambhir's track record. I wanna see all's performance and then match it with all this senior guys.

What i think about the test series against SL is that Indians still fear about M Factor. If they would have played naturally against them without fear, at least performance would have been better. It was not M Factor behind the bad stats but it was Fear Factor.

Also I think selector must divide their strategies in three parts viz. Test, ODI and T20 and then match performance.

straight point said...

welcome back neno...

sehwags figure are bradmanisq since his return (incidentally from oz series) and gg only played this series though his aggregate was very good against m&m considering the fact that he was looking to cement his place and this was his first series since his come back...he handled m&m relatively well...

also this post was not about sehwag & gg but fab four and to see if there is some pattern in their decline...

Anonymous said...

I see very much similarity in the trend. If you look from the percentage of down performance from their avg. performance for the years, decline graph in all four is same. Ganguly and laxman has around 45.00 avg for their carrer while rahul and sachin has 55+ for their carrer and all have gone down according to that format.

What make sense is their aggression. If you go on defensive, then you can never come back from that state which happens with dravid.

Anil Singh said...

Pl don't consider it as an uninvited suggestion.

But this layout looks good, the black one seemed taxing to eyes(that could be my individual problem, as I wear specs; so I shouldn't be the one judging it :))

Nice header. But I'm missing the baby image. It seemed like a logo of Straight points, and was inviting every time I come.:)
Today again I came for the new post, but I'll keep on coming.

Anil Singh said...

Pl don't consider it as an uninvited suggestion.

But this layout looks good, the black one seemed taxing to eyes(that could be my individual problem, as I wear specs; so I shouldn't be the one judging it :))

Nice header. But I'm missing the baby image. It seemed like a logo of Straight points, and was inviting every time I come.:)
Today again I came for the new post, but I'll keep on coming.

straight point said...

AB, i value your opinion very much...moreover i like friends who give frank opinion without hesitation...please feel free to air your opinion, comments, suggestion...always...

that's why i named by blog

simple but straight points...

cheers!!

Anil Singh said...

it's heartening to find the baby back :)

straight point said...

my pleasure Sir!! :)

Gaurav Sethi said...

suggested listening: baby, please don't go

Anonymous said...

why do you want even to highlight this numbers ? THE GODS are allowed to have one off series and more than anybody of us make them realize, its they who would have realized their follies and its matter of time Aussies face the ire again when the FAB 4 fire yet again :)

straight point said...

buzzz

remember the title of post...suitably sleeping...all i wanted to highlight that this is not one off series phenomenon...its more that that...the slide is constantly downwards...

anyway welcome back after a while...nice to see you here...

about me...

BCC!straight point (sp) is restless... relentless... but a fun loving guy... likes to live life to fullest... trying to discover himself through cricket... welcome to this little world of his...

sp is also a bored member at BCC!

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