sehwag is the real god...

one can question the failing eyes of rahul dravid... baying for the blood of vvs and his failing knees... one can even question sachin whom we fondly call cricket god...

but no one can question sehwag...

the moment you see him looking like a tool by playing one of the most daftly manufactured shots... you will, without fail, see someone saying "well... this is the way he plays..."

we want everybody to come out of their comfort zone be it gambhir, dravid, vvs or even 'god' sachin... but we will always be ready to resign with "well this is how sehwag plays..."

whenever some question is asked of a batsmen in international cricket... the very batsmen is expected to come-up with answers to show his mettle... to show his acumen... but with sehwag you keep laying an open bait with the knowledge that he will keep falling to that trap like a religious ritual...

this reminds me of a famous joke (without hurting the sentiment of anybody...)

there was this sardar who whenever saw a kela lying on the road exclaimed... "o yaar... aaj phir isspay phisalna padega..."

viru praa ji... tussi real god ho ji...

click to translate »

« back to original...

how do you feel about upcoming oz series...?

despite virtually non existent middle order... hue and cry over our youngster's performance in ongoing tri-series... india have made it to yet another final with sri lanka being the other team...

the pattern of this tournament is very consistent... no team has reached any level of consistency... every team's campaign has been 'blow hot blow cold' type with win or loss coming with equal massive margins... which shows that the matches have been more or less like lotteries where rather than team efforts the wins have come from the individual brilliances from player like sehwag in india's case...

although team india's youngsters performances have been disappointing with no one coming close to make an effort to stay at wicket and make his innings count... hence not a single score of even 50... in fact at times they could not even muster 50 runs collectively...

the allrounder in jadeja neither could help team india finish 50 overs after coming to crease when there were more that 10 overs left in the match (which could have proved crucial) nor he was deemed fit to bowl even at no.10, 11 batsmen...

so jadeja is neither a grafter... certainly not a hard hitter... can't be trusted to even bowl at tailenders... basically he fails in every department of what is expected from no.7 player...

but our presumed weakest link... bowling has shown that given the helpful conditions we are as good as any other bowling attack if not the best...

so what if someone from our young crop goes on to play a blinder of innings in finals and we win yet another final even with the some unresolved problems at hand...?

i would have certainly liked them to be tested against oz at home before making a final decision... but thanks to test cricket saving brigade... and bcci generosity of providing ponting some lifeline... we would be playing only three ODIs instead of at least five (though it was originally a seven match LOI series)...

although dravid or vvs would not agree with me... but two test series in the midst of world cup season is nothing but a distraction...

i would have loved to see the full LOI series with world cup being just a few months away and some question marks looming large on our young crop... the oz series could have given us strong pointers...

the three odi series is too brief that would be over before anyone could notice it... what will happen is... there will be so much pressure to win every game in that brief series and given the pressure exerted by media (and fans too) we can safely say good bye to seeing any experiment in that series in terms of combination or strategy...

apart from a scoreline... what we will gain from that series...?

this is why one wonders... what the 'save test cricket romantics' smoke..?

click to translate »

« back to original...

world cup 2011: are we on track...?

in the three matches in ongoing tri series in sri lanka, india has suffered two massive defeats... and won one on the back of some refreshingly restrained batting from sehwag... naturally the question which comes to mind is... are we on track as far as world cup 2011 concerned...?

there are two ways to look at it...

india is playing in sri lanka without sachin, gambhir, zaheer and some common sense... as it can only happen in indian team that the batsman who averages 43 is made to sit in favor of a batsman who hardly averages 30!

but when our first choice players will be back, we will be the team to beat and this is exactly my problem with our world cup preparation...

the replacement players are not making their comeback into team any hard... as if they are warming the bench knowing their fate and hence busy laying red carpet for them to just sleep walk into the team...

not even the bad decisions of dharamsena can camouflage ineptness of their batting and their visible allergy to spent some time in the middle... to dig it out the tough period to form an innings of substance... 

karthiks, rohits and jadejas are refusing to take their game to next level... in fact they are struggling to maintain any level they have had in first place... yet team management is playing them... giving them enough exposure in the hope that they will come good since they have invested so much in them... but it's getting increasingly clear that there is only so much they can do...

ideally we should have been very clear by now who are going to represent team india for the world cup but if our back up players are going to be rohits, karthiks and jadejas then there is an instant reason to worry about our world cup prospects...

click to translate »

« back to original...

how to show 'character'...

had randiv thrown the ball out of boundary he would have looked far more innocent...

no surprise it has come from the team that talks about 'character' so much they can't even complete a sentence without using it...

on bored: Randiv, see what YOU have left FAR BEHIND!

click to translate »

« back to original...

dhoni refuses to offer any excuse...

Dhoni, who had been praised by the likes of VVS Laxman recently for his manner of handling victories and defeats with equal poise, refused to offer any excuses for India's fourth-biggest ODI defeat in terms of runs.

However, he did single out the toss, Mithun's heatstroke, the rushed schedule right after a gruelling Test series, and of course the spongy bounce of the surface.

dhoni is right to blame the toss here... once we lost the toss coupled with spongy bounce of the surface... india had no choice but to bundle out for 88 runs...

the rushed schedule also played its part although one skeptic pointed out that karthik, rohit, jadeja, praveen and nehra were not the part of the test team... yuvi did not play last two tests... and dhoni could well have taken rest coz he was in deep discomfort keeping wickets in last test match that would have meant seven fresh players would have played to negate the 'rushed schedule' but it was rightly dismissed as arm-chair pundit's hindsight knee-jerk reaction after the loss...

so one can see there were no excuses given for team india's fourth biggest odi defeat... we just did it to generate some interest towards this meaningless 'rushed' tri-series...

click to translate »

« back to original...

on sachin being rested from tri-series...

as expected... sachin has been rested from the upcoming tri-series between india, sri lanka and new zealand...

sachin has been given rest is not an ordinary decision but a comment on sign of times to come... when a player will be rested from meaningless international series to play in more commercially viable... glamorised designer domestic level tournament... the future of cricket... aptly named... champions league...

coz that is where champion players play...

why should a champion player, like sachin, play in an unglamorous, increasingly meaningless and about to die format... limited overs internationals... nobody cares about...?

click to translate »

« back to original...

what will sachin do...?

from mid july onwards india will play test series with sri lanka which will be followed up by the tri series with new zealand as the third team that will end in last week of august...

from 10th september onwards champions league t20 will start in south africa in its new format which will end late september... after that, almost immediately, it will be time to play home test series followed by an odi series with australia ...

here is india's schedule... and this is champions league's schedule...

now considering the workload from the upcoming hectic season... and considering that sachin excused himself from an international event, asia cup, in lieu of some well deserved rest and spending valuable time with his family... will sachin excuse himself from champions league, a  t20 league, to be ready for much important australia test series after playing in sri lanka...?

or will he take rest from tri-series in sri lanka, another international series, to be ready for the champions league which is not even an international tournament...?

click to translate »

« back to original...

how do you feel after zimbabwe loss...?

okay... make it after second successive zimbabwe loss...

when team india was announced for zimbo tri-series tour... the feeling one got was... its going to be an easy tour with zimabawe, well, being zimbabwe and sri lanka too testing its bench strength...

even if first choice players were rested... there was still enough talent in batting department which will take care of not so potent seam bowling backed up with next best quality spinners in mishra and ojha...

after three matches and two losses... i am in a way glad that they have been tested... they are given enough lessons on how to pace innings... how one can be easily bogged down if one not looks at scoring or not rotating strike enough... one cannot play cricket fearing failure... or to save one's place...

contrary to the perception that they respected zim bowlers too much... i think they took them very lightly... they thought that they can switch gears as and when they wanted to... forgetting that it becomes increasingly difficult to break the shackles once the innings gets defined in certain way...

if they look just one further match back against sri lanka... when the time was to deliver that the killer punch (that bonus point)... they opted for an easy win... and now that decision will haunt them for now they have no option but to go for the same they let go so lazily...

these are important lessons to be learned... and i am glad some of them are learning it at very early stage of their careers...

click to translate »

« back to original...