Shane Watson just hit a four off Munaf. Australia are 50/0, 200 still away but I can already see them in the semis. So its gonna be the first time in 31 years that a team from the sub-continent fails to make it to the last four of a major tournament…damn the sub-continent! Its India whom I’m worried about. We havent beaten Australia since Jan-2004! Not beaten them in a do-or-die match since 2000 when Yuvraj Singh blasted his way into int’l cricket. Not had a successful run chase against them since 1998, when Sachin was on top of his game (the two back to back hundreds in Sharjah, remember?). India are going down. Nothin’ seems to be working…
Dunno what Chappell-Dravid are upto…They are not being able to motivate their players. Sehwag is getting out in the same manner, again and again. Tendulkar once again looks unsure about his job-whether to attack or defend. Yuvraj-Dhoni are sitting pretty on their last year laurels. Kaif is the usual himself. All this is rubbing on the others too like Raina. Pathan is very very very confused. The team management seem to have got all the living fast bowling greats to speak to him. And excess of anything is bad, especially advice. RP-Sreesanth have lost their touch. Harbhajan is ineffective. He’s never been the same bowler after that amazing 2001-series against the Ozs. Performers like Kumble and Ramesh Powar either dont make it to the team or have to stay content with carrying the drinks and warm the benches. The team is in shambles and the tour of South Africa is next…! They’ll murder us!
Well, we cant carry on like this forever. I mean, the South Africa tour is an important tour and the 2007 WC is just 10-11 months away. Somebody do something, QUICK! I am always in favour of the shock treatment. It always works for us, I mean have a look at Yuvraj and Laxman. Throw them out of the team for sometime and bring ‘em back later. They always come back as better players. One who needs it bad is Pathan. He needs a break. It would be hard on him and the team but we need Pathan to get away from all the madness, think about his bowling-alone and spend a lot of time in the nets. The way our batsmen are going about their job there is simply no way we will make any impact in South Africa. So instead of completely destroying a talent like Pathan’s why not simply rest him. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again-Kaif doesnt deserve to be in the team. Not only he isnt good enough he also isnt growing as a batsman. One has seen Yuvraj and Sehwag grow in stature but Kaif seems to have stagnated after that wonderful knock against England in the Natwest trophy finals. I’d like to see more faith and confidence shown in Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Robin Uthappa, Gambhir. Laxman should be reinstated in the team for his experience and class, atleast for the SAF-tour. Harbhajan too needs a kick on his ass. He isnt getting the wickets. Powar for the time being is India’s best offie. And he can bat too. Wonder why is he being ignored…Kumble should be brought back too. He’s in form and effective and easily makes more runs than Bhajji. So what if he’s 35? He’s getting the job done, isnt he? As for Dhoni, I can see him slowly getting back in form but just to make sure, get Dinesh Karthick as the extra wkt-keeper for the SAF tour, just to add a lil’ pressure. The quicks? Munaf is doing his job. If only he had a lil’support from the other fast bowlers…Sreesant should get to tour SAF. RP Singh? Nope. He needs to go back to the drawing board and sort out his faults. Agarkar? A big yes. We would need two more quicks. Would like them to be Punjab’s Gagandeep Singh and Bengal’s SS Paul. And if Chappell really wants to experiment and try out some youngsters, he should have a look at Haryana’s Joginder Sharma. He has played a couple of ODIs, can bat and bowl. Dinesh Mongia should also make it.
Ok, so now the Aussies are 111/1 with Shane Watson consolidating his position at the top of the batting order. Australia are scoring at over 7 runs an over! The ICC Champions trophy is over for India…so my loyalties now shift to NZL and WI. Hopefully one of them will lift the trophy. Chappell must ofcourse be watching the match but his mind must be wondering whats in store for him and his team…
October 29, 2006 at 10:32 pm
dont agree on the pathan thing. munaf-pathan will do well in tandem. but yes kuble-powar should be in, and not bhajji. would luv to see sehwag dropped too but tht wont happen. kaif is useless, in my opinion too. dunno abt the quicks u are talkin abt…no mention of ganguly….like the post title! good take on the pepsi ad!!!
October 29, 2006 at 10:44 pm
well india seems to be out of rythm, we havent played alot of cricket for along time and directly facing a huge tournament like this i expected them to loose and do badly…. many things hower around here
NEVER CERTAIN BATTING LINE UP
INEXPERIENCE MIDDLE ORDER
NOT READING THE PITCH PROPERLY , i mean y wasnt powar not takin in this match
well i still miss players like VVS laxman, Anil Kumble, Saurav Ganguly…. they shud definetely find place in the side and wheres VRV singh, gautam gambhir Zaheer khan …. selection commmittee and sharad powar playing games really …. politics kills india and indian cricket, mann they shud have some RTI act for BCCI too
October 30, 2006 at 12:47 am
Well said Nikhil, some vigilance is needed for BCCI selection process & for the committee itself also. For the damage has not occured today in this series,rather India’s decision to go in with four medium pacers in the match against West Indies was a strange one. Even a dumbhead will turn a blind-eye to the notion of including four seamers in Indian tracks, c’mon dont we know them? A child with least sense of cricket can pick that up fast within just 6 months of continious play, & we take pride of speaking those legendary ones in our selection committee & elate upon their testimonials. The underlying statement should be made clear to each & everybody….”By Gones Are By Gones”— what we want is performance & “No one is bigger than the Game.” In crickting paralance its party time for spinners at the start & end of the day. But the final selection presented a picture of disparity to the playing conditions. Picking up a right arm & left arm bowler doesn’t attribute to variety & you cant even rely for our seamers, for they do not consistently perform at 140kmph. Its a rare sight & its high time one ought to accept the reality. And finally the way seems out to be turning out to Sehwags, Yuvrajs & other irregular ones. Its not a farce going on over here. Just give it a thought — for a team like India which has ultimate warriors like Tendulkar, Dravid, Dhoni it has been a formidable task for us to defy the monopoly of Kangaroos in ODIs. The team does need to be back at Square 1 but the complete selection commitee needs an overhauling.
October 30, 2006 at 12:48 am
Well said Nikhil, some vigilance is needed for BCCI selection process & for the committee itself also. For the damage has not occured today in this series,rather India’s decision to go in with four medium pacers in the match against West Indies was a strange one. Even a dumbhead will turn a blind-eye to the notion of including four seamers in Indian tracks, c’mon dont we know them? A child with least sense of cricket can pick that up fast within just 6 months of continious play, & we take pride of speaking those legendary ones in our selection committee & elate upon their testimonials. The underlying statement should be made clear to each & everybody….”By Gones Are By Gones”— what we want is performance & “No one is bigger than the Game.” In crickting paralance its party time for spinners at the start & end of the day. But the final selection presented a picture of disparity to the playing conditions. Picking up a right arm & left arm bowler doesn’t attribute to variety & you cant even rely for our seamers, for they do not consistently perform at 140kmph. Its a rare sight & its high time one ought to accept the reality. And finally the way seems out to be turning out to Sehwags, Yuvrajs & other irregular ones. Its not a farce going on over here. Just give it a thought — for a team like India which has ultimate warriors like Tendulkar, Dravid, Dhoni it has been a formidable task for us to defy the monopoly of Kangaroos in ODIs. The team does need to be back at Square 1 but the complete selection commitee needs an overhauling.
November 1, 2006 at 5:37 pm
well u know i dont like criket and the fact u will not even imagine is that i seriously dint knew some kind of cricet matches are going on, and its today when i saw it news paper, well leave it, u know i dont know much of this game now so i better say ” ur writing skills have improved trimendously so why dont u try writing some kinda novel or something”
November 11, 2006 at 11:03 pm
yaar i hve heard of this a zillion times dat every dog has its own day..kabhi hota hi nahin? it shud be invigorating on the part of these new recruits in the team like raina n rp 2 be given a chance in most of the matches..but instead this piece of shit called raina thinks the dressing room as his sasural!! this is obnoxious..he hardly averages 25 n so far every body wants ganguly, laxman, pawar, kumble out of the team but not a single word against raina…gud that the colonel(short for vengsarkar) said that this wil b the last chance for both kaif n raina..there was so much of anguish wen dada was ousted n y not a word is said wen an odi team is announced minus kumble? i think theres a lot of negation against the southies..if thats not the case then y was sree santh’s name not in the final team of the champion’s trophy n only wen agarkar was injured that ss was bought back..hope venkatapathy raju does smthin for being there..i hope its not dat dismal show again, the way he used to performed wen he played for ind!!