Motivation for Australia

Even if Australia are seeming out of spirits and loose on character they would be joyed to see that their Test opponents are Pakistan, who have won just 1 Test in last 3 and half years. And who are led by certain Shahid Afridi who last played in the forfeited test series 4 years back, somebody who does not have penchant for patience. 

And a team which has consigned its 3 best batsmen into retirement -- Inzamam retired, Younis banned and Yusuf withdrawn.

Australia once they take field on test series would forget ODI drubbing they've got from England who are surprisingly on a high.

2-0 to Australia. No doubt. 

Shahid Afridi meanwhile is reluctant to carry on playing Tests after this England tour.  Before he retires, Ijaz Butt would have banned him for few months for losing all the Tests and ODIs.

England are not Ashes favorites. YET!!

Aussies have lost 3 ODIs on the trot to England side without Jonathan Trott and the English media are gung-ho about the Ashes rematch later this year. I am not sure how an ODI series win would impact Ashes result when the players on both teams change and the conditions of play change (Australia host this year Ashes).

I should say I m not sure how winning an ODI series would make England favorites for Ashes. They have not displayed anything spectacular in Tests this year to be called favorites. They have won T20 tournament and surprisingly have won 8 or 9 ODIs on the trot without Jonathan Trot, so that wont have any bearing over Tests. They have won 4 Tests against Bangladesh and there is no novelty in there. Everybody except West Indies wins against them home and away. So whats so special about England winning 4 Tests against them?

Australia are 3^rd and England are 5^th (or 4^th) in the Test rankings. And Aussies have had a lossless summer last year thanks to the quality of teams touring last summer (WI and minnow Pakistan).

Here is an excerpt from Graham Thorpe on England’s Ashes chances:

England have a real opportunity to whitewash the tourists and continue the kind of winning mentality that should hold them in very good stead in the lead up to the Ashes. You can run through almost every department and find that England have the upper hand, which tells you a lot about the dominance the side currently have.

Strauss is leading the side from the top of the order with authority and conviction; Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan are class acts in the middle order; James Anderson and Stuart Broad look by far the most threatening pacemen; and Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy have the upper hand in the spin department.

Eoin Morgan wont be a sure starter in the Test team when Trott, Collingwood and Cook return (may be one of this 3 could fail against Pakistan and Morgan could hold his place), Yardy does not play Tests (or he is not a Test standard). 

Anything England wins for a while makes its writers believe they are the best in the world. They said the same thing for football despite having club stars who failed as a team in the World Cup Football. They suffered 1-4 defeat to Germans despite all fire and flame on the disallowed Lampard goal.

Predicting an Ashes result is too early right now. England and Australia both would play 4 Tests minimum and the end of English summer and Indian summer (Australia play 2 Tests in India) would give a picture on starting XI of both teams to take field on GABA.

India's XVI for Sri Lanka

India has declared 16 players for the yet another Test series vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.  Its going to be the 3rd series in 3 years between the two teams and hopefully for next 3 years there wont be any series between the 2 teams. 

The usual culprits (no pun) return to the test team making it the usual colored look. Dravid, Laxman, Ishant etc etc return for the Test series. 

Also returns is Wriddhiman Saha. Shocking. He was a dead as a dodo in the Nagpur Test vs South Africa and just after a Test, he returns. 

Dinesh Karthik was ignored. Good for this blog, not so for others. 

Also returns is M Vijay. Srikanth makes sure he keeps one Tamil Nadu player in every team he selects. Last series he had 2, Dabri missed out this time. 

If M Vijay was not present, Dinesh Karthik would have been. Guess the reserve slot (Wicket keeper or opener) is fixed for a Tamil Nadu quota. 

There are many tweets where people have questioned Srikanth's agenda for Chennai (Read Tamil Nadu).  I believe Srikanth has not chosen anybody outside Chennai too. I am not sure from where one Ganpathy hails, but Dabri, Vijay and Dinesh Kartik are sure Chennai duds. 

Dilip Vengsarkar was from Mumbai, but for Jaffer he did not push anybody from Mumbai who did not deserve a place in final XI. Srikanth is different. He needs his states players to serve a hidden agenda.  Guess he is in post for another 3 months and by September he would be out. I just hope he does not stick around to select World Cup team. Else it would be half Chennai Super Kinks team playing in Indian blue.

Yuvraj also returns. That means he was dropped on basis of fitness and not form. He did not play a single game to prove he was back in form. So as his latest tweet read "This elephant is back in fitness and raring to go" proves he assumes he is back in fitness. 

If thats true we wont know till he plays the 3 day game or the first Test.

If he fails, Suresh Raina is down there to pressurise him. If he keeps going he would benefit the national team. He is yet to hit a test 100 since Bangalore 100 against Pakistan. And a hundred or a big innings would be due for him to prove his worth in the # 6 slot. If not there are several other contenders -- Pujara, Raina, Sharma and Kohli to grab the place. Yes Aniruddha Srikanth is in there too. 

There are 3 spinners in the team. Mishraji, Ojhaji would be one of the spinners that would play alongside Bhajji. And its going to be one of Sreesanth and Ishant accompanying Zaheer in the new ball attack. Selection of Sreesanth is again questionable. What worthy he has done all this while is not known to us (at least). He seems to be another quota selection (making for loss of R Ashvin).

16 players for a 3 Test series is a bit too much. Usually teams name 14 players for a Test series and usually one or 2 players are released to play for their respective domestic teams.  We have not seen that happen for India and wont happen till the likes of Srikanth are around as egoistical regional headed selectors chefs.

Big day for England

England takes on its  2 oldest foes in the cricket and football.

Australia in the NatWest cricket series where its on the brink of an unexpected series win -- first in 13 years.  And in Football it takes on Germany.

Will they win ?

They are running high on luck and may be one of the games could see some luck, England could go on to achieve something unparalleled in their history of games.

They havent been to World cup football semis since 1990 when they lost to Germany on penalties. And since 1997 they have not beat Australia in a bilateral ODI series.

MicroMax conquered

India won a final and Asia MicroMax cup. Wow. Good one. Both are rarity. Asia Cup after 15 years when none of this players debuted for India and when Azharuddin was still the biggest name in Indian cricket.  India won despite making a mess of final 10 overs scoring just 49 runs and losing 1 wkt.  Scarier part of it is to have hit just one boundary. And who hit it ? Our hero Ravinder Jadeja. 

Everybody got starts, none of them made big except Dinesh Bhai.  The 66 he made were at right time. Today the Test selection is due and he would know that one innings of substance means his place for next series is secured. So wont be surprised if he makes the cut into the Test side as well as backup keeper.  Not only Chennai-ites are fan of Dinesh Bhai, but also Chinese and Anon readers who don’t forget to shower their piece of praise in the comments section.

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina got starts, none made big. 2 of this 3 would go out when Yuvraj and Sachin return.  Amazing to see Jadeja being given chances after chances despite failing with the bat. He was a batsman who could bowl, now he is a bowler who never bats.   He would continue to play and in all probability would be part of World Cup 15. 

Bowling was good. Nehra, Praveen and Zaheer were among wickets. Fielding was decent too.   Nehra showed glimpses of that memorable Durban night of World Cup 2003.

All in all good win for MSD who grabbed 3^rd multinational trophy in as many years (CB in 2008, Compaq in 2009 and Asia Cup in 2010).

Hopefully World Cup in 2011.

Gearing up for another drubbing

It’s the final day and yet another ODI against Sri Lanka. Yawn.  Limited overs watching in India seeing India play is a painful experience this days.  Half of the side is incompetent and incapable. Most of the lot of that half are either in the team due to regional affiliation to the selectors or due to the over confidence in their limited ability from the coach and the captain.  The remaining lot are just putting in formal efforts to bowl 10 overs just cos they got to.

A lot has been said on few players like Jadeja and Karthik who continue to play every tournament India plays despite their failures and chances provided to them.  No other players in recent memory have got chances as many as this 2 players. Yet they continue to baffle us all with their failures.

Dinesh Karthik fails most of the time he plays and when he succeeds never goes past 50.  Are we getting him in the team to make 20s and 30s. There was a time in Indian Test cricket history in 2000s when one of the Fab 5 – VVS Laxman continued to make 20s, 30s and 40s. He was dropped. This was after he had made miraculous 281 vs Australia in the greatest Test series India ever played.  If Laxman can be dropped, then who the heck is Karthik? Well he is a Chennai-ite hailing from same locality of Srikanth (some unpronounceable locality).

Jadeja is another player hyped and low on substance.  MSD feels he is one player who can be turned to an all-rounder.  A player with a bowling average of 44 and batting average of 33.08 is an all-rounder, that’s baffling. Contrast that to Irfan Pathan who has bowling average of 30s and batting average of 25+ in ODIs. Yet he has not played any game since Feb 2009.  Any day Irfan would be a better all-rounder than what Jadeja could turn out to be( I am damn sure he would never graduate as an all-rounder). His innings in Asia Cup against Pakistan and Sri Lanka depict his limitations as player and moreso his mental approach to the game. Against Pakistan he was not sure what he was trying to do to Ajmal and against SL he began the collapse which turned out to be a hat trick for Maharoof – a player not even regular of SL side.  He bowls and bowls economically, but does not take wickets. What’s the use ? Do we need a restrictive bowler or do we need a bowler who can take wickets ? If Pragyan Ojha could bat a bit, he would be better “all-rounder” than Jadeja.

Fast bowling is another worry for India. Zaheer Khan, Pravin Kumar and Ashish Nehra do not sound fearsome. That’s an ordinary attack. Any one can hit them for runs. Ashok Dinda, high on fire, zero on wickets. He would glare everybody who hits him for fours, but he won’t try to give them a reply a fast bowler typically does – get him out. Dinda sees eye to eye and when it comes to bowling chickens out. Another Sreesanth, just that a little less hyped up and less on theatrics.

Suresh Raina is yet to achieve the consistency of a finisher. He was damn consistent in IPL. But in ODIs he is far away from it. This scorelines wont get him near to the Test spot which is up for grabs for upcoming SL series.  Ditto for Rohit Sharma.  He continues to be careless and temperamental in batting.  He plays his strokes, he has all shots in the book, but he does not have patience.  This players are high on IPL run lists, but low on ODI runs for India.

I am not sure if this players would be around for long to play for India with the intensity as demonstrated by the seniors and their prodigies – Sehwag, Yuvraj,  Harbhajan etc.

Saurabh Tiwary is another passenger on the tour with no chances provided to him.  Ditto for R Ashvin who is warming the benches.  He is being ignored in attempts to give as many chances to Ravinder Jadeja who is ……………

A Mithun, N Ojha, SST,  R Ashvin are in the company of those players who did not get any chance to be in the middle except carrying drinks or towels. In short they were just passengers. No doubt that next series India plays, this players would be dumped and the culprits would continue to play and India would continue to lose.

MSD says Jadeja is a specialist spinner and most usually as 5^th bowler after 3 pacers and one spinner (or 2 pacers + 2 spinners). IMO there is no need to play Jadeja as an allrounder. Play an extra batsman and have Sehwag, Yuvraj, Raina, Sharma bowl quota of 10 overs.   

Something like this lineup would be good:

Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina, Kohli / Sharma, Harbhajan, Zaheer, POjha / PKumar, I Sharma / A Nehra

The inconsistency just boils down to 2 slots – 6 and 7. With Dhoni being the floater and given the match situations – Dhoni, Raina  and Kohli / Sharma can bat at 5,6 and 7.   Once Uthappa is fixed he could be one good player at 7 too.

Meanwhile for now lets enjoy another drubbing at the hands of character rich Sri Lankan team.

Fuckass Boss DK

I hate to see Dinesh Karthik's swollen face on the TV and as i said previously I wont watch any game the fuckass plays.

Enough said.

World Cup football updates

World Cup football is getting interesting.

In today's games Greece beat Nigeria 2-1 and Argentina beat Korea South 4-1. That means Argentina are almost through to Super 16. And Korea South has now got an opening to beat Nigeria in the third game and expect Argentina beat Greece.

Permutations and combinations.

Who said they always happen in cricket.

Tomorrow England would play crucial game to their world cup ambitions.  They are always an overhyped team in finals. They never played a semi-final since 1990 and their star players -- David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen play good for clubs and underperform for England. Something similar to IPL.

France play Mexico later tonight to keep alive their hopes in the finals. They have been poor starters. They failed to score a goal in 2002 finals and crashed out in first round as defending champs. In 2006 they drew first 2 games and then had to beat poor Togo to go through the second round.

By the way cricket is far better game than football. Imagine teams slugging out 1 whole day and ending up draw. Cricket has ties and they are far more thrilling and interesting than draws of football. Imagine the thrill of Sehwag, Tendulkar in full flow as compared to occasional brilliance of Kaka, Mama, Chacha, Fufa, Messi, Lampard, Klose, Ballack and Rooney.

Kevin Pieterson would be far better than the Rooneys and even Strauss is a better leader than Rio Ferdinand or Terry.  Strauss has got Ashes, Rio has got nothing.

Ok enough of it.

India score a face saving victory

Main observations in today's win over Bangladesh in MircoMini Asia Dambulla cup:

1. New ball bowling is a worry for India. The way Zaheer and Praveen bowled was not the prettiest of the sight and certainly not the greatest of signs we are looking forward to win the 2011 world cup. Ok they are coming after a gap of 1 month almost, still they gave away a lot of boundaries to Tamim and Keyes.  Nehra was off color too though he picked up 2 wickets in his 100th ODI.
2. Ravinder Jadeja continues to edge a specialist spinner to play in the final XI.  Much said.
3. Sehwag was unusual hero with the ball instead of bat. I had tweeted him to get a 100, instead he got a  4-for, 2nd cheapest in the history.
4. Gambhir's return to form or lets say runs is a good sign.
5. Sehwag should fire in the big game vs Pakistan, which we should not lose in any situation.
6. Rohit Sharma is back to his original ways. 2 centuries now seem fluke. The lad just does not seem to learn from the past.  If he does not mend up his ways he should probably kiss goodbye to his India career chances and look forth to Deccan Chargers only.
7. Dhoni was back among the runs.
8. Sehwag would be on hattrick next game. He should come to bowl when Afridi comes to bat and he should be hattrick victim.
9. Great to see DK and MV not opening batting for India.

Ok I stop.

Fevicol jodi of the match

Micromax Cup -- triseries in Zim.

Micromax T20 Cup -- T20Is

Micromax Asia Cup.

Fevicol Jodi of match....

Characterless bakra of the tournament -- Sangakara forever

Collapsistan back in business

At 4/46 Pakistan are back to do what they do best....

Collapse...when the calypsos are on in the stands of Dambulla in Dambulla cup.

Move away Windies, Pakistan are new Collapssos.

They should be rechristened to Collapsistan. Or may be UTurnistan or BanButtistan.....

Whatever they are stubborn. They have decided they wont play to win. Who knows now some of their kids would swear on name of Ijaz Butt to edge out Afridi as captain.

Who knows Kamran Akamal is behind this with secret backing of YoYos and open backing of Shoaib Mirza.

Pakistan is a funny cricket team besides being butt of all jokes.

Hail Undakat

Hail Jaidev Undakat for a 13-for on debut. Good show and he needs to be wrapped and handled with care for future given the fast bowling resources in the country.

Thank You Murali Vijay

Thank You Vijay and sorry.

Move on.

Grown up beard could not make difference to your shreded fat ass luck, neither being dropepd for subsequent Asia cup tour hurt you enough to make amends and give your critics a shot in their ass.  You continued to under perform for whatever reasons and its good enough for people to mark you tried, tested and failed mode.

This should also end your test career for now just like Mohd Yusuf.  We dont see the zing and the fire in your belly to play for your country, that we saw for your franchisee. That money might get you the sprawling villas in Chennai, but that wont echo in the great Chennai cricketers who played for India.

That does not matter to you though.

Spare us with further torture and move on. Find some role in Tamil movies. You are good enough to give the oldies a run for their money. 

T2OIs with Zimbabwe : Who cares

In the euphoria of World Cup football and Asia Cup we forgot that there is a T20I set to follow with Zimbabwe and this team would play 2 times more.

So to save some pride we hope that the Indians would win at least something against Zimbabwe and end this disastrous tour on a decent note. 

One more time for Bossa DK and YuM Veejay to take strike for India and then they are back to play for local sides in gullies of Madras. So guys hit it big. Make 50s so that Srikanth would fit you back in the team should one of the players get injured. 

Go make hay in the sun while it shines. Who knows you might never turn up for India again.

Difference between Srikanth and Aravind DeSilva as selectors

Asia Cup should be rechristened to Dambulla Cup as all games would be held in the single venue. More to do with the reconstruction of typical Colombo grounds for the WC'11. 

Who is going to watch this miniscule tournament when World  Cup fooshball is on in South Africa. 

I liked Aravinda DeSilva's first press conference on reasons behind every player selection and exclusion. Though his tactical reasons to exclude Ajantha Mendis were a googly, but the logic behind dropping Jayasuraiya, picking up Maharoof and sending centurion Dinesh Chandimal to Australia was awesome.

He also said he would talk to every player to explain the reason behind inclusion / exclusion and what plans selectors have for him in long run.

Thats contrasting with our joker chief -- Mr Srikanth. He chose Asia cup team and did not bother to inform why Yuvraj was dropped or  why M Vijay was dropped despite hailing from Chennai and doing good in EyePeeYelllll.

Mr Srikanth has just one vision -- have guys from Chennai da to crowd in the national team and try to win Borld Cuppa for Tamil Nadu. Not India mind you.

Thats the reason why Dinesh Karthik keeps coming in after sitting out one tour and failing with bat / ball / gloves in domestic cricket or even EyePeeEllll.

R Ashvin goes to Sri Lanka, Naman Ojha is dropped.  Ashok Dinda stays on while Pankaj Singh, other one match bonder is dropped.  Dinesh Karthik is out for Asia Cup but would return for SL tri-series with New Zealand.

Subbu Dabrinath is kept on stand by should one of Rohit / Kohli get injured or be out of form.  Makes sense. Chennai is nearest Indian city to fly in Dambulla rather than flying anybody from say Mumbai or calling top performer from England to SL.   Or who knows Dinesh Karthik would fly in.

He made a blanket statement on Zimbabwe fiasco. He says he now knows who played and who did not. Unfortunately he refuses to see DK and MV in that list.  He refuses to give chances to out of favor seamers like Ishant Sharma or Irfan Pathan to go and play in A team in England and prove something to earn a  recall in national team. 

He got A Mithun travel to Zimbabwe when R Vinay Kumar was injured in Zim. Who was replacement to A team ? Some Ganpathy. Another lad from Tamil Nadu, supposedly an allrounder.

Guys like Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Manish Pandey have been amongst runs in domestic circuit and in A series too, but they aint given any chance. And who are given ? Yusuf, jinxed Jadeja and DKMV.

Where are other players who play in Plate league but fail to make it to the team cos Chief joker refuses to look upwards beyond Sahyadris.

This all examples show how good vision Kris Srikanth has. Something he should learn from Aravinda DeSilva.

SST should not have been sent to Zim tour

Its being argued that Saurabh Tiwary should have been sent to Zimbabwe tour. I dont think so that was a wise move.  Naman Ojha was sent to that tour too and he did not play until the last game of the series which was anyway inconsequential for India's fortunes. He made just 1 and was removed from the team to Asia Cup. He did not get his chances. M Vijay played 3 of 4 games and he would still play the T20Is to follow.

If SST was sent to Zimbabwe he would not have got a chance ahead of greats Dinesh Karthik and MVijay and he would have been dumped just the way Naman Ojha is dumped without adequate opportunities to prove himself.

Its a strange irony if you dont hail from chief chef's state then you get dropped for one failure and if you do then you keep coming in every time like Dinesh Karthik does. And if captain believes in you more than required then too you are untouchable (as in from being dropped). Jadeja is an epitome to that.

Hypocrite Mr Srikanth and his bunch of jokers.  Have same yardstick for everyone to judge the performance even if the player is not from the high profile cricketing states of MP or Jharkhand or from states which does not send temparamental selection heads to the top. 

Yuvraj Singh given a wakeup call

Few years back the selectors chef had a practice to address media explaining reason behind every selection and every drop.

And this practice was now stopped as BCCI secretary now  releases a media statement on the team giving no details on exclusions and inclusions leaving door ajar open on assumptions and cooked stories. 

Ditto is the case for Yuvraj Singh. 

He was rested / dropped / axed / warned. 

Stats prove 2010 is not his strongest year in ODIs. He's played just 5 ODIs and made 96 runs with an highest of 74. He did not play SA series owing to injury he had. IPL and World T20 were disastrous for him. He was not part of Zim tri series. He was given a chance to rediscover his fitness and form. For a day he came to Chandigarh for some func which media snapped and aired. Making a view that the dance with the Hard Kaur was reason behind his axe.

Yuvraj Singh is a vital cog in Indian ODI plans and he cannot be left out in the vicinity of the World Cup. This may be a right time to give him a nudge to mend his ways right and have a relook at his priorities, commitment and ambitions. 

If he returns rejuvenated hungry and fitter, he would make a great favor for himself and to the team which now needs a winning boost urgently. 

The time for experimentation in batting is almost over and we got to finalise the main batsmen which could be

Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Raina, Kohli, Rohit Sharma and include a few more.

What needs to look into right now is the bowling departmnet but Mr Srikanth is neglecting the fact.  Somebody needs to give him a waking call too.

Jadeja stays on, Yuvraj left to dance with Hard Kaur

So the Asia cup squad is selected and as expected the 3 out of 4 culprits have been dropped. Vijay, Karthik and Pathan are axed from the disastrous Zim tour plus Yuvraj Singh is omitted. Sachin would spend time with his kids, perhaps go and watch Wimbeldon rather than playing for India. Why did not he opt for rest during IPL ? Did he seek rest from the final when he had injured hand?

Poor decision from Tendulkar. Setting a wrong precedent. He is picking up tournaments where he wants to play for India. Not acceptable.

Meanwhile the selection of this team is baffling too. 

Dinda and Jadeja, 2 IPL rockstars are persisted with. R Ashvin is persisted. Poor Naman Ojha is dropped on account of just one game where he made just one run. 

Narendra Hirwani was dozing when the team was being selected. Or may be he was answering call from cashier of his sports shop in Aru Plaza, MG Road, Indore.  Pity he could not make a strong case for Ojha to be retained in the team. R Ashvin got one game, he made 38 and took 2/50. Good enough, he stayed on in the team. Poor Ojha with no backing was axed. Lets not forget that R Ashvin plays for CSK captained by MSD himself and Srikanth is brand ambassador of the team. So someone from the Tamil Nadu had to be in the team. 

Naman Ojha plays for lowly MP and even poorer Rajasthan Royals. Shane Warne does not have a say in the selection of Indian team, so poor Ojha was axed. 

Wait. Ravinder Jadeja was in. Despite his selfish poor showing in the Zim series and World T20, the idiot from Saurashtra stays on.  He is useless guy who in all probability would play at # 7 and would bowl more overs than Pragyan Ojha (if selected) or 2nd / 3rd seamer. 

He made a slow 50 in the lost cause against Zimbabwe last week and got 2 wkts. That got him selected for the Asia Cup. What he did in the next game ? Just 18 runs and no wkts. Place achieved, so high performance gets to hell in the next game which was a do or die game. Jadeja opted to go easy. He knows Srikanth has fetish to make him next Indian Gary Sobers, so he can play the way he wants and get away with anything.

Ashok Dinda. He is persisted. Bengal quota. Why ? What he did in Zim series ? Was Srikanth appeasing Did i ? Lol.

Even if we have 3 spinners in Ojha P, Bhajan and R Ashvin, Jadeja would bowl full 10 overs and bat at 7 with strike rate of 60s and 70s ensuring India gets as low as possible runs in the final 5-6 overs in first innings. Now if there are needs for part time spinners we have :

• Sehwag
• Raina
• Sharma
• Tiwary

Sharmaji has an IPL hattrick. Tiwary is new addition in the team, so bada and chota Dhoni would play together in the team. 

So when we have 3 spinners and 4 part time spinners what is the need for Jadeja in the team? He would probably axe out Rohit Sharma from the team and would ensure India loses even to Bangladesh.

Have expectations from this team @ ur own peril. I dont have any. As long as Srikanth is around, i feel India has very little or no chances to win the World Cup 2011. By the time World Cup arrives Srikanth would flood the Indian team with so called youth and fringe players good for nothing. In Hindi its being called "gadhe ko ghoda banana". So Srikanth would have 10 asses like Jadeja and beat them hard to make a horse like Gary Sobers, which is a wishful thinking. 

Asia Cup selections

I think this should be the XI India should target to play for the Asia Cup opener:

·         Virender Sehwag

·         Sachin Tendulkar

·         Gautam Gambhir

·         MS Dhoni

·         Suresh Raina

·         Virat Kohli

·         Rohit Sharma

·         Harbhajan Singh

·         Zaheer Khan

·         Pragyan Ojha

·         Ashish Nehra

The 4 other guys should be:

·         Ishant Sharma

·         Robin Uthappa

·         Yuvraj Singh

·         Praveen Kumar / Ashok DInda / Ashwin

I believe Srikanth would have a strong temptation to retain one of Karthik or Vijay in team or draft in Badrinath as replacement for one to one TN batsman, but that move needs to be countered and opposed. But that’s wishful thinking. Nothing of that sort would happen.

Actually in all recent selection committees, the current panel is most regional biased and more of rag headed.   I thought DBV was one of the selection chiefs who got more Mumbai lads (not deserving) in the team, but given Srikanth ’s track record DBV looked sane enough.

DBV sacked Ganguly and Dravid from the ODI team, removed Virender Sehwag from Tests and installed Gautam Gambhir at the top of Tests in 2008 SL series which reunited the Delhi dashing duo at the top and that move was the master stroke from the DBV panel after promoting MSD to captaincy in 2007 after RSD resigned post England tour.

He got in Rohit Sharma on 2007 tour to England and installed Wasim Jaffer at the top in 2006. He had brief spells of success (super series in India vs Pak and reasonably good one in England), but his Aussie failings saw him axed. Besides DBV also axed Ajit Agarkar(another Mumbai player who seems lot better even today than the current crop of fast bowlers) from the team in 2007 (post T20 WC victory).  DBV wanted to make Sachin captain after Rahul resigned, but later on settled for Anil Kumble which was good move too. He led the team to first victory in Perth (something only WI did in entire 1990s and 2000s) and during the Sydney gate.

Now if you compare KS track record to DBV, KS fails badly.  He not only selected a pathetic team in SA tests just after we went # 1 in Tests but also selected dud teams for both 2009 and 2010 editions of T20 World cups.  He blindly promoted TN players at cost of results in the national team. Nobody resents a player selection as long as its on merit, but if 3-4 players make in the XI just cos the selection chief is from a particular state and the selection moves backfires, then the selections are going to be questioned.

In 2008 Murali Vijay was drafted in as replacement opener in 3^rd Test vs Australia when GG was fined and missed out the Test, but Vijay went on to have a gutsy debut and played couple of more solid knocks to earn praise and even raise hopes of being next Dravid. He was fast tracked to ODIs in 2010 SA series and later on based of a decent iPL run he was moved into the World T20 squad which had no Sehwag.  As a result his confidence vanished and the results in Zimbabwe show a very poor record for Vijay, who still should be a good Test player.   His ODIs average and T20I average read poor readings (below 20s) and the failure in the Ahmedabad Test in SA series dropped his Test average to low 30s.  He has not got consistent run in Tests (and won’t get too since he is an opener and there is no vacancy in the middle order for now).

Badrinath was other player who popped in every time when anybody was injured. He has had decent run in domestic cricket but when played at the top he has found himself in failures.  He might be in the contention for the next Test India plays for # 6 spot. 

Dinesh Karthik, well a lot has been said on him at this blog, but he is just everywhere. He keeps and fails, he bats and fails, he runs and fails. Yet he keeps coming back. Nobody needs him. Go please. Srikanth.

He has made the other committee members irrelevant.  When 2 members of 1980s team took over it was believed that they would think in terms of larger interests of the team than the regional interests as during their playing days a lot of players made into the team on regional basis. Srikanth failed that thinking and it’s the root cause for the T20 disasters and the mauling in 1^st SA test in 2010 and the failures in CT 2009 with the latest debacle in Zimbabwe.

Few hours later he is going to unveil another team for Asia Cup which media reports suggest would mark Dravid comeback and Sachin resting owing to the IPL injury.   KS has always been temperamental in his cricket. Be it during his batting in Tests or ODIs (he at one time was highest run getter for India in ODIs).  And ditto for selection decisions. Some things never change.

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If after 6 years of international cricket and failing to perform consistently mr Karthik is still considered as youngster and talented, or if Mr Pathan is still living up to the reputation of IPL-1 or Vijay is still riding on the impressive 3 Test innings prompting many to call him next Dravid or Jadeja, if he still believes he can be a Jayasurya or a Kapil Dev, then lets think of following lads:

• Shikhar Dhawan
• Ajinkya Rahane
• Cheteshwar Pujara
• Manish Pandey

and others who play well in whatever opportunities they get. 

The bowling cupboard looks bare and depressing. The frontline pacers are either injured, woeful form or busy in something non-cricketing. Not so long ago we had bench strength and onboard bowlers bustling with confidence and wickets. Now we see none of that. 

Munaf Patel, Sreesanth, RP, Ishant, Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra. And the new pacers Dindi, Singh and Yadav. They miserably flopped, but they were new and should get more chances before giving a call on them and cull them..

Spinners. Wow. Empty and barren cupboards. One spinner lone on reputation, the other one who just got a beard went wicketless and IPL topper found no wickets bcos he does not know how  to bowl against players who do not come from Sri Lanka (10 of 12 ODIs against Lanka).

The youth policy if implemented well would give desired results but if same players (read Chennai Super Kings and Tamil Nadu) are selected time and over again, then the results would no more be better than what we had here. 

And now its time for the regulars to return and give us some sunshine back. Some hope back after a tiring and crappy IPL, disastrous World T20 and even more torturing Zimbabwe tour.

Ijaz Butt and Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik pisses me. 

Ijaz Butt cracks me up.

Younis Khan ban lifted after being imposed a month and half back. Weird and comical reasons given for upliftment or overturn of the ban or the uturn of the ban.

Wont say more.Just have a hearty laugh at Pakistan cricket and its karnhaars. They are laughing stock. Easily. 

By the way Mr Karthik failed yet again today.  27 off 34 with 5 fours and SR of 80 almost. Good progress. Poor Naman Ojha got out for just 1.

So if India does not make up to the finals, which it wont, so should Mr Karthik has played his last game for the country in years to come. 

We dont know. Not even 4 other selectors know. Its just fickle mind of Srikanth that knows. Lest he finds some other TN player to draft in (most prolly another loser called Dabri), Mr Karthik would continue to play. 

We need to ban Karthik, Vijay, Yusuf Pathan and Jadeja

Following lads need a ban for indefinete period.

1. Murali Vijay
2. Yusuf Pathan
3. Ravinder Jadeja
4. Dinesh Karthik

We need an Ijaz Butt who'd ban them for indefinete period. And then we need somebody who would not revoke the ban from this players.

They have done the country shame with their inept and pathetic display in the international games post IPL where they glittered and blasted to fame on doctored pitches giving out a picture that they are future stars. Actually they are worse than the players who played solitary games for India in their history.

Nothing can justify the kind of start the Tamil Nadu duo gave against Zinbabwe. The opposition didn't even have a specialist new ball bowlers.  21 runs off 56 balls and 33 off 71 balls are good enough to nail this duo and kick them outta team.

They must be partying around and watching out a Rajni flick. And even thinking of dancing along some pretty actress. Their erstwhile Tamil Nadu colleague Sadgopan Ramesh did so. Mr Karthik has already debuted in TV reality show. So the next destination for this IPL stars and India duds is TV / Kollywood cinema.

Spare us the torture guys.  I have vowed never to watch a game in which either of this 4 players would play for India. They are shame, they are black spots on what we call the pride for playing in Indian team. They are curse to the national anthem being played before every ICC tourney game.

Curse to the tricolor. Let this bigots play from Chennai against Coiambatore.   Ban them from playing for India.

Aftermath

India’s fourth or fifth string team lost to the enthusiastic and committed Zimbabwe second time in a week. How pathetic it is. Who owns up this defeat ? Skipper Raina, coach Kirsten or selector head clown Srikanth?  It was pathetic to see that there was no intent or will to score runs from the openers. What was Murali Vijay thinking ? He is a star ? IPL is long time over kid. If you cant play against Zimbabwe, there is a little chance you could play against anybody else.  56 ball 21 in PowerPlay overs with no boundaries whatsoever. Ditto for his Tamil Nadu skipper Dinesh Karthik, who by far should have been dumped in the dustbin of Marina Beach or Golden Beach in Chennai for his hyped talent, zero on delivery.

What happened to Amit Mishra who got a 5-for on his Test debut substituting for Anil Kumble and fast tracking his retirement?  Why do our spinners fail to take wickets in ODIs and T20s whereas little known spinners of lesser countries are rich in wickets. Pragyan Ojha, another big IPL name, purple cap holder of IPL-3. He ended up with one wicket. Why ? Did he forget spinning the ball ? Or did he think playing a game or 2 for India is good enough ?

Ashok Dinda, poor fiery chap from Bengal, wrote highly by Sourav was other failure. His off cutters and Yorkers were safely negotiated, half volleys were spanked to boundaries by young Zimbabwe kids.  Umesh Yadav bowled only 4 overs.  Yusuf Pathan was never in sight bowling with his fire in his eyes.  He had chance to score runs on a flat track, which he always does in IPL, he gave away the chance.  Rohit, Raina fell to sharp fielding from Zimbabwean kids.  Jadeja was selfish enough to complete a 50 and fall.

Did not he think to accelerate or at least try for it? He was contend taking singles and rotating strike in 45-50 overs when India scored just 18 runs.

This team is pathetic. If they are called future stars, then lets stop watching cricket for good. Once the greats are retired from Tests and this lesser souls take over, we would be soon languishing in the lower bottom half of the Test rankings. But wait are they even good to play for India again ?

Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay,  Yusuf Pathan, Ravinder Jadeja should never play for India again unless they prove hard in the domestic cricket that they belong and not just IPL.  

The flat track bullies of Chepauk, Mr Vijay forgot that he is playing ODI and not a first class game.  He plays  faster than this in 4 tests that he has played for India and he had given impression that he is gutsy enough to play for India long time in Tests. Now that impression stands dusted. Not so long ago he was thought of future # 3 in Tests, a big spot held for 14 years by Rahul Dravid.

Unfortunately this kids don’t have work ethic, their seniors have.  Easy money from IPL, fast tracked selection by ex cricketers from their zone makes them believe that they have arrived on the international scene and hence they fail to do whatever it takes to succeed on the highest level.

Just need to illustrate the case of 3 Best ODI players India ever produced.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.

Success did not come to this lads instantly. Sachin took 78 games and 6 years for his first ODI 100 and thereafter no looking back. 45 hundreds more he scored in 16 years.  He had the promise, he showed it, he delivered it in his younger days. Remember the tour of 1991 to Australia, when bigger Test players (then) than him flopped, the guy scored 2 sublime 100s in Perth and Sydney.

Rahul Dravid, considered by many a misfit ODI batsman (even today) got off to a disastrous start to his ODI career in Singapore and Sharjah tournaments just after 1996 world cup, till 1999 world cup when he emerged as top run getter, his place was never fixed.

When Yuvraj Singh and Mohd Kaif along side Virender Sehwag arrived in early 2000s, Dravid was once again questioned if he belonged to the ODI arena. He remodeled his game from a # 3 to a # 5 or # 6 player as finisher and scored countless innings to win games for India. His partnerships with Yuvraj and Kaif are epitome to the fact.

Ganguly had a disastrous ODI debut in 1991 down under and for 5 years he did not play another game until one day he was selected in Test team to England post 1996 World Cup. The success story thereafter is known to everybody, how he evolved from a “quota selection” to become India’s best captain ever in the formats that matter.

Story of Virender Sehwag could be inspirational too. Dropped after disastrous ODI debut in 1999 and back in the team for Tests in 2001 and then dropped again in 2006-07 and bouncing back in 2008 Adelaide Test could be benchmark for this so called young kids of the Indian cricket team.  They ought to remember that T20s and IPL is not the only thing they need to play well in. Who remembers Swapnil Asnodkar and Kamran Khan now who shone in 2008 and 2009 editions? Do they even play first class cricket and get noticed? Nope, not at all.

Anil Kumble was mocked by Kapil Dev in 1990 England tour when he debuted. For next 2 years he did not play a Test until 1992 when he made a comeback to grab 6/59 in Wanderers Test in SA. And post 1993 he changed the story of Indian spin.

Can Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra, known for aggressive send-offs and fire in the bellies learn from the senior pro on how to take wickets and then show the aggression? Take wickets and then do whatever, all is forgiven and forgotten.

Heads would need to roll for this pathetic show.  Its not a show, the team just did not turn up. They just ran through the motions. They pretended that they are playing. The hearts were just not there, that were somewhere else.

Pitiful and shameful performance this.  That’s the least 2 cussing words I can use right now.

Disecting KKD

Dinesh Karthik is a hot topic of discussion on this blog at least.  I presume he is being given chances more than what he deserved.  I had presented his stats a while back in ODIs, T20Is and Tests..

I am going  a step ahead now and presenting stats for the dancing baby of the team as specialist batsman, keeper and a keeper batsman.   His career can be divided to 3 phases:

·         When he debuted as a keeper in 2004 after Parthiv Patel continuously fumbled in keeping.  Then Mongia, Ajay Ratra, Deep Dasgupta, Parthiv Patel had been tried since 2001.  Karthik debuted in Australia series in 2004.

·         Post Dhoni’s debut when he was no longer needed as a keeper, but he played as a specialist opener.

·         Replacement to Dhoni when he was injured / rested.

The time frames are as follows for each of this phases:

·         Oct 2004 – Dec 2005 when Dhoni debuted vs SL in India series.

·         SL 2008, NZ 2009, SL 2009 series when Dhoni was injured / rested

·         BD 2007, England 2007, Pakistan 2007 when he was opener. Amazing to find the fact during this time frame he was Sehwag ’s replacement.

In all he played 23 Tests and has scored exactly 1000 runs with a solitary 100 against BD in 2007 series just after the WC debacle. 

As opener

So when he did not play as keeper he has made 509 runs in 7 Tests @ 39.  4 50s, 1 against BD and 3 against England (his most successful series).  He flopped badly against Pakistan in India when he could score 39 runs in 3 Tests. Poor effort after the best series you have in your career. People get buoyant after a successful series. Mr. Karthik flopped.  

As Keeper Before Dhoni

As a keeper before Dhoni debuted in 2005 December, Karthik played 10 Test matches and made just 245 runs with an highest of 93 vs Pakistan @ Eden Gardens.  During this time he played against Australia (1), SA (2), Pakistan (3), BD (2) and Zim (2). 

As Keeper when Dhoni was injured / rested

He played 2 against SL in 2008,  1 against NZ, 1 against BD when Dhoni was injured / rested.

In this 4 tests he has made 79 runs with 27 as his highest vs BD. During this time he made 2 ducks (1 against BD and SL) and 3 single digit scores. One 20.

That’s the performance of Dinesh Karthik as batsman when he was keeper and a pure batsman.  If he is being played as a front line batsman, he is expected to score at least at 40 runs per innings. However he fails on that count. If you exclude England 2007 series then he fails as a pure batsman too. This for a batsman who claims he has worked on batting.

Wicketkeeping

He has had 45 catches and 5 stumpings as keeper and 6 catches as a fielder.

Despite this inconsistencies he has been the keeper #1 choice whenever MSD has been injured (4 Tests).  After he flopped in 2 Tests vs SL in 2008 Parthiv Patel was tried, but he did not do anything better than what Karthik did.

Compared with Patel, he has played 20 games (most of them during 2002- 2004).  He has had better records against Australia,  Pakistan and West Indies. Has played match saving innings which something Karthik has not done yet.

Karthik has had chances to play against much weaker attacks than what Patel had to play during his tenure as wicket keeper in 20 games.   He played 5 Tests against BD, barring a 100 and 50 he has not encashed the opportunity.   He grassed a lot of chances against Kumble in SL in 2008 and before.

Verdict : Useless player in Tests