Sir Ravindra Jadeja's best delivery

Video Courtesy : You tube channel of ac89jc

If this kind of bowling makes Ravindra Jadeja best bowling allrounder then more whitewashes follow in Tests vs Australia, South Africa and then again England.

Sir Ravindra Jadeja, you rock.

MS Dhoni's politics

47,4,0.

That is the scoreline for Ajinkya Rahane, the new forced opener and a replacement  for "failing" Virender Sehwag.  

And of course the above scoreline provides a solid opening stand which we have been used to see in ODIs at least ever since we have had world class opening pairs of Sachin-Saurav, Sachin - Sehwag, Saurav - Sehwag and then Gambhir - Sehwag.

96, 18 and 11 are the opening stands in the first 3 ODIs and of course for the next 2 ODIs in Mohali and Dharmsala, the same opening pair shall continue. 

What extra value has Ajinkya Rahane has added at the top of the order  ? If Sehwag failed, Rahane has been no different. Sehwag was persisted for only 2 ODIs against Pakistan. He was  rested for 3rd and then dropped for the series against England. 

The only thing that goes in favor of Rahane is that he is young, supposedly good fielder than Sehwag and he has backing of Sandip Patil who hails from Mumbai as does Rahane.  It is very difficult to ignore the selectorial bias or presidential bias in selection of guys like Rahane, Rohit Sharma and Sir Ravindra Jadeja who will always excel against England who are hopeless  against any kind of turning ball. 

Another question that arises out of Sehwag's axing is whether Dhoni feels secure as leading Team India in all 3 formats ? He is selectively kicking out people who could be challenge to his captaincy. Sehwag now, Gambhir next and who knows Yuvraj in future.  

Dhoni has been off color in Tests and T20s captaincy. Overly defensive when things go wrong. That X-factor and what they say lucky charm is long gone.  Losing 10 tests to Australia and England have been the undoing of all the hard work the golden generation of Indian cricket has done in past 14 years or so. 

There is no doubt over the class of MS Dhoni, the ODI batsman, but more results like Pakistan loss will do only harm to his captaincy. Also the backing of players like Ravinder Jadeja who come good in 2 of 10 games isnt going to do any good to Indian cricket.  There is just no logic why one player finds sudden favor from Dhoni and then loses it. Ashok Dinda at times is his go-to bowler but then next game he is out.  Shami Ahmed bowls good in one game, he is out next and back in the next. 

Piyush Chawla does no good in any form of cricket he plays and suddenly he comes in the 4th Test match out of blue replacing Harbhajan Singh (who just got Punjab back in the contention for place in Ranji final).  Yet he plays T20Is against England and  then dropped against Pakistan.

Suresh Raina, now in good form, continued to play all games when he was out of form.  Ravinder Jadeja suddenly becomes one good bowling allrounder with one innings of 61 from 37 balls after ages of failure.  R Ashvin, who has not delivered since ages, who does not get a single wicket and James Tredwell gets 4 in a game, continues to play every game, every format.  And doubt lingers over the intentions of MS Dhoni when one relates this players to his IPL franchisee.

And you are left to bite your hairs in disgust when Sir Jadeja comes in a press conference and backs "out of form" Virat Kohli.

It is high time MS Dhoni is  relieved of captaincy in Test format and a bold move is made sooner than later.  And one viable option could be Virat Kohli, aka Graeme Smith way. But if Indian selectors led by the world cup winners of 1983 world cup have the balls to take hard decisions, that remains to be seen.

Why not drop Rohit Sharma instead of Sehwag ?

India's cricket is in shambles. The ODIs were strong forte all this while with gloom setting in Tests and T20s were never India's mettle. Now the ODI wall has stood broken with 2 back to back defeats to Pakistan. Of all countries, losing to Pakistan is shambolic and sinful. No matter what, the defeats against Pakies will never be taken easily. And that when no fight has been put up. Top four showing up no fight at all. Batting has been India's strong point entire 2000s and now that is the reason for failings. 

What is Duncan Fletcher doing ? Has he got any ideas ? Has he got any plans to stop the slide ? Does he even speak more than what Manmohan Singh speaks? Or he also believes in silence ? Tests woes and now ODI woes. 

The selection of team is also an issue. Rohit Sharma is in the team after failing since ages. Single digit scores in all his ODI appearences this year, still he is in the team and will play England ODIs. And the blame of this defeats is going to be passed onto Virender Sehwag. Admittedly he has not been in great form, but he is certainly better than Rohit Sharma and Ravinder Jadeja.  This 2 lads continue playing every game despite doing nothing great and Sehwag always faces the axe.

MS Dhoni did not play an innings of substance in T20I and Tests for long, yet he remained in the team and was the captain despite losing 0-8 abroad and 1-2 at home.  N Srinivasan has his hand behind MSD, Jadeja and Ashvin. Sandeep Patil has his behind Rohit Sharma. Who said quota system did not rule Indian cricket ?

And now yet another Chennai lad is in the team. Dinesh Karthik is in the team as standby to injured MSD. Why not inject 11 Chennai players in the INDIAN team?  Sehwag will be dropped and out of nowhere M Vijay shall replace him. Does not matter Ajinkya Rahane or Manoj Tiwary have been left to warm the benches. Out of nowhere Jadeja appeared and played last test match against England when Rahane should have been playing at #6.

The string of this losses followed by Tendulkar's retirement is fast forcing me to give up watching Indian cricket for good. Chennai Super Kinks for all its patronizing is destroying the soul of Indian cricket.