Ranji form of incumbent Indians

Tracking Test contenders:

Suresh Raina :

Hit a double ton against Punjab. Good show of form, but would depend on how Yuvraj and Kohli fare in the Tests. A comeback seems far off for now. 

Harbhajan Singh

No favors done playing in the Ranji game on a lifeless track. Went wicketless and only delaying the possible comeback for the Tests.

Rohit Sharma

A century against Railways shows good recovery from injury. Could comeback in the ODI team.

Manoj Tiwary

A hundred in the game vs Gujarat would mean he can retain his place in the ODI series should some seniors chose to rest before Australia tour.

India look good to go 2-0 up

The 3rd and final Test of this series is seeming to be going India's way should weather permit on day 4 and day 5. If weather would have been good all this far, India would have been 2-0 up in the series thus far.

Its just good for India that the man who leads them in all 3 formats of the game and their World cup winning man has got back some form, some runs before the tough England tour begins in few days time. He had been scratchy and pathetic in all the 4 innings before today's 50 and in this process he also got to 3000 Test runs in 57 Tests, not bad for a man who was considered untechnical and ugly to watch when he came 7 years back.

Laxman is continuing his good form in the series and this would only mean better in the tougher England series in few days time. 3 50s in as many innings is sureshot welcome from the man who likes to bat in crisis. He may not need to bat in the 4th innings depending upon the size of lead India gets on day 4.

Raina has almost sealed his place for the # 6 spot in England and he would be keeping Yuvraj out for while from the Test team with a super 3rd 50 of the series. But the biggest beneficiary of the first Indian innings was ABhinav Mukund who not only grinded hard but also made some runs to boost his confidence. Its almost certain he would be walking out in Lord's test with Gautam Gambhir as Viru is yet to get total fit and might not make it to the Lord's.

A lot depends on how much Dhoni and Bhajji make on the first session of the day 4 and another 50-60 runs would be very handy given the brittle batting of West Indies and weather permitting, India shouldnt find going 2-0 up so difficult.

IPL 4 : Chennai Blooper Kings Preview

Its IPL time and time for team previews.

Start with Chennai Super Kinks. 

The team consists of 2 men who are most widely disliked -- Srinivasan and Kris Freekanth.

One of them owns and the other is brand ambassador.

One of them is BCCI prez elect and the other is national selector chief.

Son of Freekanth plays for Chennai Kinks and Kanth would use IPL 4 as launch pad for launching his team into the national colors. May not be in ODIs now, but may be in T20Is. ODIs team tinkering wont be possible for long time since we are the world champions.

Okay back to the preview.

Captain : MS Dhoni, the Indian world cup winning captain

They retained 4 players -- Dhoni, Vijay, Morkel and Raina. 2 of this are world cup winners and one of them is a loser and the other a world cup discard.

The team:

Indian players : Dhoni, Raina, Ashvin, Dabri, Vijay, Junior Freekanth, Joginder Sharma (YAY YAY he is same bowler who got Misbah off Freeesanth), Jakati, Yo Mahesh, Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Saha and some Vasudevdas.

Abhinav Mukund was the other man in that monsterous partnership in Ranji trophy game in 2008 which saw Murali Vijay picked up and drafted in for banned Gambhir in 3rd test vs Australia in Delhi. May be when both Delhi lads get injured in Tests at one go (GOD forbid), Mukund could find himsef playing for India alongside opening with Vijay. May be then he would still pretend he is playing for Jaya and Karuna and Freekanth and Srini and RAJNIKANTH's state. 

So many almighties for Chennai Fooper Kinks and biggest of them MS.  Rajni's team. Oh man. Yenthiraan's team.

Foreign players:

Hussey, Styris, Kulasekra, Albie Morkel, Randi bhai, Hilfy, Bravo, Southee, Bailey,

Kicked out players:

Hayden, CHuckli

The team is defending champions and they say that they are the most consistent team in the IPL. They have always made it to the Champions league (2009 and 2010) and have been to the semi-final of IPL at all times. They won in 2010, lost in semis in 2009 and choked on the last ball in 2008.

The crunch players for CSK in past year have been Ashvin, Raina and Vijay. Vijay who knows to play only for IPL and is subdued for the other formats for India.  There is going to be no Hayden and Chuck this time around. Chuck is now playing for Mahila's team that is, the Tuskers.

Hayden was left out.

If CSK win this time, it shall be another glorious campaign for MS, but it might also see some more Boss DKs kinda players making way to the team as reserves.  We've had already enough of Vijays, Dabris and BossDKs.

BossDKs is furious at Freekanth cos he didnt convince Srini to buy for him and instead now he is playing for some other team.  Dunno which.

Batting shall wholesole depend on Indian players (or Chennai local players) as Hussey shall be coming in late and most of the foren recruits are bowlers.

Expected XI for tomorrow:

1. Vijay

2. Mukund

3. Aniruddh Freekanth

4. Raina

5. MSD

6. Dabri

7. Morkel

8. Southee

9. Ashvin

10. Randi

11. Kulasekra

Bollinger is out injured, Dwayne Bravo is out injured. So the team for first few games is going to bit on this lines.  Randi bhai is back and he wont be balling no bowls any more arbitarily. 

Lets see if this time CSK is Chennai Super Kings or Chennai Blooper Kings

Quarter final lineups

In the end South Africa demolished Deshis way too easily and eased England's way to the quarters thus kicking out the inept Deshis out of the tournament. Just right. 

The lineups are more or less clear now. 

Australia finish third in their group and Pakistan topped it. 

South Africa shall take on Kiwis. If India win tomorrow they go 2nd in the group and play Australia in the quarter finals in Motera. 

If they lose they take on SL in the quarters. 

If India win then following would be the lineup

SA vs NZ

Ind vs Aus

Eng vs SL

WI vs Pak

If India lose then

SA vs NZ

Ind vs SL

WI vs Aus

Eng vs Pak

Coming back to the game tomorrow, Sehwag seems to be in doubt based on media reports so that opens up a spot and Raina should come in. Even if Sehwag plays Raina should still come in place of Pathan. And of course Ashvin coming in place of Nehra or Munaf. Even no harm in trying Sreesanth. At least somebody with pace will be there.

Raina under pressure

Suresh Raina has now failed for 4 consecutive games in Tests and he has seemed to given away his advantage of having a cracking start to his Test career in Sangaland. 

He must remember that few more failures and he would be out of the reckoning soon. There are too many contenders for the # 6 spot in the Test side with Yuvraj, Pujara and the awesome Kohli.

Even though he has a big fan in MSD still he would need to deliver in the upcoming Durban Test, else this SA tour would be a replica of 2006 tour when he failed and he was out of the World Cup squad and went to a hibernation of 1 year untill CB Series of 2008.

He better perform!!!

India vs Australia T1D3

The first test between India and Australia is delicately poised and for sure it wont head to a draw, what fucking Sanjay Manjrekar believes. Damn him, he is an eternal pessimist. 

If the lower order of India could have shown the same resolve as in Lanka, India would have had some lead rather than giving away some lead.  Injury to VVS Laxman also did not help. Either of this would have happened, India surely would have surged ahead of Australia in first innings. 

India had 4 half centurions -- Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar and Raina. 

Raina has almost sealed his spot at 6 for at least few more Tests. Failure of Yuvraj Singh in first innings of Irani trophy has not helped his case in anyway.  

Sachin was unlucky to have missed yet another ton this year, although he did lead a good partnerships with Dravid and Raina. 

Only if MSD and so called allrounder Harbhajan could have made some more runs. 

On day 4, the lot would depend on Zaheer and Ojha to make early inroads to Australian 2nd innings. Ishant is out injured and Harbhajan is useless. 

So if this 2 bowlers in addition to occasional off spin by Virender Sehwag should ideally run through the Australian 2nd innings. The match is delicately poised. A session or 2 good for any team could turn the game in its favor. 

And given the rivalry between the 2 teams neither of the teams would like to give an inch to the other. And this is what you call pulsating and riveting Test cricket. Even contest between bat and ball.

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.

Try Irfan over Jadeja

Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni;s fascination on Ravinder Jadeja being used as regular spinner bowling 10 or 4 overs in ODIs and T20s is dangerous. I believe MS and SR dont take Jadeja to be Gary Sobers who can bat and bowl with equal talent and skill.

I dont know what Jadeja brings in the table on both counts (bat and ball) in ODIs and T20s. He is not a big hitter, he is no more than a stock bowler in ODIs and he often slips the balls through his hands.

Irfan Pathan is more of a batting allrounder whose bowling might be doubtful, but he is certainly better batsman than his brother and Ravinder Jadeja.

So why not bring him in the side and have him bat at 7 or 8. He could do the same role as Mathews does for Sri Lanka.  But will MSD and Srikanth listen.

Indian Pakistani jokers

Who is a big joker ?

Krishnamachari Srikanth from India

Or

Ijaz Butt from Pakistan

One of them selects unfit, unqualified players to the Indian squad as if his anna owns the Indian team (as in Hindi its said kya team uske baap ki hai)

The other puts ban and revokes it. Dumps a player, then picks him up, cleans his shit and calls him patriot.

Due to KS of India, the team is in retro mode since Feb 2010 when he decided to rest seniors and draft in MV to join Dines as he complained that he needed somebody whom he could rant how good Simbu is. So Srikanth asked Dines to have MV and sing how good Sri anna is.

A CSK'er is India's stand in captain just weeks after he led CSK in 3 games , 1 won amd 2 lost.  The CSK'er does not even captain UP. He could have actually made Dines captain of this team, but then that would have been two much. 

So Srikanth qualifies good enough to be best joker. As good as Ijaz Butt

weekend Cricket

So the first T20I in US soil resulted in Kiwi win over Lanka. Lanka had the wicket its way.  Slow and low.  Low bounce and turn. Yet they lost by 33 runs. Failed to cross 100 in 2 of 4 T20Is.

In other game West Indies lost by 66 runs to South Africa.  Yawn!!!

Hashim Amla plays a ODI and scores a 100. Shows what kind of bowling attack WI has. They have not won in 4 years against SA in ODIs.

England are considering resting few of their victorious players against the low key BD series this week.  That includes Colly, Broad and few others. 

Indian biggies are resting and the C team would take on weakened Lankans and Zim in Zim after 5 years. Thats India's first tour of Zim in 5 years, the last one being a wretched one when Greg Chappell began his disastrous coach tenure with the team and soon after Ganguly was ousted.

Cricket would be yawning till the Pakistan vs England and Pakistan vs Australia series begin. Lets see if Pakistan win anything in Tests in Old Blighty. They have failed to win a Test in 3 years since 2007 or (prolly they beat SL last year once).

Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina....you beauty!!!!

Has finally arrived after 5 years.

His first innings of substance after 81* vs England in March 2006.

World T20 : Day Two. India wins

India began its World T20 campaign in a relatively sedate note. They did what they were expected to do. Albeit in a warmup fashion.  The IPL stars were sedate, the batting was not the way we have expected to see.

The fast bowlers bowled steady bouncers and got  5 wkts to short balls. Perhaps sending a message to other team highlighting the weakness of Af team against short balls.

Nehra was the man of the match for his  3/19. 

Noor Ali was only Af batsman who batted decently and his partnership with StanikZai was the only highlight of Af batting which struggled to pick up the tempo.

Harbhajan failed to get a single wicket and Jadeja bowled within his usual limitations to keep the run flows in check. Kumar and Zaheer were adequate although later bowled quite a lot of full tosses in hunt of elusive yorkers.

Gambhir and Raina fell early before Yuvraj and Vijay propelled the team to the win.  It seems Gambhir needs presence of Sehwag down the other end to play well. 4 off 6 is not what we expect of the best Indian batsman of 2008 and 2009. He is also the highest run getter for country in T20Is. And Raina though he got 67 runs in the IPL final against the likes of Zaheer, Harbhajan and Malinga, he failed to milk the weakest bowling he's faced till date in T20Is after 1 four and 1 six.

Still waiting for the day when he would display his IPL form in international format.

Yuvraj is slowly getting back to the groove. Vijay carried on his IPL form in this game albeit with a little low strike rate.  MSD hit 16 runs in 4 balls to secure a win that would seal super 8s spot but would leave a lot to be desired to top the group in the game against Saffers today.

Pathetic Preview by Bobilli Vijay Kumar

Bobiilli Vijay Kumar has written an extremely pessimistic and dischanting preview of India vs Afghanistan match today.

He writes that India are in a chance for a longest but painful journey possible today ownwards if they dont pull off a win against opposition who thinks that they do not belong to this stage and yet are thrusted to play in the WT20.

He also talks of Dhoni and Gambhir being mentors to the team but then questions if they qualify being called mentors ?

Then he speaks about the so called rift between Bhajji and MS, Raina and Zaheer (thanks to the overhyped IPl final between MI and CSK).

ToI has been l;eader in exposing the financial misdoings of the IPL and in the process it has projected itself as anti cricket in India.

Some long sentences questioning the crux of the team and the core competence of the team that not long ago won T20 World Cup and was # 1 in ODIs (now at 2) does not make TOI gain readership it intends to gain through some pathetic writing.

Bobilli Vijay Kumar is one pessimistic journo who back in 2007 had suggested Tendulkar and Dravid go in the aftermath of WC debacle.

ToI at best is a tabloid which has nothing to do with the authenticity of news reports,  is pro Congress and has sold itself to the Page 3 stuff. It sucks in one word. And its even waste of time to read it every morning just to find how mucky Indian cricket is.

CSK are IPL Kinks.

So in the end Mumbai Indians could not win the IPL and the inconsistent CSK won the tournament thus making MSD first Indian captain to win the IPL.   Mumbai lost it more than Chennai won it.  Robin Singh messed up Mumbai’s batting order for reasons unknown. How can you imagine Harbhajan Singh at 4 in a final chase.  Pollard being holded till 8.  15 overs gone and yet no signs of Pollard being on the crease.  What was MI management thinking?

CSK Perspective:

·         They rode on Raina’s batting to be able to post 169 as target for Tendulkar’s MI. Raina was dropped twice but he capitulated on both lives to rankle MI.

·         Hayden was patchy in the entire tournament and his struggle tonite ensured that the team got to the slowest 50 in a IPL final.

·         Dhoni came at 5 after Dabri. Why ?  Dhoni any day is a better batsman than the Dabri guy and he ought to have more time in the final given fact that it was his last chance to warm up before he took field on May 1, 2010 against Af in world T20. 

·         Bollinger was difference between the two teams and the balls he bowled in first 2 overs were awesome. Good enough to put the pressure on MI which never experienced pressure in league stages.

·         Dhoni was superb in his captaincy skills. He paced the innings well and has used R Ashvin effectively in tandem with Bollinger.  As a result the run rate was always going to increase for MI.

·         Raina was awesome in his batting and fielding. Only if he could now play such innings for his country, he would go further distance than just playing well in IPL games.

·         The team played better and won a tournament they did not deserve to win it if you consider their lop sided campaign in the league stages. But every time they found inspiration in MSD and he was a big influence on the team which was half dead at 7 games stage with a record 2-5.

MI perspective:

·         Batting order was mess. Abhishek Nayar at  3 ? Really? He had not played many games to be worthy to walk at 3. He scratched around thus putting pressure on Tendulkar to accelerate and subsequently fall.

·         Tendulkar being injured and thus preventing him to be in his typical own self. 

·         Pollard being sent at 8 ? Why ? Was he paid to be benched ? What was Robin Singh thinking ?

·         Poor fielding. 2 catches grossed.  13 and 28 for Raina.  Poor keeping in final over from Malinga which was turning out to be an excellent one. No run had been scored of first 4 balls and off next 2 11 runs were scored including a no.

·         The Mumbai Indians team reflected consistently of the Indian team of 90s when only Tendulkar played and the rest did not. The others including Rayadu, Tiwari, Pollard, Dhawan, Nayar did not own up and expectedly lost.  Given this huge dependency the team did not deserve to win. But then have a thought for Tendulkar. He did everything right. He trusted the so called youngsters giving them bigger roles than they actually deserved and scoring runs at will. Playing in despite an injury sets an example of his work ethic. Unfortunately his other team members could not get inspired.

·         Poor bowling from 14-20^th over when they allowed CSK to go to 5/168 from 3/96.  Even Zaheer could not stem the flow of runs and he dropped a hi-flier which should have been caught.

·         Inexplicable batting from the youngsters.  There was no other guy than Tendulkar whom they could have used to learn the pacing of innings, but instead they chose to play ugly hoists  thus leading to loss.

The focus now shifts on the WT20 which starts in 4 days time and India plays its league games over the weekend against Af and SA.   The batting order for that game looks more like settled :

Gambhir, Vijay, Raina, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Sharma / Jadeja, Pathan, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Nehra, Praveen Kumar

More on the WT20 later. For now lets congratulate MSD for yet another win as a captain and with a hope that this would inspire him to give even bester shot to the upcoming World T20 and wrest the trophy back. I just assume deep within the mind MS would have thought this final to be a warmup.  

Do an Aircel to relaxed lads

Its time to do an AirCel (MoveOn) from this guys from Indian cricket. Yes Indian cricket exists and its not just about the IPL.

So those guys are :

Ishant Sharma from ODIs and T20s.
Dinesh Karthik from all formats
Rohit Sharma from all formats
Piyush Chawla from T20
S Badrinath from all formats

Put Raina, Praveen Kumar on notice that being lax and assured of place in the squad would come with a price and that would be a hefty amount to be paid.

The "in" guys are :

Manish Pandey for ODIs and T20s
Virat Kohli for T20s and Tests
Amit Mishra for ODIs and T20s
Naman Ojha for T20s

If that happens remains to be seen.

Biraat Kohli

PS : A posht in heartland Englis which desi readers wud understend.

haz giben a prablem aff plenty to the Keptain and the koach of Indian team.

End aalso a prablem aff where to fit this guy in and bich pozition ? Who goes out ?  Yubraaj and Dhoni bud return soon then laterz.

DK baba wud go out bonce MS komes beck. So the abvious kendidate to go aff is Sures. Yes you read it right. Kanpur ka chora Sures.

Some kanspiracy theory going aan in the team. After the 2nd ODI, the Sures bay did not bet (bat) any time. Biraat Kohli kame up the arder and betted. And he played bell. Biraat is from the Dilli.  Des's kepital. And the keptain of the team in last 2 ODIs was Beeru, Nazafgarh ka sultaan aur Multaan ka shenshaah, Chennai and Bambai ka dan. (DON).

So Dilli Dilli bhai bhai and Sures ki naak katai.

Sures also gets some pressure naw to perfrarm else go out. He sud take himself seriously now and think ober the T20 cheez. T20 is nat total kireeket. It izz jusht one farmet of the game.  And Biraat's Biraat innings against the Lanka team which houses demons like Sanga and Jayawardhene has sent out a messege  to the team to take him with full Gambhirpan.

So  this izz a good sar dard and matha fodi for Dhoni to hev.  Sirikanth 's agenda is ruled out naw which is to bring the 12th man Boss DK ebery time somebady gets injured / benned. Karthik naw wont kome beck in the team far lang.   And Beeru piromoted his own Dilli da munda and that munda sowed hiz cherecter. Bell cherecter is a word firam Lankan dictionary.  So baat, they hevant patented it. So I barrow it.

Good jab Biraat and Beeru. 

Runathon sets the series on fire

So one more Sehwag century and one more SL loss. Doesnt matter they came  close as good as 3 runs. A defeat is a defeat and unlike Sangakara there is no place for what ifs, could have beens and should have beens. He led the reply to a certain extent, fine. But he was unable to win it for the team.

So the result says India beat SL by 3 runs. Its amazing to see India have nose up the SL's ass in last 2 years. Out of last 13 games India has won 9 and lost just 4. Out of this 9, 8 wins have come in SL. So its a good comeback after the humiliating defeat in WC'07.

The figures of 0/88 in 10 for Zaks Khan doesnt reflect the super yorkers he bowled in the last overs which saw Kandamby, the modern day Ranatunga in every aspect -- running, laziness and getting run out :) and Mathews choke and get run out.

SL have got their batting order wrong. Jayasuriya has no business coming at 4 ahead of Jayawardhena. He should be batting at the top. Period.

Ok enough of SL bashing. Good for this post.

India has to sort out its middle order woes in absence of Yuvraj Singh.  309-1 to 352-6 in 5 overs is not something India would always prefer to have.

Rainas and Kohlis have to understand one thing that their IPL heroics aint going to give them the leeway for much longer in the international games.  Raina heads close to 2000 runs, but then he has been playing for more than 4 years now and hasnt attained the maturity he is supposed to.

Dhoni and himself made debut in space of 8 months in ODIs and the place where they stand today are poles apart.  Raina got 2 hundreds against weaker teams and besides that he has a bare cupboard. The 81 he made in England ODI series in 2006 is the only bright spot for him. Either side of that wretched period when Chappell ruined Raina's career, he has been unable to lift himself.

Gambhir at 4 isnt a suitable option for him. He has to be at 3 or opening. But with Ten playing he has to play one down. Dhoni did a good job but did that affect Gambhir's confidence ?

All in all 825 runs have set the bar a bit high from what it was before. 650 runs was considered huge in 90s and now with the end of 2000's first decade, the 800 runs isnt even safe benchmark.

T20s seem to spur the run rate for ODIs which had spurred the Tests run rates last decade with mighty Australians setting the trend. One format fuels the other and they say one format is dangerous for other.

Good start to the ODIs, but spare a thought for bowlers and of course Sangakars who seems to be coming with syllables and jargons with every game.

"Most of the time you can roll over and die chasing over 400, but we almost made".

Bachaooooooooooooooooo.

Don't write off blues

Writing off India in ct is a huge stupidity based on their 2006 record in this country. They are the best odi team since 08. Yes bowling is freak n now no yuvraj n sehwag means more pressure on tendulkar dravid n ms. This guys have 58 hundreds n close to 31000 odi runs.

Throw in gg n Raina batting looks fairly Gud even if no Vs n ys play. There hv been talk of emotions hurt n revenge from Pakistan over weekend clash. Indians hv been quiet n I guess they wud answer those calls on field

This is in reply to the post from Dilip where he reckons India would be kicked out in the first round itself.

Sent from my iPhone

Build up to the first ODI off season

My team for first ODI :

1. Tendulkar
2. Gambhir
3. Dravid
4. Yuvraj
5. MSD
6. Raina
7. Pathan
8. Bhajan
9. Ishant
10. RP
11. Nehra

Bhajan would play. Doesnt matter if he is hot or cold. Choice could be between Nehra and Mishraji. We have already a lot of slow bowlers. Tendulkar can bowl. Besides Bhajan there is Pathan big, then there is Raina who rolled his arms with success in IPL - 2. Not to forget the Prince of Patiala and Parties -- Yuvraj Singh.

Batting order could be a floater. Dravid, not many people would remember was a best finisher India had before Dhoni floated and Kaif faded. So who knows. But then the purpose which Dravid is in the team would serve is at 3.

I doubt if SL bowlers have that capability to bowl short at Indians. Cos the most likely ones to fall to the short balls now comes late as 6. Raina bhai wont come on top for sure. And Kulasekra doesnt have ability to bowl short if he plays. And who is Thushara ? Is he going to bowl short ? And then I dont know who else would be SL fast bowler. They come in and go as fast as an actress changes her dress in a typical Indian movie (Hindi and regional included). Would Herath play ODIs too ? Would Dilly Billy Silly play his ice cream scoop shot against Indians too ?

What about Bond ? Shane Bond ? Is he still as strong as he was pre-ICL. Not sure. Only thing that would go against the Blues would be the off-season rustiness. Especially for likes of Bhajji, Yuvraj and captain who have spent more time in driving Hummers (one of them w.o number plate :D), partying, ads shoots and stuff like that. Indians havent been the best of the starters. Let me recall.

2008 : Post IPL, Indians started off well but lost 2 finals and then the dreaded botched biased partial Mendis series before they gathered their abilities to win ODI series and then set the ball rolling which hasnt stopped even as yet.

2007 : The break after WC was great infact. BD series win followed by SA series win (2-1), Ireland win, Scotland win, England test series win.

2006 : Was pathetic.

So off late not much data to say if Indians have been rusty or shining on the return. And with no Rohit Sharma, the contenders to fall to short stuff is pretty low. Forget Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj and MS falling to short stuff. Gambhir , hmm, well he wont. Raina and Pathan would bat lower down the order, so the short stuff wont worry them.

Good omens. Sri Lanka for ODIs is always welcome. Always a victory. 2008, 2009 and again a 2009.

Defence of MS

There is an excellent post by Achettup on his blog on the media getting ridiculously hyper over not so big deal of India’s ouster from the T20 world cup. Here it is. Then we have Times Now and CNN-IBN going madly behind India’s decision to field first in the game against England. A lady reporter / fashion model / cricket expert constantly bantered about how wrong the decision to field first was. Then we have Bishen Singh Bedi claiming that Dhoni’s cricketing acumen is poor cos he hails from Ranchi and that his thinking is street level. Nonsense.

Then there are self proclaimed anti India bloggers who find sadistic pleasure in everything bad happening to India, be it the 26/11 or the WT20 loss.

Then there are some really derogatory comments like Mr. 3 liters Doodh a day for MS by one of his famed critics. What about the Dancer in the reality show sir? Is he good enough to pip Doodh drinker from his spot ? I would really wish to watch out this folks what they say when India gets next success – be it in CT or be it in WI tour or whatsoever tourney. Being MS is so tough this days. It doesn’t matter if you have won everything you captained, it doesn’t matter you won a test series against 2 of the most dangerous oppositions without losing even a single test. Doesn’t matter if you won 2 on the trot ODI series in Emerald Isle, which no other captain of India was able to do. Doesn’t matter if you won a ODI series and a Test series down under in NZ in 33 years. Doesn’t matter if you won the CB series for the first and final time in history. And doesn’t matter if you won the WT20 – 2007. The fact that he lost WT20 crown and the IPL – II, he is in for a serious hit. Brand Dhoni, honeymoon Dhoni, lucky Dhoni, Doodh peeta Dhoni. What not.

Former Test stars are blaming Gary on his hinting to IPL as one of the reason for fatigue that finally led to the loss. That’s on cricketnext.com.

IBN cricket “Expert” has following analysis :

“The decision to bat Suresh Raina at number three in the batting line-up despite his obvious weakness against the short ball was also hard to understand. With the asking rate (required run rate) not too stiff, could the skipper have given himself the role of seeing the initial England burn out and kept Raina in the dugout for an assault on the spinners?”

Not so long ago MS was reeled for coming at 3. So there is a problem. MS comes at 3. Criticise. Raina at 3. Criticise. Whats MS supposed to do? Bat Nishant Arora or any journo there. I doubt if the journo would even know the rules of the game.

Yes Jadeja at 4 was a mistake. Accepted.

Then there is this generalized article from PTI on what went wrong :

http://cricket.ndtv.com/cricket/ndtvcricket/WT20/storypage.aspx?ID=SPOEN20090097586

“Matches at home, the below-par attack of New Zealand and fine performances on the worn-out pitches of South Africa during the Indian Premier League (IPL) camouflaged the young Indian batsmen weaknesses against quality pace attack of West Indies and England, who were prepared to dig it short.”

Since when England and West Indies had a quality pace attack? If they had they wouldn’t be at 7 and 8 positions in the ODI cricket and at 5^th and 8^th position in Test cricket. One off victories for both the teams don’t make them have a quality pace attack. Matches at home? Does that mean India should not play matches at home?

“Individually, captain Dhoni's admission that he can't hit sixes as of yore is welcomed, but his assertion that he is working on it isn't true as the team hardly practices. The jibe at media for making an issue out of the team's absence from practice sessions is misguided.”

Didn’t media create an issue out of the supposed rift between MS and VS ? Is media’s role glorified here? When the journos who never would have stepped on the cricket field rig the Indian cricketers, they assume they are the rulers of the game and have the audacity to pass the verdict on the topics they hardly know of.

And on one hand the lesser ex stars of Indian cricket – Patil, Borde and Rajput are reeling MS, the legends of the cricket in country who actually made it the way it is today have backed up MS. None other than Sunny Gavaskar. He has backed the skipper. There is nobody better than MS to lead India in any form of the game. And if there are polls and discussions on whether MS should resign on any tv channel or newspaper, then its just simply ridiculous. MS has accepted his fault, he has apologized. What else he needs to do? We need to move on from this defeat of course with lessons learnt. And the first lesson is that the T20 defeat shouldn’t be taken seriously. Something Younis Khan suggests.

Entire media circle has gone haywire on this loss. And till the next success this topic would be red hot and even small moves by the team would be monitored and aired as Breaking News. And not to wonder if some more derogatory synonyms pop up for MS. Yeah somebody sitting in Al Manamah, Middle East is so good at doing it.