Indian Cricket

gambhir was our best bat, wouldnt have got to the finals without him. credit where due. rohit looked quality. raina and tiwary didnt get a chance so you cant say the cupboard is bare. only uthppa was a failure and he has played some crucial match winning knocks in the past 8-9 months.

its not all about numbers when judging young talent. how many wkts did ishant take in the test series?

drvid/ganguly are unlikely to be around for wc2011 and dhoni wants a side that has 70-100 matches under their belt...time to rebuild is now

Ash wrote:gambhir was our best bat, wouldnt have got to the finals without him. credit where due.

Gambhir's contribution in games won by India in CB series

1) Against Aussies at MCG: 21 (43)

2) Against SL at Adelaide: 15 (58 )

3) Against SL at Hobart: 63 (89)

4) Against Aus at SCG: 3 (4)

5) Against Aus at Gabba: 15 (16)

So he scored 117 runs at 23-odd (S/r: 55-odd) in 5 innings and without him India won't have reached finals of CB series. Yep, definitely.

And his average was largely 'propped' up by that 63 at Hobart, a match which was anyway won by Tendulkar's blazing half ton.

PS: UMB will always be UMB.

FFS! India win an ODI tournament involving 2 of the worlds best ODI teams and STILL some Indian fans on here are crying out for Ganguly and Dravid to be recalled! Get over it! Time to move on! Ganguly is 36 this year and his fielding is getting worse and worse, and Dravid hasn't scored an international century for almost 2 years.

How many ODI tournament victories did Ganguly and Dravid guide India to?

FFS! India do well to win an ODI tournament (on the back of 2 good innings by Tendy) involving Aus and a second team that were pitiful, and some Indian fans rightfully question whether a couple of the young players who pretty much failed in that tournament might not need a bit more work before being hailed the saviours of India. Oh well . . .

I agree with SG. Though I do realise that we need to look beyond Ganguly and Dravid, the batting was poor in this series, and no one's paying it any attention because we've won. I've been disappointed in Dhoni in that one respect.

Having ONE (even 2, but that seems unlikely given the present mindset) batsman who may not play in the next WC is not going to hurt our chances in '11, but would be very beneficial in the present. The India cap should always be worn by ther best.

Yep, just because we won a series doesn't make our batting best in world.

Whether Dhoni wants to accept it or not, our batting is still very shaky and without Tendulkar's twin gems in the finals, this 'young' team would've been thrashed by Aussies in both the finals despite super efforts by young Indian bowlers.

SG wrote:Yep, just because we won a series doesn't make our batting best in world.

Whether Dhoni wants to accept it or not, our batting is still very shaky and without Tendulkar's twin gems in the finals, this 'young' team would've been thrashed by Aussies in both the finals despite super efforts by young Indian bowlers.

Yep, SG, that just about sums it up. You've got some great young bowlers coming through, but without Tendy doing well in the finals, India would have lost.

No one is expecting the likes of Rohit, Gambhir and Uthappa to become as good as Tendulkar overnight. But if you look at the tournament as a whole, Rohit played a couple of crucial knocks in partnership with senior players that helped guide India to victory, Gambhir made a couple of centuries, and Uthappa almost won a match for India with some late hitting heroics. Nothing outstanding, but not bad either. Give them time. India have commited themselves to a youth policy in the shorter forms of the game, and now they must stick with it, and whilst the results go in their favour, it should be a lot easier to do that.

IPL

Good or bad for Indian cricket?

Batman wrote:So I guess it is certain that Kumble will now remain test captain till he retires. Injury barring, I see Kumble playing out 2 more years as India spinner and captain in tests.
His position as captain after the results against Aus and Pak is more or less settled irrespective of the final result at Adelide. He is senior, experienced, in form and someone who everyone in the team respects and looks upto. And to think it looked like he would be the captain India never had a couple of seasons back. And most importantly he can handle and fightback in a crisis without losing focus.

i think violet is an excellent captain and it is a pity for Indian cricket that he was not made the coin tosser years ago...one thing about kumbler is that he never stops trying...he is very fit and could go on for a number of years.

Dhoni should be the vc and cap of the jamodi/t20 teams...he brings enthusiasm and seems very inclusive of his team members...even the lesser known.

Still the cupboard for spinners and good test class batsmen is bare. And all the seamers are too injury prone. I just don't see how India can bring consistency in its performance with such an attack and batting bench strength!!

The cupboard for spinners is hardly bare. Infact, I may be mistaken, but I don't think any other nation has as good spin back-up as we do. Kartik, Mishra, Chawla, Powar, Ojha, are all pretty good.

Test batsmen, maybe. Sharma looks extremely promising. Tiwary and Badrinath are also untried as yet but have done well in FC.

doremi wrote:The cupboard for spinners is hardly bare. Infact, I may be mistaken, but I don't think any other nation has as good spin back-up as we do. Kartik, Mishra, Chawla, Powar, Ojha, are all pretty good.

we shall never know till one of them plays a few tests. chawla's international forays havent been too promising, but they havent been too regular either

same with test batsmen. the previous generation only threw up sehwag as a test class batsman. the new one needs to do much better with the 90s generation slowly fading away

I know none of them can yet be considered to be able to replace Kumble, but there's still potential there.

doremi wrote:The cupboard for spinners is hardly bare. Infact, I may be mistaken, but I don't think any other nation has as good spin back-up as we do. Kartik, Mishra, Chawla, Powar, Ojha, are all pretty good.

Test batsmen, maybe. Sharma looks extremely promising. Tiwary and Badrinath are also untried as yet but have done well in FC.

I'm sorry, but Chawla was nowhere near the class a spinner is needed to be in the tests. He got the two most receptive tracks for the spinners in the only two tests that he played, and that too against arguably the weakest players of spin. Yet he disappointed badly.

He might develop into a good one day bowler but he is far far off from becoming a good test bowler.

Misra? We don't know how he'll perform at the highest level and Kartik, I'm afraid is too old to become a regular test bowler now.

Chandan wrote:

doremi wrote:The cupboard for spinners is hardly bare. Infact, I may be mistaken, but I don't think any other nation has as good spin back-up as we do. Kartik, Mishra, Chawla, Powar, Ojha, are all pretty good.

Test batsmen, maybe. Sharma looks extremely promising. Tiwary and Badrinath are also untried as yet but have done well in FC.

I'm sorry, but Chawla was nowhere near the class a spinner is needed to be in the tests. He got the two most receptive tracks for the spinners in the only two tests that he played, and that too against arguably the weakest players of spin. Yet he disappointed badly.

He might develop into a good one day bowler but he is far far off from becoming a good test bowler.

Misra? We don't know how he'll perform at the highest level and Kartik, I'm afraid is too old to become a regular test bowler now.

Don't be sorry Chandan, I insist.

I have to be sorry and disappointed because I had high hopes from Chawla!

It's still just 2 tests though, one of them when he was clearly too young to play international cricket. He still is very raw. His hype has seen him be fast tracked into the team though, to both his benefit and detriment.

So you agree that he is not test class as yet? Will he be ever?

Time will tell.

Oh come on you Indian fans! India still has by far the best spinning talent waiting in the wings outside of the test team at the moment. Look at Australia- No one. Look at South Africa- No one. Look at Pakistan- No one. Look at NZ- No one. Look at the Windies- No one. Look at England- No one anywhere near ready.

Chawla, Kartik, and Mishra make a very handy backup trio, imo.

Henry wrote:Oh come on you Indian fans! India still has by far the best spinning talent waiting in the wings outside of the test team at the moment. Look at Australia- No one. Look at South Africa- No one. Look at Pakistan- No one. Look at NZ- No one. Look at the Windies- No one. Look at England- No one anywhere near ready.

Chawla, Kartik, and Mishra make a very handy backup trio, imo.

The lack of spinners all across right now in the next pecking order is making even Kaneria look like Warne at the moment.....

The only way Kaneria will ever look anything like Warne will be if he gains 50 pounds and dyes his hair blonde.

The team for the Sri Lanka tests and CT to be picked on the 8th. Assuming everyone's fit, my team would be -

For SL

Kumble
Dhoni
Sehwag
Laxman
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Dravid
Yuvraj
Parthiv
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Sreesanth
Ishant
RP
Pathan/Gambhir

doremi wrote:The team for the Sri Lanka tests and CT to be picked on the 8th. Assuming everyone's fit, my team would be -

For SL

Kumble
Dhoni
Sehwag
Laxman
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Dravid
Yuvraj
Parthiv
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Sreesanth
Ishant
RP
Pathan/Gambhir

It is certain now the selectors will stick to useless UMB who is also among Dhoni's favoured at the moment and leave out a more deserving Parthiv P. It is also certain Jaffar will be in on account of the TINA factor that so far was the dogma of Indian politics for the electorates - There Is No Alternative factor! I for once would love to give both Karthick and Parthiv a shot at opening together.

doremi wrote:It's still just 2 tests though, one of them when he was clearly too young to play international cricket. He still is very raw. His hype has seen him be fast tracked into the team though, to both his benefit and detriment.

the doremi sig is confounded by the doubts about where India sits as a minnow or non minnow