India has just scored an emphatic 2-0 victory over Bangladesh. Barring the opening day of the two-Test series that witnessed a middle-order collapse, India were pretty much on top for most of the series.

      Nonetheless, the series also exposed certain chinks in our armour. We need to work on them as sterner test awaits us against South Africa beginning with the first Test on February 6. After all, the series is being billed as the battle for the champion Test team in the world.

      1. Middle-order batting:  Due to injuries, our middle order is suddenly looking brittle. Ok, we have Tendulkar in great nick. But Dravid, Laxman and Yuvraj are likely to miss the first Test. Indications are Yuvraj will miss the entire Test series. So what do we do?

      I think India has adequate bench strength. The question is whether the selectors will go for the real guys or opt for their favourites. If the selectors think that Dinesh Karthik, that little darling of the five wise men, will shore up the middle order, then God help India.

      Sure, we need experience. But I am not saying, call back Ganguly. Or even Mohammed Kaif.

      I have four fresh names: Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath, Manish Pandey and Manoj Tiwary. The last three are among the finest fielders in India.

      Pujara and Badrinath are the two unluckiest cricketers in India today. Each of them has scored centuries by dozens. Badrinath, especially, has also proved his worth during India A tours abroad. Obviously either the selectors don't like his face or they know about a major chink in his batting that nobody else can find on television. I know he is 29 but so what? Even Mr Cricket, Michael Hussey made his Test debut at 30.

      Both Badrinath and Pujara are tailor-made for Test cricket. They have solid defence, decent footwork and play the ball on merit. They can graft and build a long, patient innings. Surely, both deserve a chance.

      Pandey and Tiwary are two of a kind. Both have the game to succeed on the big stage. After his recent stunning ton in the Ranji Trophy, Pandey is high on confidence too. Tiwary has fallen off the mindmap. But his 102 off 123 balls for East Zone against Central Zone, shows Read more...

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As Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid prepare to leave the stage, the young pretenders are waiting in the wings

Sachin Tendulkar was 17 when he lit up the Summer of Graham (Gooch) with a match-saving 119 not out at Old Trafford. It was his first Test century, in his ninth match. Nearly two-and-a-half years later, the 23-year-old Brian Charles Lara had the old-timers harking back to Sir Garfield Sobers as he stroked a magnificent 277 at the SCG. It was his fifth Test in the maroon cap. Half a decade later, Ricky Ponting was a year younger when he played his sixth Test. His maiden Test hundred (127) and a 268-run partnership with Matthew Elliott were pivotal in deciding the destination of the little urn.

Last week, two 19-year-olds from opposite sides of the world made brilliant debut hundreds on either side of the Tasman Sea. Adrian Barath’s effort was one of the few bright spots in an another depressing West Indian performance away from home, while Umar Akmal’s technique and poise couldn’t quite save Pakistan in a fascinating Test at Dunedin.

Both have been talked about for a while. Barath was considered special by no less than Lara himself, and those who watched the Champions League Twenty20 in October quickly discovered what the fuss was about. Even in a form of the game where the ugly mow over midwicket is the default option, it was noticeable how much time he had to play his strokes and how beautifully he executed them. The Hyderabad crowds that grew up watching stylists such as ML Jaisimha and Mohammad Azharuddin took to him in a big way, just as they did to the rest of the Trinidad & Tobago side.

Umar had also been cherry-picked from the Under-19 side. Long before he made his debut, those that followed domestic cricket in Pakistan were talking of how he was even better than Kamran, his older brother who also keeps wicket. Lest it be forgotten, Kamran made one of the great centuries of our age, taking Pakistan from 0 for 3 and 39 for 6 to victory against India Read more…

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If there’s anything like a perfect day, the Men in Blue enjoyed it at Nagpur on Wednesday.  A 99 run win is pretty comprehensive, though, like most Indians, I would have preferred the margin to be 100 or above. With the series tied at 1-1, one can expect a lip-smacking feast in the remaining five games. I have a feeling the series will be decided only in the last game.
 
Ricky Ponting erred badly in electing to field after winning the toss. The defensive ploy came unstuck on a batting paradise. The Indian bowlers looked good in defending 354. But let us not start singing praises till they defend a smaller total or restrict the Aussies to less than 270 when bowling first.
 
My observations on Team India after watching the first two games of the series:
 
1. Earlier this month, the BCCI sacked Robin Singh, India’s fielding coach. On Wednesday, Dhoni’s men showed why we badly needed a new one. The team has too many laggards in the field. The ground fielding is abysmal. Whatever the distance, the throws seldom hit the stumps. And if you are Ishant Sharma, you can even miss from a yard. There are several other below-par fielders in the side. On a good day, Nehra will get 3 out of 10. On one occasion today, Praveen Kumar first missed the ball, then kicked it away. On another occasion he stupidly stepped onto the rope as he caught the ball. Barring Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli, we don’t have any quality fielders in the squad. If we want to mount a serious challenge for the 2011 ODI World Cup, we must improve in this aspect.
 
2. Harbhajan Singh needs to be told that his batting cannot cover up for his ineffective, defensive bowling. He needs to get more wickets. The offie bowls like a fifth bowler who thinks that 10-0-50-1 or so is great work. Even Nathan Hauritz and Ravindra Jadeja flight the ball more. Solution: Drop him for a couple of games. Pressure works. See how all the “drop talk” has improved Ishant’s game. Give Pragyan Ojha or Amit Mishra a chance. See if they perform any better. Read more...

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When India went into the Champions Trophy, we all knew they wouldn’t be the same side as they were for the 18 months, as there was no Zaheer Khan or Virender Sehwag, and injury to Yuvraj Singh worsened the matter.

But absence of these big players, gave youngsters a golden opportunity to put their hands up and shine on the international platform like these absent biggies did a few years back (Yuvraj and Zaheer made international debut during 2000 Champions Trophy in Nairobi), but they failed to grab the attention. Only Virat Kohli managed to make an impression, and that too in the last match when the Champions Trophy campaign was all over for India.

It is obvious that when these players come back into the side, India can again boast of being a tougher and a more competitive team.

But the question is, do we really have the bench-strength to make the Indian team consistently a top side? Are we really grooming talents for the international arena?

Yusuf Pathan has shown his prowess and potential in the IPL but has failed to carry it to the international level. Suresh Raina has come off good and looks promising for the future. Virat and Rohit Sharma are the other two batsmen who have everything needed for becoming successful at the international level but the duo lacks consistency.

Some time back India had a sweet dilemma of picking two or three pacers from the bunch that had RP Singh, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma with Zaheer Khan Read more…

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If I was Rahul Dravid I would be overjoyed, and yet not surprised, at my recall to the one-day side. Cricketers of that stature continue playing only because they believe they are good enough, pride is a big part of it all, and the fact that Dravid hadn’t retired from one-day cricket meant he believed he could force his way back in. It requires a wonderful combination of grit, optimism and self-belief and Dravid has each of those in abundance.

When he was left out in 2007, he was still averaging 37.4 for the year, compared to a career average of 39.5, though in all fairness his last 9 innings had only produced 80. It would seem on that basis that the dropping was justified and indeed, Dravid had much on his plate those days. It would be fair then to harbour the belief that two years later, now 36 (and seven months if you want to rub it in!), he might struggle to find his way. Should he then have been picked at all?

He has no recent one-day numbers to go by but with great players you only look for clues. After a fairly lengthy struggle in Test cricket, Dravid now averages 64.2 from the time he got the century against England at Mohali—an innings some thought bought him some time. And in New Zealand he got runs everytime he went out to bat. It was in a relaxed state of mind therefore that he approached the IPL and, at the other end of the playing spectrum, he showed the ball could leave his bat quite sweetly. With players like Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly the only debate Read more…

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Since finishing with IPL-2, Rahul Dravid had enjoyed the quiet life. He had set forth on another kind of innings in the most variable of conditions, on the trickiest and the most unpredictable of wickets, an long enterprise loaded with risk, even as it promised reward.

As father to Samit and Anvay, one under four years and the other under four months, Dravid’s duties this summer have included being nappy-changer, baby-walker, supportive husband, indulgent parent and problem-solver. The only runs he really needed to monitor were those emanating from infants, the only appeals worth paying attention to came from tiny but ferocious lungs.

The cricket world, naturally, wanted no part of this and left him well alone.

One afternoon about a month ago, Dravid awoke from a few precious hours of uninterrupted sleep and found 20 missed calls on his mobile. It was his other life, cricket that wanted a surprising piece of him – wanted him back as a batsman in blue pyjamas.

Now, with the selection of the Indian team for the tri-series in Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy, Dravid returns to the one-day game after two years. (It’s a good thing he’s Read more…

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Now, now! Have the selectors sprung a surprise or what! By calling back a player whose limited overs career seemed all but over for everyone’s money, they look to have sent a signal in the direction of the batsmen like Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan and Rohit Sharma in the manner so reminiscent of the bouncers that were hurled at the trio in the ICC World T20 and the ODIs that followed after that.

Personally, I think this is a brilliant move on two counts. It would have been unwise to allow this purported chink that had crept and so beautifully exposed by the opposing pace-men, to grow and so Rahul Dravid’s inclusion works as a veiled threat to this motley of youngsters. The other is that it provides hope to many of those purists who believe that the exuberance of youth needs to be wrapped with the cocoon of experience for a team to succeed on a more consistent basis.

The one thing though, that I would like to point out is that not much cricket will be played before the Champions Trophy; probably not more than a tri-series in Sri Lanka or a Zimbabwe, where most of the tracks could not be as big a test as some of the more devilish looking ones in England and South Africa. The real test for these young guns, and I allude to the nastiness in the tracks here, will directly be seen during the Champions Trophy, when the pitches could offer a lot more juice to the quick bowlers, nothing before that. Read more…

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Mahendra Singh Dhoni, quite evidently, doesn't believe only in new hairstyles; he has the courage and foresight to go for a complete makeover too, and not just off the field.

He has, of course, already come a long way from his "hippie" days: he is not a simple, small-town boy anymore; he is suave, confident and easily the country's most saleable star now.

More importantly, he has been at the forefront of a major paradigm shift too: cricket is not the preserve of the rich or the city-bred any longer; it has taken wing and touches even remote parts of the country today.

Dhoni could have stopped right there: after all, he is already the captain of the national team in all three formats. But then, he hasn't come so far by playing it safe: he was primarily a wicket-keeper but he knew it wouldn't take him too far. Read more...

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Rohit Sharma has been reminded, these last couple of weeks, that there is life beyond that astonishing pick up shot that he so routinely, and so easily, deposits into the stands at mid-wicket. Just as, eventually, the rude, unkempt purveyors of vile language will discover that there is a world beyond being an mtv Roadie! Unless of course you choose to limit yourself, like fundamendalists do, to a specific way of life!

It is a call that Rohit Sharma and others like Suresh Raina must take. Do they want to make T20 their universe, exist as a series of short, incandescent bursts, where failure is frequented as often as success? Or do they want to take their extraordinary ability towards other horizons? It is not as easy a decision as it seems for sooner or later they will be confronted by that enemy of ambition — the comfort factor. A sharp fast bowler who makes life uncomfortable can only come at you for 12 balls, or maybe even six (notice how T20 is slowly replacing the word ‘over’). There are always a couple of bowlers you can punish. And forty five minutes is about as long an innings will last.

It requires a different skill and as we have seen over the last two months, not everyone is possessed of it. But because you only need to exhibit it for a short while, it is likely to breed greater competition. Read more…

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What is it about Indian batsmen and the absolute lack of application that they have begun to exhibit in both the condensed format of the game? One does not quite know whether it is the more experienced players of the likes of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar that the top-order misses, but the inability to face up to – and with confidence – either bounce or swing even on flat-looking tracks is beginning to come to bite the Indians in their backside. And if Geoffrey Boycott is to be believed, this is certainly not the most talented batting order that we have come to expect out of the youngsters.

This is why, it surprised me no ends when the New Zealand cricket board agreed to welcome the Indians like a family would receive their son-in-law, doling out one sleeping beauty after another during their visit to Kiwiland earlier this year. What was even more baffling was the fact that on India’s previous visit to the same country, the tracks had enough bounce, pace and swing to put the fear of their maker in most Indian batsmen, and yet, this time around, the tracks would have turned a flat pancake green with envy. Probably, with the Champions League looming large…

If the Indian batting in the past couple of months has been any evidence, then there was a strong merit in the case for typical Kiwi pitches and but for the clout of the apex cricket body in India, it may just have been a disastrous New Zealand rendezvous.

Travelling back to the current series, the first game had already seen the Indian batsmen dominate the bowling like it has been their wont, but the same track with a slight more sheen and trifle more moisture sent the batsmen scurrying for cover. Read more…

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