Whats in $kar mind NOW! :-)

by The Absolute Zero Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:42 pm

9.1 Broad to Tendulkar, 1 run, straight delivery, he tuckes it wide of mid on for a run

If I can let Dravid bat for 25 overs, let us see it tomorrow. aaj hum bahut tired. Fielded 2.5 days. Huh?

by truthbetold Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:50 pm

Fielded 1.5 days and rested one full session after fielding (due to rain) SRK does not have any excuses this innings. Pitch is still relatively easy. He has seen these bowlers for 3 tests. Perform or agree that he is outclassed.

by The Absolute Zero Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:57 pm

truthbetold wrote: Fielded 1.5 days and rested one full session after fielding (due to rain)

Today is day 3 pal. Not day 2. :=)

by truthbetold Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:17 pm

England played only one session on first day and third day. That is Indian fielders were on the field only 1.5 days.

As I am writing this, Tendulkar snuffed any Indian revival by playing a terrible shot and an easy catch. I think it is too much even for Dravid. Mental anguish and lack of seriousness on the other batsmen.

by The Absolute Zero Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:21 pm

truthbetold wrote: Mental anguish and lack of seriousness on the other batsmen.

One reason why Sehwag must be penalized till his mind comes to earth from his sky high expectations. He is a complete moron who needs to be desciplined. DROP HIM till he learns.

by truthbetold Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:28 pm

Sehwag is in the team to play aggressive. His problem is that he is not successful enough on foreign soil. He is probably not the best player of swing. He plays speed and spin very well.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:33 pm

truthbetold wrote:Sehwag is in the team to play aggressive. His problem is that he is not successful enough on foreign soil. He is probably not the best player of swing. He plays speed and spin very well.

Right. But he is not successful. I will take Abhi's frequent 40s any day for Sehwag's once in a blue moon IPLish 100.

by truthbetold Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:42 pm

You don't know that before 3rd test. Next series is in India and Sehwag is a strong contributor in Indian Tests.

by MaxEntropy_Man Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:59 pm

truthbetold wrote:You don't know that before 3rd test. Next series is in India and Sehwag is a strong contributor in Indian Tests.

the probability that sehwag was not going to do much was super high what with him being so undercooked and fresh off of surgery. we did know that before the third test. no brainer.

by truthbetold Sat Aug 20, 2011 2:36 pm

Yes. Some people including me did not expect Sehwag to make any major difference due to (a) His surgery (b) lack of match practice (c) his style of play not conducive to english swing conditions and (d) His records in england. But there is an outside chance that he could smack a double or triple if he gets couple of sunny days.

Selectors did not have many choices after Vijay and Abinav's lack of contributions. They need to fall back on known quantity. No one however ecexpected sehwag to get a king pair.

Even today, if a new 11 needs to be selected for another test, Sehwag still get a opener spot not because he did something special but because h e can and those others who fight for the opener spot have not done anything to merit his replacement. "andho me kaana raja"

by MaxEntropy_Man Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:09 pm

there is no room for guesswork, favoritism, and intuition anymore. none
of the batsmen other than dravid have contributed in this series other
than the odd 50 here and there. so mukund's 49 at lords was just as good
as any of the other paltry scores that others have put up. if anything
after trentbridge, mukund scored a 100 in a tour game and if dhoni was
smart he wouldn't have gone for the obvious choices and taken another
chance on mukund given his recent form. he didn't do that.

what they now need is a total rethink of the batting. select carefully
and then once you have made your choices, give the guys at least a one
series (or 4 test matches whichever is greater) run. don't boot them out
because they didn't score in one or two test matches. confidence is
built on the selection committee showing some faith. the revolving door
policy for all with inexplicable exceptions like yuvraj and raina is
clearly not serving indian cricket well.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:39 pm

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:
what they now need is a total rethink of the batting.

Drop Sehwag, Raina, Yuvraj, Mishra, Sree, Saha, Lafbhajan, Munaf, Praveen, and use the tour in India to recognize and build RELIABLE batsmen and bowlers.

Get Pandey, tiwari, Pujara, Mukund, Vijay, Rohit, and those who did well in Ranji (and not I P L) in bowling/batting WITH great fielding as a necessary condition. Give them a chance in India, and when India goes to Australia they BETTER have a set of SOLID and reliable batsmen and bowlers who can take 20 wkts in a test.

Otherwise, India will be a toast.

P.S. 10Ducker either performes upto HIS master blaster level or else.... out he goes as well.

by truthbetold Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:45 pm

Mukund was playing for 5 tests before he was replaced with Sehwag. Mukund's performance did not inspire confidence. He seem to have some talent which must be nurtured. However, the evidence does not support Mukund be given a chance ahead of Sehwag. Only good argument to continue with MUkund is that Sehwag did not have time for any match practice and may not be ready for the test against a quality bowling.

I cannot blame Indian selectors for picking sehwag for 3rd test.

by MaxEntropy_Man Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:39 pm

truthbetold wrote:.
I cannot blame Indian selectors for picking sehwag for 3rd test.

there are two issues here. one for which i defintely hold the BCCI responsible and the second for which i hold dhoni responsible. sending sehwag when he was severely undercooked was the BCCI's fault. there was a different option available -- wasim jaffer. in fact WJ was a better choice since he was already in england playing cricket at the club level and more used to english conditions at the moment than sehwag. he might have been a better choice than sehwag AND mukund.

but with the BCCI having sent sehwag in, it was upto dhoni to pick him (or not). i think he could have used some judgment and stuck with mukund who had some immediate prior match form and scored well in the tour match. i agree mukund hadn't done very much in the prior few test matches, but dhoni's choice was between a severely undercooked sehwag and a batsman who hadn't done well in prior test matches but showed form in a tour match that immediately preceded the third test. sehwag played in the same tour match and lasted three or four balls giving a glimpse of what he was going to do in the test match, whereas mukund ground it out and got good match practice with his hundred. dhoni went with his gut which totally let him down. i feel this was one of a series of many missteps dhoni has made in the series.

edited to add: i don't want to imply that this was an easy decision by any means. most captains would have probably made the same decision. when you have to choose between a destructive force like sehwag albeit undercooked and a somewhat nervous youngster yet to make any mark, greater than 90% of the captains around the world would have probably made the same choice; but being a contrarian and winning is what marks out genius strategists from run-of-the-mill captains.

by MaxEntropy_Man Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:58 pm

but what the heck is the matter with sachin? he played a couple of gorgeous shots, but was really fidgety. not at all his usual self.

by truthbetold Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:43 pm

Assuming all the facts about Wasim jaffer were correct, Selector's should have put him with the team right from the first test. He has good record in england, he scored lot of runs recently in Ranji and he could play very long. Inclusion of Sehwag was wrong for fitness reasons.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Sat Aug 20, 2011 9:01 pm

I always thought that jaffer got a raw deal. The guy has 5 centuries and 11 50s with a 212 high score in 31 tests.

Why thos guy was dumped as soon as they found Gambhir and not use him as a 3rd opener is a mystery.

by truthbetold Sat Aug 20, 2011 9:07 pm

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:but what the heck is the matter with sachin? he played a couple of gorgeous shots, but was really fidgety. not at all his usual self.

Commentators were all over that. You could see it on his face. May be he is putting too much pressure on himself.
This series is a total disappointment for sachin and India. Hopefully he will recover by One day matches.

by truthbetold Sat Aug 20, 2011 9:10 pm

Uppili,

Wasim lost his spot in Australia. He was big failure there. He failed to cope with fast, bouncy pitches there. But he was able to deliver in england against a set of good swing bowlers.

Indian selectors need to be foriegn soil specific in future team selection.

by MaxEntropy_Man Sat Aug 20, 2011 9:33 pm

well justified criticism. hard to take when it is from a foreigner, especially an englishman, but most of what he says is true.

by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Sat Aug 20, 2011 9:57 pm

Just like they have a slightly different teams for Test, ODI and 20/20; the teams sent on foreign tours must take into account the conditions and a particular player's past performances/familiarity.

They picked the team to England based on the players performance on a straight fast pitches of Windies, and dry weather of Australia. BCCI has to think more professionally and strategically.

by confuzzled dude Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:11 pm

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:Just like they have a slightly different teams for Test, ODI and 20/20; the teams sent on foreign tours must take into account the conditions and a particular player's past performances/familiarity.

They picked the team to England based on the players performance on a straight fast pitches of Windies, and dry weather of Australia. BCCI has to think more professionally and strategically.

All these double tons bring back unsavory memories of India tour to Pak back in '81 where every Tom, Dick & Harry got a double century, heck, at least we had an excuse of Pak umpiring, what now? Eh! whole world is against BCCI and its stupendous success.

by Guest Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:26 pm

I predict an easy draw for India - they will all come to the party in the second innings.

A few home series after this will quickly erase the memories of this tour and all will be well with our flat track, 20-20 heroes.

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