England vs India: Halfway series review

Sunday, August 07, 2011 cricket, dhoni, dravid, england, gautam gambhir, graeme swann, india, ishant sharma, pragyan ojha, praveen kumar, review, rishabh bablani, sachin tendulkar, virender sehwag, zaheer No Comments

It would be the understatement of understatements to say that the series has been full of action so far, but that doesn't stop anyone from saying it either way.

Such competitive pitches... it could have been so much more than the one-sided whipping it has turned out to be. The first session at Lord's is proof of that. And then, like Dhoni said, everything that could go wrong, did.

The tour began without Sehwag; Zaheer, Gambhir, Sachin, Yuvraj and Harbhajan filled up the sick room pretty quickly, igniting my suspicion that the physio gives them a complimentary paratha or something after each visit.

I reserve high praise for Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma, both of whom have bowled way too many overs than advisable. Ishant has put in 105.2 overs, still fewer than PK, who at 118.3, has bowled around twice as many overs as Harbhajan Singh. More praise, of course, for Dravid, who has scored more than twice as many runs as any other Indian batsman on this tour.

Sachin and Laxman have looked at ease without pushing on; Mukund has, as predicted, been a walking wicket - his initial struggle in the West Indies was a flashing neon sign indicating the same. Yuvraj and Raina have contributed ultimately inconsequential half-centuries. And to round up, Dhoni is having a horror series - he has done absolutely nothing right, in any department of the game. If Sachin and Warne get the fairytale scripts, Dhoni's got this tour's story from Wes Craven (Wiki it).

England, meanwhile, haven't been perfect (but very close to it). Cook and Strauss haven't got going, and Swann has been carted around in his half-fit state. They've been on the back foot one or two times, but they haven't allowed themselves to be backed into a corner - they've counter-attacked with aplomb. Mr. Anderson, Broad Jr. and Bresnan have all got a five-for to their name.

India's second practice game didn't really help them in any way. Gambhir, Sehwag, Raina and Dhoni didn't get the runs, Mukund (who isn't expected to play the third Test) hit a quick hundred. Zaheer Khan, for yet unknown reasons, bowled only three overs. Mishra, the second spinner in the squad, was expensive again, just like in the first practice game. So, don't expect any comebacks, Sehwag or no Sehwag. The two batsmen who can win a Test are the fit and in-form ones - Dravid, Sachin and Laxman. And Ojha must play.

Preferred XI: Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Kohli, Dhoni, PK, Ishant, Ojha, Sreesanth.
Probable XI: Same, but with Raina and Mishra.

Possibility of India remaining #1 after the next two Tests: see image.

The Trent Bridge gym leader's weakness

Thursday, July 28, 2011 cricket, cricket comics, dhoni, england, india, pokemon, rishabh bablani, zaheer No Comments

The 2nd Test starts tomorrow at Trent Bridge. Zaheer's fitness is crucial. If only it were this simple.

Series preview: England vs India

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 chris tremlett, cricket, england, india, ishant sharma, james anderson, jelly beans, lord's, praveen kumar, rishabh bablani, sachin tendulkar, series preview, stuart broad, tim bresnan, yuvraj singh, zaheer No Comments

By this time tomorrow, the first Test will be afoot at Lord's. If you've fallen into the hype-moat surrounding this series (who hasn't, really, except for one or two continents), then surely you must believe that this will be the best, most competitive Test series since the legendary West Indies v India saga of 2011.

There's every reason to lock yourself up with a TV, laptop, carbs in any form, and another TV (for weather reports): the #1 ranking at stake, Sachin's 100th 100 (possibly first at Lord's) followed by 10,000 (give or take 17) articles about his career, WAGs in the stands, and two most enticing matchups:

1) Pie-chucker meets Pie-lover

They're from different backgrounds, literally

2) Man with a sweet tooth

He'd trade a cow for those beans to know what the beanstalk would look like

Anyway, playtime's over. Time to move on the technical stuff. The real nitty-gritty. Squeaky bum time. Release the kraken. Right.

India's practice game may have suffered at the hands of rain and Somersetian (Somerian? Somartian?) batsmen, but it actually answered pretty much all the questions related to selection and form. If you accept that you really shouldn't be asking about Dravid, Sachin or Laxman at this point, it's all good. Gambhir and Mukund got runs on the board in their unbeaten second-innings partnership, Raina cemented his place in the best way possible, Sreesanth bowled himself out of contention.

India doesn't have to face Willoughby and Thomas, however; England's pace attack is far superior and much improved since the last time the two teams met. Having said that, India's batsmen already have one start-of-tour batting collapse out of the way, and there won't be too many gifts from them, not even with a Sehwag-sized crater at the top of the order. Based on what I've seen, Mukund is a nervous starter, but once he's in he looks very assured. (Trivia: When was the last time India had two lefties open?)

India's bowling, like on the last English tour, looks like it could use the conditions well - Zaheer Khan is the best left-arm quick in the world at the moment, and Praveen Kumar can get prodigious swing with the new ball. Ishant Sharma just needs to bowl the way he was doing a couple of weeks ago. Harbhajan might fancy himself if he gets bouncy pitches, but this England side won't be as vulnerable to spin as it used to be, especially when they have the luxury of Swann bowling to them in the nets.

Probable XI: Gambhir, Mukund, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Raina, Dhoni (c)(wk), Harbhajan, P. Kumar, Zaheer, Ishant.

England have a superb chance to get an early lead in the series with Sehwag out. Their batsmen have been accumulating runs for a while - Cook, Trott, KP and Bell filled their boots against a toothless Lankan attack. Strauss made merry in the practice game and Prior is in good domestic form, but it won't be as easy against India. Complacency, and a lack of recent quality opposition could get in their way.

Their bowling, however, is in great shape. Jimmy "Jimmy"Anderson and Chris "freakystringbean" Tremlett will cause plenty of problems when on song. Put either under pressure, though, and... well, we'll see when Sehwag's back. Broad will be eager (and under severe, debilitating, acne-inducing pressure) to pick up wickets and stop his Test career from following his ODI career with running shoes on (What?). And Swann's there too. See what I did there? I don't.

Probable XI: Strauss (c), Cook, Trott, Pieterson, Bell, Morgan, Prior (wk), Swann, Broad, Anderson, Tremlett.

Official-looking prediction: Draw. 100th Sachin ton. Both batting sides will stumble. Mukund ton. Broad will take 2-3 wickets. Tremlett will take more. I'll be slightly wrong about something and very wrong about something else.

Who are India's missing pieces?

Wednesday, March 02, 2011 ashish nehra, cricket, england, harbhajan singh, india, ireland, munaf patel, piyush chawla, r ashwin, tracerbullet007, world cup 2011, zaheer No Comments

As the Irish cricketers closed in on a remarkable upset at Bangalore, one group of cricketers would have sat in their hotel rooms, watching the game with a mixture of glee and trepidation. For the Indian team, it must have been rewarding to see a team who had the gall to almost pull off a record chase against them the other night, go down against their traditional sporting rivals in another record chase. At the same time, the Indian bowling attack is no better than England’s right now. If the bowlers don’t get their act together in time, the likes of Joyce, Stirling, Mooney and the O’Brien brothers will feast on the offerings and give their team a chance to cause the biggest upset at all.

To avoid England’s ignominy, India will have to first figure out whether they need to play 4 or 5 specialist bowlers. Personally, I would hate to drop any of the batsmen given the form they are in; and it is not like 5 bowlers will guarantee success anyway. India’s 5^th bowler options are not too bad; If Yuvraj, Pathan and Sehwag can bowl 10 overs among themselves and concede close to 50-55 runs while taking a couple of wickets, they have done their job. It is better to pick 4 of our best bowlers and form a bowling game plan around them. Of course, it is not ideal, but Dhoni will just have to make the most with the resources he’s got.

Even then, India have no idea who their best 4 bowlers are. Sreesanth might have just bowled himself out of future games after a horror game against Bangladesh, while Zaheer and Harbhajan will remain as the only first picks in the bowling line up. It leaves Munaf, Nehra, Chawla and Ashwin battling for the remaining two spots.

Munaf Patel has done a decent job in ODIs recently. He helped India to a thrilling one run victory in South Africa, and in the game against Bangladesh pulled things back a bit after Sreesanth’s opening spell. Against England though, he showed why it is a risk to trust him as your 2^nd choice pacer. On flat wickets (which are the norm in this tournament) and against superior batsmen, he will be exposed for the moderately talented bowler that he is. After the way KOB feasted on the likes of Broad, Bresnan and Anderson, Munaf could turn out to be dessert for the Irish batsmen.

Ashish Nehra, on the other hand, has more pace while possessing a canny mind. He has been off the boil, in the last few series; but there is nothing like a World Cup to motivate a sportsman. He should know. He burst into national consciousness on a Durban night, when he decimated the English batsmen in a canny display of pace and swing. Of course, the conditions are different and his form is not the same; still, he would be a better choice than Munaf and Sreesanth. For bonus skills, he can strike a four in the last over of a close game to win the match!

Piyush Chawla has had a good return to the team. A surprise pick initially in the squad, he has gone on to become Dhoni’s preferred second spinner. He troubled Australia in friendly conditions in a warm-up, but when he came on to bowl on a flatter pitch with a big total to defend against England, he didn’t do much to inspire confidence. He did pick Trott’s wicket which was a big one, but subsequently did not trouble the rest and his final expensive over put paid to any hopes of a miraculous Indian win. Of course, it is harsh to drop him based on one game, but he needs to be consistent to warrant a fixed place in the team.

Ravichandran Ashwin is the least likely to get a look in, atleast for the next few games; but Dhoni will do well to remember that Ashwin has rarely let his team down when he has been called on. Seeing the way Ireland demolished the English bowling in the Power Play, it might not be a bad idea to bring Ashwin, who has become somewhat of a Power-play specialist. He can bat as well as Chawla too.

So, my choices for the game against Ireland would be Zaheer-Nehra-Harbhajan-Chawla. If that doesn’t enthuse the skipper, he might as well take a page out of South Africa’s book and play 3 spinners in Harbhajan, Chawla and Ashwin!

RSA v IND: Player scores for the series

Friday, January 07, 2011 cricket, dale steyn, gautam gambhir, india, kallis, morne morkel, rishabh bablani, sachin, series review, south africa, zaheer No Comments

India (average score: 4.7)

8 - Sachin Tendulkar (326 runs at 81.5): Looked the most comfortable (Indian) batsman in the Centurion Test, didn't contribute to the Durban Test victory, and showed a batting masterclass at Cape Town. Points off for not farming strike at Centurion on the fifth day, an innings defeat could've been avoided at the very least.

8 - Zaheer Khan (10 wickets at 24.6): Showed how valuable he was through his absence at Centurion, and when he came back you could see how he is, like, 80% of the bowling attack. He also had an extremely vital partnership with Laxman at Durban. Quick lower-order wickets at Cape Town may have won us the game, though, so points off for not being able to provide breakthroughs then.

8 - Gautam Gambhir (242 runs at 60.5): Very good series for him, barring the first innings of the series. He showed his adaptability to the situation again, counter-attacking at Centurion and knuckling down at Cape Town.

7.5 - Harbhajan Singh (15 wickets at 29.6): Overcame a pretty bad performance at Centurion to take 13 wickets in the nest 2 Tests, including a 7-for at Cape Town. Bowled the best we've seen from him in a while. Scored 40 important runs in Sachin's company, including a stunning six off Steyn.

Statistical Round-up for 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010 cricket, cricket stats 2010, dale steyn, david warner, dirk nannes, graeme swann, hashim amla, rishabh bablani, sachin, shakib al hasan, statistics, umar akmal, virat kohli, virender sehwag, zaheer No Comments

"Sneaky stats are sneaky."

- A close friend of Darren Gough's mailman's brother-in-law

Most Runs

Tests

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave		SR	100	50
SR Tendulkar (India)	14	23	3	1562	214	78.10		55.90	7	5
V Sehwag (India)	14	25	2	1422	173	61.82		90.80	5	8
IJL Trott (Eng)	14	24	4	1325	226	66.25		49.44	4	4
AN Cook (Eng)	14	24	2	1287	235*	58.50		54.76	5	4
HM Amla (SA)	11	19	3	1249	253*	78.06		53.05	5	4

The next two on the list are Saffas Kallis and Smith. Tamim Iqbal could have been higher up the list, but only played 7 Tests, scoring 837 runs at 59.78, with an almost Sehwagological strike rate of 80.71 and a highest of 151. Sangakarra just played 6 games for 695 runs at the lofty average of 99.28. The highest score this year was Gaylestorm's 333.

ODI's

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave		SR	100	50
HM Amla (SA)	15	15	1	1058	129	75.57		104.23	5	4
V Kohli (India)	25	24	3	995	118	47.38		85.11	3	7
AB de Villiers (SA)	16	16	4	964	114*	80.33		102.11	5	4
TM Dilshan (SL)	20	20	2	921	110	51.16		98.92	3	4
Imrul Kayes (Ban)	27	27	0	867	101	32.11		67.15	1	6

There's a huge outlier that I noticed as I scrolled down this list. Lurking just outside the top 20, is cricket's official ball-smeller (ha) Shahid Afridi, who scored 601 runs at 33, but at a crack-high strike-rate of 144.12. 

If you play Jeopardy in Pakistan, "what is Shahid Afridi?" is an official answer to "the definition of insane". Really.

India's bowling #2

Monday, December 27, 2010 cricket, cricket comics, harbhajan singh, india, rishabh bablani, south africa, zaheer No Comments

Double preview # 2: Melbourne Test and Durban Test

Saturday, December 25, 2010 australia, cheteshwar pujara, cricket, england, india, michael beer, preview, rishabh bablani, south africa, suresh raina, the ashes, zaheer No Comments

Both England and India have had bad outings in their previous matches, but today it's another game on another day on another pitch in other conditions, you get the idea.

Australia v England

The Aussies' four-man pace attack succeeded at the WACA as England collapsed twice, but had things not worked out so swimmingly, their lack of a decent fifth bowler could have been exposed. Neither Watson nor Smith were required to bowl in both innings, but this probably won't be the case in Melbourne, which is more likely to have better batting conditions. They now have the dilemma of sticking with the team that won and leaving the spinning duties to Steve Smith, or they can drop Smith and either Siddle or Hilfenhaus and pick a full batsman (Khawaja) and Beer as the frontline spinner.

Neither Smith nor Beer are established spinners, though, and they will be pretty worried if England gets off to a good start.

England may also want to make a change - Steve Finn may be the highest wicket taker in the series but he has lacked total control and has leaked runs like a great big leaky thing. Bresnan has more control and is likely to take his spot, which also shortens the tail. The batting order is probably going to be unchanged, if they consider Perth to be an exception to their otherwise good form. Which means that Bell will remain at #6, despite looking like the best batsman in the series apart from Hussey.

South Africa v India

Captain Obvious says: India needs to win, Harbhajan needs to bowl, India's #6 needs to score, whoever it may be.

Here's something encouraging though: In their last two series against South Africa, India has lost the first Test by an innings, just like this one, but they have come back to win the second Test. 

And Zaheer's back. That's 80% of our bowling attack.

Good enough?

Expect a much improved performance by both the batsmen and bowlers, I can say that much. I believe India should pick 5 bowlers, because if our star batsmen can't make a decent total, they don't deserve to win. That won't happen of course, so Raina could well be replaced by Pujara, who is having a baptism by fire so far - final day chase against Australia and now South Africa away.

So much fun.

India v Australia Test Series Review - India

Saturday, October 16, 2010 australia, cheteshwar pujara, cricket, dhoni, harbhajan singh, india, ishant sharma, laxman, murali vijay, pragyan ojha, review, rishabh bablani, sachin, suresh raina, virender sehwag, zaheer No Comments

Obviously I'm doing India first. Since they won, not because I would have done it anyway even if Australia had won.

Right.

Two games that seemed to be heading for draws, sprung into action on their fourth and fifth days, and ended up with India chasing relatively similar targets in the fourth innings. Which they did, the first one via an outstanding rearguard partnership between VVS Laxman and chump/champ Ishant Sharma. The second chase was much simpler, despite Sehwag's early dismissal, as Vijay, Pujara and Sachin comfortably tackled Mitch's randomness (pointed out by Test Match Sofa, whose player you'll see on the right), Hilfy's *insert German word for awesome* stuff, and George's Peter. There wasn't much tackling to do with Hauritz.

So this is how the Indian players did (in my head, but I'm known to be accurate in there):

8.5 - Sachin Tendulkar (403 runs at 134.33) : Almost always looked comfortable against all the bowlers, he bettered an already tremendous year for him. Points off, though, for getting out to a silly shot on the final day at Mohali, which could have cost India the game.

The inevitable has happened

Thursday, September 23, 2010 australia, cheteshwar pujara, cricket, gautam gambhir, harbhajan singh, india, ricky ponting, rishabh bablani, selection, sreesanth, suresh raina, yuvraj singh, zaheer No Comments

So India's squad for the home tests against Australia has been picked. Most of it is as expected:

MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth and Amit Mishra.


Gambhir walks back into the opening role, Zaheer is back as the spearhead, and Mithun is out despite showing promise.

The big inclusion, though, is the one I have cleverly italicized, followed by the italicization of 'italicized' for no reason at all.

Cheteshwar Pujara has finally made the cut, by "sheer weight of performance", as Srikkanth puts it. No shit, Holmes. He's still behind Raina and Vijay in the pecking order, but the big 3 aren't going to be around forever. Or maybe they are, if cricketing Botox becomes available soon. Crictox. Bocket.

Anyway, Yuvraj has now been dropped from the Test squad, where most people will agree that he never really belonged. Sure, he's had a couple of decent knocks. But so does Raina, his replacement, in only his debut series.

The Prince (of nothing) was also recently dropped from the ODI squad, though we know it was only rest. So does he, for that matter. First clue? Selectors calling him "India's trump card at the World Cup". He's just. That. Important.

Harbhajan is also back, inspiring me to bring out a new blog feature called "Terrible Metaphor".

Terrible Metaphor

If Harbhajan was milk, he is now Curd. The Curdinator. Something to do with expiry dates, I don't know.

End of Terrible Metaphor

Ojha is the second spinner, or is it Mishra? Who knows - they certainly don't.

Sreesanth is back again. This is a selection I'm pleased about - he still has his original skill set, and is only found wanting in the accuracy department. I'd open with him and Zaheer, definitely. Ishant Sharma is also around, probably just for Ponting. Venkatesh Prasad says he has a great work rate. Yeah, in your pants, Venky. (Inappropriate joke #1)

Heavy batting, thin bowling. Same as ever.