Test Captains And Their Tactics

[Jono]

You can't rate Dhoni as a better test captain than Jayawardene yet.

Mahela's record is amazing considering the considerably less talented team and resources he has (even taking into consideration Murali and Sanga, Mendis has only recently come to the fore) compared to other countries.

Maleha is the best captain in the world IMO. Dhoni may challenge him when we see more of him on the centre stage in test cricket. Dhoni's fields to spinners still aren't the best IMO, I thought his fields at the end of day 2 were poor and let Katich and Hussey get runs far too easily. He'll learn though, what a leader.

[krkode]

Originally Posted by Jono

You can't rate Dhoni as a better test captain than Jayawardene yet.

Mahela's record is amazing considering the considerably less talented team and resources he has (even taking into consideration Murali and Sanga, Mendis has only recently come to the fore) compared to other countries.

Maleha is the best captain in the world IMO. Dhoni may challenge him when we see more of him on the centre stage in test cricket. Dhoni's fields to spinners still aren't the best IMO, I thought his fields at the end of day 2 were poor and let Katich and Hussey get runs far too easily. He'll learn though, what a leader.

Agreed that Jayawardene is a pretty awesome captain. Sri Lanka have been a fantastic side of late with really only about 3 world class test players... I don't know how much it indicates, but the recent India-SL series comes to mind where Jayawardene made immaculate use of the referral system - pure luck? or cricketing genius?

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Uppercut

His presence isn't vital for Australia to beat NZ. Don't be ridiculous.

I imagine that post was ironic, but TBH I'd say that anyone thinking "oh well I can afford to be suspended for 2 games against New Zealand" is taking a pretty shocking attitude.

Australia need their best players playing all the time at the moment, they can't afford to be taking any team lightly. The fact that West Indies pushed them pretty close in all three Tests, even saving one when play was lost, not so long ago attests to that.

[silentstriker]

A more shocking attitude is 'I'd rather lose this series right now.'

[Jono]

A better attitude would have been "I back my bowlers, who just got 6 wickets in a session (well one was a run out), to get the last 4 before the overrates becomes an issue anyway."

[Richard]

Wasn't the over-rate already an issue by Tea?

[Richard]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

A more shocking attitude is 'I'd rather lose this series right now.'

I realise that's a poor attitude as well obviously. However I don't imagine anyone was thinking "it doesn't matter if we lose this series". I certainly hope not.

I imagine the thought was along the lines of "we could still win this by bowling part-time spinners... couldn't we?" I've noted before how Ponting can lose his head when things aren't going his way, and this strikes me as another case of this. He tried to compromise on things and it didn't work. I doubt he was particularly thinking "I don't want to miss a couple of matches because I won't get to pillage the weak Kiwi attack that way".