***Official*** India in Sri Lanka

[Perm]

Ganguly gone, and possibly his Test career too.

As I type, Parthiv Patel follows. That's most likely his career finished too, with Dhoni to come back in the next series.

Tendulkar coming in to bat at #6 against Murali and Mendis with their tails up, this will be a massive test, especially with his dodgy elbow.

 

[duffer]

Decided to watch the Olympics over this and by reading this thread probably made the right decision. I'd hope for a rout maybe to shake the selectors out of their slumber but something tells me nothing will ever make them change the status quo so just hope India can make this semi-respectable.

Happy for Lanka though, they're a team of nice guys so hope they enjoy this success.

 

[Precambrian]

Am surprised no'ones noticed how bad another veteran has performed this year. Namely Anil Kumble, the captain.

He averages 44.40 with the ball at a SR of 85. No FIFER so far in 8 test matches. His worst year since his debut year of 1990. I think finally age has caught up with Messrs. Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble.

 

[Salamuddin]

Am surprised no'ones noticed how bad another veteran has performed this year. Namely Anil Kumble, the captain.

He averages 44.40 with the ball at a SR of 85. No FIFER so far in 8 test matches. His worst year since his debut year of 1990. I think finally age has caught up with Messrs. Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble.

I personally think Amit Mishra is in the same boat as Badri - the boy needs to be given a chance at test level.

 

[Precambrian]

Much before that, there was a rough cut diamond noone noticed, now it has been lost... namely Murali Kartik. That guy is a gun on helpful pitches. he showed that time and again and again.

 

[Precambrian]

Phew no more review... Jaya gets his review methodology all wrong.

 

[Salamuddin]

Much before that, there was a rough cut diamond noone noticed, now it has been lost... namely Murali Kartik. That guy is a gun on helpful pitches. he showed that time and again and again.

Yeah but I think Mishra being a leggie and a veryun-Indian like leggie in the sense that he is a big turner of the ball would be more useful in more conditions than Kartik.

 

[Precambrian]

The successful appeals for review shows how much Jayawardene values Tendulkar wicket

 

[irfan]

Am surprised no'ones noticed how bad another veteran has performed this year. Namely Anil Kumble, the captain.

He averages 44.40 with the ball at a SR of 85. No FIFER so far in 8 test matches. His worst year since his debut year of 1990. I think finally age has caught up with Messrs. Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble.

AWTA. I'd replace Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble with Kaif, Badri & Mishra but knowing the Indian selectors - if they are to replace those three - they'd go Kohli, Sharma & Chawla

 

[Perm]

Kaif? I thought we'd established that he wasn't good enough?

 

[irfan]

Kaif? I thought we'd established that he wasn't good enough?

Na, Kaif is quality - just been shunted up and down the order or in and out of the team and hasn't been allowed to settle in the top order. Has been making a lot of runs on the domestic scene, but it wouldn't surprise me if he failed now, given what he's been put through.

 

[Perm]

Good knock from Dravid, pretty positive too. I really hope he can push on past 50 tomorrow and restore some Indian pride. Hoping for a decent innings from Laxman too, supreme player of spin and he'll be tested tomorrow.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah but I think Mishra being a leggie and a veryun-Indian like leggie in the sense that he is a big turner of the ball would be more useful in more conditions than Kartik.

Agree with that. Huge fan of Mishra, think he can be a bigger success outside India than any of the spinners competing to oust Kumble+Harbhajan.

 

[sirdj]

Is anybody going to bell the proverbial "cat" and discuss Tendulkar's dismal performance in this series. He has not even scored the 170 odd runs that he needed to overtake Lara??

 

[SJS]

Is anybody going to bell the proverbial "cat" and discuss Tendulkar's dismal performance in this series. He has not even scored the 170 odd runs that he needed to overtake Lara??

Here. I just posted this on another thread but it answers your question too.

654 runs in 11 innings from the openers, Sehwag and Gambhir (1 double century and 4 fifties in that) and from the 'fab Four (not including the overnight not outs), 428 runs in 22 innings. This isn't something that has happened in Indian cricket, ever I think.

If this isn't a cause for concern than one doesn't know what is.

One doesn't know hoe Kumble has handled this, but if I was the captain of this touring side, I would have told my top stars, they need not worry about their Te4st places, not worry about what anyone is saying on TV or writing in the papers, just go out there and play with freedom - knowing that they wont be dropped. I doubt if anything like that happened and the fear of failure has been writ large on the display of our 'super stars'.

The refral system, so much run down by 'patriotic' experts like Sanjay Manjrekar, has actually done India cricket a great favour if we are wiling to look at things objectively.

Players who refuse to play the ball with the bat and hide the bat in the close vicinity of the pads and are willing to bet on the 'doubtful benefits' favouring the batsmen to bail them out, have been shown up by the successful use of the experiemtal law by the Sri Lankans. Dravid at least seems to have learnt his lesson (in whatever one has seen in this last innings) and is playing the ball. But Sachin seems to have made upo his mind that he wonmt play anything pitching (in his opinion) even a nanometer outside the leg stump.

He has been doing this for some time now. The negative attack of Giles and later the copying of Nasser Hussain's tactics by other captains around the world have led our champion to 'show them' that he is not going to 'fall for it'. So now he just refuses to make any attempt to play if he thinks he is being 'targetted' by a negative form of leg theory. Unfortunately, he is, in the process denying himself the complete use of his entire repertoire of batting skil sets. PLUS he is looking awful.

Even on the off stump, he will not offer a stroke as he did today and got out. He was lucky before that for the ball he thought was pitched outside the leg stump wasn't so. Fortunately for him, for once the Sri Lankans too made an error of judgement.

To the extent that this system will make the batsmen put the bat to the use it is meant for, playing the ball, it has to be welcomed. Unfortunately, one suspects, Kumble and company may come down heavily on it and something which would have had both short and long term effects for the good of Indian and world cricket respectively may be lost.​

 

[Dissector]

Impressive that Mendis managed to get Sachin in the end. He has looked very comfortable against him. I am more and more convinced he is going to be an absolute legend. As for the game it looks pretty much over.

 

[Anil]

so india continue their trend of not winning two tests in a row and tendulkar does not even have one redeeming innings for the series and completes a total failure of a series for him...

 

[Migara]

SL has found a new quick bowler. With Malinga injured, Nissanka is out of cricket for good and Fernado looking pedestrian day by day, Prasad is a fresh breath. When Malinga finally returns, and Vaas reties on a near date, SL bowling line up will read as Maharoof, Prasad, Mainga, Murali, Mendis. Quite a combination IMO. Two absolutely orthadox ones and three unorthadox ones.

If India manages another 150, it will test SL. Unless Warnapura gets on to a flier and hits the bowlers out of their lines, 150+ will be difficult.

 

[Dissector]

It's a really tough situation for the selectors. The older stars seem to be on the decline and have all had poor series here; however they have performed reasonably over the last few years. Additionally there are no ready replacements with sufficient experience to cope with a really tough series against Australia coming. My guess is the selectors will continue with the present lot for the next series. I expect India will lose and then the chopping block will get busy. Ganguly will probably be the first to be dropped but really none of the four middle-order batsmen is safe if they have another poor series against Australia. Kumble isn't safe either.

 

[kingkallis]

Na, Kaif is quality - just been shunted up and down the order or in and out of the team and hasn't been allowed to settle in the top order. Has been making a lot of runs on the domestic scene, but it wouldn't surprise me if he failed now, given what he's been put through.

Yeah Kaif was a wasted talent because of no certain position! Sometimes he was pushed to bat at no.3 and then back to no.6 / no.7

He is averaging more than 60 in his last couple of 'test' matches! He is the perfect no.3 / no.4 material for India!