Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting 2007 Onwards

[kingkallis]

Listen, he should retire. I am talking about Dravid. Why the hell good players have to be this greedy?

We have Pujara and Kohli. When will they get their chances?

Badri never got his chance and he is a forgotten face now. That guy from Mumbai, Rahane looks awesome at No.3 as well.

 

[Blaze 18]

Why should Rahul Dravid retire ? He just scored two centuries in his last series. And he is one of the most selfless players, ever. Calling him greedy or selfish is absurd.

 

[kingkallis]

2 centuries? Even Harbhajan did it against that mediocre New Zealand bowling.

 

[kingkallis]

I dont understand why people put so much weight on presence of a certain player at a certain place?

How many games RD won in the South Africa for us? Next to none? How many games did he save there?

What will he do this time that Kohli or Pujara couldn't have done?

 

[Blaze 18]

If I am not mistaken, his first test century was against South Africa in South Africa; and if memory serves me right, India came quite close to winning that match. For the record, India have only won one test match in South Africa, and that was down to a brilliant spell from Sreesanth. So, if India are to pick a team purely on that basis, only Sreesanth deserves to be on the plane to South Africa.

As for the series against New Zealand - yes, the bowling was not too great. Is that Rahul Dravid's fault ?

 

[kingkallis]

If you check some of my old posts, you will see I am a huge RD fan but the way Kohli and Pujara are playing, they deserve to be in the team more than Rahul Dravid.

 

[Blaze 18]

Well, if you are a Rahul Dravid fan, then you really should know better than to call him greedy

The Virat Kohlis and Cheteshwar Pujaras will get their chance, but not at the expense of one of India's best ever batsmen. I would have Pujara over Suresh Raina, though.

 

[Furball]

LOL.

As Spark implies; the hardest thing to come to grips with Ponting's form is that he doesn't look out of touch. His pull shot has gotten a lot of attention but I think it's been a bit overstated. Since the break before the India series he actually looked in very good physical shape - reports were he'd had hit the gym big-time.

I wonder if Ponting's biggest problem is his ego.

I know what you mean about him not looking out of touch - over the last 2 years, during Tendulkar's great renaissance, Ponting has actually passed 50 as many times as Tendulkar has in the period, although Ponting has 2 centuries to Tendulkar's 9 (iirc).

In fact, the one thing that jumps out at you when you look at Ponting's record over the last 2 years is his SR - it's about 64 IIRC. I'd also be interested in looking at how Ponting has got himself out between 50 and 99 - is he just getting unlucky, or his he throwing his wicket away by playing needlessly aggressive shots?

I don't think there's any doubt that his pull shot was a factor last summer, whether it's been overstated or not. Which brings me back to my point about ego - if Ponting was prepared to put a couple of shots away and bat more circumspectly, would the big innings return?

 

[morgieb]

Interesting stats there Sanz.

I still believe Chimpy's in better nick, but like Callum said, he's getting out by brash shots. Needs to knuckle down sooner rather than later. Oh, and dump the pull shot, too.

 

[Blaze 18]

Ricky Ponting's nickname is Chimpy ?

 

[TumTum]

I wonder if Ponting's biggest problem is his ego.

I know what you mean about him not looking out of touch - over the last 2 years, during Tendulkar's great renaissance, Ponting has actually passed 50 as many times as Tendulkar has in the period, although Ponting has 2 centuries to Tendulkar's 9 (iirc).

In fact, the one thing that jumps out at you when you look at Ponting's record over the last 2 years is his SR - it's about 64 IIRC. I'd also be interested in looking at how Ponting has got himself out between 50 and 99 - is he just getting unlucky, or his he throwing his wicket away by playing needlessly aggressive shots?

I don't think there's any doubt that his pull shot was a factor last summer, whether it's been overstated or not. Which brings me back to my point about ego - if Ponting was prepared to put a couple of shots away and bat more circumspectly, would the big innings return?

Don't think it has anything to do with ego. If he sees a ball that is there to be hit, he goes through the shot. He is not the ****y type when batting, always thought of him as the serious knuckle down type.

Over the last 2 years bowlers have bowled quite aggressively to him (whether it be short, trying the yorker etc) which would explain his high SR.

And yes I would say that he has been unlucky. He has been finding the fielders a bit too often, and the fielders have almost always made him pay, no matter how difficult the chance.

 

[Furball]

Interesting stats there Sanz.

I still believe Chimpy's in better nick, but like Callum said, he's getting out by brash shots. Needs to knuckle down sooner rather than later. Oh, and dump the pull shot, too.

It was an actual question rather than a rhetorical one. I've seen a bit of Australian cricket over the last year, but Ponting getting out between 50-99 with such regularity didn't happen 5 years ago.

 

[Maximus0723]

Ponting>Dravid

 

[AaronK]

I thought both of them were overrated.. Dravid boring as hell to watch while Ponting got carried around by the strong Aussie batting line up.. it is good tha their recent stats prove that..

 

[miscer]

Well, if you are a Rahul Dravid fan, then you really should know better than to call him greedy

The Virat Kohlis and Cheteshwar Pujaras will get their chance, but not at the expense of one of India's best ever batsmen. I would have Pujara over Suresh Raina, though.

lol wut dravids not indias best ever batsman... maybe # 2 or 3 and if sehwag maintains his form for a couple more years id put him above dravid too.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Hence why he said "one of" India's best.

 

[miscer]

Hence why he said "one of" India's best.

hmm. i completely missed that lmfao. I take that back Blaze 18.

 

[vic_orthdox]

People used to point at Ponting's great record as a batsman while captain. Be interesting to see exactly how strong it is now. Think - not an original thought - that it was a team with such experienced players that they could all look after themselves, and Ponting could more have his captaincy hat on only during business hours. He could worry about himself and his own game for a lot longer now than what he is able to do now that he has so many new players he has to facilitate and work hard to integrate into Test cricket as quickly as possible.

 

[kingkallis]

Ricky Ponting's nickname is Chimpy ?

Yup, him and Symonds are known as Chimpy and Big Chimpy respectively.

 

[Furball]

People used to point at Ponting's great record as a batsman while captain. Be interesting to see exactly how strong it is now. Think - not an original thought - that it was a team with such experienced players that they could all look after themselves, and Ponting could more have his captaincy hat on only during business hours. He could worry about himself and his own game for a lot longer now than what he is able to do now that he has so many new players he has to facilitate and work hard to integrate into Test cricket as quickly as possible.

Quite a good time to pick, as in his 150 Tests he's played 75 as captain.

6499 runs @ 52.83 as captain
5821 runs @ 55.97 when not captaining

What's interesting is his conversion rate: he has 41 scores of 50+ when he's been in the ranks, 54 when he's led the side - yet 20 of his 39 centuries were scored before he took the reigns.