Matthew Brought said:
Is the Indian team over-rated?
Overrated by whom(or is it who?)? You, me, the bookies, the ICC, other Indians, Asians, the cricketing community as a whole....? Please specify.
They may have a half-decent batting line-up and an excellent wicket-keeper in Rahul Dravid. But,there bowling line-up is quite shocking.
The word to describe the Indian batting lineup is not half-decent, it is inconsistent. it can be the best in the world one day and the worst, the next. Dravid has developed into an excellent middle order batsman in ODIs and has the highest average among Indians overseas(48.00) but what he is not, is an excellent wicket-keeper, he is a stand-in so that the team can cram in the maximum number of batsmen(which is technically called maintaining the balance of the team). This action implicitly acknowledges two things:
1) The batting is inconsistent at best and we need all the batsmen we can get.
2) The bowling is weak and can at best do a supporting role to the batsmen(ie; the batsmen have to pile on the runs and then hopefully the pressure will get to the opponents and the bowlers can cash in if we bat first. If we bat second, the batting just has to be mentally prepared to chase a big score. Honorable exceptions overseas are Srinath and an in-form Zaheer). This isn't really shocking anymore, it's been a fact for a long time now that outside of home conditions, Indian bowling sucks.
No offense to all those Indian supporters.
No offense taken, atleast by me.
But you're team isn't the best in the world by any means.
No, indeed they are not. So what? We Indians still want them to win.