Sachin is Back

Its Rejoicing time....Sachin is back.....Hurrah....
BTW, whos going to be dropped to accomodate Sachin???
It will most probably be Yuvi (Of crse he deserves to be dropped....Young man However good you are u got to make use of ur chances to survive in the BIG GAME)

Anyways,
apparently the pitch looks green and moist...A fast bowlers track....I cant believe why on earth must we in India prepare a fast bowlers track when our strength is in playing in tracks like the one Chennai produced. Now tell me does Australia produce Spinning turning Ahmedabad type tracks? Does England produce Indore type tracks?? When they dont why should we produce tracks like Perth and Lords ? Just because we want to produce SPORTING TRACKS. Now whats the concept of sporting tracks.? Wasnt Chennai a sporting track?? Of course it was. It was ready to produce a thriller until rain swooped in to smash hopes of India drawing level in this series. We should stop attempting to please some wrong and foreign notion of sporting track. (I am not suggesting that Perth or Edbagston are not sporting tracks...They are sporting tracks too in their own right.). I get terribly angered when reading reports like these http://usa.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/OCT/081181_INDAUS2004-05_22OCT2004.html
Such ridiculous pampering of foreign defined Sporting tracks must first be removed from our minds. In my mind if any track has the capacity to produce absobing cricket against two equally matched teams then it is indeed sporting...And so Chennai track was indeed sporting.

Weekend

The weekend turned out to be an eventless and relaxing one. Nothing much accomplished. Attempts at work were done but in vain. Hopefully next weekend turns out different. Of crse for those who have been trying 2 reach me by my cellphone, well, due to technical difficulties (I lost my cellphone), the cellphone service is disconnected. Will get back online once i find something (GSM Phone)on ebay. If anybody has any good suggestions do let me know.

Contest

Well Well Well. What a contest awaiting us tonight. India need 210 and Australia need 10 wickets. The pitch: A fifth day Chennai track is never ever easy to bat on. The bowlers: They are indeed a mean lot.The best bowling attack in the world, according to most people. And the Indian batting is quite strong...quite capable of making the 210 on any surface on any day. I think at the end of the day India will just manage to scrape through with a victory. I am waiting to watch the action. And I am sure Ganguly will be in the thick of things. I am expecting a great Captains knock from Ganguly.....

Openers Dilemma: A Prediction

I have had this bizarre feeling that the next test (with Sachins Return) is going to pose some very interesting choices and problems for Saurav Ganguly and the Indian think tank.
Kaif is a wonderful player with a good temperament. I think this Test will be a great opportunity to stake a claim for a test slot and I think he will definitely grab his chance with a good solid innings. Yuvi has had one failure in the first innings. I dont expect him to make too many in the second innings too. He will mostly have a mediocre score (maybe in the 20's or 30's) in the second innings.

With such being the case if Sachin returns for the third test, Ganguly and his think tank must decide who should pave the way for Sachin. I dont see any Dravid,Laxman,Ganguly or Sehwag being dropped. The choice is to either drop Kaif who has performed in the middle order or drop Yuvi who is considered an opener but has not delivered. And heres my prediction:

Yuveraj Dropped
Kaif retained in the middle order
Either Pathan or Patel open the innings with Sehwag and lets return to the era of makeshift openers.....

Whatever happens, I hope India win the series....

Openers slot

India suddenly seems to be struggling to find an opener. They must definitely be struggling if Yuveraj Singh is out to open in a test match against Australia. Well well well. The truth of why Yuveraj is out to open is there for all to see. Yuveraj is talented - everybody knows that. Ganguly backs Yuveraj to the hilt - hes made that clear. But Yuvi hasnt been performing in the middle order- hasnt been making use of his opportunities in the middle order. Meanwhile, there are other batsmen like Kaif, who also is very talented i believe, who are waiting in the wings. They complicate selection matters by scoring a century against a full strength Indian bowling attack just before the series. Now the choice is very clear. Either drop Yuveraj to give Kaif a chance. or drop the opener Akash Chopra who didnt score in the match against Australia to make way for Kaif. But if the opener goes away who will open. Of crse Yuveraj will. The more i think about it, the more it seems like one of those Ganguly hunches - like the viru for opening hunch- like the "I want Bhajji" hunch- only that i think this one will not work.
As i am saying this i fervently hope that Yuvi comes out and makes me chew my words by scoring heavily as an opener. It would great because then we have a great batting line up.

Yuvi must speak to another Indian allrounder "Robin Singh". Robin Singh had great performances in the Ranji Trophy and got selected into the one -day squad on the basis of his strong domestic performance. He then went on to play an important role as allrounder for the indian one day side. He had some very good matches and some not so good. After a successful run of one day matches, he was given a chance to play in a Test. (By the way he was also branded a one-day player just like Yuvi was for sometime) This was a test against Zimbabwe in Harara i think. He didnt score many and India lost the Test. I dont think Robin ever got another Test cap. Now Yuvi is privileged. He is lucky. Even if he fails this test he will still get a few more opportunities coming his way. But that should not be in his mind. He has to make himself worthy of this privilege and theres just one way to do it. Score heavily. I know he is capable of doing it (Boy! He is talented.). I think it would have done him some good to have been dropped from this test. He would have realized the importance of making use of every opportunity. This is a very tough situation the management is getting into. Now if Yuvi does not score this Test and Kaif does. What will the managemnt do when Sachin returns. Drop Kaif who has scored. or make Kaif open?? Both of these dont help the cause of the Indian team. They could have avoided this fiasco and at the same time taught Yuvi the importance of performance over talent by dropping him and sticking with the not-so-talented yet determined to perform Chopra. I seriously wish Yuvi makes a hundred and forces me to eat the humble pie.

2nd Test at Chennai

Chennai is definitely a happy hunting ground for quite a few Indian cricketeers. Tendulkar , i think has been scoring a century every test in Chennai or something like that. Harbhajan Singh has something like 22 wickets in two tests here- that includes that unplayable spell in the second innings against Australia in 2001 March. Kumble now has an amzing spell of 10 overs with 22 for 7 in Chennai. Ganguly must have been thrilled at retaining the Border Gavaskar trophy in Chennai. And today has proven to be another similar day....

Cricket in Chennai is really close to my heart since i spent almost all my early life (21 years) there in Chennai. Playing cricket in Chennai requires special skills (as Dean Jones showed in the tied test with his great knock) - skills to tackle the oppressive heat and fight off dehydration. Skills to maintain concentration when your body is wilting under the sun. Very few Australian cricketeers have in recent times shown that kind of application(Hayden's double century in 2001 is a case in point). It seems almost like the Australians are so clinical and efficient in most of their matches that when they are tested not just by the opponents but by the elements of weather also, they wilt. But I do not expect this Australian side to wilt. They are definitely waiting to produce a much better score in the second innings . That is exactly why it will be absoluitely essential to put a huge total on the board in our first innings. We are already down Yuvraj Singh. But anyway i didnt expect him to go past double figures(I'll discuss the opening slot later). The rest of the batting order which revolves against the wall Dravid and the magical Laxman have to click. Just like they did last time around when they scored 500 odd runs in Chennai.

India have to bat out of their skins and post a huge score. Because definitely chasing any target greater than 200 or so in the fourth innings of this test match against a bowling attack that boasts of the likes of Warne and Macgrath (Kasparowich is supposedly bowling great too) is never going to be easy- especially on the last day under prseeure. Moreover, i do not expect the Australian batting to crumble again in the second innings. Its fair to assume that they will score in the three hundreads in the second innings. So India needs to bat well and get a sizeable lead if they have to convert this strong position into a win.

Hoping for the best. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that Viru, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman score big and of course Kaif makes use of his opportunity.

The Final Frontier

So the much awaited series is on. And India have managed to lose the initiative on the first couple of days of this series. If we go on to save this test match fronm here, then it has to be courtesy the Rain Gods. On a demonless pitch, the Australian bowlers must have bowled exceedingly well to have gotten themselves into such a strong position.

I think good bowling played a part in this commanding position, But what also played an important role is the demoralizing effect the Gilchrist Clarke partnership had on the Indian team. I have always been saying and yeah this is the time I can say "Ah- I said so", Clarke is an extremely dangerous player. I dont look the likes of him. He seems very comfortable against all bowling, never seems hurried and doesnt get bogged down by the situation. He is the man to watch out this series.

For the Indian side, I was fortunate enough to watch the last India-Aussie home series ball by ball and the big reason we were able to win the series was "Bhajji was well and truly unplayable". Atleast at Chennai in the Australian first innings he was just nothing short of unplayable. We need either of Anil or Bhajji to capture that kind of rhythm. But if the first innings is any indication, both these bowlers are not in that kind of form.

I dont think theres any more point in discussing the first test anymore. Its either an Australia win or the "rain plays havoc" headline.