WAY FORWARD FOR VIRENDRA SEHWAG....!

The third test match in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia gets underway at Mohali from 14^th March 2013.

Virendra Sehwag has been DROPPED from the squad and the selectors also have not named any replacement for him, thereby reducing the squad strength from 15 to 14.

In all probabilities, Shikhar Dhawan would make his debut and partner Murali Vijay in opening the batting for Team India, unless Dhoni springs up a surprise.

For the records, Virendra Sehwag has played 104 Test Matches, scoring a total of 8,568 runs, at an average of 49.34 with a strike rate of 82.23 with the highest score of 319.  He has 2 triple centuries, 23 centuries and 32 half-centuries to his credit (stats courtesy… www.cricinfocom).

The strike rate of 82.23 in test matches gives an insight about the aggressive batting that Sehwag is known for and the pace at which he has been accumulating the runs.

Of late Sehwag’s game has suffered a lot. The last time that Sehwag scored big was 117 against England in Nov 2012. Thereafter his scores have been 25, 30, 9, 23, 49, 0, 2, 19 and 6. With these unimpressive numbers the selectors felt that it was necessary to look beyond Sehwag and dropped him from the squad.

Now, where does Sehwag go from here? Is this the ‘end of the road’ for him?

Well, he has gone on record to say that he will ‘work on his game’ and, for sure, make a comeback. Any die-hard cricket fan would want exactly that. The crowd thronging to the cricket ground just wants Sehwag to ‘wield the willow’ and thrash very bowler ‘under the sun’.

All that now required for Sehwag, is to play any kind of cricket that coms his way and get to strike the ball, the way he is known to strike. He just needs to accumulate runs under his belt. This would help him regain his lost confidence.

The ideal platform now coming his way is the domestic league, IPL. Sehwag should look to score really big in all the games and be a backbone for his team, Delhi Daredevils. This will really put him in the right frame of mind.

Saurav Ganguly, when dropped on account of form (or the lack of it) spent a lot of time, training, playing domestic games representing Bengal and also played for a local Kolkata club. This exercise brought him amongst the runs and the selectors were left with no option but to recall him to the team. This happened with Ganguly, not once, not twice………but THREE times. Every time he was dropped, he came back that much stronger…….and the rest is all history.

Similarly Sehwag should look to play the domestic games for his state, play some kind of club cricket, if possible, and be amongst the runs.

Another area which Viru should seriously consider is getting a COUNTY contract. One good season with an English County would do a ‘world of good’ for him and this is ‘the best’ that could happen to him.

If he is able to go through this exercise of playing a successful county season then his recall to the national team would be sooner, than later.

In all probabilities every supporter of Team India would want Virendra Sehwag to strike form and be ready for the grueling South Africa tour, scheduled towards the end of this year.

Can he do it……..Can’t he do it……….let us wait and watch……………!

K Subramanian

12 March 2013

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE (IPL) 2013.........!

The sixth edition of the premium league IPL gets under way with the first face-off between the edition five Winners, Shah Rukh Khan owned, Kolkata Knight Riders taking on Delhi Daredevils in Kolkata on 03 April 2013.

The major change in the tournament has been that of the sponsor. Out goes DLF and in walks the global soft drink giant, Pepsi.

There has been a setback with the exit of the Hyderabad based, Deccan Chronicle, the winner of the second edition of the tournament. DC become the second team to go out of the tournament from the Cochin based, Kerala Tuskers.

The franchise was purchased by the Chennai based Sun Group who rechristened the team as Sun Risers Hyderabad and retained Hyderabad as the base.

A total of 76 games are to be played in the entire tournament, with 72 games being played in the round-robin league and four games in the play-off stage with the FINAL game to be played in Eden Gardens on 26 May 2013.

The nine teams have announced their squads as on 06 March 2013.

With the legendary Wasim Akram, expressing his inability to be associated with the team, Kolkata Knight Riders, the Australian speedster Brett Lee is taking up the role of ‘bowling mentor’, in addition to being a regular in the Playing XI. Trevor Penny joins the squad as the ‘fielding coach’ and would be a member of the support staff led by the chief coach, Trevor Bayliss.

Ricky Ponting, who recently retired from international cricket was procured by Ambani owned, Mumbai Indians and is likely to lead the team, taking the baton from Harbhajan Singh. Legendary spinner, Anil Kumble opted out of Royal Challengers Bangalore and joins Mumbai Indians as their mentor.

It would really interesting to see the two ‘best in the business’, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Ricky Thomas Ponting play for the same side and possibly bat together. This is one spectacle which any ‘die-hard’ cricket fan would want to witness and cherish.

Vijay Mallya owned Royal Challenger Bangalore made a significant change by appointing Virat Kohli as the captain replacing the Kiwi, Daniel Vettori. In the previous edition, Kohli had successfully led the team on quite a few occasions.

Pune Warriors India, owned by Sahara, added the ‘off-spinning all-rounder’, Parveez Rasool of Jammu and Kashmir in their squad. Rasool had a great Ranji Trophy outing in 2012-13. PWI consider him to be a valuable addition to the team.

The former New Zealand skipper, Ross Taylor, who played for Delhi Daredevils in the previous edition of IPL, was swapped with PWI for Aashish Nehra. Ross Taylor, in the first three editions of IPL, played for RCB, then shifted to Rajasthan Royals in the fourth edition and moved on to Delhi Daredevils in the previous edition. PWI is actually the fourth franchise that Taylor would be playing for.

It would be interesting to mention over here that the Australian, Glenn Maxwell, has been the ‘billon dollar baby’ in the 2013 auction and was picked up by Mumbai Indians.

All in all, it appears to be a high octane and action filled 54 days of quality cricket, played across the length and breadth of the country. IPL is the premier tournament that the entire world would be waiting to watch.

A lot of new talents would be unearthed during the course of the tournament, who eventually might go on to play for their respective national teams at some point of time.

So lets us all ‘pad up’ and get ready for action commencing on 03 April 2013.

K Subramanian

09 March 2013

SQUAD FOR THE THIRD AND FOURTH TEST MATCHES…INDIA VS AUSTRALIA

The third test match between India and Australa, in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy gets underway in Mohali from 14 March 2013.

The FIVE WISE MEN in BCCI, have selected the squad for the third and the fourth test matches. They have actually trimmed the squad to a 14-member unit as compared to the 15-member squad.

Out-of-form Virendra Sehwag has been LEFT OUT (or DROPPED) but no replacement has been chosen for him.

Sehwag has played 104 test matches scoring 8,586 runs with 316 being the highest score at an average of 49.34 with 23 centuries to his credit.

The last time that Sehwag scored big was 117 against England in Nov last. Thereafter his scores have been 25, 30, 9, 23, 49, 0, 2, 19 and 6. With these unimpressive numbers one should definitely not expect himself to find favor with the selectors.

This, however, may not be the ‘end of the road’ for Virendra Sehwag. This break actually gives him time to ‘introspect’ and spend more time in the ‘nets’ and also to pay domestic games, as much as possible, and get back into the scoring ways. Once he can strike ‘form’ it would be a ‘cake walk’ for him to get back into the Indian squad.

The problems haunting this, otherwise swashbuckling batsman, are quite a few. His feet does not move, his reflexes have slowed down (age-related), his ‘eye-hand’ coordination is abysmal, to say the least. Clearly Sehwag needs to work on all these areas and should keep himself in the fray for the South African series, later this year.

Mohali, the venue for the third test match has, historically, provided a lot of bounce and the ball would normally ‘come to the bat’, a situation in which Virendra Sehwag would have loved to bat. Maybe the selectors could have given him ONE more opportunity to strike form……….but then there are other youngsters ‘waiting in the wings’ for their break-through.

With this new development, it is expected that Shikhar Dhawan would ‘get his due’ and likely to partner Murali Vijay in opening the innings at Mohali. Dhawan has been doing really well in the dometic circuit. He is still a fringe player in Indian cricket and has proved himself to be a suitable reserve opener in all formats of the game.

Now that he might get an opportunity to play at the top level, it remains to be seen whether he can cope up to the demands / rigors / grind of a test match an too against a team like Australia. Well, if he succeeds he might find himself boarding the plane to South Africa, come November.

While the general expectation is that it would be Shikhar Dhawan who would give company to Murali Vijay at Mohali, Indian skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni might spring up a surprise bringing in the young Ajnkya Rahane, instead.

The cool Indian skipper has always been known to be THINKING OUT OF THE BOX, more often than not.

Well……let us all wait and watch…………..!

K Subramanian

09 March 2013

Aggressive Captain vs Kool Captain..........!

With Team India winning the second test match against Australia at Hyderabad, statisticians have started screaming from the 'roof top' that the current Indian skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become the most successful Test Captain, bettering the record of the former Indian Captain, Saurav Ganguly.

A peek into the statistics reveals that Saurav Ganguly captained India in 49 test matches and won 21 of them. Of these 49 matches, a total of 28 matches were played AWAY FROM HOME. The remaining 21 matches were played AT HOME.

Of the 21 matches played at home, Ganguly won 10 of them and of the 28 matches played away from home, 11 ended in Indian victory.

On the other hand, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has. upto the end of the Hyderabad Test, has captained the team in 45 test matches out of which 26 matches were played AT HOME and the balance 19 matches were played AWAY FROM HOME.

Of the home matches, Dhoni could win 17 of them and of the away matches he has won 5 matches.

Though the total number of wins Dhoni has as captain in tests is higher than that of Saurav Ganguly, it is necessary also to accept the fact that most of the wins have come from playing at 'home conditions' which are generally conducive to the home team......Well, playing and winning test matches 'away from home' is altogether a 'different cup of tea' and that is where Dada leads all the way.

Now moving away from the numbers let us give a look at the ground realities.

Saurav Ganguly took over the mantle of captaincy when then entire cricketing fraternity was mired with the 'match fixing' controversy and cricket, in general, Indian cricket in particular, was in complete disarray.

He had to literally rebuild the team, inculcate discipline in them, make them 'believe in themselves' and be aggressive, as compared to the 'meek' mentality that was prevailing then in the team.

Ganguly brought the team to winning ways, showing aggression on the field and developed a 'never say die' attitude. 

He was also highly instrumental in developing new talents like Zaheer Khan, Virendra Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, all of whom went on to play very successfully at the top level of the game.

The term TEAM INDIA was coined during Ganguly's tenure and that has come to stay. However, Ganguly was ably assisted in these endeavors by the first foreign coach of Team India, John Wright. Wright also had a big role to play in rebuilding a strong Team India.

As compared to this, Mahendra Singh Dhoni got to inherit a well-knit unit when he took over from the legendary Anil Kumble. Not that Dhoni did not have his own issues with the team which he overcame with his 'super cool' attitude and tasted success.

As such it would be highly illogical to compare the two captains, both of whom had different style of captaining the teams and achieve all that they have achieved.

Yes......purely on the 'overall' number front, Dhoni leads the table.

Well............is it not right and just that APPLES ARE TO BE COMPARED ONLY WITH APPLES......?

K Subramanian

06 March 2013

Second Test Match...at Hyderabad...!

ALL IS WELL..........THAT ENDS WELL.......so goes the saying.

The second cricket test match between India and Australia ended at lunch on Day 4, giving India victory by an innings and 13 runs.

Australia started Day 4 at 74 runs for the loss of 2 wickets but could not stand  the onslaught of the off-spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin and the part-time spinner, Ravindra Jadeja.

The wickets fell one after another and the entire team got bundled for 131 runs. Ashwin took 5 wickets for 53 runs, Jadeja took 3 wickets for 33 runs and Ishant Sharma two a solitary wicket giving away 5 runs in the five overs that he bowled.

Ashwin ended the match with 6 wickets for 94 runs, while Jadeja finished with 6 wickets for 66 runs. 

Ravindra Jadeja's bowling figures in the match given an interesting reading. In the first innings he had a figure of 16 overs, 4 maidens, 33 runs and 3 wickets......while in the second innings he had returned a figure of 18 overs, 8 maidens, 33 runs and 3 wickets.

With this win India go up 2-0 in the series with two more matches to go.

Now delving into this match, we find that on Day 1, Australia after winning the toss, elected to bat and declared their innings at a score of 237 runs for the loss of 9 wickets towards close of play.

On a hindsight, the entire Australian contingent would be discussing and analysing as to what prompted the Aussie skipper to declare their innings at such a juncture.

The tail-enders, James Pattinson and Xavier Doherty were at the crease. It is not that these two batsmen would have gone on to create a world record, but they could have frustrated the Indian bowlers thru most part of the first session of Day 2 which would have meant loss of quality batting time for India.

India commenced their batting almost at close of Day 1 and went into Day 2 without any hiccups and with 5 runs on the board.

Come Day 2, they lost the wicket of Virendra Sehwag, who nudged an outgoing delivery of Peter Siddle into the gloves of the wicket-keeper, Mathew Wade.

In walked Cheteshwar Pujara and alongwith the other opener Murali Vijay, went on to effect a second wicket partnership of 370 runs, both scoring their centuries in the process, unless Murali Vijay played a lazy shot off the debutante, Glenn Maxwell, and was caught by Ed Cowan.

Cheteshwar Pujara went on to score his second double-ton in test matches and departed with a personal score of 204 and the team's tally reading at 393.

Team India ended their innings at 503 runs taking a lead of 266 runs over Australia.

The second innings of Australia started off shakily losing David Warner for 6 runs and Phil Hughes for a DUCK, both wickets being claimed by Ashwin by close of play on Day 3.

Come Day 4 the Australian wickets started falling like nine pins and the innings folded at a total of 131 runs.

Cheteshwar Pujara, for his cameo with the bat, was rightfully selected as the Man of the Match.

The two teams head to Mohali for their third encounter commencing from 14 March 2013.

From the Indian team's point of view, the 'takeaways' from this game are:

• Murali Vijay getting off the 'IPL (T20) mode' and getting into 'Test mode', learning to spend quality time at the wicket and gradually building up an innings
• Cheteshwar Pujara gradually getting himself in 'Rahul Dravid' mode, though there is quite 'a distance yet to be covered'
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni getting used to batting at No 6
• Ravichandran Ashwin emerging as the 'lead' spinner
• Ravindra Jadeja gradually getting into that 'all rounder' slot that Team India is badly looking for

The concern areas for the team are:

• Virendra Sehwag proving to be a disaster. Now the BCCI selectors need to 'talk to him' and possibly 'leave him out' for the next two test matches and either bringing in Gautam Gambhir or have a go at Shikhar Dhawan
• Harbhajan Singh has been very ineffective taking just two wickets in the match.He is unnecessarily blocking the place of Pragyan Ojha. The selectors need to look at this point also.

It is not going to be an easy task for the 'five when men' of BCCI, when they  meet to select the squad for the remaining two matches.

All said and done, it has been a happy Team India that went into lunch on Day 4 with a 'match win' and extra day to spare.

See you all in Mohali on 14 March 2013..........!

K Subramanian

05 March 2013

Hyderabad Test....!

The Aussie skipper, Michael Clarke, might be ruing his decision of declaring their first innings by almost end of Day 1 in Hyderabad when the team score read 237 runs for the loss of nine wickets.

James Pattinson was batting on 1 and Xavier Doherty was yet to open his account. Not that these two batsmen, being No 10 and 11, would have created history, but then, given the fact that the Australian tail-enders show a lot of resilience, could have frustrated the Indian bowlers thru Day 1 and most part of the first session, atleast, on Day 2.

However, Clarke had his own calculations and, more often than not, he has been proved right.

Now let us focus some attention of Indian batting.

Virendra Sehwag and Murali Vijay did the honors of opening the batting for Team India. They remained unbeaten at stumps on Day 1 with 5 runs on the board, with Murali Vijay on 4 and Sehwag, yet to open his account.

Come Day 2, Virendra Sehwag faced 19 balls, scored 6 runs with the help of one boundary.

A delivery from Peter Siddle pitched 'a shade' outside the off-stump and was moving away from the batsman which, ideally Sehwag should have 'let go' to the 'keeper'. This he did, however, by allowing the ball to take an outside edge and was gleefully accepted by Mathew Wade behind the stumps.

It has been noticed for quite some time now that Sehwag's feet does not move, his reflexes have slowed down and his eye-hand coordination is abysmal. Come to the selectors, they would talk 'in length' about the 'rich experience' of Virendra Sehwag and the triple centuries scored by him.

Now what use is that experience if it cannot get converted into performance and does not add value to the team. Its time the selectors talked 'tough' and took a call on the continuation of Virendra Sehwag in the Indian dressing room.

Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara played sensible cricket and went on consolidating the innings. The first session on Day 2 produced only 49 runs and the proceedings were slow.

Post lunch, Vijay and Pujara shifted gears and both went on to score their respective centuries. It looked as if Pujara has got back to his scoring ways which he showed against the England series. The two ended the day with an unbeaten partnership of 295 runs from 510 deliveries, Vijay on 129 runs (288 deliveries) and Pujara on 162 runs (251 deliveries).

The strategy should be simple and clear for Day 3. Team India should look to play the entire day and score 600 runs. A lot of batting is yet come in the form of Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.......and not to leave out Ravchandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh (both of whom have 'test centuries' under their belt) and Bhuavenshwar Kumar who show-cased his batting talent at Chennai.

Pitch on Day 4 would turn viciously. This would be just about the time to unleash Ashwin, Harbhajan and Jadeja on the Aussies and pin them down.

The mammoth total of 600 runs, resulting in a lead of 363 runs, the turning pitch, the batting failure in the first innings et al would weigh heavily on the Aussies who might just  crumble.

In all earnest, expecting Team India to go to Mohali with the result of 2-0.

It is possible..........guys should keep their cool and play to a plan.

However, let us not underestimate the Aussies, since they have the likes of David Warner, Shane Watson, Phil Hughes, Michael Clarke and Mathew Wade who do not fail every time...........!

K Subramanian

03 March 2013

'Bowling' tensions for Team India............!

The second cricket test match between India and Australia in the on-going Border-Gavaskar Trophy gets underway in Hyderabad from tomorrow (02 March 2013).

Having won the first game, India would look to go up 2-0 while proceeding to Mohali for the third encounter.This would ensure that India would definitely not lose the series, even if they do not win it.

In the previous blog the issue of the 'opening combination' was discussed in detail. Here the issue of the bowlers is being discussed.

In the Chennai test, a total of 133 overs were bowled by Team India in the first innings, out of which the spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja, together bowled 103 overs and only 30 overs were bowled by the pace duo of Ishant Sharma and the debutante Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.

In Australia's second innings, Team India bowled 93 overs, out of which ONLY 3 overs were bowled by Ishant Sharma while Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was not given the ball at all.

All the twenty wickets were taken by the spinners with Ashwin finishing the match with a tally of 12 for 198, Harbhajan Singh finishing with 3 for 142 and Ravindra Jadeja had a figure of 5 for 143 respectively.

It is clear that the pacers had no role to play in the Chennai test match and even in the limited number of overs they bowled, both were highly disappointing being inaccurate in line and length.

Quite clearly the nature of the pitch at Hyderabad is unknown and assuming it would be one that would suit the home-team, then the pacers again may not have much of a 'say'.

Under the circumstances. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, would  be wondering whether he should go in with two pacers or only one in the Playing XI.

Presumably he might not want to go in with one pacer. This strategy of 'three spinners and one pacer' was tried against England in the test match played in Eden Gardens, Kolkata and it clearly backfired with Team India losing the match and the series thereafter. So this would be definitely be at the back of the skipper's mind. Moreover the bowlers, be it pacers or spinners, would always want to bowl 'in tandem' and hence the 'single pacer' theory may not find favor.

Dhoni has the benefit of having Ashok Dinda in the squad and might want to have a 'look at him' in Hyderabad. 

Ishant Sharma, inspite of his immense experience, could not deliver in Chennai and the experience did not add any value to the team. Neither was he useful with the bat.

As compared to this, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who did not find success with the ball, capitalised on the opportunity that came his way and had a successful outing with bat giving company to the skipper and created a record for the 9th wicket partnership of 140 runs.

These points might occupy Dhoni's mind and he would have to make a decision on the pacers' choice. In any case, 'one pacer' theory will not work.

Now coming to the spinning options, there are three regular spinners in the squad.....Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha and a part-timer in Ravindra Jadeja.

Dhoni opted for Jadea ahead of Ojha in Chennai with the object of having an all-rounder batting at No 7.

While Jadeja dd full justice with the ball, his batting abilities did not leave much to write home about.

The idea of going in with a 7+4 combination needs a re-look. With Dhoni batting at No 6 and in the manner that he had batted in Chennai, a 7th batsman would just be a luxury. If the top six batsmen are unable to put up a decent total, there is not much that a seventh batsman would do. Moreover Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, with centuries under their belt in test matches, can always fill in the slot of an all-rounder.

Dhoni should now clearly think in terms of bringing in Ojha in the Playing XI at the expense of Ravindra Jadeja.

The choice has to be made between Ashwin and Harbhajan since Dhoni might want to stick to the 7+4 combo. In that case Ashwin would definitely get the nod keeping in view his Chennai performance.

Ojha's case gets another boost considering the fact that Dhoni wanted Murali Viay to play in Chennai, being his home-ground. Hence this 'home-ground' theory needs to be extended and Ojha should find a place in the Playing XI.

So Dhoni has a lot to 'work on'........in terms of the opening combination, in terms of pacers / spinners combination and in terms of the spinning combination also.

K Subramanian

01 March 2013