India Shining, England Whining

At the onset of this series, most of the Indian fans labelled this as a “payback/revenge” series (conveniently forgetting that winning a series against a 5th ranked side does not compensate for losing the Test crown in a humiliating manner), whereas most English fans dismissed this as a pointless ODI series (how would one determine that, I would love to know). The truth lies somewhere in between; that India would win the series was almost a foregone conclusion, but more than anything else, they needed to experience the winning feeling again. Not to forget, they had a bunch of youngsters to groom for the future. For England, this was a chance for the new ODI skipper and young players to test themselves in unforgiving conditions. In the end, the final scoreline was a just reflection of the gulf between the two sides when it comes to ODIs on the subcontinent, despite the absence of a few star players from the Indian side. Here are a few other thoughts from the series:

• The continued absence of Tendulkar and Sehwag meant that there was yet another opportunity for Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane to press their cases for permanent inclusion. While Patel flattered to deceive, Rahane’s solidity was reassuring to watch, though the tendency to throw away starts was a bit infuriating. Either way, a Test call-up is not too far away for the Mumbai youngster.
• Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli were the bulwarks of the middle order. In particular, Kohli continues to rise and rise. He had a good Champions League prior to this series, and his purple patch refused to stop. Despite a poor Test tour of West Indies, his maturity and form warrants him another shot in the longer format.
• What is left unsaid about MS Dhoni? Calm, cool, unflappable, the man with a plan….and by the end of the series, he was invincible too, as England just couldn’t out him at all. Experts are falling over themselves to anoint him as the best finisher in ODI history, and few would disagree.
• Ever since his debut, I was never too enamored with Ravi Jadeja; but with impressive back-to-back series, he has won me over. While his batting is not as destructive as a certain Yusuf Pathan, he is more consistent, and he is a much smarter bowler. Also, along with Kohli, Raina and Rahane, he has lifted the Indian fielding by several notches. Deserves a prolonged run in the team.
• With Harbhajan Singh getting dropped from the side after a long time, there was no small amount of pressure on the shoulders of Ravi Ashwin to perform. To his credit, he didn’t disappoint, with his maturity standing out. While calls for a place in the Test team is a bit premature, he should have cemented his place in the ODI team with this performance.
• Praveen Kumar was steady, Vinay Kumar was consistent, Umesh Yadav was lacklustre – but the one pace bowler to stand out from the Indian camp was the young Varun Aaron. He had pace, but more importantly he hit the right lengths too. He has four wickets as of now, all of them coming through knocking the stumps down. Now, if only he does not get ‘Munna-fied’, India might actually possess a ‘fast’ bowler.
• To see India put up such a commanding performance in the absence of stars like Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Sehwag and Zaheer was a reassuring sight for Indian fans. With the likes of Rahane, Kohli, Raina, Jadeja, Ashwin and Aaron still in their 20s, the future looks bright for the Indian ODI team.
• It was a baptism by fire for Alastair Cook, for whom it was the first ODI series outside England as official skipper. He book-ended the series with a couple of 60s and failed in between. As a captain, he was outsmarted by Dhoni, while his failure to exert any authority over his team-mates during a fractious series was disappointing. Looking on the bright side, it can only get better from here.
• Craig Kieswetter might as well be called Kies-dropper. In a series where the opposition keeper shone with the bat and barely made any mistake with the glove, Kieswetter had a shocking series, even by his own standards. As an opener, he could never convert his starts, and with the gloves (barring a couple of sensational catches), he was unusually sloppy, none more damning than the fluffed run-out of Jadeja in the fourth game. With the likes of Bairstow, Buttler and Davies jostling for places, it is hard to see if Kieswetter will get to keep his place for the next ODI assignment.
  Behind every successful batsman, there is Kieswetter
• Jonathan Trott might be wondering what he has to do to get some love from the fans. Despite being the most successful ODI batsman of the year, there are calls for Bell to replace him in the playing XI (this despite Trott possessing a far superior average and strike rate compared to Bell). In a side consisting of batsmen who looked completely out of their comfort zone, Trott was perhaps the only player who seemed to have a measure of how to play the spinners. Whether the English accept it or not, Trott is the only batsman who warrants his place in the side, based on current form.
• While I have never been convinced that Bopara is one of the top 6 batsman England have, his performance in the series was utterly non-descript and has done enough to justify his future exclusion from the team. The real disappointment was Kevin Pietersen. Despite one good innings, it is alarming how his batting has fallen away in ODIs. For a player who was once the most exciting batsman in the game, it has been a steep decline, and one hopes that he still has it in him to resurrect his brilliance.
• A lot was expected from Samit Patel and Jonny Bairstow in this series. While Patel had one good match with the bat and a mixed series with the ball, Bairstow found out for himself how much different the subcontinent is, compared to England. Ashwin and Jadeja toyed with him and by the end of the series, Bairstow’s inexperience was clearly exposed. This will be a valuable tour for him though, and he can only get better for the experience.
• Graeme Swann came into this series with the reputation of being the world’s best spinner. In the end, he was outbowled by his own team-mate and will be remembered for his unflattering figures, churlish outbursts against team-mates, dropped catches and a poorly timed autobiography.
• In the absence of Stuart Broad and James Anderson, Tim Bresnan was the leader of the pace attack; but the real hero was Steven Finn. Easily, the biggest positive to come out of this series for England; While his boorish behaviour and misplaced aggro can be put down to his age, his bowling was the only thing which kept most of the games competitive. Like most of the youngsters in the team, this experience will be invaluable down the road.
• Jade Dernbach has been hyped for a long time now, but over the course of three games, his ‘variations’ were dismissed to all parts of the ground and sometimes over it. In the end, all he showed was poor discipline on and off the field.

• Overall, the English team was completely different to the one which defeated India in the rain-affected home series a month ago. They were clueless against spin and the batting always seemed one wicket away from a collapse. A lack of support for Finn meant that the bowling was never going to contain a rejuvenated Indian line-up. The biggest shock of all, was their huge drop in fielding standards, as the Indian side outperformed them in the department by a mile (Donkey jibes, anyone?). When they were not busy getting into verbal battles with the Indians, they occupied themselves berating their own team-mates. Normally, this would point to a side in decline; but in Andy Flower they have one of the top coaches in the world, who is capable of turning the fortunes around. While it has been yet another whitewash in the subcontinent for them, the players will be wiser for the experience and hopefully, it will lead to wiser team selections in the future.

All in all, it was a great Diwali gift from the Indian side to their fans. While it will not erase the memories of the Test series humiliation, it has gone a long way in applying balm over the wounds.

Benny for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Benny on Twitter @tracerbullet007

England in a Spin Over Selection in India

Desperate Decisions or Time to Experiment?

4-0. Not quite Manchester United vs Manchester City (ouch!) but still a fair hammering for any side in any sport.

England have been out-played in every department for the duration of this One Day Series and even a shuffle of the pack for the forth One Day International in Mumbai couldn’t stop the rot for the tourists.

Scott Borthwick and Stuart Meaker, two young, promising bowlers who went to India optimistic, part of a young England squad that was building for the World Cup in 2015, came in for Graeme Swann and injured Jade Dernbach in Mumbai, a dead rubber, hardly the stage they were hoping to perform on.

England’s selectors have developed a reputation for being loyal to a fault to the players they put out to play each match, a policy that has reaped dividends in test cricket, but with a One Day side that didn’t look right from the first ODI in Hyderabad two weeks ago, changes should have been made earlier than the match after this series was already settled.

Of course that’s incredibly easy for me to say sitting on my comfy chair with my soft cushions, but England have played only one front line spinner in all four games on this tour of India, yes India, you know that country that notorious for slow, spinning wickets, and that’s just madness.

Swann and Borthwick should have bowled in tandem in Mumbai, if not earlier in the series which would have given England 20 overs of spin that would have taken the pace off the ball and made scoring harder to come by for India.

Instead, with three seamers trying their best to extract some life out of the dry, dead Indian wickets, the part time spin of Samit Patel and the medium pace dibby-dobbers of Ravi Bopara, the solitary spinners just haven’t had enough support to build pressure on India, and the home side cruised past England’s totals in each of the four innings played.

Clearly the batting has struggled to post enough runs too, and whilst there has been ridiculous criticism of Jonathan Trott, again on this tour, questions still remain above the heads of both Craig Kieswetter and Ravi Bopara.

Eoin Morgan has been missed and presumably he will come in for Bopara when he returns from injury, and it may be that Kieswetter drops out of the team, again, this time for Ian Bell to return?

I’m not sure if it’s mildly embarrassing or even insulting for Bell that he has not been given the chance to play in this tour, or perhaps the selectors know only too well what Bell can do and therefore don’t feel the need to test him out in India, but why take him if he wasn’t in the selectors thoughts?

But none of the batsmen have excelled in India, and that includes captain Alastair Cook. In fact, Cooks form is perhaps the most worrying of all the top 6. It hardly fills a team with confidence if their skipper is putting the side into bat (as Cook has done all tour) and then falling cheaply, as Cook has also done all too often.

Cooks appointment as captain was always a curious one given the fact he hadn’t played any One Day International cricket for several years before hand. In fact, he wasn’t even in the One Day squad for the World Cup earlier this year, also in India.

Cook is still new in the role, and deserves time to build his team now he had been appointed, but whether he was the best candidate for One Day captain, rather than simply the next in line for the test side, is another question.

Oddly, worryingly, sadly, England will return home from India with more questions about their One Day policy than they had when they headed out to the sub-continent just a few weeks ago.

The selectors have been loyal for a long time, but perhaps their decision to back the side when it wasn’t set up correctly to begin with was a mistake on this occasion? Sometimes no change is good, other times you need to cut your losses, be strong and make positive changes. That hasn’t happened in India.

It will be interesting to see what England’s One Day side looks like when they play Pakistan in the UAE early in 2012, but I expect some changes from the side that has lost so meekly in India.

Tom Huelin for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Tom on Twitter @tomhue1

Payback Series: Whitewashed

It had been built up as a revenge series by the broadcasters. And Team India certainly have paid back with interest (only for the ODI leg so far). Here are the thoughts for today’s game at Eden Gardens and the series as a whole.

• Dhoni enhanced his finisher reputation. The big sixes were back and he stayed not out as well. His average may have been boosted by the large number of not outs but isn’t not getting out one of the criterion for a good batsman. (A post by The Old Batsman on the subject is here).
• Rahane is looking impressive without having got that BIG one as yet. Also he is unlucky that Kieswetter keeps taking stunning catches to dismiss him when normally his keeping has been of the Kamran Akmalesque quality.
• Manoj Tiwary has been having a pretty weird international career. Injured during practice on the eve of his debut series and since then has played 5 matches across 4 series spread over a 4 year period.
• England had an awesome opening partnership followed by one of the most stunning collapses. 128 for none followed by 47 for 10.
• Varun Aaron takes his 4th international wicket. Interestingly all 4 bowled which starts the slide for the Poms.
• Ian Bell finally played and scared the rest of the English lineup by failing to read Jadeja’s spin.
• Some apologies for the years of abuse heaped on Ravindra Jadeja.
• In short England caught in a spin web and spun out. England in India have been worse than India’s in England (only comparing the ODI parts so far)
• India still missing most of the big guns and their first choice replacements as well. On the other hand England did not have Broad & Anderson, though they wouldn’t have made too much of a difference.

Payback still remains. This is only the appetizer. It won’t be satisfied till the Tests thrashing is also avenged.

P.S. Malcolm Waller missed out on a well deserved century as he finished on 99* to take Zimbabwe to a thrilling one wicket victory over the Kiwis.

P.P.S. Wishing all readers a very Happy Diwali.

Nishant Kumar for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Nishant on Twitter @NishantSKumar

Back to Winning Ways

My last post on 14th August pointed out reasons for India’s loss in England, so if a cricket fan is there to point out the mistakes of his team and criticize their performance then it’s the duty of a fan to also appreciate good performance and bring out the good points

First of all congratulations to Team India on the winning series, although the captain cool MS Dhoni is saying that this is not a payback series or a revenge series but as a cricket lover this series was a matter of lost pride. A loss here would have really created doubts on the commitment of the team and especially the loss would have come after the champion’s league which would have again given a chance to people to criticize IPL and CL T-20. This series loss would have also affected the morale of Team India. Although I feel people are actually not appreciating this performance of the team, as they feel it’s because of home conditions that India is winning, but then consider that even England had home advantage. It’s like when you are expected to win a series your performance isn’t appreciated but if you lose such a series then people are ready to cut heads off and abuse players so I feel team should be given its due credit and the performance should be appreciated. It’s like when you win against a weak team like Zimbabwe then it’s no big deal but when you lose against them then it’s bad, why not appreciate each and every win. A win is a win and will always be a win. And winning is a habit which is good to cultivate. And I feel India’s performance in the ODI series in England was good, weather played a spoil sport in all the 5 ODI’s, and it was always to the advantage of the host team.

So now to the points where I feel India have done well in this series.

1) Fielding and Catching: Team India’s fielding and catching in this series has been outstanding. I can hardly recollect Indians misfielding or dropping a catch. It’s the most important aspect in ODI Cricket specially, and if you look back at India in England we were lacking behind in this aspect. A old saying catches win you matches still holds a lot of truth, and I can’t recollect team fielding so well in recent past.

2) Selection: Selection in this series has been good. Unfit players are not been drafted in the team, out of form players have been dropped irrespective of their seniority. Dropping of Harbhajan singh gives out the message to other seniors as well that no one can take his place in the team for granted and it’s the performance that gets you in the team and it’s the performance which helps you cement your place in the team. This would benefit India in long term. Although I feel Harbhajan singh will be back for the West Indies tests. I feel the problem with Harbhajan is the lack of patience, so I feel he should play only longer version of the game for some time to get that flight and guile back. So I feel he should stop playing limited over game for some time and concentrate only on 4 day Ranji cricket and Test cricket. Longer version of the game will help him get his guile and flight back. Selecting Umesh Yadav and then selecting Varun Aaron will also benefit the team in times to come and giving Rahane/Parthiv pair a longer duration to settle is also a good sign for the team.

3) Initiative: The Indian batsmen in the series have not thrown away the initiative. If a batsman has got into rhythm then he has made sure that he will finish the match. Be it Dhoni in the 1st match while setting the score or Gambhir and Kohli in 2nd match and in 3rd match after good innings played by Rahane and Gambhir, Dhoni sealed the match for India. Raina played beautifully to set up the match for Kohli to end the match convincingly in 4th odi at Mumbai. So batsmen who have got in have tried to finish the game off on their own. Especially Kohli has learnt a lesson and rectified his mistake of throwing away a good start after 1st match where he threw away a good start; he rectified his mistake by remaining not out in 2nd and 4th match and finishing the game off in style for India. Indian batsmen failed to grab the initiative and didn’t convert the good start to a big score during England series especially during tests.

4) Margin of Wins: The margin of wins especially in the 1st two ODI’s have actually affected the English morale and has given confidence to team India and their morale is high after such big wins in 1st two odi’s. The high confidence level can be seen even while chasing 300 in 3rd odi at Mohali the team didn’t succumb to pressure and after losing 3 early wickets in 4th odi the batsmen who followed were attacking from the start specially Suresh Raina. This is what confidence does to a team it’s like virus that spreads quickly and to everyone in the team.

5) Team effort: This series win has been due to complete team effort it’s not that only one player is playing well and rest of the team isn’t contributing. Everyone has performed well at some given point, be it Raina and Dhoni will the bat in 1st odi or Kohli and Gambhir in the 2nd or Rahane in the 3rd and Kohli/ Raina combination doing the duty in 4th odi. Even the performances of bowlers have been outstanding. They have done well to bundle out England for low scores. Jadeja, Ashiwn, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav and new boy Varun Aaron have bowled well throughout the series. For me Ashwin is the most exciting bowler in world cricket today, he looks like he will pick up a wicket every ball he bowls. He is someone like Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka who looks of taking a wicket every ball.

This series would help India unearth a few younger players which would serve Indian team for the times to come. This series is followed by the 3 Test’s and 5 ODI’s against West Indies which should again allow the selectors to give chance to younger talent. Wish to see Varun Aaron in longer version of the game against the West Indies; with his pace and ability to get the ball reverse he would be a handful against the touring West Indians. I feel Ajinkya Rahane, Varun Aaron, R Ashwin, Manoj Tiwary and Abhinav Mukund should be given a chance in test team.

England has also helped the Indian team by not selecting the right set of players. Not selecting Ian Bell in any of the matches is shocking. Ian Bell is one of the few players in English side that plays spin well and he was in good form against India during the tests but still was not selected to play. In fact England team is having the same problems that team India had during the England tour.

India didn’t select right set of players during tests and odi’s and England have done blunders in their selection
India struggled with their bowling and England has been no different. I feel where England have suffered the most is the form and performance of Gramm Swann he was their trump which has not worked for them and their batsmen have thrown away good starts, haven’t made a huge score.

So in the end it’s nice to see India back to winning ways, be it at home. A Win is a Win and will always be a Win. It’s so much relaxing to see India back to winning ways.

Ricky Singh for DieHard Cricket Fans

Jonathan Up The Creek? Trott On!!

If people think that taking Jonathan Trott out of England’s One Day International side will result in a transformation of England’s fortunes in this form of the game, they’ve clearly not been watching much One Day cricket lately.

Trott scored 98 of England’s 298 runs at Mohali in the 3rd of this 5 match One Day International series against India, yet all I’ve read about since the match is that his place is in jeopardy!

Never mind the fact Alastair Cook fell cheaply again. Never mind “The Next Gilchrist”, Craig Kieswetter can’t get past 30 and keeps dropping sitters. Never mind England are playing 3 seamers on slow, flat wickets and only one front-line spinner. Yup, if Trott was dropped, things would be alright!

For me, Trott is the key man in this One Day side along with Eoin Morgan, who is sorely missed in India by the way.

Morgan can win a game from nowhere, killing opponents in seemingly dominant positions, and you cannot underestimate the loss of a player like that on this tour. India have Dhoni, an equally capable “finisher”, and he has won 2 of the 3 games in this series for India almost single-handedly.

Morgan can attack even when facing spin from both ends, a pre-requisite for excelling on the sub-continent and something all England’s other players struggle to do, even Trott.

But, Trott is so hard to get out. Even Morgan goes cheaply sometimes and in those situations, it’s essential Trott is there, otherwise England’s innings can and usually do fall apart.

If Trott is in, the players at the other end can go for their shots. Pietersen and Patel both filled their boots yesterday, and 298 is actually a decent total. The fact England didn’t defend it isn’t attributable to Trott in my opinion.

England’s fielding has been abject in this series, a surprise given recent high standards, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, you’re never going to excel in India playing 3 seamers and only 1 decent spinner.

I know it extends the tail, but I honestly think Scott Borthwick needs to play in the last 2 games. England are desperate for more spin options, so why not give Borthwick a go, he has already played international cricket and done well, albeit at T20 level.

I like Ravi Bopara but there is an ongoing debate as to whether he has the stomach for cricket at this level and with a change in fortunes required, perhaps Rav is the man to step aside? his part time medium pacers don’t seem to be fancied by Cook and he just isn’t delivering runs on this tour.

Kieswetter is also a question mark. He looks good in home conditions, but a delicate touch is required on the sub-continent, and I’m not sure Kieswetter possesses one. Ian Bell has to return to the side now, he is too good a player to sit on the margins and, incredibly, bring the drinks out, as he did in the last game. He could replace Kieswetter and Bairstow could keep wicket.

Finally, let’s play a fast bowler who is suited to these conditions. Stuart Meaker is a skiddy bowler who should be able to serve up plenty of yorkers at the death, something amazingly England’s current attack seem incapable of doing, so give him a chance too.

There’s plenty of changes that could and perhaps should be made to this England side to make them more competitive, certainly on the sub-continent anyway, but Trott isn’t one of them.

They’re up the Creek, but Jonathan Trott must stay.

Tom Huelin for DieHard Cricket Fans
Follow Tom on Twitter @tomhue1

Pom Pom Pom: Every Donkey has a Day !

Mission Accomplished !

Team  India’s graph and my blogging curve seem to be related; though unintentionally. The World Cup victory had left me contented for some time and I wrote on IPL only because it was relaxing to write when you didn’t have to worry about ‘One Team’ you love.

I was disappointed by the defensive Cricket played in West Indies and the whole of England tour was a nightmare to be best forgotten as soon as possible. But somewhere during the series, I had tweeted, “Every dog has a day and today belongs to Pomeranian“.

Their Test series win was comprehensive though too many things went wrong for India. But their ODI win was plain lucky. The arrogance of the Neo-No.1 team was oozing and pouring from every orifice as the humbled Team India’s body language went down to Antarctica.

I stuck to my tweet and was pretty sure Team India will see better days soon. Exactly during the slump of Team India, I too was not able to follow Cricket the way I usually do, thanks to some personal issues apart from a hectic professional life. Hence the posts here dwindled and perhaps saved me from writing much negative about my favorite team.

After having thumped England thoroughly, Team India have vindicated my faith in them and that of millions of fans. All good things will have to come to an end and all bad things too will have to come to an end. Dhoni and his boys are back and they are bleeding blue !

Considering the fact that Team India have Sachin, Viru, Yuvi, Zaheer and Nehra missing from our best possible 11, this win augurs well for the future. Add the first choice replacements like Rohit, Ishant, Sreesanth, Munaf, Vijay, Dinesh Karthik and Badri to the list. And due to form and selection issues, Yusuf Pathan and Bhajji too are not playing. That means this is at best India B-Plus Team, not even India-A !

For all the criticism they faced during the English tour, Team India showed exemplary behavior during the whole tour. We are witnessing how the English players are behaving when the fortune has taken a ‘U’ turn. Dhoni very slyly yet very rightly pointed out during post-match presentation during the second ODI.

There is a huge gulf of class between these two teams. One knows how to behave even when the chips are down. The other is downright arrogant and almost vainglorious. Having criticized Dhoni’s calling Bell decision, I feel the laws of natural forces have caught up with the Poms quite very soon.

Some of the statements by English experts and press during the England tour went like this…

Geoffrey Boycott: “India look a pale shadow of an ordinary team”
Nasser Hussain: “There were a few donkeys out there in the field today…”

Some extremely inconsiderate Indian critics and tweeters have called some of the players in this English team, donkeys. That is unfortunate and totally abusive. Some went to the extent of tweeting, “Some of the English players looked like pale shadows of donkeys out there“

We should respect our guests. “Athithi Devo Bhava” – Treat the guest like God.
So please stop this nonsense now !

Post Script: The animal kingdom isn’t very proud to be associated with the English Team that has turned out in this series so far ! And the hardworking and efficient donkeys have protested saying, “We consider this blasphemous. We are always well behaved even if people consider us sloppy. We wouldn’t be rude and obnoxious when we know we are in deep shit. So we want all this abuse to stop immediately”

Every Donkey has a Day !

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans