When the Men in Blue won the World Cup a few months ago, I honestly thought and believed this was where Team India would move forward and possibly follow in the Aussie footsteps of old.
So far, I am having a lot of doubts. Fine...the performance in the West Indies was okay to say the least but the Tour of England has been shambolic and utterly disappointing. I agree, we have had injuries (Zak on the 1st day of the test series, Bhajji & Yuvi after the 2nd test) but India have barely put up a fight. They had their chances in the 1st and 2nd test and let their advantage slip through their fingers. I do not even want to talk about the 3rd test as it was all over before it even started and there went our no.1 ranking.
Everyone keeps talking about how England are just so amazing and then they have annihilated the touring Indians and when you look at the scorecards, I would have agreed but my opinion is very simple. Team India have been doing superbly well over the last few years in both the ODI and test formats but it's high time that they hit a bad patch and this is it. To be fair, England have bowled like champs and the England batters are all in form.
All this talk just raises more and more questions about Team India....Is the batting line up ageing? Where are all the quality spinners gone? In a population of 1.22 billion, we do not have a handful of bowlers who clock around 90mph? Why are the youngsters not being given a shot? Why do India warm up with football?
I know MS Dhoni is trying to be calm and not worry about what has been happening in the series but so far, the Indians do not seem like they can get 20 wickets and I haven't seen that in a while. Bowlers do not come across as fierce, imposing or threatening. Praveen Kumar is consistent but has no pace. Ishant is just not consistent. Sreesanth is a head case. When it comes to the slow bowlers both Amit Mishra and Bhajji have not been looking like they're going to get wickets at all and to be honest it seems like an embarrassment when Swann turns the ball more than the kings of spin.
Of the batsmen, only Dravid seems to be in some sort of form with Dhoni showing glimpses and VVS never using his starts. Why India persist with Suresh Raina escapes me. India's weakness against the short ball came out during the 2009 T20 World Cup and they seem to have inkling to try and get past it. I would rather India give chances to the younger players and lose that way then to have their SO CALLED best team out on field and showing ZERO signs of fight.
I have brought this up over and over again....but why don't India produce any out and out fast bowlers??? This question is still waiting to be answered so any opinions would be welcomed. When I go out to play cricket, I stretch, do some sprints, catching practice, some batting and bowling practice. I am not an international cricketer and therefore my methods of warming up before games is probably low key but please explain to me where football is a better method. All i remember is that players get injured just like Yuvraj Singh did just before the 2007 World Cup and his knee is still not perfect.
I could keep going on and on but I feel I am getting carried away but can't help it as all I want to see is Team India performing to the best of their ability and currently that is definitely not the case.
So far, I am having a lot of doubts. Fine...the performance in the West Indies was okay to say the least but the Tour of England has been shambolic and utterly disappointing. I agree, we have had injuries (Zak on the 1st day of the test series, Bhajji & Yuvi after the 2nd test) but India have barely put up a fight. They had their chances in the 1st and 2nd test and let their advantage slip through their fingers. I do not even want to talk about the 3rd test as it was all over before it even started and there went our no.1 ranking.
Everyone keeps talking about how England are just so amazing and then they have annihilated the touring Indians and when you look at the scorecards, I would have agreed but my opinion is very simple. Team India have been doing superbly well over the last few years in both the ODI and test formats but it's high time that they hit a bad patch and this is it. To be fair, England have bowled like champs and the England batters are all in form.
All this talk just raises more and more questions about Team India....Is the batting line up ageing? Where are all the quality spinners gone? In a population of 1.22 billion, we do not have a handful of bowlers who clock around 90mph? Why are the youngsters not being given a shot? Why do India warm up with football?
I know MS Dhoni is trying to be calm and not worry about what has been happening in the series but so far, the Indians do not seem like they can get 20 wickets and I haven't seen that in a while. Bowlers do not come across as fierce, imposing or threatening. Praveen Kumar is consistent but has no pace. Ishant is just not consistent. Sreesanth is a head case. When it comes to the slow bowlers both Amit Mishra and Bhajji have not been looking like they're going to get wickets at all and to be honest it seems like an embarrassment when Swann turns the ball more than the kings of spin.
Of the batsmen, only Dravid seems to be in some sort of form with Dhoni showing glimpses and VVS never using his starts. Why India persist with Suresh Raina escapes me. India's weakness against the short ball came out during the 2009 T20 World Cup and they seem to have inkling to try and get past it. I would rather India give chances to the younger players and lose that way then to have their SO CALLED best team out on field and showing ZERO signs of fight.
I have brought this up over and over again....but why don't India produce any out and out fast bowlers??? This question is still waiting to be answered so any opinions would be welcomed. When I go out to play cricket, I stretch, do some sprints, catching practice, some batting and bowling practice. I am not an international cricketer and therefore my methods of warming up before games is probably low key but please explain to me where football is a better method. All i remember is that players get injured just like Yuvraj Singh did just before the 2007 World Cup and his knee is still not perfect.
I could keep going on and on but I feel I am getting carried away but can't help it as all I want to see is Team India performing to the best of their ability and currently that is definitely not the case.
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