Saturday, August 30th, 2008
When people talk about the seniors it’s usually Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and Kumble. The last four play only tests these days and are unlikely to be selected back into the ODI team. Considering what happened with Ganguly earlier I hope in all these five cases our selectors and the captains of that time will give each of them a chance of going out gracefully, whenever that needs to happen. Of these, since Kumble is the test captain, let’s start with him.
He has led India so far in 12 tests, won 3 and lost 5 of those. Only one loss at home and 2 wins outside India. This itself puts him above many earlier captains who never won outside India. Although Kumble hasn’t won a series abroad in his short stint so far, he will probably get two chances early next year assuming he continues to play until them.
His overall performance so far - won a home test series against Pakistan, lost to Australia 1-2 in Australia which included the disputable Sydney result without which it would have reflected a more deserving 1-1 series. Then back at home he lost to South Africa one of the two tests he led in, and then didn’t play the third one that India won with Dhoni leading. After that he now lost against Sri Lanka 1-2 in Sri Lanka. Overall with 12 tests (5 at home, 7 away) a little less than good record, but not very bad either.
As a captain, one of the good things about Kumble’s stint has been the minimal disputes and controversies about player selection etc like it was during the Chappell-Dravid phase. He did include Yuvraj on popular choice for Australia and that move failed as Yuvraj failed. On the other hand the gamble about Sehwag worked, giving India back a good opener that we missed for a couple of years. His backing of Harbhajan in Australia avoided unnecessary theories of dispute (”Does Kumble want to finish Bhajji’s career?” I can see some TV channels flashing during that time, if that was the case), which was a common thing some years back.
As the bowler he took 5 wickets a couple of times, bowled Pakistan to defeat in the Delhi test. A good performance at Melbourne. Other than that it hasn’t been spectacular but if we look at his 12 tests prior to becoming the captain (to compare his 12 as captain) it looks even - 56 wickets in 12 tests while not leading and 50 in 12 while leading. So doesn’t look like a major impact on his bowling. Compared to this the impact our batsmen-captains have had on their batting must be much more.
Barring the legacy he continues with of losing finals, Dhoni has been bringing in good results for ODI in addition to his Twenty-20 World Cup win. I am sure the media in India must be already talking about him taking the test team over. But India’s schedule is extremely busy in the next year or so and we need him fresh for 2011. That means there need not be a hurry in pushing him to lead the test team. My guess is the selectors will wait till the results against Australia and England.
It’s possible Kumble will stay captain as long as he continues to play. His failures against Lanka could be compared to Warne’s failures against India - or even Murali’s, when he played in India. It doesn’t say anything about what he will do against Australia and England at home. In fact it’s quite likely he will be successful.
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Chappell, Dhoni, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, BCCI, Sehwag, Kumble | No Comments »
Friday, August 29th, 2008
It was a hard fought win for our team and it’s creditable how they regrouped after the loss in the first match and handled Murali and Mendis after the failure of the test middle order to do that. But that this is our first series win in Lanka is just a statistical truth. India did win -and much more comprehensively- in Sri Lanka the 1998 triangular series which was called “Independence Cup” (Singer-Akai Nidahas trophy) and also a couple of other such tournaments prior to that like the Singer cup in 1994). Back then in 1998 Sri Lanka were kings of one-day cricket in the subcontinent were unbeaten at home for a couple of years following their 1996 world cup win. To beat them there in 1998 was certainly a bigger achievement.
The only way this was different was it was a two-team (bilateral) series.
This win will also raise questions about the seniors in the test side, especially from people who change their opinions based on the current latest wins. I guess some channels in India must be running debates whether now Dhoni should lead the test team and bring in the changes he is doing in the ODI side.
Prior to this series, if we look at their performances starting from England last summer, the seniors overall have done well. It will be ridiculous to start talking about their retirement based on this series. Over the last 4-5 years India have repeatedly started the season poorly when they started it in Sri Lanka. May be it’s something about the pitches there or something about the lack of popularity it has at home compared to a series against Australia, but somehow our big guns have not fired there for a while.
In the coming months we have series at home against Australia, then England. Then we go to Pakistan and then to New Zealand for series that include tests. I think that will give a comprehensive idea about the seniors. It might be interesting to see individual performances over the last year or so and I will try to go over that soon.
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Dhoni, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kumble | No Comments »
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
Cricinfo has published a list of great performances while successfully chasing a target. To me the innings that would surely go in this list are:
Ganguly’s 98* against Sri Lanka in 2001: He was leading a depleted Indian side without Tendulkar, Laxman, Srinath and Kumble. Having lost the first test India needed 264 to win in the second. Ganguly made a 93 partnership with Dravid and then another 70 run one with Kaif to see India through and just missed his hundred while staying unbeaten.
Dravid’s 72* against Australia at Adelaide in 2003: Having already scored 233 in the first innings in a 303 run partnership with- who else- Laxman he faced a tough fourth innings chase as India was shaky at 170/4. Having seen before how India gave matches away from a position of strength especially while chasing Dravid wanted to stay there until it’s over (said so in an interview later). India went 1 up in that series in Australia. Interestingly when he hit the winnings runs the batsman on the other end was Agarkar who had opened that match for India taking 6/41 in third innings.
Tendulkar and Ganguly against Pakistan at Delhi in 2007: Now this one may not be one of the best amongst all such innings in chase but it must have had enormous importance for Tendulkar and Indian fans in general. India were chasing 203 in fourth innings and when Shoaib got them in a little trouble at 93/3 memories of Chennai ‘99 and many other matches against Pakistan popped when India lost matches it should have won. There was also more background to this - earlier in South Africa India had lost because no batsmen (except Ganguly) showed intent to score quickly or attack. But this time the 78 runs partnership between these two brought India very close. Ganguly took charge first, attacking the bowling to score runs whenever possible and when he got out Tendulkar accelerated. Whoever watched Tendulkar see India through felt some redemption for that defeat 8 years back. I am sure Tendulkar must have felt too.
Laxman 66 against Australia 2001 could have made this list but when he got out India was in trouble. To be fair with Laxman it was only he (and Tendulkar a little bit) who took the attack to the Aussies and as long as he was there the result was never in doubt. But after he got out another wicket fell at the same score and the remaining batsmen somehow managed to get there.
Posted in cricket, Australia, India, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Ashes, Kumble | No Comments »