India vs South Africa - Series Previw (India to win 2-0)

“India beware in the forthcoming three match Test series which starts in Chennai next week. Graeme Smith and his boys are going to thump Anil Kumble and his charges” - A very bullish Gerald Majola, Cricket South Africa's chief executive. The mind games have begun but I suspect this statement is going to backfire terribly. Such statements would not only fire up an aggressive Indian team but also adds pressure on the South African team.

The South African team has the usual combination– loads of discipline, touch of German efficiency and lacking flair. In Dale Steyn they have a fast bowler who can cause trouble to the strong middle order . You can also expect them to employ Paul Harris as a defensive around the wicket into rough bowling and frustrate Indians into bad shots. Indian batting line up seems to have a mental block against left arm spinners and very rarely attack them. Rest of the attack including Nitini appears flat and short of form/ class. Batting line up appears to be long with Monre Morkel playing at number 8 but may lack the class to battle the guile of Kumble in alien territory. It is the fielding department that South Africa is streets ahead of India and this should help balance the overall strengths of the two sides.

The Indian team has a settled look to it and the positive has been consistency in selection. Am glad Wasim Jaffer has been given another chance. The one factor which one needs to keep in mind is the approach of Indian batting line up. In the past, Indians seem to play defensively while playing at home. We have seen numerous 100 ball thirties from likes of Sachin, Rahul, Laxman. I hope the batsman are positive and look to attack the South Africans. Here the roles of Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly are important. The bowling attack looks strong and you can expect Kumble to top the bowling averages. I am worried about the stark decline of Harbhajan Singh in test cricket. He has forgotten the art of taking wickets in bucketfuls and this is another opportunity for him to showcase his skills. RP Singh is a much improved bowler and should be backed up well by the Sreesanth. A question mark hangs over Irfan Pathan and I don’t think he will play in any of the tests in slow / low bouncing wickets.

Overall, Indian team appears to be stronger and my prediction is 2-0 win for India

Probable teams for first test
India:
Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, RP Singh, Sreesanth


South Africa:
Graeme Smith, Neil Mckenzie, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, AB de Villers, Mark Boucher, Morne Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn, Paul Harris

Darell Hair is back!

Darell Hair is back and that spells bad news for sub continental teams. Understand Hair was undergoing “rehab” for six months. ICC needs to explain the exact nature of so called “rehab” he has undergone. Till date, I have not figured out why Billy Doctrove escaped scot free as he was the other culprit at the infamous Oval test. In any case Hair’s return clearly means the quality of umpiring is going to decline further. I never thought he was a good umpire and some of his decisions have been outright atrocious. In any case, the rest of the “elite” umpiring fraternity is no good. Some of them wont be good enough to umpire in National competitions – to name a few Bucknor, Rudi Koertzen, Billy Bowden… even Aleem Dar is slipping these days. Gone are the days of 1990s when we saw some top quality umpiring with likes of Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Dickie Bird and David Shepherd at peak of their powers.

To improve quality of decision making, ICC should expand the elite panel as existing ones are just too tired covering too many matches and most important embrace technology in toto. Till then we have no option but to bear with third rate umpiring.

Lauding continuity in selection

The Indian team for the test series with South Africa has been announced and Indian selectors have chosen an expected squad. What has impressed me most of the current selection committee under Dilip Vengsarkar has been their consistency. By choosing Wasim Jaffer and Yuvraj Singh they have ensured continuity in selection. A pity Ishant Sharma is injured but I guess its better he is rested for couple of tests as he had maximum workload among the bowlers. Preference of Murali Kartik over Piyush Chawla is also a good move. With Kumble in the twilight of his career, it would be a good opportunity for Murali Kartik (should he play) to establish himself as a successor to the legend.

Watch out for the preview of test series in a few days time.

Indian Cricket team for South Africa test series

The Indian team for the test series with South Africa is being chosen today. The core of the team selects itself but injuries and form concerns would lead to a few changes. One of the contentious issues would be the opening slot. Wasim Jaffer had a horrendous tour of Australia but I guess is allowed one bad tour. He has been one of our most consistent batsman in past 18 months and deserves to retain his place.
My team would be as follows:
1. Wasim Jaffer
2. Virender Sehwag
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tenduklar
5. Sourav Ganguly
6. VVS Laxman
7. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
8. Harbhajan Singh
9. Anil Kumble
10. RP Singh
11. Ishant Sharma

Rest of the squad:
1. Murali Karthik
2. Irfan Pathan
3. Gautam Gambhir

My gut though suspects that Gautam Gambhir may play ahead of Wasim Jaffer and Piyush Chawla may get nod ahead of Murali Karthik.

Best All-Rounder in World Cricket

Who is the best all-rounder in Test Cricket?
Let’s take definition of an all-rounder. The traditional all-rounder is one who can be selected in a team purely as a batsman or a bowler. Adam Gilchrist’s lasting contribution has ensured that we expand the definition of all-rounder to one who can get selected purely as a wicket keeper or as a batsman.

Going by this expanded definition, lets list out the candidates
India: Irfan Pathan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Not sure Irfan Pathan will find a place in the team as either bowler or batsman especially in unhelpful sub continental wickets. Dhoni certainly can enter the team purely as a batsman. So India’s candidate is Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Australia: With retirement of Adam Gilchrist, no candidate around
New Zealand: They have two superb candidates – Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram
England: With Flintoff injured, can’t see any viable candidate
South Africa: Jacques Kallis does not bowl anymore or atleast not enough. Shaun Pollock has retired. Only Mark Boucher fits the bill
Pakistan: Shoaib Malik comes to mind but he is an iffy bowler at best. Kamran Akmal cannot keep wickets :-)
Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakarra, fab batsman wicket keeper. One of my favourite cricketers
West Indies: Bravo is masquerading as all-rounder. To my mind, he is only brilliant fielder --period

Rankings
If you consolidate the list of candidates, we have Dhoni, McCullum, Boucher, Sangakarra and Oram – four wicket keepers and one traditional all-rounder. This points two interesting developments:
-- There is clear lack of quality all-rounders in world cricket – the amount of cricket being played is possibly not allowing cricketers to develop both their batting and bowling skills – 1980s was possibly best period of all-rounders with Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee competing for the best all-rounder tag.
-- The legacy left behind by legendary Adam Gilchrist is evident. He is a true champ

I would rate the five candidates in following order:
1. Kumar Sangakarra
2. Brendon McCullum
3. Jacob Oram
4. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
5. Mark Boucher

Where is Andre Nel?

I was a bit surprised to look up the South African team touring India and not see name of Andre Nel. Andre Nel has been a thorn in India’s flesh in the past and somehow seems to do his best against India. In this context, it is indeed surprising to see him being omitted. As is the norm for visiting teams, two spinners have been picked – both are luxuries defensive left armers who I expect will over the wickets at leg stump.

Development of Dale Steyn is great news for South Africa and with his pace can trouble the best even on benign wickets. The bowling otherwise looks thin and South Africa may struggle to bowl out India twice.

Watch out for preview of the series coming up around 25 March 2008

Great Cricketing Rivalry

Which is cricket’s great rivalry at the moment? Is it Australia v/s England or India v/s Pakistan? This debate has been settled – its neither – to my mind the best cricketing rivalry at the moment is India vs Australia. For sheer intensity of the game, passion exhibited on the field, quality of cricket displayed on field and most important evenly matched competitiveness, there is no other rivalry to match these two great cricketing nations.

India has arrived and is here to stay. They are challenging Australians and even winning. Should they maintain their consistency, it bodes well for the rivalry.

England for their focus on Ashes has more often than not been trampled by Aussie aggression. Indo-Pak matches have become so common and at times so one sided that even the passion and intensity levels have come down.

So watch out for the great rivalry being played out – India v/s Australia.

About a monkey and farewells to Dada and Rahul

India’s win over Australia in the CB series was just amazing. It brings back memories of Sunny Gavaskar’s team winning the World Series Cup in 1985. What was great to see was MS Dhoni’s picking the team he wanted and the team backing him up. Praveen Kumar was Dhoni’s man friday and Sachin Tendulkar for once made useful contributions in big matches.

The series win effectively brings down the curtains on the illustrious careers of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.

Biggest gains of the ODI series
Dhoni’s captaincy – Displayed calm assuredness – displayed hitherto boldness unseen in Indian captains – brave decision to open bowling with Praveen Kumar and play Piyush Chawla in the finals. Backed his instincts and came out good. Playing under Kumble in the test series would have been an learning experience even as he grows in his job each day in the one day form of the game.

Gautam Gambhir has come off age. He has proved detractors like me wrong that he could not play genuine fast bowlers.

Rohit Sharma: A class act with great temperament. India would do well do groom him for test cricket.

Ishant Sharma: Continued his progress from test series. India should manage his work load well as he looks like the strike bowler that we would require.

Sachin Tendulkar: Finally playing critical innings while chasing esp in important matches. All of us have been waiting for this for a very long time. The monkey is off his back. Last time Sachin Tendulkar played import innings in finals was at Sharjah in 1998.

Jury is still out on Praveen Kumar. His contributions have been invaluable but it remains to be seen how useful he would be in unhelpful conditions in sub continent. But is worthy investment for the future

Disappointments of the series:
I am big fan of Yuvraj Singh and it was disappointing performance from him. Ditto Virender Sehwag.

In summary, a brilliant win for young, hungry team. One gets the feeling that this is just the beginning.

England to win away series 2-0 against New Zeland

England will take on New Zealand in a test series in the Southern Hemisphere and it’s a battle between teams which have seen more lows than highs since 2005. Both teams are in my view middle of ranking tables which makes it for an interesting match up.

English team has a quite a few quality individual cricketers but just don’t seem to play as a team. They have a good middle order with Ian Bell, Kevin Petersen, Paul Collingwood and a decent but developing opener in Alistair Cook. I think the weak links are Michael Vaughan (past his sell by date) and Andrew Strauss (tried, tested and failed). I don’t understand why English team is reluctant to give opportunities to Owais Shah.

I also suspect they have their batting order wrong. Ian Bell is at his most effective at No.6, not so much at No.3. All his centuries have been at No. 6 in the order. In any case, given the current squad, my preferred batting order would be
1. Michael Vaughan
2. Alistair Cook
3. Kevin Petersen
4. Paul Collingwood
5. Owais Shah
6. Ian Bell
7. Tim Ambrose (no wonder Chris Read is in ICL)
8. Stuart Broad
9. Ryan Sidebottom
10. Matthew Hoggard
11. Monty Panesar

I will never play Steve Harminson. Its better for a captain to have a predictable player. Though you could argue that Harminson is equally predictable – always likely to spray the ball J I think he is one of the most over rated bowlers in the world. English have a history of over rating their cricketers. They always used to claim that Jack Russell was the best wicketkeeper in the planet in his hey days. Ever heard of Ian Healy or Nayan Mongia lads!

New Zealand team on the other hand has been rocked by the ‘defections’ to ‘rebel’ Indian Cricket League (ICL). They have a very weak batting and bowling line up. Save and except Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum and to an extent Daniel Vettori, the team is short of class.

Anything less than a 2-0 series win for England will be nothing short of a disaster for the English team.

Test Match cricket any day, any time

I am a traditionalist. I would rather watch Rahul Dravid battle the guile of English bowlers in overcast conditions or watch Nayan Mongia keep wickets to Anil Kumble in the dusty Indian wickets or watch Anil Kumble gritting his teeth and grinding down his opponents than watch the razzmatazz of IPL 20 – 20 cricket. 20-20 is not for a passionate and ardent cricket lover like me.
As the adage goes, change is constant and IPL tamasha is here to stay. The money is good and no cricketer is complaining of excessive cricket. The Indian cricket board is happy and that’s what counts in the cricketing world.

I certainly would watch the IPL and enjoy the game but certainly would not lose my sleep over it. I would rather lose my sleep watching teams battle New Zealand at Christchurch.
I always enjoyed watching this game ever since age of 5. I remember waking up at 4:30am with my dad to watch Ravi Shastri win the Champion of Champions in Australia and car along with it. It’s been a passion since