When I used to turn out in my college matches, I used to stride out to the middle with an arrogant gait but underneath there was a fear of getting hit by the brand new red cherry. And I showed how not to play fast bowling. So does Suresh Raina even today at international level. Earlier this week I was very impressed by the Jonny Bairstow, his composure and technique against fast bowling. Here was a man who was hit several times by Darren Sammy (who bowls only at 120/125 ks), Kemar Roach and got caught of short balls just a month back. At Lords he was tackling Steyn, Morkel very confidently.
Wonder why Suresh Raina for all his prodigious talent is not able to fix his short coming against short ball. Sourav Ganguly was certainly not the best against the short ball but you have to admire he found a way to tackle and play the short ball (however clumsy he looked) and averaged 42 in international cricket.
Suresh Raina needs to merely look at Jonny Baristow to figure out how he has managed to seemingly overcome his shortcomings. You dont need to pull everything thrown at you which seems to be the route Raina is taking. For such a classy ODI player, suprising that he has not found his feet in test cricket. With Dravid and VVS moving on, Indian cricket needs someone of Raina's quality to step it up.
Glad to see Badri back in the squad. On the team composition & batting order - a few comments. Agree with Sanjay Manjrekar that you cannot have Sehwag and Gambhir opening against South Africa in 2013. Ideally combination for the NZ test would be:
Rahane, Gambhir, Kohli, Sachin, Pujara, Sehwag, Dhoni,Ohja, Ashwin, Zaheer, Umesh Yadav.
Looking forward to the start of a new season of test cricket. Should be great fun.
Wonder why Suresh Raina for all his prodigious talent is not able to fix his short coming against short ball. Sourav Ganguly was certainly not the best against the short ball but you have to admire he found a way to tackle and play the short ball (however clumsy he looked) and averaged 42 in international cricket.
Suresh Raina needs to merely look at Jonny Baristow to figure out how he has managed to seemingly overcome his shortcomings. You dont need to pull everything thrown at you which seems to be the route Raina is taking. For such a classy ODI player, suprising that he has not found his feet in test cricket. With Dravid and VVS moving on, Indian cricket needs someone of Raina's quality to step it up.
Glad to see Badri back in the squad. On the team composition & batting order - a few comments. Agree with Sanjay Manjrekar that you cannot have Sehwag and Gambhir opening against South Africa in 2013. Ideally combination for the NZ test would be:
Rahane, Gambhir, Kohli, Sachin, Pujara, Sehwag, Dhoni,Ohja, Ashwin, Zaheer, Umesh Yadav.
Looking forward to the start of a new season of test cricket. Should be great fun.
1 comment:
Superb article... agree with you on Raina entirely
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