India : What next??

[marc71178]

Most of them did take a month off. I believe they decided to skip a tour of the West Indies in order to do so.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Genuine question: Tendulkar took time off so he could acclimatise to English conditions.

Just how many games did he actually play there in order to achieve that end? Or did he just spend time knocking balls in the nets for an entire month, which sounds to me to be a waste of time considering that he skipped a Test tour for it?

 

[centurymaker]

Genuine question: Tendulkar took time off so he could acclimatise to English conditions.

Just how many games did he actually play there in order to achieve that end? Or did he just spend time knocking balls in the nets for an entire month, which sounds to me to be a waste of time considering that he skipped a Test tour for it?

he spent 4 to 5 days practising in the nets!

even the guy who did the throwdowns said later on that tendulkar hadn;t looked good in the nets.

 

[Cevno]

He had lost form at the end of the IPL tbh.

 

[centurymaker]

He had lost form at the end of the IPL tbh.

yup, too much T20 killed his form.

 

[G.I.Joe]

he spent 4 to 5 days practising in the nets!

even the guy who did the throwdowns said later on that tendulkar hadn;t looked good in the nets.

If I took a month off 'working from home' and only did 5 days worth of work, I know my integrity would have been in question by my employers. Just saying.

If he wanted to merely spend 5 days practising in the nets, he could have skipped just the last Test in the Windies.

 

[centurymaker]

If I took a month off 'working from home' and only did 5 days worth of work, I know my integrity would have been in question by my employers. Just saying.

If he wanted to merely spend 5 days practising in the nets, he could have skipped just the last Test in the Windies.

dude he didn't take the series off to prepare for the england tour.
he skipped it to rest (recover from the odd niggle), and spend time with his wife & kids.

 

[centurymaker]

btw I believe he should've played the last two tests in WI as the 2nd one started approx 1 month after the end of IPL.
1 month is a long enough break

 

[Cevno]

He was due a little bit dip of form in anycase after the stellar couple of years and more he has had.

Pretty Sure he will get back on track soon.

 

[centurymaker]

he might FINALLY be losing it after 22 years?

 

[nsniks]

Nice article by sanjay manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar: A five-point plan for India to return to No. 1 in Tests | Opinion | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

The BCCI has a lot on its plate other than managing the Indian cricket team, so it's time the board gave complete charge to perhaps a three-member team (excluding the captain), which could comprise the national coach, the chairman of selectors, and one person who's in charge, who makes the plans, manages the team and liaises with the BCCI to ensure the team is always on track to achieve its goals. I can't think of a better man than Anil Kumble to be assigned this task.

This management team must be paid very well, for it will have a high-profile, high-pressure job - that of taking care of the biggest brand in Indian cricket, the national team.

 

[honestbharani]

The question is not on Sachin's form though, is it? It is about his decision to skip Windies tour and saying he will utilize the time to acclimitise to English conditions and then not doing that properly.


Here is a question: What would you guys have thought had he actually went and played for some county during the 2 weeks he was there for before the series began?

 

[Arjun]

Why does everyone blame the IPL for things going wrong? Australia and South Africa, for instance, are making the most of their players' IPL participation,, and those players have done well for Australia, and still do. The IPL, when organised better and tapped to good effect, can help the Indian cricket setup well.

Name one player who's made it largely on the IPL records- it's Raina. There's more on Raina than IPL that gets him so many Navy Blue caps, unlike Yusuf or Rohit.

We see too many age-group selections in this side- quality players are often left out for young players. We've seen mediocre players make it big because of their youth for a long time. Moreover, there's an inner circle of Dhoni (seven make this list) which gets extra priority. They're the Cliq of Indian cricket, and they travel with him in the Business Class of an airplane while the others travel in economy. We see Dhoni pushing for his inner circle. We see Niranjan Shah lobbying for the token Saurashtra player. We don't see the ones leading the batting and bowling charts, or those winning matches and trophies for their teams in domestic cricket. All that matters is an age under 25 years and being in an inner circle.

Then there's dreadful injury and performance management. Talented, useful, match-winning players are left out after one or two poor games, and the luckiest, after a poor tour, and are often judged very harshly. Talented players, once out of form, are not helped back into form, but discarded with little hope of recall. Worse, they don't have a physio or fitness trainer doing the job, and the captain's strategies that have frontline bowlers overbowling (26 overs a Test innings is ridiculous) and then getting injured, and dropped for a long term.

Gary Kirsten lashed out at Yuvraj's poor fitness, largely characterised by his large waisht, and said he's not fit to represent the country in any sport. Yet Yuvraj is virtually Dhoni's lancer, game after game. Doesn't that suggest something? Yuvraj is one of those players who's had little performance to show for his unusually long stretch in the Indian side, and is in largely on hope and expectation.

Sanjay Manjrekar wants Kumble to be an administrator. I'd say he should be made head coach, with Dravid or Ganguly as an alternative candidate. Former players retired a few years ago will be better bets for this team, like Kirsten was, but the BCCI doesn't look at anything other than passport while selecting a coach.

 

[Cevno]

The question is not on Sachin's form though, is it? It is about his decision to skip Windies tour and saying he will utilize the time to acclimitise to English conditions and then not doing that properly.


Here is a question: What would you guys have thought had he actually went and played for some county during the 2 weeks he was there for before the series began?

He took time off to spend with his family, and not to acclimitise to English conditions as such as he didn't have a break in a while.

He was holidaying in london and was at wimbledon too, so the time he spent there preparing early was a bonus and just because it didn't work out it does not mean that he was lying or not doing anything properly.
He might as well have gone to WI if the board,selectors and management wanted him to play and not rest at the time instead of County cricket.

 

[shankar]

Throughout his career Sachin's been known for religiously preparing for the big challenges (most famous e.g. before the '98 series versus Oz). So before the series I was surprised at the relative lack of preparation for such a major challenge. I wonder if he's just finally starting to lose the drive...
(Separate this issue from how he actually ended up performing and what the reasons were for that. I'm only talking about the preparation)

 

[CricAddict]

I personally believe Sachin was not out of form even during the test series. If you look at the innings that he played, he was playing very well and not hopping like Raina until he got out. It is just that the English bowlers were too good during the series for him to make a bigger impact than he does usually. Credit where it is due.

Hopefully the form will translate to runs in the one day series since the bowlers have much less of an impact in ODIs. As HonestBharani put it, the question is not about form.

 

[centurymaker]

I personally believe Sachin was not out of form even during the test series. If you look at the innings that he played, he was playing very well and not hopping like Raina until he got out. It is just that the English bowlers were too good during the series for him to make a bigger impact than he does usually. Credit where it is due.

Hopefully the form will translate to runs in the one day series since the bowlers have much less of an impact in ODIs. As HonestBharani put it, the question is not about form.

Disagree, did you need see his footwork?

 

[Spark]

I personally believe Sachin was not out of form even during the test series. If you look at the innings that he played, he was playing very well and not hopping like Raina until he got out. It is just that the English bowlers were too good during the series for him to make a bigger impact than he does usually. Credit where it is due.

Hopefully the form will translate to runs in the one day series since the bowlers have much less of an impact in ODIs. As HonestBharani put it, the question is not about form.

As centurymaker hinted at, that may be true but form is a reflection of how you're playing. The English quicks messed up his footwork good and proper.

 

[centurymaker]

I personally believe Sachin was not out of form even during the test series. If you look at the innings that he played, he was playing very well and not hopping like Raina until he got out. It is just that the English bowlers were too good during the series for him to make a bigger impact than he does usually. Credit where it is due.

Hopefully the form will translate to runs in the one day series since the bowlers have much less of an impact in ODIs. As HonestBharani put it, the question is not about form.

just because he looked good 2-3 times, doesn't mean he was in form. You can't expect to get many runs if you are this inconsistent. (Dravid looked decent in at least 6 of the innings)
good thing is that despite being out of form, he managed to avg in the mid 30s so there's still some hope.

i believe it's now do or die for him in the australia series in january. (the same probably goes for laxman and dravid).
If they fail there, can't see them being retained in the team- ideally they'll say goodbye by themselves (people follow that series with at least 2 times as much interest so will be hard to get away with a failure there).

 

[CricAddict]

just because he looked good 2-3 times, doesn't mean he was in form. You can't expect to get many runs if you are this inconsistent. (Dravid looked decent in at least 6 of the innings)
good thing is that despite being out of form, he managed to avg in the mid 30s so there's still some hope.

i believe it's now do or die for him in the australia series in january. (the same probably goes for laxman and dravid).
If they fail there, can't see them being retained in the team- ideally they'll say goodbye by themselves (people follow that series with at least 2 times as much interest so will be hard to get away with a failure there).

There were quite a few lovely strokes from Sachin's blade in the series which a batsman doesnt get usually when he is out of form interspersed with many unplayable beauties that beat him.
That said, I dont say that Sachin was in form, just that he was not out of form. There is a small difference in that

And agree with you on the Australia series being the do-or-die series for the trio. I think both Dravid and Laxman will retire after that series, especially Laxman who ll like to go out on a high against his favourite opponents.