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IPL hurting the international game

Pigeon

Banned
Of course not. Especially when everytime he comes againts quality pace attacks in testing conditions he looks like a walking wicket.
:laugh:

First of all, it is wrong.

319 against SA figured Steyn.
195 vs Aus at Melbourne
201* vs SL against an attack featuring Murali and Mendis on a ripper
151 vs Aus at Adelaide
106 vs Eng at Nottingham

Secondly, it is not at all related to the argument that teams like Ind make selections based on ODI performances.


A flat deck againts a poor AUS attack. The only top innings Sehwag got againts pace was Chennai 04 (his best innings IMO) & the 317. But those where still flat decks.
No that is a myth. He made them look like flat decks. Just check the Chennai match. But for Sehwag and Dravid, no one really scored for India. And if you are suggesting Melbourne, Adelaide, etc are flat tracks, then you are also suggesting that Australia has only flat tracks and all Aussie greats are FTBs. A heralded company to keep for Sehwag indeed!!

If you remember after the 317, the next test on a green Ahmedabad wicket, Steyn bowled him between bat & pad. Exposing that long standing weakness of his & for the remainder of the series SA had him covered.
Wow, shocker!!! shocker!! A batsman is cheaply dismissed in an innings following a good one. Has never happened in test cricket to a great batsman! So must be a FTB. 8-)

See above.
Nothing.

He was picked in the test side intially for test side based on runs in the middle-order in FC cricket right. IND at the time did not have a settle opening pair in test.
So what? He was such a great batsman to not really be bothered by switching his place from middle order to top order. Many so called greats found the transition to be terrible. A certain MP Vaughan included.

Theirfore after getting a few months opening in ODIs he was given the chase to open in ENG 2002, after no FC experience & generally looking like a slogger in ODIs. That was clearly seen as a risky option, since 9/10 times players with such techniques generally would fail as an opener.
He did not. And that is all that matters. His technique is extremely underrated here. He relies on eye and quicksilver reflexes just like Viv Richards did.

Sehwag though given the flat decks & poor bowling attack this era. Ended up proving to be the perfect opener. He clearly is an IND great & will go down as the second best opener after Gavaskar. But fact remains he has generally been a FTB & unless he scores runs againts a top pace attack in testing conditions, he has a big black mark on is record.
You can score runs only against the opposition that exist. To suggest that you are a great only if you face the WI of the 80s or McGrath and Warne is playing lolsome. He has done whatever he can till now, and your silly notion of him not having scored runs against testing attacks in testing conditions is just stupid.
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
No, it says nothing about the Indian FC situation. FYI, India has perhaps the best batting talent pool than anywhere in the world.
It says everything about the Indian FC structure during the 90s. Look at ENG for example. England haven't produced a top-class spinner since Underwood. Thats because all the options that have played since have been worked out at test level due to the fact that they usually bowl to batsmen in CC, who are poor againts spin generally.

India from 1930 to the 70s. Had Gupte, Mankad, Patel, Nadkarni, Bedi, Prasanna, Chandra, Venkat, Mainder Singh, Dillip Doshi. Generally always having a strong spin bowling attack to suppliment their lack of pace-bowling options.

The fact that IND had Raju, Kapoor, Chauhan, Kulkarni, Bahutule, Joshi, Sanghvi as back-up to Kumble in the 90s unitl the turbanator stepped up in 01. Clearly showed a decline in spin talent during the 90s.

India has perhaps the best batting talent pool than anywhere in the world.
Slightly ahead of AUS yea. But that doesn't mean much when it comes to test cricket. If you have poor a FC competition you wont be converting that talent, to test match performances. Yuvraj is the perfect example ATM..


Rubbish. Mishra is not even comparable to Swann. Mishra is 25, Swann is 31+. Mishra is a result of his own personal effort with the FC exposure he got.
I'm not comparing them as bowler. I am comparing their rise respective rise to test cricket. Both toiled away in FC cricket for years before getting to tests.

Given ENG have dont produce quality off-spinner & haven't since Jim Laker. Swann for a few years yet is likely to be a strong servicable option for ENG. So he beat the odds in poor English county system for spinner.

Mishra after all the poor spinner outside Kumble/Harbhajan to play for IND over the last 15 years. Has proven to be test quality.




Another rubbish argument. Even the best FC structures throws up guys are not test standard. More of selection issue rather than inherent fault of FC cricket.
What?. India in over 75 years of test cricket have produces ONE great fast-bowler. Solely depending on spin, with hardly any bowler bowling fast in anger. Except for Srinath.

Since the MRF foundation you have seen the likes of Zaheer, Nehra, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Ishant, Patel etc come through this decade. So clearly the pace bowling academy had aided in being a suppliment of some sort, to the poor FC structure (the flat pitches). That is condusive for producing fast bowlers in general.

Anyway, I don't care really. You started the argument stating that India selects its players from ODIs which is rubbish. Stick to the topic.
It is related i just to argument. Those teams would tend to pick players based on ODI form BECAUSE of the poor structure of their domestic competitions. Simple.



Isn't that true for other countries as well?
Not really. AUS, WI (during the glory days), SA, ENG. Haven't struggled to find openers like how IND, PAK, SRI, NZ have generally in their test history.


NO.. You are just being stupid without suggesting a batch of players who were selected on ODI form than FC form.
Ha. Isn't that what i have been doing?. Lets go again. I shall devide it up into players who got picked based on ODI form & ones who got picked on natural talent.

ODI FORM:

- Again with IND, every opener since Gavaskar, excpet for Shastri & Sidhu has struggled to find a quality opening pair. They ended up picking Sehwag based on ODI batting as an opener, instead of FC form.

- Currently with Yuvraj/Badrinath debate. It seems its pretty obvious that the reason IND selectors have so much faith in IND & are consistently backing him in the test XI. Is because they think that fabulous ODI & T20 batting must be translated for tests.

- Thus they probably are unsure whether Badrinath although he is doing well domestically can translate that form into tests.

- Roger Twose earned a recall to the NZ middle-order during the 99 tour of ENG, basically on brilliant batting during the 99 WC. But he failed.

- AUS with the selection of Watson to open in the Ashes is basically based on what he did in ODIs as an opener. Since he failed in his limited FC experience for QSL as an opener. This is very unsual in AUS cricket of course.

- Ross Taylor was propelled into the NZ team. Based on the early ODI success instead of strong FC batting.

Plus im sure many more..

NATURAL TALENT:

- NZs greatest batsman Martin Crowe, was picked on natural talent. Instead of FC form, he ended up learning on the job.

- Every WI cricketer this 2000s era since Gayle & Sarwan. Has been picked on RAW natural talent instead of FC form. Most crazily Fidel Edwards who was picked in 2003, after bowling to Brian Lara in the nets.

Plus given their poor FC strucuture. Even those who have tended to do well have not translated it to test. For eg Rawl Lewis & Stuart Williams.

- Daniel Vettori, Chris Cairns, Shane were all picked on raw talent instead of strong FC form. This wiki article quote about Bond proves this:

wiki said:
Bond made his first-class debut for Canterbury on 20 January 1997, in a match against Central Districts.[11] He was relatively old when he made his first-class debut, at 21 years and 7 months old, and for the first few years of his career he played relatively little first-class cricket, playing only 12 matches for Canterbury in his first three seasons. His bowling figures in his first three seasons were solid but unspectacular.[12] Bond stopped playing cricket professionally for one year after he joined the New Zealand Police in November 1999, which left him no time to pursue his cricket career.[13] He returned to play several games for Canterbury in the 2000/01 season and had reasonable success despite his year off.[14] He was handed his first international opportunity early in the 2001/02 season, and from then, due to injuries and international commitments he was mainly unavailable to play for Canterbury, and only appeared in eight State Championship[15] and ten State Shield games[16] in seven seasons.
- We all know the fairytale stories with how Akram, Inzamam & Waqar where picked up by Imran Khan. (Although i have heard there is a lot of nepotism in PAK FC cricket, which sort of exaggerates these fairly tale stories).

- Razzaq & Mahmood where picked based on mixture of natural talent & ODI form. They showed it initially but obviously declined massively.

- Vinod Kambli picked on natural talent. But unlike Tendy didn't fullfill that talent since he was worked out in tests.

- PAK recently opening with Alam in test. Is basically a natural talent backing. If he comes good brilliant for Pak, he could be a make-shift option like Shoaib Malik was. But such a selection clearly shows given the lack of openers in PAK for years now, how bad the FC competition has failed them.

Plus im sure a few more..





Load of crap. Suggest examples mate or you are making yourself look abysmally stupid.
Haa. Are you blind?. I just gave the examples of Ajay Sharma, Kaif, Jadeja, Bhardwaj, Amre, Yurvraj (currently - although im backing him to come good in tests).



No, Law, Cox, Siddon, Love etc were all as good as the backup batsmen for India during the period. Till they play test cricket, there is no way they can be compared to others who did not play test cricket.
Haa. Are you serious.

How can Ajay Sharma, Kaif, Jadeja, Bhardwaj, Amre, Yurvraj. Compare with Law, Siddons, Love, Hodge as middle order batsmen?.

Which Indian opener in Gandi, Jaffer, Ramesh, Rathour, Das was better than Cox?.

Check yourself.




England has not produced a SINGLE world class batsman since Gooch. (criteria - ability to average > 50). Does that mean England's FC structure is terrible? Oh and don't give me the Pietersen argument. The groundwork in that lad's case was done in SA.
You need to understand the dynamics of the English FC system. The standard of cricket is quite poor indeed - division 2. But the catch is, that its arguably the best structured domestic competition is the games history.

When England where the best team in the world during the 1950s, producing some of its best players in history. The standard of cricket was superb. As well as during the 1970s.

Even if English players who get to test cricket end up being garbage. You never see ENG picking a teenager to play test or picking based on ODI form.




Dude, they are ranked NO.3 in test cricket right now. I agree that they don't possess the gunpower to shine abroad, but give credit when it's due. They are damn damn good at home.
Mainly because of Vaas & Murali. Now that will be gone soon, we shall see if Malinga & Mendis etc can maintain that standard.

Says nothing. FC structure does not throw up world champions anywhere. They just produce test standard cricketers. They convert themselves into world class by performing at the top stage.
The players become WC generally on the highest level are those who come through solid FC structures, whose standard of cricket are close to that of test matches.

Why else do you think PAK & IND struggled to produce quality openers in tests.


Monty? :laugh: Had he been an Indian, he wouldn't have made even the second XIs of major Indian FC teams. Give me a break.
Thats besides the point. Monty like Kaneria was picked on bit of natural talent. Instead of strong FC performances.



Yeah, blame the Eng FC structure for lack of competition then.
I always have.



Exactly. Now what's a solid FC structure?
A structure which is a strong breeding ground for bastmen, bowlers. So that by the time they get to test cricket, they would not be learning on the job.



It is NOT a fact. The only good teams during that period were WI and Aus. To be the no. 1 among 3 good teams for 5 years is like suggesting ---> :laugh: Go check your stats. A winning ratio of less than 50% does not qualify a team as world champs.
Clearly you are off on your cricket history. If you think WI were a better than ENG in the 50s haha my goodness. Plus in the period i showed you, ENG won two of the most famous Ashes series in 53 & 54/55.

Questioning whether ENG where the best team in the world during the 50s shows utter disrespect of the legacy of English cricket & lack of cricket knowledge.



:laugh: Without them playing even half of the test world, you qualify them as World Champs?? :wacko:
They beat ENG & AUS. Plus given that the WI where in decline that made SA unoffically the best. You cannot seriously tell regardless of the political reasons which prevented SA from playing IND & PAK, that they weren't a better team.




No. There is a HUGE difference between Might have been and Was. Go figure.
Yes it is all hypotetical what the greatest era of SA cricketers could have done. But what is fact is that they beat AUS in 69/70 - the best team in the world before they where banned. Plus given WI where not a force until 1976, its clear SA of that period where the best team in history not to play test cricket.




Yeah. I agree. That means the Eng FC structure is as flawed as any other structure in the world.
No, it certain areas it is as bad as IND, PAK, SRI, NZ, WI. But overall its way better.



Sorry mate. He won't make it to the test teams of SL, Pak, Ind or SA. Perhaps would make it to NZ, WI, Ban, and Eng.
Am did i not say he wont make the SA & IND team (but could battle for Yuvraj's spot)?.

Why wont he make PAK. Esepcially with Malik & an aging/inconsistent Misbah in that middle-order?


He is yet to face a good spin attack in such conditions, so he can never be considered test class without having done so. Nor he is exceptionally brilliant in other conditions to warrant his spot in the team. (Like Ponting being dire in India, but is exceptionally great otherwise and hence is a sure test champ)
Whats the relevance here. Like other AUS batsman like Katich, Hodge, Lehmann who got their chances late he has a fantastic FC average in the best FC competition in the world. Of course until he plays test cricket (or IF he ever plays which seems unlikely), we will not know whats could can do.

But its nonsense to compare D Hussey to Hick & Ramps.
 
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aussie

Hall of Fame Member
:laugh:

First of all, it is wrong.

319 against SA figured Steyn.
Great innings, defiantely the most destructive i think i've seen. But it was a flat pitch. Just like his 254 vs PAK @ Lahore 06. There was absolutely nothing in that wicket for the bowlers. Even Dravid who was out horribly of form during this period scored a hundred.

195 vs Aus at Melbourne.
Another flat pitch. Plus it was a average AUS attack.

201* vs SL against an attack featuring Murali and Mendis on a ripper.
Irrelevant. Sehwag has never had an issue againts spin. I am talking about runs he has scored againts top pace attacks in testing conditions. He has yet to do that.

151 vs Aus at Adelaide.
A very good innings, given that he showed great mental strenght after being recalled after being drop for the whole series. But another batting friendly pitch, IND where never under pressure to lose that test.


106 vs Eng at Nottingham.
An average English attack.

Secondly, it is not at all related to the argument that teams like Ind make selections based on ODI performances.
Given that the argument has reached to an analysis of Sehwag's career it has drifted away from that point.

The fact remains that Sehwag was picked to open based on ODI form. After watching other options fail for years.




No that is a myth. He made them look like flat decks. Just check the Chennai match. But for Sehwag and Dravid, no one really scored for India.
Nonsense. The fact tha Gillespie got bat for so long on the 4th day in partnership with Martyn showed that it was a slow turning flat deck. The quick turn that enabled Kumble to run through AUS on the first day had died down.

For the rest of series AUS had Sehwag covered technically.


And if you are suggesting Melbourne, Adelaide, etc are flat tracks, then you are also suggesting that Australia has only flat tracks and all Aussie greats are FTBs. A heralded company to keep for Sehwag indeed!!.
AUS indeed this 2000s era has had flat decks. But all of AUS batsman at some point in time has had testing conditions againts quality attacks where they have scored runs.



Wow, shocker!!! shocker!! A batsman is cheaply dismissed in an innings following a good one. Has never happened in test cricket to a great batsman! So must be a FTB. 8-).
Thats not what that comparison meant. Sehwah has a clear techincal weakness againts short-pitches bowling & when driving he leaves a big gap in bat & pad. Which leads him to being bowled alot.

Before that series vs SA the he was just smashing runs on flat decks & those technical issues were not exposed expcet for vs AUS 04/05 & ENG 05/06.

So although it seems as if Sehwag after coming back into the side after being dropped for the AUS has been looking. That technical flaw still remains, because if he had really improved technically, he would have been able to counter that sort of delivery.



So what? He was such a great batsman to not really be bothered by switching his place from middle order to top order.
No. Laxman opened for a period in the 90s a great batsman, picked just like Sehwag based on FC from in the middle-order. But given INDs opening situation, but he failed.

Sehwag has worked brilliantly for IND. Given this era of flat pitches Sehwag has not been exposed technically enough. He is perfect batsman for those type of pitches.

Many so called greats found the transition to be terrible. A certain MP Vaughan included.
Yes many great players do find transition of roles hard especially if they never did it in test cricket. But MP is not a good example, at his peak in 2002/03 it was as an opener.

Good examples would be Laxman opening, Gibbs batting in the middle-order, Ricky Ponting @ 6 in the early days (although this isn't that serious), Blewett opening etc



He did not. And that is all that matters. His technique is extremely underrated here. He relies on eye and quicksilver reflexes just like Viv Richards did.
Sehwag does rely on a great eye on super reflexes. But dont compare it to King Viv, thats crazy. King Viv had no techincal flaws like Sehwag.



You can score runs only against the opposition that exist. To suggest that you are a great only if you face the WI of the 80s or McGrath and Warne is playing lolsome. He has done whatever he can till now, and your silly notion of him not having scored runs against testing attacks in testing conditions is just stupid.
Matthew Hayden from IND 2001 - Ashes 2005. Was a big FTB like Sehwag. But answered questions about his technique by scoring runs againts qualtiy pace attacks in testing conditons at the back end of his career.

Sehwag is yet to do that. Unless he does, he will have this black mark on his career for a while yet.
 

Cruxdude

International Debutant
Yes top innings. But its a different beast from test cricket. He unfortunately has never replicated that in tests.
Well a person who can do it twice on swinging tracks in ODIs can do it in tests, especially if the person in question is Sehwag who doesn't show any difference in both. I suppose he will do it in tests some time soon.
 

Pigeon

Banned
It says everything about the Indian FC structure during the 90s. Look at ENG for example. England haven't produced a top-class spinner

since Underwood. Thats because all the options that have played since have been worked out at test level due to the fact that they usually bowl to batsmen in

CC, who are poor againts spin generally.
No, the fact that English batsmen still pee in their pants in test matches show how dire they are and how dire their FC system has been.

India from 1930 to the 70s. Had Gupte, Mankad, Patel, Nadkarni, Bedi, Prasanna, Chandra, Venkat, Mainder Singh, Dillip Doshi. Generally always having

a strong spin bowling attack to suppliment their lack of pace-bowling options.

The fact that IND had Raju, Kapoor, Chauhan, Kulkarni, Bahutule, Joshi, Sanghvi as back-up to Kumble in the 90s unitl the turbanator stepped up in 01.

Clearly showed a decline in spin talent during the 90s.
So short the public memory is. When the conditions were right, players like Chauhan, Raju etc were as unplayable as any other spinner. Remember the 3-0

whitewash of England during their tour of India in 92-93?

The likes of Ashish Kapoor, Kulkarni, etc were picked as backup spinners and were not expected to last the course for long. And they did not also. So there

goes your "India did not have spin options" out of the window.

Your argument is as dire as saying Australia is dire in producing fast bowlers because sometimes the likes of Brad Williams and Tom Moody gets to play test

cricket.

Slightly ahead of AUS yea. But that doesn't mean much when it comes to test cricket. If you have poor a FC competition you wont be converting that

talent, to test match performances. Yuvraj is the perfect example ATM..
Utter dross. So how come the Indian batting is the best in the world? You are just speaking utter nonsense mate. Yuvraj is the weakest link in the test

lineup and idealy should not be there. But the other 7 are as good as they get, and FC system has played a great role in making them where they are.

I'm not comparing them as bowler. I am comparing their rise respective rise to test cricket. Both toiled away in FC cricket for years before getting

to tests.

Given ENG have dont produce quality off-spinner & haven't since Jim Laker. Swann for a few years yet is likely to be a strong servicable option for ENG. So

he beat the odds in poor English county system for spinner.

Mishra after all the poor spinner outside Kumble/Harbhajan to play for IND over the last 15 years. Has proven to be test quality.
No, Swann would not be even considered for test selection had he been an Indian. We all saw the quality of playing spin in England when Piyush Chawla, a test

discard, virtually tore into smithereens the English FC batsman in the limited matches he played. We have also seen how Mushtaq Ahmad, another test discard,

dominated FC system for so long. He would never get a game had he been in India or Pakistan.

What?. India in over 75 years of test cricket have produces ONE great fast-bowler. Solely depending on spin, with hardly any bowler bowling

fast in anger. Except for Srinath.

Since the MRF foundation you have seen the likes of Zaheer, Nehra, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Ishant, Patel etc come through this decade. So clearly the pace

bowling academy had aided in being a suppliment of some sort, to the poor FC structure (the flat pitches). That is condusive for producing fast bowlers in

general.
Zaheer Khan took his time, but one can safely say he is world class at the moment. And quite funny on your part to ignore the exploits of Kapil Dev. It is

not Quantum Mechanics to understand that in a country which used to play 60-70% of it's cricket on dusty subcontinent bowls, spin would get a

proportionaltely large amount of attention.


It is related i just to argument. Those teams would tend to pick players based on ODI form BECAUSE of the poor structure of their domestic

competitions. Simple.
EXAMPLES PLEASE. Just because you say that every post does not make it a truth.


Not really. AUS, WI (during the glory days), SA, ENG. Haven't struggled to find openers like how IND, PAK, SRI, NZ have generally in their test

history.
You are just a broken record. You keep on saying India's inability to produce world class openers despite ample proof like Gavaskar, Sehwag and now possible

Gautam Gambhir. Oh yeah, I can imagine the rebuttal, they are all FTBs right? Wake up and smell the coffee kid, how many world class openers has England

created in the last 25 years? How many has Australia created? How many has NZ created? How many has SA created? Let's do a numbers game there.

Ha. Isn't that what i have been doing?. Lets go again. I shall devide it up into players who got picked based on ODI form & ones who got picked on natural

talent.

ODI FORM:

- Again with IND, every opener since Gavaskar, excpet for Shastri & Sidhu has struggled to find a quality opening pair. They ended up picking Sehwag based on

ODI batting as an opener, instead of FC form.
Bull ****. Sehwag was already in the test team when he was switched to opening. He would not have been in the test team in the first place had the FC system

being dire as you delusionally believe.

- Currently with Yuvraj/Badrinath debate. It seems its pretty obvious that the reason IND selectors have so much faith in IND & are consistently

backing him in the test XI. Is because they think that fabulous ODI & T20 batting must be translated for tests.
He has a reasonable FC record and that is why selectors persist with him. ANyway he is still young and has time to hit it in test matches. Although, your

limited arguments to Yuvraj suggests a lack of depth.

- Roger Twose earned a recall to the NZ middle-order during the 99 tour of ENG, basically on brilliant batting during the 99 WC. But he failed.
Let's talk about Indian FC and SL FC mate. I agreed with you that NZ makes test selections on the basis of ODI performances.


- AUS with the selection of Watson to open in the Ashes is basically based on what he did in ODIs as an opener. Since he failed in his limited FC

experience for QSL as an opener. This is very unsual in AUS cricket of course.
Doh

- Ross Taylor was propelled into the NZ team. Based on the early ODI success instead of strong FC batting.
Doh

Plus im sure many more..
Not much when it comes to India and SL sunshine.

NATURAL TALENT:

- NZs greatest batsman Martin Crowe, was picked on natural talent. Instead of FC form, he ended up learning on the job.

- Every WI cricketer this 2000s era since Gayle & Sarwan. Has been picked on RAW natural talent instead of FC form. Most crazily Fidel Edwards who was picked

in 2003, after bowling to Brian Lara in the nets.
Doh Doh Doh. My arguments if you noticed is for your callous suggestion that Ind and SL.

Plus given their poor FC strucuture. Even those who have tended to do well have not translated it to test. For eg Rawl Lewis & Stuart Williams.

- Daniel Vettori, Chris Cairns, Shane were all picked on raw talent instead of strong FC form. This wiki article quote about Bond proves this:
So what?



- We all know the fairytale stories with how Akram, Inzamam & Waqar where picked up by Imran Khan. (Although i have heard there is a lot of nepotism

in PAK FC cricket, which sort of exaggerates these fairly tale stories).

- Razzaq & Mahmood where picked based on mixture of natural talent & ODI form. They showed it initially but obviously declined massively.

- Vinod Kambli picked on natural talent. But unlike Tendy didn't fullfill that talent since he was worked out in tests.
As for Vinod Kambli you are bull ****ting yourself, You don't buy a 50+ batting average in your roadside shops. And he had a splendid FC record before he was

picked for tests. I;d hazard that Vinod, had he been English, would have been in the test team even now.

- PAK recently opening with Alam in test. Is basically a natural talent backing. If he comes good brilliant for Pak, he could be a make-shift option

like Shoaib Malik was. But such a selection clearly shows given the lack of openers in PAK for years now, how bad the FC competition has failed them.
Plus im sure a few more..

You are just steering the thread in the wrong way.


Haa. Are you blind?. I just gave the examples of Ajay Sharma, Kaif, Jadeja, Bhardwaj, Amre, Yurvraj (currently - although im backing him to come good

in tests).
First of all, Kaif, Jadeja, Yuvraj, Amre etc don't have good FC records to be considered ahead of the Fab 4 today.
Secondly, the Fab 4 or 5 have been that brilliant over the years that they literally shut out all competition from the FC newbies.
Hence the inability of these guys to step up to the test level does not show the ****tiness of FC structure, but just that the four guys whom FC itself threw

up earlier, namely SRT, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman were that good.


Haa. Are you serious.

How can Ajay Sharma, Kaif, Jadeja, Bhardwaj, Amre, Yurvraj. Compare with Law, Siddons, Love, Hodge as middle order batsmen?.

Which Indian opener in Gandi, Jaffer, Ramesh, Rathour, Das was better than Cox?.

Check yourself.
No mate, you are being delusional. You haven't obviously seen a majority of the above in action to even hazard a guess. Ramesh, Gandhi etc would have been

found out playing the shorter deliveries just like Cox and other whats=their=names=again would have been found out playing spin.


You need to understand the dynamics of the English FC system. The standard of cricket is quite poor indeed - division 2. But the catch is, that its

arguably the best structured domestic competition is the games history.
If it had been, then England would not have been consistently the most mediocre team in cricketing history since the last 30 years or so.

When England where the best team in the world during the 1950s, producing some of its best players in history. The standard of cricket was superb. As

well as during the 1970s.
That is because the subcontinental teams were like Bangladesh. So England's fortunes based on how Australia and WI fared basically.

Even if English players who get to test cricket end up being garbage. You never see ENG picking a teenager to play test or picking based on ODI form.
No wonder they are so down the tests table these days. Desperate hours call for desperate measures. England FC is terrible that it has not been able to

supply any talent of late, and then one just has to assess what's wrong and look for alternatives rather than clutching to terrible centuries old delusions

like "So what, we still pick our test players based on our FC competition, regardless of how dire it is ".

Mainly because of Vaas & Murali. Now that will be gone soon, we shall see if Malinga & Mendis etc can maintain that standard.
So what? Vaas and Murali certainly didn't fall out of the heaven. They are also products of the SL FC structure right? Malinga and Mendis have already shown

what they are capable of. A few years from now, these two alongwith the underrated Kulasekara, Herath, and Thilan Thushara should propel the SL team forward.



The players become WC generally on the highest level are those who come through solid FC structures, whose standard of cricket are close to that of

test matches.

Why else do you think PAK & IND struggled to produce quality openers in tests.
And also speaks volumes about why England has failed to produce any quality players at opening, middle order, spin bowling and to some extent fast bowling

departments in test cricket am afraid.


Thats besides the point. Monty like Kaneria was picked on bit of natural talent. Instead of strong FC performances.
Monty's talent was overrated by the English selectors. It does not mean he was as talented as Kaneria. Had he been assessed by the same team who assessed

Kaneria, he'd be still playing second XI cricket.



I always have.

Does not make him any good.



A structure which is a strong breeding ground for bastmen, bowlers. So that by the time they get to test cricket, they would not be learning on the

job.
A thing which the Indian and SL FC has done much much better than the English or WI or NZ or Pak FC structure has over the last decade or so.


Clearly you are off on your cricket history. If you think WI were a better than ENG in the 50s haha my goodness. Plus in the period i showed you, ENG

won two of the most famous Ashes series in 53 & 54/55.
Winning a series against one opponent is hardly the hallmark of world class mate. To be labelled World Class, victories must span across countries and years

if not decades. Checkmate.

Questioning whether ENG where the best team in the world during the 50s shows utter disrespect of the legacy of English cricket & lack of cricket

knowledge.
Oh, it hurt ya mate? AM sorry. But I'd not rather pride myself being the best among 3 or 4 nations playing serious test cricket.


They beat ENG & AUS. Plus given that the WI where in decline that made SA unoffically the best. You cannot seriously tell regardless of the political

reasons which prevented SA from playing IND & PAK, that they weren't a better team.
Stupid reasoning. They had two or three good series does not make them world class. That is why I precisely said, "There is a huge difference between might

have been and was".


Yes it is all hypotetical what the greatest era of SA cricketers could have done. But what is fact is that they beat AUS in 69/70 - the best team in the

world before they where banned. Plus given WI where not a force until 1976, its clear SA of that period where the best team in history not to play test

cricket.
No, even the best teams have their off series. Eng beat Aus in 2005, it did not automatically make them best in the world, did it?


No, it certain areas it is as bad as IND, PAK, SRI, NZ, WI. But overall its way better.
It is dire and Indian and SL and Pakistan structures are way better than England in producing talent. Tell me one world class opener England has produced

since Gooch, one world class spinner since Jim Laker, one good fast bowler since Flintoff.


Am did i not say he wont make the SA & IND team (but could battle for Yuvraj's spot)?.

Why wont he make PAK. Esepcially with Malik & an aging/inconsistent Misbah in that middle-order?
Because all these teams play a lot of their cricket on spin friendly grounds where Dave Hussey would have been found out.


Whats the relevance here. Like other AUS batsman like Katich, Hodge, Lehmann who got their chances late he has a fantastic FC average in the best FC

competition in the world. Of course until he plays test cricket (or IF he ever plays which seems unlikely), we will not know whats could can do.

But its nonsense to compare D Hussey to Hick & Ramps.
Why is it nonsense to compare D Hussey to Hick and Ramps? Dhussey for your info, has played and made big scores in English FC too.
 

Pigeon

Banned
Great innings, defiantely the most destructive i think i've seen. But it was a flat pitch. Just like his 254 vs PAK @ Lahore 06. There

was absolutely nothing in that wicket for the bowlers. Even Dravid who was out horribly of form during this period scored a hundred.
I agree it was not the worst pitch to bat on. But hey even on roads, it is not easy to make triple hundreds mate. Also consider the fact that Steyn is a

bowler who is fast in the air rather than off the pitch and has less reliance on the pitches. You may understate the significance of that triple hundred. But

not even the greatests could make a trple hundred that he made on that day. Give him some credit fella. Alteast he made it against a superb SA bowling attack

than a Zim or Ban attack



Another flat pitch. Plus it was a average AUS attack.
Load of gas mate. It was not a flat track and neither it was an average AUS attack. FFS, it was an AUSTRALIAN attack and they were hardly average during that

time.



Irrelevant. Sehwag has never had an issue againts spin. I am talking about runs he has scored againts top pace attacks in testing conditions. He has

yet to do that.
Bull ****. To be a world class batsman one has to be good against both pace and spin, and he showed that he is a master at playing spin that day. As for

playing pace, he has shown by now, that he is hardly perturbed against pace either.

A very good innings, given that he showed great mental strenght after being recalled after being drop for the whole series. But another batting

friendly pitch, IND where never under pressure to lose that test.
You must be kidding. India had every chance to do what England did in the Ashes 06-07 by being dismissed for a paltry score in the 2nd innings, but Sehwag

stood up to the task despite a raging Lee, Johnson and Clark. Secondly, it was hardly a "flat track" by any definition, unless your definition of a flat

track is "one on which Sehwag tons up". Can't help you there much.

An average English attack.
Hoggard and Flintoff nearing their primes in swinging seaming conditions are hardly average for batting.



Given that the argument has reached to an analysis of Sehwag's career it has drifted away from that point.

The fact remains that Sehwag was picked to open based on ODI form. After watching other options fail for years.
Not for years, but for a short period between 99 (after Sidhu and Mongia) to 2001. Even during that Ramesh was about to become a good opener but

unfortunately got injured. After all these arguments, I am amazed at your lack of options by just saying "India has produced just a flat track bully opening

batsman since Sidhu and that means their FC is dire". Laughable indeed.


Nonsense. The fact tha Gillespie got bat for so long on the 4th day in partnership with Martyn showed that it was a slow turning flat deck. The quick

turn that enabled Kumble to run through AUS on the first day had died down.
Am talking about the SA series mate. And don't criminally underrate GIllespie, that dude has a 200 to his name, don't forget.

For the rest of series AUS had Sehwag covered technically.
What series?

AUS indeed this 2000s era has had flat decks. But all of AUS batsman at some point in time has had testing conditions againts quality attacks where

they have scored runs.
So has Sehwag.


Thats not what that comparison meant. Sehwah has a clear techincal weakness againts short-pitches bowling & when driving he leaves a big gap in bat &

pad. Which leads him to being bowled alot.
He might have, but as long as he gets runs, why should really worry? Ian Bell has apparently one of the best techniques but he is dire.


Before that series vs SA the he was just smashing runs on flat decks & those technical issues were not exposed expcet for vs AUS 04/05 & ENG 05/06.
He was terrible in the home series against England, but hardly that in the BG trophy of 04. Averaged 43 which is still good.


So although it seems as if Sehwag after coming back into the side after being dropped for the AUS has been looking. That technical flaw still remains,

because if he had really improved technically, he would have been able to counter that sort of delivery.
You have not been watching him over the last few years I suppose. In Australia he was meted out the short pitched treatment in 07-08, but dealt with it in

his own inimitable way. He may not have the textbook technicals, but hey great players don't follow text books, they make them.



No. Laxman opened for a period in the 90s a great batsman, picked just like Sehwag based on FC from in the middle-order. But given INDs opening

situation, but he failed.
More to say about Laxman's lack of capability to adapt rather than anything about the FC structure mate.

Sehwag has worked brilliantly for IND. Given this era of flat pitches Sehwag has not been exposed technically enough. He is perfect batsman for those

type of pitches.
Because he has a technique of his own which has supported him well.


Yes many great players do find transition of roles hard especially if they never did it in test cricket. But MP is not a good example, at his peak in 2002/03

it was as an opener.
Even then his record is inferior to Sehwag's



Good examples would be Laxman opening, Gibbs batting in the middle-order, Ricky Ponting @ 6 in the early days (although this isn't that serious),

Blewett opening etc
Yeah, that makes it all the more incredible in Sehwag's case.



Sehwag does rely on a great eye on super reflexes. But dont compare it to King Viv, thats crazy. King Viv had no techincal flaws like Sehwag.
He had, but those were not exposed till his eye started to fail him towards the end of his career.


Matthew Hayden from IND 2001 - Ashes 2005. Was a big FTB like Sehwag. But answered questions about his technique by scoring runs againts qualtiy pace

attacks in testing conditons at the back end of his career.

Sehwag is yet to do that. Unless he does, he will have this black mark on his career for a while yet.
No he doesn't. Because you have not yet specified what are these "great attacks" he has not scored off yet, and that Hayden has.
 

Flem274*

123/5
In between the insane quote warfare, I'd like to point out that picking very young guys on potential is ********. Martin Crowe, Chris Cairns etc sucked on the whole and we had to carry them and hope. Plus they got injured and, in Crowe's case, felt humilliated and lost confidence (this is what Crowe has described about himself). And seriously, if you want your FC comp to get better, leave the good players in it for a bit instead of debuting them at twelve.

Also, the reason Bond played late was because he was an injury prone rank medium pacer before he joined the cops.

Anyway, I'll leave you all to your war about God knows what. :p
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
No, the fact that English batsmen still pee in their pants in test matches show how dire they are and how dire their FC system has been.

So short the public memory is. When the conditions were right, players like Chauhan, Raju etc were as unplayable as any other spinner. Remember the 3-0

whitewash of England during their tour of India in 92-93?

The likes of Ashish Kapoor, Kulkarni, etc were picked as backup spinners and were not expected to last the course for long. And they did not also. So there

goes your "India did not have spin options" out of the window.

India runnings through ENG in 92-93 doesn't say much. Given how woeful ENG are againts spin, that wasn't exactly a STROGN opposition side.
Kapoor, Kulkarni, Joshi etc didn't last long or pose a strong back-up competition for Kumble shows that in the 90s there was a decline in spin standards. Currently you have Misha & Ojha coming through so clearly their is an improvement.

Your argument is as dire as saying Australia is dire in producing fast bowlers because sometimes the likes of Brad Williams and Tom Moody gets to play test cricket.
Thats was my point all along, the spin standards declined during the 90s. Simple.



Utter dross. So how come the Indian batting is the best in the world? You are just speaking utter nonsense mate. Yuvraj is the weakest link in the test

lineup and idealy should not be there. But the other 7 are as good as they get, and FC system has played a great role in making them where they are.
We are not talking about the the Big 4 & Azharruddin who were the back-bones of IND batting during the 90s. But the back-ups of the last 15 years like Kaif, Ajay Sharma, Yuvraj, Jadeja, Amre, Bhardwaj who were poor.



No, Swann would not be even considered for test selection had he been an Indian. We all saw the quality of playing spin in England when Piyush Chawla, a test

discard, virtually tore into smithereens the English FC batsman in the limited matches he played. We have also seen how Mushtaq Ahmad, another test discard,

dominated FC system for so long. He would never get a game had he been in India or Pakistan.
Why are you comparing whether Swann would have played for IND or PAK?. Or highlighting what Chawla & Mushy did againts FC batsmen in county cricket?

We are comparing their comparitive RISE to test cricket. Where by both bowled for years in FC cricket, where the standard of batting is a way below the standard of tes cirkcet. So them proving to be test class for their respecitve sides, is a testament to them.

Even in a poor FC strucuture, you will get some player who will come through & prove to be test quality. It just wont be a consistent supply.



Zaheer Khan took his time, but one can safely say he is world class at the moment. And quite funny on your part to ignore the exploits of Kapil Dev. It is

not Quantum Mechanics to understand that in a country which used to play 60-70% of it's cricket on dusty subcontinent bowls, spin would get a proportionaltely large amount of attention.
Ha, when i said ONE-GREAT FAST BOWLER, i was clearly refering to the legendary Kapil Dev.

The fact that the pitches in IND all these years haven't been conductive to fast bowling, isn't ALL to the do with the standard of pitches. IND from very early in their history adopted a strategy of preparing pitches for their spinners.

A poor standard of pitches for fast-bowling is a facet of poor FC competition. Thats why is said the MRF is been a clear bridiging gap for the hole, since maybe the groundsmen in IND generally can't produce seaming or fast wickets. Plus it would be sort of foolish for IND at home to not want to prepare turning tracks TBF, you would lose home advantage.




You are just a broken record. You keep on saying India's inability to produce world class openers despite ample proof like Gavaskar, Sehwag and now possible

Gautam Gambhir. Oh yeah, I can imagine the rebuttal, they are all FTBs right? Wake up and smell the coffee kid, how many world class openers has England

created in the last 25 years? How many has Australia created? How many has NZ created? How many has SA created? Let's do a numbers game there.
Firstly Gambhir although he is going well. He still hasn't been tested againts a top-pace attack either. His time will go to prove himself.

Haha you cant be serious. Well lets go then:

AUS:

- Taylor
- Marsh
- Hayden
- Slater
- Langer
- Elliot (although he had his issues, he is way better than most of what IND had clearly)
- Jaques
- Rogers
- Hughes
- Boon (scored hundreds as an opener).

NZ have been just as bad an IND or worse. So they are irrelevant.

SA:

- Smith
- Kirsten
- Gibbs
- Wessels
- Hudson

SA clearly since readmission have always had settled test-quality opening pair.

ENG:

- Gooch
- Atherton
- Stewart (when he did open)
- Strauss
- Trescothick
- Vaughan



Clearly overall IND can't match up with that. Since not only in the last 25 years, HISTORICALLY IND have not produced test quality openers. Gavaskar is the only truly great opener. Sehwag & Merchant would be in the very good quality, but with questions over their techniques againts quality pace. The likes of Shastri, Mankad, Engineer did well as make-shift options. While Sidhu, Pankaj Roy, Srikkanth, Gaekwad range from where decent but nothing spectacular.




He has a reasonable FC record and that is why selectors persist with him. ANyway he is still young and has time to hit it in test matches. Although, your limited arguments to Yuvraj suggests a lack of depth.
Yuvraj has been continously backed due to his fantastic ODI exploits, more so that his FC record. Is pretty much like Bevan for AUS, for all his magnificent batting he never could force his way back into the AUS test ranks.

The fact that Yuvi is been continously fact is because IND doesn't 100% have faith in the domestic batsmen. Which is a underlying problem with the FC structure.



As for Vinod Kambli you are bull ****ting yourself, You don't buy a 50+ batting average in your roadside shops. And he had a splendid FC record before he was picked for tests.
He averaged 50+ in againts average bowlers in a poor FC structure. So that 50+ ave means nothing. He scored big runs againts poor test attacks & when he faced the WI in 94 he was worked out technically.

I;d hazard that Vinod, had he been English, would have been in the test team even now.
Probably yes. But would that prevent him from being exposed technically again?. No it won't.




First of all, Kaif, Jadeja, Yuvraj, Amre etc don't have good FC records to be considered ahead of the Fab 4 today.
Secondly, the Fab 4 or 5 have been that brilliant over the years that they literally shut out all competition from the FC newbies.
Hence the inability of these guys to step up to the test level does not show the ****tiness of FC structure, but just that the four guys whom FC itself threw

up earlier, namely SRT, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman were that good.
Exaclty. Kaif, Yuvraj etc etc being poor back-up to the BIG 4 & Azhar for the last 15 years shows that generally the standard of batting has been poor.

Look at the amount of competition AUS had in the 90s & continues to have in batting-lineup. IND cant comapre with that.




No mate, you are being delusional. You haven't obviously seen a majority of the above in action to even hazard a guess.
I saw all of them play live in test & ODI expect Amre. None where test quality.


Ramesh, Gandhi etc would have been found out playing the shorter deliveries just like Cox and other whats=their=names=again would have been found out playing spin.

Thats defiantely true, but how often would these guys have to play spin if they played for AUS?. The job of an opener is to see off the new-ball, Cox clearly was better than all IND opener in the 90s than doing that. Cox would have been a star opener for IND.




If it had been, then England would not have been consistently the most mediocre team in cricketing history since the last 30 years or so.
When i saw the "Best structure". I am refering to things such as:

- Consistent sponsorship from buisness entities
- A national academy
- Players bascially being able to live off playing County cricket, so as to pay bills & support their families

Outside, AUS & SA. Thats not possible in other domestic competitions. If its is, especially the other two points, its not on the same standard.



That is because the subcontinental teams were like Bangladesh. So England's fortunes based on how Australia and WI fared basically.
Haha my god. You are disrespecting your IND team if you think they where like BANG in the 1950s as well as PAK haha. In case your forgot IND & PAK did beat AUS in test macthes during the 50s. here & here. PAK also defeated the WI.

The only minnow in the 1950s was NZ. You better check your cricket history.



No wonder they are so down the tests table these days. Desperate hours call for desperate measures. England FC is terrible that it has not been able to

supply any talent of late, and then one just has to assess what's wrong and look for alternatives rather than clutching to terrible centuries old delusions

like "So what, we still pick our test players based on our FC competition, regardless of how dire it is ".
Dont overexaggerate. As i said, the standard of cricket in certain area's in poor i.e Divison 2. Lets not forget ENG have won the Ashes, won in PAK & SRI, beaten SA more times than they have lost to them since readmission.

I agree, MAYBE they could pick a few players based on ODI form (although it doesn't work generally). But overall the structure is better than IND.



So what? Vaas and Murali certainly didn't fall out of the heaven. They are also products of the SL FC structure right? Malinga and Mendis have already shown

what they are capable of. A few years from now, these two alongwith the underrated Kulasekara, Herath, and Thilan Thushara should propel the SL team forward.
SRI have no doubt developed very quickly. The main reason why they have been invisible at home is because of Vaas/Murali. They have like most sub-continent teams, been woeful away from home for obvious reasons.

Alot of average batsmen & bowlers have played for SRI behind the Jayasuriya, Atapattu, De Silva, Jayawardene, Sanga etc etc. So its not as IF their FC structure has been superb, it has all the typical faults of IND & PAK.





Monty's talent was overrated by the English selectors. It does not mean he was as talented as Kaneria. Had he been assessed by the same team who assessed

Kaneria, he'd be still playing second XI cricket.
Again why are you comparing them as players. We are comparing HOW they where picked by their respecitve teams, whether it was based on strong FC performances or raw talent.

It would be wrong to say ENG overstated Monty talent. Between IND 06 to SRI 07, he was doing ok. He was worked out againts top players of spin & has not recovered. Same thing with Kaneria.




A thing which the Indian and SL FC has done much much better than the English or WI or NZ or Pak FC structure has over the last decade or so.
In the middle-order batting & spin talent for obvious reasons. IND & SRI haven't produced better openers & fast-bowlers than ENG.

But overall i was refering to the respective competitions on a more historical perspective than over the last 10 years.

As i said when ENG where the best team in the world in the 1950s. While being right amongst the best in the 60s & 70s, a strong FC structure was the basis of that.



Winning a series against one opponent is hardly the hallmark of world class mate. To be labelled World Class, victories must span across countries and years

if not decades. Checkmate.

Oh, it hurt ya mate? AM sorry. But I'd not rather pride myself being the best among 3 or 4 nations playing serious test cricket.
Oh dear. You are just off with your cricket history. Look at Cricket Records | Records | England | Test matches | Series results | Cricinfo.com

Look at every series from the NZ tour to ENG 50/51 to ENG to AUS 58/59. Look at quality of opposition ENG beat & read the cricinfo profiles of the ENG players. Then if you still debate whether ENG aren't the best in the world during the 1950s, then i cant help you.




Stupid reasoning. They had two or three good series does not make them world class. That is why I precisely said, "There is a huge difference between might

have been and was".


No, even the best teams have their off series. Eng beat Aus in 2005, it did not automatically make them best in the world, did it?.
I was always speaking hypotetically, when i said SA of the 70s where the best team of the world not to play test cricket. Before WI became the dominant force in 1976.

This is what SA of 70-76 could have looked like:

Barry Richards
Eddie Barlow/Jimmy Cook
Graeme Pollock
Peter Kirsten/Ali Bacher
Lee Irvine
Clive Rice
Mike Procter
Dennis Lindsay/Ray Jennings - Wikcet-Keeper
Allan Kourie/John Traicos
Garth Le Roux
Vince Van der Bijl


I suggest you go an cricinfo & look all the other nations between 70-76 & you will see why non of AUS, SA, WI, IND, PAK, NZ, ENG where better than this SA set-up.



Because all these teams play a lot of their cricket on spin friendly grounds where Dave Hussey would have been found out.
Yes. Hussey would likely have his issues againts quality spin. But if are to use history as guide to hypotetical outcomes. D Hussey has been part of the best FC competition, where players have tended to adapt to all conditions very well. So its very safe to presume Hussey would be challenging for a place in the IND & PAK middle-order if he was playing for them.


Why is it nonsense to compare D Hussey to Hick and Ramps? Dhussey for your info, has played and made big scores in English FC too.
His uprbring in the strong AUS domestic competition, tells me he by default he is strong mentally, something both Hick & Ramps struggled with.

Right now D Hussey is a better batsman than Marcus North. The only reason D Hussey didn't wasn't picked ahead of North, was because North has a more solid spin option in test macthes.
 
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Jamee999

Hall of Fame Member
IT'S ALIVE! RUN! GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN! EVERYBODY GET OUT OF THE WAY, NOW!

seriously, holy mother of god that's a big-ass quote war
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
I agree it was not the worst pitch to bat on. But hey even on roads, it is not easy to make triple hundreds mate. Also consider the fact that Steyn is a

bowler who is fast in the air rather than off the pitch and has less reliance on the pitches. You may understate the significance of that triple hundred. But

not even the greatests could make a trple hundred that he made on that day. Give him some credit fella. Alteast he made it against a superb SA bowling attack.

than a Zim or Ban attack.
As i said it was the most destrcutive innings i have seen in test cricket. But it was just as good as his 254 vs PAK @ Lahore.

Just like how in that series on the only bowler friendly track in Karachi,where Akhtar/Asif had IND & Sehwag skating. Same thing in 08 with Steyn in the 2 other test of that series. He was exposed technically.





Load of gas mate. It was not a flat track and neither it was an average AUS attack. FFS, it was an AUSTRALIAN attack and they were hardly average during that time.
During AUS dominant period of 95-2006/07. The AUS attack IND faced was the worst outside the injury raved attack that went to IND in 98. Plus the pitches in that series was absolute roads.

No McGrath or Warne.

- Gillespie who was not 100%, given he was coming off injury woes.
- Lee who was an poor test bowler ATT. He did not become test quality until after Ashes 05

- Williams & Bracken who who intially after destroying IND in the TVS Cup ODI series. Did not translate that ODI form into those tests.

- Bichel a moderate test bowler. Who had no skills to bowl on flat decks

- MacGill although a top back-up to Warne. Has always proven to be poor againts top players of spin.

All of these factors made the AUS attack weak.




Bull ****. To be a world class batsman one has to be good against both pace and spin, and he showed that he is a master at playing spin that day. As for playing pace, he has shown by now, that he is hardly perturbed against pace either.
Hayden proved to be fantastic againts spin as well in IND, SRI & PAK. That didn't stop of from being worked out techincally in Ashes 05.

As i said, Sehwag has always been good againts spin. He has just failed to score runs againts quality pace attacks in testing conditions.




You must be kidding. India had every chance to do what England did in the Ashes 06-07 by being dismissed for a paltry score in the 2nd innings, but Sehwag

stood up to the task despite a raging Lee, Johnson and Clark. Secondly, it was hardly a "flat track" by any definition, unless your definition of a flat

track is "one on which Sehwag tons up". Can't help you there much.
Did i not say it was a great innings becuase he showed great mental strenght?. The pitch was flat regardless. Adelaide Oval in AUS test history never has anything for fast bowler, spinners mostly do well there.



Hoggard and Flintoff nearing their primes in swinging seaming conditions are hardly average for batting.
Haa. Hoggard in 2002 was basicaly your average English seamer. His prime came until after the famous 04 series in WI for your info.

Flintoff had only just learned to bowl in test cricket in the preceeding series in IND 01. That English attack was very average.




Not for years, but for a short period between 99 (after Sidhu and Mongia) to 2001. Even during that Ramesh was about to become a good opener but

unfortunately got injured. After all these arguments, I am amazed at your lack of options by just saying "India has produced just a flat track bully opening

batsman since Sidhu and that means their FC is dire". Laughable indeed.
After Gavaskar. Shastri & Sidhu where the only openers who have proven to be serious test quality, until Sehwag & Gambhir recently (although he still has yet to be tested fully). Between them you had Ramesh, Das, Mongia, Jadeja, Rathour, Dasgupta, Gandhi, Jaffer, Bangar opening all poor options.

I dont know what makes you think Ramesh was "about to become good". Even if he got injured, he was woeful in 2001 vs AUS, clearly technically not up to par in tests.




Am talking about the SA series mate. And don't criminally underrate GIllespie, that dude has a 200 to his name, don't forget.
If its SA 04 u are refering to, that was a woeful SA attack. Doesn't help your argument.

Gillespie scored a double vs BANG so that doesn't matter, although he was a capable lower order batsman. Point is in that Chennai 04 test vs AUS, it was a flat pitch.



What series?.
The 2004 AUS tour to IND.




He might have, but as long as he gets runs, why should really worry? Ian Bell has apparently one of the best techniques but he is dire.
Its a worry because as im saying everytime he comes up againts top pace attacks in testing conditions he keeps failing, because they know his technical flaws.

Ian Bell doesn't have a really good technique. It may look more pleasant to the eye than Sehwag, but Bell has worked in test cricket very often.



He was terrible in the home series against England, but hardly that in the BG trophy of 04. Averaged 43 which is still good.
What does that BG trophy have to do with anything?. Those technical faults where exposed vs ENG in 06 thats the all that matters. He then went on the smash poor WI bowler in 06 (failing in the Kingston test where the pitch had something). Failed in SA 06/07, then was dropped for the entire 07 because of these technical woes.

I'm sure you haven't forgot all this.


You have not been watching him over the last few years I suppose. In Australia he was meted out the short pitched treatment in 07-08, but dealt with it in his own inimitable way. He may not have the textbook technicals, but hey great players don't follow text books, they make them.
Sehwag has never had a bouncing deck in neither of his tours to AUS. Even the Perth test in 07/08 was a shocking flat deck, nothing like the traditional Perth surfaces of the past.



He had, but those were not exposed till his eye started to fail him towards the end of his career.
That true. But its madess to compare King Viv at his peak (74-86) againts the quality of his bowlers at he faced & dominated, technically to Sehwag currently. That is ludicrous.


No he doesn't. Because you have not yet specified what are these "great attacks" he has not scored off yet, and that Hayden has.
Fine then.

- 138 vs ENG 05. This innings basically saved his career

- Hundred in the super test

- Hundreds vs SA 05/06

- Hundred vs ENG Melbourne 06/07. A testing pitch, the Symo/Hayden partnership was the only time that match where the batting was on top of the ball.

- His Hundreds vs IND 07/08. Of course it wasn't a fantastic IND pace attack. But as you will remember Sharma, Khan, Ishant got some very big swing in that series. The way of Ponting was having a bit of Sharma proves this.

Given Hayden was accused in the past & was exposed of when the ball was swinging regardless of the bowler he suddenly looked awful. Those innigs proves he had eradicated his technical issues of the past.
 
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Shri

Mr. Glass
AUS:

- Taylor
- Marsh
- Hayden
- Slater
- Langer
- Elliot (although he had his issues, he is way better than most of what IND had clearly) - not much of a difference compared to back-up indian openers then
- Jaques
- Rogers - played one test and epic failed. Meh.
- Hughes - what?
- Boon (scored hundreds as an opener).

NZ have been just as bad an IND or worse. So they are irrelevant.

SA:

- Smith
- Kirsten
- Gibbs
- Wessels
- Hudson

SA clearly since readmission have always had settled test-quality opening pair.

ENG:

- Gooch
- Atherton
- Stewart (when he did open)
- Strauss
- Trescothick
- Vaughan


IND:

Sunil Gavaskar
Navjot Singh Sidhu
Kris Srikanth
S Ramesh (averaged 38 in tests. Mediocre maybe but hardly woeful)
Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid (has opened in tests a few times like Michael Vaughan)
Gautham Gambhir (has averaged almost 75 in test cricket over the past 18 months and was even ranked the No.1 test batsman recently.)
VVS Laxman (hit a superb 167 once when he used to open. Averages a mediocre but not woeful 36 as an opener)

Current back-up openers for IND:

Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay.
Opening options not as bad as you suggest.
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
Opening options not as bad as you suggest.

- Elliot (although he had his issues, he is way better than most of what IND had clearly) - not much of a difference compared to back-up indian openers then
- Rogers - played one test and epic failed. Meh.
- Hughes - what?
Elliot was better than any IND natural opener between that i listed before.

- Rogers failed in his only test, but has a legitimate claim that he could play for most other test nations & have a solid test career ATM. The likes of Das, Ramesh, Rathour, Gandhi can't/couldn't claim that.

Why the "What" with Hughes?

S Ramesh (averaged 38 in tests. Mediocre maybe but hardly woeful)
Its better than i thought. But what i saw of Ramesh vs AUS 2001, he was woeful technically-. If IND thought he was that good based on FC form, he would had more oppurtunities since then.

Rahul Dravid (has opened in tests a few times like Michael Vaughan)
Yes Dravid thanks to his greatness proved to be a decent makeshift option. But at no point did he have opening exploits similar to what Vaughan did in 2002/03.

Overall the fact that Dravid did have to open, backs my point that due to poor options since Gavaskar IND have had use middle-order batsman to try to fill that large whole.

Gautham Gambhir (has averaged almost 75 in test cricket over the past 18 months and was even ranked the No.1 test batsman recently.)
Yes he is going well ATM. But so was Jaffer between ENG 06 - AUS 07/08, before he was worked out technically . Gambhir's test againts top pace attacks in testing conditions will soon come

VVS Laxman (hit a superb 167 once when he used to open. Averages a mediocre but not woeful 36 as an opener).
That 167 was more down to the fact, that was the innings where Laxman developed a liking towards AUS, more so than any success as an make-shift opener. Generally he did not adapt. Like Dravid, the fact that IND had to use middle-order bats to open, proves that the options have been poor.

Current back-up openers for IND:

Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay.
Vijay looks good. But thats all we can say about him ATS.

Karthik is not a natural opener, he did a job while Sehwag was dropped, another make-shift. IND clearly didn't trust him enough to open in AUS in 07/08.
 
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brockley

International Captain
Hughes is smarter will play county crickey so he can develop his game,which ipl is yet to be proved to do.
 

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