Agreed, but England are a far stronger side now than back then and i think they should win.
Yeah, we had Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer opening in that series. I feel both teams are better than what they were in 2007. If Sreesanth can sort out his mental issues (and that's a big 'if', mind you) to back Zaheer Khan up, then it should be a very close series. Just hope they don't pick some no-name U-19 trundler as our third pacer. It should be Sharma, Kumar or Munaf.
All our senior players (Zaheer, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Dhoni) are being rested for the ODI series against West Indies, if reports are true.
Sehwag wasn't selected and Gambhir hadn't yet established himself, so India's opening has definitely improved.
Sehwag definitely struggles with lateral movement, perhaps more so than just bouncy tracks. See the contrast in his records in England/SA and Australia.
Good point. But Ishant is also **** at bowling to left-handers TBH.
It's weird though, sometimes he looks invincible even when the ball is swinging/moving of the pitch wildly.(Ref: his 100 in the Innings Steyn took a 7-fer in Nagpur)
Agree with pretty much everything you say. Needs to work on his judgement at leaving balls outside off when there's more help for the bowlers. Nothing wrong in showing respect and playing cautiously early on against quality bowlers when the ball is doing a bit.It's weird though, sometimes he looks invincible even when the ball is swinging/moving of the pitch wildly.(Ref: his 100 in the Innings Steyn took a 7-fer in Nagpur)
Reckon It's a combination of both. But his main issue is not even technical, It's temperamental, It's not that he completely falls apart every-time a short ball/ball pitching outside off and moving away is bowled, It's that he tries to hit it for four/six all the time.
The latter kind of ball is even more of a weakness than the short ball. Anything significantly outside off is easy pickings for him in pitches without much movement but he carries on in the same way in pitches with movement in them and ends up edging to slip, Ain't no harm in leaving the ball sometimes ffs.
The short ball weakness can be more easily overcome. Despite him not having a very good defensive stroke against it, he has shown to be capable of leaving it at times, like in the last Innings in SA, It's just that he has do it more often. Trying to cut well-directed short balls for six over the keeper thrice an over = disaster.
Might not exactly be relevant for England as the pitches will likely be much better for batting than in SA but sometimes it's more hurtful to the team if he scores 30(23) and ****s off than if he lasts out the new ball with 25(72). He's not Afridi or anything, He previously has shown the ability to last at the crease without having to try to slaughter every ball.
Hoping he has a good series and tears that **** Swann apart.
About that, Reckon what we have here is Zaheer Mk III tbh, The England series was probably his best one ever but after that, till the beginning of '10, while being a very good bowler, He wasn't quite as smart and tactful a bowler as he was during '10. He averaged about 30 in the period iirc. From the beginning of 2010 though, He has been on a different level from anything he did previously.
), He was ****ing awesome indeed in England just that he only came back to that level again at the beginning of 2010. I'll be very very happy if he does a repeat of that series, in fact.
You take that back
