I was giving an example to show that India don't make excuses for missing players through injury, they just go out and beat the opposition anyway. Granted it was an England side that performed like utter crap.
What players where IND missing during that 1992 ENG tour to IND BTW?.
But you are not answering my question so let me ask it in a different way & give the answer for you, since i dont intend to go around in circles (a common CW trait when arguing these days).
Unless you are legendary team & have great depth such as AUS (95-2006/07), WI (76-91), ENG (51-58) for eg with wonderful depth, when you lose key players in your team due to injury/etc, the strenght of your team willl be instantly cripped. Especially when facing strong opposition, you cannot be expected to be as lethal/competitve & win (althoughsuch teams could get away with beating weak teams, if they lose key players)
In non legendary teams, certain players are basically the heart beat of some team & are irreplaceable. SRI in last 15 years without Murali would have been useless -. SA currently if they lose Dale Steyn would be cripepd - ENG always where less threatening without Flintoff when he came test quality & the list goes on throughout test history.
So with the example of IND. Its is quite obvious Kumble & Harbhajan over the last 15 years where the reasons why IND where basically invincible @ home. So quite obviously (although it never happened), if an opposition team went to IND during that period & won in IND without those two playing - the win by opposition cannot be rated highly.
vcs said:
Why do you keep going off on a tangent? I brought up that series to illustrate that excuses like "that doesn't count because a couple of players were missing" are total nonsense. If you're good enough, you find a way. How much clearer can I make it?
See above. You have a odd view of how cricket works.
vcs said:
And if you were missing bowlers in '07, why couldn't you defend 387 on a wearing 5th day track with an attack of Anderson, Harmison, Flintoff, Swann and Panesar BTW in '08? What's your excuse then?
I do excuses - just facts. There is a lot facts to be illustrated here.
Firslty that Chennai 08 wicket was one of the flattest 5th day wickets ever. Much better bowling attacks would have struggled to take 10 wickets on that last day.
Bowlers like Anderson, Harmison especially are totally incapable of taking wickets in sub-continental pitches (although Anderson could one day soon if he learns the art of reverse-swing. So its ludicrous to equate their failing in that Chennai test to what they would have done in English conditons in 07 that would have suited them. Plus Anderson wouldn't have played in 07 if Hoggard was fit.
While also Swann was on his 1st tour in 08. Was very much an unknown. He was on the test radar in 07 anyway. So that negates you bringing up the Chennai test as an example.
Panesar also was in his decline mode in 08. Its was the IND batsmen who first exposed him during the 07 series. But if ENG had their full-strenght pace-attack in what was very bowler friendly conditons in 07, his workload would have been much reduced.
vcs said:
And you were probably better off without Harmison in the first place anyway, the guy has the mental strength of a paper napkin and has been trash since the Brisbane first ball debacle.
Although that Brisbane ball debacle crippled Harmo forever. He certainly was not trash immediately after the Brisbane. He is bowler that is very reliant on conditions (a bouncy deck) & the few times he got one after Brisbane:
- Perth 06/07 (1st day)
- Oval 08
While generally always holding his own in ENG conditions. Overseas was his problem, given the amount of flat decks worldwide - Harmo would always struggle. ENG missed a trick last winter not taking him to South Africa for example. He certainly would have made a undenaible huge difference to ENG attack once fit in that series. That series was conincidentally the only time Hoggard & Harmo missed test cricker due to injury also (instead of being dropepd), its usually just Flintoff - which further proves how lucky IND got things that summer.
