***Official*** India in Australia

[NUFAN]

The annoying aspect of poor fielding and running between the wickets is that these are two aspects which can be improved a fair bit with hard work and effort put in. Case in point - Navjot Sidhu who was a dire fielder but improved tremendously in the fag end of his career.

Gay end?

 

[Raghav]

nope, u guys only notice it when used against u....


And no, I don't mind criticizing India, I do that a lot of times myself... But there is a diff. between normal criticism and juz plain bagging.... And u guys cross the line sometimes and it does get annoying. And esp. u Raghav, u tend to make very good posts, if only u can cut out the bagging a little bit....

Thanks..

 

[Raghav]

I reckon the flexibility of the Indian fielders is more of a problem than their stamina. They just make lazy attempts at getting down to the ball and end up going over the top of it.

You are right to the point. They look lazy when things are going well. Thats why we see many teams coming back and go on to win matches..

 

[silentstriker]

Early to mid thirties is not that old physically. There is nothing stoping them from getting and staying in shape for someone's thirties. Yes, if you were a marathon runner, you'd see the times steadily getting shorter but the differences would be minute.

Ponting is the best overall fielder in world cricket and he is 30+. A lot of that is natural ability, but there is no excuse for not being able to extend down and reach the ball. You're a professional athelete FFS!

 

[NUFAN]

Early to mid thirties is not that old physically. There is nothing stoping them from getting and staying in shape for someone's thirties. Yes, if you were a marathon runner, you'd see the times steadily getting shorter but the differences would be minute.

Ponting is the best overall fielder in world cricket and he is 30+. A lot of that is natural ability, but there is no excuse for not being able to extend down and reach the ball. You're a professional athelete FFS!

I disagree nowadays. Symonds is a better fielder then Ponting for mine.

I feel Punters back is effecting him a bit..

 

[arunsanhar]

Indian XI for 2nd Test at Sydney (Suggestions to Team India)

We understand Anil's situation of team selection in the 1st test. I pretty much predicted the result but you never know. Atleast for the 2nd test here is my suggested XI, Jaffer, Karthik,Dravid,Ganguly,Tendulkar,Laxman,Shewag,Kumble,Zaheer,RP Singh and Bhaji.
I would like to leave out Yuvi and Dhoni as they need to watch couple of matches. Dhoni is good in ODI's and T20's. I don't dis-agree. He didn't contribute much in Test Cricket so-far. I would like to give Karthik a fair run as it seems he is parterning well with Jaffer and that pair has reasonable history of good parterships so-far. They used to rotate the strike pretty well also which what very very important.
Also Karthik seems to be playing much much better outside India based on his short history than his home record. He seems to be much talented. Team can send Shewag in as opener in the 2nd Innings if Karthik has a long day in the field after opened in the 1st innings.

I am positive the above combination will lift the Indian team situation in Australia

Guys, appreciate you views..

 

[pup11]

Its not just fitness that is the worry, its the ability to do the basics that is the problem at the moment. Until these are rectified they will not beat Australia.

Fitness can be worked on, You dont just except that your not up to scratch and leave it at that.

Agree with this their is serious lack of intensity within Team India, they are not willing to throw themselves around in the field or put a bit more of effort while running between the wickets these are simple small things but these things make a huge difference to the final outcome, whether its fitness or flexibility to improve any aspect of one's game the individual needs to work-hard but that doesn't tend to be the case with the Indian players especially with the seniors since they have such demi-god status even if they do something wrong nobody from the Indian camp have the guts to say anything against them and when somebody (Greg Chappell) tries to criticise them they are throw out of the camp.

 

[silentstriker]

I disagree nowadays. Symonds is a better fielder then Ponting for mine.

I feel Punters back is effecting him a bit..

Don't know about that. Symonds is a better ground fielder but Ponting is a better catcher. Catching > Ground fielding in Tests.

 

[pup11]

Don't know about that. Symonds is a better ground fielder but Ponting is a better catcher. Catching > Ground fielding in Tests.

Its basically because Symonds doesn't usually fields in catching positions and Ponting does, btw can't remember Symonds dropping too many catches!!

 

[NUFAN]

Yeah exactly like what Pup said. Symonds doesn't drop catches. Ponting is great in the slips, but surely even Ponting would concede that Symonds offers more in the field these days then himself.

 

[Evermind]

It’s doesn’t even really seem to be an age thing though – I mean Yuvraj was one of the worst offenders and he’s 26. And if he's not fit enough (in fact if any of them aren't fit enough) then that's laughable and he shouldn't be in the team. It just seems to be part of the cricketing culture – they’re just not interested in focusing on the bigger picture. I think what Bogle was saying about India as a cricketing nation valuing talent over work ethic is a good point. They’ll never come even close to Australia long term and it’s not because of talent. Even if they had the talent they just don’t have the right approach to their cricket and until the whole system gets a massive overhaul they’ll continue to run hot and cold.

Excellent points. AWTA.

 

[funnygirl]

Kumble is persisiting with the same team for sydney ,that is Dravid as the opener with Jaffer from the other end .

I stopped watching this series

 

[Pratters]

The way I see it, a lot of the batting failures, not taking any credit away from Australia or the excellent bowling, was because the Indian batsmen did not have enough warm up games. The pitch in the first inning or even in the second wasn't one in which you should have got all out for less than 200 and 165. It doesn't make any sense to choose a different line up now. Who else can India open with now? A Sehwag who hasn't had even one match in Australia till now? That would be much worse in my opinion. Dravid has spent a lot of time in the middle and he looked good in the first tour game and in the second inning of the first test. Hopefully, the Indian batting line up will fire.

India did lose a golden chance to put up a fight in the first test though where the bowling fired and Ponting failed in both innings - we don't see some thing like the latter every day (first time since 2001 he has been out in single figures in both innings). Had India made 450-500 in their first inning when the pitch was fairly good to bat on, they could have had such a good chance to even win the game. They batted very poorly in both innings but I expect them to fight harder in the second test. It will not be easy to take 10 Australian wickets before they make 500 though and usually, teams do not have much chance to win when the other team makes 500. So it is very tough to come back in this series.

 

[funnygirl]

I am tired of ''not enough batting practise ''excuse .Why couldn't they score more in the seond innings then, at least could have stayed in the pitch for the practise sake .

 

[TheLad]

Kumble is persisiting with the same team for sydney ,that is Dravid as the opener with Jaffer from the other end .

I stopped watching this series

The Age. An Australian paper is reporting that the team is not happy with Yuvraj attitude and Kartihk may replace him and open and Dravid drops down the order.

 

[silentstriker]

Haha. Idiot. He has had those problems in the past, but I thought those were behind him. Regardless, these things should not be leaked to the media.

 

[archie mac]

Haha. Idiot. He has had those problems in the past, but I thought those were behind him. Regardless, these things should not be leaked to the media.

I love to hear this sort of stuff, but prefer to read it in a book a couple of years later

 

[Son Of Coco]

The way I see it, a lot of the batting failures, not taking any credit away from Australia or the excellent bowling, was because the Indian batsmen did not have enough warm up games. The pitch in the first inning or even in the second wasn't one in which you should have got all out for less than 200 and 165. It doesn't make any sense to choose a different line up now. Who else can India open with now? A Sehwag who hasn't had even one match in Australia till now? That would be much worse in my opinion. Dravid has spent a lot of time in the middle and he looked good in the first tour game and in the second inning of the first test. Hopefully, the Indian batting line up will fire.

India did lose a golden chance to put up a fight in the first test though where the bowling fired and Ponting failed in both innings - we don't see some thing like the latter every day (first time since 2001 he has been out in single figures in both innings). Had India made 450-500 in their first inning when the pitch was fairly good to bat on, they could have had such a good chance to even win the game. They batted very poorly in both innings but I expect them to fight harder in the second test. It will not be easy to take 10 Australian wickets before they make 500 though and usually, teams do not have much chance to win when the other team makes 500. So it is very tough to come back in this series.

No offense, but if that's Dravid looking good then there're some problems.

 

[Son Of Coco]

It’s doesn’t even really seem to be an age thing though – I mean Yuvraj was one of the worst offenders and he’s 26. And if he's not fit enough (in fact if any of them aren't fit enough) then that's laughable and he shouldn't be in the team. It just seems to be part of the cricketing culture – they’re just not interested in focusing on the bigger picture. I think what Bogle was saying about India as a cricketing nation valuing talent over work ethic is a good point. They’ll never come even close to Australia long term and it’s not because of talent. Even if they had the talent they just don’t have the right approach to their cricket and until the whole system gets a massive overhaul they’ll continue to run hot and cold.

I agree, the approach is the problem not a lack of talent. I think part of the problem is the plaudits gained by cricketers in the subcontinent for doing largely nothing. With such a large fan base, small successes are wildly celebrated and failures are glossed over or blamed on something outside the boundaries of the team (obviously this is not the case all the time). A more realistic approach is needed before any improvement is shown in my opinion.

 

[andruid]

I agree, the approach is the problem not a lack of talent. I think part of the problem is the plaudits gained by cricketers in the subcontinent for doing largely nothing. With such a large fan base, small successes are wildly celebrated and failures are glossed over or blamed on something outside the boundaries of the team (obviously this is not the case all the time). A more realistic approach is needed before any improvement is shown in my opinion.

In short they need to kill the 'celebrity culture' in the cricket and focus on building real success right?