[Eddy]

9 down..... Yippeeeee !!!

Hail Flintoff !!!

[kannan666]

Surely only the formalities remain now @ 403 - 9 ! This Aussie team looks a far cry from the one which boasted of Mcgrath, Warne, Hayden and Gilchrist.

[woof]

So, the pommies have finally won!!

[sam_boy]

Good to see the results .. but it would have been great if Clarke could have stretched it a bit more and the Oz 12th man running into the field every now and then ..... I would have loved to capture Ponting's expression at that time ....

I like Ponting the batsman but dont appreciate captain Ponting ...(Personal Opinion)

[chanu]

Flintoff's magic works when fuelled by the high he gets when the crowd is behind this allrounder & virtually everytime he performs well, banking on this asset. This being his last test series, this ashes has all the ingredients of a series in which a POSSESSED Flintoff writes his own test cricket swansong & the entire cricketing fraternity is all claps to this wonderful performer who wants to bid farwell on a strong note

[diabloo]

Squad for Tri-series in Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in South Africa:

Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar.

Dravid gets in at the expense of forum-hated Rohit Sharma. If Dravid approaches ODI like T20, then its good bye Rohit for now. Also, injury to Sehwag means a place for Dinesh Karthik. So its 6 bowlers, 7 batsmen & 2 all-rounders. Looks like there is no weak link in the line up. But Sehwag will be missed.

Triseries start from Sep 8th & Champions Trophy start from Sep 22nd.

[mclaren1885]

People here hate Rohit Sharma? But why? Good to see Rahul back in the team.

[Eddy]

And Charles Coventry made the world record (actually equalled) for highest individual score of 194* against Bangladesh today.

[sam_boy]

Originally Posted by Eddy

And Charles Coventry made the world record (actually equalled) for highest individual score of 194* against Bangladesh today.

Just saw the innings highlight. It was indeed a wonderful innings. Two equally matched teams and it was a great innings from a relatively unknown player. This should inspire many in the troubled team.

[sam_boy]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

People here hate Rohit Sharma? But why? Good to see Rahul back in the team.

My gut feeling says Rahul will do well in the coming tournaments.

Tell me one good reason to retain Rohit Sharma in the team. He might be a great player with sound technique but what is talent without execution ?

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by sam_boy

Tell me one good reason to retain Rohit Sharma in the team. He might be a great player with sound technique but what is talent without execution ?

You need to give a player some time to settle down, anyone remember how long it took Sachin to get his 1st century? Imagine if he had been kicked out in the early stages or if he had managed to score a few more hundreds in his first 70 odd innings, shudder to think what numbers he could have raked up. Does any remember the batting legends of the last two decades, Ricky Ponting & Lara having lots of issues with form for extended periods?

Rohit is too good a talent to be wasted like we have done with many other players. I think what our Indian team lacks is grooming of talent in the right manner. Yuvraj's talent were not harnessed properly for tests. Something needs to be done to groom upcoming cricketers like Robin, Piyush, Rohit, Ishaant the right way. If not each one of them will become seasonal wonders.

[sam_boy]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

You need to give a player some time to settle down, anyone remember how long it took Sachin to get his 1st century? Imagine if he had been kicked out in the early stages or if he had managed to score a few more hundreds in his first 70 odd innings, shudder to think what numbers he could have raked up. Does any remember the batting legends of the last two decades, Ricky Ponting & Lara having lots of issues with form for extended periods?

Rohit is too good a talent to be wasted like we have done with many other players. I think what our Indian team lacks is grooming of talent in the right manner. Yuvraj's talent were not harnessed properly for tests. Something needs to be done to groom upcoming cricketers like Robin, Piyush, Rohit, Ishaant the right way. If not each one of them will become seasonal wonders.

Let me show Rohit sharma's stats

41 Matches 38 Innings 695 runs at an average of 24.82 including 4 half centuries and a highest score of 70 not out. He made his debut in June 13 2007.

Courtesy: Cricinfo

Now he is almost a consistent member in the team for last 2 years. Can you tell me is 24.82 is the average to retain someone in the team ? Now let me come to the Sachin point. He was a genuine match winner who used to come in number 4-5 and play those small cute innings and there was never like he was out of form and his average was never too bad. He never got to play longer in the ODIs and hence the delay in getting his 1st century. Now Rohit has got chance to play longer innings, but he never delivered.

I still feel Rohit is a good enough player but I am disappointed watching the ways in which he throws his wickets. This exclusion might help to come up as a better player. He should take Zaheer as the example.

If you really want to highlight a wasted career the look at the below stats.

This is test stats:

No of matches: 17
Innings: 21
Runs: 1084
Average: 54.20
Highest Score: 227

Guess the name.... Vinod Ganpat Kambli

[kannan666]

Yes, we lost a good player in Vinod Kambli, heard that he has announced his retirement from international cricket for good yesterday at the opening of his new business venture !

[mclaren1885]

Sam, kindly look at the batting position he has batted at in these ODI's. A batsmen normally has the time to build an innings either when he opens or comes in at number 3. IIRC, Rohit has had the chance to come at number 3 only 6-7 times. He has been batting in the lower middle order (mainly @ number 5,6,7) and in that period you neither have time to settle down or build an innings. You expect him to come, go hammer and tongs at the bowling and hit a couple of big boundaries. In the process you lose your wicket.

What I would love to see is, Rohit cementing his spot at number 3 for atleast 2-3 series and see how he performs. If you notice all his innings he has never had a settled batting position. Notice how all great players, cement their positions for a long duration? Rohit has the talent, he could be India's next Sachin Tendulkar imo. I just wish his talent doesn't go wasted.

As for Kambli, yes he was wasted. But his dropping from the team was more because of his unacceptable behaviour on/off the field. Back in those days, one couldn't get away with it like say a Yuvraj can today. He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think the most over hyped Indian cricketer of all times goes to MS Dhoni. He drops Rahul Dravid from the squad and then decides to step into his shoes . No one wants to see MS Dhoni nudging the ball around, he should stick to big hitting prowess he possesses. Sadly, this strategy is carrying on into his T20 games as well.

[diabloo]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

People here hate Rohit Sharma?

Rohit Sharma has the talent, skills & execution abilities. What he lacks is temperament - his ability to stay at the wicket. He has to work on this, but not while playing international cricket & failing.

Dravid doesn't have the skills for ODI game. But his temperament saw him thru' these years, but not for long. Selectors are convinced that he has acquired the skills while playing T20 games. Coming series will show up if Dravid has really upped his ODI game.