[antz.bin]

Truly pathetic performance by the Indian team.

Its true that they were marred by injuries in all the tests, but they have only themselves to blame for this.

Zaheer injury on day 1 of the series really set the tone for things to come.
People like Sehwag and Raina are making pairs.
Seriously speaking, Raina batted like a true no.11 yesterday.
Sehwag was like his irresponsible self as always. Nothing to show in his 4 innings in the series.
But the real disappointment was from Laxman's side. How can you consistently get your off-stump uprooted after making so many runs at this level.

Coming to the bowling, We have played and won matches without Zaheer in the past. But what we saw here was truly pathetic. People like RP Singh and Ishant have already won many matches for India single handedly. And its not like they couldn't swing the ball, the swing was uniformly there for bowlers from both sides. Harbhajan was the biggest dissapointment of them all. He only seems to bowl well if R Ashwin is around. Because at that time, he has genuine fear of losing his place in the side.

What is happening here is people like Sehwag, Harbhajan, Laxman and Sachin are complacent about their place in the side. People like Viraat and Rohit Sharma MUST be given chances ahead of Yuvraj and Suresh Raina.

Same is the case with Harbhajan. R Ashwin must be picked in his place. I know Amit Mishra scored lots of runs yesterday, but thats not why he was in the team. You cannot expect to stay in the team with figures of 0/170 in 38 overs going at F'in 4.5/over in a TEST MATCH!! And this was in a match when the opposition spinner picked up 9 wickets @3 RPO against the "Great players of spin"

[motortechie]

I just hope BCCI and the cricketers are shamed and hurt as much as we fans are about this debacle.Its time to take some some tough decisions now for the selectors.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by harry10

However good job by Mishra.
He was actually playing like a genuine batsman when genuine batsman were playing like a number 11!

Very rightly said. His technique and the confidence that he carried was far better than even tendulkar sometimes. The moment he got out, raina and dhoni were like bunnies out there. Something is wrong in their minds. Why didn't dhoni bat like he did in the previous match ?

Originally Posted by download2live

BCCI please quickly arrange something of IPL sorts where our batsman can swing the bat like in baseball, over super flat super dead pitches in small grounds and then ALL IZZ WELL.

CLT20 Coming up sir.

Originally Posted by Mitch

So does anyone agree that India were up against a pretty good England team?

Yes, England was the better team by a mile but not THAT good a team as was made out to be by India. Whenever there was a slight resistance from India, catches were dropped and shoulders drooping. They were never tested, so England cannot really be the ruthless unbeatable unit like the aussies were. All was needed was a small semblance of a fight, it came from only one man.

[suhaas307]

Lets put this horrendous series behind us, and look to beat them in the ODI series, at least. We need to save our face.

One lesson the team must learn:

- For Heaven's sake, don't rely on one batsman or one bowler to bag the game for you. It MUST be a team effort. Look at what happened in this series. Sehwag's absense and Zaheer's injury played on the minds of many. Let that not happen.

Another thing.

For God's sake, don't fall like nine pins the moment one batsman gets out!

[anilisanil]

Is there any way we can rout back? May be citing some terror threat or something?

[WindRide]

If Zaheer was available for this series, i feel it might not have much difference. You cannot over work a single bowler. Fatigue will set in. Yes, having him in the side would have motivated Ishant, after all strike bowlers hunt in pairs.

England won 4-0 because they were a more determined side.
Also cannot blame Indian bowlers - they did try their best with their limited talent/resources.

It is the Indian batsmen who caused the 4-0 whitewash. Except Dravid, rest played like a high-school chaps, forgetting even the basics against a swinging ball. Cannot believe the much-experienced Laxman kept losing his off stump!
SRT unfortunately was over-hyped and horribly out of form. It was painful to watch him play.

Complacency, or more probably, very poor planning and preparation is also a definite factor. They went into this series without any intensity or purpose. Being the no.1 test side, one expected a lot more fight in this team.

- i liked the way Dravid played the 4th test. It was nice to see him enjoying his batting - smiling and taking liberties with even good deliveries. Normally he is such a defensive batsmen, sticking to the book. Wonderful. Feel happy for the guy.

Ofcourse, our media continues to be obsessed with SRT. Iam happy he didn't score his 100th 100. That would diverted media's attention from the embarassing series score-line.

[msdivy]

India is a great batting side with good enough bowling unit. Even a great batting side cannot compensate for bad bowling. A great bowling side would have restricted England to 250~300. A good bowling unit must restrict to less than 400. Here England got away to 500+, which requires at least 3 batmen to click and this is against the odds. A lesson for BCCI is not to rush recuperating (Sehwag) & unfit players (Zaheer, RP Singh) into the team.

Originally Posted by anilisanil

Is there any way we can rout back? May be citing some terror threat or something?

Now its late. They must have flown back before 3rd test, citing riot, terror in Birmingham.

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by amitoj

I doubt if even that will help India's cause. Swann took 6 wickets on the turning pitch and we have spinners who bowl no-balls.

Only way to win would be to prepare pitches that are absolutely flat on first two days and then deteriorate like dhokla overnight, and of course, we win the toss and bat first.

As for ODIs, we have the same team, right? Our bowlers had tough time getting wickets in tests, so i am not very optimistic there as well.

So what about the equal contest between bat and ball?

[karty_83]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Cannot believe the much-experienced Laxman kept losing his off stump!

Laxman is good on bouncy wickets. He isn't the best player against swing. May be coming in at no. 3 made a big difference for him. I think he would have done better at no. 5.
For me the biggest disappointment has been Raina and Dhoni. While Raina looked like a school boy, Dhoni kept throwing his wicket away each time with no responsibility whatsoever.

[WindRide]

"India is the worst side to tour England since i retired" - Nasser Hussain

[Sanyd1711]

Edit to Nasser Hussain's statement:

"India were the good side who played WORST cricket in England since I retire"

[ghodlur]

The Indian cricket team woes continue. They lost the T-20 match against England yesterday. Opting to bat they could muster only 168 runs losing all wickets. Same old fate of wickets falling like a pack of cards towards the end of the innings. Had it not been for Ajinkya Rahane we would not have reached the total too.

The bowling was so mediocre with Rohit Sharma giving away 16 runs in a over and none of the bowlers could put any pressure on the English batsmen. They completed the win with 3 balls to spare.

Whats the fate going to be in ODIs? At this rate the people back in India will give them some welcome.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

At this rate the people back in India will give them some welcome.

The best welcome would be no welcome at all.

IMHO too many people have been placed on pedestals too soon. Some people are in the team only due to their proximity to the Indian captain, notably Suresh Raina and RP Singh. Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli would have been better choices than Raina.

And now the replacement for Gautam Gambhir is none other than Ravindra Jadeja. What has he done to warrant a return? And whats the point in replacing a batsman with a bits/ pieces player?

Too much attention and money in a short span has made these people put club before country. How many of them opted out of IPL so that they could rest? I dont think Dhoni has any moral right to claim fatigue as he could have opted out of the IPL and/ or Champions League if he was so stressed.

It wont be long before our golden generation of batting will be gone. Till now a lot of us followed cricket to see their heroics. Once they retire audiences will dwindle; who knows which way international cricket will go then.

[ghodlur]

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli inspite of being 20-20 game specialists could not do much for the match yesterday. the way they got out so cheaply make me think they do put their club before the country. Its not long that these guys would prefer to play for their club over the country. So much for giving them oppurtunites inspite of their repeated failures.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli inspite of being 20-20 game specialists could not do much for the match yesterday. the way they got out so cheaply make me think they do put their club before the country. Its not long that these guys would prefer to play for their club over the country. So much for giving them oppurtunites inspite of their repeated failures.

w.r.t Sharma and Kohli, I was referring to test matches; Raina doesnt look like test material. I should have clarified that. I did not see the match yesterday but it was quite stupid to ask Dravid to debut. The team man that he is, he agreed to do so, but very short sighted selection by the clowns