[PPS]

On this tour it will be nothing short of an achievement just to reach the 300 run mark! The body language is looking flat & i feel after the World Cup win they are not really desperate to win.

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Umesh Yadav needs to bowl more in the nets, and Ishant would do good follow him.

We are badly missing Praveen Kumar. He was rested for the home series against England so that he could play here but i guess he got a new injury.

[NPV]

I'm just hoping and praying it's not a repeat of the England series result on the Aussie tour as well
As others have said here, we seem to have lost the drive to win. C'mon Team India you're capabale of much better things.

[Eddy]

This one is gone. It'll be nice if Gambhir and VVS get some form under their belt for the next two.

[Naturalist]

Some people from Australia were mentioning Indian fans are ruthless on their players. The fact is we are not. If we see the stats, most of hundreds and fifties from our trio has been scored in subcontinents except for a century here and there.
Except Dravid and Tendulkar no one has solid technique to be a test player.

We were back to square one to pre-ganguly era where we win test matches in sub continents and lose away from home.
The only way to improve on this is to spend money to prepare only green pitches even for Ranji trophy matches.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Eddy

This one is gone.

There is Rain forecast for the next 2 days. Surely our batsmen are dependent on that element to save the game rather than patience,technique,etc.
Hope the rain stays for long & is not a passing shower as that will liven up the pitch & everyone knows what will happen after that!

[deky]

Read a one liner sometime back and how true is it coming out to be

" Indian Cricket players are like faithful husbands - they perform only at home"

[Oxy]

Dhoni's captaincy skills have been found wanting as far as test matches are concerned. He just becomes ultra defensive when an opposition batsman reaches an individual score of 40 odd and spreads the field to allow easy runs. He is not thoughtful enough. We don't need a fielder at deep point when we are playing away from home. A third man is required instead.

We need someone else to captain the test side. Probably Sehwag. I am sure with the right captain, this team can win test matches outside India.

Laxman needs to go now. We need to play either Rohit Sharma or Ajinkya Rahane ahead of him in the remaining tests.

Also we need an attacking spinner. Someone like Rahul Sharma would have helped a lot on this tour.

The current three pace bowlers are the best we have, they were just out of form in this test. Dhoni's captaincy didn't help them. They need to be more assertive and ask for the field they want, not just take what Dhoni gives them.

It was heart warming to see Gautam Gambhir's approach in the second innings of the Sydney test. He figured out from his previous dismissals on this tour that he was unsure of his off stump and played at balls which he should be leaving alone. So he took a middle stump guard instead of the usual leg stump. Clever I must say.

The fielding has to improve drastically. That will happen only when more youngsters are picked.

At the moment, it's really not looking good. Glenn McGrath predicted a 4-0 whitewash after the MCG bashing, and I am with him.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Another collapse. If it weren't for R Ashwin, we would have been looking at a daunting 250 and more already! But he needs to get MSD to set the field. Why isn't MSD attacking at all? I just don't understand that at all.

BIG question in everyone's mind. Is he a good test captain or not ? Maybe we should start thinking of a different captain for tests, but who ? No one else has any leadership qualities or a cricketing brain, everyone will be like Dhoni only.

Originally Posted by karty_83

Overseas he is just another Yuvraj never inspiring confidence. Even Chopra lent more solidity in Australia and England. Something definitely needs to be done about him before its too late.

This was my opinion too about Gambhir, but he did very very well in NZ 2 years back when every other batsman was struggling. It is all in his mind and the 2nd innings at sydney showed that he can come back, but I want Rahane in for someone, especially ahead of Rohit. Rohit will struggle at Perth.

Originally Posted by deky

" Indian Cricket players are like faithful husbands - they perform only at home"

That means Dravid, Sachin and Laxman have always been unfaithful husbands ?

[Naturalist]

Adding salt to injury, India is going to play Tests only at home for the next 2 years. The statistics and scores will improve drastically. At the end of the Sydney test instead of reviewing the current scenario, BCCI has released a whopping 55 days schedule for IPL.

The near future does not look bright really.

[C300]

Originally Posted by Naturalist

Adding salt to injury, India is going to play Tests only at home for the next 2 years. The statistics and scores will improve drastically. At the end of the Sydney test instead of reviewing the current scenario, BCCI has released a whopping 55 days schedule for IPL.

The near future does not look bright really.

The future of our Test team looks bleak. Once the big four retire, we do not have enough talent with technical abilities to go through the 5 day grind of a test match especially away from home. IPL style batting wont help there.

[thesilentone]

The team is suffering from bad starts and the man who should have had a place in the 15 and pressured Gambir is simply piling on the runs in Ranji Trophy here. I wonder if Abhinav Mukund will get another chance?

[esteem_lover]

For test matches, we should have invested more in people like Badrinath, Mukund, Pujara (Think he is injured) etc rather than Raina, Yuvraj, Kohli.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by thesilentone

The team is suffering from bad starts and the man who should have had a place in the 15 and pressured Gambir is simply piling on the runs in Ranji Trophy here. I wonder if Abhinav Mukund will get another chance?

If you put Kohli, Yuvraj, Gambhir or Raina in the Ranji Trophy, they would pile on the runs as well.

The problem is, they know how to play on our pitches almost too well. But on different pitches and under different conditions, they don't know squat. The only way to correct this, is by laying green and bouncy surfaces and getting our batsmen to spend some time on it, behind the scenes.

[karty_83]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

This was my opinion too about Gambhir, but he did very very well in NZ 2 years back when every other batsman was struggling. It is all in his mind and the 2nd innings at sydney showed that he can come back, but I want Rahane in for someone, especially ahead of Rohit. Rohit will struggle at Perth.

Gambhir did well in NZ 2 years ago but that was a series which produced the most batsmen friendly wickets in all of the Indian tours of NZ for over a decade. And when i say batsmen friendly its by overseas standards. But taking nothing away from him for he batted beautifully there. But it has been downhill ever since. Barring the second innings in Sydney he has never inspired confidence overseas. We cant have an opener who looks circumspect and gets beaten every over.

Rahane looks more compact than Virat and Rohit. Wonder why he is never being considered.

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

For test matches, we should have invested more in people like Badrinath, Mukund, Pujara (Think he is injured) etc rather than Raina, Yuvraj, Kohli.

Very true. Selectors must pick up guys based on their game play rather than stats. Two batsmen may have the same healthy averages while only one might have the technique to reproduce those innings on sportier wickets.

Originally Posted by suhaas307

If you put Kohli, Yuvraj, Gambhir or Raina in the Ranji Trophy, they would pile on the runs as well. The problem is, they know how to play on our pitches almost too well.

Bingo !! After every overseas tour there ll be a lot of hoopla about domestic wickets and how they must make it bowler friendly to improve batsmanship. Then comes a bilateral odi series with an average score of 300 and all is forgotten.

[esteem_lover]

I want Rahane in even if kohli has to go out. He is one for the future if we groom him properly, someone like sehwag. Sehwag got his chance at Test cricket only because he was not stuck on any one batting position. I think Rahane will do just great.