Cricket, Politics, and Controversy ............



Tuesday, March 20, 2007

India’s key men against SL

I have decided to write one blog post before every Indian game in this World Cup. These are the men in blue, who’ll decide if I have to post more than once!

Sourav Ganguly: India needs a couple if things from dada.
Continue to play his solid sheet anchor role at the top of the order.
India needs to do what Ganguly did after he was dropped. Ganguly realized that there was lot more to life than just cricket. He came back – in style – to showcase one of the best comebacks in the history of Indian cricket. India needs to do the same, they need to get over that fear of losing, that fear of thinking that cricket is everything and they’ll do well. They should understand that it’s ok to lose and that’ll take India to victory. Someone has to show these guys the way, I pick dada.

Dravid: As captain, he’s got to make some tough decisions. I say bat first (if we have that option). I know that India failed against Bangladesh batting first. But it’s going to be really difficult to chase anything more than 220 against Sanath Jayasurya & co. The skiddy left arm spin is going to screw India. Murli is going to screw Yuvraj. So, again- bat first if possible.
Pick KD Karthik. Its going to be tough coming into a knock out world cup game. But that also means he wasn’t responsible for India’s failure against Bangladesh. There’s no pressure on him and he has the talent- on the field and with the bat.
As batsman, Dravid is India’s best. But he needs to raise his hands and say-yup I am here. It’s been a while.
Pick Irfan Pathan- For God’s sake, Agarkar is not an all-rounder.

Yuvraj: I have no idea how he’s going to handle Murlidharan. But, he better find a way. India doesn’t have a choice.

Sachin: I hate Sachin. “Sachin took us to victory” is never going to happen. Trust me.
But, “If you take Sachin’s innings out of the equation, India might not have won” needs to happen. He has done that a number of times. Remember that innings against Pakistan in the 2003 WC, we need something similar.

Bowlers: Munaf, Irfan, Kumble, Zaheer, Sachin, Yuvraj, Sehwag. Everyone has to do well…it’s not like batting where a couple of people can save the team. Munaf needs to lead the way. Kumble needs to play the "wise man" for these bowlers.

Greg Chappell, Dravid, Me, Vengsarkar, whoever: Teach these people to pick singles. If I were Greg Chappell, I would spend the next 3 days picking singles. That helps you to score more than 0.5 runs an over when you loose wickets
I should probably kick Dravid out of this list- because he probably doesn’t know.

Will India go through? Like the godfather says "difficult, but not impossible".

Even if you dont like what I have to say..lets all hope I come up with 8 more posts...

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6 Comments:

  • As usual, you have decided to soil the name of my main man "Sachin Tendulkar". He has won us plenty of matches in one-day cricket...Just because he is not there till the end doesnt mean he doesnt finish it... You do forget that most of his one-day career has been as opener and I do not know many openers that last the full 50 overs consistently...We now see Sachin coming in at number 4 and I am pretty sure he will have many innings where he carries the bat till the end (kind of like what happened against Bermuda)...

    Coming to Saurav, he was out-of-sorts against both Bangladesh and Bermuda...He could not get going against either team...Against Bermuda, it didnt matter much because there were others who could compensate for his slow scoring rate...He will will not have the same luxury against stronger teams like SL...He has to score at a 80+% strike rate and he most of all needs to learn to take singles...

    I agree that Agarkar should be out, Irfan in and I think Sreesanth should come in as our bowling lacks depth and most importantly, PASSION ...

    You also forgot a certain Mr. Sehwag. If he fires and scores 70+, we are guaranteed a good score...

    By Blogger Unknown, at 7:10 PM  

  • Nikhil ji..whats up?

    Lets hope sachin proves me wrong and proves you right...

    Regarding Sourav ... imagine what would have happened had he got out early in either of these games...even though hes not playing great cricket, he's doing good for India...
    agst bermuda..imagine ganguly and uthappa gone for 2 and India would have been in trouble.
    agst bang...remove gangulys innings and our net run rate would have been less than bang..

    By Blogger Prem, at 8:44 PM  

  • he he...i've heard this "saurav's awesome...sachin sucks" bhajan from you enough...appppaa!! anyway, i cant comment on the cricket cuz umm...i dont care so much (did i hear "did she justttt sayy whaattttt???") anyway...hi prem :) i see u started commenting greatly in detail at first...and then got fizzled and started compacting five names into one line...

    write longer posts :) its fun to read them...since its exactly like hearing u talk..."see basically..." ha ha ha!

    tata!

    P.S. now i want my cake!

    By Blogger Unknown, at 11:33 PM  

  • This comment has been removed by the author.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 11:41 PM  

  • Ganguly could have afforded those slow scoring rates against the "weaker" teams...the bangladesh match, nobody got going, so he is excused...but if he continues to do that through the rest of the tourney (if there is a "rest") I am pretty sure he will do India more harm than good...

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:12 AM  

  • whats important is that he's holding one end up..without losing wickets at both ends..

    but yeah..I agree..he needs to hit the accelerator after a point.

    lets see how it goes..hopefully you can go through the pain of reading my blog 8 more times !!

    By Blogger Prem, at 11:03 AM  

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