Pattinson: another one in the Dale Steyn mode?

The first time I saw him bowl reminded my instantly of the South African, Dale Steyn and after having watched his many good spells of bowling during the first test match between India and Australia, I am pretty sure that my comparison theory is quite correct. Both these bowlers are tall, well-built, though Pattinson looks like he has definitely spent more hours in the gym and believe in pitching the ball in the off-stump zone. Steyn is probably the one bowler who continued from where Glenn McGrath, i.e. I am referring to the nuances of bowling line and length without compromising on pace. Pattinson has a similar approach and just like the South African spearhead , he is not shy of pitching up the bowl. Yes, he can bowl short too but he prefers to hit the line & length that the best of batsmen struggle against.
Probably, this is why despite being the most inexperienced bowler in the Boxing Day test match of December 2011, he was probably the best. I don't feel shy of saying that Pattinson is probably a deal as real and dependable as Dale Steyn and Cummins, the other young Aussie bowler who has been engaging a lot of attention, would need to work harder since he seems more like all speed that can sometimes be exhausted when the batsmen are in murderous mood and among sub-continental pitches.

Day 2: India vs Australia 2011: Bumpy Sehewag Gives India a Smooth Start

The first instance of it immediately raked up images from the controversial India Australia test series of 2007. I am talking about Sehewag bumping into Pattinson, the young Aussie bowler, and Sehewag verbally and animatedly asking Pattinson to mind himself, raising his bat in the air. However, soon things became calmer when Gautam Gambhir played what can be best described as a horrible, unnecessary poke outside his off-stump to give Australia their first breakthrough. However, at this moment, Dravid has joined forces with Sehewag who seems to be continuing from his 190+ score at this same venue a few years ago. Yes, he had his usual share of almost-out instance, but most Sehewag followers have now become accustomed to it.
A Sehewag innings without some anxiety and panic attacks among the Indian fans just wouldn't have its natural flavor. The second bump from Sehewag was a bit harder but didn't flare the tempers in either camp when he accidentally bumped into Peter Siddle. Sehewag apologized immediately and Siddle just seemed too busy thinking about his next delivery to exchange any verbal volleys. Sehewag is nearing another test half century as I write this, and hopefully, he can convert into another test ton. As long as he is at the crease, things seem a bit undemanding for the Indian batsmen. His daredevil method of batting seems to have rubbed on Rahul Dravid too who is batting with much more freedom than what we usually witness during the early part of his test match batting.  

2011-12: India versus Australia Test Series: Looking Beyond the Obvious

Yes, a lot has already been written about what is going to happen when MSD and his team try to win the Kangaroo Land of cricket. However, it seems that everyone is obsessed with just one thing, i.e. the kind and the number of injuries that are happening. I would like to state that no cricketing nation or for that matter, no sporting nation can put up excuses like retirement of star players or the absence of key players due to injuries. This applies to the cricketing world too. So why is so much being made out of Australia being on a re-building spree and their main players being injured. A defeat is a defeat no matter in which manner and under what circumstances it is achieved.
People tend to remember the scorecards after a few weeks and not things about a nation's cricketing talent, its pool of talent or pedigree. I would further like to state that this is essentially going to be a game of average bowlers against some very good batsmen. Don't forget, Clarke and Ponting are alone to ensure that Australia can pile up about 500+ runs in every innings. So all the noise about the absence of established openers in the Aussie team and the call back for Simon Katisch just doesn't make sense. What matters is the best use both teams can get out of their present resources and that is what they should be reflecting upon rather than talking about injuries, reputations and rankings.

Ajmal Versus Swann: the Best ODI Bowler Debate

Call it the old Pakistani habit of biting more than what one can eat, Saeed Ajmal, the supposed best Pakistani bowler in the ODI format at the moment has gone on to verbally challenge the ace English off spin bowler, saying that he is on the verge of replacing the English spinning revelation in the forthcoming season. While some purists might say that a bit of tussle for the top spinner's slot, particularly in the ODI format, might be good since the spinners have been reduced to fill-up bowlers in a game that has become unreasonably inclined towards the batsmen. However, it should also be seen as an act of desperation by Saeed Ajmal since he has simply failed to get the attention of the global cricketing fraternity though it should be said that Ajmal is quite a good bowler in his own respect but fails to impress as much as the guile induced by Swann. Some experts would say that saying such things were a bit uncalled for by Ajmal but then again, apart from engaging the attention of the cricketing media through such measures, Ajmal stands little chance of adding to his reputation in world cricket which is also partially because of increasing depreciation with which performances of the Pakistani cricket team is looked upon. 

MY VERDICT? I seriously doubt that Ajmal has what it will take to displace Swann from his pedestal. He just isn't as tricky and cannot float the ball in the air like Swann does.

Injuries or Not: You Cannot Put-up Excuses for Being White-washed!!

Okay, so the Indian team is lacking seven or eight of its most key players. Agreed that finding equally good replacements so quickly is not easy. Yes, fielding even eleven fit players is a major headache for Indian team in England at the moment so talking about winning or losing seems secondary...right? Absolutely Not!! For starters,  an international cricket team that is literally swimming in money cannot put up such school kid kind of excuses. Did these cricketers complain or back-out when they were being asked to play cricket beyond their body's tolerance levels? Did they do anything to suggest that they were being overworked besides losing one match after the other? If not, then these players have absolutely no right to criticize the way the games are being managed or the way in which the Indian cricket team's itinerary is planned. If the Board is indecisive and
weak in its management skills or is simply a bit too greedy to ensure the fitness and overall well-being of the players, can't the six, most senior players in the team approach the Board on behalf of the entire Indian Cricket Team and brief them about their demanding schedules and how it is wrecking their bodies? This post might seem to present a lot of questions rather than expressing opinions but the fact is that such shoddy performance and being white-washed 4-0 by England and now, seemingly also in the one day series, is just not acceptable no matter what is happening among the cricket board of India or the players: they are both responsible to answer the followers of the game. 

Rahane: One Good Thing For India on England Tour 2011

In all fairness the India tour of England 2011 is nothing short of a complete disaster. The main players have struggled as wells as the youngsters and every time the opportunity came for the big names to deliver, expectations were nipped in the bud by carelessness. Yes, reasons such as excessive cricket and tiredness have been floating around with the skipper, MS Dhoni, himself expressing views that seem to underline the demanding schedule that this Indian team has. However, one question remains to be answered: would the same questions be raised had the Indian team won or at least, drawn the test series against England and still retained their number one spot in ICC test rankings 2011?


Most probably not and this is exactly what I want to put forth-the Indian cricket board and Dhoni too seem to offer the seemingly rightful explanations only when a problem arises. What happened to sticking to the same logic even if the team is managing to win?

Usually, honesty does not seem to be most people's cup of tea as long as the going is less than tough. Coming back to the debacle of the Indian team touring England, one small speck of brightness has come forward in the form of Rahane. This man has shown the temperament, class and to some extent, the technique as well, at least in the two games he has played so far on the England Tour 2011.

Firstly, he is not apprehensive about the short ball and secondly, his ability to play well against pace and seam along with his stance, make him a more than useful opener. Rahane seems to be manufactured for the opening slot, as if he has emerged from a cricket academy's blueprint for the opening batsmen. How far will he go, how many runs he can score and whether he can help India win the 2011 ODI series against England remain to be seen but in Rahane, the Indian team has found one small, but significant, reason to smile. 

Copeland Bowling: Aussie Back to the Adam Dale Era?

Just looking at Day 2 of the test match between Sri Lanka and Australia, I could not help but notice that the newly capped player in the Aussie line-up, i.e. Copeland, is quite similar in his bowling mannerisms to what Adam Dale used to do nearly a decade back. Some of you might not recall Dale but he was a bit of an odd streak in the world of fast bowling, i.e. if you could call him a fast bowler. Dale never had the pace or the aura of a typical Aussie bowler. For starters, he was a bit vertically challenged, didn't have broad shoulders and never bowled with any real, frightening sort of pace. So, how did he manage to get into the Australian time you ask? Well, Adam Dale was the epitome of a nagging sort of bowler.
He would merely keep bowling outside the off-stump day and night, until the batsmen lost their composure and played a short that led to their dismissal, courtesy of the excellent slip fielders that the Aussies have always had. On pitches that were a bit bouncy or those that were a bit sluggish scoring-off somebody like an Adam Dale was nearly impossible at times. Now, Copeland is quite similar, hardly bowling beyond 125 km/hr but still he does not leak runs at any stage and is excellent for keeping the over-dominant test batsmen that we find today.

Are We Actually Surprise With India's Test Failures in England?

By now, a lot would have been set about the manner in which a seemingly world champion side like India meekly surrendered to the English bowlers and how India's supposedly handy seam attack was made to look pedestrian. However, I would like to raise just one question, are we really surprised by the end result? Yes, nobody would have said that India would get a spanking like this, being whipped 4-0 in a test series after being crowned the World Champions is a bit too much too digest but just look at how these players have been working since their World Cup 2011 success. It just does not make sense
to play with the same bunch of players in all three formats of the game and that too at a time when you have the core of your test team well over the 35-year mark. It still remains to be seen what kind of explanations are put forth by the BCCI but for all those who are concerned about Indian cricket, don't fret too much...just a couple of wins in a few one day matches and all that has happened will be soon forgotten. Those who are being crucified right now will be worshiped again and all the "reforms" that the likes of Gavaskar talk about will be amicably forgotten...this just about sums-up the manner in which Indian cricket rolls.

World Cup 2011: The IRISH are definitely impressive!

It started with the men in green defeating the English side and continued with the spirited Irish reply to the challenge put forth by the Indians but the fact remains that the Irish team has established itself as the real surprise package of the tournament. These are players who aren't fully profesional cricketers, many of them doing odd jobs for a few months in the year and a couple who play in the B-grade English leagues. However, most of them have presented themselves as rather worthy of playing on the big stage. If they could just defeat one more of the major teams, it would seriously enhance their
reputation of being the real dark horses of the World Cup, a title that was supposed to be that of Bangladesh who in fact, have played rather poorly. The islander cricketers had said a lot about the home pitches playing to their strengths but they seem to lack the stomach to put it past the the bigger sides. One factor that is missing sorely in the progress of Irish cricket is that they are not receiving invitations for cricket haves like India and Australia where such emerging teams should be invited to play in the state or league matches. This will give the Irish players to get accustomed to varying pitch conditions and get a more realistic idea about their shortcomings.

ODI’s ‘25x4’ Format has A Distinct T20 Flavoring To It!

It would be an understatement to say that the contemporary format of ODIs is fighting hard for its existence. The constant criticism that it faces, seems to be echoing louder with every passing day. Among all the suggested alternatives to make the format more appealing, only one proposition has found favors among the ICC’s conservative hierarchy and many ex-cricketers. It was the maestro, Sachin Tendulkar, who suggested that the ODI game should be reinvented by introducing four innings instead of the current trend of every side having once chance to bat. According to him, each innings should be of 25 overs only.

This essentially means that each side would be batting and balling in two, separate installments. The proposal has already caught the attention of many ICC bosses and some of them are willing to give it a go-ahead by introducing it in the English county circuit. Some purists say that this format would be a bit too confusing, since most viewers would find it difficult to keep a tally of the scores over four innings in a single day. However, I really don’t think this argument makes much sense. In our times, having access to information on a 24x7 basis is no longer a challenge and hence, any concerns about viewers getting confused are unfounded. In fact, trying to read into the scoreline after each innings might just be an added incentive for people to check upon the match’s progress.

So is there anything wrong with the suggestion?

My personal opinion is that it tampers with the current format too extensively. We have already seen what the T20 game is doing to the game. Teams are constantly on the lookout for players who can score a quickfire, 20-30 runs, seldom batting with any elegance. Considering this, ODIs still breed batsmen that have some basic batting technique and the bowlers’ mettle isn't tested on the grounds of being able to contain runs only. If the 100 overs are split into four installments of 25 overs each, aren't the players being indirectly told to treat a one-dayer like a couple of back-to-back T20 games? I have no doubt that an excess of five overs in this suggested alternative won't be able to stop the madness of T20 seeping into the ODIs and changing its very essence.

Yes, there are advantages such as reducing the impact of weather conditions that often render teams at the mercy of the toss. The recently concluded tri-series in Sri Lanka is ample proof that the ground conditions could pre-decide the fate of the match — every team that batted second in this tournament, lost. Therefore, splitting the 100 overs between the two teams in an alternating format would distribute the weather-related implications. However, it is still bound to change the ODIs beyond recognition. The ongoing one–day series is proof enough that every current form of the game is absolutely different from one another — Aussies who lost the Ashes rather comprehensively have whitewashed the English team, leading the seven-match series, 5 to nil and these variations is worth preserving. Introduction of changes based upon Tendulkar’s perspective would mean making the ODI game considerably similar to the T20 format and hence, slowly eradicating the fundamental nature of one-dayers.

I am not against introducing changes but they should complement the fundamentals of ODIs rather than trying to eliminate them. Perhaps the ICC should try to correct its own mistakes that initiated the downfall of the ODI game, i.e. making the game bend too much in the favor of batsmen by allowing games on dead, lifeless pitches that don’t offer anything to the bowlers. Had this issue been dealt with in time, the aura of ODIs with the game constantly seesawing between the bowlers & batsmen would have sustained viewer interest and the present fiasco would have never emerged. I guess self-introspection is a lot tougher and the ICC is no different. The easy solution obviously lies in hosting numerous ‘meetings’ in plush resorts and five star offices to suggest wholesome, unwanted changes and you don’t have to be an ODI enthusiast or discriminator to understand this.