India : Time for Major Overhaul

[fair_&_balance]

I am not one of those cricket fans who would support head-rolling just because
their team lost some series but this time I think India needs it.
This is the most Pathetic Indian Performance I have seen on Indian ground for a long time. They have not won anything of significance since tour of Pakistan. It is time for some major changes in team ...
Here is my take on it.. lets hear from you all!!


Akash Chopra : Yes you did good job of taking of shine from new ball in AUS and hence made life easier for middle order. But this is the only quality you have. I have never seen you play any agressive short in your career. You are just a dead bat & if you cant even do that ,its time to go back to domestic cricket. You are fired!!!
In comes either of S Ramesh/JP Yadav/Gautam Gambhir. Guess Ramesh is not in good book of Seniors ( Read Ganguly) .Hence choice comes down to 2.

VVS Laxman : Dear Very Very Special Laxman. We know you cant play against anyother team except AUS and that was your USP.Yeah Yeah ..we know that you are very talented but then we need runs on board too. Time to take reast for a whole and Kaif takes your place for some time.

Parthiv Patel : Oh Dear..What can I say about you !!! I am in love with your cutie face specially when you drop those sitters. Your face reminds me of those child artistes in Hindi movie when they make those faces to get sympathies of viewers and people drop those tears in theatre. Only in your case those are tears of Anger( ever heard of it). We dont want you in our team to make those odd 30 runs. So.. Mr. Butter Glove, this is time to go. In comes Dinesh Karthi or MS Dhoni


Ajit Agarkar : I never knew why you derseve to play test cricket. Oh yeah you won one match in Adelaide and that gives you gurantee to play another 5 years for India. I thought Nagpur wicket was green top and thats why our batsmen couldnot score. But then I looks at your statistics and I found out it was perfectly batting track and you couldnot get one damn wicket. You dont deserve to be in top 15. Your chance will come after Pathan,Khan,Balaji,Nehra,Amit Bhandari,Pappu ram,Lallu kumar,fair_&_balance,Shaka,Rachael.My apologies to any other name that I forgot to mention.


Special Mention of Saurav Ganguly. You are exempted because you didnt play the last test match but I think you are working hard to put your name in this list. All the best !!! That would be good for Indian Cricket. One more bad news for you.After court decision Sharsd Pawar is going to be BCCI chief. Looks like Dalmiya's days are over and hence your too.

[Ernest]

I would remember F&B that India where unlucky not to draw level due to the rain, who knows what effect this had on the team, this result in a way was hard luck.


Ern

[Mike Small]

That was a really entertaining post - I enjoyed it.

My sympathies. I hope India playe to your liking in future. Personally I love Laxman (all those times he murdered Aus, just gave me the false releif that Aus were rubbish) but alas they always sort out how to get some one out, sooner or later. I might have been a shade kinder had I been in your position (which thankfully I am not) and give him one last chance against SA. And if he doesn't prove it then, then perhaps it will bye bye for him for a while.

[Mike Small]

HARD LUCK? Aus were fav in my opinion to win that test had rain not intervened, no one had previously chased that many on that ground. India can't blame anything or anyone - it's not hard luck - they haven't played well enough.

[SSA.]

Interesting article by Kirti Azad here: http://cricket.indiatimes.com/articleshow/904761.cms
Time for a Major overhaul in the way cricket is run in India I think.

Indian sports is run by administrators and not professionals. Let the sports persons of this country run the sports bodies instead of business men and politicians. Interest and achievement of the team takes a backseat in the power struggle between the so called bosses who have no idea of how the game is really played and what really needs to be done to encourage youngsters to take up the sport as a career. Its all about money and who moves in the right circles rather than who knows the ins and outs of the game. Cricketers end up spending more time in trying to get in the good books of these powerful people than in concentrating on the sport and becoming better professionals. Its not that the talent is not there but how much back up is this talent really given by the respctive sporting bodies? Get rid of the Dalmiyas, Kalmadis and Pawars and let sportsmen run the sporting bodies and we would hopefully start competeing better not just in cricket but in other sports as well.

[The Len Ganley Stance]

It looks as though some of your wishes have been granted.

Karthik replaces Patel, with Yuvraj, Agarkar and Chopra also dropped.

I have heard good reports regarding Gautam Gambhir, but it is really a tough ask to come into a losing and depleted side for the last match of a series against one of the finest teams ever to grace the game.

[SSA.]

I wonder if Shib Shankar Paul will get a game? Don't know much about him but he comes in place of Agarkar I think. Or will India go with Khan and Nehra. I have misgivings about Nehra - he breaks down too quickly. Will he last 5 days?
This is what Cricinfo has to say about Paul:

"Strongly built and possessing a bustling action, Shib Sankar Paul first caught the eye with consistent performances for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy. When the selectors gave him a chance on the tour of East Africa in August 2004, he impressed many observers with his composure, ability to hit the deck hard and prise out the best of the opposition batsmen. He offers a workhorse option that the Indian team lacks, and could get a promotion to the senior squad in the near future, especially with Australia and South Africa due to visit India.
Dileep Premachandran (September 2004) "

Another workhorse option? Where are the strike bowler back ups?

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by Mike Small

HARD LUCK? Aus were fav in my opinion to win that test had rain not intervened, no one had previously chased that many on that ground. India can't blame anything or anyone - it's not hard luck - they haven't played well enough.

I agree with Mike here, though the two of us may be in a minority on this thread.

I think rain probably saved India in the Madras Test (or Chennai as some call it). They would have found it difficult to get 210 on a 5th day pitch... Of the 27 Tests at the famous ground, none have been won by a team chasing more than 200 in the 4th innings.

Before this Test, there had been 10 tests in which the 4th innings target was over 200, and it had not been achieved even once! On nine occasions, the team batting 4th lost, and on 1 of those 10, the result was the famous tied test of 1986. (full stadium stats).

[Beny]

So do we have a team for the next test yet?

[Maranello]

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dheeraj Jadhav, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly (capt), Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Murali Kartik, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Ashish Nehra, Shib Shankar Paul, Zaheer Khan.

Out
Parthiv Patel (wicketkeeper), Yuvraj Singh, Aakash Chopra and Ajit Agarkar

In
Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Gautam Gambhir, Dheeraj Jadhav and Shib Shankar Paul.

All four coming in are uncapped.