After winning the first two tests by a comfortable margin, it would seem that all should be well in the minds of the England selectors. However, they're faced with an almighty headache, and it's caused by Tim Bresnan. After sticking with a tried and tested formula of seven batsmen and four bowlers over the past couple of years, the selectors will have to decide on whether to drastically change policy and shuffle things around, or to stick with traditional and keep the status quo.
Ever since being beaten heavily by Australia at Headingley in 2009, Andy Flower has been understandably unwilling to only play six specialist batsmen. With a long tail starting at seven, England were rolled within 34 overs, and
"That's a Cherry, a Peach, a Rip-snorter" enthused Shane Warne on Sky Sports yesterday, as Jimmy Anderson sent VVS Laxman's timbers kart-wheeling across the Trent Bridge outfield. There really is no more glorious a sight on a cricket field than seeing stumps sprayed across the turf courtesy of a fast bowler in prime form, and Anderson certainly was in prime form yesterday.
In fact, Anderson has been in devastating form all summer and India have not yet learnt how to cope with his swing and seam movement. But Anderson isn't the only one the tourists haven't figured out yet. Broad had re-discovered his form and is bowling better than at any other point in his career right now and yesterday Tim Bresnan joined
Fifteen years ago at Lord's, in walked a skinny top order batsman, who was in the team for another batsman missing out on the test... And on his debut, teased the English bowlers with cream and venom alike, and made a respectable 95 runs. Not putting his name on the honour's board didn't hurt as much as not going on forever did.
Introducing Rahul Sharad Dravid. The man who planted the trees on the top order to hold the loose soil tight. The man who took the scoring brunt off the shoulders of Azhar and Sachin, sharing loads with the colleague Sourav and his dearest buddy, VVS...thereby starting a new era of Indian
The Bangladesh cricket team has lost the tour game against the Zimbabwe - a weaker team. Till lunch on the third day, the match was within Bangladesh’s grip, but post lunch the match slipped away from the visitors’ grasp.
Zimbabwe have been away from Test cricket for six years, yet they managed to show better temperament while chasing.
It’s not that the Bangladeshi batsmen can’t bat, but what they lack is the zest to stay at the crease and build their innings. Players like Mohamamd Ashraful and Junaid Siddiqu have played longer version games against South Africa ‘A’, while Imrul Kayes and Shahriar Nafees had been in good nick on the practice matches at home. But none of them raised much
The current Indian team is in troubled waters. The team is being plagued by injuries to their premium fast bowler Zaheer Khan, opening batsmen Gambhir and Virender Sehwag and the lack of form of their some of the frontline batsmen. Their No1 spinner, Harbhajan Singh, is going through a bad patch while the team’s captain is horribly out of form with lack of imagination and bite in his captaincy.
A captain must lead from the front. And it is very important for his men as it is his brilliance which inspires the others in his team. A beleaguered captain does no good for the team’s morale.
Dhoni’s form with the bat is also going through the horrors. In sharp contrast, Dhoni’s counterpart - Matt Prior
There is plenty of fuss going around on India’s loss against England at Lord’s and their tag of being slow starters in away series’. This has more or less become a routine and a monkey on their back. India have always struggled with the bat in the first Test of an away series even though, over the last couple of years, they have had success in this format culminating in being ranked the No.1 team in the World. Without taking anything away from the way England performed in the first Test, India were a depleted side thanks to Zaheer Khan’s hamstring injury on the first day, viral attack on Sachin Tendulkar and elbow injury to Gautham Gambhir gave an undue advantage to England.
The Harry Potter saga, if ever is mutated with the Star Wars series, the resultant bastardised version will have uncanny similarities with Harbhajan Singh’s life till now. The cute wizard of spin who started as the antidote to the dark side (most of us regarded Waugh’s invincibles that way), with his ego, abrasive character and temper that was admired for quite some time turned into Darth Vader. At least in the eyes of his fans that is.
One warned you that this was Potter meet Star Wars stuff. The
It was 50 years ago on December 14, 1960, West Indies and Australia produced a tied Test to become a part of cricket’s folklore. The dramatic result came at a time when cricket was choking due to boring draws. Test cricket needed a push and West Indies and Australia did just that with heart-racing finishes throughout the summer Down Under.
The summer of 1960-61 in Australia witnessed some of the greatest clashes of all times. Australia had won the series 2-1, but the Brisbane Test was the best of all times. Of all the greatest Test matches in the history of Test cricket, this Brisbane Test of 1960-61 should wear the crown as the greatest Test of all.
The specialty of the seniors in Team India is that their presence as well as absence is always equally felt. When they are there, they always perform. When they aren’t, we miss their performance. Undoubtedly, the current seniors have been thoroughly tested for almost two decades. It is no wonder that the current senior batting trio plus Sourav Ganguly who is no more in the team for reasons other than his batting are popularly known as “Fab Four”. They have been the most fabulous indeed!
It is extremely difficult to recall even one series ever since this quartet emerged in the Indian scene wherein they have collectively failed. They have always been there for the team. They always stood strong
I was personally very impressed with Praveen Kumar’s skills in the first Test against the West Indies at Jamaica. As we all know he is new ball bowler and most often seen to exploit with the new ball in one-day cricket. But Praveen has a statement to the Indian selectors that he can be a lethal customer in the longer version of the game as well.
On the second morning, Adrian Barath looked dangerous when he was flexing his muscles and Praveen, bowling from the Michael Holding End, produced a gem. The ball slanted towards off before bouncing and jagging away, forcing Barath to nick to the ‘keeper. Praveen’s first wicket in Test cricket was beauty.
Darren Bravo was the next to go; the off-stump line
The pitch at Sabina Park, Jamaica, started taking tremendous spin from Day One of the first Test between India and West Indies. When West Indies came in to bat after bowling out India for 246 in the first innings, all the excitement was about how well the West Indies batsmen were going to cope with the Indian spinning duo of Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra – especially considering the fact Mishra had bamboozled the West Indies batsmen in the One-Day International (ODI) series.
During the pitch report, before start of play on Day Two, Jeff Dujon indicated that the Indian spinners would be the ones causing a lot of trouble to the West Indies batsmen, but it turned out that Praveen Kumar and Ishant
THIS match is winner-takes-all – the loser will be kicked out of the IPL faster than Lalit Modi. The winner will then face Bangalore, in Chennai, on Friday.
Mumbai have home advantage, as well as the bizarre momentum of their win against the same opposition on Sunday. Lakshmipathy Balaji managed to leak 23 runs in the last over of the match – including five gift-wrapped full tosses – to lose the match for KKR, in what was otherwise a dominating performance.
However, despite their win, Mumbai go into the match with far more to worry about than Kolkata. After a brilliant start to the tournament, Sachin Tendulkar has been disappointing by his own lofty standards, failing to convert starts and
Irfan Pathan might be struggling on-field with his form, but his off the field actions are indeed catching attention.
The Delhi Daredevils all- rounder is reportedly dating VJ Anusha! A media report claimed, this week a new bond has emerged out between cricketer Irfan Pathan and MTV’s VJ and Anusha Dandekar
They do not want any publicity and want to keep it under wraps. Both are trying their best not to publicize it and keeping it as a secret.
Anusha is giving him a moral support, as Irfan is working very hard to make his identity in Indian cricket team again!
Gavaskar, who is an ardent devotee of Sai Baba and celebrated his 60th birthday at the latter's ashram in Puttaparthi in 2009, witnessed a miracle during the Indian team's 1977-78 tour of Australia.
The batting legend was doubtful for the first Test in Brisbane with a thigh muscle injury, but recovered in time and played the match after applying Sai Baba's vibhuti (ash) as a cure according to a story in Mid-day.
After struggling to walk without pain two days prior to the Test, Gavaskar went on to score a battling century 113 in over five hours in India's second innings. He couldn't save India from a 16-run defeat though.
Sushil Doshi, a renowned commentator, who personally handed over Baba's holy ash to Gavaskar, recalled
The burly Akram Khan will lead a three-man selection committee that includes Habibul Bashar and Minhajul Abedin, both of whom are also former national captains.
Being a selector in the subcontinent is a thankless job. No matter what the combination, criticism is there for the asking.
But still a selector has to moves on, still they has to perform their job. The last selection committee of Rafiqul Alam did a fair job despite having to deal with the interference of the BCB bosses which hampered their work.
The new selection committee is high profile. Akram Khan led Bangladesh to victory in the historical win in the ICC Trophy in 1997, while Habibul Bashar led Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup, where they
