Great month ahead for cricket lovers all around the globe. Australia is desperate to demonstrate that they are NO 1 in the business and South Africa will fight to win the series and in the process take the No 1 spot in the ICC Test Rankings. India starts the ODI in NewZeland this month end and goes on to play the 3 test series in march.
Current Team India is the best balanced side ever toured NewZeland and with ODI series victory's against Australia,South Africa and recently SriLanka should do well to the "Yes we can" attitude of the young players lead by the cool M.S.Dhoni. NewZeland also has been playing some superb cricket over the last few months with some close matches against the Aussies. NewZeland might have come home beating Australia if they had a full game in the decider.
Indian team for the ODI look very balanced and strong in all the departments. To win matches in NewZeland one needs to have good starts and i wish Gambhir and Sehwag open the innings for the first 2 ODI and make changes in the top if they don't get good starts. I think Sachin can play down the order or wait for the youngsters to fail or get in only if and must play a ODI (we need to preserve him for the test series ), his presence in the dressing room can just provide that great feeling among the youngsters. The grounds are small in NewZeland and should help our young brigade of stroke players like Raina,Yuvi,Dhoni and off course Sehwag and Gambhir to get quick runs and post big totals.
Bowling looks a bit week, Ishant is one real quick bowler who can make things happen for India. All the other bowlers including Zaheer is vulnerable in small grounds, hope the team management plans well to tackle the big hitting kiwi batsmen. Bajji and company should do the trick for India, i don't believe that Irfan Pathan is going to play any important role as bowling all rounder.
Kiwis should be full of confidence with the great show in Australia and the top order has been getting runs. McCullum,Guptill,Redmond,Elliot are all in good nick and their bowling also looks decent with Southe and Vetori performing well is a plus. Above all this the conditions in NewZeland is the big advantage for them with the home crowd support, they must be hoping to put up good fight in all the ODI matches.
The ODI series outcome will have a strong bearing in the TestSeries.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Ten on the Trot ??
Its 8 continuous ODI win for Dhoni & Team now and will they end up the series in SriLanka with 10 on the trot is the big question with the cricket mad people of India. Given that India won the series without much fuss, we can hope that the team might go for the kill to make sure that the winning streak continues.
There were some hype and expectation when India decided to take the short tour to SriLanka that the Lankans will avenge for the defeat in the last series. The hype was backed by some stupendous performances in Pakistan with big wins but nothing really happened and there was no challenge from the Lankan side to match the all round performance of the Indian side and lost the 3 games. Dhoni and team is just having the best period in Indian Cricket History with some great win at home and abroad. It has been a complete team effort with all the players coming good over the last 12-18 months.
Having won the series comfortably the team management should be resting the key players for the remaining matches to make sure that the players are fully fit and available for the more important NewZeland series. I would have expected Dhoni to rest Ishant Sharma,Zaheer Khan, Sehwag and Sachin, but he chose to play all the players other than Sachin which i feel is not the correct thing to do at this stage. Sachin should have played this match and spend sometime in the middle to get his confidence going after 3 consecutive decisions going against him. I am not sure why Ishant Sharma and Sehwag is playing this game, its not only about form its also about fitness, it will be very costly for team India if any of these guys get injured in these games. When i write this post i see that Dhoni has come in at No 3 ahead of R.G Sharma,Raina,Yuvraj, i am little worried that the team management takes a very short term view on things. I strongly feel that this is the time to groom the youngsters for the future and if success gets to the head i am not sure if we can win consistently and for a sustained period of time.
On TamilNadu Players
Its really good to see Balaji back into the team and wish that he has a good run in his come back. It would have been perfect for him to have gone directly to NewZeland where conditions will help seam bowling and there is very little chance for a fast bowler to fail. Good that he is not in the playing XI in the 4th ODI in the slow srilankan wicket.
I am also very happy to see Badrinath coming good when it matters most, 200 in duleep trophy semi-finals will help his confidence and should be hoping to do well in the finals and find a spot in the test squad. Its also nice to see D.Karthick coming good with the bat and there has never been any issues with his ability behind the wickets and i am sure he will be in the squad as the second wicket keeper.
I think Srikkanth has done his best to make sure that TN cricketers are recognized for their performances and its now for the players to perform at the highest level and prove cheeks decisions are correct.
There were some hype and expectation when India decided to take the short tour to SriLanka that the Lankans will avenge for the defeat in the last series. The hype was backed by some stupendous performances in Pakistan with big wins but nothing really happened and there was no challenge from the Lankan side to match the all round performance of the Indian side and lost the 3 games. Dhoni and team is just having the best period in Indian Cricket History with some great win at home and abroad. It has been a complete team effort with all the players coming good over the last 12-18 months.
Having won the series comfortably the team management should be resting the key players for the remaining matches to make sure that the players are fully fit and available for the more important NewZeland series. I would have expected Dhoni to rest Ishant Sharma,Zaheer Khan, Sehwag and Sachin, but he chose to play all the players other than Sachin which i feel is not the correct thing to do at this stage. Sachin should have played this match and spend sometime in the middle to get his confidence going after 3 consecutive decisions going against him. I am not sure why Ishant Sharma and Sehwag is playing this game, its not only about form its also about fitness, it will be very costly for team India if any of these guys get injured in these games. When i write this post i see that Dhoni has come in at No 3 ahead of R.G Sharma,Raina,Yuvraj, i am little worried that the team management takes a very short term view on things. I strongly feel that this is the time to groom the youngsters for the future and if success gets to the head i am not sure if we can win consistently and for a sustained period of time.
On TamilNadu Players
Its really good to see Balaji back into the team and wish that he has a good run in his come back. It would have been perfect for him to have gone directly to NewZeland where conditions will help seam bowling and there is very little chance for a fast bowler to fail. Good that he is not in the playing XI in the 4th ODI in the slow srilankan wicket.
I am also very happy to see Badrinath coming good when it matters most, 200 in duleep trophy semi-finals will help his confidence and should be hoping to do well in the finals and find a spot in the test squad. Its also nice to see D.Karthick coming good with the bat and there has never been any issues with his ability behind the wickets and i am sure he will be in the squad as the second wicket keeper.
I think Srikkanth has done his best to make sure that TN cricketers are recognized for their performances and its now for the players to perform at the highest level and prove cheeks decisions are correct.
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