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.