Skip to main content

WILL THE REAL CRICKETERS PLEASE STAND UP



“After we finished the West Indies tour and went to South Africa in 2013 that was a challenge. If I am not wrong after that we went to England, New Zealand and Australia and we knew that was going to be a challenge with the big names retiring," Rohit Sharma told reporters before leaving for Sri Lanka.
"We played some good cricket in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, so I am sure this unit will do well in Sri Lanka. Our challenge will be to win all the three Test matches there and comeback as champions," Rahane said echoing Rohit’s thoughts.
Indian bowling coach Bharat Arun carrying on the team baton stated that speed merchants Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav will take up the challenge to “maintain speed as well as be accurate.”
“You don’t come to the ground to draw a match, so you play a brand of cricket where you take the game forward. The role I play is hammering that into their system. We don’t mind losing playing in that fashion. But it is the brand of cricket you want to play because if you get used to it, you will start winning more than you lose.” These were the words of our director of cricket (whatever that designation means) Ravi Shastri.
And finally Virat Kohli our test team captain, “When I came here to play the first ODI series I was told that India had not won a ODI series for 25 years. I felt no pressure then. We are here to play good cricket, every series for us is a part of our plan we want to put in for the next five to six years,” he said.
These are some of the quotes flying about in various media outlets reason being the upcoming three-test series against Sri Lanka starting in Galle from August 12th 2015. What is the benefit? How will it be helpful for the team? When was the last time talking helped a team in winning a test match? It’s nothing more than a clutter of unwanted noise. 
Virat Kohli has taken his initial steps into test captaincy but a growing trend of constant media chatter is visible be it through players or the team management. Whether it is a sincere effort to provide media with entertaining tit-bits which makes for an enjoyable read for the cricket crazy followers or is it a conscious effort on the part of the team’s think-tank to deflect from serious issues facing the team with their carefully planned mumbo-jumbo. Whatever is the truth only time will tell?
Truth be told Indian team has more than enough on its plate be it the scratchy form of both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to the perpetual Achilles heals of its cricket, how to take twenty wickets? So it will be prudent of them to cut the gibberish and concentrate on the real thing, which is playing cricket. 
Kumar Sangakkara, of one of the modern greats of the game will be saying adieu after the completion of the second test starting from 20th at Colombo. The fans all over the world will be hoping that this wonderful batsman who has over 12,000 test runs and a highest score of 319 can entertain them one final time before the curtain falls on such a glittering career. Incidentally Sangakkara will be the 17th Sri Lankan to play his last test against India. Muttiah Muralitharan, the wily off-spinner and Lasith Malinga were the last Sri Lankan who played their last test matches against India. 
So, let the game begin.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VIRAT’S CONUNDRUM- CHOOSING THE ELEVEN

Virat Kohli led India to its first test series win in Sri Lanka after a gap of 22 years; kudos to him and the team. But a very difficult challenge awaits them in the form of the South African’s, who visit India for a 72 day tour that comprises of three twenty-20, five ODI’s and four tests. This series also takes historic significance as from here on in all future bilateral series between the two countries will be called Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela series. And Freedom Trophy is the name given to the 4 test match series being played between the two countries with the first test commencing from 5 th November at Mohali. Now comes to the tricky part; Virat’s playing eleven that takes the field for the first test? The biggest factor that contributed to India’s 2-1 series win in Sri Lanka was up to a number of players that owned up responsibility and made a statement. Actually circumstances and fate played its part in giving them opportunity but full marks to them for making that c...
3 comments
Read more

VIRAT KOHLI AND TEST CAPTAINCY

The essence of being a great captain is empowering, motivating and instilling self belief in your team; putting your team first and the self later; building correct team values and working ethics. The captain should firstly work on building stronger individuals who are resilient to man up against adverse match situations. Keeping these points in mind let’s ask our self a question; is Virat Kohli the best man to captain India's test team? The 26 years old Virat Kohli is no doubt one of the finest batsmen going around and his four centuries in Australia is a testament to his batting credentials. But it is his aggressive, arrogant and self-styled images which may become a hindrance. The in-your-face attitude is fine if used as a strategy in match situations but if the aggression boils over a takes over the emotions you could not only risk losing the match but face the prospects of a dressing down from the match referee along with earning a black mark against your name and th...
Post a Comment
Read more

INDIAN TEST CRICKET AND FAST BOWLING

There was a time when Indian cricket craved for genuine pace bowlers truth be told it had its share of quick bowlers the likes of Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar. But the fixation of selectors and cricket fans with a bowler with raw pace was so overwhelming that each and every upcoming bowler was put through the magnifying glass. The diligence paid off and with the emergence of Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami and Varun Arun for the first time India boasted of fast bowlers clocking 145+ kmps on regular basis. There was a sense of euphoria in India with the understanding that batsmen world over will hop on deliveries bowled by Indian bowlers and they can  for the first time give back what their batsmen have been getting all along. The bubble of expectation bursts after India’s 2-0 loss in the 2014-2015 tour of Australia. The loss was more hurting as the young Indian batsmen matched up against the Australian pace battery and succeeded in posting respecta...
Post a Comment
Read more