The end is nigh; and other such speculations

dcsiva — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:48:00 GMT

What a difference a week makes. In the first Test, Australia looked in charge most of the time, in the second they look like they've lost their way and more. Of the Indian batsmen, only Dravid and Laxman have yet to cash in against a distinctly poor bowling line-up. (Troy Cooley must be working over-time behind the scenes.) Amongst the Indian bowlers, only Zaheer hasn't bowled to his abilities. Aside from Hussey, it looks like none of the Aussie batsmen have looked at ease.

duckingbeamers says he may come to regret these words on Aussie confidence:

But, as I said in the lower post, this Australia is not the one it used to be. Sheer confidence might just not be enough any more. To sweep Harbhajan after facing only 2 balls? For Katich to stand back and swipe, with just 10 minutes to go to tea? And what on earth was Hussey thinking, pulling on a pitch like this?
The most salient moment for me, though, came when Sharma bowled Ponting. It wasn’t the delivery itself — though that was something special — but it was the look of recognition on Ponting’s face. He just stood there, raised his bat in humble defeat, and then looked back to see the off-stump lying flat on the ground. I can’t tell you how good this feels: it’s like a new order arranging itself in the cricket world; a power that realizes that it may just have met its match. Ponting watched the ball all the way through; unlike the others, he was as careful as careful is — and yet, he was tumbled over.

Miss Fields is certainly in a bit of a worry:

Matthew Hayden, time to go.

Ricky Ponting... you're next.

I don't like having to bestow this cruelty upon my boys but we need to think of the bigger picture here.

1. Australia + cricket ≠ losing.
2. The Ashes.

Amit Mishra has yet to strike hard in the second innings, but Soulberry has a mature and measured take on the inevitable selection discussion for the next test:

And why carry Kumble? Or why push him into retirement on the basis of one performance? Why not have a valid system in place which is slightly more objective and consistent than the subjective? Either you have found a perfect replacement or you haven't yet. If you have there should be no questions about it...no accomodation. If you haven't, then there it is needless to stoke contriversy by calling for accomodation! Amit Mishra was hired as a replacement and must accept it that his time may come when the occupant retires. Or, one should have a protocol where there is a clean retirement plan for our stalwarts which is objective and well understood and is not manipulated at whim.

Finally, there's no one at the Mohali ground itself. Here's IS Bindra's story about TV and ratings:

However, he insisted that it did not mean people were no longer interested in Tests. “The IPL has generated more interest among the people towards the game. Even the TRP ratings for the current Test match are high which shows more people are watching the game on TV. People were shifting their priority towards F1 and other sports, but IPL has stopped that,” he said.

Testing selections

dcsiva — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:49:00 GMT

Kartikeya argues, reasonably enough in my opinion, that the Indian squad for the first two Tests is a very conservative selection:

India have announced their squad for the first two Tests against Australia. There are no real surprises, something which has become a feature of Indian selections in recent. The only mild surprises are that Sourav Ganguly has not been dropped from the Test team, and possibly also that RP Singh also remains in the squad. Munaf Patel's inclusion may indicate that RP is now the fourth choice fast man for India.

Dileep Premachandran says that Ganguly has become the selectors' beach ball. Soulberry welcomes Amit Mishra into the squad:

That man can turn a game on its head wih his ripping leg-spinners. It does look like the shani hovering on his head has evaporated with the change in selection commitee. It is now up to Misraji to make the most of the opportunity as and when it comes. He may not play immediately but who knows. For the record, TCWJ has been calling for Misraji's inclusion in a sustained, apolitical, merit-promoting manner. Naturally, we're happy here :)

And then looks back at Ishant Sharma's role in the last tour to Australia (there's a video clip, too):

Can Ishant Sharma repeat the influence he had over the Australian batsmen a year ago? The teenaged Indian beanpole, who had the tough-as-nails Australian captain and all-time great batsman, Ricky Ponting, hopping unexpectedly - like Mendis did unto the Indian Fab-ric recently?

Finally, Will says provides, as evidence for Indian fanaticism, journalists' coverage of an Indian training session.

Cover Points : Amit Mishra

The end is nigh; and other such speculations

Testing selections