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gchakravarthy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:45:00 GMT

Not too long ago, India's captain, MS Dhoni, was being hailed for his worker bee grade of professionalism. Now, his team mates, and to some extent he himself, would only be given a B-grade for their work.

Even his famously metronomic coach, whose made run-getting such a chore that Detroit wanted to rectuit him as a robot for their screw-tightening plant, had warned of exhaustion (read: motivational fatigue) before the World T20 ... and surely made it a talking point soon after India's exit from it.

Recently, he left another byte-mark about next year's IPL already.

While the players are fatigued, many have been wondering if the fans themselves are as well. In England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, where the sports seasons are very well demarcated, the followers of cricket seem to be able to maintain some kind of sanity. Many of Australia's internationally active cricket heroes followed their lead by skipping on IPL this time around, but did it help?

If Pakistan and Sri Lanka's 1st Test match in Galle is any indication, the answer might be: Yes!

The match has been very closely contested - well, at least until the fourth day - by two teams which are overflowing with hitherto unseen faces. It might not be a coincidence that this quality of cricket came after a prolonged and forced hiatus for Pakistan and even if not as prolonged, an equally forced, break from Sri Lanka's perspective. Of course, one could see that this break also had its impact on the quality of fielding in the Pakistani side ... but that could be "put down" to just lack of match practice ... after all this is their first Test in ...

But the vigor and drive from both teams was quite palpable and rather refreshing, especially in the face of recent Test series between the West Indies and England where all the hot air surrounding the matches seemed to have evaporated and taken away with it some of the mojo from the cricketers' as well.

In contrast, one Pakistani's mojo seems to be on the rising, and considering its already heliotropic tendencies, one wonders how much room there is to rise further. He has had considerable amount of rest as well.

Testing Times

gchakravarthy — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:50:00 GMT

The limited overs exhibition has been wrapped up. The boys are busy discarding their crayon colored clothing and will be graduating to men in whites. These days, except Australia, almost every other team seems to be wearing the whitest of whites. But enough of the sartorials and on to the gladiatorials!

India has had a mixed bag on this tour of Hobbitland leading to a "neither her nor there" kind of feeling. But now the Tests are certainly here.

Dhoni's forces have already been able to erase his predessor's dark history in New Zealand in the limited overs versions of the sport. Can they do it in the more pristine version? While reports such as this one suggest an answer to that, Vettori would most certainly want to answer that question. And if history is any indicator at all, then his current team has all the more ammunition that his own predecessors to answer it in the most affirmatively negative. While the Indian team only has marginally more special talent in its ranks compared to the 2-0 embarrassment of 2-0-0-2, the New Zealand team is exploding with a lot of fresh and striking talent in almost all departments of cricketing skill.

The oldies-but-goldies of current Indian cricket - some would say "ever" - must be unpacking their coffins in Hamilton to try and resurrect some pride this time around. It is easy to get carried away by the seemingly unlimited success of the Indians in the limited versions since that famous bowl off in South Africa, amost two years ago. But one might also remember that the main difference seems to be in the age and the attitude of the team, something that will largely remain unchanged in the Test side, except that of the captain, who himself is always the first to admit that his qualities matter very little in translating to sweeping vicissitudes for the team. DreamCricket's own columnist, Suresh Menon, notes the seemingly precipitous downfall in the last ODI as a possible shock test before the real Tests. But when most of the personell will be shuffled, that shock might not be conducted to the required destination.

New Zealand has a palpable increase in talent and balance among its ranks which is accompanied by an equal, if not greater, decrese in experience. The specialist Test opener, Tim Mcintosh. The most easy-on-the-eyes batting talent to appear on the international circuit since Rohit Sharma, Martin Guptill who is most likely to get a wink from his selectors' eyes and an opportunity to get his own eye in from the top. Daniel Flynn, who has already tasted a bit of success in Tests. He had said after his maiden Test against the West Indies:

"I thought I was going to kill two birds with one stone there today but obviously not," he said. "Getting runs on the board is what counts so to get through to 95. Obviously I'm disappointed not to kick on and get that hundred, but to make a contribution like that I'm very happy with."

The fearless rookie Ryder. Pugnacious middle orderlies in Taylor, Elliott, and Oram. Then you have the poucher-***-pouncer McCullum. The spinning skipper Vettori. The prodigious Tim Southee. The deck-hitting O'Brien and Martin. The swinging Mills and Franklin. The if-needed Jeetan Patel. The if-selected Brent Arnel.

Tim McIntosh's successful predecessor points to rankings and recent statistics to make his point about the bowling reserves of New Zealand:

The most effective seam bower in Test cricket for New Zealand of late has been Iain O'Brien, and his ranking, 27, leads you to conclude that penetration is not the strong point of the New Zealand Test team right now.

But then if one only goes by history then one should not be surprised if the Test series sees no wins for India yet again. Mahi refuses to ackowledge the burden of history:

"I am not bothered about whether we have won here or not. I am just bothered about the things we need to do over here as a team. We are not thinking about what happened in the past. I am not great when it comes to stats, so that really helps."

Platitude or attitude? The results of the forthcoming Tests can tell.

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