Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar

If you dream to become a cricketer ,you want to have a career like him. On 15^th November 1989 he made his test debut and on 15^th November  2013 he got out one last time-you surly want to have a fitting ending to your legendary biography in this way. 24 years in international cricket  ,highest run scorer in tests and one day internationals ,hundred international centuries , retired from all formats with a win ,his team mates feel proud to have played and shared dressing room with him, a nation stand behind him ,pray for him ,fast for him ,switch off TV once he gets out !!!The man need no introduction and Ramiz Raja  was right when he said I don’t know how to introduce a maestro like Sachin Tendulkar because even I had attempted many a times to write about him but actually never wrote satisfactorily. And this post is another attempt in the same league.

Sachin Tendulkar  represented India for 24 years and made India proud in different parts of the world .He has been the person who had inspired every children to play cricket for over two decades. Sachin was the reason why we had jam-packed stadium in his last test match with the zing of Sachinnn-Sachinnn. He may had taken retirement at the age of 40 but he became the youngest person to be honored with highest civilian award of country ‘Bharat Ratna’-the best prefix which could have been be added to his name .

Thanks for all the wonderful memories ,giving a legacy of cricket in the form of next generation who is going  to represent India and making cricket a common language for every Indian .Special thanks for giving me this one thing which I can surly say I like the most ’Cricket’ .

When World No.1 And World No.2 Battled

He surly is the destiny’s child, impossible actually is nothing for him, that’s why with each passing match he is taking team India to new heights. With the kind of success he has achieved, the man with Midas touch is surly going to be considered as one of the greatest leader India has ever got. The man in talking is once again the caption of team India –Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

When a team scores 359 runs they are considered to be winner by themselves and everyone, because chances of chasing such a huge target in ODI’s are generally theoretical , with lots of  if’s . But this Indian team believes in making things happen. I always wonder what  Mahendra Singh Dhoni actually says to his team members that they always perform for him  and for the first time I had heard from the man himself."I just told them in the innings break that we have done this in past when we had made  414 runs and Sri Lanka had made some 412-413 runs  .Just go their and don’t look at the scoreboard and try to play the shots in right shape”. Easily said than done !! But these things count when a team actually achieve it.

16 October 2013 was a historic day in world cricket when world no.1 and world no.2 team battled to produce a historic event for the ODI history. Australia scored 359/5 thanks to the awful  bowling performance by Indians and in reply India scored 362/1 thanks to the awe-inspiring batting performance of Indians. India chased down the target in 43.3 overs which turned out to be the second highest chase in the history of game and could have been the highest ever, had Australia scored 435. Only on very few occasions such scores had been chased by any team and unfortunately Australia was always at the receiving end in the top four ones.

It was raining fours and sixes at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur last night. If score was rare then their has to be some rare feast achieved by the teams and players. This match was not an exception  ,their was a fastest hundred scored by any Indian involved in it along with the 176 runs opening partnership against Australia by India. Top five Australian batsmen scored 50 and equaled the previous record on the pitch which surly proved to be a graveyard for bowlers with only 6 wicket fell in the match and 721 runs were scored. These achievement of last night surly proves that history is yet to be written and records are made to be broken.  

Cricket Would Be Soon Godless

The 5 wise men who first selected him in 1989:

RS Dungarpur, Akash Lal, Ramesh Saxena, GR Viswanath & Naren Tamhane

He made his Test debut in Karachi in November 1989 when he was just 16 years 205 days old.

From past 24 years this line is being repeated so many times to introduce the maestro ,that the first name which strikes to any cricket follower mind  is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

In my last post I talked about the speculation and today came the news –Sachin Tendulkar to retire after 200^th test.Yes, You got to believe this. Cricket would soon be a Godless sport.15 Nov 1989 to 18 Nov 2013 ,On the 8771th day, God will hang his shoes .

Here is a recap of what virtuoso has left for us in the purest form of cricket-

He has had the 5th-longest Test career ever in terms of time & played on 59 different Test grounds – more than anyone else.

Has had played 200 tests and scored over 15800 runs .

He has played with 108 different team mates and played against 485 different players in Test cricket .

He has played 146 Tests with Rahul Dravid, 122 with Anil Kumble, 120 with VVS Laxman and 103 with Sourav Ganguly.

47 of his Tests were under the captaincy of Mohammad Azharuddin - more than any other captain.

He has never batted at number 3 in his Test career.

He has batted with 65 different players and has top-scored on 78 occasions – more than any other Test player.

He has only been stumped once – at Bengaluru in 2001 by James Foster off Ashley Giles.

He played 84 successive Tests from 15 November 1989 to 15 June 2001.

He has had the 5th-longest Test career ever in terms of time & played on 59 different Test grounds – more than anyone else.

You were a great habit ,in fact an addiction .Not seeing you playing in the future sounds scary.We all will live every moment of these last two games

Sachin Tendulkar Era

"That flick would be missed; the delicately placed shot off the pads, the trademark straight-drive with the manufacturer’s logo so visible; the punch to cover; it will all be missed. That innings in a one-day international which always used to be more like a highlights package would be missed maestro .Thanks a lot for so many proud moments, it was an honor watching you batting .The ODI cricket will miss its most fastidious student Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar .”

Words really fell short for me to express what the news of Sachin’s retirement from ODI meant to a true cricket fan like me. We all knew that this is going to happen but the way Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement didn’t give anyone chance to even live and cherish the memories of witnessing the greatest batsman ever in world cricket one last time. He got a chance to end his ODI career against the same  team from which he started but he  just choose to fed away.

As cricket is now being played in different formats a player has to announce his retirement from international cricket thrice viz. Test , ODI and T20.And from IPL , CLT20 post retirement from international cricket. But Sachin Tendulkar became the only player who has announced his retirement from IPL and CLT20 before getting retired from Test cricket.

 24 years in international cricket  and out of which 22 years he had spent without  being part of a world cup winning team. And now ICC World Cup, IPL, CLT20, Ranji Trophy all are currently held by Sachin Tendulkar's team!! May be it’s the accomplishments which are tempting him to take retirements or in his own words that youngsters are now ready to take the responsibilities, in the shorter formats of game atleast, which indirectly means they are still not prepared for tests! But we as a spectator are so much addicted to watch him that many had decided to take retirement from watching  ODI’s post his announcement and remaining  were watching  with the hope that Sachin will still play Test cricket, IPL and CLT20. But now with his retirement from IPL and CLT20 their only hope is test cricket.

More than his scores media’s focus  is now on counting the number of more matches he will play and how much older he is getting .With the speculations that Sachin can retire after West Indies series, I hope we will some how manage to keep watching live cricket by watching the sensational Sachin Tendulkar Era on internet for keeping our interest alive, all thanks to the technology.  

Decision Review System

Out if all the engineering fields Software is the least developed field .Thats why behind any major break down there is a software failure.

The recent controversy regarding Decision Review System are actually the consequences of this fact only. Those who are favoring DRS had actually shown their faith in technology to reduce the chances of getting wrong decisions through human error .While the reason the others are not supporting it including the richest board of Cricket BCCI is , they don’t want to increase more complications in the game until the technology used to correct the human error is hundred percent conclusive.

The concept of DRS was meant to assist the umpires ,that’s why we are having a limit of how many decisions can be reviewed by the players. However this logical concept has resulted in many controversies of wrong decisions , poor umpiring and players making mistakes in deciding when to take review and when not to. A few years back before the introduction of DRS , umpiring in Cricket had touched new heights and we had got best of the decision from best umpire award winners like Simon Taufel , Billy Bowden , Kumar Dharmasena .But there is alarming drop in the standard of umpiring also ,because of the pressure created by this Decision Review System.

The solution to this problem is that all decisions should solely remain in the hands of the umpires. If the umpires in the middle are not sure about an appeal, they can review it, and the third umpire will hopefully make the right decision . If the umpires in the middle make a wrong call , the third umpire can step in. The third umpires should be able to review it , and change the decision. This will make the players out of the decision making process and the game will continue to retain its fairness up to every ones satisfaction.    

Walking And Not Walking In Cricket

Sachin Tendulkar didn’t waited for umpires decision and choose to walk , the whole crowd has given him a standing ovation.

Sachin Tendulkar didn’t choose to walk  although he was out and waited for umpires decision.

Sachin Tendulkar has to walk  although he knew he was not out because umpire has given him out .

Stuart Broad didn’t choose to walk although he was out and waited for umpires decision and stayed their after being given not out .

Batsman don’t walk because no body does !!!

Cricket is a game which is being played with some strict set of rules .Umpire play a vital role in taking the on field decisions and hence their decision is considered to be final ,of course  before the introduction of DRS. As per the rule people walk because they can and have to walk when umpire raises the finger irrespective of what they think .While nodding your head in disgust or any exchange of words with umpire or any ungentle behavior when umpire has given you out led to have a disciplinary action against you  ,at the same time simply not obeying the umpires decision of  not out and choosing to walk comes under spirit of cricket .Now lets talk it from bowlers perspective while too much of appealing makes you eligible to be fined ,at the same time it is must to appeal to get a out decision. We have some rarest of rare cases in the history of cricket when fielding side decided to take away their appeal just to keep alive the spirit of cricket ,otherwise ,they just try their luck every time to make umpires point their fingers towards sky because that’s the rule .Yes, a fielding side can appeal even if they know that batsman is not out just to impress and create pressure on the umpires .

So if we are strictly following all other rules of  cricket  ,than accepting the umpires decision and choosing not to walk should also not be criticized although it may not come under spirit of cricket .If we keep aside the validity of DRS but introduction of DRS is a clear indication that decisions given by umpires are not correct always.

ICC World Cup 2015

Sunday 15^th February 2015 the decibel level at Adelaide Oval will be at its peak , the atmosphere on the ground will be electrifying and the whole cricket loving world is going to stick to their television sets and their will be no traffic jams for sure for at least for eight hours .The reason is the match for which cricket lovers wait throughout the tournament will we played first in this world cup .Yes , defending champion India will start its world cup campaign  against the arch rivals Pakistan .It further means that for the cricket world cup special audience rest of the matches of group stage will be of lesser importance. The reason why I am saying this is being the world champions the path way to Quarter-Finals looks easy for India ,provided we don’t get any surprises.

History suggest that India have never lost to Pakistan in their five meetings in world cups, Good ,its always nice to start a tournament with a win !! On a serious note team India will have another task in hand from the start of the tournament to make that tally 6-0 ,apart from defending the world champions title. Looks like I am already envisaging the future events and why not this is how we play cricket from off the field !! Despite knowing the fact that the event is going to take place after 18 months ,to be precise from Saturday 14^th February 2015 and their will be many other tournaments and posts to be written in between , we as a true cricket follower had to exaggerate the future event ,as we do by discussing the past events .

Now ,lets come to the present that we are still world champions and should enjoy its stature .And with this post I complete the half century of my blog posts !!!

The Articulation Which Produces Best Cricket

Cricket is a game not a battle, but if we articulate all the cricketing actions it do look like so .There are many cricket rivalry which were created on paper and hence created our interest for the matches .Think of an India Vs Pakistan match, now think of the endless motivational media reports on TV and news papers , now think of those Goosebumps and moments which had skipped your so many heart beats ,yes this is actually how the on field rivalry starts in Cricket.

The best example of this is the battle of all battles ,the greatest test rivalry -Ashes . Yes that ashes in which England and Australia play , and these rivals were playing with each other for five years before the idea of the Ashes was born ! In 1882 when Australia had beaten England at Ovals for the first time and the reaction (mock obituary)of Reginald Shirley Brooks in The Sporting Times which had added a pride element in it the word Ashes came into picture..

The mock obituary read “ In affectionate remembrance of English Cricket which died at The Oval,29^th August,1882.Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P N.B. The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken by Australia.” This had actually given weight to the series and had actually made people of Australia believed that they had achieved some thing big. That’s why when in the subsequent series when England under the captaincy of Lord Darnley had beaten Australia ,he was presented with an urn containing the Ashes of a bail used in the third Test by a group of Melbourne women .

Cricket have different meaning depending on what hype media has created about the series and it do have an impact on spectators and players .History suggest that it is this rivalry only which inspires player to give their best and create history and this is what people like to see on the ground .Many new records  get created in such series and it is your performance in these series only which  can change your entire career and will give you a place in the memorable moments of Cricketing history.      

The World Champions India

If this is what transition looks like ,India will take it every day  of this champions trophy .Starting from their outing in warm up matches (although India played like India in them) to the four wins in four games in ICC Champions trophy World CHAMPIONS India is actually playing like CHAMPIONS in this CHAMPIONS Trophy. Batsmen have scored without hassle , bowlers have provided a steady feed of wickets and arguably the best team of fielders has ever put out makes India favorite for winning this last edition of champions trophy.

Amidst the rain affected champions trophy all teams were able to perform according to their reputation. While Sri Lanka had a familiar tale of resurgence- from the pain of defeat ,contract wrangles and captaincy musical-chairs ,recovering from it and reaching to the business end ,the only way they know after the 1996 world cup triumph but flunk in the matches which matters . South Africa chocked as they were supposed to and could not quite end the final edition of champions trophy on winning note as they holds  the pleasure of winning the first edition of it .Pakistan knocked out of tournament unpredictably and expectedly West Indies ,New Zealand  knocked out of the tournament. Although looking at the recent controversies and  form of Australian team no one was expecting the former champions to win this ICC Champions Trophy but the two deserving sides which so looks like to win this edition made it to the finals .The home team England and World Champions India are all set to lock horn on Sunday which should be the match of the tournament .

It is also interesting to note that England - the team which  tend to avoid IPLs and India -the team whose all players were part of IPLs ,is going to play in finals. Looking at the current form of the current both senior and junior World Champions and keeping in mind the Dhoni factor we surly can pick them as winners in Sunday’s finals , but can expect a great game of cricket amidst the home like conditions actually for both the teams -both on and off field.

Throughout the tournament one thing which had made every Indian proud apart from Indian team performance is the crowd support and packed stadium singing the National Anthem with Team India .The proud feeling which only Indian team enjoys in which ever part of the world they travels.World Champions India is truly ruling the world of Cricket.         

Adieu ICC Champions Trophy

The only tournament apart from world cup in which top teams of the world use to clash after every two years raised its curtains for the seventh and final time on June 6th  2013.

Yes, The Champions Trophy which holds a curious ,mezzanine status: elevated from the rest , but designed to squat below the best is ready to say adieu . From a concept in 1998, through six chapters, the ‘Mini-World Cup’ has found its relevance many times-and now ,it turn out, answered .The World Test Championship is going to replace Champions Trophy in 2017.     

The Champions Trophy will not be mourned , but there will undeniably be nostalgic looks back at it . After all it has thrown up some enduring memories-

South Africa riding on a young Kallis's shoulders to its only worldwide triumph till date ; New Zealand ,similarly,capturing its only big trophy,West Indian tail-enders Ian Bradshaw and Courtney Browne ambushing England in the darkness; a callow left-hander called Yuvraj Singh flogging Australia speechless at the Nairobia Gymkhana and of course the year 2002 final in which the teams played 110 Overs, but there was no result which India won jointly with Sri Lanka under the captaincy of the great Sourav Ganguly .

Talking about India and the man with midas touch Mahendra Singh Dhoni who is often been reminded that his collection of titles as captain does not include the Champions Trophy ,now has a last chance to have this one as well under his captaincy for team India and complete the tally of trophies. Well he performs best when he is under pressure and have a point to prove so we surly can expect this silver wear as well from him ,as ICC Champions Trophy looks like an open tournament and probably it’s the current world champion  team India only which is lead by an experienced and successful captain .     

Lets hope MSD And Co. do it one more time for India and make it even more memorable !!!!!

The Level Playing XI

You’ve been a spectator

You’ve been a cheerleader

You’ve been a critic

You’ve been a commentator .Now..

Feel what it is to be an owner !!!

Yes,i have been all these and now I had also  experienced what it is to be an owner. The Level Playing XI was the team which I had owned in this IPL(obviously the virtual team) and it was indeed a new way of looking at the game. Selecting the playing eleven , making suitable changes –some risky ,some assured while keeping an eye on budget and the franchise and overseas limit so as to make a balanced team use to be my pre match activities .For the first time I had watched cricket from a different perspective of taking care of who is going to earn more points for me irrespective of the quality of their cricket. Analyzing players statistics and guessing game were part of my team making strategies. However the real fun use to be once the match get started .The entire process was just like you are having full course with you and you are sorting out the important topics which can come in exam and what marks they can fetch for you .Just like when paper get handed over to you in exam hall you first scan for question you have prepared ,I use to look for the players which I had selected in the team ,whether they are actually playing or not and yes we do have surprises as we use to have in actual papers some unexpected or some may call out of syllabus question .Well nothing can be done at run time and the best we can do is look for what marks we get in this paper after attempting , including the maximum marks for the question which we had written best .In my case this task use to be of power player i.e. the player which you think will perform best on that day from the two or four teams playing on that day.            

It was tough ,but I am happy that I had almost selected the right set of players on many occasions. But the difference between almost winning and actually winning is that the former doesn’t count . So that’s how my team campaign ended performed and played well but could not quite win the title just like all other eight teams in the actual IPL .

All in all that was a great way of knowing players and teams much better and a all new way of following and watching cricket for me but I doubt I will give a second chance to it because I actually enjoy the spectator , critic and commentator part more than getting stressed by owing a team.

IPL - The Juggernaut Of Entertainment

Ever heard of a stress –buster loaded with stress ? Of course  yes !! In fact you have been experiencing it for past five years. The Indian premier league has entered in its 6^th edition and for the next two months you will not have to look for movies to watch ,for rather you have to manage how to watch the three and a half hour show of complete entertainment  each day.

This holiday season of the year is meant for only entertainment by the bollywood flavored cricket .No matter how much cricket is being played round the year ,this form of cricket has  always been successful to catch the attention of whole cricket loving world .

9 teams ,  76 matches and 1 destination but this journey to destination is  packed with unpredictability and photo –finishes that are bound to keep you on the edges of you seats .From its first season itself the thought of watching the favorite stars of world cricket sharing the same team thrilled every one towards Indian premier league . There is something special about this T20 format that the winner in its tournaments donot have  experienced captain to lead say T20 world cup winners - India (2007 captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni ) ,Pakistan (2009 captain Shahid Afridi) , England (2010 captain Paul Collingwood ) , West Indies (2012 captain Darren Sammy) . IPl also share the same legacy as it has proven to be an event where assertive leaders set the tone in winning sides-from Shane Warne (Rajasthan Royals ) , Adam Gilchrist (Deccan Chargers) , Mahendra Singh Dhoni ( Chennai Super Kings) to Gautam Gambhir ( Kolkata Knight Riders ).

Although there is a lot of money involved in this tournament but it actually does not matter if you had flaunted the heavy purse to own a IPL franchise for ten years and always remain in news only for showing money power at player auctions than any spectacular team performance like the RIL owned Mumbai Indians. Every year IPL remain in news for some or the other reason and this year it seems that Delhi Daredevils is facing plenty of pre-tournament blues much before donning their newly designed blues. Of course lot more actions and twists are lined for you to keep you involved in the event.

So get ready to stop your clock on the juggernaut of entertainment !!

No More Tail-Enders

India whitewashed Australia 4-0  ,followed with which many interesting conclusion were drawn after digging numbers like- it was Australia’s 7th loss in a row in India and their worst performance in an away country , its India’s biggest Test series victory(4-0 beat Aus 2013, 3-0 beat Eng 1993, 3-0 beat SL 1994)  , MS Dhoni became first Test captain to win a Test series 4-0 despite losing all the tosses , it was only the 2nd time India beat Australia in three days in a Test . The only other instance was at Mumbai in Nov 2004 , only once before Australia has lost a Test series 4-0 (It was against Ali Bacher's South Africans in 1970) , , India's target at Chennai in 2001 against Australia was also 155 runs. India won by 2 wickets , Peter Siddle became first batsman in Test cricket to score 50+ in each innings at number nine !!!

Statistics hardly matters in cricket so are your past performances , what matters is how you  perform on that particular day .The top-order may have been brittle and the middle-order ready to collapse, but the sting of this Australian team was firmly in the tail .In all the eight innings Australia has managed to stitch together inspiring partnerships for eight , ninth and tenth wicket. The inability of the Indian bowlers to mop up the tail has been as startling as its newly discovered confidence to deal with the cream of this Australian batting line-up.

At different points of time , different teams have done this and if they do it pretty well , you have to give respect to them and not say they are tail-enders .There are players who come after number seven-the  traditional threshold of being considered as a batsman and still averages over 30 , you cant call them tail-enders.  In fact there are no more tail-enders in international cricket who come in , slog and get out , the players now believes in putting a price on their wicket. The modern day cricket demand bowlers who can contribute through bat as well .Thats why we are having more cliffhangers now a days which goes down to the wire hence making the game more unpredictable .

Indeed Cricket is a batsman’s game !!!

   

Kai Po Che

India a nation where it is compulsion to watch cricket but it is prohibited to choose it as a career .Cricket is the first game which every child play in India but with time he realize that he cannot choose it as a career but in his heart of hearts he wants to be a cricketer .The reason for denial is understanding the fact that it demands a lot from you and the outcome is not guaranteed so they convince themselves by watching it ,keeping a close eye on every moment from which ever way possible (even at their work place) whether its television , internet or mobile and by providing expert comments on the play .But there are some who get carried away by their emotions and take a step forward to live their dream of becoming a cricketer .

The reason why I have written such a great philosophical opening paragraph is that today I have watched the movie “Kai Po Che” and the first paragraph is the after effect of that .Well I am not going to discuss the story of movie here but in simple words it is a movie about three friends , in fact a short life span of their life and most importantly it revolve around the second most popular topic of our film industry i.e cricket which is the only thing which most people have enjoyed in this movie without having any contradictory views over it .Most importantly it covered that historic India Vs Australia test match at Kolkata when India dominated the world cricket and beaten Australians in their way. ‘Kai Po Che’ I think this is what is being done to the talent of this country those who want to play cricket and the movie had depicted it clearly .

There are some common element behind any successful coach - a desire , immense talent , some unfulfilled dreams which he fulfills by recognizing the talent in his students and making them realize  what their  innate abilities are and  gets happiness by making them living their dreams .The movie had beautifully captured all the aspect of game that they teaches us a lot (as I always say) about how to be in a team , how to take decisions and how to actually live life and how important it is to have a good mentor in our life .

Many times our film industry had tried to show different aspects of cricket and I am sure many new dimensions will get revealed in future which actually are known to everyone but still we enjoys them as after all our first religion is cricket and we love following it .     

Team India Thrashes Australia

He keeps that unorthodox element in his batting as well ,bat -speed combined with strong wrists as the sphere was sent rocketing to distant corners was the ‘power play ‘ by  Mahendra Singh Dhoni at MA Chidambaram Stadium ,Chennai. Many batsman might also thinks to do the same but there is difference between only thinking and actually implementing it , he takes care of later part too ,probably that’s why he is termed as great finisher of modern days and a captain who leads from front . 

Many players were under radar before the start of Border- Gavaskar trophy and eventually maximum of them have performed in the first test match .After the retirement of Dravid and Laxman ,Sachin Tendulkar had superbly played the role of sheet anchor after not so good start from openers and soaked the pressure and made the things look simple again with his experience in willow wielding craft .He guided young Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli in consolidating their innings  ,before getting dismissed by an off-spin that turned sharply from the edge of the rough just beyond the good length area (bowled again !!! ).

The Australian close-in cordon was in and the host was under stress. But Dhoni had disrupted Lyon’s length by getting forward and clouting the spinner to leg without allowing the ball to spin or jump .Then comes the adventurous final session which was the replica of shorter formats of the game where Mahendra Singh Dhoni always fell short of partners but he always keeps his cool and respond to the pressure .Dhoni showed no mercy to the bowlers as he smashed 109 runs in the final sessions and completes his first double century in test cricket.

Both Indian bowlers and batsmen performed in the way they were expected . Ravichandran Ashwin took two 5 wicket hauls , Mahendra Singh Dhoni hits double ton , Virat Kohli scored a ton and Sachin Tendulkar scored valuable  81 , but slight concern still remain about the openers which was compensated though by Tendulkar's message to Lyon by hitting two sixes of the first two balls he has faced in his second innings !! However we should not get carried away by this as England was also smashed in their first test match but came back ! Panesar was not rated much by anyone and he surprised a few , but India seems to be aware of this factor as they were a bit surprised as Xavier Doherty was not included in the team as second spinner for the first test.

The best part is team India won the test match and this time they were not tired and have actually prepared for this important series .The pitch responded the way it was meant to be and ball turned for Indian spinners and favored Indian batsmen more than the visiting players. Hopefully pitch respond in the same way at other venues as well and  India continue to perform well throughout the series.

India Team Lacked Specialist Openers

You might wonder that I am going to discuss the present scenario of Indian team ,than my answer would be a no rather than a expected yes .

Opening position is the only slot with which India had experimented much and the truth is that team India had never found a specialist opener till date. The recent experiment at this position by the India’s most luckiest captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is with Rohit Sharma who is known to  get far more chances than what a player with a history of failures usually deserves got a chance to open as well but the experiment has only complicated the problem .

The point which should be  noted here is that ,in a country with 27 first-class teams with at least two specialist openers in each squad , the  national team is made to experiment middle order batsmen turning out to open the innings .Sachin Tendulkar , Sourav Ganguly , Rahul Dravid ,VVS Laxman , Virender Sehwag and more recently Virat Kohli ,who staked their claims as middle-order batsmen ,have all opened for the country in one format or the other. It is indeed  surprising why a country , with such a settled domestic structure , struggles to find a specialists to do a specialized jobs. Some of the better teams in the world , except India , are looking for specialist in every format of the game. How can you expect team to excel if they don’t have openers , it actually affect the performance of other players .

Team India usually experiments to achieve short-term goals and the team is usually bound to suffer in long term . Dhoni’s trial and error method need not bring in the desirable results with consistency. However looking at his recent tactics , it looks like India is strengthening its bench strength in bowling for 2015 world cup , as I am pretty much sure that our experienced pace attack is going to take charge for team .But how can we don’t have ‘horses for courses’ in batting department when it’s the batting for which Indian team is known for !!