It has been long since I’ve written on mouthshut.com...was very busy with exams etc etc.....
Anyway, back to the topic..I have been following cricket only for a few years now and I have been following most series...so my review is only based on those...I don’t know anything that happened before 2002...
Batting:
The Indian cricket team is known for its long, strong and experienced batting line-up...but at present except Rahul Dravid, none of the other senior batsmen (read: Sehwag, Tendulkar)are not performing. I personally feel that Sehwag should be removed for atleast one series..what the heck was he doing in this series against England and also in Pakistan? He scored centuries on flat tracks in Pakistan..ok great but what about batting on other bouncy tracks? He should quickly find a way to get away from those short pitched deliveries that Hoggard, Harmison etc etc bowl....And Tendulkar again out due to injury...well...he wont back for 2 months or whatever...nothing to say about him. With this 5 bowler theory that Dravid and co are adopting...they are dropping V.V.S.Laxman and that is really stupid. M.S.Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh are very good in ODIs but they should work harder in tests...These two play some really stupid shots and get out. Guys like Kaif, Raina, Venugopala Rao etc in the ODIs are really good..and I feel that Kaif deserves to be in the test team or atleast in the squad from now on. In my opinion..all of these batsmen find it hard to face quality pace attack...for eg:the batsmen crumbling against Pakistan in the final test..2006.
And Mr.Ganguly is out of the context..
Bowling:
The bowling is not too good but not too bad also. It’s just okay. Irfan Pathan definitely is a good bowler..but his recent performances haven’t been too good...except for that great hat trick and few wickets in the ODI series against Pak recently. He doesn’t bowl as fast as he did few years back..hope he comes back into form soon..With the all-rounder tag...he has a lot of work to do.
The new guys from small towns...Sreesanth, Munaf Patel are really good..they bowl quite fast and R.P.Singh is also good. The so called senior bowlers- Agarkar, Zaheer etc in my opinion should not be in the team....ever...they are the examples of inconsistency..Harbhajan Singh is not in great form now....but is good..Anil Kumble is dangerous in all test matches he plays...I don’t know about the other two guys...17 year old Piyush Chawla and and Romesh Powar...is the spelling correct?
And I think there should be a bowling coach like Pakistan now has...
Fielding:
Greg Chappel has been paying a lot of attention to the fielding of the Indians and it has been improving very much...fielding in the all the recent series have been good. But now the Indian players have again forgotten how to field....around 100 catches dropped in this series against England...I may be exaggerating about the number of catches...but the number of catches they actually dropped were too many and crucial..I mean dropping catches off Flintoff..Pietersen etc etc cost too much...and most of the catches dropped were easy ones...After dropping Laxman..they were not able to find a man who can stay at 2nd slip..and they chose Sehwag for that..(what the heck!!??)..and then Dravid..I have lost count of how many he has dropped...by dropping Kaif...they couldn’t find a proper guy for the short leg area(am I right?..im not sure of that name..) and chose Yuvraj...he is excellent in fielding in the covers..but he dropped SO MANY in that short leg area....those were straight forward catches and even if they were tough I feel that it is their job to catch those...(they are paid lakhs of $$ for what?)
I guess they have to start all over again and learn the basics...best of luck Mr.Chappel.
Though they have won a few series recently..I think that this team has a lot of work to do before they can win the world cup...
And if I have made any mistakes with the facts...please drop in a message and will edit it...
Thanks for reading...