India at home is no way near India at Australia

India has completely blown away Sri Lanka and West Indies at home. People like Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli who were completely at sea against fast bowling in England have again found their touch. But make no mistake, this performance will give only morale boost and has nothing to do with how they will perform in hard wickets in Australia.

That time of the season when India tours Australia

Hi Guys. I forgot that this blog even existed. The tours of Australia really bring out the blog writer in me. The period before the tour is filled with anticipation as always that maybe this time India would do well down under.

Rahul Dravid suggests that Kaul and Karn Shrma should be on the plane to Australia. While I am not sure about the 1st choice (we will be lucky if openers can get us 30/0) as I dont really care who opens the batting, bringing on Karn Sharma can be a very good move. He is a genuine wrist leg spinner in the mould of Shane Warne and with luck going his way he can be a genuine match winner after Kumble. Please dont let Jaddu play in the test matches as time and again we have seen in Australia that finger spinners go for more than 5 runs without troubling the batsmen.
Lets see what selectors have in store for us.

Reasons why IPL is not responsible for India's disaster down under

The series in Australia is gone 4-0 as is the first 20-20. A lot has already been written about that so I wont bother myself with it. We as Indians look at reasons/persons to blame for every fiasco and right now IPL (Indian Premier League) is at the forefront. Here are my reasons why IPL is not the main culprit

1. Pre IPL India used to loose with similar margins 4-0 in 1992, 3-0 in 1999. In the so called revival era India    lost 2-1 in 2008
2.Poor away record is more due to the swinging ball and bounce in the pitch
3. In Australia all the players were fully fit and unlike England IPL can not be blamed
4. Post IPL India have won a world cup at home
5. IPL pays more than any sport in India

Pakistan thrashes England

Ask a pakistani cricket supporter and they are over the moon. After the humiliating spot fixing controversy which involved their cricketers they did well to reach the semifinals of the world cup. They had a good test outing against lowly ranked teams and this now is their big cricket event. First they have enjoyed neighbors India being mauled in Australia and now they are basking in the glory of three day win over world No. 1 England.

Saeed Ajmal is a revelation and took ten wickets in the test. he is already talking about a Teesra (Third one). I dont know what that is but whatever it is England be ware.

So England was not one off

India has lost the Perth test in 2 and a half days and surrendered meekly. They are well on their way to another 4-0 whitewash in as many tests and 2nd consecutive overseas whitewash. So now the fans have discovered there is a lot wrong with the Indian Cricket. We have never performed well in Australia. Even in the much taunted drawn series in 2003 that Saurav Ganguly harps about so much, Australia were without Glen Mcgrath and Bret Lee, the main bowlers were Gillespe and Bichel.

In this series, the batsmen have completely failed and the bowlers were good in patches. Zaheer and Umesh have not bowled as well as the Australian bowlers and while referring to Ishant Sharma we still have to go that Perth spell in 2008.

Anyone who says that youngsters should be brought in and seniors dropped is living in a fool's world. The youngsters had their chances in tours of Zimbabwe and West Indies, there was nothing there to suggest that they would excel in places like South Africa, Australia and England

I would not blame IPL entirely which is quite fashionable, IPL is good way to earn greta money and should be continued

As long as BCCI refuses to prepare bouncy tracts to play test cricket in India, we will continuously perform poorly outside. Dhoni last said that wickets in India should start turning from day one. Well we don't need that to win matches here in India but certainly tells us about the mindset and why we continuously perform badly.

Sydney Test is Gone

and so have the hopes of winning a series in Australia. In cricinfo there was a very good article about the hopes of "big three" being shattered. Its true but from a fan's point of view its worse because the hopes of all the supporters of Indian cricket have shattered. This was dubbed to be the most inexperienced Australian side in 20 years and if ever India were going to win, they had their best chance in this one.

There is something about the away tours, the swinging ball, lively pitch and aggressive fast bowling which Indians cant play well. The bowling and batting only seldom does perform in tandem. The next big test is the one at Perth and although as a loyal supporter, I still hope we will come back but the hopes are diminishing fast

Sydney Fiasco

The events are exactly turning out to be similar to 2007 monkeygate game. Did Dhoni do the right thing by opting to bat first. Yes it was a courageous decision and batsmen had to apply themselves which they did not. Australia's batting troubles seem to be now over with the middle order now solid as ever. India needs to bat another four sessions to save this match. Another impossible expectation..