er....

Er, who is supposed to open with Jaffer in the Tests? Karthik? Is this long term? Huh?

ODI squad: Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Manoj Tiwary, Dinesh Mongia, Piyush Chawla, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh.

Test squad: Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid (capt), VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble, Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, VRV Singh, Ramesh Powar, Rajesh Pawar, Munaf Patel.

Pop cricket

Ah. India and Pakistan.

Off it, they are cricket's Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. One, pure monied trash, influential for no other reason than having too much of it, the other straight-up trailer trash, cricket's true basket case. They are tabloid fodder, stumbling from one front page to another: religion, player factionalism, spats, coaching intrigues, politicking, doping and even possible murder.

yes, am back (from some travel).

Oh, no...

A bunch of teenagers hammer India. For the proverbial Martian watching this, it would have seemed Bangladesh are the cricketing giants and India the almost-minnows. Despite some of the utterly hopeless performances dished out by India, I couldn’t help but be stunned at the way Bangladeshis turned up. A Spring in their step, aggressions and attitude brimming over, self belief in every action.

You’d think also that 190 was one of those clichéd neither here nor there scores, that on not-the-best of batting pitches would be a tricky task for a team that’s hardly won anything at a World Cup before. You’d be wrong, as most of us were. Tamim Iqbal looked at first (at least to me admittedly biased eyes) to be trying a little too much, and stuff beyond his depth. Soon he had the Indian bowlers not only on the backfoot, but tripping over themselves. Then Mushfiqur Rahim played with a panache almost unknown to any of his more ‘illustrious’ Indian counterparts today.

Eventually though, it was less about our bowling, a bit about how the top 4 flopped, but mostly about how unforgivable (and unfathomable) losing 5 wickets for 2 runs was. 157 for 4 to 159 for 9- I’m still reeling from that.

Mar 17

191 is not going to be that easy to defend, moderately promising pitch nothwithstanding.
aargh.

meanwhile, it a great St Patrick's day for the leprechaun army. Not so good for the pakistani brethren.

new blue, old blue

So much for the new blue. Sorry BCCI & Nike, you'll have to wait, says the ICC.
Awaiting further weird details on this.

> Or,then again, maybe not. The team will wear the new threads, but with changes in sponsor logo placement. Should have known.

new blue

India's 'World Cup Colours' are revealed, with Nike expectedly calling them hi-tech. They seem a little too light in colour for my liking, and shiny, though both of these might seem more than they are thanks to the stage lights in the pics. Also the green of the flag is quite low on the shirt, notice how its lost on so many of these players, once tucked in.

Pic: Uday Kuckian

The colours of the graphics on the new jersey take inspiration from the Indian flag and represent speed and motion.

I just hope they also ensure some speed in the field, the lack of which is possibly the team's biggest weakness going into the tournament.

My question is- what happened to these grand plans that were unveiled when Nike signed on as sponsors well over a year ago??

wake up!

Remember the story about Sehwag being held by the collar by John Wright once, when he'd just come back in dismissed off a rash shot? I wonder what would have happened if he had walked back in after today's dismissal. Hats off to Sangakarra, but that was unforgivable from Viru. Wake up!

That was a thrilling display of typical Yuvi batting, by the way.

new ground...

3 ODIs against Australia in Ireland. Perfect preparation, one would presume, for the 3 tests against England that follow. Take a look at India's schedule starting now till next April- its quite staggering, really.
No, Mr deLisle, no one seems to think less is more. Its the goose and eggs, again...but who seems to care.

faith

You have to feel for this guy.

"I sincerely feel that I deserve a couple of chances to prove myself all over
again. I have played for India over six years and 100 ODIs with distinction, so
that stage is passed where I have to prove my capabilities. It's just about
getting runs in the kitty. Until I get that opportunity, how do I show my form."

Kaif averages 19.31 in his last 20 matches, with three half-centuries. Raina, for one, averages 18.94 in his last 20, with two 50s.
Who would you go for?

My World Cup 14...

...(cause I can't decide on the 15th!)

Dravid
Sachin
Ganguly
Yuvi
Sehwag
Dhoni
Karthik
Uhtappa
Pathan
Bhajji
Kumble
Agarkar
Zaheer
Sreesanth
This is a toss up for me between Powar and Munaf I suppose. I don’t really know.

I believe Raina should miss out because his (really)extended run has yielded little. Karthik has impressed in far fewer chances (and theirs is the ‘face-off, I’d think). It’s a pity Kaif has gone so off the radar. He’s had a bit of a raw deal, it would seem to me, by not getting enough chances, or erratic ones. Pathan is a tough call, but the balance he brings hope of is very very tempting. I cringe thinking of Munaf’s fielding, too.

excitement

The second test is underway at Mohali, and it is terribly exciting to see both Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla (the boy was born in 1988...88!) in the lineup. I can't quite decide which one I am more expectant about, so I'll just go ahead and wait with bated breath on both. Best of luck, chaps.

odds

Sure, the future is what you look ahead to. But who told Kiran More that his statement had any point whatsoever? So there are going to be lots of debates about this (like this call for their heads), and more fuel to a fire that needs to die out yesterday, but really- does the head of the selection committee have no sense of tact at all?

Meanwhile, it would seem the ratings on television for the India Pak series have dropped across the three series since 2004. Somewhere here there are cricketing equivalents of geese, eggs and the colour gold, but who’s to tell hungry boards that?

bah

What a bummer.
Michael Vaughan and Trescothick are out of the first test (at the very least), while Jones is uncertain after (another) injury scare in the nets. I know there are many who would rejoice at this, and others who are saying “heck, its their problem if they can’t even stay fit’”. While the second might have its merits, it doesn’t take away from the fact this series would have been funner with the English captain, vice captain and potential strike bowler in the side, not out of it.
Oh, well.

6 for 23!

A scrambled end of 6 for 23, and India has ended at least 15-20 runs short of what they were heading for. Truth be told, if you don't defend 328 you dont deserve to win at all, but given the way this pitch has played and the way things went the last time india was here, you never know...

And hello- where the hell did Sreesanth get that helmet from?

over a grand for 7. whoa.

What an astounding pile-up of runs, and what astounding batting performances for me to completely miss! Sheesh.
Like the blitzkreig from Afridi (and lesser from Akmal) and the foundations laid by Yousuf and Younis, Sehwag and Dravid's innings have been on a eminently forgettable strip, but a lot of the batting we have seen is memorable despite that. To come out nearly 700 runs behind against your arch rival and its excellent bowling attack and pound it to dust thus (yes, yes what a sodding pitch this is) is an amazing display of will, strength and skill. Especially considering that bit of mess that the team and its peripheral issues are in right now...

test bat

I don't need to get into the absurd rates the Pakistanis scored at yesterday, and now the Indian openers have chugged along at over 5 an over. Hats off to the adventurous spirit of their blades, but really- what the heck sort of pitch is this anyway? test cricket? Nah, just test the bowlers...

that sinking feeling

This is so depressing, whatever elements of untruth may be in it- pleading with ganguly? ugh.

Apparently Dean Jones was on yesterday (on similar footage of Dravid, Ganguly and Chappell), that indeed it was Ganguly who was pleading to be included in the playing XI. It all smacks of the petty and political behaviour we have all become used to so vocally disliking over the last few years. It seems, in some ways, that it is a vestige of those times- to accommodate this one 'issue'- but it still leaves one terribly disheartened.

Far, far more than 326/2.

black and blue

So the Indian cricket team's nike sponsorship shall come along with a new kit, a piece of news that seems to be buried in few parts of the web. Its a dark blue, though more like a blue-black, harkening to the days of the 1992 World Cup. But there seems to be no yellow or saffron elements in it, and it seems a bit 'neither here nor there'. A better call can be made when we actually see them unveiled in the Pak ODIs I suppose.
Assuming , of course, they actually 'unveil it' in a reasonable manner, unless they believe these dashing chaps here holding them up is good enough till the MiBB* march out.

pic AFP

*Men in BlueBlack

slurs

so what is with people? if you spend the money to go watch a cricket match (and, I assume, the beer you consume there), why waste it if all you end up doing is this? Get a life. I suppose these are the people who have Lehmann posters up in their rooms.

Meanwhile, I don't quite get why Ganguly should be meeting with Pawar. It smacks of either political overtones, desperation, pettiness, or all of these- and I am not saying its one-sided either. If he makes it to Pakistan now, it will be seen as a tainted selection; if he is not picked in the playing XI (which he might not if this man has anything to say), there will be another uproar- treating a former captain with no respect by letting him (forcing him) to languish in the dressing room.

Sigh. The webs they weave...

Motera

So 'Pao Bhajji' had the Lankans in a spin with some good bouncy off-spin stuff. (Talking of bouncy, Warney's leg breaks are hitting chaps on the helmet in Perth...), but the Lankans are making sure India doesn't have it easy. India is 2 down, and SL's body language is real positive.

Is it just me, or does the Motera crowd seem rather genenerous (by Indian standards) with their applause?