As First test between
India & England is drawing near,The true cricket lovers are getting more
and more anxious about its result. Many indian fans might never had cared that
much about this series if their team wasn't white washed by England Where India
was totally outdone by English Pace last year. Many people are calling it a
Revenge time by preparing Spin attack for English players. BCCI just made their
Intentions clear by not selecting any spinner in their India A's Warm-up game
to avoid English Batsmen to get any sort of practice against spinners as
English batsmen are usually known for their weaknesses against spinners on
Sub-continent pitches.
Many analysts are thinking it to be an easy task for india by giving example of
England's failure against Pakistan Pakistan Spin attack.
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| Role Of Indian Spinners is going to be Important |
In Sub-continent, Engand
played their last two series vs Pak and SL. Where they were thrashed by Pak 3-0
England was demolished by two quality spinners like Ajmal & Abdul Rehman in
UAE & They drew against SL 1-1 where SL got one World Class Spinners like
Herath & a decent one like Randiv.While on the other hand India got Ashwin
& Ojha as their front-line spinners.
Ajmal being one of the best Spinner in the world
right now while, Ashwin being one of the best performer for india in recent
past. Both are Off-spinners having two different deliveries which turns other
way like leg-spinners. Ajmal & Herath troubled England in the past because
of his variety in bowling & his experience While on the other hand Ashwin
is quite inexperienced when it comes to test cricket and his carrom ball is not
that much effective as much Doosra of Ajmal. It is a big stage for both indian
spinners as both of them played well in past against Newzealand and WestIndies.
But they were comparatively less stronger teams.
In test Cricket, you need decent Fast bowlers to bowl with new ball at the
start of Inning to give your team a good start with ball. Indian bowling is
quite one dimensional with with lack of
In-form fast bowlers.
Indian openers in past
played an important role in success of their team, but their opening partners
are not in form for quite of lot of time.That's one of the worrying aspect for
MS Dhoni. Ghambir's batting form might Worry the home side as he averages
31.78 in 9 tests in last two years at
home While his overall average in last two years 30.31 in 18 tests &
Sehwag's average is quite better at home when compared to his overall record in
last two years. He averages 55.25 in 10 tests at home while his overall average
in last two year is 37.26 in 19 tests. Knowing that England's real strength
will be their fast bowling in test series, Indian openers are needed to get
back their lost form to see around new ball. There will be a lot of
responsibility on their opener's shoulder to give them good start at the top of
inning after the retirement of their two heavyweights Rahul Dravid & VVS
Laxman. It will take ages to fill the void left by them but in short term
planning if india want to recover the damage, their seniors will have to come
forward especially their Openers.
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THOSE TWO BIG NAMES USED
TO SUPPORT THEIR TEAM WITH THEIR TEAMS BUT NOW, TEAM WILL HAVE TO SUPPORT THEIR
REPLACEMENT PLAYERS. THAT'S AN OPPOSITE THING WHICH IS CERTAINLY GOING TO HAVE
AN IMPACT ON THEIR BATTING.
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India has enjoyed the luxury
of some of the greats of batting like Laxman & Dravid in the middle for
over a Decade. Home record of Rahul Dravid & VVS laxman speaks for
themselves. In last two years at home, Dravid averages 64.33 while Laxman
averages 73.73. These two brought a lot of solidarity in indian batting line-up
in past. One of the great thing about these two legends is their brilliant
record in fourth inning of a game. They played many match winning innings for
their team in past. India is certainly going to miss them. Now, it is first big
tast for Indian young VVS-Dravidless batting. These is certainly going to be a
lot of pressure on their new commers. They are welcomed in team at the cost of
absence of legends. Indian middle order is highly Inexperiened in their absence
but highly talented in the presence of
likes of talented Kohli and Promising Pujara. What they need is just a
good start at the top. These young players are then very much capable of doing
the job for their team.
Indian pacers' recent bowling need to come up and help their spinner to do the
job for their team, ZAK who has been little out of colour recently averages
27.63 with ball in last two years & his teammate Ishant Sharma averages
33.33.
Dhoni's captaincy is going to be the Key for india in this series. Dhoni know that he is going to start series as
favourites & He is the boss and he will have to dictate terms. Despite
rankings, England is coming to india as a weaker team with their sub-continent record. He should
attack by being aggressive and make sure England stays out of game. Dhoni has
been defensive with his captaincy in recent past, But this time he will have to
think positively as he is going to play at home.Pitches are going to suit india
so no point in being defensive. Defensive approach is just going to help
England, it only will give England a chance to get themselves settled. Luck
can't always favour Dhoni he will have to be aggressive if he wants to win it.
In batting,India had undisturbed lineup for quite a lot of time, this series
being first big assignment for india's young batting, India will have to play
with different approach even while batting. It will be quite interesting to see
how Dhoni is going to plan for it.
England team is very much
balanced. They are having very good fast bowlers along with Swann & Monty
as their spinners but worrying aspect for them is fragility of their batting
lineup against spinners. One of their weapon Kevien Peterson averaged around 11
at UAE against. Bell, Morgan and Trott were totally exposed against Spinners on
the tracks which weren't really the rank turners & where there was not much
to offer for spinners. England can pressurize Indian spinners by trying to
dominate their less effective pacers as English Batsmen are comparatively lot
better against Fast bowlers. They should try to dominate Indian pacers and
should try not to lose wickets to their fast bowlers, It will put Ashwin &
Ojha under a lot of pressure which can make them to commit some mistakes. It
will help England to neutralize them lot easier. They can surely trouble young
Indian spinners who are right now the best bowlers in team. England will have
to change their mind setup against spinners if they want to have their any
chance in this series. It is really worth to mention that` after conceding a
whitewash against Pakistan at UAE, England defeated Pakistan 4-0 in ODI's. Both
teams were almost same without any considerable addition except the addition of
Shahid Afridi in Pakistan which even strengthened their spin departement.
Something that helped England to win that series was their intent to play spin.
They were lot more aggressive against spinners which really helped their cause.
They were forced by the format of the game in ODIs to play a bit
aggressive,that pushed Pakistan on backfoot while bowling which was their one
of the major weapon. They were comparatively defensive in tests. Here against
India, England will have to play positively against Indian spinners if they
want to have any chance in this Series.
In fast bowling, Steven Finn
is going to be the key for them because of his speed and recent form. In
subcontinent, Pitches doesn't offer much to fast bowler in swing & seam, A
pacer can make an impact with the ball by beating the batsmen with pace &
then generating the reverse swing in later part of inning. Finn has got shear
pace & He is currently among the fastest bowlers in the world. He even
troubled indian batsmen in their last outing to india for ODIs which they lost
by 5-0 though but Finn really emerged as a good & aggressive bowler in that
series.
One of the other major bowler is going to Stuart Broad,He is tall & got
some pace as well but he needs to learn to pitch ball up. He always looks to
bowl a bit short of length. Such tactics can work in Australian or English
Conditions at times where ball swings around and pitches offer some bounce but
On slow pitches of SouthAsia, Batsmen will have enough time to eye the ball. In
india, you can't wait for things to happen on their own, you will have to do
things by yourself.
English bowler did the mistake of bowling short in UAE vs Pakistan as well
where Pakistani batsmen most of the time just held their patience and were just
knocking the ball around,Hence succeeded as You can see Strike rate of
Pakistani batsmen was not much.
Graeme Swann is going to lead Spin bowling alongwith Monty Pansear. Being the
lone decent Spinner in team & because of India's record against Spin,He is
going to be under immense pressure. And his recent form even suggests that he
is literally out of touch as he couldn't take many wickets in his last test
series against SouthAfrica.
This test series is the first assignment of A Cook as test captain. He
certainly need to have a look at his past records. England hardly won anything
in Asia. He will have to try to find out where it went wrong. He should know
that England is never going to win it with old English approach which never won
them anything. It's certainaly time for them to have a look at their
strategies. Cook should know What (strategies/approach) never won them anything
in the past at sub-continent,is certainly not going to help them here as well.
It's surely TIME TO PLAY DIFFERENTLY.
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