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Gooch's advice to India: Take the attack to Monty


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If India can put up 500-plus on the board, the pressure will be on the English batsmen, says Gooch. More... Gooch's advice to India: Take the attack to Monty Ajay Naidu CHELMSFORD, July 15: Former England skipper Graham Gooch spared some time for the Indian scribes on Sunday morning to draw upon his wealth of experience and share his thoughts on the forthcoming India-England Test series. Having played 118 Tests and scored 8,900 runs (avg 42.58), he reckons that both Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble will have to play leading roles if India are to have a memorable summer in England. Excerpts: Are India capable of surprising England? Yes. They've got some real quality players. The middle order is experienced in English conditions and all of them have good Test records; one or two guys may be in the last phase of their careers. So they would want to make it a successful one. It will be a big challenge for the English bowlers to match up against this strong Indian batting line up. But isn't bowling the weak link for the visitors? The batting is experienced in English conditions and that helps. Touring England in the second half means conditions will be a lot drier. However, I would still favour seam bowling a little more at this time of the year. While it's true that the bowling is a bit inexperienced, Anil Kumble will be a huge factor for India. Kumble has been a good servant of Indian cricket. Even after playing for such a long time, he retains that desire and hunger to perform. He is an attacking bowler and he might have to do a lot of stock bowling. Kumble is a different kind of bowler, like Derek Underwood. He bowls fast, gets the ball to bounce, and is not a big turner. His record stands the test of time. He has a role not just to take wickets but also give control to the captain as well. Whatever your bowling attack is, first you got to put the runs on the board. If India can put up 500-plus runs on the board, the pressure will be on the English batsmen and vice versa. What kind of an impact will Sachin Tendulkar have on the series? For every opposition, Sachin has been a major stumbling block for the last 18 years. He is such a fantastic player for India. He started young and has played for a long time. I've watched him since his early years and to me he looks to be back at his best. He stands still, the balance, the timing was brilliant. He came in to bat in a tricky situation and showed a lot of intent. India lost a few quick wickets and he counter-attacked. He has made a huge statement that he is still a major force to reckon with. Is this series a moment of reckoning for Panesar? Monty has been England's most consistent bowler in the last 18 months and certainly the best England spinner in the last 20 years. He is a nice lad, very keen to learn. He's got good control, he spins the ball well and he's at the batsman all the time. So he's got all the attributes of a class spinner, but one thing that's going to test him is how he matches up against great players. This will be his big test. This will be a step up in class. If I was the Indian batting coach, or if I was the Indian batsman, I would try and take the attack to him a bit. I wouldn't let him tie me down. If you are facing a good bowler, you got to put the pressure back on him. It will be a fascinating contest. He's young and will be bowling against experienced batsmen who have been brought up in their careers playing this kind of bowling. You played till you were well past 40 and were successful too. What is the secret of batting well in the twilight of your career? I played till 42 and, for me, the last few years were my golden years. My batting actually got better. There's no reason players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly can't go on for a couple of years more. It all depends on the desire and the fitness. Desire is linked to fitness because if the desire is not there you are not going to work on your fitness. As you get old you have to work that much harder to stand still because you are deteriorating physically. Your concentration and general sharpness disappears. So you've got to work even harder on your fitness. The three of them are in their last phase of a great career and if they have the desire they can play on.

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hmm, I think the kinda mood sachin is in, I feel he is going to attack monty. The thing is monty does not have the varaity in is spin.He has great line and length and great arm ball. As far as I can get does not have a doosra or a drifter. So feel tendulkar is gonna paddle sweep him away. Ganguly is gonna attack him for sure.Left arm spinner to left handed batsman hmmmm. However a person like dravid is gonna just play him out. Monty does not have varaity but he does not bowl too many bad balls.

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hmm, I think the kinda mood sachin is in, I feel he is going to attack monty. The thing is monty does not have the varaity in is spin.He has great line and length and great arm ball. As far as I can get does not have a doosra or a drifter. So feel tendulkar is gonna paddle sweep him away. Ganguly is gonna attack him for sure.Left arm spinner to left handed batsman hmmmm. However a person like dravid is gonna just play him out. Monty does not have varaity but he does not bowl too many bad balls.
Just to take a contrary position: Dravid will have the most runs against Monty at the end of the series! :)
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As long as there is runs on the board really I don't care if Rahul has a strike rate of less than 50. These days expecting India to bat out full 50 overs or scoring over 300 runs seems to be asking for too much.

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As long as there is runs on the board really I don't care if Rahul has a strike rate of less than 50. These days expecting India to bat out full 50 overs or scoring over 300 runs seems to be asking for too much.
Prophesy: We will get 300+ in < 3 sessions.
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