India....Cricket's Great Under Achievers?

[16 str8]

Indian cricket is no doubt coming towards the end of its "golden age" with the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and Kumble all seemingly in the final stages of their careers. With this in mind, what does India have to show for so many great players? With players of this calibre should India have won a recent World Cup? Should they have achieved the number 1 ranking in test cricket over the last 10 years, if only for a while? Have India let downt their fans?

[Anakin]

Mostly because they have been playing with at most 11 players, and very often 8/9 players most of the times.

[King Tendulkar]

Indian cricket is no doubt coming towards the end of its "golden age" with the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and Kumble all seemingly in the final stages of their careers. With this in mind, what does India have to show for so many great players? With players of this calibre should India have won a recent World Cup? Should they have achieved the number 1 ranking in test cricket over the last 10 years, if only for a while? Have India let downt their fans?

We just won the latest world cup and are the world champions! I seem to remeber an open top bus ride through mumbai and that twat symonds and rest of aussies being VERY jelous. WE ARE THE WORLD CHAMPIONS OF CRICKETS

[siddhu]

This is trolling at its worst.... If you want to needle the Indian fans... atleast don't be so obvious:finger::finger:

[16 str8]

We just won the latest world cup and are the world champions! I seem to remeber an open top bus ride through mumbai and that twat symonds and rest of aussies being VERY jelous. WE ARE THE WORLD CHAMPIONS OF CRICKETS

Nope, India were knocked out by Sri Lanka after losing to Bangadesh earlier in the group stages. As I remember it was quite embarrising... And Australia went on to win the comp, with Symonds claiming his second World Cup in as many starts.

[16 str8]

This is trolling at its worst.... If you wan't to needle the Indian fans... atleast don't be so obvious:finger::finger:

Trolling? I am just curious about the Indian fans opinions on their teams performance. Who better to ask?

[Chandan]

Trolling? I am just curious about the Indian fans opinions on their teams performance. Who better to ask?

If you want a serious answer, then I'll tell you that 4 batsmen and a great spinner can't bring the team to number one as far as test championship is concerned. We need good pace bowler to win matches abroad which we didn't have when these batsmen were at their peak. Only if Ganguly and Laxman were two seamers instead of champion bastmen we'd have won more often. So we haven't underacheived. In fact we've done as well as a team could do in the absence of one or two class quickies!

[Ram]

Very good question actually. It is fair to say that, considering the amount of following cricket enjoys in India, we should have won a lot more silverware than we have, but I think we have seen that at the top-most level, it doesnt matter how talented you are or how many youngsters are there in the pipeline, but how professional the players and what systems are in place. The set-up in Indian cricket is getting more and more professional everyday, there are lots of talented youngsters waiting in the wings and most importantly, there is this new breed of fast bowlers coming through. Me thinks its just a matter of time before we dominate world cricket like Australia has been doing for years.

[16 str8]

If you want a serious answer' date=' then I'll tell you that 4 batsmen and a great spinner can't bring the team to number one as far as test championship is concerned. We need good pace bowler to [b']win matches abroad which we didn't have when these batsmen were at their peak. Only if Ganguly and Laxman were two seamers instead of champion bastmen we'd have won more often. So we haven't underacheived. In fact we've done as well as a team could do in the absence of one or two class quickies!

In that case with Sharma/Sreesanth/Pathan would you say things look to heading the right way for India?

[16 str8]

Very good question actually. It is fair to say that, considering the amount of following cricket enjoys in India, we should have won a lot more silverware than we have, but I think we have seen that at the top-most level, it doesnt matter how talented you are or how many youngsters are there in the pipeline, but how professional the players and what systems are in place. The set-up in Indian cricket is getting more and more professional everyday, there are lots of talented youngsters waiting in the wings and most importantly, there is this new breed of fast bowlers coming through. Me thinks its just a matter of time before we dominate world cricket like Australia has been doing for years.

Good to hear, we are always hoping for someone to challenge Australia. Although I wouldn't be too confident, Australia has never had so much depth in the domestic competition as it does now.

[Ram]

Good to hear' date=' we are always hoping for someone to challenge Australia. Although I wouldn't be too confident, Australia has never had so much depth in the domestic competition as it does now. [/quote'] You guys are hoping for someone to challenge Aus ? Strange, did you watch the previous test series ? We not only challenged Aus, we nearly drew the series. The scoreline reads 2-1 Aus, but you know as well as i do, that but for some mediocre umpiring, things could have been much much different. I am not saying we would have won the Sydney test, but a draw would have definitely been a fair result. So, we drew the last time we played down under, narrowly lost this time, lost a home series to them in 2004, but beat them in 2001 and 1998. We are more than a challenge to Aus, we a fitting match.

[16 str8]

You guys are hoping for someone to challenge Aus ? Strange, did you watch the previous test series ? We not only challenged Aus, we nearly drew the series. The scoreline reads 2-1 Aus, but you know as well as i do, that but for some mediocre umpiring, things could have been much much different. I am not saying we would have won the Sydney test, but a fair would have definitely been a fair result. So, we drew the last time we played down under, narrowly lost this time, lost a home series to them in 2004, but beat them in 2001 and 1998. We are more than a challenge to Aus, we a fitting match.

India have been the biggest rival to Australia, but they have failed to win a series since 2001, proving the point of the thread. I get the feeling the team did not make the most of what it had, and it wont be long before India are in a re-building phase like the Australian's are.

[chanakya]

don't worry come this August the Border Gavaskar trophy is coming home.

[Guest dada_rocks]

As far as fairness is concerned we jsut beat u 2-1 and forced u to play safe tlest it might get 3-1 in last test

[MundaPakistani]

This is what i think about IND's top 5 players Laxman- underachieved in terms of average but played some great innings and as a test batsman i rate him almost on par with M Yousuf. Ganguly- Couldn't play quality short bowling but was the king of ODIs. Sachin- Great batsman but a lot of times failed to see IND through. Dravid- Great batsman and a match winner but sometimes played too slow and stalled the team's progress. Kumble- wasn't a great bowler until 2002.

[16 str8]

As far as fairness is concerned we jsut beat u 2-1 and forced u to play safe tlest it might get 3-1 in last test

This would say otherwise: http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Series/SeriesStats.asp?SeriesCode=0568 As far as fairness goes, Harbhajan would have been banned for a few matches for racism. Its all hypothetical now.

[IndianRenegade]

This would say otherwise: http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Series/SeriesStats.asp?SeriesCode=0568 As far as fairness goes, Harbhajan would have been banned for a few matches for racism. Its all hypothetical now.

On what basis? On the words of Symonds & co? You seriously need to refer a dictionary.

[Ram]

India have been the biggest rival to Australia' date=' but they have failed to win a series since 2001, proving the point of the thread. I get the feeling the team did not make the most of what it had, and it wont be long before India are in a re-building phase like the Australian's are.[/quote'] If you apply the same yardstick to Aus, they didnt win a test series against India from 1999 to 2004 onwards. What does that prove ? Nothing, Australia were still the best team in the world then. I think the rebuilding phase with Indian cricket has already started. We have already done away with most of the oldies in one day cricket. I am sure that is a precursor to the young guys taking up places in the test team. The very same Rohit Sharma, Tiwary etc will soon find their way into the test team. One day cricket will be an excellent warm-up for them, to face the mother of all challenges - TEST CRICKET

[16 str8]

On what basis? On the words of Symonds & co? You seriously need to refer a dictionary.

I do not want to get into this again in this thread. Start another thread and I will talk about it there.

[IndianRenegade]

Indian cricket is no doubt coming towards the end of its "golden age" with the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and Kumble all seemingly in the final stages of their careers. With this in mind, what does India have to show for so many great players? With players of this calibre should India have won a recent World Cup? Should they have achieved the number 1 ranking in test cricket over the last 10 years, if only for a while? Have India let downt their fans?

1.Sure it should have been a golden age. But super stars can't win you games. It needs a great team to win you matches. Each and every player must support the team. Individual performances can only push a team so far. 2. As much as quality stroke makers are better than sloggers as far as batting is concerned, a quality bowling attack needs to have a good pace attack. India has produced great spinners, but not many quality pace bowlers. 3. Another reason is India's fielding & running between the wickets, at no point has India been exceptional in these departments consistently. This is a department where you can out do a team of equal caliber. India's failure in these departments meant that they will always be second when they meet quality teams which do well in these departments. But Things may just change, India is going to loose its super stars soon, no doubt. But, the youth has shown some promise. Players like Rhoit Sharma, GG, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Uthappa, Raina have shown that they have the quality in them to act as replacements, but whether they have the consistency is a question? A question that will soon be answered. India's pace battery is at its prime, they had just managed to rattle the world champions at their own den. It will again boil down to consistency & fitness. With youngsters around the fielding is bound to improve, if the games against Aus, SL in CB series is any indicator there is very little to worry regarding the running between the wickets. I would reckon that India can reach far greater heights if the youngsters can show consistency, for the skill is there for everyone to see. It will all depend on consistency. If they fail to be consistent, 10 yrs from now, a similar question would be asked "Have India's greatest cricketers under achieved?" - I hope not. :angel_smile: