Dear Mr Kumble

[Dooks]

Since this is a new trend of staring threads with 'Dear ...' , I started one of my own. No real reason for it. Dear Mr Kumble Can you please explain why when SL were scoring freely you didn't bowl Sehwag for more than 2 over in an innings? Can you also please explain why when SL were scoring freely you didn't bowl SRT at all? What is wrong with you? I thought you were so much better captain than Dravid. But, I have totally changed my mind since your arrival in SL. It seems you have thought that if I let SRT or Sehwag have enough bowling then they might actually take more wickets than me. I think you are trying to show that you are still a bowler of reckoning at the expense of India winnig the test. I am sorry but please resign your captaincy and retire from test cricket. Thank you a fan of yours for last 15 years.

[Guest Hiten.]

How could he have SRT bowling for him, whilst SRT was carrying a sore shoulder ? I am not too sure about why was Sehwag under bowled.

[DomainK]

I agree. Kumble's captaincy has been one-dimensional, unimaginative, too traditional, too predictable and toothless. The opposition never got a surprise, the bowling changes were quite pathetic and field arrangement has been too traditional.

[Fontaine]

I agree. Kumble's captaincy has been one-dimensional' date=' unimaginative, too traditional, too predictable and toothless. The opposition never got a surprise, the bowling changes were quite pathetic and field arrangement has been too traditional.[/quote'] Well, its just a result of the selection. After three tests in hot and humid conditions it was short sighted to expect the same bowlers to carry the burden when Kumble wasn't picking up wickets and Harbhajan was hit and miss and Zaheer was coming off a long injury layoff. It was never on the cards to pick just four bowlers especially when a couple of batsmen continually looked lost against Mendis, and that decision came back to haunt Kumble when Ishant got injured and Dravid once again did nothing in the first innings. A captain needs to keep his fingers on the pulse of the team and anticipate. Can anyone give me a valid reason for not going with a 3-2 combination in light of the paltry contributions made by some batsmen? A captain needs options on the field when it comes to the bowling and we had none apart from putting on the pacers and then spinners. Predictable, and uninspiring. Unfortunately, this has been systematic of Kumble's captaincy rather than an isolated incident in this series. Kumble, no doubt is an inspiring, professional, and thorough cricketer but I'm alarmed how little faith he places in our fast bowlers. Guys like RP Singh, Sharma and Pathan were only given a chance due to circumstance rather than fate under Kumble. We went into that first test against Australia with the same tired and traditional bowling combination of Kumble, Harbhajan, Zaheer, and Rp Singh just like in this series of a 2-2 combination. It's startling to me that as a captain Kumble only went with selecting Sharma and Pathan when injuries forced his hand. Let me put it this way, if Zaheer/RP don't get injured Sharma could have never been picked to play against Australia and it would have been perfectly conceivable for him to disapear as just another prospect to domestic cricket and not be the star of Indian bowling. Kumble may be one of the greatest spinners in the history of the game but as a captain he's fundamentally flawed in that he has almost no understanding of fast bowling. Dhoni, with far less experience has a far greater understanding of what his fast bowlers are capable of and when they should be bowled and picked. Dhoni has probably made more changes to his bowling selections in one series with greater success than Kumble has in his entire captaincy.

[Mr. Wicket]

Fontaine: Excellent post. Kumble's captaincy does seem to be a little too 'paint by numbers' without that much instinctive thought or gambling. The way he's underused Sehwag's bowling capabilities this series and Tendulkar's bowling overall says a lot - there's a lot more he could get out of his players, but he too often chooses to go by the safest route.

[Mr. Wicket]

BTW Fontaine, that post could be the core of a very good article and deserves to be highlighted on its own. If you could expand it a bit further so it stands alone as an OP (rather than a response in a thread), I'll copy it to the articles forum/front page.

[Fontaine]

BTW Fontaine' date=' that post could be the core of a very good article and deserves to be highlighted on its own. [b']If you could expand it a bit further so it stands alone as an OP (rather than a response in a thread), I'll copy it to the articles forum/front page.

Yeah, my post clearly needs more cowbell!!! :haha: I created a thread just now capturing my thoughts on the series overall. Maybe that's enough? But thanks for your kind words.

[King]

A lot of you folks here sound awesome with the hindsight. These thoughts never made it to the forums just when the series was about to start. :winky:

[Chandan]

Actually if you see, even SL has gone with four regular bowlers out of whom two are seamers and two are spinners. It is just that one of their debutant spinner has got phenomenal success that the lack of success of their two seamers went unnoticed in the first two tests. In any case Lanka's bowling line up is much better than ours if you compare bowler to bowler: Zaheer-Vaas = Vaas Sharma-Kulshekhara=Sharma Murali-Kumble=Murali Bhajji-Mendis=Mendia Here only one Indian bowler was better. Now in the current bowling line up Prasad has done much better than Sharma could though we understand that Sharma is not fully fit in this match. So the better bowling line up has fared better. Where is the surprise here. I agree that there seemed to be no plans in Kumble's field setting to trap for a Lankan batsman like Jayawardene set a trap for Sachin in the 2nd test and Sehwag in the first and third. This was the case with Dravid too who often looked clueless when an opposition batsman got going. Here apart from that one inning of Sehwag, none of the Indian batsman have got going and thus Jayawardene hasn't been tested fully. Though haven't we seen how clueless he (Jaya) looked in the ODI in Australia? A captain can only look good if his team is performing. In this series Jayawardene's team is performing while Kumble's team is completely out of sorts including Kumble himself! One can't do much with an out of sorts team.

[Mr. Wicket]

Yeah, my post clearly needs more cowbell!!! :haha:

I just hope you've actually seen the original SNL skit... :--D

[umpire]

Dear Mr. Kumble, why you have not bowled googlies this series?

[DadaRocks]

Kumble averages 44.40 with the ball at a SR of 85. No FIFER so far in 8 test matches this year. His worst year since his debut year of 1990. I think finally age has caught up with Messrs. Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble.

[MundaPakistani]

Actually if you see' date=' [b']even SL has gone with four regular bowlers out of whom two are seamers and two are spinners. It is just that one of their debutant spinner has got phenomenal success that the lack of success of their two seamers went unnoticed in the first two tests. In any case Lanka's bowling line up is much better than ours if you compare bowler to bowler: Zaheer-Vaas = Vaas Sharma-Kulshekhara=Sharma Murali-Kumble=Murali Bhajji-Mendis=Mendia .

Disagree! SL went in to the first 2 test matches with 4 spinners, this is the ONLY test match where they have decided to play ONE fast bowler.

[ananthd]

Sehwag is VC... Surely he could have talked Kumble into bowling him more often? While Kumble has been a bit staid, I feel the seniors have been listless on the field in general... No real inputs, despite 4 former captains on the field...

[Desi Cartman]

Sehwag is VC... Surely he could have talked Kumble into bowling him more often? While Kumble has been a bit staid, I feel the seniors have been listless on the field in general... No real inputs, despite 4 former captains on the field...

and it was the same reason due to which they failed in the first 2 tests against South Africa .

[punjabi_khota]

Actually if you see, even SL has gone with four regular bowlers out of whom two are seamers and two are spinners. It is just that one of their debutant spinner has got phenomenal success that the lack of success of their two seamers went unnoticed in the first two tests. In any case Lanka's bowling line up is much better than ours if you compare bowler to bowler: Zaheer-Vaas = Vaas Sharma-Kulshekhara=Sharma Murali-Kumble=Murali Bhajji-Mendis=Mendia Here only one Indian bowler was better. Now in the current bowling line up Prasad has done much better than Sharma could though we understand that Sharma is not fully fit in this match. So the better bowling line up has fared better. Where is the surprise here. I agree that there seemed to be no plans in Kumble's field setting to trap for a Lankan batsman like Jayawardene set a trap for Sachin in the 2nd test and Sehwag in the first and third. This was the case with Dravid too who often looked clueless when an opposition batsman got going. Here apart from that one inning of Sehwag, none of the Indian batsman have got going and thus Jayawardene hasn't been tested fully. Though haven't we seen how clueless he (Jaya) looked in the ODI in Australia? A captain can only look good if his team is performing. In this series Jayawardene's team is performing while Kumble's team is completely out of sorts including Kumble himself! One can't do much with an out of sorts team.

No

[Ram]

Kumble should bear massive responsibility, partly due to his listless bowling in the entire series and partly due to his ever drooping body-language when the going got tough. He has been a total non-factor really in a series where spinners have taken the bulk of the wickets and thats really worrying. But his body-language yesterday morning especially, when Sanga and the keeper were adding all those runs, was, to describe in generously charitalbe terms, uninspiring. He had this frustrated, despondent look in his face, constantly grimacing and training his looks on erring fielders for prolonged periods of time. His only saving grace; the coolers he was wearing, which kinds masked the real extent of disappointment that his facial expressions were belying.

[Brainfade]

It never really is one thing or one person, is it? One can question a captain's tactics all he wants, but the bottom line is that this team had a chance at restricting SL to a much smaller score, but did not deliver. At crucial moments yesterday and today, close-in catching has let them down. Not once, but several times. It is hard for a bowler to stay motivated under those circumstances. Had those catches been held, this match would look different, and we'd be posting with a different tone. Now, Kumble didn't apply butter on their fingers, did he?

[Dooks]

I think you all are missing my point. My concern is that he didn't even try SRT in any of the tests (including the first one) nor Sehwag. Normally, if one is not able to take wickets then a captain tries a part-time bowler to break the partnership. In fact, Sehwag is much better than a part-time bowler. He didn't try anything at all. I think he was trying to protect himself from looking bad but actually he has come off worse. This could be the end of Kumble as well as Ganguly.

[Fontaine]

A lot of you folks here sound awesome with the hindsight. These thoughts never made it to the forums just when the series was about to start. :winky:

I disagree. I always maintained that 4 bowlers was never enough. Sri Lanka on the other hand could go with 4 bowlers because they had an all time great in Murali and a surprise package in Mendis. Test match history has taught us that in order to get 20 wickets you have to have two great bowlers in your side if you're going with a 4 man combo. It was clear to me and others than Harbhajan was an average bowler in Sri Lanka and apart from the 2nd test he's proved this, Kumble was struggling going into the series and Khan was just coming back from a long layoff. In other words the writing was on the wall and a few of us recognized it.