Anil Kumble's Captaincy might cost us this test match.

[Lord]

Just tell me one capt who has gone with an extra batsmen who can't field and constantly picked two spinners when they're the least effective part of the bowling.

u r beibg childish now!aussies r supposed to be vulnerable against spin n best way to exploit that is to pick ur best two spinners.anil n bhajji r our best spinners by far.rest of them are untested.u cant go by one series in srl. bhajji's performace in srl n jumbos; against aus down under sealed these places.dont tell me chawla would have done better. also it is much better to go with a batsman who cant field but has played 109 tests rather than a bowler who cant field n has a sleepy attitude n breaks down between games.as i said earlier if ganguly is in XIV,he's gotta be in XI.

[Lord]

You're asking the wrong question man. It's not five bowlers/ 6 batsmen, it's who are the best 11 that can help the team win instead of picking batsmen off reputations, and bolwers because that's what the captain wants no matter how they've failed in the past. Tell me this? How has picking Bhajji on a flat track, or even Kumble on a flat track helped compared to some one like Patel? Or a Badri/Rohit/Yuvraj?

wat if india had batted first?wud u have still sked the same question?who knew there was goin to be reverse swing. in india it spins on every pitch on 4th n 5th day. but u cant be sure about swing or reverse

[Dinx - the Jinx]

@ sachinrox - there is no point arguing with people with biased opinion... they will get their answers after the australian second innings. even a 10 year old will know that we need 2 spinners when we play in india. may be in mohali, we can think of playing 3 seamers, but not in blore... as you rightly said, had india batted first and posted 500+ score, aussies would be batting against our spin attack on a 3rd day pitch, with the pressure of a avoiding a follow on and wud have been skittled by kumble and bajji... i am wondering, whether fontaine and zubin would have made the same comments then... anyways, for now lets ignore them and come after the australian 2nd innings.

[Lord]

@ sachinrox - there is no point arguing with people with biased opinion... they will get their answers after the australian second innings. even a 10 year old will know that we need 2 spinners when we play in india. may be in mohali, we can think of playing 3 seamers, but not in blore... as you rightly said, had india batted first and posted 500+ score, aussies would be batting against our spin attack on a 3rd day pitch, with the pressure of a avoiding a follow on and wud have been skittled by kumble and bajji... i am wondering, whether fontaine and zubin would have made the same comments then... anyways, for now lets ignore them and come after the australian 2nd innings.

exactly! that wat i'd have to do,atleast someone understands me.thx!

[vsd2006]

Kumble's captaincy confidence ties into with his own bowling performance which has been way below his standards since last 4 test matches. If he doesnt improve his bowling we might well see him take up retirement at the end of this series, which probably makes sense.

[Dinx - the Jinx]

Kumble's captaincy confidence ties into with his own bowling performance which has been way below his standards since last 4 test matches. If he doesnt improve his bowling we might well see him take up retirement at the end of this series' date=' which probably makes sense.[/quote'] I'm sure kumble knows tat himself. Once he feels that he can't go on anymore, he'll be the first to accept it and will announce his retirement by himself, like he announced his ODI retirement. Also - dont write off Kumble or Bajji so soon. Please bear in mind that they were bowling on the first 2 days where the pitch did not take any turn. Wait and watch the second innings. Remember his wicket burst in the same venue last year, before bad light stopped us from winning. Even if it doesnt take turn, Kumble is shrewd enough to know and do what is required. @Sachinrox - for the moment lets have a hearty laugh at the suggestion of picking Munaf, the athlete ahead of Sourav :hysterical: Thank god he wasn't, otherwise Viru wud hve slapped him for sleeping at 3rd man.

[vsd2006]

yes, I agree. They were bowling in the first 2 days of the pitch, but dont they have almost 1000 wickets between them and over 20 years of combined international experience to know how to adapt to that to take wickets? Kumble looked effective but unlucky while Bhajji looked flat.

[DomainK]

Even Ian Chappell says on cricinfo that Kumble's captaincy was ordinary.

[Dinx - the Jinx]

well.. since yo've asked that question, let me put my thoughts about why they were not so great in this innings. 1. Aussies were very very defensive. They were just playing it safe and defused all the plans of kumble and harbhajan 2. Throughout the innings, there was a left/right combination going. With constant rotation of strike, they were struggling to get into their rhythms. Kumble did try changing of ends several times 3. Since Australia were batting first and were not chasing any score, they were not under any kind of pressure. They were happy to play out maiden overs or nudging singles. This is not the Australia they usually are. Scoring less 3 per over was not expected from them. BTW... when Dravid or any of the fab 4 bat slowly, almosteveryone here pounce on them. Why isnt there anyone here criticizing the slow batting by Ponting and Hussey? Hussey spent almost an hour crawling from 80 to 100. It was such a bore. If by any chance this match ends in a draw, noone shud blamed the pitch. Its the slow batting by Australia in the first inings, whch even the Australian fans are cribbing about

[SachDan]

Even Ian Chappell says on cricinfo that Kumble's captaincy was ordinary.

Arun lal and Rameez Raja too were seen blaming Kumble for his defensive approach..especially that of Harbhajan bowling over the wicket all day to Hussey.

[satishg]

guys Anil was always an ordinary captain..he was never extraordinary..so why are u all jumping now and ridiculing his captaincy..:dontknow:

[Dinx - the Jinx]

so, everyone is here to blame only the indian captain. nobody is going to blame the defensie, slow ans selfish batting from ponting and hussey. after winning the toss, and getting the first use of the pitch, they dint do well enough to put themselves ina winning position. if 3 out of our 7 batsmen click, we can go past their first innings total... poor captaincy by ponting and selfish batting by hussey who dint accelerate at all...

[HouMac]

guys Anil was always an ordinary captain..he was never extraordinary..so why are u all jumping now and ridiculing his captaincy..:dontknow:

Exactly. Kumble's always been an ordinary captain with zero imagination. It's just that his professionalism and OWN bowling performance has been able to somewhat cover it up thus far. But now that he's clearly done as a bowler(YES, he is done. His performance since the end of the 1st Test match in Australia has been nothing short of poor), it's just hard to ignore his lousy captaincy. This SHOULD be his last series. And if his performance only gets worse from this point on, I wouldn't mind if he doesn't complete the series. I'd like to think RESPECT for what he's done for this country was a big reason why he was picked to begin with.

[Fontaine]

I'm sure kumble knows tat himself. Once he feels that he can't go on anymore, he'll be the first to accept it and will announce his retirement by himself, like he announced his ODI retirement. Also - dont write off Kumble or Bajji so soon. Please bear in mind that they were bowling on the first 2 days where the pitch did not take any turn. Wait and watch the second innings. Remember his wicket burst in the same venue last year, before bad light stopped us from winning. Even if it doesnt take turn, Kumble is shrewd enough to know and do what is required. @Sachinrox - for the moment lets have a hearty laugh at the suggestion of picking Munaf, the athlete ahead of Sourav :hysterical: Thank god he wasn't, otherwise Viru wud hve slapped him for sleeping at 3rd man.

The fact is that Bhajji was bowling negatively at the leg stump and was useless. Kumble gave away over 100 runs in dozens of overs without a wicket. Are you telling me that a guy in form like Patel who looked awesome against Sri Lanka and in camps recently couldn't have done better than either of these two? He's been openly praised by Kirsten, and how often can you say that about Patel? When Sehwag came on he actually got the ball to turn, unlike Harbhajan. It's interesting that we're picking 2 spinners waiting for the 4th or 5th day. What about the first three days? Look at it from my point of view for a moment. The fast bowlers have been consistently outperforming the spinners in our team for years in test matches. If Zaheer doesn't get that reverse swing then Australia could have reached 500+ runs and India would have had to bat on days 3/4 to even save the match. I've been saying time and time again that we don't need both Bhajji AND Kumble just for 4th/5th days. It's a far more potent strategy to go with one spinner plus 3 fast bowlers, and you still have Tendulkar and Sehwag to bowl spin since Sehwag has gotten MORE turn than Bhajji for months. Then instead of Ganguly you can pick a more active guy like Badri/Rohit/Yuvi (whoever is in form). It can't be change now, but it's only a matter of time with Ganguly Kumble retiring. Soon we'll have an 11 consistenting of 6 batsmen, 3 pace bowlers, 1 dedicated spinner and then a choice between the extra batsman or extra bowler depending on the conditions and then you'll see the kind of team that gets results with either Dhoni or Sehwag as Captain.

[Shane]

The fact is that Bhajji was bowling negatively at the leg stump and was useless. Kumble gave away over 100 runs in dozens of overs without a wicket. Are you telling me that a guy in form like Patel who looked awesome against Sri Lanka and in camps recently couldn't have done better than either of these two? He's been openly praised by Kirsten, and how often can you say that about Patel? When Sehwag came on he actually got the ball to turn, unlike Harbhajan. It's interesting that we're picking 2 spinners waiting for the 4th or 5th day. What about the first three days? Look at it from my point of view for a moment. The fast bowlers have been consistently outperforming the spinners in our team for years in test matches. If Zaheer doesn't get that reverse swing then Australia could have reached 500+ runs and India would have had to bat on days 3/4 to even save the match. I've been saying time and time again that we don't need both Bhajji AND Kumble just for 4th/5th days. It's a far more potent strategy to go with one spinner plus 3 fast bowlers, and you still have Tendulkar and Sehwag to bowl spin since Sehwag has gotten MORE turn than Bhajji for months. Then instead of Ganguly you can pick a more active guy like Badri/Rohit/Yuvi (whoever is in form). It can't be change now, but it's only a matter of time with Ganguly Kumble retiring. Soon we'll have an 11 consistenting of 6 batsmen, 3 pace bowlers, 1 dedicated spinner and then a choice between the extra batsman or extra bowler depending on the conditions and then you'll see the kind of team that gets results with either Dhoni or Sehwag as Captain.

Fantastic post, can't fault a word said, looking ahead i think we should get Muna in for Mohali, can we go in with 5 bowlers the next game, plz don't ask me which batsman to drop, my obvious choice would be Dada, i know it won't happen, but its just a thought

[Fontaine]

I'm still so disgusted with Kumble. Here we have a left arm warrior. Argueably the finest left arm swing bowler in the world today clearly striving for reverse swing by hiding the ball to not reveal the rough and shiny sides. In the mind numbing, muscle quivering heat after bowling all day and finally waiting and getting that reverse swing after hours upon hours of working one side of the ball and all Kumble can do is take that magical, mythical ball off him and take the new one instead, breaking the spell, and not giving Ishant Sharma even ONE delivery with the ball reversing. My boy Zaheer destroyed the Aussi tail with three strikes in a handful of deliveries once the 2nd ball began to reverse. One has to wonder what could have been if Zaheer/Ishant would have had that ball yesterday before close of play for 5-6 more overs. Zaheer would have pissed all over that batting and finished off the middle order and then Ishant could have taken the new ball and cleaned up the tail. THAT'S what would have happened.

[gloryof83]

Fontaine you make some valid points, but I dont think kumble picks the team it is the selectors. I still dont understand why harbhajan is in the squad, let alone in the team. Bhajji is no longer a test bowler, he has morphed himself into a defensive bowler who can bowl economically in ODIs and T20's. His bowling in tests over the past couple of seasons has lacked variation, creativity and attacking the batsmen. These days he just bowls faster and flatter with zero variation and HOPES to get a wicket very rarely do we see him give the ball some air or use the crease or bowl a top spinner / straighter one / doosra. Somebody needs to have chat with him and tell him that if he keeps this up he will not be in the team for the second test. Admittedly kumble has looked ineffective in the SL series, but in this match I thought he bowled pretty well without any luck.

[Dravid]

rofl @ 40 runs, and ganguly having to score 80 just to break even :haha: lay off the coke

[Dravid]

You're asking the wrong question man. It's not five bowlers/ 6 batsmen, it's who are the best 11 that can help the team win instead of picking batsmen off reputations, and bolwers because that's what the captain wants no matter how they've failed in the past. Tell me this? How has picking Bhajji on a flat track, or even Kumble on a flat track helped compared to some one like Patel? Or a Badri/Rohit/Yuvraj?

its easy to wait and watch 2 days, and start your *****ing as usual... how come i didnt see u asking for munaf to be picked b4 test started?? what if it turned out spinners were taking wickets?? wait till 2nd innings/this match to be over b4 u get your panties in a bunch.

[Fontaine]

its easy to wait and watch 2 days, and start your *****ing as usual... how come i didnt see u asking for munaf to be picked b4 test started?? what if it turned out spinners were taking wickets?? wait till 2nd innings/this match to be over b4 u get your panties in a bunch.

Dude, it's called reading comprehension. You might want to start on page one of this thread, specifically post #37 where I gave examples of my previous posts going back weeks where I've said the same thing. In other words you're wrong. And just to respond in kind to your post, the only panties I've got are the one's your momma keeps sending me. So tell the diseased ho to ease off. Now do you want to keep it civil and talk cricket or keep hurling insults at me?