Future MO batsmen : OK lets face the harsh truth!!!!!!!

[Freedom]

Bowling has always been a disgrace to India. Its always the batting that has rescued us from the 90's. Now that doesnt mean our batsmen should carry the workload everytime.... But for whatever reason I expect Vijay and Badri to stand up and deliver not with 50s or 60s, but good strong 100s. I know its too much to demand from rookies.... but when dada and Dravid stepped in to the Indian team they showed their mettle pretty early and India slowly started relying on them to deliver

[jaideep]

india shud play 10 specialist batsman with zaheer at no 11...its not the batting but its our bowling thats a worry...with 10 regulat batters ,in a worst case analysis teams will stack uo 600 ..they are doing that anyways ..!! but atleast gives us an opportunity to save face due to batting

[Pakistan-India]

OMG you people are still few days away before first defeat in ages and are worried so much, imagine us when we lost our first seires to india in india, first series to lanka in lanka(both may be first or after along time), and once agained got thrashed by aussies, we are use to it now perhaps you people are not:icflove:

[Jersey #10]

lol we were playing a team that will soon be no.1 n a bowler whos been no.1 for quite a while.dont judge our youngsters on this.we will continue to be a good test side although maybe not good enuf to be no.1 what we do need is a quality spinner n a pacer.our batting is fine

we have #1 test batsman Gabhir, we have an arguably the best player of the century on our side, we have a player with 2 triple centuries under his belt, we have arguably the best captain on our side. Why the hell are we not able to tackle the SA team?

[Zap_Brannigan]

we have #1 test batsman Gabhir, we have an arguably the best player of the century on our side, we have a player with 2 triple centuries under his belt, we have arguably the best captain on our side. Why the hell are we not able to tackle the SA team?

Because when those 4 fail, we need someone else from the other 7 players to see us through. Thats how it works. Ghambir, in the last 2 years, have saved us from exactly the same position ateast 2 times. He failed this game. His 1st failure in the last 7 games. We are #1 because these 4 along with others have played well. 1 bad game is not something we should pull our our hair for. FFS, SA just lost a test to England at home.

[Freedom]

OMG you people are still few days away before first defeat in ages and are worried so much' date=' imagine us when we lost our first seires to india in india, first series to lanka in lanka(both may be first or after along time), and once agained got thrashed by aussies, we are use to it now perhaps you people are not:icflove:[/quote'] c'mon man.... what has pakistan loosing series after series got to do with this? We are speaking about bench strength in Indian dressing room. Hurts to see test matches without Dravid and Laxman. I seriously don't know how India will replace a batsman of Dravid's calibre. BTW playing 10 batsmen with 1 bowler sounds funny, your oppsition will consistently score 700+. But the way Ishant and Dartbhajan are bowling..... errrrrr I feel like spanking them on their ***** :((

[Banned from PP]

Think India should be more worried about bowling than batting. Never been very deep in the pacer category and now even the spinners are looking ordinary.

[Freedom]

The harsh truth is that some of the ICF's have gone mental after Steyn's shafting of Indian batsmen :cantstop: they are still thinking bhajji is responsible for this situation, and turning blind eye to some khassi batting in the top order :haha: some of the jokers here are still taking shots at UV even when he's not even playing in this first test :hmmmm: what don't you guys group together & email M about your miseries, and that will be a good supply of toilet paper to him :hysterical:

I understand Steyn is a class apart, but WTF is Ishant doing in the team? All he is capable is cleaning up Bangla tail and immediately give statements in cricinfo. This guy seriously needs to be shown the door for good! He is so young..... and he bowls just 130mph. $h!t even Kumble would bowl faster. Shame on our bowlers!I think Venkatesh prasad just ruined our bowlers by making them bowl slower like the $h!tty way he did!!!!!!

[TheWall]

Time is not far when Indian team will be called minnows:((

[youngindia]

. But for whatever reason I expect Vijay and Badri to stand up and deliver not with 50s or 60s' date=' but good strong 100s.[/quote'] that is your cricketing ignorance and stupidity.

I know its too much to demand from rookies.... but when dada and Dravid stepped in to the Indian team they showed their mettle pretty early and India slowly started relying on them to deliver

LOL...they were facing cork and mullaly... SA attack at that time destroyed the batting at a good track in calcutta ......they didn't excel vs donald and co until the final test at johannesburg in the same season. it was azhar who was the hero in the home series. also in 1999, we were ripped apart in australia and by SA at home.even in the 99 series vs pakistan, dravid and ganguly didn't often contribute enough. ganguly was dropped for five years and he came older and more seasoned at 24...

[thevortex]

we have #1 test batsman Gabhir, we have an arguably the best player of the century on our side, we have a player with 2 triple centuries under his belt, we have arguably the best captain on our side. Why the hell are we not able to tackle the SA team?

That No.1 Test batsman is eminently arguable in my opinion. That is just stats talking. And as to the best captain in the world, well, lets not even get into that. As to why we have not been able to handle the SA team, to begin with, we were hamstrung by Dhoni with his selection of the playing eleven. We lost the 5th bowler and we gained a passenger on our team in Saha. Our bowling was toothless letting the Springboks get to wherever they wanted. And then when they bowled they showed exactly why we ought not to provide juicy wickets to them. This should function as a pointer to enthusiasts who wanted pacer friendly wickets in India. And the reason we could not surmount that total was because we did not have Laxman and Dravid. This is a rare occasion. First time since 1996 is what the commentators tell us!

[Guest DeveGowda]

The harsh truth is that some of the ICF's have gone mental after Steyn's shafting of Indian batsmen :cantstop: they are still thinking bhajji is responsible for this situation, and turning blind eye to some khassi batting in the top order :haha: some of the jokers here are still taking shots at UV even when he's not even playing in this first test :hmmmm: why don't you guys group together & email M about your miseries, and that will be a good supply of toilet paper to him :hysterical:

We are NOt picking on harbhajan - he is never dropped from the team even in poor form..can you show us which other player in the team doesnt get dropped beacuse of poor form ?.. dont take insult on Hrabhajan as personal..he is bit over Hyped..

[jusarrived]

our batting will never be a problem

[Ranjha]

We are NOt picking on harbhajan - he is never dropped from the team even in poor form..can you show us which other player in the team doesnt get dropped beacuse of poor form ?.. dont take insult on Hrabhajan as personal..he is bit over Hyped..

Bhajji is a better batsman than some of the batsmen playing this test. He is not over hyped.

[Ranjha]

The harsh truth is that some of the ICF's have gone mental after Steyn's shafting of Indian batsmen :cantstop: they are still thinking bhajji is responsible for this situation, and turning blind eye to some khassi batting in the top order :haha: some of the jokers here are still taking shots at UV even when he's not even playing in this first test :hmmmm: why don't you guys group together & email M about your miseries, and that will be a good supply of toilet paper to him :hysterical:

+1

[DomainK]

Lets stop over reacting. We have to lose a few. I am happy that it took an extraordinary performance to beat India and honestly, there is no shame in losing this match.

[Lord]

Lets stop over reacting. We have to lose a few. I am happy that it took an extraordinary performance to beat India and honestly' date=' there is no shame in losing this match.[/quote'] true.the only problem is its just a 2 match series n hence it ensures SA hold the rubber.now we gotta beat wen we tour there n that wont be easy

[Feed]

Indian middle-order vulnerable : Micky Arthur Dale Steyn led the South African attack as well as any number one rank bowler has ever done in the history of Test cricket, and he deserves the highest praise, but if the Indian middle order represents the next generation then the current number one ranked team have problems for the future. Micky Arthur comments. More... Indian middle-order vulnerable Micky Arthur February 09, 2010 Graeme Smith and his team arrived in India full of confidence despite the potential upheaval of my last minute departure from the set up. But he and the senior players, along with new coaches Corrie van Zyl and Kepler Wessels, showed their professionalism and probably even exceeded their own expectations during a magnificent victory in Nagpur. We came so close to winning the series two years ago before falling at the final hurdle and I know from my correspondence with the players how determined they are not to let the same thing happen this time. Dale Steyn led the South African attack as well as any number one rank bowler has ever done in the history of Test cricket, and he deserves the highest praise, but if the Indian middle order represents the next generation then the current number one ranked team have problems for the future. They looked vulnerable at all times against pace bowling and, apart from imperious Sachin Tendulkar and the unique Virender Sehwag, never looked likely to offer any sustained resistance. It looked like the India of old — easily bullied and intimidated by the quick men. The lack of penetration in the Indian attack must also be a huge cause for concern. Zaheer bowled well but lacked support while Harbhajan, who has in my opinion be below his best for several years now, must be questioning his future. His bowling lacked the zip and sting that was so characteristic in the early years of his career. He must be honest with himself and the management and selectors must be honest too. There is no place for sentiment in Test cricket — reputation and history should count for very little when selecting your best XI. Mishra bowled well but even he didn't look likely to bowl South Africa out. Hashim Amla was amazing for South Africa and has now established himself in the very highest echelons of the world game, a place occupied, of course, by Jacques Kallis for over a decade, if Jacques keeps batting as well as he has in the last year, and at the same tempo, then I know for certain a maiden double century is just around the corner. I would also like to mention Paul Harris because he was under pressure before this test match but responded with several tremendous spells which did exactly the job for the team that he has always been selected to do. Steyn and Morkel will be the first to admit they owed a couple of their wickets to the control and pressure applied by Harris at the other end. Finally I have been deeply touched by all the messages of support that I have received from friends and opponents alike around the cricket playing world. They provided plenty of comforting reassurance that I made many good friends and even earned some respect in my five years in charge of the Proteas. And if it needed saying again then I will — my reasons for resigning were entirely off field rather than on field. I am still weighing up a number of work opportunities both in a hands on and consultancy capacity but right now I am still enjoying the novelty of waking up at home in my own bed for more than a couple of days at a time! However,I have lost none of my passion for the game or for coaching and when the time is right I will throw myself in to my next assignment with all the determination and drive that I gave to the Proteas.

[IKnowU]

No **** sherlock....about time he realised our middle order was brittle.

[Freedom]

true.the only problem is its just a 2 match series n hence it ensures SA hold the rubber.now we gotta beat wen we tour there n that wont be easy

We will thump SA in SA if we field a full fledged test team this year! I don't want injuries to our batting greats.