post mortem

[cowboysfan]

some reflections - 1) we shoud have played the new guys in the bangladesh series,atleast for the 2nd game.we need to control the phase out of the fab 3 ,that means more playing time for the contenders. 2)patta wicket are bad for us (even in tests).give bhajji a wicket with bounce and he will deliver.lsoing a toss in nidia on a patta wicket makes our bowlers ineffective,especialy the spinners.If we play the world cup matches on these kinds of wickets then i predict a swift demise. 3)Vijay is a keeper even though he didnt do much in this series,we should persist with him.I am not sold on Badri at all. 4)Nagpur might have a good stadium but we should play tests where the jantaa can turn up.

[The Outsider]

Agree with 2,3, and 4, specially regarding pattas - with Kumble not there anymore there is not a single bowler in the line up who can deliver trumps on a patta. We should jettison them in all forms of game with immediate effect. However, test matches are test matches - it just happened our middle order got injured together in the BD series, but remember Laxman and Dravid play only tests and for them to sit out of any test series is ridiculous. Also, Yuvraj is still trying to cement his place in the line up - expecting him to be out of the test line up willfully is also not realistic.

[vvvslaxman]

Don't visit Bangladesh prior to an important series. That is one lesson.

[kabira]

when Kumble was there in his prime, we always had wicket with some bounce. Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkatta all had bounce for Kumble. Somehow, Chennai has died down. Lot of wickets have had same fate, Ahmedabad, Mohali, Bangalore, Nagpur etc very flat wickets, no bounce.

[Rajan]

The most important lesson was for Srikkanth & co.. and they seemed to have learnt it. they would not make the same mistake . there would be reserve batsmen/bowlers always. i enjoyed Harbhajan's bowling after a long long time.he receives lot of flak, deserves kudos after this performance. We should take half chances and whatever catches offered; aussies are the best in the business. we would have suffered badly but thanks to the many LBW's survived the series and salvaged the ranking. Dhoni should attack more, he is not a very attacking captain. seems to run out of ideas, especially whenever there is a big partnership. the intensity levels were not ok at all in Nagpur. the entire group of young batsmen n the country like Kohli, Raina, Rohit,Vijay,Badri,Pujara,Rahane,Manish pandey,should be made to practice against seamers in the Mysore pitch used for ranji final. they should be made to face fast bowling and swing bowling of quality, BCCI should contract such bowlers/coaches and ensure the young team is ready to take the spots in middle order in the next 2-3 years.

[riya]

Don't visit Bangladesh prior to an important series. That is one lesson.

Yes i said that it would be a bad preparation even before the series. I agree with Rajan's points.Especially about Dhoni.He seems to make the same mistakes again and again in selection and field placements.

[dial_100]

But it was a good test of our preparedness with up coming talent. We certainly know that they still need lot of time to bake and be ready. Let us persist with MVijay and get him solid like GG. That way we will have GG, VS, VVS, MV and MSD. While RD and SRT are around, we can rotate that extra player. I think some how MV should get more opportunity to play so that he can get comfortable. We definitely want him to score big in coming few matches.

[vvvslaxman]

Dhoni's field placings are sometimes shocking. That is one area we can improve.

[akshayxyz]

Dhoni's field placings are sometimes shocking. That is one area we can improve.

Agreed - from my experience with RTS games ( real time strategy), given two players of similar skill level, the one who is aggressive from the word go - wins more often than otherwise. okay, RTS may not be right parallel with cricket - but bottom line is - staying defensive might help draw the match - but it takes aggression to win. - more often than not.

[Gunner_Mania]

Dhoni's captaincy needs improvement no question. The Bangla series was pencilled in long before this SA series was slotted in. So that was just coincidence. Had we not got to Number 1 after winning that series against SL, this test series would never have happened, we would have just had 5 meaningless ODIs. The jury is out on Badri. Hard to make up the mind about him. It will be a couple of years before the Fab 3 retire. Age is not on Badri's side. Murali Vijay needs to be persisted with. He will not become RD, but will probably end up becoming more of a VVS. One or two of the new seamers needs to be gently induced into the team - Sudeep Tyagi et al. They need to gain experience while Zak is around. He is being overloaded and won't be around for long.