India primed for a fall after reaching the heights of success

[CSK Fan]

Hmm, I might be misremembering, but weren't our seamers all over their seamers the last time we toured England and even people like RP Singh were bowling unplayable deliveries?

[phaedrus]

this article just reeks of desperation and jealousy, something that used to be directed towards the Aussies. aah, feels good to be in their seat now :D

[achilles]

3 points- 1. Succession in the batting dept is a problem for us. We have chosen to groom the wrong players for the wrong formats (Raina for Tests). 2. Bowling is a headache. We have a grand total of ONE World Class bowler, with other bowlers acting as pure fillers, with too much chopping and changing on a series-to-series basis. 3. There seems to be a lot of impatience surrounding a few players, while others who diligently perform don't even get to play.

[Sachin=GOD]

I will be surprised if England do not win the four-Test series. Hopefully, as we speak, groundsmen around the country will have their thoughts and energies focused upon producing pitches with pace and bounce. That should give England the edge. Home advantage should be just that.

These lines will come back to haunt the author after India have beaten England in a few months.

[Late Cut]

Ishant Sharma baby, that's who.

[vvvslaxman]

England always over-rates their country men. It is not something new.

[Late Cut]

England always over-rates their country men. It is not something new.

Comes across "broadly" when you listen to Switch Hit on cricinfo.

[cricketfan2010]

By Steve James All the while the Indian Premier League rages on, even if its standard looks highly questionable; another feast of matches to digest so soon after the banquet of the World Cup. It is the only cricketing country that could even contemplate such glitzy gluttony. But India are world champions. They are the top-ranked team in Test cricket too, with five players — Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Zaheer Khan — selected for Wisden’s Test XI in its 2011 edition. The same publication named its Leading Cricketer in the World as Tendulkar, and in both 2009 and 2010 it was Sehwag. India does indeed rule, on and off the field. For how long, though? Off the field its political and financial clout looks untouchable. The offices of the International Cricket Council might be in Dubai, but cricket’s real centre is in Mumbai. And on the field the walls of success are hardly likely to come tumbling down in a jot. But that is not to say there should be complacency in that department. It is not as if India are like the Australian team of recent vintage. To attach such greatness would be downright wrong. There are some wonderfully talented youngsters in Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma, but the veterans are not Benjamin Buttons. Careers will end soon. Tendulkar will be 38 a week on Sunday. Rahul Dravid is 38, and Laxman is 36. The seam bowling is carried by Khan, who is 32. And maybe most crucial of all, India do not have a coach at present. Amid all the justifiable paeans to Dhoni’s leadership after the World Cup, there was much less said about Gary Kirsten. But his influence has been hugely significant. And yet he has now returned home to South Africa, where it will be a surprise if he is not named as their new coach. Kirsten simply missed his family too much to continue. And India will miss him. They now enter the coaching marketplace along with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and South Africa. Presumably there are some busy cricketing agents at the moment, as well as some excited out-of-work coaches. But I wouldn’t be too excited about the India job if I were them. It is surely the proverbial hiding to nothing. Remarkably with so little previous coaching experience, Kirsten made such a good job of it by working exceptionally hard from the quietest of back seats. “The coach is not the man to sit on the parapets in cricket — it’s not like soccer,†he told me in 2008. But it is still a fiendishly difficult job, as two other foreigners, John Wright and especially Greg Chappell, found before Kirsten. Chappell attempted radical change, in particular the removal of captain Sourav Ganguly, and very quickly discovered the meaning of player power. The players are everything in Indian cricket. They are idolised to an extent that we find difficult to comprehend in this country, and so no coach can ever be bigger than them. It is the trickiest of balances, with the public’s fascination and obsession easily turned to vitriolic condemnation on a whim. For this current crop wealth and immortality are now secured. For a new coach there is only one way for the team to go, and that is downwards. A trip to the West Indies in June soon should not cause too many problems, but the visit over here to England this summer could. I will be surprised if England do not win the four-Test series. Hopefully, as we speak, groundsmen around the country will have their thoughts and energies focused upon producing pitches with pace and bounce. That should give England the edge. Home advantage should be just that. I played at the Oval in 1998 when Muttiah Muralitharan thought he was in Colombo for five days in taking 16 wickets. In 2009 a turning pitch was just right for Australia. It won’t be this year. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/india/8454144/Steve-James-India-primed-for-a-fall-after-reaching-the-heights-of-success.html I'm sure by now most of you would have read this crap written by another jealous pom who just can't digest our prolonged success..moron doesn't even realize the fact that cream of our team will remain there for couple of years at the least!

Who cares.. We beat pakistan in all world cup meetings, we are current world champs and number 1 team in the world in test matches.. Enjoy this whilst we can.. Besides we will kick Englands backside royally once again.. Gambhir needs to tick a box and I expect him to be star player again.

[Cricket Tragic]

Big series for India. It will be a tough series. Winning it would be epic.

[Jadoo]

Reality Check I don't know about others, but what we have seen so far in this England series is pretty much my worst nightmare. I know we have had some bad luck in relation to Zaheer and Sehwag, but we can't blame the opposition for these. We put our strongest team (minus the man whose made it Bhajji), and we have been completely outplayed. The least I can expect from this series now is for it to be competitive. As much as I hate to admit this, I think the English commies are right when they say we are nothing without our fab trio. Hate to sound so pessimistic, but I think the best years have now past us, and unless the BCCI change their attitude and provide some enthesis in the most important form of the game, we may end up playing catch up for some time to get back where our legends worked the butts off reach.

[Karan114]

Our board would happily stop playing Test cricket altogether if it could help it. Their dream scenario would be to play the IPL all year long - gazillions to be made of some second rate slogger hitting some trundler for an ABCXYZ maximum. Its sheer luck that we had a talented and committed group of players in the same era. Now that the high level of talent is no longer there (the fact that we can't replace even Ganguly, a decent player but the weakest of that brilliant batting line-up, shows just how dire the state of affairs is even in our traditionally strongest suit), we will be brutally exposed (well, we are already being brutally exposed in this series, but this despite the 38-year old, second highest Test scorer of all time making two centuries - replace with him Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay or whoever and you can imagine what the scorelines would've been). But no matter, IPL ad rates are going through the roof, all izz well with Indian cricket! :yay:

[pinkfreud]

Besides we will kick Englands backside royally once again

:((:((

[achilles]

3 points- 1. Succession in the batting dept is a problem for us. We have chosen to groom the wrong players for the wrong formats (Raina for Tests). 2. Bowling is a headache. We have a grand total of ONE World Class bowler, with other bowlers acting as pure fillers, with too much chopping and changing on a series-to-series basis. 3. There seems to be a lot of impatience surrounding a few players, while others who diligently perform don't even get to play.

Stands true.

[Monbulk_CC]

Indian cricket set for 10 years of doom! The recent series loss to the Aussies has shown just how poor India are, in regards to depth. Tendulkar, Laxman, Dravid and Sehwag will all retire within a few years, then they'll probably slip lower than Pakistan. Here's why... http://t.co/GPSzwG9g That article is from New Zealand site CricHQ

Outplayed, out thought and out sledged, it was a long tour for the Indian test team. After four more than humbling defeats to Australia, India have now lost eight consecutive tests away and they never once threatened to end that losing streak during the series. Losing by 122 runs in the first test, by over an innings in the second and third and 298 runs in the fourth it was the fact that they didnÃÕ even fire a shot that was the biggest disappointment. Let alone what was happening on the park, the off field circus could of hardly been helpful to creating a team environment conducive to actually winning. There was consistently a drama in the aftermath of each game overshadowing the poor performance of the team. Some were external, such as the calls from numerous former players to axe the ÃÃlder players. Or the insurmountable pressure put on Tendulkar to reach his 100th international century. But others were self-inflicted, KholiÃÔ middle finger salute to the crowd followed by his complaints of abuse. Add to that constant verbal antics exchanged between the teams. While these werenÃÕ the only factors why India lost, it contributed to the sense that they were never fully focused, nor did they have the relentless simple will to win a touring team needs in Australia. In the blink of an eye it was too late. The series went from being one of the most anticipated, to one of the biggest flops as India were crushed in every single discipline of the game. In July 2011, sitting at number one in the ICC Test rankings, IndiaÃÔ tour of England would mark the beginning of the end. Not having won or even managed a draw in the eight away tests since that tour, India have slumped to third in the rankings. Berated by the media for their inability to win away from the sub-continent, it was an issue India had transformed in order to reach the top spot. After a decade of improvements in their fielding, their ability to adapt and will to fight, India for the first time were beginning to be regarded just as much of a threat away as they were at home. In the space of six months, the question of how they have managed to plummet so drastically from that point to where they are now is one that is difficult to put a finger on. But there are contributing factors that help to provide an answer. DhoniÃÔ laid-back leadership may be a useful antidote for the fast-paced T20 game, but it hardly seems appropriate in the test arena. In the shorter formats often the captaincy is about reacting to the situation the momentum of the game dictates. However in a test match itÃÔ the opposite. The captain must be pro-active, looking to dictate the game even if itÃÔ just to create the illusion that there is a plan. Dhoni is a class player, but against Australia he didnÃÕ look to control the game or appear to possess the attitude, body language and intensity to create a positive buzz within the team. India need a leader who commands respect by setting a benchmark in standards, while MS uses his laid back persona as a strength in the shorter game, in the Tests he needs to be more affirmative. On the field a casual attitude from the skipper translates into the team environment, bad habits set in and it is impossible to create intensity. This lack of desire was apparent in every game of the series against Australia. Maybe one of the reasons India struggle to translate their home performances away, is because at home they can rely on their crowd to lift the team while away it has to be a much more self sufficient driven mindset. IndiaÃÔ heroes of the past decade will not be around forever and itÃÔ time that they start to change the guard. The hardest part for India will be separating the nostalgic legend of their star players from their current performances. In order to move forward they must start making selection decisions on performance and potential they need to start building for the future. Against Australia none of the batsman fired, with the exception of Kholi who ironically was the only player in their top seven under the age of 30. The point is not that age is the determining factor of success, Dravid had his second most successful year in test cricket ever at age 37, while Ponting and Kallis are still proving their worth at 37 and 36 respectively. However when you look at the series against Australia Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Sehwag all showed glimpses of form but never converted starts into big runs in the way they have done with such ease over the last ten years. Laxman in particular looked out of sorts, while Rahul ÃÕhe wall Dravid heard the death rattle six times in 8 innings. Even Tendulkar couldnÃÕ find a way to score a century something we have come to expect from the little master given 8 stints at the crease. I donÃÕ believe his lack of runs were due to the ÃÉundredth hundred debacle I think it was simply a case of a batsman being put under pressure by good bowling. ŪÃÅ rather jump before IÃÎ pushed is a phrase commonly heard when professional sportsmen justify their retirements, something that could be put into use in Indian cricket. Such is the status of their current ÃÃlder superstars, the concept of dropping them is too horrific for the public to bear. However if the selectors are sensible, now is the perfect time to blood new players. The likes of Virat Kholi and Rohit Sharma are the future of the Indian batting line up and they should get a chance to prove it. If the oldies warrant their place in the side through performance, thatÃÔ fine, but if not they should step aside for the next generation. ItÃÔ inevitable that the Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Sehwag era will end. It may already have. Laxman has potentially played his last test, and at 39 Dravid will soon follow. With the ball rolling there is no excuse why the Indian selectors cannot be ruthless in picking players strictly on performance from this point. Professional athletes in any sport would rather be judged and picked on merit than aimlessly held on to because of their reputations. In 1999 India were white washed in a test series 3-0 against Australia, in Australia. What followed was arguably one of their greatest decades in their cricket history. IndiaÃÔ recent defeats should likewise not be dwelled on, but instead seen as a similar opportunity to build a new era. Get the youngsters in and give them a chance to do what the current crop of old players once did. From where they were six months ago India have fallen. To use a rather pertinent quote from Batman Ÿhy do we fall? We fall so we can learn to pick ourselves back up again.

Article courtesy of James Avaro (CricHQ) Image courtesy of SMH

[mishra]

Nothing here

[Stuge]

we know all this o-O

[gsivak]

The obvious problem lies with the administration. Till cricket remains in the hands of few politicians and businessman there is no hope for Indian cricket.

[adi B]

:blink::WTF::thumbs_down:

[mishra]

The obvious problem lies with the administration. Till cricket remains in the hands of few politicians and businessman there is no hope for Indian cricket.

Are you Gautam Gambhir in disguise ?