What India must do to fight back against England at Trent Bridge: Dileep Premachandran

[akshayxyz]

people are reading too much into Lord's loss. We do not have to make any drastic changes. Just field a fully fit team. We did well with so many injuries and 10-men.

[akshayxyz]

Others (English/SA/OZ/SL/Pak/WI...) taking a dig at us is fine, but it sux when our own are not able to digest a loss - that too of a 50% fit team. Indian team do not deserve such fans. especially such fans should be 'barred from taking pride' in team's success too.

[pinkfreud]

I stopped reading the moment I spotted 'Bring back Yuvraj to open the batting' in that article.

[akshayxyz]

Field a fully fit team and play normal game, normal batting order - that is it. win/loss wont matter, as long as 11 player on the field play to their potential.

[akshayxyz]

tinkering with the batting order will be huge mistake. 11 fit players at playing their respective positions - would be more than enough.

[deepak_sach]

Abhinav Mukund score a 49 in that innings.If not for the anxiousness for reaching the fifty at Lords,he would have easily got past 70 and may be a hundred,

[NareshK]

Yuvraj opening = shooting yourself in the foot

[panesarv]

Mukund did just fine - no need for Yuvi

[darkknight]

people are reading too much into Lord's loss. We do not have to make any drastic changes. Just field a fully fit team. We did well with so many injuries and 10-men.

This attitude should change, if India were to retain it's position. We need to accept the fact that we were rubbish, lazy and did not prepare for this important game. Its good to see that you want to stick with the team no matter what. But let's be realistic and acknowlede our short comings.

[Cricket Tragic]

I can't believe that Dileep suggested opening with Yuvraj. He usually knows what he is talking about.

[Sachinism]

Another article by Dileep

Having read some of the commentary about the Lord’s Test – in newspapers, on websites and on twitter feeds – I’m now convinced that Zaheer Khan is a lazy beer-swilling slob who sits on the couch all day, making an effort only when he needs to yell at the missus to bring him another packet of crisps while he’s watching the darts. Else, he must be a filet mignon gone wrong, given the frequent ‘undercooked’ references. Zaheer certainly didn’t arrive at Lord’s as svelte as he had been back in 2007, when his bowling was the key factor in India’s series win. He did seem to be carrying some excess weight, but to equate that with laziness is … well, plain lazy. He was supposed to have played the three Tests in the Caribbean but had to pull out because of an injury to his right ankle. When a key weight-bearing joint is affected, your preparation suffers. You can’t jog or carry heavy weights. Nor can you even run in off a few steps to bowl some balls. Playing him at Lord’s on the back of one warm-up game was always a risk. But this is not some slob on the couch we’re talking about. This is someone who has been central to India’s climb up the Test rankings. An XI without him is similar to a New Zealand side in the 1980s without Richard Hadlee. He’s that important. Yes, his preparation wasn’t ideal, but to question his attitude or commitment is to overlook key facts like the injury. Tuesday’s papers also had me wondering if The Invincibles were back in town. On the back of one Test, in a series of four, England are apparently the best team in the world. It reminded me of a December evening in Centurion last year, when an overly smug Graeme Smith hinted that seam-friendly conditions in Durban would be more than enough for South Africa to seal the series deal. In the week before the Boxing Day Test, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that Smith was Douglas Jardine, Jacques Kallis was Sir Garry Sobers and AB de Villiers was a right-handed version of Graeme Pollock. South Africa were the best team in the world, on the verge of confirming as much. It took India less than 11 sessions to blow them out of the water, despite having lost the toss. Zaheer and Harbhajan Singh took six wickets apiece and Sreesanth took four. No South Africa batsman crossed 40 over the two innings. England may yet win this series 4-0. They may yet dominate the Test arena for a decade. But till that happens, a sense of perspective might be useful. Not to mention a little respect.

[Chandan]

Wow. Good article. Where did he write it? I mean, link? Just got it. It is from his blog: LINK

[gult]

Another article by Dileep

Excellent article. One of the best articles any Indian fan would've hoped for at this stage of the series.

[gult]

Wow. Good article. Where did he write it? I mean' date=' link?[/quote'] http://blog.thecricketer.com/?p=28472

[Cricket Tragic]

Very good article. Pretty much what we all feel.

[Fontaine]

It's a good article but India gained a new found respect around the world when we beat South Africa in that test. The SAME applies here. The best way to prove doubters wrong is to win. No one will care that India is without Zaheer/Sehwag, least of all England. As if losing Jimmy Anderson/KP wouldn't affect England in a big way, but that's life, that's cricket. This is a hugely important test match coming up, let's hope our players and especially those who've been disapointing us like Sree/Bhajji/and lately, Dhoni, treat it like that.

[akshayxyz]

This attitude should change' date=' if India were to retain it's position. We need to accept the fact that we were rubbish, lazy and did not prepare for this important game. Its good to see that you want to stick with the team no matter what. But let's be realistic and acknowlede our short comings.[/quote'] You are talking about being realistic. you do not seem to know anything about reality. Making drastic changes based on one loss - is height of stupidity.. remember what happened during Chappel days? A top class player or team does not degrade overnight. And no competitive sport top class team wins every match. Also, people like you do not seem to know anything about competition at highest level, where minor differences (between two sides) can turn the tables. And here we could not even field fully fit team. Reality is - zak and Gambhir got injured. SRT got viral fever. i.e. 3 top players were lost midway through the match. Ishant & bhajji took time to adjust. overseas tour - just one practice match or net sessions are not enough to acclimatize. There are many more points, but will not cross your thick skin.

[darkknight]

Rob F says: July 27, 2011 at 4:08 pm A few points to make – firstly it’s not only the English press making these comments – Indian press is similarly commenting, along with, shock horror, the Indian captain who certainly alluded to the fact that some of his players weren’t necessarily match ready. Secondly, by my reckoning, Zaheer is a professional sportsman. That means he earns his (very good) living playing sport. Now, in my book that means he should strive to be as ready as he can be for any occasion when he is required to work. I accept his injury restricted his ability to undertake impact practice, but there’s plenty of other things he might do to keep fit, swimming, weights, even sit ups! Muscular strains tend to occur due to under-preparation – simple. The fact that Zaheer seemed to be carrying a few extra pounds showed he was not ready and that is inexcusable. And for my final point, the headline refers to disrespect. Well, the people most guilty of disrespect are the BCCI in the way they have let down their team and cricketing public. And to prove this, you only have to look at Sehwag. Surely one of the greatest openers of all time, he was instructed to delay surgery so that he could play in the opening stages of the IPL, knowing this would prevent him playing in the first part of this series. This series, which will decide who the number one Test team in the world is. If your priority is 20/20, fine then tell us and your public and see what reaction you get. If it’s Test (IMHO the ultimate form of the game) then demonstrate it in actions. Prepare properly for the series (not one game in Taunton). If you sense I’m angry about this, you’re right. I want to see the best players in the world playing in the greatest arenas, 100% fit and raring to go. Not turning up half fit, underprepared and clearly knackered. We’ve seen too much of that for too long in cricket. Whoever wins this series will be the best test team in the world and if I was a betting man, I’d put my money on England, not because they’re the better team, but because their Board and their players want it more. I like this guys anger, well written.

[darkknight]

You are talking about being realistic. you do not seem to know anything about reality. Making drastic changes based on one loss - is height of stupidity.. remember what happened during Chappel days? A top class player or team does not degrade overnight. And no competitive sport top class team wins every match. Also, people like you do not seem to know anything about competition at highest level, where minor differences (between two sides) can turn the tables. And here we could not even field fully fit team. Reality is - zak and Gambhir got injured. SRT got viral fever. i.e. 3 top players were lost midway through the match. Ishant & bhajji took time to adjust. overseas tour - just one practice match or net sessions are not enough to acclimatize. There are many more points, but will not cross your thick skin.

What's Chappels stuff to do here. I am not sure what you want to say. Agreed he made radical changes, which were detrimental to players and team. We are discussing about Lords match and you do seem to know lot about competition at heights level. If you are an athlete, which you might be, how will you justify arriving into such an important mach cold. I mean, are you saying that its ok forthese top athletes to use initial matches as warmup games. Sorry, but you stumped me.

[Rahul Dravid]

gay ***ing article... neither should Yuvi be in the team, let alone OPEN... neither should Bhajji play the 2nd test...