Why pay lip service to Test cricket?

[Sidhoni]

:hmmm: http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showpost.php?p=1471351&postcount=9 http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=265517

:cantstop:

[ganeshran]

You need a good bowling attack to dominate in test cricket. batsmen on their own can lead you to close victories but very rarely one sided wins or series whitewashes.

[rkt.india]

It is pretty subjective. Last tour to Australia Brett Lee was at peak of his powers. Just go visit perth match thread about how fans feared getting demolished against Tait, Lee, Johnson, Clark. Do you seriously think Hilfenhaus, Siddle, Starc are a greater bowling unit compared to that one? This English attack was good. But are our batting worse than Srilankas batting? For fu** sake Srilankan wicket keeper got a century against the same bowling attack before our tour. You are asking me to show a series where Indians collectively dominated.. show me a series before this Australian tour where Indian batting collectively failed outside Asia apart from that one series they used drop in pitches in NZ.

Yes. Pattinson, HIlfy, Siddle at their best is better bowling attack. They then had only Lee and Clark too some extent and it was Lee who did the damage taking 22 wickets but no other bowler was good enough to keep the pressure. In this attack, all three Pattinson, Hilfy, Siddle, and Harris kept the pressure on. It is not about name, it is about how they bowled and they certainly bowled several times better than expectations. You cannot compare performance of two different series. England and Australia bowlers all raised their games a few notches against us. You can visibly see that in their efforts. They way England bowlers bowled against WI in this test series, if they had bowled that kind against us last year, there was no way England would have won.

[vvvslaxman]

Yes. Pattinson, HIlfy, Siddle at their best is better bowling attack. They then had only Lee and Clark too some extent and it was Lee who did the damage taking 22 wickets but no other bowler was good enough to keep the pressure. In this attack, all three Pattinson, Hilfy, Siddle, and Harris kept the pressure on. It is not about name, it is about how they bowled and they certainly bowled several times better than expectations. You cannot compare performance of two different series. England and Australia bowlers all raised their games a few notches against us. You can visibly see that in their efforts. They way England bowlers bowled against WI in this test series, if they had bowled that kind against us last year, there was no way England would have won.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/engine/current/match/518951.html Are you saying it was very tough to bat on this surface. Ravi Ashwin played effortlessly. I saw both series. You are exaggerating..to the point as if Lee was non-entity in that series. I have seen both series. Lee was absolutely a beast in that series. No bowler in this series could come close how lee was.Srilanka on this very tour put up a much better batting performance against the same Australian bowling. Same way Bangladesh and SL batted better than us in England. Don't tell me "they let their guards down". You only have to look how Indian fans feared about India getting demolished before Perth Test. Just beacuse India did well you cannot automatically say their bowling was not this good. Good bowling can do the job. Bad batting can equally do the job.

[rkt.india]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/engine/current/match/518951.html Are you saying it was very tough to bat on this surface. Ravi Ashwin played effortlessly. I saw both series. You are exaggerating..to the point as if Lee was non-entity in that series. I have seen both series. Lee was absolutely a beast in that series. No bowler in this series could come close how lee was.Srilanka on this very tour put up a much better batting performance against the same Australian bowling. Same way Bangladesh and SL batted better than us in England. Don't tell me "they let their guards down". You only have to look how Indian fans feared about India getting demolished before Perth Test. Just beacuse India did well you cannot automatically say their bowling was not this good. Good bowling can do the job. Bad batting can equally do the job.

As I said you cannot compare the performance of different series. You are talking about one Brett Lee. Here we had 3 bowlers who bowled as good as Brett Lee in both the series and it is all about new ball with Kookabura ball. It becomes easier to bat once it gets old and our top order rarely batted through new ball. You cannot compare the way England bowled against WI this series and against India. As I said if England had bowled like this last year against us, they would have struggled too. They were relentless. Same about Australia. They bowled out of their skin and rarely gave any loose balls. Compare how they bowled, not to who they bowled. If you cannot see the difference in their bowling effort in series against India and against other teams, then I cannot help. Good relentless bowling can make any batting surrender. Test cricket domination is about bowling. A strong bowling performance even from a weaker attack on its day has the ability to surprise even the best batting line up.

[Sidhoni]

You need a good bowling attack to dominate in test cricket. batsmen on their own can lead you to close victories but very rarely one sided wins or series whitewashes.

:agree: Batsman set up test matches, Bowlers win them for you.

[vvvslaxman]

As I said you cannot compare the performance of different series. You are talking about one Brett Lee. Here we had 3 bowlers who bowled as good as Brett Lee in both the series and it is all about new ball with Kookabura ball. It becomes easier to bat once it gets old and our top order rarely batted through new ball. You cannot compare the way England bowled against WI this series and against India. As I said if England had bowled like this last year against us, they would have struggled too. They were relentless. Same about Australia. They bowled out of their skin and rarely gave any loose balls. Compare how they bowled, not to who they bowled. If you cannot see the difference in their bowling effort in series against India and against other teams, then I cannot help. Good relentless bowling can make any batting surrender. Test cricket domination is about bowling. A strong bowling performance even from a weaker attack on its day has the ability to surprise even the best batting line up.

I would agree if we have bunch of noobs who have no experience in playing in Australia/England or never faced the quality of such bowling. Are you saying they bowled as well as Dale steyn or Morkel bowled in SA. Virendar sehwag repeatedly got out to full tosses.. i don't know what relentless length you are talking about. None of the spells were unplayable. It was sheer bad batting and lack of application. How do you explain Gauti's T20 shot of running the ball to third man when 3 slips are in place.

[Crookbond]

Is it just me or does anyone else feel that VVS and RKT are saying the same thing in a different manner? :dontknow:

[rkt.india]

I would agree if we have bunch of noobs who have no experience in playing in Australia/England or never faced the quality of such bowling. Are you saying they bowled as well as Dale steyn or Morkel bowled in SA. Virendar sehwag repeatedly got out to full tosses.. i don't know what relentless length you are talking about. None of the spells were unplayable. It was sheer bad batting and lack of application. How do you explain Gauti's T20 shot of running the ball to third man when 3 slips are in place.

The didn't give them an inch to score runs. Otherwise, they cant become bad batsmen in a single tour

[Crookbond]

Test cricket is high on the agenda: Pollard http://www.wisdenindia.com/interview/test-cricket-high-agenda-kieron-pollard/26513

Test cricket is always there at the back of your mind. I havenÃÕ played much first-class cricket, but if I continue to perform in the 50-over game for West Indies, hopefully there will be a chance to play Tests as well. ItÃÔ high on the agenda and one day I hope to achieve that goal of playing Test cricket for West Indies

If it is why skip FC cricket to play in BBL, BPL, GPL, IPL? Same point as the OP - lip service being made for political correctness.