I know we have won but..........

[putrevus]

We are not going to beat SA in SA anyway no matter whoever we play. Our best two chances with stable batting line were in 2006 and 2010 which both were missed. You expect us to win now. No way we will even complete there this time around and will lose like Pak lost.

I don't think you are right , they would compete very well provided we get the same bowling efforts we got on those tours. The batting line up with full of stars has been main reason why we lost one series and drew another one.When did our so called famous batting line up assert itself and showed some spine. When did some one from our batting line up stood up overseas like Cook did in last ashes and in India or what Amla did in Australia and England.The one time the batting line up did well as unit was in 2003-04 Aussie tour and to some extent in 2002 England tour. I don't think our young guys can do any worse than previous ones.

[Yoda-esque]

We aint winning anymore...

[The Outsider]

We are rebuilding very well, have got some quality all rounders who can be match winner in every condition around the world. I think with this line up we would be able to beat South Africa 1. Vijay 2. Sehwag 3. Pujara 4. Kohli 5. Raina 6. Dhoni 7. Jadeja 8. Bhuvaneshwar 9. Ashwin 10. Ishant 11. Dinda.

Broadly agree. But would make some changes - bring in Mukund for Sehwag. A left right combination at the top of the order will unsettle Steyn and Philander. I am also not too sure about Ashwin's ability to perform away from home after the Australian series and would rather have someone with experience who can make use of the bounce - Harbhajan. Bhuvaneshwar will be useless once the ball gets old, so need Mithun who can hit the deck hard. My team would be: 1. Vijay 2. Mukund 3. Pujara 4. Yuvraj 5. Raina 6. Dhoni 7. Jadeja 8. Harbhajan 9. Mithun 10. Dinda 11. Ishant EDIT: On second thoughts I would drop Kohli because his technique is very weak outside the off stump and Steyn is going to trouble him a lot and bring in Yuvraj who can take the attack to the opposition and Steyn sucks against left handers.

[rkt.india]

I don't think you are right , they would compete very well provided we get the same bowling efforts we got on those tours. The batting line up with full of stars has been main reason why we lost one series and drew another one.When did our so called famous batting line up assert itself and showed some spine. When did some one from our batting line up stood up overseas like Cook did in last ashes and in India or what Amla did in Australia and England.The one time the batting line up did well as unit was in 2003-04 Aussie tour and to some extent in 2002 England tour. I don't think our young guys can do any worse than previous ones.

Think if our best batting line up could not survive SA bowling, you think these guys can survive that? Now SA bowling has even more venom with the addition of Philander.

[cricketpitch]

We cannot prepare wickets which suit the opponents. If we need to prepare our batsmen for playing on bouncing wickets, it needs to happen outside international cricket. Every team plays to their strength at home. India's is turning wickets and we are doing the same. Australia/South Africa do not create turning tracks to prepare to play in the sub continent during an international series against India/Pak/SL. They will prepare wickets that will suit their strengths. So I don't think preparing pacy/bouncy wickets in India is going to be the way to go. If that is the case why to even play in India? Why not all countries gather in in the same location and play all the games there? Why even need to travel to different countries if pitches are going to look the same? I agree that Indian youngsters need to be trained on bouncier wickets but that needs to happen in domestic cricket. The Indian young players should be playing on A tours to Australia/SA/England when there is no International cricket. Those are the way to get the batsman equipped. Preparing wickets to suit the opposition is stupid. It is like SA preparing chennai sort of wicket in Durban when India visits there to learn to play spin bowling. That would be ridiculous.

[putrevus]

Think if our best batting line up could not survive SA bowling' date=' you think these guys can survive that? Now SA bowling has even more venom with the addition of Philander.[/quote'] I may be wrong but I have more confidence in new guys than past ones.Given time they may not amass the records of Sachin and co but as batting unit they will do better.

[namasteji1]

@cricketpitch Awesome post. Thanks for this.

[yoda]

Stop over analyzing. Enjoy the rare win.

[The Outsider]

Why does everyone talk about extremes - there are pitches between dustbowls and greentops as well? Saying dustbowls are not the best does not mean people are asking for a Durban to be replicated in Chennai. However, having pitches where the ball does not carry to the keeper on day 1 is poor and not the same as asking for a greentop. Pitches like Mohali and Wankhede have good carry, assist reverse swing, and also turn as the game progresses. It makes watching cricket so much more engaging with skilled players being able to do well irrespective of whether they are spinners, batsmen, or pacers.

[putrevus]

We cannot prepare wickets which suit the opponents. If we need to prepare our batsmen for playing on bouncing wickets, it needs to happen outside international cricket. Every team plays to their strength at home. India's is turning wickets and we are doing the same. Australia/South Africa do not create turning tracks to prepare to play in the sub continent during an international series against India/Pak/SL. They will prepare wickets that will suit their strengths. So I don't think preparing pacy/bouncy wickets in India is going to be the way to go. If that is the case why to even play in India? Why not all countries gather in in the same location and play all the games there? Why even need to travel to different countries if pitches are going to look the same? I agree that Indian youngsters need to be trained on bouncier wickets but that needs to happen in domestic cricket. The Indian young players should be playing on A tours to Australia/SA/England when there is no International cricket. Those are the way to get the batsman equipped. Preparing wickets to suit the opposition is stupid. It is like SA preparing chennai sort of wicket in Durban when India visits there to learn to play spin bowling. That would be ridiculous.

Preparing dustbowls is never an answer, you need balance as a bowling unit we prepared dust bowls for England series what happened English spinners out bowled Indian spinners. The main reason Indian rise to top for what ever brief period was emergence of Zaheer Khan he was taking crucial wickets and setting up wins for India. The pitches in India will always favor spinners but you don't have to go out of the way to prepare bunsen burners to get results, it will be short sighted and in the long run will do more harm than good for Indian cricket. You need quality bowlers how come Patinson can take six wickets on the same pitch where our fast bowlers looked so innocuous, in a haste to get wins Dhoni is ruining long term future of this team. Dhoni has never handled seamers well thru out his captaincy and that will be again the down fall if he remains the captain in SA.

[cricketpitch]

Preparing dustbowls is never an answer, you need balance as a bowling unit we prepared dust bowls for England series what happened English spinners out bowled Indian spinners. The main reason Indian rise to top for what ever brief period was emergence of Zaheer Khan he was taking crucial wickets and setting up wins for India. The pitches in India will always favor spinners but you don't have to go out of the way to prepare bunsen burners to get results, it will be short sighted and in the long run will do more harm than good for Indian cricket. You need quality bowlers how come Patinson can take six wickets on the same pitch where our fast bowlers looked so innocuous, in a haste to get wins Dhoni is ruining long term future of this team. Dhoni has never handled seamers well thru out his captaincy and that will be again the down fall if he remains the captain in SA.

India are playing to their strength. When Zaheer was in form, India had a bowler who could actually take advantage of the pitches, now with half of India's first choice pacers injured, India do not have the luxury to get Aussies back in the game with the balanced pitch which might make their pace attack effective. Preparing turning tracks is the way to go. It was not as if the pacers could not make a difference on this pitch, it was just that except pattinson, the rest of the pacers were ordinary. And again, how many balanced pitches do you see in Australia/SA/England/NZ? Probably one pitch in each country? India does have such pitches in later part of this series. Mohali being one of them where India play the third test. Chennai has traditionally been a turning track. All teams play the first game of the series to their strength. The reason why Australia invariably start a series against a subcontinent teams in Brisbane or Melbourne instead of Sydney which helps spinners a little bit. England don't start a tour against subcontinent team in Oval which probably is more balanced that Trent bridge or Lords. If you see Pattinson troubled the Indian batters throughout and took 5 wickets for 96 which shows that if an in-form Zaheer was there, he would have made an impact as well. This pitch would have been dangerous if there was another good quick bowler on either side who could utilize the uneven bounce. And also you are contradicting yourself when you say that the pitch isn't helping the pacers and then you go on to say that you need quality bowlers to pick wickets. If India had good pacer then they would have taken wickets on this wicket too. India does not have good pace bowlers at the moment.

[rkt.india]

Preparing dustbowls is never an answer, you need balance as a bowling unit we prepared dust bowls for England series what happened English spinners out bowled Indian spinners. The main reason Indian rise to top for what ever brief period was emergence of Zaheer Khan he was taking crucial wickets and setting up wins for India. The pitches in India will always favor spinners but you don't have to go out of the way to prepare bunsen burners to get results, it will be short sighted and in the long run will do more harm than good for Indian cricket. .

You need to understand why Dhoni wants such pitches in India because he mostly loses toss and in India whoever wins the toss and bat first has distinct advantage. So he wants to negate the advantage of toss and wants pitches which turns from day one so that side bowling first is not at a disadvantage.

[prasadiyer]

You need to understand why Dhoni wants such pitches in India because he mostly loses toss and in India whoever wins the toss and bat first has distinct advantage. So he wants to negate the advantage of toss and wants pitches which turns from day one so that side bowling first is not at a disadvantage.

I just hope we get flat as pancake tracks for the remaining tests! Please, let us not make the pitch preparation mistakes from the England series. I will be overjoyed if we have 3 consecutive boring 80's style draws where each team makes 500+ and only one innings can be completed! We have to remember that India are like a convalescing invalid recovering from a long illness, who can only eat the blandest of baby foods for a good long time. Any talk of "sporting wickets" and "balanced tracks" is ridiculous, imho. That sort of rich, exciting diet is for those who are reasonably healthy, so to speak, such as England/SA/Oz/Pak (take your pick). Such indulgences don't befit the likes of us, who sport a proud record of 8 consecutive test defeats, capped by the recent home series loss to the mother country...

[Sean Bradley]

Why does everyone talk about extremes - there are pitches between dustbowls and greentops as well? Saying dustbowls are not the best does not mean people are asking for a Durban to be replicated in Chennai. However, having pitches where the ball does not carry to the keeper on day 1 is poor and not the same as asking for a greentop. Pitches like Mohali and Wankhede have good carry, assist reverse swing, and also turn as the game progresses. It makes watching cricket so much more engaging with skilled players being able to do well irrespective of whether they are spinners, batsmen, or pacers.

+1, Good cricket wicket which is conducive for both fast bowling & spin, also assist's batsmen for stroke play is and at the same time test his skills for good defense and temperament is what i call for (Mohali, Mumbai).

[Vivek.S.123]

Even though we won, there are still quite a few passengers on board: Sehwag, Vijay, Jadeja, Tendulkar, Dhoni, Ishant, Harbhajan. We will get humiliated abroad over and over again if we pick these players

[CG]

You need to understand why Dhoni wants such pitches in India because he mostly loses toss and in India whoever wins the toss and bat first has distinct advantage. So he wants to negate the advantage of toss and wants pitches which turns from day one so that side bowling first is not at a disadvantage.

How its becomes even harder batting last on dustbowls.

[CG]

Broadly agree. But would make some changes - bring in Mukund for Sehwag. A left right combination at the top of the order will unsettle Steyn and Philander. I am also not too sure about Ashwin's ability to perform away from home after the Australian series and would rather have someone with experience who can make use of the bounce - Harbhajan. Bhuvaneshwar will be useless once the ball gets old, so need Mithun who can hit the deck hard. My team would be: 1. Vijay 2. Mukund 3. Pujara 4. Yuvraj 5. Raina 6. Dhoni 7. Jadeja 8. Harbhajan 9. Mithun 10. Dinda 11. Ishant EDIT: On second thoughts I would drop Kohli because his technique is very weak outside the off stump and Steyn is going to trouble him a lot and bring in Yuvraj who can take the attack to the opposition and Steyn sucks against left handers.

:cantstop::hysterical::hysterical:

[rkt.india]

Why does everyone talk about extremes - there are pitches between dustbowls and greentops as well? Saying dustbowls are not the best does not mean people are asking for a Durban to be replicated in Chennai. However, having pitches where the ball does not carry to the keeper on day 1 is poor and not the same as asking for a greentop. Pitches like Mohali and Wankhede have good carry, assist reverse swing, and also turn as the game progresses. It makes watching cricket so much more engaging with skilled players being able to do well irrespective of whether they are spinners, batsmen, or pacers.

Pitches have never been uniform all over the world and are mostly made to suite home teams strength. Good carry at Wankhede still did not help fast bowlers much and it was spinners who decided the match and same thing happened at Chennai. People want to see good cricket and contest between bat ball and until this is happening, I dont see any problem with a pitch like Chennai. At least, it was not a patta where teams scoring 500-600 and match is ending in a draw. Till there is exciting cricket, I dont see why we should have any problem in any pitch.

[rkt.india]

How its becomes even harder batting last on dustbowls.

that is the reason he wants pitches which turn from day one, so that team bowling first too can get some thing out of the pitch too, otherwise it can become one-way traffic when bowling batting first can amass a big total and team batting second and last will struggle. Look at what happened in this match. Ball was turning from day one. Even though Aussie won the toss but still they did not have a distinct advantage because our spinners could use the help from the pitch even on day one and in such cases, it comes to pure skills rather than the luck of winning the toss.

[CG]

that is the reason he wants pitches which turn from day one' date=' so that team bowling first too can get some thing out of the pitch too, otherwise it can become one-way traffic when bowling batting first can amass a big total and team batting second and last will struggle. Look at what happened in this match. Ball was turning from day one. Even though Aussie won the toss but still they did not have a distinct advantage because our spinners could use the help from the pitch even on day one and in such cases, it comes to pure skills rather than the luck of winning the toss.[/quote'] The way i see it the team losing the toss is at even more disadvantage.Aussie still with a new batting lineup made near 400 runs and if they had good spinner we would be struggling and chasing anything above 150 on last day was going to be tough.