Vijay Appreciation thread.

[vvvslaxman]

Vijay will do good in tests. We just need to give him a little rope and not just change our openers if and when they fail in one or two tests just to bring back the oldies. These players(dhawan and vijay) needs to be backed as they are our long term prospects. Same goes for Rahane' date=' Rohit and Mukund. All of them them should be kept in the mix. Exciting times ahead for Indian cricket. I just hope that these players get sent to South Africa for the A tour before actually going there for tests.[/quote'] True SA is not be all end all. We have to look beyond SA. Sehwag averages 17.54 in SA which is very very bad. Only few have done worse than this. Hafeez averages 11, Ganga averages 17.07, Attapattu averages 15.70. Strangely some ordinary players have better averages there. Taufeeq umar averages 70 in two tests. Phil hughes averages 53.20 there. But Alistair cook averages only 41. Gambhir averages 60 albeit two streaky innings.It all depends on what sort of surface you get to play on there and which innings. Some pitches are absolute batting beauties. Some pitches are helpful only for few days or even few hours. We cannot say if so and so succeeds in SA he gotta be a legend.

[saneindian]

True SA is not be all end all. We have to look beyond SA. Sehwag averages 17.54 in SA which is very very bad. Only few have done worse than this. Hafeez averages 11' date=' Ganga averages 17.07, Attapattu averages 15.70. Strangely some ordinary players have better averages there. [b']Taufeeq umar averages 70 in two tests. Phil hughes averages 53.20 there. But Alistair cook averages only 41. Gambhir averages 60 albeit two streaky innings.It all depends on what sort of surface you get to play on there and which innings. Some pitches are absolute batting beauties. Some pitches are helpful only for few days or even few hours. We cannot say if so and so succeeds in SA he gotta be a legend.

All 4 left handed openers..Strauss, Gayle, Trescothick, have also got very good records, Chanders, Fleming, Lara, Ganguly all did decently in SA, Maybe the clue is to pack the side with left handers lol Gambhir sorting out his technique and coming back to the side will be crucial for us.

[Ram]

Good point is he looks solid when he meets the ball. He looks stable. Some batsmen even when they middle look off balanced. That is a plus he has. He has this age old weaknesses Indian batsmen have. Corridor of uncertainty outside the off stump. I don't think anyone other than Dravid has mastered the art of leaving in the last 20 years. Pujara is on his way. Vijay has to work on this area. He has to get out of Chepauk to master this. Sehwag had gifted hand eye coordination so he was able to hide this weakness on most surfaces. Tendulkar excellent backfoot player on the off side. Others are so so. Remember Wasim Jaffer who got owned 5 times by lee mostly in identical fashion outside the off stump. Karthik also had his issues with dangling the bat outside the off stump. Kohli has this problem. Raina has this problem. Yuvraj has this problem. Only Pujara looks more assured . There were tons of guys in the 80s who had the same problem. You can have so many short comings. But when you tour countries like England, SA, Australia most important thing you need is good game plan outside the off stump.

It is funny you mentioned Jaffer because that is the exact parallel I was going to draw. Jaffer, at home, looked supremely confident. We all rave about Dhawan's debut ton, but how many of us remember Jaffer's sublime double 100 against Pakistan in 2007? We all looked at the thought to ourselves 'Finally, a solution to our opening woes..' And then Brett Lee duly dismantled him in the Aussie summer. I fear the same with guys like Vijay and Dhawan.

[vvvslaxman]

It is funny you mentioned Jaffer because that is the exact parallel I was going to draw. Jaffer' date=' at home, looked supremely confident. We all rave about Dhawan's debut ton, but how many of us remember Jaffer's sublime double 100 against Pakistan in 2007? We all looked at the thought to ourselves 'Finally, a solution to our opening woes..' [b']And then Brett Lee duly dismantled him in the Aussie summer. I fear the same with guys like Vijay and Dhawan.

Same problem Sidhu had against Fraser. The tour which he ended prematurely. DIsmissed him 5 times in 3 tests.

[Ram]

Same problem Sidhu had against Fraser. The tour which he ended prematurely. DIsmissed him 5 times in 3 tests.

When it comes to Indian openers in foreign conditions, I am very intrigued by Dhawan. He is unlike most Indian batsmen raised in subcontinental conditions - A tall upright player who is proficient thru the covers and is not afraid to pull. He may be able to get away Steyn and company.

[rkt.india]

Tendulkar is hardly a benchmark these days for what is difficult. He finds everything difficult and Pujara was not out.

I am not saying SRT is hallmark. I was just saying there was reverse swing and one needed to concentrate hard to bat and Vijay's concentration really looked solid. He did not look like how he was on WI tour, throwing his bat at everything outside off stump. He played mostly close to the body and under the eyes from pacers. Though SA tour will be a different proposition where he will have to face Steyn's leg breaks at 135-140K.

[rkt.india]

All 4 left handed openers..Strauss, Gayle, Trescothick, have also got very good records, Chanders, Fleming, Lara, Ganguly all did decently in SA, Maybe the clue is to pack the side with left handers lol Gambhir sorting out his technique and coming back to the side will be crucial for us.

Those were the days when Philander was not there. Steyn has struggled against lefties. Morkel is good but he is their unlucky. Philander does well against lefties too.

[Vilander]

When it comes to Indian openers in foreign conditions' date=' I am very intrigued by Dhawan. He is unlike most Indian batsmen raised in subcontinental conditions - A [b']tall upright player who is proficient thru the covers and is not afraid to pull. He may be able to get away Steyn and company.

lol..taller than tendulkar you should say.

[panther]

4-0 whitewash IMHO rain may help though.

[bharat297]

It is funny you mentioned Jaffer because that is the exact parallel I was going to draw. Jaffer' date=' at home, looked supremely confident. We all rave about Dhawan's debut ton, but how many of us remember Jaffer's sublime double 100 against Pakistan in 2007? We all looked at the thought to ourselves 'Finally, a solution to our opening woes..' And then Brett Lee duly dismantled him in the Aussie summer. I fear the same with guys like Vijay and Dhawan.[/quote'] I always felt that Jaffer was dumped too early. He did reasonably well in South Africa and in England and the Jaffer/Karthik opening stands were one of the reasons we did well in England in 2007. Against Lee, Jaffer was unlucky that he ran into Brett Lee probably in the form of his life. Some of those deliveries were just downright unplayable, and I don't think any of the Indian openers at that time (Gambhir, Karthik, etc.) would have survived those deliveries for long. Lee was just another level at that time.

[jf1gp_1]

a little bounce and vijay is hopping around, lets hope he does well.

[Vilander]

another 50. :hatsoff:

[King Tendulkar]

Great stuff. Looks class High hopes he will do well for years

[CG]

Good perfromance but i would wait to see how much he has improved on away tours.

[Karan114]

Got to hold up my hand on this one - I totally trashed Vijay but I have egg on my face now. He has been outstanding in this series and I am happy to have been completely pwned. I still have big concerns about whether he can cope with the moving ball in SA - I can't see it happening. But as we saw against England, we can't take home success for granted any longer and Vijay has played a massive role in winning this series. Good on him. At the least his and Dhawan's success means Gambhir has genuine competition. For too long Gambhir has been behaving like he is entitled to a place in the team. Only bad thing now is that Vijay has two months of the tamasha league ahead of him and all the hard work he has put in to improve his Test game will get undone.

[saneindian]

Superb batting on a difficult pitch. His biggest problem was shot selection, seems to have worked hard on that and is avoiding any risky shots early in the innings, leaving a good number of balls and looking to bat long periods.

[CG]

Superb batting on a difficult pitch. His biggest problem was shot selection' date=' seems to have worked hard on that and is avoiding any risky shots early in the innings, leaving a good number of balls and looking to bat long periods.[/quote'] He has to work on his backfoot game.When the ball bounces chest high he edged many to slips in WI.

[BeautifulGame]

But but he is here only because he is a CSK player . Dhoni is destroying Indian test team by picking him ahead of mighty Gambhir.

[Karan114]

Superb batting on a difficult pitch. His biggest problem was shot selection' date= seems to have worked hard on that and is avoiding any risky shots early in the innings, leaving a good number of balls and looking to bat long periods.

I would say that was one of his problems. Away from the subcontinent, he has looked technically deficient as well (of course, not the first or last Indian batsman with that problem). But for sure, he has batted more sensibly in this series, but like I say, two months of that tamasha rubbish will undo all of the work he has put in.

[express bowling]

Vijay is taking his eyes off the ball everytime the ball is bouncing. That is a big concern. His temperament has improved a lot but his technique against the short ball is perhaps the worst among the batsmen in this team. He needs to work really hard on this aspect.