India Tour of England, June-Sept 2014

[Temujin Khaghan]

Dhoni and Fletcher speak at the England tour press conference Fletcher "I think they [England] have lost some crucial players," "[The loss of Kevin] Pietersen has been a huge blow to them. And looking at them, they are in a rebuilding phase as well, so that's going to make the series quite interesting." "I do believe though that they have got some quality batters who have got a lot of experience at Test level. [Alastair] Cook and [ian] Bell have scored some big runs up the order. The focus will be to get them out as cheaply as we can. The bowling side is fairly well-balanced." "They have got [James] Anderson and [stuart] Broad who have been bowling well and picking up wickets. We will focus on going there and producing as good cricket as we can. We have done that in India and we will look forward to adapt to the conditions as quickly as possible and will look to put them under pressure." "Obviously it was disappointing. The 4-0 losses to England and Australia were not easy to take. It is difficult to tour England with a young side, but sometimes it results in an advantage," "You go out there and play some good cricket - as we did in South Africa and New Zealand - and you learn from there and I hope we can do that. I think it's important to win a match early on in the series. It will give us the confidence that we can win the series. And you never know what the end result will be after that." Dhoni: 'I should go for my shots' - Dhoni "For me, what's important is that I have to be far more aggressive. That's something that I have observed. When I play freely, I tend to fare much better than when I try to play like a proper batsman. I think it's something important to back your instinct and not think too much about the situation," "In a set of six to seven batsmen, it's important that I back my instincts and try and score boundaries. That way I will score more runs rather than playing for time. That can be the job of other batsmen but I feel that it's important I should go for the shots." "Quite a few of the players will be playing their first series in England. But most of the players in the squad have got exposure in South Africa and New Zealand, so they have got a few games behind them and they know what the challenges will be," "The good thing will be we are going a bit early, so we can take our time to get into the groove, play a few practice games and prepare ourselves," "Besides, it's a five-match series and I don't think any of us have played a five-Test series. Overall, it should be good, the reason being we have enough time to prepare ourselves." "It will be very difficult to fill the shoes of Sehwag as an opener and Rahul at No.3, Sachin coming in and then Laxman and Sourav. I think we shouldn't compare, but think more about the current generation," "They have come in and are going to serve Indian cricket. It will be a big challenge for them. The good thing is they have had good exposure, playing a few games abroad and having played a lot at home. They have the talent. It's just that they have to get used to the conditions, apply themselves and give respect to the opposition and read the conditions." "Zak is someone who reads the game really well and I always felt that left-arm fast bowlers really have the advantage. They can bring the ball back in and add variation of the ball going away from the batsmen. I felt from the first game he played in South Africa till the last game, there was a considerable amount of improvement." "Zak is someone who loves to play games. The more games he plays, the better he gets. As far as missing Zaheer is concerned, I can't really say much because with the kind of experience he has, the fast bowling unit doesn't really have that kind of experience. Hopefully we won't miss him, but as I said, I can't really say anything." "You can call it 7-0 [8-0] because after that we went to Australia and that was also a tough series for us. As I said, it's a constant process. I think those were very difficult periods for us." "We were not winning games. We were behind in the games and were not able to compete. So the focus will be initially to get into the groove and to create competition. Once we are in a position when the game is kind of 50-50, that's the time when we want to capitalise, so that's what it's all about and we are looking forward to it." "You go through tough times. What I personally believe in is you should forget the stats. But also, it pushes you to see the areas where you have to work on to be a consistent team. These were the lessons that came out of those tough twin tours. It helped us when we came back to India and when we went to South Africa." "What an 18-member squad does is that in case of an injury, the players who would be replacing the injured players are already used to the conditions, especially if you see the duration of the tour," "In a way, it will help us if needed and at the same time, we can get some really good practice and it will give us good bench strength. They will know the conditions and what lengths to bowl. And also the batsmen, they can get used to playing the fast bowlers a little more." "Once the series starts, the main bowlers who have bowled a lot during matches tend to take time out [in the nets] and the other lot of bowlers will bowl at batsmen. I think it's very important to have good practice sessions because it reflects in the games." "It's a good decision but at the same time, it's something that is really needed because last time we lost quite a few players [to injury] and [replacement] players had to be flown in. We had to play them without them getting used to the conditions. It will be a good environment for the reserves to get used to the conditions, and help us when it comes to going ahead with them." http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-india-2014/content/story/754411.html

[Cricket_Hacker]

Agressive my foot

[cricketfan28]

dhoni will prove his destractors wrong ...

[rkt.india]

Not bad.

[Yoda-esque]

Will see a better show with these batsmen

[tweaker]

I don't have hope from this team.But Iam ready for a shock series win

[King Tendulkar]

Why is he crying about not having zak when obvious that zak is oap and should retire now. Dhoni is delusional and mental. Its almost as if he is making big deal out of zak not being there to prepare his recall for aus tour. Dhoni is a plonker

[putrevus]

It is hilarious to hear dhobi, this guy has to play 88 tests to know that fact,he has no chance to play test cricket defending, he has no technique. if he can heave here and there there is a chance he can score some runs.

[Temujin Khaghan]

Why is he crying about not having zak when obvious that zak is oap and should retire now. Dhoni is delusional and mental. Its almost as if he is making big deal out of zak not being there to prepare his recall for aus tour. Dhoni is a plonker

Zak is like another bowling coach for our youngsters. if he takes field, then dhoni need not worry about field placements and advice to the pace bowlers. Zak is almost like a bowling captain when the pace bowlers are operating.

[SLICKR392]

I really hope Zak will our bowling coach in the future. Remember Dhoni hinting about it.

[Austin 3:!6]

Someone ask him about Umesh Yadav Who are the admins and owner of this site? Can't they organize a Q&A session with Dhoni or team management and we ICF'ers give a list of questions to ask? Umesh Yadav question is still bothering me.

[achilles]

Dhoni has this bad habit of speaking too soon. We could be staring at a whitewash.

[BlueBee]

Dhoni has this bad habit of speaking too soon. We could be staring at a whitewash.

++

[TheTruth]

Apart from Bell who I rate very highly, I'm not sure the task of getting 20 wickets is as difficult as it was in 2011 when England had Cook, Strauss, Trott and Pietersen in top form. Equally I don't think their bowling attack is in top form; Anderson since his injury hasn't looked as good as he was, Swann has retired and they haven't found a top class spinner to replace him. Their also hesitant on a 3rd seamer ; Jordan and Plunkett are not great bowlers. But of course their bowling attack is still stronger than India's. I think mental strength will be very important. India shouldn't intimidated and bounced out as they were in 2011. Let's hope Kohli, Pujara and co. are practicing playing the short ball. They know what to expect, but they should also try to enjoy it. The Lord's and Oval tests will feel like a home fixture in terms of crowd support.

[jf1gp_1]

Dhoni has this bad habit of speaking too soon. We could be staring at a whitewash.

if you are going to come up with excuse for series loss atleast comeup with something better than pre-tour interview.

[putrevus]

Lessons learned from 2011 tour - Dhoni, how the heck can this guy say that with straight face. Dhobi has not learnt one bit for 0-8 fiascos as evidenced by his lack of aggression when in strong position in last two tours and not thinking on his feet or changing the bowling attack. While batting he has remain the same circumspect guy which he has been thru his career.So what fricking lessons has this guy learnt. Other than youngsters doing their bit nothing has changed from Dhobi and fatso both in thinking and also squad/team selections. Both idiots want to claim credit for Kohli , Pujara and Rahane now?

[rkt.india]

Apart from Bell who I rate very highly, I'm not sure the task of getting 20 wickets is as difficult as it was in 2011 when England had Cook, Strauss, Trott and Pietersen in top form. Equally I don't think their bowling attack is in top form; Anderson since his injury hasn't looked as good as he was, Swann has retired and they haven't found a top class spinner to replace him. Their also hesitant on a 3rd seamer ; Jordan and Plunkett are not great bowlers. But of course their bowling attack is still stronger than India's. I think mental strength will be very important. India shouldn't intimidated and bounced out as they were in 2011. Let's hope Kohli, Pujara and co. are practicing playing the short ball. They know what to expect, but they should also try to enjoy it. The Lord's and Oval tests will feel like a home fixture in terms of crowd support.

Anderson, Broad, and Plunkett, who had 9 wickets in ongoing test, all three have bowled well but conditions have been too supportive for them till now. Jordan bowled well in patches.

[achilles]

if you are going to come up with excuse for series loss atleast comeup with something better than pre-tour interview.

Ofcourse. 13-0 and selection bias speaks for itself, doesn't it?

[vishalvirsingh]

Anderson, Broad, and Plunkett, who had 9 wickets in ongoing test, all three have bowled well but conditions have been too supportive for them till now. Jordan bowled well in patches.[/QUOT Jordan does not look IMPRESSIVE..Indian batsman would score heavily against him. PLunkett looks OK but i bet our our bowlers are equally good..if not better. anderson and Broad only look deadly anderson is more dangerous then bhuvi and broad is more dangerous than ishant/varun... Thats the difference- Batting - robson looks very defensive and if Pujara can play well like him then it wud be good. Cook and Bell are Impressive in England. england do not have even half a spinner as good as jaddu or ashwin and hence i guess they wud create pitches which would never turn and hence they will make our spinners ineffective. I beleive they will play 4 pacers all the way and to negate them we should also play 4 Pacers all the way. we do not have a Kumble type Spinner who bowled at 105k - ashwin and Jaddu are good bowlers when their is some Spin. i remember jaddu beeing crucified in previous england tours and ashwin too.........lets see Dhoni needs to understand and see how our spinners perform, if they dont perform they should not be played.

[undisputed chap]

England should drop Jordan & play stokes,drop moeen for a proper spinner.