Thoughts on our bowlers

[Bumper]

As i write this Pak were 122-6 after 48 overs Zaheer -- Bowled well, has learnt the knack of picking wickets, something he lacked prior to the series in South Africa. Munaf -- Was our best fast bowler today. It was absolute delight watching an Indian fast bowler consistently clock close to 140 in a test match. Was fairly accurate and always threatened the batsman with a possible LBW. On another day, he could have easily ended up with a 3fer. Kumble -- Brilliant, as always. Nothing much to say, other than that its a standard Kumble performance. Ganguly -- One of the best part time spells bowled by an Indian bowler in recent times. Bhajji -- Absolute rubbish. Description, best left to Dhondy. I hope Bhajji continues to bowl cr@p without hurting our chances, so he can be booted out of the subsequent tests.

[Bumper]

Bhajji bowling leg stump line to Sohail Tanvir. For better economy rate perhaps ? Utter roobish!

[Cricketics]

i noticed that Bajji often was trying to do a kumble.. the way kumble bowlz that fast one.. bajji was trying to bowl those often after not having much success with his off spin.. Kumble was pure class.. munaf bowled well.. deservz another wicket or two.. zaheer is carrying his test performance from England and continuing..

[Cricketics]

and bajji strikez.. good for him... chak de phate

[coffee_rules]

Bhajji finally got a dharma wkt. Tanvir.

[King Tendulkar]

Munaf showed its all about attitude with him. He bowled with pace and accuracy. Such a talent hope he does not waste it Had kick up the bacside after being axed for a time. Will he go back to his relaxed ways when he feels secure in team?

[King]

India's fast bowling is in good health. Despite our lead fast bowlers RPS and Sree not playing India still was able to make strides on this pitch. Munaf always had class but lacked attitude and focus. He needs to be told he's not playing cricket just to bowl but needs to put in effort to improve fielding and batting too.

[bharat297]

I dont understand why we keep picking Bhajji in tests ... because India dont produce those dust-bowls as often anymore he has become useless in Tests because he is not a wicket-taker. He has a crap record in tests outside India. In ODIs he may be useful because economy rate is important in ODIs ... but in Tests u need wickets. Ramesh Powar is a better option than Harbhajan in tests because powar throws the ball up there and can spin it .. so he asks questions of the batsman

[King]

BTW whatever happened to Piyush? I thought they were grooming Piyush for future. Now they have lost the vision for future and fallen back on the old blokes. Someone like Kumble's place can't be questioned as he has often shown he takes the most wickets for India in a series. India cannot do without Kumble but surely they can do without Bhajji. This is the problem with Indian cricket they just don't give the young ones extended tenure and expect them to do miracles. Often India will be seen going back to the likes of Bhajji, Sehwag and the rest even though they aren't performing consistently enough.

[King Tendulkar]

I dont understand why we keep picking Bhajji in tests ... because India dont produce those dust-bowls as often anymore he has become useless in Tests because he is not a wicket-taker. He has a crap record in tests outside India. In ODIs he may be useful because economy rate is important in ODIs ... but in Tests u need wickets. Ramesh Powar is a better option than Harbhajan in tests because powar throws the ball up there and can spin it .. so he asks questions of the batsman

Agree! Good odi bowler but without dust bowls which we dont have anymore he is toothless in tests

[Mr. Wicket]

Chawla's got a decent f/c record, hasn't been doing that well in that form lately. Most of his success has been in ODIs. Meanwhile, Bhajji for President of Dropped-land.

[King Tendulkar]

Isnt Chawla injured?

[fineleg]

But we so desperately need a Dale Steyn! :-) We continue to have the problem of FINISHING OFF THE TAIL!!! Bloody Sami cannot be gotten rid of!

[Chandan]

But we so desperately need a Dale Steyn! :-) We continue to have the problem of FINISHING OFF THE TAIL!!! Bloody Sami cannot be gotten rid of!

Having an express bowler to finish off the tail--this is the most misplaced notion I suppose! Lee bowls at 145-150 kmph speed, yet Malinga and Murali smashed runs at Hobart. England had 3 bowlers who could bowl over 90 mph in 2005 Ashes, yet Lee and Kasper came within kissing distance of the target. Why did those express pace bowlers fail to wrap up the tail quickly? And there has been numerous instances such as the above two, even with one or more express bowlers in your rank! Sami has been batting pretty sensibly--much more than his specialist batsmen and he and Misbah are batting really well. Why can't we give credit to the opposition if they deserve so instead of cursing our own bowlers?

[sm332]

Having an express bowler to finish off the tail--this is the most misplaced notion I suppose! Lee bowls at 145-150 kmph speed, yet Malinga and Murali smashed runs at Hobart. England had 3 bowlers who could bowl over 90 mph in 2005 Ashes, yet Lee and Kasper came within kissing distance of the target. Why did those express pace bowlers fail to wrap up the tail quickly? And there has been numerous instances such as the above two, even with one or more express bowlers in your rank! Sami has been batting pretty sensibly--much more than his specialist batsmen and he and Misbah are batting really well. Why can't we give credit to the opposition if they deserve so instead of cursing our own bowlers?

true .. and besides they havent score quickly at all hence we have a chance to limit the damage tomorrow morning by snapping up the remaining wickets

[The Outsider]

Harbhajan has looked completely out of sorts even on this wicket. Hopefully, when it really crumbles in the second innings the guy can give us a few wickets to justify his spot in the side.

[MundaPakistani]

Having an express bowler to finish off the tail--this is the most misplaced notion I suppose! Lee bowls at 145-150 kmph speed, yet Malinga and Murali smashed runs at Hobart. England had 3 bowlers who could bowl over 90 mph in 2005 Ashes, yet Lee and Kasper came within kissing distance of the target. Why did those express pace bowlers fail to wrap up the tail quickly? And there has been numerous instances such as the above two, even with one or more express bowlers in your rank! Sami has been batting pretty sensibly--much more than his specialist batsmen and he and Misbah are batting really well. Why can't we give credit to the opposition if they deserve so instead of cursing our own bowlers?

They were hitting Stuart Clark for runs not Lee...in fact Lee was the one who finished the innings. but anyways you will find examples of where the express face bowler or bowlers have not been able to polish off the tail but it's unfair to look at the case in isolation. p.s you gave the example of the 3 90 mph English quicks so if i look at their performance as a whole(05 Ashes) then it becomes quite clear that pace was a huge factor in their success.

[Chandan]

They were hitting Stuart Clark for runs not Lee...in fact Lee was the one who finished the innings. but anyways you will find examples of where the express face bowler or bowlers have not been able to polish off the tail but it's unfair to look at the case in isolation. p.s you gave the example of the 3 90 mph English quicks so if i look at their performance as a whole(05 Ashes) then it becomes quite clear that pace was a huge factor in their success.

I never disagreed that pace doesn't play a huge role in cricket. It is the matter of wrapping up the tail with only express bowler is what I'm not agreeing to.