Sachin Tendulkar the MP of Rajya Sabha and Team India’s player has opted out of upcoming Sri Lanka Tour !
Tag Archives: Team India
Gambhir and Kohli captaincy debate in momentum !
Sachin clarifies no one should tell him when to retire !
Sachin Tendulkar , the batting legend,fondly called master-blaster, took a little long but completed his 100th century in the Asia Cup 2012 , against Bangladesh and henceforth has been able to answer the critics who would want him to retire and were accusing him of being selfish and record-oriented. In an interview today, he declared, no one should tell him when to retire and that he is a better person himself to decide the same!
Follow News Article on the Interview
Interestingly,Sachin has got his hair straightened and given himself a new look,altogether !
Virat Kohli becomes Vice-Captain
Virat Kohli’s mind-blowing performance at the Hobart not only helped India win over Sri Lanka with bonus points but also enlightened hopes of India being able to qualify for finals of Commonwealth Series, in case , Australia wins against Sri Lanka in the upcoming match. It is up to fate now, whether India would get through the finals as all Indian cricket fans and Team India can do now is pray for Australia’s win over Sri Lanka. However, BCCI closely marked , 23-year-old Virat Kohli’s confidence during the last game. The last match not only fetched Virat Man-Of -The-Match award but also made him the Vice-captain of Team India for the upcoming Asia Cup.
Be it Sehwag’s non-performance in the series or his injuries as explained by Kris Srikkanth , reason being not selecting him for Asia Cup, it is Virat Kohli , who got to replace him as the vice-captain, over the much anticiapted Gautam Gambhir. His marvellous knock of 133 runs (not out) in 86 balls was an eye-catcher for the world and a ray of hope for Team India, after the Master-Blaster retires. He completed his 9th century in the last match and can be assumed as a probable captain of the future. After Yuvraj Singh, it has been Virat Kohli who looks full of confidence and seems a tough challenge for opponents round the world. Malinga who is a terror of Sri Lanka’s pace attack and has the ability of bowling 6 yorker in an over also seemed helpless in front of the budding talent. He ended up giving as high as 24 runs of an over , maximum of which was scored by Virat.
As Indian Cricket Fans, all we can pray and expect is Kohli continues this way much like the Little Master- Blaster , Sachin Tendulkar, whose replacement is as much a miracle as yesterday’s Bonus point win of India over Sri Lanka was. Yet it happened all thanks to Sehwag , Sachin , Gambhir , Raina and above all Virat Kohli !
Annoyed Srikkanth asks reporters to Shut-Up ?
Reporters curious enough to get the update on Team India selection for the upcoming Asia Cup ended up annoying Kris Srikkanth, chairman of selectors, after the press – conference. Srikkanth had announced the 15 players for Asia Cup which excludes Zaheer Khan and Virendra Sehwag.
Curious to find out the actual reason as to why Sehwag was chucked out for the Asia Cup , the reporters repeated the same question differently which apparently harassed him so much that he asked them to Shut-Up ! He reasoned Sehwag and Zaheer being excluded on grounds of injury and after the reports from physio however, the reporters doubted Sehwag being out due to his bad performance throughout the Australian Series , so far !
India Vs Sri Lanka – 28th February 2012-Lanka scores massive 320!
Team India, Up Against Mission Impossible !
India needs 321 in 40 overs to maintain chances in Commonwealth Finals
The horrible performance of Team India continues with Sri Lanka scoring huge 320 in 50 overs bowled by India. The lead bowler Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Yadav , almost every bowler seemed helpless in front of Dilshan and Sangakara.
The worrying part being, this match is the only probable chance for India to get through finals , seems purely bleak now. In order to gain a place back in finals India not only has to chase 320 within 40 overs but also has to pray that Sri Lanka looses the upcoming match with Australia. If India would not be in finals due to Sri Lanka winning over Australia , is a different ball game but at least the crucial match should have been played more intensely than what it has turned out to be , in the first half, with Indian bowlers giving up in front of Sri Lanka. Only miracles can make India score 320 in 40 overs as the top-order, top-class batsmen have been regularly disappointing. Be it Sehwag, who is more interested in keeping his dare-devil image intact by hitting the oddest ball in the first few overs or the Master Blaster, who somehow never managed to shut-up the critics so far, in the series. Gautam Gambhir being a little consistent is not promising always and Raina and Sharma have been disastrous since the very beginning of the series. Ravindra Jadeja is also not that promising and captain Dhoni alone cannot score the huge score when mostly he keeps busy blaming either his teammates or the opposition for losses. Not much can be expected out of the bats of Ashwin,Praveen Kumar, Zaheer and Yadav.
No matter what the outcome of the match would be but if India has to win , it has to be in style and well within 40 overs which is very close to impossible given the mindset of Team India which holds the badge of World-Cup Champion. All they have shown so far as world champions, is ego and attitude but the game has drowned since the World-Cup. Never did our Team India, dominate the World Cricket, like once the Australians did for a decade and it is merely a badge of World – Champions which is keeping fans hope for their Team India.
Within few hours the facts would be in hand for Indian supporters and all we would be left with is either a hope that India reaches Commonwealth finals or a hope that India would make a come back in upcoming Asia Cup(if India gets out of the tournament). Hope for a better tournament ahead-Is that not what we have been doing since ages ? Cricket considered a religion in itself makes the ‘ Top Cricket 11 ‘ , millionaires and celebrities and in return what the cricket fans get is mostly disappointment. Better is the India Hockey team, which may not have more than 10 percent of country support and yet managed to qualify for Olympics, after 8 years.
Is Sehwag Dhoni rift reason for Team India Loss ?
While the BCCI keeps denying the rift between Team India’s Captain MS Dhoni and Vice-Captain , Virender Sehwag, the ongoing Commonwealth Series has exposed their discontent in the media. Captain’s statment about seniors needed to be more active on field to his rotation policy has all been debated by Sehwag. BCCI terming it as media speculation and terming it as minor difference of opinion may not help Team India’s overall performance.
BCCI vice president Rajiv Shukla when questioned, said, “I don’t think there is any rift within the team. It’s media speculation. We have not asked for any report on this from Australia.”
Recent news confirms that BCCI chief Srinivasan had a word with Team manager asking him about the matter.
Well, reasons might be any but a team which rarely wins and that too with minor margins and mostly losses and with huge should be more bothered on its Team performance rather than playing the blame game. Dhoni has been heard criticizing seniors quite a number of times but he does not speak about the young blood like Sharma,Raina, Yadav and Ashwin. The question is why does he blame only the seniors ? While he plays his knock almost every other match but equally blames only the seniors, on the media. Are the new kids coming to do net-practise in matches, that they should not be questioned ? Other than Virat Kohli, there has been no young player who is consistent at present. Hope the captain is not being partial!
Moreover, it is the captain’s responsibility to co-ordinate and take out the best of all the players. Rotational policies if applied for seniors why do they not apply for other regular non-performers ? Is it just because they are young ? Is it just because they can jump a little higher or may save 20 odd runs on the field? What about scoring them with the bat or bowling the opponents out ?
At an International level and being a World Cup Winner, a team is expected to be more professional with its approach both on and off the fields. Rather than taking out frustration on team members, the captain and vice-captain should concentrate on improving individual games and overall team performance.
Kapil Dev wants Sachin Tendulkar to retire !
With many others, now stands Kapil Dev,the former Indian captain and the first to make India proud of winning the World Cup of 1983. He wants Sachin to retire at the earliest now. Of the view that he should have rather retired before the 2011 world-cup and at least after that, he feels age factor is taking a toll on the Master Blaster!
Why should not Sachin retire without making 100th century?
While there are continued criticisms faced by Sachin still not retiring and most believe it is his 100th century what he is playing for, one should not forget at the end records do matter. Among many other records which the great batsman has earned the awaited century would surely be the biggest, if at all the critics allow him to continue. Sachin Tendulkar when compared to the young Indian cricketers is not playing that bad. Who in the team is playing great ? Is it Suresh Raina , Jadeja , Rohit Sharma , who ? Sachin is playing lot better than one would have expected out of a man of his age. Critics wanted him to retire 5 years back but he came back and showed his worth. And why should he not think of records ? Although he has been ‘One Man Army’ many a times in the past , winning matches for India, single-handedly , he has never been a reason of India losing. With due respect to the great player Kapil Dev, it should also be noticed that during the ending phase of his career, none of the opponent batsmen ever hesitated scoring boundaries of Kapil’s bowl. In fact he would stand very expensive many a times and yet he did not quit till he broke the record of Richard Hadlee of 433 wickets!
India -Sri Lanka Match Tied- Commonwealth Tri Series – A Review Of Team India’s Performance!
February 14th 2012
Yet another close match between India and Sri Lanka ended in a Tie betwen both the teams . Dhoni facing the last ball of Malinga had to score 4 runs and hit a shot on the off-side which was somehow collected by the fielder there. However, it could not stop Dhoni and Vinay Kumar from taking 3 runs to tie the match.
Is India really playing like World Champions since they won World Cup?
Of the 5 matches played so far in the series 3 were close. India has played 2 matches with Australia and 2 with Sri Lanka so far. The result is 1 win out of 2 matches played with Australia and 1 win and a tie out of 2 matches played with Sri Lanka. The first match with Australia was dominated by Australians while the second match India somehow managed a win, termed close match. With Sri Lanka , the first match won by India was the one India had dominated Sri Lanka throughout and yet they could have finished the match much earlier than how it ended up as. Today’s match was a tie between India and Sri Lanka which was supposed to be a win as Sri Lankans could not score lot of runs and ended up making 236 only. Yet India could not win the match.
Well, not denying that both the opponent are quite strong contenders hence close matches are always expected. However, the question is , has India ever played like World Champion since winning the World Cup? The answer is No. Mostly wins come resulting from Close Matches. Close wins indicate clearly that the opponent was as strong as the winning team. In case of Australian Team which had dominated World Cricket for more than a decade, Loss was rare and close always and Wins were out of dominance throughout the match! Whereas in case of Team India the story is completely different. Even now when India loses it is rarely a close match. They are dominated almost throughout the match. Though there is no denying the present Team India is a strong contender to any One-Day Teams of the world but facts are also that they can easily lose in front of top order Teams of the World Cricket as well.
The Test Series in England and Australia had been devastating snatching Team India’s number one position in Test Cricket. India lost all matches in both the countries. All One-day matches and series were always close wins and never clear dominance. World Cup Winners should at least dominate the other teams for a stretched period of time indicating they deserved to be the winners. In India’s case, it is clear that present Team India is deadly but not consistently deadly. They may be a threat to all other top order world teams but not a continued threat, the way Australia had been, during their tenure of long success. The opponent teams would not mind losing to Australia, given the standard and committment of the team in batting , bowling and fielding and the overall Team Effort. India still lacks that and that is probably a strong reason matches are still thrilling and close , no matter whichever Team , India is playing with. The high-standards which Australian Team has set of being a dominant World Cup Winner and the number One Cricket Team of the world is yet to be broken by our Team India. As a Team India fan, one would love to see their team being an undisputed champion rather than champion of a tournament!
India wins 2nd ODI of Commonwealth Series by 6 wickets , against Sri Lanka!
The Funny Winning Run Scored by India!
India registers its first win in the Commonwealth Tri-Series against Sri Lanka. In the 46th over , bowled by Mathews of Sri Lanka Ashwin hit the winning shot which was ideally going to make him lose his wicket as it was high up in the air, very close to the pitch, towards the off-sdie and had at least two Sri Lankan players beneath it . It was considerably a very easy high-catch for any player. However, there was a twist in the tale as both took similar decision. Malinga decided to leave the ball for Tharanga and vice versa and the ball fell in between while Ashwin and Jadeja completed the winning run. Ashwin could not believe the rescue like everyone watching the match and had a astonished smile on his face. Well, rarely do we get to see these childish follies in International matches. All in all, it was a happy and funny climax of the match for Indian Cricket fans.
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