Tag Archives: Amit Mishra

May16

Selectors hurl a googly again

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The Indian team for the ODI/T20 leg of the West Indies tour was announced last Friday. Even though the team was on the expected lines, as it has been a routine these days with our selection committee we do have one surprising selection. In the world cup it was Piyush Chawla and now it is Wriddhimaan Saha. While everyone was expecting a call up for Ambati Rayudu who also is a wicketkeeper, the selectors once again surprised one and all with their choice. There was no doubt that Parthiv was going to be the first keeper but his deputy was the one in question.

Saha probably is a very good keeper but I haven’t seen him do anything special in the domestic level or in the IPL to warrant a place ahead of Dinesh Kartik or Ambati Rayudu. Rayudu who is a decent wicketkeeper and an excellent attacking batsman in the top and middle order and would feel extremely disappointed on being left out. This again is a very controversial selection by the Indian selection committee and it will be interesting to see how Ghambir and the team management will utilize Saha on this tour. I hope that he will have a better time on this tour than what Chawla had in the world cup

The rest of the team though was on expected lines. With the absence of Dhoni and Sehwag, Ghambir has been appointed as the captain for the ODI/T20 leg. Rohit Sharma and Badrinath make the team, based on their excellent domestic season and IPL performances. Ishant Sharma makes a comeback to the team and so does Praveen kumar who missed out from the World Cup due to injury. Vinay Kumar also makes a comeback to the team on the basis of good consistent performances at the domestic level. Munaf Patel retains his position in the squad after some wonderful performances in the shorter format of the game over the past few months. The selectors have gone with three spinners, Mishra, Ashwin and Harbajan. Mishra has been rewarded for having bowled brilliantly in the IPL and for probably being the best leg spinner in the country at the moment. Ashwin and Bajji made the squad as expected.

Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan make the rest of the squad. It’s overall a good team and the selectors have played it safe this time. They probably did not want to repeat the mistake of the Zimbabwe tri-series in 2010. The selectors also warded off the temptation of picking the young Rahul Sharma, who is having a brilliant IPL this year. He probably needs more time at the domestic level. It’s nice to see that the selectors have not taken the IPL performances entirely for the team selection and have awarded consistent performers in the domestic arena too. Apart from that one controversial selection, I feel that the selectors have done a great job in picking a good squad with fine balance. I hope that the young players under Ghambir do well and emerge victorious in this campaign.

Team for the ODI and T20:

Gautam Gambhir (captain), Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar, Yusuf Pathan, Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha (wk).

Sep21

Bowling woes diminishes India’s chances in Champions trophy

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Rahul Dravid castled by Jeetan patel in India's warm up game against NZ

Rahul Dravid castled by Jeetan patel in India's warm up game against NZ (Courtesy Cricinfo)

Captain MS. Dhoni will have a lots to think about between now and Saturday when India take on a buoyant Pakistan team in the first match of the ICC Champions trophy. India played NZ in their only warm up match before the tournament started and were badly beaten by 101 runs. The problem for India was again the bowling. India for sure has one of the worst bowling line up among the top 7 teams (excluding WI) and it’s going to certainly diminish their chances of winning the Champions Trophy.

Ishant, RP and Praveen yesterday were pretty ordinary and went for more than 7 an over. Only Mishra, Yusuf and Raina were economical which again puts the Indian captain under lots of pressure. Spinners being the best bowlers might force the captain to go with Mishra and Bajji in the lineup compromising a fast bowler. Praveen might be shown the door after yesterday’s performance but the rest aren’t that great either.

Ishant Sharma has been really poor over the past year and has consistently gone over 6 runs per over. He has never been able to restrict the runs or take wickets. Nehra after his comeback had a good WI series and bowled well in patches but again lacks consistency to lead the pace attack. RP Singh has just made a comeback after injury and is yet to regain his pace and swing. So India has to totally rely on Bajji and the part-timers to restrict the run flow if they decide against 2 spinners.

The batting also seems a little bit rusty but expecting them to chase 300 every time is expecting too much. The Indian batting is strong but they can collapse once in a while like they did yesterday. Yeah agreed that Sachin wasn’t playing but to rely on just one player is taking the team back by 10 years. The news from the team management is that Ghambir isn’t 100% fit, which is a shock as he has been picked in the squad. I don’t know why you would pick a player for an important trophy if he not 100% fit.

I think that they have to think about Yusuf Pathan’s position in the team too. He hasn’t done anything significant with the bat in the 50 over game and has bowled okay in the chances he has been provided. I guess Irfan will be a better all rounder for India in limited overs format. Looking at the current scenario the Indian team is long way away from being the number 1 team in the world. Probably in the current scenario we are good enough to be number 3 team but unless we improve our bowling we can’t claim to be the world’s best.

As far as the champion’s trophy goes, India will be hard pressed to beat Pakistan and Australia who have a good batting lineup and much better bowling lineup than India. I will not be surprised if we don’t make it to the semis. It all depends on how our batsmen play against the Aussie and the Pakistani bowlers.

Aug17

Selection conundrum

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Dravid makes a surprise comeback to the Indian ODI squad after a two year hiatus

Dravid makes a surprise comeback to the Indian ODI squad after a two year hiatus

The team for the Tri-Series in Sri Lanka and Champions trophy has been announced and there are quite a few surprises in the final 15. First let’s concentrate on the omissions. Sehwag is yet to recover from the injury he sustained in the IPL, so he is the most high profile absentee from the squad. Rohit Sharma has been shown the door after some mediocre performances over the past year. Ravindra Jadeja also doesn’t find a spot in the team after his indifferent performance in the World T20.

The major disappointment was the non inclusion of Virat Kohli. I don’t understand the reason for the same from the selectors. He hasn’t played a single ODI for India since 2008 series against the Sri Lankans where he was very consistent and handled the M & M threat with competence. Kohli’s brilliant performance in the Emerging players tournament recently concluded in Australia has not had an effect on the selectors it seems. I hope that they don’t keep wasting a talent and give him a chance pretty soon.

Badrinath and Vijay have been dropped from the squad and I don’t know why. I guess probably an effect of the comments from Yusuf when the 30 probables were announced. Except for Dinesh Karthik, there are no Chennaites in the squad, should please Yusuf Pathan now. Badri again is being given a hard time by the selectors and there is no reason for the same. Vijay at least I agree is more suited to the longer format. Badri played a crucial knock in the 2008 series against the SL to steer India home and it just required 2 failures for the selectors to discard him. Rohit Sharma though had been playing in the squad for the past year and a half on one match winning innings in Australia. I guess Yusuf should realize where the bias is. I just hope that Badri doesn’t become another Sharath or Sriram.

Amit Mishra has been given a go after his great performance in the Emerging players trophy and suddenly Ojha doesn’t find a place in the squad. Ojha has done nothing wrong till date and has been performing brilliantly whenever he has played for the team and it’s unfortunate that the selectors are not consistent with his selection. Ojha will be disappointed and rightly so. The biggest surprise was the inclusion of Rahul Dravid in the ODI squad. He is making a comeback after a two year hiatus and it is a huge surprise.

Dravid’s comeback was always on the cards after the Indian youngsters struggled against short pitched bowling in the recently concluded World T20. This might provide the team with necessary solidity in the absence of Sehwag but I think it’s not the right move by the selectors. It’s like we took 5 steps forward in the past couple of years and this selection has pulled us two steps back. When Dhoni requested an all youth team couple of years back, everyone blasted him but after seeing the results people started backing the young team. Getting Virat Kohli in the team would have been much wiser decision I feel.

Rahul is a great player and does not need to prove anything regarding his credentials as an ODI player and I am sure he will do well. The rest of the team is almost same as the one which went to the Caribbean couple of months back. The team travels to SL to play a Tri-Series, with the third team being NZ before flying to SA to participate in the Champion’s trophy.

Let’s hope that we win both the series coming our way in the next couple of months.

Aug3

Kholi and Badri should be in the Indian team

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Virat Kohli deserves an extended run in the Indian ODI squad

Virat Kohli deserves an extended run in the Indian ODI squad

It was a fantastic performance from the Indian Emerging players as they beat the SA Emerging players in Australia to claim the trophy yesterday. The South African team was unbeaten till the finals and unfortunately they chocked like their National squad. For India though this was a sweet victory and players like Badrinath, Virat Kohli, Rahane, Tyagi and Mishra did very well during the course of the tournament.

Virat Kohli I guess has further proven his case as a promising player for India for the future. He should be playing in the Indian team often. He played brilliantly against M & M during India’s one-day series win against the SL last year and has not played in the X1 since. Rohit Sharma has been preferred over him in the middle order. I guess now is the time to give him a look in.

Rohit Sharma has had his chances and has consistently underperformed. During the recent WI tour he was completely out of place and did not score any runs. Rohit Sharma has been in the team since his 66 in the finals against the Aussies last year but since then he has struggled at the International level. Having talent alone shouldn’t guarantee a spot for anyone in the team.

Badrinath again is one of the players who have not got enough chances. He had couple of bad matches and he was discarded. That’s the reason I was unable to comprehend what Yusuf Pathan was saying about the squad being Chennai heavy. Chennai has just 3 players in the reckoning, Vijay, Badri and Karthik and two of them never get a chance in the X1. The underperforming players like Rohit and Irfan have got more chances than the 3 I have mentioned above.

Kohli with his brilliant performance in the Emerging players trophy has reminded the selectors that he is one of the best youngsters we have in the domestic set up. Kohli in alien conditions has scored over 400 runs at a healthy average of 50 with 2 hundreds, one of them coming in the finals. Even though Badrinath doesn’t have a great stat to boost his claim in this series, he did have some important knocks and has been performing consistently for Tamil Nadu. I hope that he does not become one of the other Tamil Nadu players before him who retired with lots of promise without getting a look in.

The other player to impress was Rahane who had a brilliant series too, finishing with the second highest run tally behind Kohli. Sudeep Tyagi ended up with most wickets in the series and Amit Mishra had a good series too. I hope that the selectors are taking a look at these performances. The media coverage has been really poor for this series considering that the national team hasn’t been playing over the past month or so.

Anyways great effort by the Indian probable’s and hopefully Kohli and Badri get their due in the coming months.

Dec8

England return as India prepare for the test series

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Dhoni at the practice session

Dhoni at the practice session

The English team have decided to comeback to India to play the 2 test series after the Mumbai blasts. The team had left home following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai after a 5-0 one-day drubbing. Currently the English team is practicing at Abu Dabi before they fly to Chennai to play their first test. The Indian team for the test series has been announced and Yuvraj makes a comeback after the disastrous Australian tour earlier this year. Yuvraj is all set to grab the vacant spot in the Indian middle order after the retirement of Sourav Ganguly. The rest of the squad will remain the same with Sehwag and Gambhir at the top of the order.

Zaheer and Ishant will take the new ball with Harbajan and Amit Mishra  managing the spin department at least for the first test in Chennai. I would put the Indians as the favorites in this two test series going by the recent form and the strength of the squads. England just have two world class performers and would rely heavily on their captain Kevin Pieterson and Andrew Flintoff to have a chance in this series.

This series is very important for cricket in India after the Mumbai blasts. A safe series would go a long way in ressurrecting India’s image among the western countries who are not that keen travelling to the sub-continent. Its funny though to see the entire western community supporting India after the attacks which shows how much impact money can have on cricket and mentality of the respective boards and players. I am sure 10 years ago the same England team would not have returned to India after a terrorist attack of such magnitude. Coming to India is advantageous for the players of the English team as it enhances their chances to be a part of the second edition of IPL.

Whatever may be the reason for the England team’s return its great for Indian cricket. I sincerely hope that this series would be a hard fought one and will be remembered for the performances on the field.

Nov4

India hang on as Kumble retires

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Team mates carry Kumble on their shoulder after the champion bowler announced his retirement from test cricket

Team mates carry Kumble on their shoulder after the champion bowler announced his retirement from test cricket

The third test ended in dull draw after the bowlers from both the teams were unable to force a result. The Indian team after scoring 613 in their first innings dropped too many catches to let Australia off the hook to allow them to reach 577 in reply. Once that happened it was almost sure that this test would head for a draw and it did. The Indians were guilty of dropping too many chances on a pitch which was offering slow turn to the spinners. Sehwag was India’s most successful bowler in the Australian first innings taking 5 wickets.

The Indian batting though held on for a draw on the 5th day as the Australians had an outside chance of winning the test match. The Indian batsmen scored freely against an inconsistant Australian bowling in the first innings to set up the game in favor of the hosts. The bowlers bowled with lot of heart on a pitch which offered very little assistance. If only the fielders had held on to few of the chances created by their bowlers, probably we could have eneded up with a closer result. Ishant and Zaheer were good once again without luck. Anil was injured early in the Australian first innings after bowling 9 ineffective overs but Mishra troubled the Australians with his variations.

Sehwag was called upon to replace Anil, who had to leave the field with an injured thumb and used the conditions the best among all the bowlers on view. He accounted for 3 of the 4 Australian wickets to fall on the third day. Micheal Clarke, hayden and Ponting made valuable contributions to propel Australia to 577 in their first innings. Even though the test match ended in a draw it will always be remembered for being the last one played by one of the greatest cricketers India have ever produced. Anil Kumble surprised one and all by his sudden decision to quit on the 5th day of the test match. Kumble later said that the injury prompted him to take the decision.

Kumble had been subjected to media pressure after Amit Mishra’s successful debut in the Mohali test and no one can deny that it played a small part in his decision to retire. Kumble’s career spanned for over 16 years and he became the highest wicket taker for India overtaking Kapil’s tally of 434. Anil now finishes with 619 wickets which is the all time third highest tally in test cricket behind Shane Warne and Muralitharan. Kumble was a fierce competitor on the cricket field and a soft spoken induvidual off it.

India for sure will miss this great legend but as the old saying goes “Every good thing must come to an end”. I wish Kumble all the best for the future and thank him for providing us with lots of moments to cheer during his illustrious career. Good Bye to India’s greatest match winner.

Oct27

Kumble all set to replace Mishra for Delhi test

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Kumble Harbajan and Mishra during practice sessions

Kumble Harbajan and Mishra during practice sessions

The Indian coach has made it clear that Kumble will play in Delhi if he is fit. That puts an end to all speculations involving the team selection for the next test. India is all set to retain the same squad which won in Mohali with just Kumble replacing Mishra being the only change. Anil Kumble will be captaining the Indian side in Delhi where the Indians would be hoping to seal the series.

The Australians face an uphill task of keeping this series alive as the Indians have an impressive record at the Ferozshah Kotla ground. India havent lost a test match in 21 years at this ground. There has been some reports in the media that few former cricketers feel that Mishra needs to be played in the place of VVS Laxman in the team. This is a completely ridiculous call from the former players as VVS Laxman is a batsmen with a proven record against the Aussies.

Amit Mishra had a great debut game but playing five bowlers has seldom worked in India. I guess India would be better of with four bowlers as the fifth bowler is always underbowled in a test match. well the Selections apart this series is heating up with the comments from Gilchrist against Sachin and with the pressure put by the Australian media on its players. The Australian team would quickly want to erase the embarassing defeat they faced in Mohali from their memories and would like to level the series in Delhi.

All in all we can expect another great game of cricket and hopefully the Indians can wrap up the series with another clinical performance.

Oct24

India crush Aussies to go one up

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Zaheer Cleans up Brad Haddin on the 5th morning

Zaheer Cleans up Brad Haddin on the 5th morning

India crushed the world champions to win the second test and go one up in the series. The Indians will be really pleased with the win as this was a total team performance and was not achieved on a typical dust bowl. Almost everyone in the team contributed to the win with Dhoni brilliantly leading from the front. Dhoni had temporarily taken the responsibility of captaining the team in the absence of injured Kumble and proved that he is ready to take over the reigns when the great leggie steps down.

The Indians dominated the proceeding starting with the toss on the first day. A great start by the openers, fantastic century by Ganguly, good batting from Sachin and Dhoni made sure that India got to a competetive 469 in the first innings. Sachin and Sourav both reached singnificant landmarks during their respective knocks in the Indian first innings as Sachin became the higest run getter in tests and Sourav passed 7000 test runs.

The Indian bowlers complemented their batsmen splendidly by bowling out the Australians for 268 giving a lead of 201 runs. Zaheer and Ishant were impressive at the start with Mishra and Harbajan running through the middle and lower order. Amit Mishra had a fantastic start to test cricket grabbing 5 wickets on debut. He finished with 7 wickets in the match and seemed ready to take over the baton from Kumble whenever he decides to call it a day.

The Australians chasing an impossible 516 for a victory after yet another great batting display by the Indians in the second innings collapsed to a dismal 195 to hand a 320 run victory to the host. Ishant and Zaheer again among the wickets with Harbajan and Mishra combining well again in the second essay. Australians though will be really dissapointed with their performance as none of their top order batsmen were able to stay long enough to string a partnership and their bowlers were clueless against the aggressive Indian batsmen.

All in all it was a excellent display by the Indians to go one up in the series. It seems like Kumble will be back in the third test which means that Mishra would not be playing. Mishra has taken a gaint step towards the Indian test team with his performance which will stand him in good state once Kumble decides to hang his boots.

Even though the Indians have handed the Aussies their largest defeat in over a decade, they should not let complacency to set into their games. The Australians are still the number one team and it requires just one good innings or one good spell to reverse the situation for the visitors. Indians should continue their same ruthless approach in Delhi too and make sure that the series is won when the reach Kanpur for the final game.