India lose the home test series 2-1 and shockingly for India Ashwin turns out to be the 3rd highest scorer for India.
Ashwin scored 221 runs in the series more than that of Dhoni’s 191, Kohli’s 188 and Sachin’s 112 runs. Surprisingly Ashwin had the highest batting average among Indian batsmen, he averaged 55.25
Sachin had a dismal series and he could manage just 112 runs at a mere average of 18.66
Now, it needs to be seen can India stage a comeback in the T20’s and ODI’s. The two T20’s will be played at Pune and Mumbai on 20th and 22nd Dec respectively.
With the Indian team facing two successive humiliations at the hand of England first at Mumbai and then at Kolkata; the team is sorely missing the services of “The Wall”!!
Indian team in a jubilant mood after defeating Pakistan in the finals of the the inaugural T20 World Cup for blind. The match was played at Bangalore. India had only lost to Pakistan in the group stage and thrashed Sri Lanka in the semifinal. Pakistan had thrashed England by nine wickets in the semifinals.
In the recent failures of the Indian National Team, this is definitely something to cheer for the Indian cricket fans.
The sorry state of Indian pacers. Zaheer Khan finally shown the doors for the 4th test at Nagpur. He could only manage 4 wickets in the first 3 tests. A shame for the supposedly best Indian pacer !
There has been a lot of controversy on the kind of pitches being prepared in the test series against England. Whether it was Mumbai or Kolkatta pitch, England has humiliated India.
Season of retirements, after Dravid, Punter has now exited the arena gracefully. Personally as a person bleeding blue, I am happy yet disappointed to see only 2 trademark pull shots from the great Aussie who defined aggression in his own way. Who can imagine a person winning over 100 test matches? Ponting has been on the winning side in 108 matches out of the 168 matches he has played so far. His overall average is 51.85, but he averages close to 60 in the matches won by Australia. He is second only to Sachin Tendulkar in the number of runs accumulated. That being said it brings the next question: When will Sachin Tendulkar retire?
Crossing my heart I confirm that I am writing this article not as an adherent Tendulkar fan but as a normal person. Sachin Tendulkar started his career way back in 1989 when not many who are calling for his retirement could even hold a broomstick properly leave alone a cricket bat. There were instances in the past where the great man’s career was thought to be over. During one of the England tour he was booed by his own home supporters. Just imagine who hard it is to hurt a person who has given it all for his nation. The amount of pride he takes in playing for his country was evident in the way he celebrated his 100th international ton pointing to the national flag.
I would like to draw an analogy to one of my most favorite sportsman from another sport ‘Pete Sampras’. After clinching his record 7th Wimbledon the man did not win a trophy for more than 2 years. His supporters stuck with him and for them he won the US Open and faded away silently. I expect nothing less than that from a man who is GOD to people belonging to the religion of Cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar hoisted by Indian team – WC 2011 victory
Brain Lara once said he doubts whether he would be able to carry the pressure of expectations from more than million (crossed billion now :P) people back home like Sachin has done over the years. Sir Don Bradman not only agreed that his batting style matched with Tendulkar but also not sure whether he could have handled the amount of cricket being played these days to maintain such a high average. These great words from legends show the amount of respect the Little Champion from India deserves.
Just imagine the kind of pressure he is usually subjected to? Every action he does is being brought under the microscope whether it is his reaction to getting out or selling his Ferrari. He has sacrificed his personal life altogether. What he has done to this nation was rightly put by Kohli after the WC triumph:
“He carried the nation for so long on his shoulders and now it is time for us to carry him on our shoulders.”
If he is a burden for you guys (critics), leave the man on the ground, the great man will rise again like a phoenix, like a horse, for me he is not dead to be reborn, he shall rise again and reach his end. The horse knows when to stop and his LEG know which is END. Leave the LEGEND alone.
The article has been contributed by a die hard Sachin fan – Karthic Srinivaas
The correct answer of the quiz is the famous cricket umpire S. Venkataraghavan. Congratulations to all those who got the correct answer.
He played test cricket for the Indian cricket team, and later became an Umpire on the elite International Cricket Council (ICC) Test panel. He was a fearsome off spinner and took 156 wickets in the 57 tests he played in his career.
He officiated on-field in 73 Test matches and 52 One-day Internationals during his career. He was awarded with ‘Padma Shri’ award in 2003. Here is a latest pic of the legend:
Indian team was announced today for the 3rd test match at Kolkata among a lot of speculations. There were many talks if Bhajji should be dropped, Irfan Pathan given a chance? But team India decided to pick the same team which had lost by 10 wickets in Mumbai.
Is will be interesting to see if India plays all the 3 spinners or Dinda or Ishant get to play in place of Bhajji. Dinda has been in good form recently. He might be given a chance in front of his home ground, but will he be effective? CricBol.com had carried out a poll on Facebook taking people’s opinion if Bhajji should be dropped from the squad. 19 people out of the 25 people people who voted wanted Bhajji to be dropped from the team!
Poll results ‘whether Bhajji should be dropped’
Another major thing is that Dhoni has again asked for a spinning track even after the mauling in Mumbai. Retaining the same team is definitely a bold move from Dhoni. But the most interesting thing is that whether he persists with 3 spinners in the crucial Kolkata test? Only time will tell…..
