India vs England - 4th Test Match

England had started well in first 2 days - winning the toss, scoring 400 runs in the first innings but the selection of the team has surprised many of us. They have selected 4 seam bowlers & only 2 spinners in the wicket where in 2012, spinners took 19 wickets! Was it a gut feeling of the captain or the management?  

This speaks volumes about the character of this Indian side. They know their strengths well & have executed their plans accordingly with grit & determination. Scoreboard pressure always play an important role in such wickets more. There was a bit of extra bounce & Indian batters had to adjust it quickly. And they did this with ease. England has felt that they are short of an extra spinner since when Vijay & Pujara had started playing after tea in the second day. 

India didn't start their third day well as Pujara got out in the very second ball of the day. Then Kohli came in. And he played a gem of an innings. Kohli means business. And it seems he has spread the virus of aggression, grit, determination & winning mentality among his team members. After Vijay's spectacular innings, suddenly India lost 4 more quick wickets. And they were 40 runs behind when Jayant came into bat. That was the time when England missed the opportunity. Both Virat & Jayant played flamboyantly except couple of miss chances. And on 4th day, with 51 runs lead, India thought of getting whatever they can which will eventually help them to score less in the 4th innings. But as England had only 2 spinners, both Rashid & Moeen were tired of their long spells & they had started bowling loose balls more often which had helped Virat & Jayant to score runs in a faster pace. As a result, India got a lead of huge 231!! Virat scored his double ton- 3rd as a captain. Jayant scored his maiden test hundred. He wouldn't had been expected anything better than scoring this at Wankhede. It was a Sunday & there was a huge crowd to cheer them.  

It was important for England to show positive intent to approach their innings now. But the debutant Keaton Jennings who scored his maiden 100 in the first day has got out in the very 2nd ball of the innings. Bhuvi took the only wicket among the fast bowlers of India in both the innings. Many of us thought that Cook & Root will show the determination to put a price on their wickets. They started well but Virat brought his favorite horses soon. Both Ashwin & Jadeja had started putting pressure from both the ends. And before tea, England lost their 3 important wickets with 49 runs on board. 

During tea, many commentators had started saying that this test is going to finish within 4 days. But Root & Bairstow has played some aggressive shots & they didn't have the option either. They were not well prepared to defense those good balls. It was very clear that if India can get rid of 1 or 2 wickets, rest all will fall soon. And that happened. England were 180/4 & they finished their 2nd innings at 195!! Ashwin took all those last 6 wickets & got 12 in the match.

The difference was in the approach. After scoring 400 in the 1st innings & loosing the game by an iinigs & 36 runs is very rare. And that says that there is something wrong which England is doing at the moment. Yes, they didn't have the world class spinners like Ashwin & Jadeja but as a cricket lover, we would have been happy to see the English cricketers have put a price to their wickets. 

In 2012, England spinners took 19 wickets & this time it is Indian spinners!! So 19 is an important number at Wankhede. And we have to speak about the crowd. BCCI has scheduled the games wisely. The holidays have allowed the passionate spectators to come to the ground to watch their favorite players play. It was a great visual treat & good for test cricket.

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Another brilliant left handed opener - Keaton Jennings

He was a South African in the year 2011, played for South African U-19. His father Ray Jennings is a former South African cricketer & current head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB) in  IPL. But once he has moved to England in April'2012, he became an English citizen after staying four years in England. And in four years time, with his some brilliant performances, he got his England cap, didn't miss the opportunity to show his caliber after Hasseb Hammed got injured. 

Keaton Jennings, 24, got this opportunity when English Lions are playing in the UAE & Keaton was the captaining the side. He joined the group on Monday & on Thursday, on his debut test match, he scored a brilliant hundred!! It will remind you the story of Alastair Cook, who joined the England side just 48 hours before the start of the first test match in Rajkot in 2006 & scored a hundred! Keaton was the 11th partner of Cook since Andrew Strauss retired 4 years ago. 

And this is an amazing start for Keaton. England is 0-2 down in the series & struggling. People are questioning the way they are approaching & constructing the innings. They are very defensive in their approach since the second test at Vizag. 

 Mumbai is a lucky ground for England. They won in 2006 & 2012. So this time also at Mumbai, they have shown a positive grit & intent. It was very evident the way Cook has approached his innings. And his partner, Keaton Jennings has played beautifully, his defense was very tight, was never in a hurry, never took any risk & was rotating the strike well. 

When Keaton started first, he was a bit late to the fast bowlers & Umesh almost had got his wicket. Had Karun Nair caught him on zero, we had to wait for some more time to watch this beautiful batsman. His intention was clear. He was waiting for the odd loose balls to punish. He never allowed a bowler to dominate him. The way he played against the spinners, was a treat to watch. He always played the ground shots, quite a few of them were sweeps. There was odd bounces in the Wankhede wicket, later Bairstow got out to sweep off Ashwin, couldn't play it down because of the bounce. But Keaton was brilliant, very elegant. He has gelled with the team well & was calm in his approach. With the help of his brilliant hundred, England has got the upper hand in this test match at the end of day-1, in Mumbai, their favorite ground.

I am now waiting for the Song which Barmy Army will compose & sing for him when he comes out to bat in the second innings.

Another fast bowler is moving ahead

The election season is ahead in the most populated state in the country. And this is now a fashion to poach a cricketer to join politics. We have seen Sreeshant some days back at Kerala, Sidhu pajji has recently announced a new political party, although he is veteran as he is in the political arena for quite some times.

This time another promising swing bowler from Meerut who has has started very promisingly & bowled brilliantly - Praveen Kumar has swung it big this time as he has joined Samajwadi Party(a regional political party in Uttar Pradesh) today.

But this time, the news about Praveen's new assignment is quite a bit shocking. He has bowled well in the recently concluded IPL where he was one of the very important member of Gujrat Lions. And he has bowled well in the domestic tournaments too. But all went in vain. He never got a call back from Indian selector's after that shoulder injury of 2011. Sreeshant had replaced him in the World Cup of 2011 which India won.

Praveen Kumar will be remembered for his swing bowling & his death bowling was very critical too. During the good days, he was Dhoni's go-to-man & in some games, we had seen him bowling long spells. His heroics of 2008 VB series in Australia was very impressive too. Still he is India's one of the best economical bowlers. A bowler of his stature should have played more. He has played only 6 Test matches, 68 ODIs & 10 T20s for India. His example also shows that still Indian selectors want to hear 'yes sir' from players. Only statistics doesn't speak for getting selected in Indian team.

Indian selectors Should have opened their eyes more widely as Praveen Kumar was & is very vividly visible because of his incredible performances in domestic tournaments.

Apathy of Indian pace bowlers

There is always a concern about the pace attack of 'Men in blue' & this gets more exposed when India plays in the pace friendly decks of England, Australia, South Africa & New-Zealand. It is not like that India never produced quality fast bowlers. They come into the team with fierce actions & great statistics. But soon after some matches, their average pace came down & many a times, they faded away.

India has produced Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Varun Aroon, Umesh Yadav, VRV Singh, Md. Shami. Many of them were, are match winners. Hope you remember that spell of Ishant against Ricky Ponting in an Australian wicket in 2008. He had speed, he had aggression. But soon after he was injured & his speed came down. Although he is still one of the spearhead of Indian attack now. Same story goes with Munaf who took seven wickets in his debut test against England. But now? Remember Irfan Pathan? Many were speaking that India has got a Wasim Akram in him. Wasim was also very positive about him, started his career with a bang, took a test hattrick. Then slowly he has disappeared. How many fast bowlers India has changed in last 2-3 years time? 

The neighboring country Pakistan is producing one after another fast bowlers & they have a tradition of that. Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoib Akhtar & these days Md. Amir, Juniad Khan - all are classy fast bowlers. Is this more about the environment where a person born? May be, yes. In Pakistan, they play more with tennis balls where you can't do much with the technique. Only the pace can help to beat the batsman. 

Kapil Dev was the highest test wicket takers for a long time.But whenever there is a discussion among the parents, they want to make their children Sachin, Saurav, Virat & very few will speak about Kapil Dev or Glenn McGrath or a Brett Lee or Wasim Akram. In India, children can imagine about becoming a great batsman. This is a phobia. And the obvious reason is the glamour around a batsman is more than of a bowler in India. Batsman is like a national obsession in our country. Every child gets inspiration to become a batsman. Because he/she is visualizing the glamour quotient of a batsman in our country. I have heard people of speaking about facility. But I don't think if we really provide high class facility also, great bowlers will born. This is more about the mindset, the environment. 

And another very important factor is the wicket. Indian wickets are more batting friendly. And the fans want that too. They want to see more 4s & 6s. This is entertainment. How many of us really want to see a game where a bowler is continuously bowling great swings & troubling the batsmen? 

Need of the hour is a long term plan. BCCI is the richest cricket body in the World. They have to identify the raw talent at a very early age. They have to bring these kids under one roof, have to prepare them, inspire them to become a great pacer. Domestic tournament wickets should be a bit more bowler friendly. Hard bouncy tracks should be prepared. Then definitely things will change & India will also see great pacers who will be bowling fast, swing the ball in both ways & in no time bowlers also will help us to win matches more frequently.   

Soft spoken guys outperform - Ravichandran Ashwin's another feat

The son-in-law of superstar Rajnikanth has achieved something which many big names in the world couldn't do - that too in less than 5 years after debut for India in Test cricket. Sachin, Sehwag, Saurav - name as many greats you remember, almost all of them has taken longer time to achieve this feat. 

This all-rounder has received his 6th Man of the Series(MoS) award. And this is at the completion of 13 series & 36 test matches!! In the recent test series at Caribbean, he has scored 235 runs & took 17 wickets. The important innings in this test series was his partnership with Wriddhiman Saha when India lost their top order in the first innings of third test with just 100 odd runs in the board, which could have been changed the scenario of the game & series as West Indies were confident after a great display with bat in the last day of the second test match when they had saved the game. 

Very interestingly he scored all his four centuries against West Indies only!! In this test series he has become the first Indian to score two test hundreds & scalped two five wicket hauls! A great experimenter with the ball, off late is becoming a better batsman day by day which will give Anil Kumble & Indian think tank a chance to play with one extra bowler if needed depending on the wicket conditions. Many critics said that Indian spinners don't get wickets overseas. Earlier this happened with Kumble too. But this performance will keep their mouth shut. 

Although the fourth test was finished almost without playing & Pakistan went to the top of the Test match ranking table after a splendid performance in England this Summer. Still India will cherish this series win in the Caribbean soil. And India has got another good batsman - Wriddhiman Saha who scored an important Test hundred too. Now let us all wait for the T20s in Florida.

Anil Kumble - New team India Coach

So finally the selection committee comprising of Sachin, Saurav & Laxman has chosen the new team India coach for next one year - the name is Anil Kumble. Until Kumble had applied for the coveted job, it was almost sure that Ravi Shastri will get that high profile post. But once, Kumble had come into the picture, the equation has changed. An Engineer has engineered his presentation in such a way that the legendary selectors were happy to nominate him. He has mentioned that the interview was 'nerve wrecking' & the blue print of Indian cricket was great to present in-front of his colleagues. A legend during his era is known for his work ethic & discipline which he will inculcate among the youngsters & this will surely help team India in the long run. Entire cricketing fraternity is very happy to see Kumble as the coach.

Rather than playing competitive cricket, Kumble will also inculcate the 'Indianness' among them - mutual respect, trust. And during the 5 days training at Bangalore prior to the travel to the Caribbean, he is a happy man as the young folks have accepted him & accepted his ideas with openness.

Team India under John Wright had brought laurels for this cricket frenzy nation & Kumble was a key member during that period. After that also, Kumble has worked with Mr. Wright during IPL stints for Mumbai Indians. So he will surely bring some key positive influences of  John Wright. He has understood the philosophy of a cricket coach well. And so he has categorically mentioned that he wants to be an enabler for things to happen good for team India. His approach to the players will be good to watch for as he wants to create the more leaders.

The team under him has flown to West Indies. Now as a cricket lover, you shouldn't forget the day when Kumble had bowled 14 consecutive overs with broken jaw at Antigua & dismissed legendary Brian Lara!!

India is going to play a lot many test matches this season along with ODIs & T20s.He feels that this is the best time to get this job as he also can run along with the young lads of the team. Hope his work ethic, discipline & passion brings the best out of each & every player of men in Blue & his legendary tale should continue in years to come.

Pink ball day night test cricket at Eden Gardens!!

Eden Garden is going to host the first ever day-night four days test cricket match at Eden Gardens from 18-21st June'2016. The normal local club cricket match is now the talk of the city. And there is an obvious reason for that. The match will be played with Pink Kookaburra ball - first ever to be played in India under the lights. There is a lot of noise about this game in the 'city of Joy'.Pictures are getting shared among the cricket fans on different social media platforms & fans across the country in watching such posts & they are showing real interest about the game. The another obvious reason is there will be live telecast of the match in Star Sports 2 & Star Sports HD2! CAB president & former Team India captain has done this miracle. Brand Saurav Ganguly is just amazing.  Such enthusiasm among the cricket fans was never seen before for a club cricket match in India. And this is probably going to be the first club cricket match which is going to be broadcasted live by such a big prominent sports channel. Harsha Bhogle, VVS Laxman, Dean Jones will be the commentators for the game! And if you are at Kolkata, you should visit Eden Gardens - tickets are at free of cost! There is a talk going on in the cricket fraternity that Eden Garden is going to host the first ever International day-night Test match with the pink kookaburra ball sometime later in the year between India & New Zealand. 

The game will be played between two very good sides among the cricket clubs in the city- Mohunbagan vs Bhawanipore. Both of the sides have some good players who are consistently performing well for their respective clubs. Cricketers of both the teams are very excited & hope they will not disappoint their fans. This will be the beginning of new era in Bengal cricket. 

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Jasprit Bumrah - a new sensation for India

India has a history of producing great batsmen in world cricket. And some quality spinners too. But do you remember any great fast bowlers before 2000 rather than Kapil Dev & Javagal Srinath? There can be lot of debates on this but honestly, the bowlers who consistently performed well for the team- not many. New Indian cricket team in the new millennium has witnessed some great promising passionate bunch of bowlers - Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Md. Shami are very few among them. But who is consistent among them?

Isn't it quite a bit easy to get picked in the Indian Cricket team if you are a pacer & perform continuously well in one domestic season?  If you look into the data, it shows that the shelf life of fast bowlers in India is very less. Since 2004, 52 of Indian cricketers have made their debuts, 25 out of them were fast bowlers! 

Jasprit Bumrah has made his debut for India in the month of January against the Aussies in Australia. And he is not a unknown cricketer though. He made his debut for Mumbai Indians in IPL'2013. And if you remember his first match, he took 3 wickets for 32 runs in 4 overs after conceding 3 fours by Virat Kohli in his first 4 deliveries. It was good for him that John Wright had spotted him in a talent hunt & for Bumrah to get picked in the star studded Mumbai Indians was great when he never played for his own state Gujrat in Ranji Trophy or in any 50-over match earlier. He might not have ever thought of sharing the new bowl with Ashish Nehra who made his debut for India long back in 1999. And this is the fun of this great game of cricket. 

A different bowling action. Match against Aus-A in 2014

India was in search of quality death bowlers. And Bumrah has just filled that hollow gap. His ability to bowl consistent yorkers in the death overs has helped the team. If you are a bowler, it is expected that you will bowl some rare yorkers in a match. But to bowl consistent yorkers is something when you should have lot of control in your bowling. And of-course this requires lot of practice. Sharing the same dressing room along with Lasith Malinga might have helped him as well. With a very different bowling action, along with variations have troubled some of the great players in recent time. Dhoni praised about him saying that he is the 'find of Australian tour'. And the maturity he has shown in this small time is commendable. It is important to keep himself fit as many former cricketers are saying that his bowling action is injury prone. 

Fans around the World have got one very interesting fast bowler to watch out for. Hope his shelf life will be far better than many other promising fast bowlers of this great nation.

Raise of Bangladesh Cricket

It was most probably in 1997 when I had started following  the Bangladesh cricket team. Being born & brought-up till my schooling days in Tripura is another reason to follow the Bangladesh as a country. And as many other Bengalis, my ancestors were also from Bangladesh. There was no cable TV at home & the TV channels like BTV used to clearly catch our antenna. Cricket in India is like a religion & it was earlier too. Only difference, there were no T-20s, Dil-scoop, Shehwag’s upper-cut or Dhoni’s helicopter shot. Yeah, these set of cricketers have joined later & the facet of the game has changed a lot now. And the current lot of Bangladesh Tigers are more exposed to these shorter format of the game.

Bangladesh as a cricketing nation is playing cricket for couple of decades now. In 1997, it was Akram Khan who used to be the captain & today his nephew Tamim Iqbal is one of the players of the current Bangladesh squad who are believing their potential and playing aggressive & positive cricket. It’s now more than 15 years, Bangladesh has gained Test status & till 2014 they were a struggling lot with losses & odd wins – mostly based on individual performances.

Roaring tigers

2015 – year to remember 

It’s now more than 15 years, Bangladesh has gained Test status & till 2014 they were a struglling lot with losses & odd wins – mostly based on individual performances. BCB had appointed Chandika Hathurusingha as a head coach & they had Heath Streak as bowling coach. The baton of captainship has gone to Mashrafe Mortaza from Musfiqur Rahim. Hathurusingha was capable of injecting never-say-die attitude in all the cricketers & helped to bring the best out of these players with the fearless approach. And the result is vividly visible. This team has experienced cricketers like Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Shakib-al-Hasan, Musfiqur Rahim & Md. Mahamusullah who are playing for quite sometimes & the fiercely newcomers like Soumya Sarkar, Shabbir Rahman, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin Hossain has added the balance to this side.

Aggression on the field

After winning 5-0 against Zimbabwe, they won the series against Pakistan, India & South-Africa in limited over tournaments which was just outstanding. In the T20 series against Pakistan they found a great left-arm fast bowler in Mustafizur Rahman from Satkhira whose off-cutters were tough to play. This was prominent when he took 13 wickets against India at home & won the series for his country. He has become a super star. It was important that he doesn't suffer from complacency & thank God, against South Africa also he was superb. In the South- Africa series, Bangladesh got another talented left-arm batsman Soumya Sarkar whose 90 from 75 balls in a rain affected game will speak a lot about his character. 

Sensational Mustafizur

Spin is the traditional strength for many teams among the Asian countries. Here comes the impact of Heath Streak who had identified 8-10 pacers who can consistently deliver the good for the team. And you have got Taskin Ahmed, Rubel Hussain, Al-Amin-Hossain. These pacers have out-performed their spinning counterparts taking more number of wickets. These players have understood their role & playing accordingly to their potential. Although, they need more competitive cricket to play against all the countries. 

Concern

Bangladesh have won many matches in 2015 & they have won the hearts of their loyal supporters for sure, but you have to accept that they have won all this games in their home turfs. They had defeated the English side in during the World Cup in Australia but to become a strong force in the cricketing fraternity, Bangladesh have to consistently win games in abroad. Now Bangladesh has to play more the longer version of the game. See the statistics of many of these cricketers – they are more exposed to shorter version of the game which has to changed now. 

Many cricket pundits are asking what will happen if they are being exposed to the wickets of England, South Africa, Australia or New-Zealand? They are the same bunch of guys who had played unbelievable cricket & with these set of fearless cricketers, Bangladesh can brings great cheers for their fans & families back home. 

-Suvadro

Eden Gardens to host high voltage game

As cricket lover & if you are from the sub-continent, can you imagine that a India vs Pakistan cricket match will be cancelled just because of security reasons? You are right. No it won't. So here it is. The WCT20 between the arch-rivals India & Pakistan on 19th March'2016 has been shifted from beautiful Dharamshala to the one of the greatest cricket grounds in the world - Eden Gardens.

Now as the controversy had created some days earlier with respect to this game, Saurav Ganguly took no time to get the opportunity of convincing the authorities to conduct the game at Kolkata. And as a CAB president, you should expect him to do so.

But the context is very important here. At this very ground, both the team have played 11 matches in all forms cricket where Pakistan won 5, India 1 & 5 matches ended in a draw.

Statistics on all World Cup matches speak differently. Where Pakistan team never beat India till date. And this will make Saurav Ganguly happy too. Because he knows about the Eden Gardens crowd better. There was big expectations in the Bengal domestic circuit as Pakistan was supposed to play one warm-up game against Bengal but as they came late now they will play only one warm-up game against Srilanka before going into the final tournament.

Now a lot depends on Mr. Prabir Mukherjee, the veteran fiercely proud custodian of Eden Gardens for last 40 years. But unlike earlier, he is saying that this wicket will be a perfect T20 one where 200 runs can be scored in an innings!

Let's enjoy the beautiful game of cricket. Come on It's India vs Pakistan. And all 66000 seats will be filled. And the noise will be electrifying.

- Suvadro