So was an Indian victory expected in the 1st Test? Certainly not from my side. Most of the times India loses its first test and tries to catch up in the remainder of the series. So that’s why I had predicted 2-1 to India. Now that India has won the 1st test, I have to change my prediction to 2-0 to India.
With due respects to New Zealand, I guess one of the reasons we won the 1st test is the Kiwis are a weaker team (and ranked a low 8th). Another main reason is that usually we start an away tour with the test series. But this time around we started off with 2 unimportant T-20s and 5 ODIs. India being slow starters stayed put with their record and lost both the T-20s which served them as a warning and they came up with uninhibited stroke play and won the one day series 3-1. This gave the team enough confidence and that showed up in the 1st test match. The win was a pure team effort and everybody contributed handsomely for the cause.
For New Zealand to match India or atleast come closer – they need to produce seaming tracks. The kiwis may need to change their bowling combination. Mills doesn’t seem to be a man in form. Vettori batted well as he has been doing over the past 2 years but his bowling is not going to cause alarms. Also, Vettori should flight the ball more and try to take wickets and not just look to contain. He may not be too confident in doing that but that’s his best chance of picking up wickets. They may also need to look at what Franklin has to offer while batting at 6 or coming in as a change bowler. Is he really good enough to bat at 6 ?
Historically India has a (bad) habit of picking up an opposition player and gifting him with runs and wickets in a series. In this one it clearly happens to be (my dark horse) Jesse Ryder.
However for India, the victory shouldn’t mask a few things that happened. As always there is a scope of improvement. Yuvraj needs to get some confidence in tests. His defence is very poor and its better off for him to play like One days…bat a bit aggressive at the same time don’t go overboard. Controlled aggression is the key. The other thing is why do we always fail to wrap up the tail quickly. New Zealand recovered from 60-6 in the 1st innings and in the second McCullum and O’Brien added 70+ for the 9th wicket. India should go for the kill and not let their guard down even if the tail is batting.
India should not settle for a 1-0 lead and try to play for a draw. That will sow seeds for problems. I didn’t like the way India declared against Pakistan (3rd Test in Bangalore, 2007) and against England (3rd Test at The Oval, 2007) – that’s very conservative. The typical Indian mind set should end. India should be ruthless.
This team is clearly erasing all the bad history. Lets us now see if we can win all the 3 tests and start creating (good) history. Under Dhoni, I would expect India to aim for that.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
India vs. New Zealand (Test Series)
Hello and welcome to my blog. Am sorry for the big delay between my earlier blog and this one. I will try my best to write regularly. Also, due to additional requests I plan to write about non India series as well. This time around let me write about India vs. New Zealand test series.
As you know by now that being a cricket purist, I crave a lot for India test matches. In that aspect I am happy that the 2 test series has been changed to 3.
Talking about India’s bowling, they probably have the best opening bowling combination in the world cricket at the moment – in Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma. The problem is who’s going to be the 3rd seamer from Munaf, Balaji and Dhawal Kulkarni. I feel the lack of a settled 3rd fast bowler may hurt India’s chances. All 3 of them have been affected by lack of practice. Munaf and Balaji have been not tested outside the sub continent while Dhawal’s chances lie on how hostile he is at the nets. Munaf just pulled up sore in Sri Lanka and Balaji has had a really long lay off from international level. Here is where I feel selectors missed a trick by not including Sreesanth. As he is very aggressive, has good body language and his bowling is perfectly suited to swinging conditions in NZ, India might miss him. Anyway, I think Munaf is better of the given lot. If he can keep up his fitness and can get the ball to seam around then he can be pretty dangerous.
Bowling full and allowing the ball to swing would just be enough to keep the batsmen guessing and pick up wickets. Short balls should be judiciously used since they can disappear to the fence easily – the square boundaries are very small.
India will most probably go with 6 batsmen + 1 keeper + 4 bowlers. Harbhajan might be the lone recognized spinner. If he can loop and flight the ball and use the doosra intelligently then he can pick up a few wickets inspite of the conditions. But if he goes back to One day mode and starts throwing it darts then he is going to be useless. Sehwag and Yuvraj might be the part time spinners – but I feel Dhoni must use Tendulkar. I use the word “must” because, of late, Dhoni has been reluctant to use Tendulkar and his leg spin is more than handy and he can trouble the Kiwis with his variations. History and record books point to the fact that Shane Warne had a good record and more than troubled the Kiwis.
Lets now turn our attention to the Indian batsmen. The current Indian batting line-up has predominance of stroke players. They have to be patient in the initial overs when it seams and swings around, else India will find themselves in trouble. Once the ball becomes older, then they can play their strokes. It is imperative that Sehwag and Gambhir curb their attacking instincts at the start so the stroke players make hay later. Controlled aggression can help demoralize the NZ attack initially and set the tempo for the middle order since too much defense will bog them down.
Dravid has not been in the greatest of international form. Laxman is coming back from an injury sustained in the domestic season. Yuvraj’s struggles in away tests are well known. How well he can adjust to the conditions quickly will be key to India’s success. So India’s batting can be vulnerable if openers don’t provide them good starts or atleast bat out the new ball.
As far as New Zealand team is concerned, they don’t have star players – but they are well led by Vettori and exercise a fighting team spirit. Their batting however is going to be heavily dependent on Ross Taylor and McCullum down the order. I must say I am very impressed by the way this new kid Martin Guptill plays. He plays fearless and attacking cricket. How he adjusts to the demands of test cricket will be interesting to see. But the first signs are definitely promising.
Bowling will be dependent on Vettori but I feel he might struggle against India given that they play spin well. Mills is going to be their key bowler since he has a good habit of picking up early wickets. Butler and O’Brien can be a handful given that they are playing in home conditions. But if India can weather the initial storm then the Kiwi bowlers may run into problems.
As you know by now that being a cricket purist, I crave a lot for India test matches. In that aspect I am happy that the 2 test series has been changed to 3.
Talking about India’s bowling, they probably have the best opening bowling combination in the world cricket at the moment – in Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma. The problem is who’s going to be the 3rd seamer from Munaf, Balaji and Dhawal Kulkarni. I feel the lack of a settled 3rd fast bowler may hurt India’s chances. All 3 of them have been affected by lack of practice. Munaf and Balaji have been not tested outside the sub continent while Dhawal’s chances lie on how hostile he is at the nets. Munaf just pulled up sore in Sri Lanka and Balaji has had a really long lay off from international level. Here is where I feel selectors missed a trick by not including Sreesanth. As he is very aggressive, has good body language and his bowling is perfectly suited to swinging conditions in NZ, India might miss him. Anyway, I think Munaf is better of the given lot. If he can keep up his fitness and can get the ball to seam around then he can be pretty dangerous.
Bowling full and allowing the ball to swing would just be enough to keep the batsmen guessing and pick up wickets. Short balls should be judiciously used since they can disappear to the fence easily – the square boundaries are very small.
India will most probably go with 6 batsmen + 1 keeper + 4 bowlers. Harbhajan might be the lone recognized spinner. If he can loop and flight the ball and use the doosra intelligently then he can pick up a few wickets inspite of the conditions. But if he goes back to One day mode and starts throwing it darts then he is going to be useless. Sehwag and Yuvraj might be the part time spinners – but I feel Dhoni must use Tendulkar. I use the word “must” because, of late, Dhoni has been reluctant to use Tendulkar and his leg spin is more than handy and he can trouble the Kiwis with his variations. History and record books point to the fact that Shane Warne had a good record and more than troubled the Kiwis.
Lets now turn our attention to the Indian batsmen. The current Indian batting line-up has predominance of stroke players. They have to be patient in the initial overs when it seams and swings around, else India will find themselves in trouble. Once the ball becomes older, then they can play their strokes. It is imperative that Sehwag and Gambhir curb their attacking instincts at the start so the stroke players make hay later. Controlled aggression can help demoralize the NZ attack initially and set the tempo for the middle order since too much defense will bog them down.
Dravid has not been in the greatest of international form. Laxman is coming back from an injury sustained in the domestic season. Yuvraj’s struggles in away tests are well known. How well he can adjust to the conditions quickly will be key to India’s success. So India’s batting can be vulnerable if openers don’t provide them good starts or atleast bat out the new ball.
As far as New Zealand team is concerned, they don’t have star players – but they are well led by Vettori and exercise a fighting team spirit. Their batting however is going to be heavily dependent on Ross Taylor and McCullum down the order. I must say I am very impressed by the way this new kid Martin Guptill plays. He plays fearless and attacking cricket. How he adjusts to the demands of test cricket will be interesting to see. But the first signs are definitely promising.
Bowling will be dependent on Vettori but I feel he might struggle against India given that they play spin well. Mills is going to be their key bowler since he has a good habit of picking up early wickets. Butler and O’Brien can be a handful given that they are playing in home conditions. But if India can weather the initial storm then the Kiwi bowlers may run into problems.
The key batsmen for me, from the India team will be Sehwag and Dravid. For the Kiwis it will be Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill. The bowlers who can make a difference are Zaheer and Ishant from India and Mills & Butler from the Kiwis.
So my prediction for the series is 2:1………..to India.
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