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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1 comment:
Looks like your prediction and analysis is based only for tests..what abt ODI's :):). Any ways , i feel Sreeshanth will be missed as he has proved in games abroad esp Aus and SA . Also, I assume you are talking on using Sachin as a leg spinner for tests but, he has openly discussed about his back problems which has been hindering him for years now.
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