Rohit's decision to delay the declaration beyond the drinks break when England were expecting him to declare has played havoc with England's mindset. Underappreciated masterstroke.
#Dada
India has been so successful in doctoring pitches since the last time Eng won the series in India that Bumrah averages 15.64, Siraj 16.66, Shami 21.28 and Umesh 24.71. Imagine the skills required to doctor a pitch where only Indian fast bowlers and spinners can exploit it.
First 25 Tests. 100 wickets. More than 1000 runs. Six 5-wkt hauls and 1 hundred. 18 of those Tests at home. Indian cricket would have been so utterly unprepared for a cricketer of such immense talent as Kapil when he came onto the scene.
I am not able to relate to this scale of fast bowling riches. At least Ishant took his time to become this good and to some extent Shami too. But Bumrah and Siraj came into Test cricket pretty much fully formed. Unreal.
I really wish Ashwin gives a long interview to a cricket journalist about his bowling in the series (and the last away leg to Eng, SA and Aus as well). Naturally he can't do justice to the topic on his own YouTube channel.
If you grew up playing cricket where the batsman didn't care about which side you bowl from but the umpire (who is from the batting the) does and is itching to signal a no-ball because he didn't hear you mention "right arm over", you would never ever venture out of the crease
I am blown away by the revelation in that Bharat Arun interview by Ashwin that the choice to go for a win in the last few overs was left entirely up to the batsmen in the middle. Players/Coaches opening up post this series has given us a much better sense of what goes on inside.
Son looking at Pucovski: is that a girl? Me: no. S: Why don't girls play cricket. M: They do. S: Show me the girls match. M: The matches are called off. S: Why? M: Because of covid. S: Why are boys playing during covid? M: ?!
Gambhir, Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid, Laxman would have destroyed these mediocre Aussie spinners......including Lyon. Only the great Michael Clarke could run through them.
Kohli is a great Test batsman. Please talk about it all day long to celebrate his 100th Test. Celebrating him as the stand out saviour of Test cricket is so nauseating and wrong. Majority of cricketers, despite skewed economic incentives, have prioritized Tests over other formats
I miss the good old days when winning a random tri series in England and going to a world cup final by defeating Kenya were considered stupendous achievements. Now, two consecutive WTC finals seems to qualify as poor performance.
I can't believe they picked Pant ahead of Shreya Ghoshal. Come on, no one in the team can sing the national anthem as well as her. Plus she can never be called an unsung hero. Just an outrageous selection at all levels.
Commentators after the Pant show in Sydney and Brisbane: Captains will think many times before giving this Indian team a chaseable target. Commentators in the very next Test: OMG, why is the captain not declaring?
Master Blaster is quite possibly the least imaginative and terribly unfair way of describing Sachin. The divinity of his batting was always in the million little nuances. Infinitesimal Genius.
Sehwag>Rohit (will reverse soon!). Sachin > Kohli. Dravid > Pujara. Laxman > Rahane. You can adjust for better bowlers, tougher wickets etc., but it's hard to argue against the fact India had better batting in the previous era. Sure, margins may be smaller than widely perceived.
He could certainly do with a little more love. Had he ended up with figures like Lyon here in the 4th innings, let alone at home, imagine the reactions...
Next time any of these cricketers talk about the impact of the tragic death of Phil Hughes on how they played the game, someone should show them these videos.
My son had a "show and tell" activity in his school a couple of days back. He went and spoke about MCG and the statues around it. Showed a photo of Warnie's statue to a bunch of Singaporean kids who had no clue of cricket and told them he is the greatest leg spinner of all time.
I really wish every cricket board has a YouTube channel like
@windiescricket
which offers live coverage in places where there is no official broadcaster, short highlights, and for heaven's sake a long one too for each day's play.
There was a 3-Test series down under in 2019/20 which Aus won by 296, 247 and 279 runs respectively. The opposition is the reigning world champions in Tests now. Not to mention the series also exposed a weakness in the greatest bat of the era and he hasn't been the same since.
The West Indies have to decide whether they actually want to play Test cricket anymore. Because it feels like they’re wasting everyone’s time. Including their own time.
Now I know why
@cricketingview
loves Steve Smith so much. There are non-partisan fans but Smith is a non-partisan cricketer. One day he is going to high-five the bowler after being dismissed by a ripper.
I can understand the frustration of fans in listening to Manjrekar's commentary, but his comments on Jadeja (if that is what prompted the tweet) are quite harmless and a fair opinion. If that's a problem for the players I wonder where we are going to draw the line next.
Enjoyed the irreverent take on the Lord's Test in Ashwin's kutty story. But can't help but wonder how Indian fans would react if a member of the England team speaks with the same irreverence about their perspective of some Indian players.
Here is a hot take from
@sidvee
on why the generation brought on IPL will never value the Indian batsman who showcased old school virtues of Test match batting in tough conditions yesterday
Explaining the context of Kapil's 4 sixes to save the follow on to my son. His response: why did he do that? India could have followed on, scored more runs and then dismissed England, right? What have you done, Baz?!
Comparing cricket watching experience in SL to India is criminal. First of all they have grass banks, beer, atmosphere, warmth, comfort, stepping out and coming back is a breeze.....I can go on and on
To win a Test match without Virat, Rohit, Ishant & Shami is a terrific achievement.
Loved the resilience and character shown by the team to put behind the loss in the 1st Test and level the series.
Brilliant win.
Well done TEAM INDIA! 👏🏻
#AUSvIND
My son was born in April. He came out 3 weeks before the expected date. I had no complaints but he could have waited 3 days more though. He was born on 21st. That I was thinking about this at the time of his birth either tells you I am an idiot or how much Sachin meant to me.
Just watched Ashwin's interview of Bumrah. For a late bloomer his confidence in his craft comes out in all his interviews. No matter how he is probed on the influence of coaches or captains, he rarely endorses anyone's influence as substantial. Never seen a cricketer like him.
I have never seen the term captain's spell being used before in the same way the term captain's knock is (quite liberally) used for batsmen captains. Not for Walsh, Not for Akram, Not for Kumble. If Cummins can change that.....
When was the last time a bowler with the kind of career record that Ashwin has and the kind of numbers he had in the last away season dropped from the XI for any team, let alone India?
Australia's Win/Loss ratio of 1.343 against India is its lowest against all teams. All the childhood trauma of being pummeled by Australia made me think the record would have been far more skewed.
"Pant is the most misunderstood cricketer". Ok. "He is playing the wrong format for starters." Adei you are the one misunderstanding him. Guy averages 58 for Delhi and has scored a triple hundred in FC cricket and he is playing the wrong format it seems.
Wife: I feel so sorry for Hope for missing out on the hundred. Me: he's a team player, doesn't care about personal landmarks. Wife: that would have also added 4 runs to the team. Me: you are too sane to be a cricket fan.
I noticed the use of the South African variant, the Brazil variant and the Indian variant. I guess it is the norm to refer to something by the country of origin.
Son: Appa, do you want Jadeja to score a hundred? Me: Yes. Son: Do you want him to go past Rohit's score? Me: No Son: Why? Me: Because I want Rohit to be the top scorer. Son: Anyway, Jajeja will be the man of the match because he also got a 5-wkt haul. No respite for me.
The guy is a legend, has scored more than 6k runs and at this rate could finish as the second greatest batsman of all time. And we still get regular commentary about his exotic, idiosyncratic technique. FFS.
Either you believe overrates shouldn't matter in Test cricket or you believe it does. You can't argue it doesn't matter in Tests which finishes in 3 days and matters in a Test which goes down to the wire on the final session of the 5th day.