I have adored Sunil
Gavaskar not only in the manner he played ~ standing up to the fast bowlers, especially the famed
West Indian quartet, far different from
the modern day ones ~ his straight drives and his articulation in speaking and
writing………… but…..
Champions trophy
starts today and India play South Africa……… tour matches are generally nothing
to think of…. but Dinesh Karthik, has done enough by scoring back to back
centuries and perhaps forcing a place in the middle order. The interesting piece of statistics of
Champions trophy is that the highest no. of sixes is 17 standing to the credit of Sourav Ganguly………….
Gayle has 13 and likely could exceed during this tournament.. 4 is the number
of ducks scored by Shane Watson in 12 innings… the most ducks for any player in the tournament.
Sunny in his
syndicated column today has written ‘Shot selection is an area of concern for
Rohit Sharma’ – if someone were to analyse, selecting Rohit is the concern for
India. Sunny writes Rohit failed in both
the warm up games, getting out both times in a fashion that does not inspire
confidence. Such is the talent that he has, that it is difficult for anybody to
write him off; but unless talent merges with temperament, it is hard for a
player to be successful. Sharma’s problem has invariably been poor shot
selection, and that is often the fate of those blessed with shots all round the
ground but who do not have a solid defence to stop the occasional good ball. ~
and succinctly Gavaskar wants him in stating ‘ With Murali Vijay also not
troubling the scorers too much, Sharma may get a look in as an opener; a job
that he did against England in the one day series in January.’…………conveniently
hiding the fact that Murali scored them in buckets against Aussies although in a
different format.
Cricinfo says the
last time India played South Africa in an ODI was in the 2011 World Cup,
when India's top five were Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir,
Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh. The bowling line-up consisted of Zaheer Khan,
Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh. None of those players, most of
whom are vastly experienced, are in the squad for this tournament. Well, India scored 296 and yet lost…. Ashish
Nehra went for 65 off 8.4, Munaf went for 65 in 10 and Harbhajan 53 off 9………..
we expect Bhuvanesh Kumar with his prodigious swing, Umesh Yadav and Ishant to
do lot better.
In a Team which has
Shikar Dhawan as opener, Gavaskar and others want to pitchfork Rohit Sharma as
opener… In 2012 he scored 255 in 16 innings at a measly 17 average and his
recent run scoring is: 5;0;0;4;4 [13 in 5 matches at Sri Lanka]; yet played
against Pak – scored 4; against England scored 83 & 4…… he is immensely
talented and once when he shared the screen alongside Virat Kohli, Gavaskar
remarked – you are seeing the future of India
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
No comments:
Post a Comment