Did England really beat the number 1 test team in the World? I dont think so !
By stardustcdsd
@stardustcdsd (1856)
India
August 25, 2011 7:56am CST
hi friends.
if we try to dissect the indian team pefromance trying to figure out what went wrong in the last one and half month that resulted in such a performance,we will uncover only more mess so lets turn elsewhere.
a few months ago,if anyone said england would be number 1,not many believed and rightly so.
their new young talent broad was bowling too short,their opener had trouble reaching the 3 figure mark etc.
[B]but suddenly they are told they are Number 1 and pretty much everyone agrees with this now.
WHY?
because they beat the number one test team in the world.
but did they?
sounds foolish?
just wait.
first of all,they have to beat the number 1 team and not a team which lost less than half of their team to injury.[/B]
had a look at the run getters chart and i saw something.
as usual,sachin,dravid,laxman are in the list with dhoni sneaking in because of his performance in the third test.guess the 5th member.
he played only 2 matches.amit mishra.
no sign of[B] gambhir,sehwag,raina,yuvraj.[/B]
why sehwag was brought in to the team with injury and only in the last test,he played like sehwag.
gambhir played 4 innings with injury (first elbow and then concussion)
yuvi played only match.
raina failed.
probably for the first time in the last 2 years,[B]india had both openers injured resulting in players playing in positions not comfortable with like dravid openeing and laxman at number 3.
as for bowling,in the first 2 matches,india bowled with only 3 bowlers.(zaheer injured first then bhajji).[/B]
[B/now tell me,if a team now beats england with no strauss,cook,swann and anderson,can they be called the better team?[/B]
can they?
they beat a full strength aussie squad,congrats.
but they still didn't beat the team india in full strength.
[B]Even a Cheetah can injury a sick lion but that does not mean,cheetahs are stronger than lions.[/B]
next the last time they visited india,they didn't win a single match.
let them come there and beat india in their own backyard before crowing yourself as the best just like india did in australia and south africa.
6 responses
@Wismay (2037)
• India
25 Aug 11
Hi Stardustcdsd,
I agree with respect to batting. But there is no excuse for the bowling failure in this series. Praveen who is relatively a new member to the team performed and all others failed including harbhajan.
Zahir Khan was injured in the past too and missed matches during the period when India was No1. Still India managed to do ok. But in this series one cannot say that just the absence of Zahir made the difference.
May be he could have inspired others do better and the result might have been different but one can't be sure on that.
Losing was ok, but the manner in which they lost was real bad. Most of them didn't even try to hang in there especially Dhoni and Raina.
And major problem was lack of openers and Dravid needing to open. If India had a stable opening partnership the matches would have been totally different.
But no matter what we try to say, it all comes down to lack of planning and being ready for the series. The series was planned way back and all the players knew about it. Simply India made some mistakes even with selection of players. Over all India's bowling was too weak. That was the main reason. And after 5 wickets there were no batsmen to build partnership and they would lose last 5-6 wickets for 20 runs! Who can save such a batting line up?
That is why I am expecting Eng Vs SA series and I think SA will defeat England! We have to just wait and see. SA might become No 1 within 6 months!
Happy Mylotting!
@stardustcdsd (1856)
• India
26 Aug 11
you made a valid point.thinking back,one has to say,except for zaheer and bhajji there was no surity of place for ishant,munaf,sreesanth,mishra or ojha.
its more like zaheer and bhajji will be the main stay,they fil up the rest with either of those 5.
luckily for india it worked.
besides india actually didn't win matches when zaheer was absent.sometimes they lost and sometimes they drew but the bowling unit without zaheer didn't actually take 20 wickets that often.
now your 2 main stay is out and playing with a newbie praveen,sree from injury and ishant after a long break,its bound to look week.
when they say FATE IS CRUEL,i didn't actually believe it untill the openers and 2 main bowlers for injured for a big series and showing the big gaping holes in the number 1 team.
but i am still sticking with my point.
we can all give reasons for the loss from BCCI's poor schedule managment to lack of common sense in players to lower middle order batting like school kids,but the truth of the matter is england would not be world champions if they had faced an injury free indian team.
let the english enjoy it for the moment because when they face a full side like south africa,they will definetely crumble.
BTW why Dhoni's match saving contributions is occuring as often as a sania mirza wins?
@Wismay (2037)
• India
26 Aug 11
I agree. But it is not England's fault that they had to face injured India :)
I guess they too know it that India was not fully fit so they are eager to extend their good show against SA, Sri Lanka.
Dhoni needs to be consistent but I guess he is somehow playing well in one innings and failing in next few games, which is not good for team.
@vikram3101989 (684)
• India
26 Aug 11
I completely agree with you. Indian team was helpless thanks to the numerous injuries to most prominent players in the team. I think the no. 1 spot in Test rankings will continue to change for the next 3 years or so. I think England played really well to beat India, but I still doubt whether they can repeat those performances in the Sub-continent. Time will tell whether England is truly the No.1 test team in the world.
@dabangladehi (660)
• Bangladesh
25 Aug 11
I do agree with you.Its nothing but bad patch is going on for Team India.They are the number 1.Hope India will get their crown soon.
Lets hope for the best in coming ODI series.Its the high time to prove them selves.Because they are world champ in ODI.
@macedon88 (83)
• India
26 Aug 11
you are right, England didn't beat the strongest Indian team most of the players were injured but why BCCI send the injured players to England zaheer, shewag, gambhir these players were injured from the ipl ifself, then why they have been taken into the tour? BCCI has no respect towards their player no matter what happens to them they only need money. England cannot sustain longer in No 1 position. India can achieve its position once again but they should be careful not to repeat this attitude again.
@whitehackernew (20)
• India
26 Aug 11
now after Englands fantastic professional performance you cant say that they were playing with an injured team,they did there part very well .they dint give indian side a chance to bounce back and hence they deserved to be called winner against number one test team.on the other hand indian side under estimated the english test teams power and the result was "alice in blunderland".its the team performance not the ranking that matters in test cricket
@amith_ravi (30)
• India
26 Aug 11
Hi,
I agree all the things you have stated above. But, loosing is indeed loosing. There is no excuse in it. It is their responsibility to find out the replacement for all the senior and injured players. So, my opinion is that we should develop good youngsters for the future.
