Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Born again

Gautam Gambhir was jettisoned from the Indian Test team after a series of failures. In true Gambhir fashion, the man worked on his game, changed his stance, put in the hours and fought his way back to the Indian squad, only to keep failing in the same fashion as he used to before his comeback. His days seem to be numbered with the (injured) incumbent KL Rahul about to make a comeback.

Many years ago, Virender Sehwag was at a crossroads - staring at an Indian middle order that read Dravid, SRT, Ganguly, Laxman. At which point he re-invented himself as an opener and set the world afire.

I think it is time for Gambhir to do the same, but in reverse. He is as fine a player of spin bowling as an opener has ever been and I think he would be better served coming in at #6 in the line-up. This way he would not be facing the new ball but could ease into his inning while the spinners were operating. And when the second new ball is due after the 80th over, he would be perfectly placed to combat its threat.

Going down the order will only make Gambhir's chances of a prolonged career go up.

For the want of a nail - part 2??

On June 17, 2015 I wrote something that I am scared may repeat itself....here it is with some modifications:

In an alternate universe somewhere Ajinkya Rahane Ravindra Jadeja does not drop Alistair Cook, Umesh Yadav Pankaj Singh gets the first (of many) wickets, India gains ascendancy and wins the Test series against England, Alistair Cook is sacked as captain, India hosts goes to Australia buoyed by their away win,.....

Months later, I still relive that dropped catch.

Because Ajinkya Rahane Ravindra Jadeja did not take a simple catch at point, a kingdom was lost.