Jihad on ugliness?

Has Islam outlawed ugliness in batting?! The Caliphate (or whatever) forgot to send me the memo.

Outside of Salman Butt and Younis Khan, the evidence is overwhelming. VVS might not be a Muslim, be he does hail from Hyderabad. And I have not even started about Inzy and Yousuf.

Quick office reflections on the test squad

I have not blogged here for an inordinately long time. Combination of factors. Can't say work, though it has contributed. Boredom too, to a large extent, with the endless cricket being played out everywhere. I missed switch-hits, Collingwood's ethical diemma and subsequent just desserts, Zimbabwe, CWB in the Wisden, Ajantha Mendis... basically a load of crap. Or that is how I have been thinking, and it is a reflection of the direction in which cricket is heading - when a confirmed cricketaholic starts thinking this way..

Anyway, chuck all that..

Once again, there are not too many surprises in the selection of the Test squad. With most of the team selecting itself, the only points of contention concerened Jaffer and the reserve batsman. Jaffer, a giant of the domestic game, has not captured the same kind of rhythm internationally. Yuvraj Singh, a giant of the one-day game, has not been able to utilize his outrageous talent in the Test arena with any kind of consistency. The question before the selectors was first, whether to let matters drift and allow Jaffer and Yuvraj another shot in the squad. Secondly, if not them, then who?

In Yuvraj's case, it did not make sense to carry him along in the squad. Only an injury to any of the top and middle order would allow him into the side. With Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman very well rested, the chances of Yuvraj spending some time in the middle were close to nil, and it made more sense to send in someone who had more to gain from spending time in the same dressing room as Laxman, Dravid, Dada and Kumble. Rohit Sharma was an obvious candidate, though Badri's fans will claim that the Tamil Nadu domestic colossus continues to be ignored. Fair to say though, that Sharma was quite clearly ahead in the pecking order, having seen success in the one-day game. Such an argument does not sit easily (even when Veeru was dropped after the SA tour, there was the whole problem of using ODI form to measure Test selectability), and Badri's backers will cry until they are hoarse that his game is more suited to the longer version than Sharma's or Raina's.

In Jaffer's case, the selector's had to make a decision of greater importance. On the cards was a clean break with the past. With DK no longer in contention for the opener spot (unless India play Irfan as the fifth bowling option), Jaffer's departure signals the end of the opening combination that made gains in England. With Gambhir coming in, two men who have walked out together innumerable times for Delhi and for India, will do so again. It is not difficult to feel sorry for Jaffer, but the hopeless waft outside off has to leave his game. But more than Jaffer's shortcomings, it is Gambhir's incredible hunger for runs that has seen him make this comeback.

In the bowling department, Zak, Arpy and Ishant can be an uncomfortable three-card trick. My guess is that Zak and Ishant will get picked first, with Ganguly chipping in with a few overs. But on heartbreakingly benign Lankan tracks, the backup would be crucial. Sreesanth misses out and it is not clear if injury is the reason, and Munaf makes the cut. Kumble and the recently shamed Harbhajan will do the bulk of the bowling. Piyush misses out and in comes Ojha the left arm spinner. In case we decide to carry three spinners, there is great variety that might just make up for the lack of bite in Harbhajan's bowling, or the lack of experience in Pragyan's. However, we need to consider Murali Kartik for a moment. After years of being in the shadow of Kumble and Harbhajan, it is one of his own kind that has upstaged him this time. The question of pecking order, that is crucial to Rohit's presence in the squad today, is probably meaningless to Kartik now.

Finally, does Dhoni backing out mean anything more than a stopgap arrangement for DK or Parthiv? I would assume that DK gets to be in the team ahead of Parthiv, and if he is able to play Mendis and Murali with authority, the selectors would be in a spot - and might have to consider a situation where the vice-captain is not able to find a place in the squad. Dhoni who is now one of the most consistent ODI batsmen, has not set the world alight with his recent performaces in Tests.

Irfan gets dropped as well, which after his horrendous run in the Asia Cup should not come as a surprise for many. On the other hand, his Test form has not been too bad of late, if we would just cast our minds at the last two Test matches in Austalia. What is clear is that in the subcontinent, once the ball stops swinging, he finds it difficult to pick wickets. What we will miss though, is the option of playing five bowlers.

The imminent Jaffer question

Jaffer's shakiness outside off-stump since the beginning of the tour of Australia, the fall in Karthik's fortune since Pakistan visited, and Sehwag's resurgence since Perth all add up to a possible vacancy at the top of the Test batting order.

I have been a fan of HRH Wasim Jaffer, standing tall imperiously, to whip and pull on the leg side, and continued to state his case throughout his miserable tour of Australia (here and mostly here, for instance), but his hopeful waft outside off cost him dear when the Steyn, Ntini & Co. paid a visit. Despite a hundred on a batting paradise, he averaged less than the struggling M S Dhoni.

Is it time to give him his pension? He is clearly short on confidence after his time with the Royal Challengers and knows he hangs on to the Test team by a slender thread. At the same time, he will also know that it was less than a year ago that he was building foundations for Sachin, Laxman an Ganguly in England. Guilty he was of giving it away when well set, but he has since also proven that he is a master at cashing in on a flat deck, whipping Pakistan on a sleepy deck at the Eden Gardens). Now if the cupboard were bare, Jaffer should get a few more chances.

But now, with Gambhir showing great fluency for the Daredevils, and having exhibited good temprament in the ODIs in Oz, and being a better feilder by light years, I will be stoic if Jaffer gets dropped and look forward to some Daredevilry at the top of the order. But then, India have a lot of Tests to play at home soon, and I will rejoice (with some Royal Challenge perhaps) at his next first innings double hundred.

Colonel, hear my prayers.

By the way, where the hell is Mohd. Ashraful? Why isnt he in the IPL? Or am I totally out of it?

Paandav kitne the? (Or the power of five)

If you're not the kind of Indian cricket fan who goes only by the scorebook, the end-of-Perth analysis of this series is this:

Bowling has been excllent. Batting has been ho-hum, but all but one have shown they are in good form. Regardless, they won a game which people are calling the greatest win ever. So, excellent.

It would be unreasonable to burn effigies now, even if they come back 3-1, even if the fourth was an huge innings defeat. Let me be clear that I think it is unreasonable to burn effigies anyway.

This means that the Indian team goes into this match with a license to thrill, and so it does not make sense to go in without the power of five. Arpy-Pathan-Ishant-Kumble-Bhajji.

Looks good on paper, and even better in the first three matches. Be sure that they won't reduce the Aussies to dust at Adelaide, but we know they can trouble their best.

Is this series a statistical anomaly for Michael Hussey (avg of 54 only)? Or will we learn that Michael Hussey is a statistical anomaly? The bigger threat is Mathew Hayden. How does one get Hayden out cheap? Especially if he just wants to score runs and nothing else will do. Well we can start with throwing five decent bowlers at him.

What of the batting? There is no doubt that Jaffer has been the weakest link, and if Kumble's thinking concurs with what I have said above, he will have to get the chop. I would have preferred it if it were a middle-order batsman, but none of Ganguly-Laxman-Dravid can be dropped at this point.

Your best batsmen or your best openers?

At the same time, everyone but Jaffer have shown some excellent form, and what is rumoured to be a batting beauty is perhaps, just what the doctor ordered. Ganguly has a point to prove and this is his best chance. And Sachin and Laxman are not without a sense of occasion - their last chance(?) against the best team in the world playing at home. And there is Dravid with all those happy meories at this ground.

But this should, by no means, be the end of the road for Jaffer. I suspect there is an even chance that it may be, but that would be very cruel to a man who made runs in England, West Indies and South Africa.

Is there a case for a parallel change to bring in Dinesh Karthik in place of Dhoni? There is, because then we can continue to keep Dravid at number three. But is this going to happen? No.

Australia does not need to play five bowlers. Also, with Brad Hogg into the batting at Adelaide, there is a lot more sting to the tail than merely that other statistical anomaly-Mitch (avg of 99 only).

I hope Mitch continues to play, and I hope he overcorrects his wide outside offstump line and bowls on the pads.

Why Jaffer needs a media guy

Wasim Jaffer came to Australia on the back of a very good year. He made runs against Ntini, Pollock, Nel, Mashrafe Mortaza, Syed Rasel, James Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom, Tremlett, Shoaib Akthar and Mohammed Sami. In 10 Test matches in 2007, he averages 46.55 with three hundreds that include a double against Pakistan at home.

This means that he has batted at least as good as Alastair Cook and Jayasuriya have for the last couple of years. He has been much better than Grame Smith and Chris Gayle have. The only opening batsman who has done better than him over the last ten Test matches has been Mathew (Alone at the Top) Hayden.

Jaffer has failed thrice this series and there is a clamour for his exclusion from the side at Perth. Apparently we need to take the attack to Australia and Jaffer is incapable of doing so. Not only that, he is said to lack the technique required for horizontal strokeplay, which is so important to flourish in Australia. And the conclusion that the experts are only too easy to arrive at is that Jaffer is keeping Sehwag out of the side.

Jaffer's double at Kolkata came off 270 balls.

Life has been tough on Veeru and it was unfair to drop him from the Test side when he was. However, cricket selection is not about correcting historical wrongs. Having already unfairly glossed over the claims of his Delhi mates Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra, everything should not be given to Sehwag on a platter. Not when Jaffer and Karthik have been a prolific opening combo over the past year. It was a mistake to break them up, but that does not justify an even bigger one.

Jaffer's problem is that he does not give off the "confident vibe" which Yuvraj seems to ooze without effort, or Sehwag is rumoured to bring into the batting order, and is an easy scapegoat. He needs to start wearing shades and start talking more maybe. Or at least louder and in better English.

Pakistan in India, Eden Gardens

Eden Gardens, Day 5: Pakistan live to fight another day

There is much to be said of living to fight another day. No one knows that better than Pakistan. Their most celbrated victories have come when all but the craziest had written them off. On days one and two, nobody seemed to doubt that this was the worst Pakistan squad to have ever toured India. But now, Pakistan are moral victors having drawn at Kolkata with a severely depleted bowling line-up. Much credit to Younis Khan, who not only delayed his arrival at the crease to let Kamran have a go and to shore up the lower order, but also attacked with purpose after Butt concentrated hard to leave almost every ball on the rough alone.

India did threaten until the two Ys were settled but once that happened, only spectacular fielding and lapses in concentration could have brought them back into the match.

Apart from the Kamran-Misbah partnership, Sami's barnacle act that ate up so much time was a definite match-turner. Perhaps India could have batted a tad faster. Ganguly could have run better once Khan had spread the field to save the boundary. Eventually, declaration was a decision taken out of Kumble's hands on Day 4, and there is no point discussing it.

Another interesting facet in this match has been watching Shoaib's bowling. After a horrid Day 1, he showed definite improvement. Even though no wickets came his way in that mammoth first innings, he did bowl 16% of Pakistans overs. In the second innings, he bowled more than Sami or Tanvir, and also did a good job of stopping Ganguly and Dhoni from going for an early decaration.

Eden Gardens, Days 3 and 4: It's alive!!!
India could have done much better at the end of the fourth day's play. Pakistan should have folded much earlier, and Dhoni and Gulguly could've done better towards the end.

Kamran was brilliant after lunch on Day 3, making it the third time he has bailed his time out with brilliant counterattack against India. When we see such stunning strokeplay, it is difficult to reason why he is not among the top wicketkeeper batsmen in the world today. Yes, the pitch was flat but the score was 150 for 5, and only the Aussies can claim to have consistently regrouped from such a situation. Hopefully he can carry this confidence into his keeping as weel. The opportunity again brought the the best out of Misbah who always seems so collected in a pressure cooker until his mode of dismissal would betray the storm within. Misbah and Kamran ran well and built their stand and Pakistan had the opportunity to walk away with a draw. Misbah did not relent on the morning of Day 4 and Sami did the barnacle act again. The follow-on was averted and then some. Once Sami was dismissed, the rest perished in a flurry.

Kamran should have been out earlier, and Sami as well. It was shocking that the scoreline did not reflect how badly the Indians fielded in England, and probably it won't in this series as well. One hopes the batting and bowling can hide the fielding troubles in Australia as well.

Karthik was scratchy in trying to regain some form but Jaffer was as confident as I have ever seen anyone and capitalised on several Tanvir deliveries on his pads. Karthik got out trying to be too sexy. The next boundary came four overs later, and the one after that came after six. Jaffer went trying to slog after his fifty and Ganguly came. Dhoni had been sent in to accelerate the scoring rate. But some awesome turn that Kaneria got from the rough outside leg, as well as Shoaib's controlled aggression, and Ganguly's weak running meant India did not declare by end of the day's play. On a difficult wicket, Dhoni (28 from 53) might not necessarily be the guy who can score quick.

In 2001, seven Aussie wickets fell after tea on the last day. India have given themselves a chance to win, and they just need to keep going at Pakistan. Harbhajan already has five wickets in this match. He will be very confident. But Pakistan will be too, as anyone who came back from the dead would be.

Pakistan in India, Eden Gardens, Day 2: Ganguly, Laxman, Dhoni pile on
Ganguly, Laxman and Dhoni coninued to pile on the misery. The strokes sparkled in the first session and continued till Ganguly's dismissal. Both men made their first hundred against Pakistan. For Dada, it might even have been emotional.

Shoaib was a touch better today. He bowled more and tried to keep it in the 140s, though the slower deliveries were coming with predictable regularity. Sohail Tanvir though, found the situation too hot to handle and continued to leak runs. Sami eventually ended up bowling just five overs more than Shoaib. The batsmen were in such good control that Danish Kaneria was punished for almost every single bad ball that he bowled. Kumble's declaration left him stranded on 194.

For a brief period prior to the tea break, both Laxman and Dhoni went circumspect, and I was wondering whether there would even be a declaration today. But all those doubts were put to rest when Dhoni reeled off some strokes to bring up his fifty and the declaration with it.

Whether it was merely a matter of an unequal contest between bat and ball on a placid pitch will be revealed tomorrow. The third day is supposed to be the best for batting at Eden Gardens, and Pakistan have an opportunity to get as close to the follow-on target as possible. It is still not clear what is wrong with Zaheer Khan, but Kumble did the right thing in taking him out of the attack at the first sign of trouble. India need Zaheer to be fit for the long haul ahead.

Even without Zaheer in the attack, Pakistan will at least need until lunch on the fourth day to overhaul the target. India will not lose this series. To win this test, the Indian captain will look no further than himself. However, Kumble will need to work in tandem with Bhajji, and a few injections of confidence will do him no harm. This is Eden and it won't be the first time he has performed magic here.

Eden Gardens, Day 1: Jaffer bullies clueless Pakistan
Pakistan were asking for it, going into the match with an unfit Shoaib. A shadow of his second-innings avtar in Delhi, Pakistan were a bowler short throughout and India made the most of it. Of course it could have been much better had Dravid not been given out, but Dravid should have been run out a few overs earlier.

Dravid's partnership with Jaffer laid the foundations for the assault that Jaffer and Tendulkar launched. Pakistan's brightest moment was when Tendulkar fell to a Kaneria googly after a sparkling knock. Post the second innings at Kotla, he seems to have shifted a few gears in his head and his style. I was getting quite irritated with his grinding game in England, but this was fun to watch. Even when Kaneria tried to do what Warne once attempted, packing the leg side field and bowling into the rough outside legstump, Sachin was looking very much at ease.

Jaffer throughout, was magestic and dominated everyone, pulling and cutting and driving easily. On three different occasions, he reeled off a hat-trick of boundaries. In Australia he may not get away with driving in the air so much, but man, his backfoot play is spectacular. Sohail Tanvir seemed to be at the recieving end quite a bit. With Shoaib certainly undercooked and Sami bowling like he did not care, Kaneria's good bowling at the other end went unrewarded. Kamran dropping Tendulkar did not help. At the end of the day, it had to be said that these two teams were not evenly matched. Even on placid pitches, Pakistani bowling ususally threatens more.

I do not know the logic of playing three pacers at Eden Gardens. But even if we agree with that policy, Pakistan would have been much better off choosing the repalcement Arafat. I do not know whether the management was pandering to Shoaib's whims, but from the morning it was clear that Shoaib would be dead weight. Tanvir, Arafat, Kaneria and Rehman it should have been.

What of Dinesh Kathik? Despite his failure in three consecutive innings' he is still in the Top 10 runscorers in Tests in 2007. But how much longer can he keep out Gautam Gambhir or Yuvraj Singh? Things somehow look rosy for Indian Test cricket. There is competition for the openers spot, in the middle order, to be the chosen fast bowling options, and to be Kumble's suppport spinner. Mahendra Singh Dhoni seems to have cornered the wicket keeper batsman's position, though.

Your best openers or your best batsmen

Question is, do you pick the two best openers in your XI, or do you pick your best batsmen and demand that two of them open the innings?

Jaffer and Karthik are certain for the XI for the first Test against Pakistan. But are they both good enough to be in a side that could potentially leave Laxman, Yuvraj or Ganguly or any combination of them, on the bench?