The cockiness that is the Bangladesh Cricket Team

1st Test - Bangladesh v England - 20-24th October 2016
Result - England won lost by 22 runs

Just a few days ago, the same Bangladesh team were gung-ho about having beaten a full-fledged England team in an ODI.

The Bangladesh players started getting cocky towards the end of the match with their hooliganism-like celebrations after each wicket.

Jos Buttler was the first one to witness it on the ground.

Mind you, no words were exchanged, it was just the way the players celebrated almost mocking the English batsmen that ticked Buttler off.

The monkey-faces, the teasing, all juvenile behaviour. If one can go back to school times, it's what the bully would try and do to intimidate you.

It stems from the lack of self belief one has that makes one act cocky and irritating. Similar is Bangladesh players' reason. The success they've had recently has in some ways gone to their heads.

It was not often that our neighbours have had success against the big teams in world cricket but the ICC World Cup 2015 was a different story. They not only beat sides like England convincingly they did this on a consistent basis even after the World Cup. Infact, in the past 2 years this is their first defeat in a One Day series at home.

They had remained unbeaten in 6 consecutive series at home. In this time they managed to beat teams like South Africa, India, Zimbabwe.

Inspite of all this, somehow they have not been able to instil the confidence in themselves to believe that they can do this more often and have what it takes to play at this level.

The problem with Bangladesh cricket had always been that they were not improving as a side and since the past 1 year or so they have. They started beating good one day sides, started playing competitive cricket, which is what would get them the respect that they are so clearly desperate for.

At the same time, incidents like these will not only hamper their reputation further but make fans the world over believe that this is a one-off phase and that Bangladesh is not capable of reproducing such amazing wins on a consistent basis.

The 1st Test vs England was another super chance for the team to stamp their mark in Test cricket.
A chance for them to transform their ODI success to the Test level. But, alas, they could not.

This loss can easily be attributed to their 'lack of experience at the Test level' but it is not that.
It was selfish cricket on the part of a few batsmen that led to their downfall from a fairly commanding position.

Sabbir Rahman, who most are hailing to be the next hero from the land of the left-arm spinners, was the chief culprit. He would often get off strike in the beginning of the over, letting the lesser batsmen face the music on the other end. The ploy obviously did not work as very soon the game was all over when Ben Stokes got Taijul Islam and Shafiul Islam lbw in a matter of 3 deliveries.

Hope Sabbir and Bangladesh have learnt their lesson and instead of seeing the annoying side of the players and the fans, we get to see a team with more self-belief and confidence.

Last man standing

In the on-going Australia-India series, it seems like India Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is fighting a lone battle.

His batsmen might be scoring all the runs, but his bowlers and fielders just do not seem to be with him.

To be fair, the batsmen too, are only scoring for themselves and bettering their own record. Take Rohit Sharma for instance. He has been in good form and is trying to make the most of it. Australian pitches are not known for their seam or swing and hence it's difficult to get him out initially. We all know that Rohit is a nervous starter, and this lack of swing, seam or pace from the Australian unit is only playing into his hands. Agreed that it still takes some doing to score two back-to-back hundreds and kudos to him for that.

Virat Kohli, scored two back-to-back fifties and he seemed in great form too. He had pledged that he will score atleast two hundreds in the series and so far till the 3rd ODI he has hit one. His average before this series in Australia was 15.83, which has now gone upto 40.22. So, he did himself and the country a favour.

Shikhar Dhawan, as much as it was debated if he did play a selfish innings or was it his way of getting back into the groove of things and may be push on from there, after getting a start. One wouldn't know the result as he got out scoring 68 off 91 deliveries in the 3rd ODI at Melbourne.

Ajinkya Rahane, scored two fifties and is trying to secure his place in a team where Dhoni is captain. Kohli, believes in him as a Test batsman. Although, it isn't clear yet if Rahane will remain at no.4.

Anyway, back to the Dhoni and the lone battle.

If one was to view the matches from a non-biased point of view, it could be clearly seen that the bowlers and fielders just do not seem to be under Dhoni's control. He asks them to bowl to a certain field and they fail to deliver. And these are no inexperienced bowlers as the commentators and experts have been crying out loud. It is Ishant's 4th tour, Umesh's 3rd tour, Ashwin's 2nd tour. Bhuvneshwar too has travelled to Australia before.

The fact that after the 2nd ODI Dhoni mentioned in the press conference that Rishi Dhawan might bowl well but will not be successful at this level and the next match he gets his ODI cap. Clearly shows a rift between the selectors and the captain. The fact that what the captain says and believes in just does not matter doesn't augur well.

If he is the chosen captain then give him all the support.

As of now it is pretty clear that the Kohli-Shastri nexus is working overtime to make sure the Dhoni-led Team India doesn't get success and paves way for Kohli to takeover the ODI as well T20 captaincy from India's most successful captain ever!

Sad as it may be, Indian cricket has never really learnt to give a fitting farewell to its heroes. The World T20 in all possibility might be Dhoni's last series as captain and player.

The way the format is scheduled for the World T20, India is bound to reach the semis and from there it is anybody's game. If Dhoni wants to be selfless he might not retire if India wins, just the way Tendulkar did not, as he thought it would take away the focus from India's victory.

But Dhoni is now a changed man. He blames his bowlers, he complains about his batsmen not being able to rotate the strike, he gets frustrated on the field, he ha started to show his emotions after India picks up a wicket or when his fielders fail. This Dhoni is not the Dhoni that won us the World T20 with the calm and the cool.

This is a new Dhoni. One who is fighting a lone battle, sadly, there is no one supporting him.

Dhoni is the last man standing of his own era!

The genius that is AB or is it?

Abrahama Benjamin De Villiers, the 31-year-old South African is all set to play his 100th Test at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bengaluru on the 14th of November 2015 vs India.

The man has been in phenomenal form in the last one year, scoring the fastest hundred off 31 balls vs the West Indies, scoring runs by the dozen during the ICC World Cup 2015.

Even in the recently concluded ODI and T20I series vs India, de Villiers has been in amazing form. HE scored 3 hundreds in 5 ODIs vs India.

He is the only batsman in ODIs to average over 50 with a strike-rate of 100+.

Am sure most of you'll have read about his multiple sports achievements, having played Rugby, Badminton, Tennis, Swimming and what not.

In short, this guy is a genius.

In cricket, as in any other sport, there always comes a time when an athlete goes through a purple patch. A time when he doesn't seem to do any thing wrong and reaches heights never thought achievable.

In cricket, they say you reach that time around your 30s. You tend to reach your maturity in every sense of the word and have a better understanding of your own game. That to me, seems like the case with a certain Mr. ABD.

There is no denying that the way he has been playing it looks impossible to stop him. But if you've been a die-had cricket fan you'd remember the same happening with Mathew Hayden when he had come to India in 1999, same happened with Graeme Smith, Alastair Cook, Saeed Anwar, Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya...and the list is endless.

But we dare not mix these mortals with the genius that is a ABD or even a Sachin Tendulkar,

As much as I agree that the man is special and has a lot of time to play his shots and infact can play more than the shots in the book, I feel that he isn't all no-chinks-in-my-armour!

If you saw the first innings of the first Test at Mohali and saw de Villiers' batting, you will know what am talking about.

For the first few runs ABD was like fish out of water. Saying he was clueless would be an understatement. He had no clue how to play spin on a turning track. His go-to method has been to attack when not sure. Which works for someone as talented as him, but that too didn't seem to be working.

Put him in a spot against quality and you never know...ABD the genius or....

India lacks a crisis man. And it scares me.

India might be a power house of batting, we might have the Kohlis and the double-hundred Sharmas and the new-found-off-stump-line Ashwin. But what we don't have is a player who will fight it out in hard times.

I mean, every team has a crisis man. There used to be a time when you could name each player in a team who would be known for something like this...Eg. Virender Sehwag for India, Mahela Jayawardene for Sri Lanka, Moin Khan for Pakistan, Ian Healy for Australia, Jacques Kallis for South Africa. But that era seems to be gone.

Now when times are tough, teams tend to crack. Experts blame it on the T20 era. I think that's bullshit.

You need to be mentally tough and an amazing self-belief, which is not based on how the pitch is behaving or who is bowling at what speed!

Now, it looks like all teams are going through that phase when they just don't have an answer for it.

Ashwin at times has done for India with both bat and ball, Rahane too, but yet somehow they don't inspire the kind of confidence needed at such times.

Take the second T20 for instance, 67 for 5 quickly became 69 for 7. Three wickets in the space of  a  few deliveries.

Most teams of the early 2000s or even late 90s would have some player who would be ready to fight. Even Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) would have done something. Not today, he just isn't in the right frame of mind. He knows it's over and he's just going through the motion, much similar to how Indian fielders would be when Australia would be 300/2 in a Test. You know the wickets won't come...they will have to hand it to you!

Anyway, coming back, what India lacks is a crisis man!

Unless we have a 200+ total in a T20 or a 350+ in an ODI, we are never sure if we will win.

Try to remember the last time we won a low-scoring game?? I can't think of any!!

That scares me...this generation is just not ready to fight it out, they want it all easy. There isn't one player who will lift the spirit of this entire team.

Even the commentators believed that a Ravi Shastri can motivate them!! And I was like...WTF!! Why do you need a 50-year old trying to ignite passion and tell you to get up and do something.

I would expect someone like a Kohli/Dhoni doing something like this. Saying stuff like, 'come on guys, let's get'em!!

That's not fair Steve

2nd Innings, 4th ball of the 26th over, England vs Australia, 1st ODI at Lord's.

The man on strike was England all-rounder Ben Stokes and the bowler running in was the tall lanky Australian pacer, Mitchell Starc.

This is what happened.

Now watch it again, what Ben Stokes did was more a spontaneous reaction trying to save himself.

Yes, replays do make it look like he made a conscious effort to avoid the ball hitting the stumps, but that's what action replays do. They are super slow. Watch it real time and it is obvious that what Stokes was doing was what most people would've done.

The ball was thrown from the wrong side for the right-handed Stokes and just because of the angle that Starc was throwing it from, to him it must've felt like it would go and hit him. It's only a little later does he realise that the ball will not hit him but was moving towards the stump.

His fault? Well, he was trying to save himself from any harm and since the time taken for the ball to reach him after it leaves Starc's hand is barely half a second, what he did was totally and completely an honest mistake.

I stand by Stokes and believe that he didn't do anything wrong and it was not fair on Australian Captain Steve Smith's part to have appealed for that.

Stokes has now joined an elite list of batsmen who have been dismissed by Law 37.

Player	Runs	Team	Opposition	Ground	Date
Rameez Raja	99	Pakistan	England	Karachi	Nov 20, 1987
Mohinder Amarnath	28	India	Sri Lankan	Ahmedabad	Oct 22,1089
Daryll Cullinan	46	South Africa	West Indies	Durban	Jan 27, 1999
Inzamam –ul-Haq	16	Pakistan	India	Peshwar	Feb 6, 2006
Mohammed Hafeez	0	Pakistan	South Africa	Durban	Mar 21, 2013
Anwar Ali	7	Pakistan	South Africa	Port Elizabeth	Nov 27, 2013
Ben Stokes	10	England	Australia	The Lord’s	Sept 5, 20

That was quick skipper!

Skipper Virat Kohli has been going on and on about his aggressive and fearless approach. How he is set to change the way things have gone on in Indian cricket. How he believes in a five-bowler theory, playing a positive brand of cricket and three major things he has been doing are:

1. Going for Rohit Sharma at no.3
2. Picking out and out pace bowlers over line & length accurate bowlers
3. Playing with 5 specialist bowlers

So, let's start with Rohit Sharna who the captain has been backing for the longest time.

Before the Sri Lakan series began, Virat had mentioned that he believes Rohit is the man for India at no.3. The guy who has the capability to change the game. One man who onces gets set can change the course of a game and can have a big impact.

The biggest reason for this is the fact that Rohit can shift gears almost at will. True. No doubt about that. After a gazillion chances in ODIs we have seen how double-century-Sharma can flay an attack and make it look like he's cutting butter! But, yes, the big but here is the fact that can we afford to let him play 7 years of Test cricket for him to start delivering.

The point here is that Virat had said that he's keen on Rohit playing for India at no.3 for a long time and the sole reason for Cheteshwar Pujara not being in the team is his inability to change gears. Well, that belief didn't last long now, did it?

Rohit has played not more than 5 innings and he's already lost his place to Ajinkya Rahane. Who may or may not hold on to this place for too long either, since I believe he is more capable to bat and more suited to bat at 5.

As much as I am all for Rohit being sent down the order at no. 5 or 6 I think the captain needs to put more weight to his words. He needs to standby decisions he makes and take flak for it if he really believes what he says.

There is no wrong in admitting your mistake and changing things to help the team. But then again, how can you judge a person's batting or skills at a certain position without giving him a fair run?

If that is how quick the decisions might be reversed then it will only send wrong signals to the players who fail even once or twice.

Varun Aaron is another case in point. Not that he bowled too badly,but he just could not get anything out of the pitch. No extra swing, no reverse swing and Kohli, who has been backing him since the Australia series quickly gave in for the all-over-the-place Umesh Yadav!

It's still the first day of the second Test and Yadav hasn't even got to bowl yet, but skipper, wasn't it you who said after the Bangladesh Test that Yadav is too inaccurate to be playing Tests. And what has he done since then to replace Varun Aaron, who, might not be as effective with the new ball but still showed some discipline.

How about picking Stuart Binny for a Harbhajan Singh? We all know how Binny isn't the best all-rounder in the country. At best, he can be counted as a batsman who can bat a bit. He has nothing to show for his bowling skills, still searching for his first wicket in Tests. A batsman who has managed one fifty, albeit a match-saving one. But wouldn't a Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been a better choice?

It would still mean India would go in with five bowlers. Things changed after just one loss?

Well, all I can say is that the long rope that certain cricketers enjoyed in the past thanks to MS Dhoni, might just have been cut short by the new man in-charge!

Pick favourites, but don't let India suffer

Going by Captain Virat Kohli's choices it's obvious that he is trying to pick his team. He is not the one to go by statistics or reputation.

Be it picking Karn Sharma just because he's a wrist spinner and they tend to do well in Australia or be it choosing a Rohit Sharma over Cheteshwar Pujara for the no. 3 slot. Just because he thinks Rohit can bat more aggressively than Pujara once he settles down.

Or even bringing back the Turbanator, Harbhajan Singh just cause he wants to go ahead with 5 bowlers and only 6 batsmen, which means he would need a bowler who can bat a bit.

Virat Kohli is choosing players that he think will make his strategy work. Nothing wrong in that, as a captain that is the best thing to do, because we live in a country where if the team is performing well no one will give the captain any credit, but when the team starts failing, all blame falls on the captain.

The biggest debate going on these days is about picking Rohit Sharma and giving him more opportunities. This time, its about giving him chances in Tests. Everyone knows how he was persisted with for the longest time in ODIs by MS Dhoni. He might have delivered eventually but someone who played for more than 7 years, scoring a few hundreds here and there just isn't enough.

Same is being done now with Rohit in Tests. Other than the first two hundreds against a hapless West Indies at home in 2013, Rohit has not been able to impress anyone with his batting. For a Test batsman, he just isn't tight with his technique and tends to give away his wicket so very easily. This especially is a major flaw for a batsman coming in at no.3 when the team could be in trouble and needs a batsman with a solid technique and someone who can fight it out there. Rohit Sharma is the last batsman you want in such a situation. It might be an exaggeration, but, I'd rather send in Ishant Sharma who puts a price on his wicket in place of Rohit. A Sharma for a Sharma!

A simple advice to our captain, pick your favourites, but please make sure India doesn't suffer!