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Saturday, September 01, 2012

India versus New Zealand test series - will Sachin be next?

New Zealand are fresh after their defeat to West Indies - they lag the Caribbean team by 10 points in the ICC Rankings table. The Black Caps are in India after the loss, still without veteran Dan Vettori. Is there any point in getting interested about this 2-test series?

As predicted, Ashwin and Ojha trapped the NZ batsmen in the first test in their web to ensure that India ran away with the match to win by an innings and more. After the VVS controversy, Pujara raised his hands and put up a big hundred to boot. All nice and well. We will revisit the scene once the English and Aussies are in India. Kohli, as usual, is milking runs like there is no tomorrow (nobody should blame him for there will be a time when he will struggle to score runs). As with Rohit Sharma in the ODIs, MS Dhoni has given Suresh Raina a long reign in the test matches (ahead of the senior Badrinath). Time and again, Raina has promised much only to under-deliver - this must be making Dhoni's youngsters-only mantra more difficult to implement.

Sachin Tendulkar has failed twice so far, completely bowled in the innings he has faced. Though Gavaskar and Manjrekar thought that this was due to Tendulkar's age, they managed to come up with a statement (as only fellow Mumbaikars can) to assure the viewers that Sachin might still come up with a big hundred in his next outing with the bat! The double standards are visible for everyone to see - when Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were not doing well, they were questioned but the same is not applied to a certain Sachin Tendulkar. Even if he is a genius, there is a time one must leave, isnt it? You cannot put a Dravid or Laxman anywhere behind Sachin in terms of their effectiveness, commitment and dedication to Indian cricket - then, why the dual policy?

After the initial flurry of wickets on the second day of the second test, Raina, Kohli and Dhoni have wrested back the initiative. It is just a matter of time when the Indian spinners weave a web around the Black Caps again!

1 comment:

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