Skip to main content

The battle for No. 3

Since the decline in Australian domination post 2007, teams appear to have become obsessed with being ranked #1 in Test cricket as though a numerical calculation mattered more than actual results and winning Test matches. The fact that the ranking has changed hands four times in the last five years is almost testament to the fact that teams are driven more by wanting to reach the top spot than on staying there once they make it. Graeme Smith's team will claim that they are the most deserving holders of the mace given their consistency in the last five years plus the fact that they have beaten both Eng and Aus away, and not lost to India in India ie they have outperformed their closest contenders in their home conditions. The truth though is that there is no clear-cut champion at the moment.

What is very clear though is that the upcoming Pataudi Trophy series is a contest to decide third and fourth place. In current form and team circumstances, the teams battling each other down under currently are clearly ahead of England and India. South Africa are still the best all-round unit (ie with the fewest weaknesses) and Australia have a captain who's proving to be inspirational and in the form of his life. Dhoni's men and Cook and co on the other hand are having to rebuild and as Osman Samiuddin puts it, the biggest learning from the series will be how much more rebuilding the losing team will need to do.

Still, a contest between equally flawed teams is often as thrilling as that between equally good ones so I'm eagerly waiting for play to begin in less than six hours time!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Et tu?

As a single sport website, I think Cricinfo has brought about a revolution and the fact that they were bought by ESPN is testament to how highly valued they've become. Their editing and approach to articles/opinion has been refreshing to say the least and even though they seem to have had a lot of editorial staff movement they've usually maintained very high standards. Off late though, both in their headline styles as well as in actual content, there seems to be an occasional slippage of standards and an inching towards the modern media sensationalism which is a bit of a pity. This piece  by Siddharth Monga is a classic example. Granted that the last two press conferences by Dhoni and Sehwag  indicated clearly that the captain and his deputy did not agree on this aspect of selection but "discord", "dissent", "public sniping" feels rather presumptuous and heavy handed. Yes, it is a team sport but there is no reason why everyone on the team needs ...

Much ado about a run-out

Judging by the amount that's been said and written about Ian Bell's run-out-that-wasn't at Trent Bridge, you would think that it has been the most significant occurrence of the series so far when nothing could be further from the truth. Andrew Miller  and Samir Chopra seem to be of the opinion that it was the crucial turning point in the match, which I completely disagree with (the post-tea sessions on days one and two were far more critical and momentum shifting). Andy Flower says that if Tendulkar had been run-out similarly in Bombay, it would have caused an international incident. He's clearly feeling the effects of having been in the England cricket set-up for too long given that a) its very improbable that Tendulkar would do something as daft as Bell did, and b) when a controversial run-out (but within the laws) did happen to him (against Pakistan at Eden Gardens no less), Tendulkar went out to the crowd and appealed to them to calm down and let the game proceed...

First thoughts on the Ashes

The only minor surprise for me in the 2013 Australian Ashes squad announced last week was the selection of James Faulkner ahead of Moises Henriques as the second all-rounder. Minor because given  the Shane Watson shenanigans of recent times, I would have thought that Inverarity and co would have opted for a second batting all-rounder (which is what Henriques clearly is). Instead they've gone with a bowling all-rounder in Faulkner and it'll be interesting to see what happens if Watson's batting woes in Test match cricket continue in the first two Tests. As for the rest of the squad, given the way the inexperienced batting performed in India, Rogers and Haddin were always going to make it in to the team and the choice of Khawaja over Smith appears sound too given that the latter's strength is in playing spin bowling. The batting still looks as unsettled and shaky as the Indian fast bowling line-up and its here that the series will be won or lost for the Aussies. The retu...