Off Stump

I can't recall a time ever when I've been this excited about a series which I was certain would end in an Indian defeat. India have won just two of the 15 matches they've played on South African soil and there's no reason to believe that they will add to that meagre tally this time. If an inexperienced batting line-up (the likely top 6 have a combined experience of 59 matches) made things difficult, a thrashing in the ODI series followed by a washed out practice game almost seals the series before it begins. That's where India's best chance might lie though. No one expects them to do well including the opposition and that can sometimes be a tricky mindset for host nations. Smith and his men are experienced enough to pull up their socks if things slip (like they did in the UAE recently) but to a degree they will be going in assuming an easy win and if India's batting can withstand some of the pressure they might at least go into day five. For once though i...

July 21st feels like a different age now but in actual fact it was less than half a year back. For Cook and Clarke it must seem like an eon and more given how their respective positions as captains has reversed. One thing that has not changed though is their batting form. Clarke had a blip in those first two games in England but came roaring back to form in the third Test of the summer and has continued the good work with two more hundreds since. Cook's scores on the other hand (since the third Test of the summer) read 62, 0, 51, 22, 25, 34, 13, 65, 3, and 1. Hardly what you'd expect from a man who averages 47.2 and scores a hundred every seven innings. Its hard enough to be out of form as captain (and the team's main batsman) when your team is winning. But when you're down 0-2 and on the brink of losing the Ashes, and your senior players are not performing, the weight of personal failure must seem crushing. Cook though has always come across as someone who could bear ...

If I had to sum Mahendra Singh Dhoni up in one word it would be equanimous . When you listen to him after a press conference its sometimes hard to tell what the result of the game was, let alone his own individual performance. Its this equanimity too that helps him play the most incredible nerveless innings (like the one described here by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan) and handle the various off-field shenanigans that the world of Indian cricket keeps throwing up. So it wasn't a real surprise to hear him be pretty sang-froid about India's relatively inexperienced squad for the tour of South Africa. Behind the calm though is a man keenly aware (though probably not too concerned) that until he reaps overseas Test success, his detractors will not acknowledge his abilities as captain despite his record being the best by far of any Indian captain. India's next year and a bit which has them playing 13 Tests across South Africa, New Zealand, England, and Australia gives him that opp...