The Tendulkar era

Harsha Bhogle (cricket commentator and columnist) wrote 2 very good articles on great man - Sachin Tendulkar. One was written just prior to his announcement of retirement from One Day cricket and other was written just after the announcement.

Both the articles very well written.
Before the announcement - It's not just Tendulkar's decision

After the announcement - The Tendulkar habit

As a true fan I would forever want to see 90's Tendulkar on the field but all good things must come to an end. Let us relish his whites while he is still playing.

India in West Indies - Series preview

Who will the win the series?

Bookies are still favoring India even after pathetic T20 World Cup performance. Media is not particularly favoring any team. I will go with the bookies even though WI has lot of positives to bank upon:

1. India's premier players are not playing - Tendulkar, Sehwag, Zaheer and Raina are nursing injuries.
2. WI is going into the series with lot of confidence after dumping Australia and India out of T20 World Cup and reaching semis.
3. Fatigue of Indian players or as proclaimed by media after poor performance in T20 World Cup.

Let's analyze the perceived positives. It is true that absence of key players will hurt India but it will also reduce fatigue factor. Zaheer and Raina were important members of T20 World Cup but they are replaced by fresh legs. More than the physical fatigue, mental fatigue hurt India in T20 World Cup. That too will be reduced by introduction of new players. Moreover there are many strong contenders for a place in team India. Excerpt from one of my earlier posts

Beyond the bench - Players like Karthink, Nehra, Munaf, Mishra, Balaji are not in the 15 member squad. These players performed exceptionally well in recently concluded IPL and have donned India colours before; they can walk in any other international side based on their performance. Alas! There is no space for them in Indian team. And I am not talking about the other young guns who also performed well in IPL but do not have the international exposure. Surely they will put positive pressure on the players in world cup squad.

More than anything else T20 and one dayers are different games and not for nothing India are placed close 3rd in ICC ranking whereas WI are placed poor 8th. India has lost just 3 dead games in last 18 one dayers. Dhoni's comments sums up everything Indian team reaches Jamaica

West Indies is playing good cricket at the moment. They are having a very good World Twenty20 tournament, but in the 50 overs, you have time to settle down."

Can India become number 1?

BCCI selection committee is in a dilemma whom to select and whom to drop for ICC T20 world cup. Read the following article on cricinfo
RP in contention for World Twenty20
BCCI selection committee has a happy problem at hand. They have problem of plenty; they can choose 15 member squad from a pool of 20 or more quality players A team's strength can be judged by looking at the quality of players who are not part of team squad. India has very good quality players who are not part of international squad. These qulity players can walk into the team any day on the basis of their performance in IPL or other domestic tournaments.
In this decade India have remained serious contenders for number 1 only because of strong playing 11. But lately the bench strength has improved and they have been winning consistently. It has happened because of improvement at domestic level (Ranji, IPL et. el.) and under 19 level.

We can only expect that team will improve further and in near future India will become ICC number 1 team; albeit in T20 and one day. But test matches are a different ballgame. In test there are players staking claim to get into team but to it will be next to impossible to replace Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman. Let us just hope for the best.