I saw the above news scroll on NDTV today! Couldn’t he atleast wait for the WC to get over before announcing his new career? A few good knocks and now Ganguly — Dada — seems back to his old self! C’mon Dada, concentrate on the job at hand first. Things like a coaching job or a commentary job, or a cricket academy in Kokata can all wait. Don’t worry you might even make it as an ICC match referee. First things first please!
Sanjay
Anil Kumble, India’s champion spinner will be playing his last World Cup as per this report. I was just taking a look at Kumble’s past WC performances and there are some very interesting stats.
His World Cup (WC) record is very impressive. He has an average of 23.92 and an economy rate of 4.08. Also look at the break down by World Cup edition.
The figures are fairly similar regarding the economy rates, but in 1999 he had a higher average. In 2002-03 the 3 matches he played were against New Zealand, Australia and Pakistan. So the stats are not exactly skewed in his favor as they may have been had he played against some of the weaker teams! In 1999, he had bad games against Australia and New Zealand — in the matches that India lost. Again in 1995-96 in that crucial match against SL he had a bad game. My point is that in a tournament of this nature with a lot of matches to be played Kumble could be a vital cog in the bowling attack.
He should be played against teams like South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, West Indies and England. Whereas if the team has place for only one spinner then Harbhajan Singh should be played against the sub continental teams like Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Of coruce everything depends on current form, fitness and match conditions. But Kumble is in good form and will be important in the final scheme of things. Kumble has served India admirably well and for long. At crucial moments his temporary loss of form went against him especially when he could have been an India captain.
Mat O R W BB1 BB2 Ave Econ SR 4w 5w ODI 270 2406.5 10374 334 6/12 5/33 31.05 4.31 43.2 8 2 World Cup 17 164 670 28 4/32 3/28 23.92 4.08 35.1 1 0
1995-96 7 69.4 281 15 3/28 3/35 18.73 4.03 27.8 0 0
1999 7 67.2 282 8 2/30 2/41 35.25 4.18 50.5 0 0
2002-03 3 27 107 5 4/32 1/24 21.40 3.96 32.4 1 0
Sanjay
Increasingly, the relevance of batting orders has come to question across all international teams in the one day format. While it may be a worthy exercise to analyze this trend across the different teams, it certainly is worthwhile looking at it from India’s point of view.
In ODIs, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar shared over a hundred opening partnerships. To be precise, they had 117 opening stands in ODI cricket for a total of 5621 runs at an average of 48.88 per outing, including 15 partnerships (12.82%) of 100+ runs.
After Virender Sehwag’s emergence, the Ganguly-Sehwag combine opened in 42 games. They had 42 opening stands in ODI cricket for a total of 1705 runs at an average of 40.60 per outing, including 5 partnerships (11.90%) of 100+ runs.
The Tendulkar-Sehwag opening partnership combined extremely well too. They had 57 opening stands in ODI cricket for a total of 2459 runs at an average of 43.14 per outing, including 9 partnerships (15.79%) of 100+ runs.
Of course, I recognise that one other metric that we haven’t considered in all of this is the partnership strike rate.
However, with injuries to Tendulkar and with Ganguly being in and out of the side, the opening stands have changed hands periodically. At various times, Irfan Pathan, Dinesh Mongia, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rahul Dravid and others have quite often accepted the opening role. With Rahul Dravid, Mohammed Kaif, and Yuvraj Singh being regulars in the side, the middle order seemed fairly consistent and intact for quite a while.
The Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell team has completely changed the philosophy behind batting orders and I think for the right reasons. Factors including but not limited to, types of pitches, bowling standards, powerplay rules and fielding standards have essentially required batsmen to adapt fairly quickly in various conditions to produce results.
Imagine a situation that we have seen before: Irfan Pathan would have three wickets in a couple of overs at the start of the game and you have the number 5 playing pretty much as an opener. Or imagine another situation wherein Dravid walks in in the 45th over as a number five and has to obviously get quick runs if batting first. These are not rare occurrences as we have to come observe. The rationale adopted by Chappell and Dravid seems fairly obvious, the top seven in the batting order should be in a position to bat at any position and at point during the game. Tendulkar’s injuries and his own evolution as a batsman, leader and guide/mentor (a topic for a separate discussion that I will work on) have played a role in the team. Dhoni’s transformation from a slam-bang type of player to a responsible bat (another topic for a separate discussion) has also contributed. The forced transformation on Sehwag further seems to validate the point. And what about Dinesh Karthik!
It is quite amazing actually. India’s top seven batsmen (they can pretty much be any seven batters in the fifteen) are flexible enough to play anywhere, anytime.
This is an enviable position to be in. In fact, it almost seems to set a precedent for any new/emerging/re-emerging players trying to get into the team. The remaining four could, in these circumstances, be specialist bowlers with atleast two in the top seven in a position to complete a 10 over quota. I believe that this unique strength of the Indian team gives Team India an advantage over teams like Sri Lanka or New Zealand who try and fill their teams with all rounders and three or less specialist bowlers.
Srikanth
In case Pathan is not declared match-fit and if the selectors were looking at Suresh Raina as an alternative, they may have to think again. The young lad, who has been in good form — along with other recent discard, captain Mohammed Kaif — is out of two Deodhar Trophy games with an injured knee.
— Mohan
The above post as [mohankaus], [blogesh], [sanjaysub], [smangalam] and [ajit_bhaskar] respectively.
Read more about the contributors to this blog here.
If you would like to submit an article, please send it by email to one of the Contributors. We will review your submission and, if appropriate for this blog, i3j3Guest will post it. We will, of course, sign the article under your name.
Mohan’s Musings Mahesh’s Brain Droppings Sanjay’s Board Games Blog
i3j3Cricket :: A blog for fans of Indian cricket... 