No scarcity of fast bowlers

 

Batting of Team India don’t have any worry as there is enough talented batsmen available in India anytime. It was shortage of quality fast bowlers which caused lot of worry and raised lot of questions whenever our experienced fast bowler decided to retire. India never had luxury of six seven quality fast bowlers playing in same era. India always had only one quality fast bowler who carried all the load of fast bowling and around him few mediocre bowlers played but never gave enough support. So question raised who is next? Right now Indian cricket is going through purple patch and everything falling in place. India is No.1 in test ranking, won the World Cup, No.2 ODIs, doing well in T20 but only question that haunts among all these success and that is do India have the quality fast bowlers or who is next Zaheer or next Kapil or next Srinath?

Right now India have good young quicks and waiting for their opportunity. First and foremost name is Deepak Chahar   from Rajasthan. He is 19 years old and made his Ranji  debut  this season against Hyderabad and what a sensational debut that was. Rajasthan bowled out Hyderabad for just 21 runs in that match and Chahar was instrumental in that collapse as he picked up 8 wickets for just 10 runs. He is among Top 3  wicket-takers, this Ranji season. His bowling played crucial role in Rajasthan’s first Ranji triumph. He possess lethal out-swingers with good pace.

Another guy who stormed into the scene is Varun Aaron from Jharkhand. He is 21 years old. He is currently India’s fastest bowler. He came into lime-light when he bowled the fastest ball which clocked 153.7 km on speed gun in Vijay Hazare ODI tournament against Gujarat. He consistently bowls at 150+ speed. He struggled with few back injuries earlier in his career but he recovered well and now  known as Jamshedpur express in domestic cricket. Currently he is playing in IPL for Delhi Daredevils. One more shining star from  Jharkhand after Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Saurabh Tiwary.

Umesh Yadav play for Vidarbha in Ranji Trophy. He is 23 years old. Umesh is very sharp and quick. He consistently hits the 145 km mark. His bouncers are very lethal, ask Sachin Tendulkar, who was hit on the  head while practicing against Yadav in nets. He is playing for Delhi Daredevils in IPL. He got into Indian team and toured South Africa last year but did not get the opportunity to play the game on that tour. He played couple of ODI games for India last year. Good prospect.

Ishant Sharma, everybody knows about him. Very talented young bowler, made sensational debut in Australia couple of seasons back. He is 22 years old. He came into lime-light when he troubled Ricky Ponting and picked his wicket. After that he lost his way somewhat and did not play consistently for the country. He missed the World Cup as well. But IPL 4 has given him new life as he is bowling fast and looks in great rhythm.  He picked up his first fiver of IPL yesterday against Kochi where he bowled unplayable deliveries to Kochi batsmen. It looks like he worked hard on his fitness and on his bowling during lay off.

Jaydev Unadkat is more bowler who emerged from Saurashtra. He is 19 years old. He came into lime-light in last year’s IPL when Akram praised him and express high regards for this youngster. He is left-arm bowler. He had consistent Ranji season. He was selected for South Africa tour last year  and made his debut in 3rd test match of the series. Although that outing was not impressive as he remained wicket-less in that game. But he is young and under Akram’s guidance, he will become real force in future.

Abu Nechim, playing for Assam in Ranji Trophy.  He is 22 years old. Another very talented young quick bowler. Abu bowls at the speed of 140+ km consistently with very good line-length. He is playing for Mumbai Indians in IPL and done well at domestic level.

So India have serious bowling talent and this talent is waiting for their chance eagerly. They are raw and quick. Good thing is that they all are under 23 years of age and bowling at 140+ km speed consistently. BCCI have to give them chance in coming series against West indies and nurture them for future as India have to play lot of cricket this year. Currently India is blessed with good fast bowling talent and BCCI and selectors have to blood these youngsters in the team and give them enough opportunity and also support them even if they don’t do well in 2 or 3 games. In past, India never had so many options in fast bowling, but now India have the option and its time preserve these young fast bowlers and help them in becoming world class performers. The country which had scarcity of fast bowlers, now have plenty of them at their disposal but will BCCI give them enough opportunity is a big question because talent is nothing without opportunity.

Few known and unknown facts about ‘GOD’ Sachin Tendulkar

 

->Grew his hair and tied a band around it to copy his idol John McEnroe.was called McEnroe by his friends. Admires Pete Sampras,Boris Becker and Diego Maradona.

-->Wanted to be a tearing fast bowler and even went to the MRF Pace academy but head coach Dennis Lilee told him to concentrate on his batting.

-->Has scored big runs on Indian festivals like Gokulastmi,Holi,Raksha Bandhan and Diwali.

-->Loved to have i-can-eat-more-vada-pavs-than-you competitions with cricket buddies Vinod Kambli and Salil Ankola.

-->Loves sea food. co-owns a restaurant called ‘Tendulkar’s’ near ‘Gateway of India’ in Mumbai.

-->Sydney cricket ground is his favorite ground.

-->Loves Kishore Kumar and rock group Dire Straits.Fusses over his personal stereo.

-->A ganesh devotee, he visits Siddhi Vinayak temple in the early hours of morning

-->Wears his left pad first, has the tricolor pasted inside his kit bag.

-->Remembers every test dismissals especially the bowler who dismissed him.Likes to dunk his glucose biscuit into his tea.

-->Ambidextrous: bats with his right hand and eats and autographs with his left hand.

-->Used to sleep with his cricket gear during his junior days.

-->Refused to shoot for a soft drink ad of him smashing cricket balls with a fly swatter.he reportedly told film-maker Prahlad Kakkar "that would make me greater than the game." the ad was modified: he hit the balls with a stump.

-->A fast car friend who likes to tear down Mumbai's road at 4 am.

-->Fell from a tree on a Sunday evening during the summer vacation, when Guide was showing on national TV. His infuriated brother (and mentor) Ajit packed him off to cricket coaching class as punishment.

-->Came back from 4 month tour of Australia after the 92 world cup and turned up to play for his college,Kirti college in April 1992.

-->Was without a bat contract during the 1996 world cup where he emerged as the highest run-getter. A famous tyre company promptly signed him up after that.

-->His coach at Shardashram, Ramakant Achrekar used to offer a 1 rupee coin as a prize to anyone who dismissed him. If he remained not out the coin belonged to Sachin. That he still has a good bunch of those coins tells the story.

-->Fielded for Pakistan as substitute during a one-day practice match against India in Brabourne stadium in 1988.

-->Was a ball boy during the 1987 world cup semi final match between India and England at Wankhede.

-->The first ad he shot was for a sticking plaster.

-->In school he was once mistaken for a girl by his good friend Atul Ranade because of his long curls.

-->Amitabh Bachchan became his favorite hero after watching Deewar and Zanjeer..

-->Played tennis ball cricket and darts during rainbreaks.

-->Sang and whistled with Vinod Kambli during their 664 run stand in Harris shield in 1988 to avoid eye contact with coach's assistant, who wanted to declare while the duo wanted to bat on.

-->Teammate Praveen Amre bought him his first pair of international quality cricket shoes.

-->Was a bully at school but was kind to cats and dogs. His first captain Sunil Harshe said that he loved to pick a fight. Every time he was introduced to someone, his 1st reaction was "will I be able to beat him?"

-->Used to go fishing for tadpoles and guppy fishes in the stream that ran through the compound of Sahitya Sahwas at Bandra East.

-->Made his mother once look for a frog bhaji recipe.

-->The nanny who looked after him is now universally called Sachuchi bai.

-->Colony watchman's son Ramesh Pardhe who was his playmate, said Sachin would ask him to dip a rubber ball in water and hurl it at him. He wanted to see the wet marks left on his bat to find out whether he middle the ball correctly.

-->A prankster, he once put a hose pipe into Saurav Ganguly's room and turned the tap on. Ganguly awoke to find his gear floating. Calls Ganguly babu mashai,Saurav calls him chhota babu.

Confident KXIP will take on depleted Delhi at Kotla

 

Magical story of KXIP continues as they are now in top 4 on points table and what a performance against all expectations. 3 wins out of 4 is commendable achievement for the team which don’t have many stars. On the contrary Delhi Daredevils performance has been under scanner as they lost too many matches. 1 win from 4 matches is not good for the team which has players like Sehwag, Warner, Finch, Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan.

Today Delhi will take on KXIP at Feroze Shah Kotla in Delhi. Daredevils in all sorts of trouble and their problems have been futher compounded because their captain and dashing opener Virender Sehwag failed to fire with the bat.  Delhi team is much better if compared to Kochi, Rajasthan or Punjab atleast on paper but their performance is not upto the mark. One of the main reason why Sehwag is not scoring, is the shoulder injury which he is carrying for a long time and this injury stops him from playing free flowing shots which he likes to play. So shoulder injury is hampering Viru’s performance but franchisee pressure and big money forcing him to play in IPL. Delhi’s top-order is very inconsistent and it is Venugopal Rao who comes in at No.5 is scoring most of the runs for them. Naman Ojha, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan failed to make any impression with the bat so far. Delhi have to win today’s game at any cost, it will be going to be an uphill task because KXIP is in winning rhythm. They have to think of promoting in-form Venugopal Rao.

Looking at KXIP, its dream run for them. After loss in their 1st game of IPL everybody written-off KXIP, but what a surprise turnaround by them. After first loss they just kept on winning match after match and recorded hat-trick of victory. Names which were unknown before this IPL are suddenly in lime-light. Adam Gilchrist has done great job as a captain because it is very difficult to win the games with inexperienced and new players. Confidence of KXIP is sky high after 3 consecutive win. Valthaty is the one man who deserves big credit after Gilchrist, because his century against CSK given hopes to KXIP. Valthaty is orange cap holder and it is commendable achievement for any young cricketer. One more ‘Valthaty Special’ is expected today. KXIP now looks like a settled side and they are playing like a unit but on paper Delhi looks far more strong.

Great contest in offering as Delhi will be keen to break the shackles in this match and KXIP will try to continue their winning momentum.

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Team Info:

Delhi Daredevils

Virender Sehwag (Captain), Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha(Wicket-Keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Venugopal Rao, Aavishkar Salvi, Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robin Bist, S Sriram, Tejashwi Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Vikash Mishra, Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem (Foreign) David Warner, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aaron Finch, Mathew Wade, Roloef van der Merwe, Andrew McDonald, Travis Birt, Collin Ingram, Robert Frylinck. Greg Shipperd(Coach)

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Team Info:

Kings XI Punjab

Dinesh Karthik(Wicket-Keeper), Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Shalabh Srivastava, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Yadav, (Foreign) Adam Gilchrist (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Stuart Broad, Ryan Harris, Dimitri Masceranhas, Nathan Remington.Michael Bevan(Coach

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Gayle Hurricane blew away Knights.

Finally RCB broke the shackles and registered their 2nd win in the tournament. Their gamble of playing Gayle also paid off as Gayle blew away his ex-team by hitting big booming sixes. He also gave befitting  reply to Kolkata Knight Riders and West Indian Cricket Board.

Chasing 171 of Kolkata score, RCB started their innings cautiously. First Dilshan opened his hands and hit few boundaries but once Gayle started hitting the ball, Kolkata bowling looked mediocre as none of the bowlers spared. It was Gayle show all the way as he scored brilliant century which included 7 towering sixes. He hit two of the longest sixes of the tournament as one of them gone 104 mt. far and another gone for 101 mt far.  Virat Kohli and Dilshan also played good innings but both innings over-shadowed by Gayle’s clean hitting. He literally massacred the Kolkata bowling and won the game single-handedly for RCB which was struggling to win the games before this match.

Earlier Kolkata fielded Brad Haddin in place Brett Lee. Haddin and Kallis opened the batting for Kolkata and both provided quick and solid start to the Knight Riders but just when they looked settled Haddin got out out to Aravind. Kallis and Gambhir continued their innings but soon Kallis  became victim of Daniel Vettori. Gayle took absolute blinder in covers to sent Kallis back. Pathan Joined Gambhir and both build fantastic partnership. Kolkata reached the score of 170 plus which looked like winning score on the pitch which turned square in previous matches and forced Gambhir to drop pacer like Brett Lee. Pathan once again played superb innings and scored brilliant half-century.Not playing Brett Lee in this match certainly back-fired.

But 170+ score couldn’t help Kolkata to win the game as the man called Gayle was in no mood to do anything silly and he left Shahrukh Khan with a question, why didn’t you pick me in the auction?  RCB won the match with 9 wickets.

Man of the Match

Chris Gayle

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Mumbai Indians were too good for Super Kings

It was the match where bowling and batting of the both the teams were quite par but it was fielding which decided the fate of this match. Mumbai Indians fielded brilliantly and created the opportunities for themselves while Super Kings failed to grab the opportunities which came their way.

Dhoni won the toss for CSK and put Mumbai Indians into bat. Soon his decision gave him result as both Sachin and Sathish got out within six overs. Morkel and Bollinger bowled one of the best opening spell of the tournament. Mumbai again tried new opening partner with Sachin but  experiment  failed once again. Mumbai Indians are winning matches but they failed to find out perfect opening partner for Sachin so far. They tried David Jacobs, James Franklin, Ambati Rayadu and R.Sathish without any success. Rohit Sharma came in after Sachin’s departure and he had other ideas. He came in and took charge of the situation immediatley and played some gorgeous shot on a pitch which had some help for the seamers. It was Rohit’s brilliant innings which bailed Mumbai Indians from the shock of 2 early wickets. Ambati Rayadu also didn’t last long. But Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds stitched superb partnership and achieved the par score of 164. Bollinger was pick of the bowler for CSK as he kept the pressure on. Albie Morkel bowled well in his first spell of 3 overs. It was good bowling performance from CSK.

Chasing 165,  Murali Vijay once again failed to impress. Raina came and gone without troubling the scorers much as Harbhajan caught him off his own bowling and CSK lost their 2 wickets for 36 runs in 5 overs. Badirnath and Hussey kept CSK in hunt as both scored freely after early loss of Raina and Vijay. But Pollard who failed with the ball took brilliant catch of Hussey at short mid-wicket and opened the gate for Mumbai. Confidence of that catch also looked in Pollad’s next over as he sent back captain Dhoni cheaply who got out unluckily. Rohit Sharma took blinder at third-man to dismiss Dhoni. After that it was all Harbhajan show as he tormented CSK middle and lower order and ended up with IPL career best figures of 5-18. 3 wickets in space of 5 balls decided the fate of CSK. Badrinath played superb innings but did not get enough support from other end.

Finally CSK lost their 3rd match on a trot and Mumbai Indians are sitting on top with 8 points While CSK is 2nd from the bottom. Mumbai Indians also took perfect revenge of their last year’s IPL final loss.

Man of the Match

Rohit Sharma

KXIP dumped Royals to register 3rd straight win.

 

Unlucky day for Rajasthan Royals as nothing gone their way and lucky day for KXIP as everything fell in place. KXIP now registered 3rd straight win in the tournament and climbed to the 3rd spot and joined Kolkata, Kochi and Mumbai on points table. Rajasthan slipped one place and now on No.5 on points table.

Royals won the toss and elected to field first. Soon they got the breakthrough when Trivedi bowled Gilchrist but there was twist in tale as it was declared no-ball and Gilchrist was lucky enough to survive. Soon Shaun Tait got the wicket of Valthaty but Royals bad-luck continued as this ball was also declared no-ball. After getting reprieve Valthaty and Gilchrist  just   counter-attacked Royals bowling mercilessly as duo put on 67 runs in just 5 overs.Valthaty once again showed his class and his consistent run with the bat continued which also earned him orange cap as he got past Sachin Tendulkar and became highest run-getter in IPL 4. Finally partnership was broken as Watson picked up Gilchrist. But Royals woes continued as Shaun Marsh straight away attacked the Rajasthan bowlers and played shots all over the park.

In the meantime Valthaty continued his heroics and finally fell to Shane Warne who gave him few verbals as well. At 15th over KXIP reached the score of 169 and it looked ominous that KXIP,  easily get past the 200 mark but Royals came back strongly and reduced KXIP to 195. Siddharth Trivedi and Shane Warne were the costliest bowler for Rajasthan Royals as both of them given more than 50 runs of their bowling. Tait and Watson were the most economical bowlers. Shane Warne also picked up his 50th IPL wicket and became 2nd bowler to do so after R.P Singh.

Chasing score of 195 on a flat deck looked easy but Royals batsmen made the mess of the target as they kept losing wickets at regular interval. Once again  Shane Watson was barred from opening the innings as Swapnil Asnodkar who replaced Paunikar opened the batting with Rahul Dravid. But  Dravid, Asnodkar, Watson and Taylor fell in succession and put the Royals in losing situation but young Ashok Menaria and Stuart Binny did the 50 runs partnership which kept some hopes alive for Rajasthan but increasing run-rate pressure forced Menaria and Binny to play the false strokes and after the departure of Menaria and Binny writing was on wall for Rajasthan and finally Rajasthan faced their third loss in six matches and KXIP registered 3rd consecutive victory.

It was unlucky day for Rajasthan Royals where they got the wickets off no-balls, they fielded poorly, batting did not clicked and they dropped too many catches.

Man of the Match

Shaun Marsh

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Top of the table  KKR will take on bottom of the table RCB.

Another exciting battle on the cards at Edens today as depleted RCB will take on jubilant KKR. At the moment KKR is on top of the table with 6 points and RCB is lying on bottom of the table with 2 points. As far as RCB is concerned it is unfortunate that they are at bottom, looking at their team composition they are the most formidable team in this tournament, so it is surprising that RCB has registered just 1 win from their 4 matches.

After loss against Kochi Tuskers, KKR will go into this match with little caution as no one expected them to get the defeat at the hands of Kochi but that happened. It was poor batting which forced their downfall against Kochi. KKR is one team which looks quite formidable this year. They have great team composition which has mixed blend of youth and experienced players. KKR has won 3 matches out of 5 so far in this edition of IPL. KKRs main reason for loss in last match was the early wickets of Kallis and Gambhir who have given them great starts so far in the tournament. Form of Kallis is little concern now as he failed to score in last 2 matches and he is one player who is capable of holding the innings. But Kallis is class act and he will certainly get among the runs today against his ex-team. Manoj Tiwary’s form is excellent and he is improving with every game. KKR bowling is also quite formidable as they have Brett Lee and Balalji who are bowling well at the moment and backed up well by their spinners, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan and Iqbal Abdulla. KKR batting is strong and very deep and that is big advantage to them. Only thing they require is good start from their openers.They have to replace Bisla with young Shreevats Goswami as Bisla failed to improve his batting and Goswami is far better batsmen than Bisla. Also it will give advantage of left-right combination because Goswami is left-hander and he is very good wicket-keeper as well.

Well what to say about RCB. It’s a dream team for any owner certainly. It has likes of Virat Kohli, AB DeVilliers, Tillkaratane Dilshan, Saurabh Tiwary, Cheteshwar Pujara in their ranks. While bowling consists of Zaheer Khan, Daniel Vettori, Charl Langeveldt. Its great team but not clicking as a unit. Inclusion of Gayle will further bolster their batting line-up; It is one team  which was expected to win consistently but to everybody’s surprise they failed to make any kind of impact in the tournament. Vijay Mallaya reformed this team completely but yet failed to get the desired results, now whom he will sack. RCB is in pathetic situation and they have to start winning games. One more loss and path towards semis  will become more difficult. They have to win against KKR today at any cost as they can’t afford to lose any more matches. They have to gain the momentum and that will happen only by winning the games. So far they relying on two bowlers heavily and only 2 bowlers can’t win match for any team. Team needs efforts from all the members in order to win, so their other bowlers have to perform and  provide support to Zaheer Khan and Daniel Vettori.

KKR will certainly have little advantage today and they will be keen to rub the memories of last game while RCB will try to win at any cost today.

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Team Info:

Kolkata Knightriders

Gautam Gambhir(Captain), Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Jaidev Unadkat, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manvinder Singh Bisla(Wicket-Keeper), Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Sarabjit Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Shreevats Goswami (Foreign) Jacques Kallis, Brad Haddin(Wicket-Keeper), Shakib Al Hassan, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate, James Pattinson.Dave Whatmore(Coach)

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Team Info:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Daniel Vettori (Captain), Virat Kohli, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB De Villiers (wicket-keeper), Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dirk Nannes, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, CM Gautam (Wicket-Keeper), S Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthick, Asad Khan Pathan, Abrar Kazi, Ryan Ninan, Bhareth Narayanan, Nuwan Pradeep.Ray Jennings(Coach)

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Chennai Super Kings to play buoyant Mumbai Indians

It is going to be a sequel of last year’s IPL final. Dhoni’s Kings will take on Sachin’s Indians today at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Right now Mumbai Indians are on No.2 on the points table with 3 wins under belt from four matches. While CSK is on No.8 after 2 wins and 2 losses from 4 matches they played so far. Its also revenge time as Mumbai Indians will certainly look to take revenge of last year’s final.

Looking at Mumbai Indians, it is fantastic team and doing very well in the tournament so far. Mumbai Indians are coming into this match with win under their belt over Pune Warriors India. Captain Sachin Tendulkar is in sub-lime form and  Ambati Rayadu is also playing well. Mumbai Indians have class players in their ranks and their batting is far better than some of the other teams in the tournament with Sachin firing from the top. They have hitters like James Franklin, Pollard and Symonds. Youngsters like Jacobs, Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayadu. They have fantastic bowling line-up which boasts of slinga Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim and Ali Murtaza. Mumbai Indians is the most balanced side in the tournament and their performance in the tournament is evidence of that. Icing on the cake is batting of Sachin Tendulkar whose sheer presence on the crease certainly demoralise the opposition team.

Defending champions CSK did not live upto their reputation of Champions so far as they lost 2 matches out of 4. After making great start in the tournament they lost their way somewhat. This match is very crucial for them to regain that lost momentum. They have great batting line-up and also have very good bowling attack. They have magical captain in Dhoni who lead them to the title win  in last edition. Today they will be playing against the team whom they beat in last edition’s final. CSK possess the likes of Mike Hussey, Raina and Dhoni who are great batsmen in shorter version of the game and they have crisis manager in Badrinath who often bail them out of the trouble. They have good bowlers in their ranks as well. Morkel, Bollinger, Jakati, Suraj Randiv, R.Ashwin are capable enough to get wickets anywhere. Fielding is one of the strong aspect of CSK compared to o0ther teams. Today’s game against Mumbai is very crucial for CSK and they have to win to regain that lost momentum.

Mumbai Indians will certainly have little edge in this game and CSK have to play hard to win this game.

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Team Info:

Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar (c), Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Ali Murtuza, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pawan Suyal, Rajagopal Sathish, Surul Kanwar, Surya Kumar Yadav, T Suman, Yazvendra Singh Chahal, (Foreign) Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, Davy Jacobs, James Franklin, Moises Henriques, Alden Blizzard, Dilhara Fernando

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Team Info:

Chennai Super Kings

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha(Wicket-Keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramanium Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Aniruddha Shrikant, Ganapathi Vignesh, K Vasudevdas, Shadb Jakati, Vijaykumar Yomahesh, (Foreign) Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Doug Bollinger, Scott Styris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis. Stephen Fleming(Coach)

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Is it going to be a Valthaty show once again? KXIP vs RR

 

Jubilant Priety Zinta owned and Gilchrist led KXIP will take on Warnie’s Royals at Mohali tonight. KXIP is full of confidence after two consecutive victories and Rajasthan is bit disappointed after 2 losses at the hands of KKR and washed out match against RCB where they shared the points with RCB.

If we look at KXIP it was not considered best team at the start of the tournament. They also started their IPL 4 campaign with a loss but after that 1st game, their turnaround is superb and credit largely goes to young rising star Paul Valthaty whose all-round performance helped KXIP to put up a brilliant show. Captain Gilchrist also got among the runs in the last match where he struck beautiful half-century and reminded spectators about his glorious past and proved that he is still great with the bat. KXIP now looks quite formidable and T20 is such a format where any team have the chance to win the game. KXIP also have reasonable bowling attack. Praveen Kumar has made a great comeback through IPL after missing the World Cup due to injuries. Ryan Harris and Piyush Chawla are also very good bowlers. So KXIP have the flavour to do well in today's game. However, form of Shaun Marsh is bit of concern who is their mainstay in batting after Gilchrist and Valthaty.

Talking about Rajasthan Royals, it is also owned by one of the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Rajasthan Royals started its IPL 4 campaign by winning first two matches but after that they lost their way somewhat. They lost 2 games consecutively against reformed KKR and their last match against RCB was washed out due to rain and they shared the points with RCB. RR is still in Top 4 and their situation is not that bad. If they win today they can get the momentum. They have better team on-paper compared to KXIP. The have likes of Watson, Dravid, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Shaun Tait, etc. in their ranks and with Warne performing, just add the little bit more spice to the Rajasthan Royals.I think they have to change their bowling and bring in Deepak Chahar in place of Amit Singh who looked out of sorts in last 2 matches. Chahar is young and waiting for his opportunity. Considering today’s game Rajasthan Royals have little bit edge over KXIP.

It going to be cracker of the contest and it will be interesting to see Valthaty continues his good show or not.

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Team Info:

Kings XI Punjab

Dinesh Karthik(Wicket-Keeper), Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Shalabh Srivastava, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Yadav, (Foreign) Adam Gilchrist (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Stuart Broad, Ryan Harris, Dimitri Masceranhas, Nathan Remington.Michael Bevan(Coach

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Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.Shane Warne(Coach/Captain).

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Pune lost 2nd consecutive game. Mumbai’s good run continues.

Indeed a very good match and lasted till last ball. Yuvraj won the toss and elected to bat first but Mumbai wicket offered little bit more assistance to the bowlers this time. Mumbai bowlers took full advantage of the wicket. Harbhajan was rested from the game because of little and his replacement Abu Nechim grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he got the dismissed the inform Pune opener Jesse Ryder in his first over. He went on to pick up 2nd wicket and this early loss never allowed Pune to recover as Munaf Patel and Malinga further jolted the Pune batting. Captain Yuvraj failed miserably today as he got out on the 2nd ball he faced. Utthappa played very good innings and given some hope to Pune Warriors but he too lost his wicket at crucial juncture and ultimately Pune Warriors bowled out cheaply. Looking at the condition of wicket, it looked like Pune Warriors will stop Mumbai Indians before the target.

Mumbai opened with Franklin who replaced Jacobs in this match but he did not lasted long and soon got out. Ambati Rayadu and Sachin Tendulkar kept doing their good work and stitched the partnership but Sachin lost his wicket by playing unnecessary shot on pitch which had something in it for the bowlers. Sachin first time got out in this edition of the IPL. Ambati Rayadu soon followed Sachin and got out but till that time Mumbai reached the doorstep of victory. Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds won the game for Mumbai.

Man of the Match

Munaf Patel

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Kochi registered 3rd consecutive win in a near thriller

Orange colour is on high since last 3 matches. They humbled Mumbai and Chennai earlier and yesterday they stopped the winning streak of KKR at Edens. It was completely a team work which helped Kochi in registering their 3rd consecutive win and now they are in Top 4 on points table with 6 points.

Ravindra Jadeja came up with a brilliant all-round display to help the resurgent Kochi Tuskers Kerala halt Kolkata Knight Riders three-match winning run with a narrow six-run victory in a low-scoring Indian Premier League clash here on Wednesday.Jadeja was the star for the Kochi team as he scored 29 from 18 balls to help his team post 132 for seven and then scalped two wickets as the Tuskers restricted the Knight Riders to 126 for nine at the Eden gardens here. Gambhir won the toss and put Kochi into bat, Kochi had a flying start, thanks to the in-form pair of Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene but the Knight Riders restricted them to 132 for seven with a fine bowling effort by Yusuf Pathan  and Shakib-Al-Hasan. Defending the total, the Tuskers bowlers Jadeja , Rudra Pratap Singh  did a tidy job and was supported well by their bowling colleagues as Kochi halted Kolkata's three-match winning run at the Eden Gardens here.

Chasing a modest 133, Knight Riders needed to play sensible cricket but the hosts made a mess of the seemingly low score getting themselves out one by one.Three quick wickets from three overs  Jacques Kallis , Gautam Gambhir  and Manvinder Bisla  put Knight Riders in a spot of bother.Knight Riders batting mainstay Kallis became victim of a Vinay Kumar short ball, while in a space of five balls Gambhir saw his middle stump shattered by his former India teammate RP Singh Brought in place of Thisara Perera, Muralitharan returned with one wicket but he held the Knight Riders batsmen together giving away 18 runs from his four overs quota. Just when the duo of Tiwary and Morgan were looking to set the platform, a fine fielding effort by skipper Mahela Jayawardene ran Morgan out to break their 36-run partnership from 38 balls.However, undeterred Tiwary hit two fluent boundaries off RP but only to see Shakib getting bowled at the other end in the same over.Pathan, who hurt his knee while taking the catch of Jadeja, came in with a runner and the big-hitter showed his intention with a big six of Powar before being dismissed in the next ball, in what seemed to be a decisive blow for the Knight Riders.Tiwary, who looked at ease all this while, was then outfoxed by a smart wide ball by Jadeja and was stumped.

With Tiwary gone and Knight Riders at 101/7, it was just a formality for the Tuskers to complete the victory.

Man of the Match

Ravindra Jadeja

 

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Kochi making giant strides in IPL 4

 

Kochi beat last year’s runner-up Mumbai Indians to register their first win and registered their 2nd consecutive win by defeating  defending champions Chennai Super Kings yesterday at Kochi. Kochi Tuskers started their IPL campaign on a sad note as they lost their first 2 matches and written-off completely by cricket pundits. But this team has made giant strides after first tow losses and now playing like a champions. Great turnaround indeed.

Kochi won the toss and elected to field first and soon this decision of Mahela Jayawardene proved right when Kochi got the wicket of most prolific CSK batsmen Mike Hussey. Raina and Vijay tried to build the partnership but Vijay carried away too much and caught plumb in front of the wicket while playing across the line. At this point rain interrupted and when game resume it was shortened by 3 overs each innings. Badrinath departed soon after the rain break and MS Dhoni joined Raina. The way both of them playing it looked like CSK will post huge total but at wrong juncture Raina got run-out after scoring brilliant 50. Morkel and Dhoni carried the innings but CSK was reduced to 131 in their allotted 17 overs and D/L method set the target of 135 for Kochi.

Jayawardene and McCullum once again gave superb start to Kochi innings and took the score to 40.  Jayawardene tried to clear the infield but caught at  covers in the bowling of Ashwin. Parthiv Patel got the promotion and he came to bat at No.3. McCullum and Patel did fantastic partnership and put the Kochi Tuskers at the doorstep of victory before getting out. After that it was easy for Jadeja and Hodge to finish the game quickly and they did that in style. It was fantastic display of team-work by Kochi as they registered their 2nd win of the tournament and it was unlucky on the part of CSK that rain interrupted at wrong time and robbed the CSK momentum.

It was great win for Kochi and now Kochi Tuskers have gained the great momentum and looks threatening for other teams. CSK have to work hard on their game and have to grab the opportunities which comes their way if they want to retain their champions title.

Man of the Match

Brendon McCUllum

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Deccan and Delhi will fight to get up from the bottom.

Deccan and Delhi are the two teams which is languishing at the bottom of the table and these teams will fight to recover from bottom of the table. Both teams have on 1 victory under their belt though they have lot of talented players in their side.

It’s a home game for Delhi so wicket will going to be slow and low which means it will assist the spinners. Delhi Daredevil will rely heavily on their openers Sehwag and Warner to give them quick and solid start because their middle-order is bit weak. If captain Sehwag and Warner play out the first 10 overs then it will going to be easy for Delhi to post or chase any score.  Form of Venugopal is also very good from the Delhi perspective. Venugopal is the unsung hero of Delhi team. Delhi also have likes of Naman Ojha, Aaron Fynch and Irfan Pathan who can score quick runs at the end. But all these batsmen have to apply themselves to get out of the messy situation. Delhi team is weak compared to last year but they are not that bad. If their top 2 batsmen fire then they will be able to beat any team in the tournament. Delhi team will go into this match with lot of confidence from their last win over Sahara Pune Warriors.

As far as Deccan is concern they are not clicking as a unit. They won only 1 game out of 4 they played so far and nothing is going their way. They won against RCB and broke the home jinx but lost the last match against Kings XI Punjab. They have very good players in their ranks and only thing needed from their perspective is to play sensibly and grab the opportunities they get in the field. They have very good captain in Sangakkara who is also one of the great batsmen. They have good bowling line-up which includes Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Daniel Christian. They have all the ingredients of champion team but only thing they lack is the focus. So they have to focus hard.

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Team Info:

Deccan Chargers

Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Manpreet Gony, Akash Bhandari, Anand Rajan, Ankit Nagendra, Arjun Yadav, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, DB Ravi Teja, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Ishank Jaggi, Ishan Malhotra, Jaydev Shah, Kedar Devdhar, Sunny Sohal (Foreign) Kumar Sangakkara (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Kevin Pietersen, Cameron White, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian, Chris Lynn, Juan Theron, Michael Lumb.Darren Lehmann(Coach)

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Team Info:

Delhi Daredevils

Virender Sehwag (Captain), Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha(Wicket-Keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Venugopal Rao, Aavishkar Salvi, Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robin Bist, S Sriram, Tejashwi Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Vikash Mishra, Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem (Foreign) David Warner, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aaron Finch, Mathew Wade, Roloef van der Merwe, Andrew McDonald, Travis Birt, Collin Ingram, Robert Frylinck.. Greg Shipperd(Coach)

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Royal battle on the cards.

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore started their campaign with win in this edition of IPL. Rajasthan even went on to win its second game as well but after that both the teams lost their way somewhat in the tournament and now playing catching game. RCB is far better side on paper compared to Rajasthan Royals but it is not firing at the moment. While Rajasthan is struggling with the injuries to its key players.

RCB have the best and strong batting line-up among all the teams playing in IPL. But their batting is not clicking according to their liking. Both Dilshan and DeVilliers are not firing simultaneously and last nail was put in the coffin by management as they are constantly changing the batting –order. I think if RCB have to win then they have stop experiments. Virat Kohli is in superb form and he is No.3 but why he is coming at No.4 is still a quiz. They have players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Saurabh Tiwary who can bat up the order but both are batting after No.5. AB DeVilliers is batting at No.5 is also sensless. RCB have to re-think their strategy and sent their best batsmen up the order rather than experimenting with pinch-hitters like Zaheer Khan and Asad Pathan. Bowling is also not clicking though they have quality bowlers in their ranks. Likes of Zaheer and Vettori can do wonders to any team but somehow bolwing is also under-fire. RCB have to lift their game today as they can’t afford to lose this game and they have little edge over Rajasthan Royals in terms of resources.

Rajasthan Royals lost twice to KKR after winning their first 2 games of the tournament. In the last match they were handicapped due to injuries. Rajasthan Royals are champions of first edition and they carry great reputation. They have to play right combination today and Shane Watson have to shoulder more responsibility with the bat. They have good hitters in their team. Ross Taylor and young Ashok Menaria can change the game in couple of overs if they get the great start. They also have to change their bowling combination little-bit by bringing in young Deepak Chahar who is in great form right now. Rajasthan Royals have magical captain in Warnie who is bowling at his best and this is a big advantage.

So it will going to be Royal battle today.

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Team Info:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Daniel Vettori (Captain), Virat Kohli, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB De Villiers (wicket-keeper), Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dirk Nannes, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, CM Gautam (Wicket-Keeper), S Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthick, Asad Khan Pathan, Abrar Kazi, Ryan Ninan, Bhareth Narayanan, Nuwan Pradeep.Ray Jennings(Coach)

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Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.Shane Warne(Coach/Captain).

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Stars missing from West Indies tour.

 

 West Indies tour is starting right after the IPL and first T20 game will be played on 4th June. Indian have to play 1 T20 game, 5 ODIs and 3 test matches on the tour of West Indies. Hence it is very important tour and it is the first International tour for the Team India after World Cup.

Indian team is playing cricket non-stop since last one year and this tour of West Indies have also come at the time when Indian players will be completely drained out after playing IPL for almost 2 months in hot Indian summer. So six star players have requested BCCI to give them rest after IPL, these players  Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan. So that means India will play with ‘B’ team on the tour of West Indies atleast for the T20 game and ODI series. Except Virender Sehwag, rest of them will feature in Test Series. Virender Sehwag was supposed to go under knife for his shoulder problem right after the World Cup but delayed it, just  to play in IPL. So he will undergo surgery after IPL and will probably miss entire West Indies tour.

Now looking at cricket board and players attitude it looks like playing for franchisees is more important than playing for the country. This clearly suggest BCCI is greedy after money and also forcing players to run after the money.  No doubt Sehwag is a big player but it is not wise on his part to jeopardize his international cricket career for few franchisee bucks. He had the option of opting out of the IPL but he decided to play in IPL knowing that he will miss the entire  West Indies tour which is more important than IPL. So this clearly shows that player like Sehwag runs after money rather than playing for the country which is biggest honour for any sports person. Same apply to the other players who has requested to opt out from the Caribbean tour. BCCI is also equally responsible for this.

Looking at this year’s schedule of Indian team, Team India will go to England directly from the West Indies. After England tour Champions League T20 is scheduled. Right after Chamipons League, West Indies will tour India  followed by England. After two home series Team India will travel to Australia for ODI and Test Series and BCCI is also planning to schedule 3 or 5 match ODI series with Pakistan in October or November. So not a single month spared. So non-stop cricket will continue for next 12 months. Players can easily opt out from the IPL if they are injured but big money attracts them to play in IPL. Its good platform for the youngsters but it is not good for the players who are playing in Team India because it increase lot of work load which will cut short their careers because body also have its limitations and in absence of experience and skillful players National team’s performance will also suffer.

There is one advantage of such busy schedule, youngsters who are playing in domestic cricket and performing well, get the chance to play for the country if senior players opt for the rest. It will be a huge opportunity for the youngsters to perform well in the absence of the seniors and cement their place in the team. So if six of our players not going to West Indies then it will provide opportunities to the players like Rohit Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Paul Valthaty, Robin Utthappa, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Manoj Tiwary, Irfan Pathan, R.Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra. If chairman of selector don’t use his veto power and get the players like Murali Vijay in the team,  then only these deserving players have a chance. So seniors opting out from the West Indies tour can prove to be a blessing in disguise as well.

Too much cricket will definitely reduce its charm and there is saturation point for everything and cricket is also in the reach of saturation. But whom to blame. Players are contracted with BCCI and BCCIs soul aim is to make money at any cost.

CSK will not take Kochi Tuskers Lightly

After great victory over Mumbai Indians, Kochi will take on defending champions CSK at Kochi. Looking at last match performance of Kochi, CSK will not going to  take Kochi lightly that is sure. CSK is defending champion and most importantly it is the most consistent team of IPL, so it will definitely have upper-hand in the contest.

CSKs Bating is bolstered with the inclusion of Mike Hussey who played brilliant innings of 83 in the first match he played in IPL 4. CSK also have in-form batsmen in their ranks as all of them got the runs under their belt in the tournament. M.Vijay, Raina, Dhoni, Badrinath, S.Aniruddha are capable enough to score big runs at brisk pace. CSK also have advantage of having two all-rounders in Albie Morkel and Scott Styris. CSK bowling is their strong point  as they have Bollinger, R.Ashwin, Albie Morkel, Suraj Randiv and Shadab Jakati in their ranks. Icing on the cake is the brilliant captaincy of MS Dhoni which is huge plus for CSK.

As far as Kochi is concerned they lost their first two matches but stunned everybody by scoring the win over Mumbai Indians in Mumbai. They defeated Mumbai in a nail biting contest which has given them much needed momentum. They have very good players in their ranks but in the first two match they did not play as a unit, but they corrected their mistake in a match against Mumbai and played like a unit and won the game. Laxman, McCullum, Jayawardene, Ravindra Jadeja, Parthiv Patel forms good batting line-up. Bowling also have the names like RP Singh highest wicket-taker in IPL, S.Sreesanth, Muttiah Muralitharan, etc. but somehow their bowling did not click in last 3 matches but with confidence of win under their belt, they will definitely come out with improved bowling performance. Also they played on true and flat surfaces which did not help their bowling.

If pitch will have some grass than it will certainly help Kochi because on dry wickets they will struggle against the spin trio of CSK. So it will interesting to see what kind of wicket Kochi curator offers for this match.

Waste of talent in Indian Cricket. Truth or Myth?

 

Recently Greg Chappell quoted as saying Australia can’t afford to waste talent like India does because India is having talent in abundance. I completely agree to the Greg Chappell atleast on this point that Indian Cricket have talent in abundance and our cricket board is certainly wasting the talent. Although we won the World Cup and we are No.1 in test cricket. Indian team have to keep performing to maintain the glory of these achievements and for that we require big pool of players.

Lets look at history of Indian cricket.  Starting from 1983, Sunil Walson was in Word Cup squad of 1983. He did not play single match before the World Cup for India, during the World Cup and never played cricket for India after World Cup. Very talented player but failed to play single game for India even though becoming part of World Cup winning squad. Waste of talent.

Laxman Shivramakrishnan, very talented leggie hailed from Tamil Nadu but played for 2-3 years only and his career never flourished. He is now renowned commentator. Waste of Talent. Leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani made a dream debut against West Indies in Chennai and picked up 16 wickets in his debut game but failed to prolong his career much. Played few games after that match and then lost somewhere. He is now member of selection committee.Waste of Talent.  Sadanand Vishwanath and Nayan Mongia, both very talented wicket-keeper who played for India only for very short period and then faded away. Waste of Talent.

Off-Spinner Rajesh Chauhan played important role in India’s success during 90s, later on labeled as throw bowler. He undergone the test also to prove that his action was correct but cricket administrators in India did not supported him and he also lost somewhere. Remember he was part of the team which white-washed English team in 1993.Waste of Talent. Rajesh Chauhan, Anil Kumble and Venkatpathy Raju formed best spin bowling attack for India in 90s and trio won lot of matches for India at home.

Atul Wassan, Vivek Razdan, Subroto Bannerjee, Salil Ankola, Abey Kuruvilla, Tinu Yohannan, T.Kumaran, Debashish Mohanty, these are the names of fast bowlers who played for india for very brief period and then lost their way. Who says India don’t have potential to produce fast bowlers. India produced the fast bowlers but failed to preserve them from injuries and cricket board didn’t gave them enough opportunities as well and dropped them after one or two failure.  Waste of Talent. David Johnson, very few cricket lovers know about him. He was India’s fastest bowler once and he bowled with round arm slinga action much like Lasith Malinga. He played for India in few games in 90s but later on labeled as throw bowler and thrown out of the cricket. Cricket administrators didn’t even fought for him. Serious Waste of Talent. Now Malinga  bowling with same action and his action is legal.

Praveen Amre, middle-order batsmen form Mumbai. He was also disciple of Ramakant Achrekar and Sachin’s mate. Very talented batsmen and made dream debut in South Africa in 1992-93 series as he hit century on debut in South Africa against the likes of Allan Donald, Fanie DeVilliers, Brian McMillan and Craig Mathews. Played very few test matches after that series and faded away as he was dropped after one failure and never made it to the Indian team.Waste of Talent.

Mukund Parmar, captain of Gujarat Ranji Team during 80s and 90s known as run-machine in domestic circuit and he scored tons of runs in domestic season and hit centuries and double-centuries consistently but never made it to the Indian team even though scoring bulk of runs in domestic cricket.  Yere Gaud, very talented batsmen, playing for  Railways in Ranji Trophy and recognised as special talent and scored plenty of runs but never got the chance to play for the Indian team. Waste of Talent.

Jacob Martin, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Atul Bedade hard-hitting batsmen, Shiv Sunder Das opened for India in few test matches successfully, Akash Chopra, now playing for Rajasthan, played for India during 2002-2003 season. These are the names who emerged on the scene with a storm but lost their way and never made a comeback. Irfan Pathan, potential all-rounder, Robin Utthappa, very talented opening batsmen, list continues

There are many more players and if I mention all of them then I think I need atleast 3 to four blogs posts to accommodate them. Indian cricket was never short of talent and will not going to have any shortage in future as well but we don’t have the system in place to preserve these diamonds. Our administrators are more inclined towards money and selectors are biased towards the players of their respective zones which does not help in spotting and preserving the genuine  talent. Take an example of Murali Vijay he failed miserably in ODIs yet he was getting chances because he hails from Tamil Nadu from where chairman of selection committee belongs. So he is getting special favor in selection.

We have more talented players than Murali Vijay but they are not getting enough opportunity because they don’t have any god-father. We have likes of Robin Utthappa, Sourabh Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Abhishek Nayar, Umesh Yadav, Bhubneshwar Kumar, Varun Aaron, Deepak Chahar, Pankaj Singh, Joginder Sharma, Faiz Fazal, Chetehswar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Menaria  and list continues but these players are not getting chance to play for India because they don’t have special reference. So it is true that  India have a talent in abundance but our administrators are ignoring these serious talents and hence these talents are wasted.

its time to preserve this abundance of talent, so that we can consistently get the players like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS laxman, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan,etc.