The CouchExpert

 Goutham Chakravarthi

 28 July 2011

Zaheer Khan was always going to miss this Test. He would be lucky to be match-fit even for the third Test. It was obvious. But in today’s age, playing the cards close to the chest is the norm. That a press release from the team management said he might bowl in the second innings of the Lord’s test was a testament to it. In Zaheer’s absence and with Gautam Gambhir also likely to sit out, Trent Bridge will confirm if India are on the way down from the lofty standards they have set for themselves over the last three years.

If the English press are to be believed, TrentBridge will snake and spit on the batsmen. Anderson has a Sydney Barnes-esque track record there and even with Tremlett out, Bresnan is expected to bend the ball later than Schumacher would on a chicane bend, and at pace to expose the visiting batsmen. Indians are expected to wind-up in a corner and wave the white flag.

India will rely on their famed middle-order to put big runs on the board

In the wake of a troubled hour such as this, India will call on their most seasoned and the best of their batsmen to stand-up for their team. In style and craft there cannot have been many better than their middle-order champions. With individuality they have been original and have been proven  to be men of substance. May be a Jack Hobbs from yester year would relish the challenge of facing a menacing attack on a spiteful pitch with masterful footwork, judgment of a sage and strokes of an artist. In Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman India will believe they have the men to stand-up to the very fine English attack’s precision, strength and discipline like Hobbs did. In short, expect the ageing, but sagacious Indian middle-order to put their chests out and fight the most complete bowling side in these conditions.

Not that India hasn’t been found wanting early in the series newly. 1-0 down in Sri Lanka last year, India went in to the final Test without Zaheer and Harbhajan. They won. As a team, they have surpassed the sum of their individual parts often over the last three years. In a strange Laxmanesque way, they have delivered with their backs to the wall. Perth and Durban are recent memories and India will want to refresh them with a performance they can be proud of. They won the last test they played at Trent Bridge, albeit Zaheer Khan and RP Singh will not be around this time. India will know that they can bowl England out twice in these conditions and that gives them a chance of scoring more runs than England to win the test.

If India shed their early season skin and snake their way to play some good cricket, we could still be in for Diwali-lit-night-sky-like English summer. At the end of this Test it remains to be seen if India can show they are good enough to retain the Himalayan peak or if England will hoist their flag and send India tumbling down.

Chandrasekhar Jayarama Krishnan

Head of Cricket, CouchExpert

28 July 2011

In the good old days of the last decade, in an era prior to the belittlement of Australian cricket, as compared to that of their Ashes counterparts, the issues relating to English cricket were primarily rutted during an attempt to stabilize a solid unit. Barring the Ashes triumph in 2005, there was hardly a period that English cricket went through to demonstrate enough consistency for adding armoury to their intent in fighting for the one among the top 3 spots in the ICC test rankings.

With changes in structure seeming imperative back then, much has changed in English cricket – a stark reaction perceived by many, to years of floating in mediocrity. An Ashes triumph down under, followed by a comprehensive victory over the current Test Number One at the Lord’s earlier this week has given the British media plenty to rave over these days.

England is a nation that has suffered from constant media glare – and they also survive because of it. Just a few months ago, KP’s decision to pull out of the World Cup squad appeared to make every choice of his agonizingly controversial. Today, after his Man-of-the-Match performance at the Lord’s, the papers have gone nowhere short of eulogizing their ‘countryman’. The media has additionally done a great deal to ensure that the morale in the English camp is significantly higher than that in the Indian dressing room.

The second test at Trent Bridge, a venue that is most likely the one that matches to the home team’s bowling strengths in terms of conditions in offer, will only be England’s to lose. Along with morale, the home team carries a lot of form, especially in the bowling and the lower order batting departments –areas that the visitors have simply failed to showcase with conviction. The absence of Sehwag has done England a world of good, but from a rankings perspective, the top test team should have had better answers for the questions posed by the English seamers.

There have been a few reports on the loose mentioning Chris Tremlett’s injury issue with a hamstring. In any case, an able replacement in the form of Tim Bresnan, who is no joker with the bat, and one with the qualities to exploit the conditions that Trent Bridge offers, would hardly disfigure the current England setup.

With doubts lingering over Tremlett's hamstring, the only change envisioned is Bresnan slotting in for him on Friday

England’s other weapon, which did not go unnoticed, has been the form of its wicket-keeper batsman Matt Prior. At number 7, in addition to his brilliant keeping abilities, Prior’s contribution with the bat has stretched that gap between the home team and the visitors. A gothic journey, through the unpartisan excesses of media and ‘experts’ glare, a keeper who was termed “rubbish” has gone a long way in to proving his detractors wrong. In Prior’s case, especially, the course was particularly torturous.

Given that the Lord’s win has aroused almost every special interest extant in England, the onus on the likes of Strauss & Cook to perform will be higher than it was before, primarily to avoid an unseemly spectacle under the best of circumstances. With the exception of the doubt lingering around Tremlett’s fitness, England will pretty much look to play an unchanged squad and target an undefeatable 2-0 lead this series.

Broad and Anderson will have plenty to look forward to.

 Prasad Moyarath

 27 July 2011


The inevitable has happened. A fervent Indian supporter might be shocked but for a cricket connoisseur, the Indian loss in the first test at Lords was not unexpected. Though the figures rank India as the No.1 test team in the world, a comparison of this Indian team with strong test teams of the past like the West Indies under Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards and Australia under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting will make anyone doubt the current system of test ranking and the standard of test cricket.

By ignoring youngsters like Kohli, the selectors have turned a blind eye towards the future

An England tour was always looked upon by all Indian cricket enthusiasts with great hope considering the testing conditions for both batsmen and bowlers. Players also considered England as a place to showcase their mettle as it provided ultimate test to their abilities as a player. Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly cemented their places in Indian team after spectacular performances in one such England tour. But the current England tour looks completely different. BCCI which manages cricket in India with a monetary vision never seemed to understand the importance of test cricket or a need to groom a future test team while their selectors selected the team for the series. Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth and Munaf Patel coming back from injuries were included in the test squad for the series without any match practice with all the above mentioned with the exception of Sehwag available for selection for the first test. Wriddhiman Saha was included as a reserve wicket keeper replacing Parthiv Patel to maintain the BCCI’s age old tradition of musical chair for reserve players there by losing a reserve opener with proven ability in English conditions. BCCI never bothered to include any of the youngsters like Virat Kohli, Ashwin or Umesh Yadav in the team with future in mind. India paid a very heavy price for this lackluster attitude of the BCCI by losing Zaheer Khan on the first day of the Lords test.

Captaincy of Dhoni has been debatable for a long time despite the World Cup victory. His defensive tactics have always helped the opposition in winning moral victories in test matches and this was very evident in the last test against West Indies. His lack of confidence in the World’s best batting line up including himself was exposed when he decided to bowl first after winning the toss there by awarding a moral victory to England even before the start. Though many supported Dhoni’s decision considering the cloudy conditions that prevailed at Lords in the first day morning, the decision raised the eyebrows of all those who watched the Lord’s test in 1990 when Azharuddin committed the same mistake and the Leeds test in 2002 when Saurav Ganguly bravely opted to bat. India lost the Lord’s test in 1990 after Gooch scored 333 and India won the Leeds test after Sanjay Bangar and Rahul Dravid batted bravely in the swinging conditions sharing a 170 run second wicket partnership. The Indian management including the former England coach Fletcher seemed to ignore the history and batting conditions in England.

Dhoni’s post match comment blaming the change of batting order in the second innings and variable bounce for the loss was never befitting the No.1 team. India could not bowl out England in both the innings and our experienced batsmen never applied themselves. This loss clearly exposed the lack of preparation which was never expected. The Indian cricket team selection should be free from the clutches of sponsors and the BCCI should field players who play for the country over the ones who earn for the sponsors. In a country where the cricket’s governing body is more interested in IPL matches that fill their coffers more than international matches and where the media boast every match as an event for Tendulkar’s next world record, this loss in a historical test match will go down as yet another forgotten piece of history.

Chandrasekhar Jayarama Krishnan

Head of Cricket, CouchExpert

26 July 2011

Day Five was clearly a case of poor shot selection metastasizing into embarrassing giveaways. Barring a few, the Indian outfit looked less an eminence champion than a pithy self-promoter that had the tendency to go off the target message.

The build up to this test match, having been served by record-driven statistics, had everything that a modern day test match should – most important of them being a result on the final day. A catastrophic default in a typical Lords test, inflicted by weather and/or a flat track, was thankfully avoided to add to the significance of this historic test.

This Lords test, in reality, backed the modern day selector’s trend of adopting a myopic “One-Test-at-a-time” approach towards team selection. Those who had their performances being viewed under the microscope, from both teams, came out with cementing performances.

Most notable of them being an unlucky Stuart Broad, who should’ve seen a larger number under his wickets tally this test had it not been for very ordinary catching, and a couple of incorrect decisions from umpire Billy Bowden.   A crucial partnership with Prior in the second innings, where he scored an unbeaten 76 to move England from a position of relative danger to acute comfort, offered the selectors a bed of roses to recline on with respect to the depth of their batting.

James Anderson didn't require overcast conditions to topple the Indians

The day’s targets seemed easier for England than it was for India. The situation appeared to be infinitely more complicated with the injured Gambhir and Tendulkar batting out of positions. India’s only comfort lay centric around that nascent hope linking Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, and their feats at Kolkata and Adelaide.

By the time MS Dhoni arrived at the crease, with the brilliant Suresh Raina holding fort at the other end, the skipper was probably leery of the short term ascetic measures that could hurt a seemingly tepid recovery.  With his dismissal, one that added to the growing list of poor shot selections by Indians this test, given the situation, an English victory was only around the corner.

In the end, England unraveled a lot more positives than they would have imagined prior to the start of this test. Jimmy Anderson’s second innings performance, Broad’s rise in ascendancy, and a collective unit’s ability to ride with the momentum and seize the initiatives presented stood atop the tallest monument at the Lords.

With the gradual insolvency of the Great Indian Dream featuring Sachin Tendulkar, the optimistic English dream of dethroning India gained momentum with this comprehensive home team victory.

This series, apart from featuring two teams battling for pole position, also involves what possibly could be described as the two most ‘feared’ media entities in the world. The Indian and the British media are known for their ruthlessness during the dark times, and their mollycoddling nature when things look bright.

Before the blamestorming and hero-worshipping pieces are out, it is wise to surmise that it stands 1-0 England now. With India’s pride and Fletcher’s early reputation at stake, we could be in for a thriller at Trentbridge.