Hi Cricket Lovers
As I had predicted in my previous blog India emerged victorious in the ODI and T20 Series against Sri Lanka by winning 5 out of six matches they played there. Much was written about the way the pitches in Sri Lanka were new hence it did not behave the same as it has done in the past. Sri Lankans have always had a good home record but Indian team time and again has always come on top mainly due to there ever so strong batting line up which consist of Gambhir and Sehwag at the top followed by Virat who has not even played 100 ODI but feature in the top 5 best ODI batsmen according to the ICC rankings. Then comes in a Solid ODI palyer Raina followed by the Captain Cool MSD. Leaving aside the talented Rohit Sharma who has not delivered for India at the International stage since his good showing in the Caribbean last year even Manoj Tiwary has grabbed the opportunities he has got (very few when compared to Rohit) with both hands
This Series has been a blessing in disguise for Irfan Pathan who was lucky enough to be the part of the Indian Squad only because of the injury to Vinay Kumar. The left arm seamer was instrumental in taking top order wickets and was also successful with the bat on two occasion when he was involved in an important partnership which helped strengthening the middle order despite failure of Rohit Sharma who was not able to reach double digits in all the matches he played. Sri Lankans tried hard but could not show much consistency in all the three facets of the game.
What more i can say about Virat Kohli as he added another 2 centuries in this series and finished with 296 runs and ran away with the Man of the Series award i want you read my previous blog dedicated to him for being Virat Kohli--- The Next Big Thing for India Cricket. He with 13 centuries in just 87 innings he is by far the fastest to reach as many centuries by a long margin. He is the best bet for breaking Sachin's ODI record of 49 centuries (as of today) soon if he keeps scoring them at the same pace.
Now talking about the Team Selection for the New Zealand home Test series and T20 World Cup there were a few surprises. One was the return of Yuvraj Singh after he has won the battle with Cancer and the others being the inclusion of Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh and Lakshmipati Balaji in the T20 team. Rohit Sharma has been dropped from the Test Team after repeated failures but was retained in the T20 squad which i think is a mistake. I think Ajinkhya Rahane should be the one replacing him in the squad.
I think Laxman has got a good platform in this series retire from Test Cricket on a high and i think he should do well at familiar home condition in the absence of Rahul Dravid who announced his retirement from Test Cricket just a few months ago.It will also be nice to see Sachin back in the Squad after a long resting break after the IPL. My prediction for the NZ series will be that India will win both the Test and T20 series with a comfortable margin as I think the Kiwis are not in form of their life at the moment.
Will be back with more updates.
Till then
Cheers!!!
As I had predicted in my previous blog India emerged victorious in the ODI and T20 Series against Sri Lanka by winning 5 out of six matches they played there. Much was written about the way the pitches in Sri Lanka were new hence it did not behave the same as it has done in the past. Sri Lankans have always had a good home record but Indian team time and again has always come on top mainly due to there ever so strong batting line up which consist of Gambhir and Sehwag at the top followed by Virat who has not even played 100 ODI but feature in the top 5 best ODI batsmen according to the ICC rankings. Then comes in a Solid ODI palyer Raina followed by the Captain Cool MSD. Leaving aside the talented Rohit Sharma who has not delivered for India at the International stage since his good showing in the Caribbean last year even Manoj Tiwary has grabbed the opportunities he has got (very few when compared to Rohit) with both hands
This Series has been a blessing in disguise for Irfan Pathan who was lucky enough to be the part of the Indian Squad only because of the injury to Vinay Kumar. The left arm seamer was instrumental in taking top order wickets and was also successful with the bat on two occasion when he was involved in an important partnership which helped strengthening the middle order despite failure of Rohit Sharma who was not able to reach double digits in all the matches he played. Sri Lankans tried hard but could not show much consistency in all the three facets of the game.
What more i can say about Virat Kohli as he added another 2 centuries in this series and finished with 296 runs and ran away with the Man of the Series award i want you read my previous blog dedicated to him for being Virat Kohli--- The Next Big Thing for India Cricket. He with 13 centuries in just 87 innings he is by far the fastest to reach as many centuries by a long margin. He is the best bet for breaking Sachin's ODI record of 49 centuries (as of today) soon if he keeps scoring them at the same pace.
Now talking about the Team Selection for the New Zealand home Test series and T20 World Cup there were a few surprises. One was the return of Yuvraj Singh after he has won the battle with Cancer and the others being the inclusion of Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh and Lakshmipati Balaji in the T20 team. Rohit Sharma has been dropped from the Test Team after repeated failures but was retained in the T20 squad which i think is a mistake. I think Ajinkhya Rahane should be the one replacing him in the squad.
I think Laxman has got a good platform in this series retire from Test Cricket on a high and i think he should do well at familiar home condition in the absence of Rahul Dravid who announced his retirement from Test Cricket just a few months ago.It will also be nice to see Sachin back in the Squad after a long resting break after the IPL. My prediction for the NZ series will be that India will win both the Test and T20 series with a comfortable margin as I think the Kiwis are not in form of their life at the moment.
Will be back with more updates.
Till then
Cheers!!!
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