Where is my Indian cricket team of 2003 which finished runners-up to Australia?

The current team India are by far the worst team ever, any year. How many times can you watch a team struggle to make it to the next group just to lose the first game- whether it's the tri-series or a world cup? How many times can you sit through whole day feeling sick to your stomach watching your team go down as bad as it can.Some of the other cricket playing teams had at least one really bad series, but does that really compare to the Team India's back to back losing series or games?

India Bowling:
Too many extras from the bowlers and did not bank the situation when the big-wigs like sanath Jayasurya and Sangakkarra were out for small scores.Bowling seems to be in control until 35 to 40 overs and India just gave loose runs to Silva and Dilshan.Dravid didn't change bowlers to make these two batsman uncomfortable, Hope our inexperienced captain should have learned his lesson today.He needs to still grow up as captain.In bowling India should have restricted Sri lanka to 200 easily i.e. with out any effort.India failed miserably in bowling department.Agarkar did bowl economically and played his game above expectations.Talking of fielding when chasing big game like this an early Fielding saves from India would have put more pressure on Sri Lanka. No effort what so ever is seen in this department from team India.

Srilanka played today below average with their bat were still able to accumulate the above average total of 254.Pathetic Indian bowling and fielding made Srilanka win first half of the game.


India Batting:
Uthappa again failed, why did team repeatedly do this mistake of giving chances to this player again and again.verdict - fire him from the team.
Sehwag is the player who showed his calmness and tried to be at crease as long as possible.He did his and you cannot expect more from a player like Sehwag who is returning to his form.verdict - fire him and make him improve his game in ranji's
Ganguly playing an anchor man role for India in last two matches failed to live up to expectations.He played a rash shot usually Ganguly is good when lifting the ball to non fielders positions.verdict - retire
Tendulkar - I hoped that tendlya will be the man of the match and he was out for duck and proved again that he is not a man who can win crucial matches for India. verdict - forcibly retire him and make him coach young generation.
Dravid - A captain who looked energy less throughout the game and seems for India a bad choice as captain.When top order is failing he should have sent tail enders to get some quick runs on the board.Verdict - take away captaincy from him and make him play only test matches.
Yuvraj - Being at non striker end and an fantastic runner between wickets,Falling for a stupid run out? why did he give up his wicket like that? This is raising serious doubts. verdict - Give him second chance.
Dhoni - I wish his new house isn't grounded by irate fans by now.He is unpredictable as always.Verdict - he is good wicket keeper, give him second chance.

The rest are bowlers so we cannot depend them to bat and win for India.
Indian batting slide show:


They have beaten Sri Lanka at home and why didn't they do at Trinidad today ? India were outplayed in the one-day series 4-1 when they toured the Caribbean last year.The team India should have remembered the pitch conditions.They should have remembered how the wickets behaved. Is is better to chase runs or put them in? Where is all that research gone? In spite of winning toss team management can't just decide which one is better based on team performances recently and of the pitch conditions.

One billion people hopes coupled with huge advertisement revenue losses is what today team India played and failed.

It is better late than never , only way to make this game enjoyable is create a team from scratch which will play for India.

Labels: Cricket, Cricket Match Review, India vs. Srilanka, team india, world cup cricket

Lets first talk about how we made Sri Lanka zeros to Heroes and how we made our self heroes to zeros.
1979: Sri Lanka v India
India lost to Sri Lanka by 47 runs
Old Trafford, 16-18 June 1979
Sri Lanka: 238/5 (60 overs, S Wettimuny 67, D Mendis 64, R Dias 50, M Amarnath 3/40)
India: 191 (54.1 overs, D Vengsarkar 36, DS de Silva 3/29, ARM Opatha 3/31)

Sri Lanka gained Test status not long after this tournament, playing their maiden Test against England in 1982. 24 years later, they were to lose to an associate in the World Cup, but we'll get to that later.

Over the past 24 years, Sri Lanka has become a strong force in the big league and has produced several world-class cricketers.

By 1985, Sri Lanka had recorded its first Test win, against India. Although the victory was marred by murmurs of poor umpiring, with the Indian captain Kapil Dev proclaiming that Sri Lanka will never win a Test away from home, a victory against Pakistan the next year followed by a historic triumph in the Asia Cup with neutral umpires officiating the games silenced the critics.

Australia was the first country to host Sri Lanka in a three-match Test series in 1995 and in the same series Muttiah Muralitharan, was called for throwing seven times by Australian umpire Darrell Hair which stirred a bigger controversy in cricket world.

1996 World Cup - India vs Sri Lanka Semi Final - India had started well and was at 98 for 1 when tragedy struck. Tendulkar was batting on 65 when he danced down the track to one ball too many and the crumbling pitch ensured that he missed it. He was stumped and this triggered a collapse that saw India lose 7 wickets for 21 runs.Azhar had to cop a lot of the blame for his decision to bowl first, but he defended his strategy. A shameful day in the history of Indian cricket and one that rankles the memory to this day.

As of writing this India already won the toss and Dravid decided to bowl first.
Hope that Sri lanka does not repeat this to India in today's match as it did in 1996 world cup.

Labels: Cricket, cricket sites, India vs. Srilanka, super eights, world cup cricket