Monday, August 1, 2011

Sachin's Performance Was Poor In The Depleted Indian Team Against England

 Sachin's performance in the first two tests of the current series between India and England shows it takes something different to perform being part of a weaker unit. It is something like performing under pressure. It also goes onto show how immensely Sachin benefited over the years the extent to which Sachin benefited being part of a strong batting line-up. His performance in the recent years also supports that fact. Sachin's performance in the recent year has been tremendous and we all know Indian batting line-up in the recent year is probably the best batting lin-up India has ever produced.

One could see the same phenomenon with the performance of Ricky Ponting in the last couple of years and his performance before these couple of years. Ponting's performance has dipped in the last couple of years after the retirement of the core of the Australian team, which was formed by some of the outstanding players of all time. Ricky Ponting was one of the leading batsmen in the world when he was part of the strong Australian unit, but his performance is affected adversely in the recent years with the decline of the Australian team.

This fact proves that a certain Brian Lara was phenomenal as he performed being part of a weaker team. Brian Lara was probably part of the weakest West Indian team of all time and one of the weakest team in the world. Yet, he was the leading batsmen for most part of his career and has some phenomenal feats to his credit. Neither Sachin, nor Ponting could have performed anywhere near to Brian Lara if they were part of the West Indian team that Brian Lara was part of or for that matter any weaker team.

India Should Play Four Fast Bowlers And Drop Harbhajan For The Third Test Against England

India needs to make slight changes to their team, which can make a great difference to their fortunes in the third test against England. The first and foremost action they need to take is drop Harbhajan Singh and play four seamers. Hopefully, Zaheer Khan will be fit for the third test and when Zaheer Khan comes back, Harbhajan should be dropped instead of a seamer.

Harbhajan Singh has been ineffective and has no impact on the series so far. Instead a fourth seamer could create problems for the England batting line-up in seamer-friendly condition. The Indian team is having some great part-time spinners, capable of claiming crucial wickets whenever needed. Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and Sehwag if he comes back for the third test can be handy as part-time spinners and may prove better than the regular Indian spinners.

With the likely return of the regular Indian openers and Zaheer Khan India will get back to their full strength and if they drop Harbhajan in favor of the Fourth spinner, India can present a strong challenge to the England team in the Fourth test.