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[123of]

are you guys not tired of watching India lose series after series in test, with same guys failing to perform.

Ganguly, Sachin , Laxman , veeru. well i am.

Dravid is willing to give Veeru more chances as he is age wise young, so be it. fitness wise he isn’t, but Dravid knows that and for now is willing to give him time.

Ganguly is gone for now.

Sachin should rest for a long time , wishful thinking , but good for India. and retire

Laxman retire, please don’t tell me how your knees hurts .

we hurt to when we see our team lose repeatedly.

at least with young players like Yuvi, Kaif, Venu, raina , gambhir even if we lose some series they will gain experience for the future and like odi will soon start winning too.

but will we see that day

with fans like us always rooting for our personal liking and love for our favourite cricketer shots making blinding us to their faults.

well maybe we deserve to lose, we are not ready to think of the team, why will our players think of the team well being .

[toney]

A small technicality: which series did we lose? The away series in Pak and...?

[gouravk]

2006 - v Pak in Pak
2005 - No series loss
2004 - Home series v Aus
2003 - No series loss
2002 - v NZ in NZ, v WI in WI
2001 - v SA in SA, v SL in SL

Table of series losses in recent years, only 2 in the last 4 years

[toney]

Even the home series in India: we lost it rather narrowly (5th day rained off in Chennai) against the No 1 team. Not sure that translates into a humiliation.

[gouravk]

Definitely doesn't. Although the Nagpur defeat was pretty humiliating.

[toney]

Yeah, Nagpur was humiliation. If only the team showed a little more spine there.

[squarecut]

We were never even a decent test team. We need wicket taking bowlers in all conditions to win matches and we don't have one except Kumble in certain conditions.

[Sahir]

Well, I am a firm believer that bowlers win Test matches, particularly fast bowlers.  We have managed to win pretty consistently at home because our spinners are much more effective and able to take 20 wickets.  However, that is probably the same reason we do not win abroad-- too much reliance on spinners.  There has slowly been more of an emphasis placed on fast bowlers over the past few years with the emergence of bowlers like Zaheer and Nehra, followed by Irfan and Balaji, and now Sreesanth, Munaf, and RP Singh.  I am seeing some improvement is the quality and depth of our pace bowlers and with that I think we will continue to see some of the improved performances abroad that we have seen, hopefully culminating in some quality series victories abroad.  However, I think our young pace bowlers still lack some much needed experience to deliver consistently, but hopefully, they can learn quickly.  I really feel Sreesanth and Munaf and how much the two keep improving is going to determine our success in Test cricket abroad...

[Cover Point]

Looking forward we need to win the WI series for sure. If nothing else that should go and settle the Ganguly controversy (and the test team decline under Dravid debate).

[fineleg]

Looking forward we need to win the WI series for sure. If nothing else that should go and settle the Ganguly controversy (and the test team decline under Dravid debate).

That will be great - but easier said than done - Brace up for a fight with Lara army.

[justforkix]

I somehow still have the feeling that our batsmen lost us a lot of away tests, at least since I started following cricket (1987-2006).... many a time, our bowlers bowled well, and our batsmen failed to chase even modest scores or put up half decent totals. of course, many a time, our bowlers did fail to get rid of the tail. But saying that we didn't have we didn't have bowlers to win matches is not fair. We lost many a test due to our batting inconsistencies. Didn't chk stats, so may be wrong here, but still have this feeling.

[Sahir]

I somehow still have the feeling that our batsmen lost us a lot of away tests, at least since I started following cricket (1987-2006).... many a time, our bowlers bowled well, and our batsmen failed to chase even modest scores or put up half decent totals. of course, many a time, our bowlers did fail to get rid of the tail. But saying that we didn't have we didn't have bowlers to win matches is not fair. We lost many a test due to our batting inconsistencies. Didn't chk stats, so may be wrong here, but still have this feeling.

Yes, that is undeniably true as well.  Basically, we have sucked abroad...batting, bowling, and fielding (fielding has sucked at home as well ).  However, I think the expectations are higher for our batsmen and that is part of the reason we are highly disappointed by their performances (I also think we have had the tendency to overrate our own batsmen), while the fast bowlers have lower expectations and even mediocre performances are accepted.  If you think about it, only Srinath really was a potent fast bowler for India in the 90s (Prasad also for some time).  Even Srinath bowled far too short abroad until he figured it out later in his career once he could no longer bowl fast.  Such a paucity of fast bowling resources will never allow you to win Test series abroad.  I do think, historically, we genuinely have not had comparable talent to some other teams around the world such as the WI, Aus, RSA, Pak.  However, I think a lot of that has and is changing over the past several years.  Of course, it is quite possible that we have always had the talent, but not found it or nurtured it properly due to political or systematic reasons.  Somehow, I still feel we are not quite finding a lot of the talent and potential across the country...no empirical evidence to prove this, but just a hunch that I am sure some of you also share.

[gouravk]

well the period from 2002 to 2004 was one of our best overseas. even tho we lost the series in windies we won a test for the first time in 26 years and then drawing in england was an achievement, drawing in australia was an overachievement and winning in pak was the pinnacle.

[avinashgodkhindi]

at least with young players like Yuvi, Kaif, Venu, raina , gambhir even if we lose some series they will gain experience for the future and like odi will soon start winning too.

Test cricket is no chartity match, lets give experience to X,Y,Z. Let them command a place on performance as Yuvi now does. After a couple of years,once these guys get experience and fail a few times u will loose patience with them and ask for some other younger guys to be drafted. remember while these boyz get experience,oppositions aslso get the time and video footage to plan,test adn create a strategy to get these fellas out, as hass happened to viru now. he must now make a counter-strategy

[k-slice]

jeetega bhai jeetega
west indies mein jeetega!!!

[gouravk]

Do not underestimate this WIndies side ... remember Pak couldnt beat them last year ...

[Sahir]

Do not underestimate this WIndies side ... remember Pak couldnt beat them last year ...

Actually, that was an understrength West Indies side that played Pakistan.  One that might be referred to as WI 'C' team

[Cover Point]

Do not underestimate this WIndies side ... remember Pak couldnt beat them last year ...

Actually, that was an understrength West Indies side that played Pakistan.  One that might be referred to as WI 'C' team

No Sahir. Only teams playing against Chappel/Dravid's India can be called B or C teams!

[gouravk]

Well I dont think it was that under strength ... Lara Sarwan Gayle and others were playing in that series.