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To have dual nationality (Australian-Indian) has a bonus. At least one of your countries will win. Not so in the last few weeks. England thrashed India by huge margins in the first two cricket Tests in England. But I had hoped that Australia will walk all over Sri Lanka to lift my depression.
Not so far. They lost the T20 series to Sri Lanka 0-2 on Monday by insipid batting after belligerent Shane Watson’s smacked 57 off 24 balls including six fours and five towering sixes.
Bravo to Lankan spinner Ajatha Mendis for his magnificent 6-16, the best figures in an international T20.
In rugby too, the Wallabies were trampled upon by the All Blacks in New Zealand on Saturday.
Am I a jinx to the teams I support?
So I am employing reverse psychology and changing sides. I’ll support England in the third Test starting tomorrow, the 10th, in Birmingham. The turncoat!
Jokes aside, England deserves to be ranked number one in Test cricket, and not India. Just look at England’s Test record.
In the last one year, they beat Pakistan 3-1 in England, retained the Ashes 3-1 in Australia and went on to defeat the strong Sri Lankans 1-0 in England. And they are 2-0 against currently ranked number one, but highly shell-shocked India.
There are some explanations for India’s fall and fall in recent months. Or excuses?
Due to injury, their flamboyant match-winning opener, Virender Sehwag did not play in both the Tests India was shampooed in England. His partner Gautam Gambhir was injured in the Lord’s Test and missed the Trent Bridge Test.
Same was the case with their reverse swing king, Zaheer Khan and to a lesser degree, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.
To lose five players is a crippling handicap and not an excuse. But who is to blame for it?
It was the meaningless IPL which was behind these injuries. BCCI should either ban it or not allow current Test players to play for it.
It’s either money or your country. You cannot serve two masters.
Also, these days, the Test cricketers are well paid even if they do not participate in the IPL circus.
The fact is that England proved to be, by far, the better team in the series. No ifs and buts.
They out-batted, out-bowled, out-fielded and out-gunned India.
Their lower order batsmen, Stuart Broad, Matt Prior and Tim Bresnan performed better than India’s highly-rated top order, except Rahul Dravid. Sachin Tendulkar was particularly disappointing.
India still has quality batsmen to total 400 per innings. But with their poor attack, England can always reply with more than 400.
A brief look at statistics indicates a huge difference in the performances of the two teams so far with two Tests still to go.
Against five English batsmen topping an average of 50.00 (Kevin Pietersen 98.33, Prior 82.66, Broad 60.66, Ian Bell 58.75 and Bresnan 50.50), only a lone Indian had an average of over 50; Dravid at 87.33.
English bowling out-classed India; Broad capturing 15 wickets at 11.33 (including a hat-trick that flattened India), Bresnan seven at 13.71 and Jimmy Anderson has 24 at 23.58. Only one Indian could take over 10 wickets; Praveen Kumar, who has 13 at 26.53.
In short, England number one, then daylight!
In the Test arena, Broad became only the seventh cricketer to take a hat-trick and score a century in their Test careers. The others are John Briggs (England), Wasim Akram and Abdul Razzaq (Pakistan), Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan (India) and James Franklin (New Zealand).