The Roar
The Roar

Kaushik Lakshman

Roar Rookie

Joined January 2019

1.1k

Views

3

Published

22

Comments

Sports lover from my earliest memories. Took to writing and reading about sports since I was not great shakes at playing them. Sports and sportsmanship is more than just a game, its a way of life!

Published

Comments

No place for Washington Sundar in your 11. I guess if played in Chennai, you could replace one of the Pacers with him. Probably Vignesh? Nice 11 overall, though Murali Vijay is well past his prime. Any other opener?

The WA eleven seems good as well.

Tamil Nadu finally gets the hero it craved and deserved

The match has once again exposed India’s fragilities against spin. Indian batsmen’s mastery over spin ended with the era of Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and company. There is a reason why they were good against spin, because they played domestic cricket consistently and many of the pitches there are absolute raging turners. This lot, with the exception of Pujara does not play Ranji consistently. The effects can be seen.
Since 2014, ever since Moeen Ali took 19 wickets in England against India, the batsmen have come cropper against spin. They are mediocre at best and marginally better than their SENA country counterparts, which is not much to go by. Hence on pitches which assist spinners both teams come cropper. Such performances are not surprising.

Think India's two-day Test pitch was unplayable? That’s a myth

Lovely article. While the pitch was challenging, it no way warranted a 2 day finish. The lack of application from batsmen of both sides was horrendous. What are England complaining about? They were 75/2 after winning the toss and batting first and there away their advantage. Pretty sure no complaints would have been raised if they had scored 250 in the first dig and won the game.

Think India's two-day Test pitch was unplayable? That’s a myth

Nicely put. Not entirely sure how effective India’s batsmen will be in nullifying the moving ball when they go to England later this year. For the current Indian team collectively, its achilles heel has been the seaming and swinging ball when they go abroad, esp in SA, NZ and Eng. Confident of the bowlers putting on a great show as they have been doing in the past few tours. It’s one of the reasons India has performed better in Australia off late as it doesn’t swing or seam prodigiously.

For Australia's sake, India need to continue dominating England

International state Vs state teams seems to be such a nice concept. Maybe they have been replaced by ‘A’ team tours of countries?

Tamil Nadu finally gets the hero it craved and deserved

Makes it even more remarkable as he didn’t think he would be part of the starting 11 in Australia. If not for Jadeja’s injury, India might not have picked up Ashwin in the first 2 tests and the series could have had a very different outcome.
Unbelievable that he is not part of India’s white ball squads.

Tamil Nadu finally gets the hero it craved and deserved

You missed out mentioning S. Venkatraghavan, the truly great Tamil Nadu off spinner who went on to become a legend in Indian cricketing circles. A list of Tamil Nadu cricketers is amiss without his name. He is a former Indian captain and was one of the four people of the deadly Indian spinning quartet of the 70s. Later on went to become a highly regarded ICC elite panel umpire.

Tamil Nadu finally gets the hero it craved and deserved

If Tsitsipas can serve the way he did in the last 3 sets in this match, then it will play a massive factor at Wimbledon.

Passing the baton: Tsitsipas conquers Nadal - the king of comebacks

True, there was nothing that looked wrong with Nadal’s game. Maybe after being sublime in the first 3 sets, there must have been the slightest of dip in Rafa’s level of play and that was enough for Tsitsipas to capitalize. Maybe it’s an age thing as well. Physically, Rafa is getting more fatigued nowadays over 5 sets and when two quality players play each other that could be fatal.

Passing the baton: Tsitsipas conquers Nadal - the king of comebacks

Feel it’s more likely that Medvedev’s time is approaching, especially in hard courts. He has been knocking on the door for a while now. If he defeats Tsitsipas in the semis, will he have it in him to triumph over Djokovic in the final? Hard to say, with Djokovic’s record of never losing a final in AO. At the same time, I feel he is the only guy presently capable of defeating Djokovic if he reaches the final of the AO. If Tsi wins the semis, then I can’t seem taking down Djokovic as well in the final. He might be too tired.

Passing the baton: Tsitsipas conquers Nadal - the king of comebacks

Thank you for reading the article. Absolutely. There is a lot of talent in different pockets of the country. If only the AIFF got its act together we could make real progress here. I felt our Under-17 team is pretty decent and showed some promise in the previous year’s world cup at home.

The agony and ecstasy of being an Indian football fan

Thank you Chris for reading the article. Let’s hope your words come true. 🙂

The agony and ecstasy of being an Indian football fan

Thank you for reading this. 🙂 Indeed it’s heartening to see our football on the rise. I wish hockey would go back to its glory days as well.

The agony and ecstasy of being an Indian football fan

Thank you so much Melange for reading and your wonderful comment. Glad you enjoyed it.
Yes, the Socceroos look a shadow of the team which won the title 4 years back. I watched the game against Jordan and it was a shocking un-Socceroo like performance. They have managed to progress to the knockouts however and let’s hope they play well enough to progress deep into the tournament. 🙂

The agony and ecstasy of being an Indian football fan

Thank you 🙂

The agony and ecstasy of being an Indian football fan

You are right in every count.
The ISL is a money spinner which does not really improve our quality in grassroots. The national coach was given short shrift by the AIFF and the national team was given almost no priority once the ISL started a few years back. During one of the qualifying rounds, the AIFF refused to let the national players be released for a 10-day national camp ahead of a crucial qualifying match despite our national coach begging them to. The reason? The ISL franchises didn’t want to release these players.
That is the kind of attitude and priority given to the national team by the AIFF. this was 2 years back.
That the team has managed to put these things in the boiler and managed to improve gives us a lot of hope. Kudos to the coach and the team. But now with the first-round exit, the coach has resigned which is disappointing. I wonder if there is more than what meets the eye in his resignation. It won’t be surprised if he was asked to resign by the AIFF who fearing a public backlash didn’t want to sack him on paper directly. Anything is possible with the AIFF.

The agony and ecstasy of being an Indian football fan

Thanks for reading the article.
Yes, they played barefoot in the 2 Olympics. But the barefoot reason is popular but also a myth. According to an article in India’s Sports Illustrated magazine, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) cited the reason as “disagreements over team selection, and insufficient practice time.”
But this too is not a good enough reason for not sending a team which had qualified for the prestigious team. I find it ridiculous.

The agony and ecstasy of being an Indian football fan

Thanks for reading the article. 🙂
According to a report in India’s Sports Illustrated magazine, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) cited the reason as “disagreements over team selection, and insufficient practice time.”
This is as ridiculous as the Scottish FA reason. The players give their heart out during qualifying and then officials think they have the right to stop sending the players on flimsy grounds.

The agony and ecstasy of being an Indian football fan

Thanks. Yes, they had qualified for the first world cup after WW2 in 1950 in Brazil. There is a popular myth that India did not play because they were not allowed to play barefoot. While that makes for a good story, the actual reasons seem to be the same old curse that has dogged much of our country’s sports administration, perennially – political lack of will and incompetence.
According to a report in India’s Sports Illustrated magazine, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) cited the reason as “disagreements over team selection, and insufficient practice time.”

The agony and ecstasy of being an Indian football fan

There is a certain romance about matches going deep into the 5th set. While I understand the need for matches to have a cut-off point, keeping in mind the health and fitness of the players, 6-6 in the final set is too early for a tiebreaker.
12-12 seems good.
The most enthralling matches in the Australian open have been the ones which have run deep, the Nadal-Djokovic 2012 final springs to mind.

If these things happen at the 2019 Australian Open, tennis will be the real winner

Thiem and Zverev are the only next-gen players to realistically have a chance to upset the applecart. More Thiem than Zverev. Zverev seems to lack temperament in slams to eke out wins and go deep. However, Lendl’s coaching might do him a world of good. 2018 was a coming-of-age year for Dominic Thiem. Reaching finals at Roland Garros and then that epic fight against Nadal in the US Open Quarters before losing. Another serious challenger is going to be Kevin Anderson.
But I still think it’s going to be one of Rafa, Federer or Djokovic holding aloft the trophy. My bet is on Rafa this time to hold aloft this elusive trophy after 10 years.

If these things happen at the 2019 Australian Open, tennis will be the real winner

While I buy your above argument regarding railway canteen, what about him asking, “Who names their kids Cheteshwar Jadega?” Was that also some kind of stand up joke?

A response to Kerry O'Keefe from an Indian fan

close