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Showing posts from November, 2016

My Test XI (2016)

My Test XI(2016) A simple glance at the photo above is enough to express the beauty of the dying art that is Test Cricket. I use the word 'dying art' because of a number of reasons. The first being that currently, there is no team in the world that can win away from home on a consistent basis. I'll get into the reasons of that in another article which i will be writing soon, which also happens to be based on Test Cricket. Secondly, there seems to be a paucity of quality spinners. By quality spinners, I do not mean winding up the opposition on a dusty wicket. I mean getting wickets outside of the sub-continent. Currently, only one spinner stands out for me, and that is Yasir Shah. Anyway, without diverting too much off the main topic, here is a compilation of my modern day Test XI; 1) Tom Latham (New Zealand) Tom Latham, being just 24 years of age, is one of the better openers out there. Highly under-rated, this Kiwi batsman proved his mettle in the recentl

Key Battles to watch out for; India vs. England.

Key battles to watch out for; England vs. India, 1st Test. Cricket, sometimes defies the fact that teamwork is required to be successful in any sport. So often we see one in-form player single handedly carrying the team forward. That is exactly what Alastair Cook did, back in the 2012 series. Both sides happen to have some phenomenal players within their ranks. This is exactly why I have decided to add a segment called 'Key battles'. Quite often these individual battles tend to have an impact on the entire game as a whole. 1) Joe Root vs. Ravindra Jadeja All the talk seems to be only about Alastair Cook and his technique against the spinners being the decisive factor in this series. But, if you look at the English batting line up, there seems to be an unusually high amount of left handed batsmen. Root, firstly being the backbone to this English batting line up for the past couple of years and secondly being a right handed batsman, will definitely be targeted by

Series Preview: England Vs. India, 2016-17.

Series Preview: England's Tour of India, 2016-17. With just a day away from the first Test of the series to be played at Rajkot, the excitement in the city is buzzing as it gears up to host it's first ever Test Match. Certain players too, from both sides, would be looking to put in a string of strong performances. With that in mind, the crux of this preview will be to have a look at the players to watch out for; 1) Virat Kohli (IND) Virat Kohli definitely has a point to prove against the Englishmen. Statistics say that Kohli has a measly average of 20 against England. Not just away tests, but this includes 7 home Tests. This surely speaks volumes about the fact that the English bowlers have figured Kohli out. Will be interesting to see if Kohli will carry on with his sublime form in this series or whether he will fall and succumb into the pressure of his past record against the same side. Though, the fact that Anderson has been sidelined from the first Test will