MSK Prasad stresses on Age Bar

MSK Prasad stresses that he and his selection committee do not look at the age of the players while determining whether to take them in the squad or not.


What they consider the most is the form and the fitness, fitness in particular because they realised during the Champions trophy that India was not amongst the fittest teams in the world.

The selectors have talked to the board and now it has been decided that there will be a fitness test of the players ahead of every series and each and every player in contention will have to come through that test first.

As per Prasad, there isn’t going to be any relaxation in terms of fitness for anyone and every player, senior or junior, young or old, will have to meet the fitness benchmark that will be set, otherwise he will find himself out of contention for selection. Continue reading “MSK Prasad stresses on Age Bar”

Funny Incident at Ind Aus 4th test Match

A really funny incident happened on the 4th day of the third test match between India and Australia and it had nothing to do with the players, but, the umpire.


What happened was that Josh Hazlewood bowled a bouncer to Cheteshwar Pujara who went for a pull shot, but, ended up missing the ball. However, because the ball was so close to the bat while that false shot was being executed, the umpire thought it might have just kissed the bat on its way through and he started lifting his finger.

But that wasn’t the case and even the Australian team knew there was nothing in it. The umpire, as he was half way through the movement of his finger, noticed that there was no appeal being made from anywhere at all.

The wicketkeeper just calmly collected the ball and threw it towards one of the fielders and the bowler didn’t show too much interest either. The umpire probably then realized that he might have got it wrong there. Continue reading “Funny Incident at Ind Aus 4th test Match”

CAN SYDNEY THUNDER DEFEND THEIR BBL05 TITLE?

The previous season of the Big Bash League tournament, the season 5 saw the Sydney Thunder go on to become the champions, thus proving ti pundits that the form book does not always lead in the right direction.


With four years of failure, Mike Hussey came to the end of his illustrious career with the Big Bash trophy in his hands.

And while Sydney Thunder have lost their former captain and the very experienced Jacques Kallis, four new faces have come in to fill the vacuum created in the team.

Eoin Morgan, England’s one day skipper joins up with the Thunder as they prepare for the season six of the BBL tournament.

However, he will miss the back end of the season due to international duty for England. And due to a calf injury which he is recovering from, Shane Watson will not be available until the end of the Xmas period. Continue reading “CAN SYDNEY THUNDER DEFEND THEIR BBL05 TITLE?”

Trent Boult adding new Skills to his Batting

Trent Boult is known more for his swing bowling, but, watching him bowl against the Gujarat Lions in IPL Qualifier 2 on Friday, it seemed he had been adding some other things to his repertoire behind the scenes.


While, he was handed the white kookaburra to go first up, he bowled at good pace putting the ball at good length and getting it to nibble a little bit as well, but, when he returned just ahead of the second strategic time out to bowl for the second time with the ball having turned slightly greyish and not capable of swinging at all, he bowled slower balls using his wrists.

It was something he was seen doing for the first time. Earlier his bowling in the death was not too different from what he would deliver at the beginning. His length would have been the same all the time and pace too and that’s why, although, he was a tough customer to deal with upfront, the batsmen could get him away for runs later for the length that he provided.

The good length is the length to bowl only when the ball changes its trajectory slightly in the air, but, if it’s not happening and the ball is going straight on, then, that’s a run getting length because the batsmen can then loft it and can get muscle behind it too. So, the change ups and that too of various types are quite must nowadays.
Continue reading “Trent Boult adding new Skills to his Batting”

Mustafizur Rahman gave too many against India

Mustafizur Rahman had a reality check against India at Mirpur on Wednesday as he was taken for plenty on a bowling conducive deck.


It was for the first time in his short career that Mustafizur had been belted around the park like that.

Mustafizur had done some severe damage to India when they had last toured Bangladesh.

But, this time around, the Indian batsmen looked to play him differently. There was a pre planned approach to try and attack him.

At the start though, the Indian batsmen struggled to get him away as he was getting the ball to move around.

But, later on Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya dealt with Mustafizur in a very harsh way as they dismissed him with disdain when he returned in the death to finish his quota.

He was probably trying to use too many variations and thus, was faltering a bit in terms of his accuracy and for the batsmen of the quality of Rohit and Pandya, those were easy pickings.

Mustafizur could have been more expensive if the umpires had not been a little generous to him towards the end of his spell.

A couple of his deliveries which he tried to slip in wide on the off side could so easily have been called wide deliveries and India could have got extra runs and extra deliveries, but, he got the benefit of the doubt as the umpires let those go. Continue reading “Mustafizur Rahman gave too many against India”

Ravindra Jadeja has made a memorable comeback in white clothing for India

Ravindra Jadeja has made a memorable comeback in white clothing for India as he has managed to grab a total of 12 wickets in the three innings in the presently going test series against South Africa.

The most pleasing thing for Jadeja’s fans is to see that he is bowling with a straight arm again. After the shoulder injury which he had sustained playing in the 2013 season, he had started to bowl with a slightly round arm action which was harming him. Bowling that way, he was not being able to bring his natural variation into play and was going for plenty.

His performance on the tours of England and Australia and also, in the World Cup was disappointing prompting the selectors to drop him and ask him to go to the drawing board again and figure out his problems.

And, the Shaurashtra southpaw indeed did quite a bit of work on his game after being left out. Now, he is looking as confident as he has ever been and most importantly, he is bowling his straight deliveries, or the arm balls as people often call it, with the same devastating effect.

Batting wise too, Jadeja made a decent contribution in the first game in Mohali. The scoreboard would show only 38 to his name, but, those 38 runs were like gold dust in the context of that game as the pitch there was a square turner. Continue reading “Ravindra Jadeja has made a memorable comeback in white clothing for India”