This is my personal opinion about the first test which ended in draw. Why the Indians are not changing their tactics for more than a decade. Can’t we chase those 299 runs in 83 overs when we say that “we are having the best batting lineup in the world”. Then why are they still depending upon the single person Sehwag? When he got out every one taught that we are going to loose this match so lets try to draw. That’s what happened at the end. When the bowler like Kumble couldn’t take a single wicket in this pitch does it that difficult to get 299? It was last game for Kumble in his home soil and at the end he couldn’t even satisfy anyone as a player or Captain. But he said that he did his part as captain. If at all I could have been in Kumble’s place after Sehwag got out I might have asked Sachin or Dhoni or Bhaji to get in and keep the run rate high. At least this might have changed Aussies game plan and they might have taught we are also ready for their challenge and they might be under pressure if we got some runs. Even if the person who might get out at the first ball couldn’t make a difference since we lost Dravid wicket earlier. May be that could have been an advantage for Dravid’s batting and I am sure he could have got some runs on the board as well on his own clock.
I would say the FAB four and Kumble are great players and they are mentally very weak as of now. They are going in very defensive mode and I am thinking if they keep on have this mentality it’s very difficult to draw this series itself. This is the great difference between India and Australia and almost the Aussies have won the match yesterday with lots of rookies in their team. Before this series starts every body says that Aussies are very young team, inexperienced and they are having only 4 players who have played test match in India. I am sure for the rest of the series nobody will speak about this.
I would like to congratulate Ponting for his brave decision and putting the great Indian batsman’s under pressure.
Till now Kumble didn’t do any impressive task as a captain except that some good communication earlier this year. At the end, though Sachin got 49 everybody started criticize him since he didn’t pass Lara’s record. I am confident that if we need output from sachin we have to through our captain out. May be we can give a chance to Ganguly for better ending of his carrier …. :-) He is the great captain that India ever had.
