Who is the real England T20 captain?

The captain of a T20 side really is not as important as a captain of the longer formats, but the man given the responsibility is likely to become the long term vice captain in ODI and test cricket. The current man in charge is Stuart Broad.

He has been in charge for a year and a half now, unluckily for him though England play very little T20 cricket so he has had little time develop his skills. There is no doubt that Broad is England's most important bowler in limited overs cricket and given his age he will be the leader of the bowling unit for years to come, but there is slight doubts over his captaincy credentials.

What Broad has going in his favour is that he is young, which will mean he can be the captain for a long time to come. He is a player who is always in the side in all forms of the game and he has ample experience for a player of his age.

However I believe there is also a downside to his leadership. He seems to be an angry man. His press conference before the this summers T20 series sums him up for me. He refused to answer a good question from the press in regards to resting of the squad, branding the question as stupid. Call me old fashioned but this is not how I expect an England captain to react to a simple question. Not sure how the other players would react to this.

He has also shown many times on the field that he is a hot head. On many occasions we have seen him angrily throw a ball at a batsman or swearing his head off after he has bowled a bad ball. This over aggressive nature then rubs off on the rest of the team. One key player for England in the shorter formats is Jade Dernbach, he is a naturally aggressive person, it would be hard for someone like Broad to reign him in when he himself is over aggressive.

The third and final issue I have with Broad as captain is that he does not play within the spirit of the game. Again I could be accused of living in the dark ages but I feel the majority of international captains currently are very fair. Look at Jayawardine, McCullum, Dhoni and Clark they all have shown examples of honesty and fairness over their cricket careers. One such example being Dhoni calling Bell back when Bell stupidly got himself out. 

The other man up for the job is Eoin Morgan, he has captained in both ODI and T20 games when the captains are absent. For me what I have seen of him as captain is very impressive. His latest outing as skipper is the ODI series against Australia this late summer. 

The only downside to have Morgan as captain is the fact that he does not get into the test side. So Broad may be favoured as he could be a long term leader of all the sides. There are plenty of positives for Morgan to become skipper, he in my opinion is unlucky not to have cemented his position in the test side. He is a better batsman than Bairstow in my opinion so a recall to the side could be on. 

His batting is often said to be second only to M.S Dhoni in a run chase. This is because Dhoni is a thinker, he understands situations in cricket matches and has the calmness, confidence in his own ability. Albeit Morgan is a lesser version of Dhoni, Morgan still posses these same qualities. He is a calm man when on the field or whilst batting. He has the ability to lead the team from the front and he thinks about inventive field positions. Add his brilliant fielding to this he is for me a better choice as captain.

I would also put Joe Root in the same category as Morgan and honestly believe he will one day lead England but he needs to cement his place in the side before he is even considered. It is clear to see that England have backed Broad to lead in the future but I feel that Morgan is the man England should be looking at. 

England will win the Ashes but Australia will take all the positives

After three Ashes tests the score stands at two nil to England. Considering this score and the fact that one test match had been rained off it may seem on first glance that England have had it all their own way. To think this would be wrong, it could be argued that Australia with a bit of luck could quite easily have been two one or even three nil up.

Before the first test match every person had written off this Australian side as being one of the worst to tour England. This criticism and the Darren Lehman factor probably was the reason for Australia performing so well in the first test. This was a test match which was only won by fourteen runs. There were parts of this game where some of the so called best bowlers in the world struggled to bowl out tail-enders.

The second test was a write off for Australia, the match where they most likely lost the whole series. I can imagine that the heavy loss of the first test played on Australian minds whilst it had the opposite effect on England. This was a match that was played only a few days after the first loss. Imagine if Australia had scrapped through the first test, England would have had the added pressure on them.

The third test saw Australia dominate from start to finish. The only good point for England in this match is Kevin Pietersen. His century and England’s unsporting behaviour in delaying every ball meant that England beat the weather to avoid an inevitable loss. Australia actually had KP out before his century but failed to review the decision, much to the annoyance of Watson. 

If this ball had been reviewed it could be argued that England’s first innings would have finished on Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday morning. This meaning that Australia would have had more time to put on quick runs and bowl England out again, even with bad light on the Sunday and rain all day on Monday.

As I write this on the end of day one of the fourth test match, Australia is once again in a strong position. They have got England down to nine wickets. The bowling is Australia’s strong point, there is a group of young bowlers who could worry any batsmen in world cricket. Pattinson, Starc, Bird, Faulkner head the list of young bowlers guided by the more experienced Siddle and Harris. Add to the list Mitchel Johnson who can’t make the squad. All these bowlers and Nathan Lyon make up a very decent attack. Ashton Agar in my mind will come back into the side one day as a batsman only, he can be a similar player to Steve Smith.

Believe it or not Australia actually can take some positives from their batting line up. With the return of Warner and addition of Khawaja they have a team full of potential. It seems that Khawaja has all the shots in the book, he is just waiting for that one innings to kick start his career. England also have some positives to take from this series.

The first being that they will probably win, the second is the form of Joe Root and Ian Bell. They also have some serious questions to answer, the first being how they have not totally put Australia to the sword apart from one match on their own turf. The second being the form of Jonathan Trott, it seems the Aussies have worked him out. The third and probably most concerning is that James Anderson seems to be carrying the bowling a little bit. Without him I feel the series would be very much closer. Whatever happens in the last two tests it seems that the Ashes series in Australia will be very much closer. 

"DRS has not worked well" Flower - India vindicated?

There was a time when every person in the cricketing world laughed at the BCCI and Indian cricket team for not using the decision review system. Even I had a few questions for the ICC in not implanting the system for all test series. I would like to take this opportunity to say that I was one hundred percent wrong over this issue.  

On tour to England a few years ago English commentators Nassir Hussain and Ian Botham both laughed every time an Indian batsman was given out wrongly. The famous words from Hussain were "India do not want a fair game Rahul you have to walk." I may suggest that under the current decision review system which is being used a bad decision like that would not be over turned. 

This Ashes series will go down in history as one of the most controversial, both sides have suffered bad decisions. The only consolation for the teams are that these decisions are balancing themselves out. The review system will now always be tarred with the image of Stuart Broad standing his ground taking full advantage of the two reviews or the awful reviewed decision to give Kawajha out. 

It is likely that both England and Australia will now scrap DRS for the next series starting in December with England coach Andy Flower joining the debate. He does not state in his interview that they will scrap the idea totally but states it needs better umpires. Until a new system comes in which is fairer I do not believe India will ever sign up. In the mean time other nations may join them in not using the flawed system.

So much controversy has been caused by the technology aid that it has now overshadowed what has been a fascinating series. Quite frankly Australia can count themselves very unlucky not to have won a game by now. 

Can David Warner save Australia?

After enduring the worst season of his life David Warner now has a chance of redemption. He is being heavily tipped to come back into the side after new coach Darren Lehman talked up his batting abilities. 

Australia need one of their batsmen to step up if they are to avoid a  five nil whitewash. All of this puts extra pressure onto David Warner, he is one of their better batsmen on paper, but has been seriously off form. The incident with Joe Root will also serve as either an extra burden to manage or a motivation. 

Australia wanted Warner to go away and build back his form, he seems to have done this albeit after one game. His 193 runs may mask his recent failures, but all will be forgiven if he is to make an impact in the Ashes. 

I personally do not agree that Australia's batsmen are the worst in their history, they are just facing a good bowling attack in conditions that not many of them have played in. Bring these same players back in a few years and they will be better for this experience. 

In Clarke, Watson and Warner they have genuine batsman who could destroy any bowling attack, Usman Khawaja is a good batsman waiting to be unleashed. He has shown his talent in patches, he just needs that one big innings to make his name, this is a similar problem that Ian Bell and Steve Waugh faced early in their careers. The lower order could also be considered as one of the best batting tails also. With Agar looking like a genuine batsman, Steve Smith capable of building innings and Haddin holding them all together they could be very dangerous if an actual batsman clicked. This is not even mentioning Siddle who has a few half centuries, Starc who scored big verses India, and Pattinson who nearly brought home the first game. 

Australia may have lost the second test badly, but if they actually can win a toss and then play to their best standard England could be unsettled. Lets just hold back on all those five nil predictions. I have said from the start that it will either be four nil or four one. 

England hit the final nail in cricket's "spirit of the game" coffin

The first Ashes test showcased the very best of test cricket, a big story was written every day. There were two main issues which have arisen from the match, the first being that DRS failed throughout the match for both teams, the other issue was Stuart Broad's decision not to walk off a blatant error from the umpire. 

My views on the DRS situation can be read here. The issue of Stuart Broad staying at the crease is one which is rather disappointing but yet not very surprising. Over the last few days I have been hearing many things saying that his actions are not in the spirit of the game. 

In my opinion the spirit of the game has been something which has slowly eroded over time and has now seized to exist. The death of this started with Australia. Mark and Steve Waugh were some of the first players to stay at the crease when they knew they were out. Since this time these unwritten rules have slightly changed to you only walk on obvious nicks. What has happened recently is that players such as Broad have decided never to walk. 

Sledging was the next thing to chip away at the spirit of the game. Again the roots of this will probably be traced back to Australia. This is something that all international teams now incorporate. Other obvious things to effect this would be the time where many players were spotted trying to tamper with either the ball or pitch. Match fixing will also get a mention as simply being not cricket, but it all happens and is another area where the spirit of cricket is attacked from. 

England seem to feature as much as Australia in the list of teams breaching the spirit of cricket. Notable incidents would include England captain Paul Collingwood not calling back the New Zealand batsman he knocked down and ran out. I could mention Broad senior (who somehow has been appointed a match referee) knocking down the stumps with the bat in anger after he had been given out. From all of this it is clear that the spirit of cricket is dead, so each team now has a free for all to do what they like as long as there are no rules against it. 

On another note, I would like to highlight quotes taken from Graeme Swann in regards to players not walking when they are clearly out. His quotes came from a warm up match between England and Sri Lanka where Dilruwan Perera decided not to walk where the umpire missed the wicket. Some snippets of his quotes (taken from the guardian website) are: 

•  "I wanted to kill the batsman because he was cheating"
• "When people looked at the replays, it would have looked appalling on behalf of the batsman and he would have been shown up"
• "If you know your out then you walk off the field."
• "He was out and cheated in my view."

Well Swanny we all live by our words, lets see if you come out in the press this time around and echo the same words. I do not think so, the fact that England won by a margin less than Broad's extra runs makes his un-sporting behaviour acceptable. I believe that anything goes in this series and neither team can now complain about any future decisions in the series. 

Darren Lehmann factor will make the Ashes series closer

Just weeks before the first Ashes test, the Australian cricket board made the wise decision to get rid of Mickey Arthur as team coach and replace him with Darren Lehman. In my opinion this was necessary to make Australia a bit more competitive in the series. 

Arthur was always the wrong fit for the Australian job, as a South African he was never accepted by the players or fans. His authoritarian methods made the players feel like they had gone back to school. This was highlighted in the disastrous tour of India where four players were suspended from a test match for disciplinary reasons.

It can be argued that the Australian cricket board also didn't trust Mickey Arthur by allowing the captain to be part of the selection committee. This resulted in players not being able to confide in Michael Clarke in fear of being dropped. 

With the appointment of Darren Lehmann the captains selection rights have also been dropped. This means that Clarke is now free to concentrate on his own performance aswell as team building. His methods seem to be more relaxed and more accepted by the players. He was a fighter as a player and will be hoping to install some fight into his new team.

His old school methods seem to be focused on making the team feel as if they are playing against the whole world. There is nobody who could install this seige mentality as well as Lehmann. The knowledge he amassed while playing in one of the greatest international sides will be passed onto the current side.

The effect of appointing a new coach can make teams play better, this can be witnessed in football when new managers come in. If the warm up games are anything to go by the Aussies are slowly coming back into form. The bowling is their greatest strength, they should cause England some trouble. 

If I were to predict then I would say  England will still win the series but it will be alot closer than it would have been in Arthur had ket his job. 

Kevin Pietersen to call it quits on international cricket after the Ashes?

Kevin Pietersen to call time on England after the two Ashes series:

For an English cricketer there is nothing that comes close to winning an Ashes series. This was evident with the open top bus parade after winning the 2005 Ashes. If England were to be successful in the back to back series against the old enemy, Kevin Pietersen would claim his fourth and fifth Ashes series win. He and Ian Bell are the only surviving members of the victorious 2005 team, making them two of the most successful English cricketers in recent times.

The first reason I believe he will retire from international cricket is that he would have proved many fans wrong, if he were to win another two Ashes series. Despite being one of England’s most consistent performers over the past eight years he has had a love-hate relationship with many supporters. This could be attributed to two reasons, one could be that many dislike the fact that he is not actually English and the other reason is many people believe he has a big ego. Watching many of his interviews I do not believe that he is egoistic, I also see a player very proud to represent England.  

Another big factor in his decision could be the Indian Premier league. At the age of thirty three he still has plenty of good cricket left in him. Possibly another four-five years at the top level. These years may be spent maximising his earning potential in lucrative short tournaments. In India he is a superstar, and if he were allowed to play the whole of the Indian Premier League he would gain more money. If he were to continue his international career he would not be able to participate in the whole tournament. There are many other competitions that he could pick and choose after if he were to finish with international cricket.

The demands of International cricket mean that players will spend many months away from families for long periods of the year, including most Christmas’s. This is something that Pietersen like many other players have complained about in the past. This added to the fact that after the Australia away series the next fixtures include long trips away to West Indies and India. These are places that he has already made history with England, therefore has not much else to prove.

In the past Kevin Pietersen has tried to stop playing one day internationals, but this forced him to retire from the twenty20 side also. This original retirement has now been retracted after the long and drawn out arguments with the ECB. This included his exile from all international cricket which had been imposed on him. I am in no doubt that currently his sole focus is the Ashes series, but he must be considering calling it a day after. Kevin Pietersen place in the England test team has not only seen them win three Ashes series but also seen them rise to number one in world cricket. If he were to retire he would obviously finish as a player who could have achieved a lot more in terms of records but definitely a very successful player for England. 

Will Bopara get anymore chances?

Whatever the sport there are always a few players who never seem to fulfil their true potential. One such example of this is could be Ravi Bopara. It seems that he has been around for a long time now despite only being twenty seven years of age. Bopara should just coming to his peak in cricketing terms, but has he played his last international game?

There had been a time when he was the talk of English cricketing as a potential star of the game. The Essex allrounder has played thirteen test matches and eighty three one day internationals. These figures indicate that he was never an established player in the England team.  His three centuries in thirteen tests is not really bad going, many other players would like this conversion rate in test cricket. This should have been the start that established him in the side.

The problems all started when Bopara made his Ashes debut, he failed pretty badly in that series and was subsequently dropped from the test side. It probably was the right decision at the time to axe him from the side, although Eoin Morgan his replacement in the side only did slightly better.  Since this time Ravi Bopara has been in and out of the side. Normally drafted in again after some other player has failed. The only question is if Bopara will get another chance to play test cricket? He had to drop out the squad last summer for personal reasons and saw his name drop down the pecking order. Now Joe Root and Johhny Bairstow are both ahead of him as well as Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler and James Taylor. These same players also have pushed Bopara out of the one day side.

What was surprising is that Bopara had been selected in the squad for the upcoming Champions Trophy. Many people believe that he has had too many chances. Alistair Cook once stated that Bopara had more talent than he did, the difference probably is in mentality.

I personally believe that he is good enough to win back his place but I do not see it happening. So this probably means that Ravi Bopara could be added to the long list of players who did not fulfil their potential, the other names on this list include Mark Ramprakash and Graham Hick. These two players were rated higher than Brian Lara at youth levels, with Ramprakash outscoring the West Indian legend in a youth world cup. 

Would England cricketers make an impression on the IPL?

So today another story has re-emerged about English players wanting to be a part of the money spinner that is the IPL. Apparently the ECB are in talks with IPL chiefs after pressure from players to negotiate a way for England's cricketers to enter into next years competition. 

This story seems to be true and there is a suggestion that the BCCI could move the competition a few weeks earlier and the first test series in England could be pushed back a bit. This would allow England's top players to be a part of the competition for a longer period, thus making them more attractive to the teams. For this reason I have looked at the players who would have a chance in the IPL and if English cricketers would make an impact on the competition. 

In theory looking at Englands past performances and the domestic T20 competition they will make a big impact in India. Over the course of international T20 competition England have been near to the top of the rankings. There are however a few signs that these players will not have as much impact on the competition.

A few England stars who have made been selected in the Indian Premier League, these have had mixed success. At the top of the list has to be Kevin Pietersen, he has established himself as one of the biggest names in the competition. In contrast to Kevin Pietersen there is Luke Wright, a player who has been in a poor Pune Warriors squad for two seasons and is yet to play. 

The players who have been selected in the past are, Pietersen, Morgan, Flintoff, Broad, Shah, Bopara, Wright, Collingwood, Lumb, Napier. Three of the players on the list have not played for their franchise, a few of them have not been re-selected and a few of are bench warmers who bring on the drinks. It is a real shame actually because England do have some good players who can make a big impression.

If you look closely at IPL teams then it is very noticeable that most teams have young relatively unknown Australians and South Africans in their squads.  The problem lies with the fact that there are many South African and Australian coaches in the IPL. This is the reason why their younger players are bought up. If England players are given a chance it is likely that they will be used in the same way as these young players from the above named countries. 

The IPL fairly keeps a quota system on foreign players, this being that only four can play at one time. This unfortunately would effect English players, the reason I say this is that most teams already have their four top players. So either they go to one of these teams and sit on the bench or go to a lower ranked team.  

Looking through England's players I believe that Bairstow, Butler, Samit Patel, James Anderson, Graham Swann, Bopara and Steven Finn could all have a positive impact on the competition. It would also develop these players further, facing top players and training with other players from different backgrounds. 

I can take Eoin Morgan as an example, he is currently back into the KKR team but this is only because the worlds best allrounder Shakib Al Hasan is injured. If Shakib was fit, I can guess that Morgan would be back onto the bench. If a player like Morgan struggles to get into a team it does not bode well for the other English players. Luke Wright in my opinion is the fifth or sixth choice foreign player in PWI, I do not really rate their captain Matthews who is somehow keeping Steve Smith out their squad, but that is a totally different issue. 

In short I believe that England players could have a massive impact on the IPL, but the reality of it is that they will not. I do not think teams will give the players a chance, they will just stock pile the good players into their squad to fill in when others get injured. English cricket will still benefit because the players will be training with world class players, but they will not get game exposure in Indian conditions. This valuable experience is being taken up by average Australians and South Africans like Aaron Finch and Ben Hilfenhouse.  

Win or Lose the New Zealand series England have been rubbish!

As I write this England are currently sitting at lunch on day three of the final test match at 92-5, this is after New Zealand scored 443 in their first innings. This means they have made it hard for themselves to win the match and therefore the series. After the historic win in India and previous highs this is very much a low. 

Before the series had started I heard a former England captain confidently state this was the best England team in history and that they should wipe the floor with this poor New Zealand team. I do not totally disagree with that statement but it hasn't quite worked out as planned. This smacks of an over arrogant team who are very under prepared or just not bothered. They seemed up for the games against South Africa and India, so why have they not turned up in New Zealand?

In my opinion England have gone back to the old English mentality, this is to forget about the current series and concentrate on the next series which they believe is more important. The media do not help in this, the amount of times I have read that this is a build up for the Ashes. The bad form started before a ball had been bowled in the test series, I have to agree with Geoff Boycott that England spent to much time doing other activities such as bungee jumping instead of practising.  Did they believe that New Zealand were so poor that they could just turn up and beat them?

Rain saved England in the first test, otherwise they could have actually lost that game. They were better in the second game but are back onto the form of the first game again. What is interesting is that the players who had to prove a point have performed, and the people who were on form before this series are on poor form. Have these people just not turned up because they are sure of their place in the summer? People like Cook, Trott and Bell should be ripping into this bowling attack. The only batsman to do something of note is Compton, this is probably because he had something to prove. 

Ian Bell has done what he usually does, as in he plays well if the team play well. I have never seen the guy dig England out of a hole, he goes missing when the pressure is on. Alistair Cook has been really poor also not looking a shadow of the player he was in India. Same could be said for Jonathan Trott and even Kevin Pietersen, who has been dismissed by a left arm spinner again in the series. I can guarantee one thing, that these guys mentioned will be much better when it comes to the Ashes, I wonder why.

Another disturbing thing is that the England top order has struggled with a swinging ball today, this is very odd. Compton had the right idea with his hundred and eighteen ball, thirteen, the rest were impatient.  He and Matt Prior can stand up at the end of the series and state they have batted well, oh and I should mention Steven Finn. In terms of bowling Broad did his usual, a similar thing to Bell. He only plays well one game in ten. This is usually the game were people are questioning his place in the team. I still think England will win the Ashes, only because Australia are going through a tough period. Not too much should be read into of the poor Aussie tour of India, considering it is the first tour of India for most of the players. They will have slightly more common conditions to play in when they arrive in England.

Kevin Pietersen keeping a lower profile?

Do you remember the old Kevin Pietersen, the one who to the outside world seemed like a party boy from South Africa who was chasing the limelight. Since this time I believe his perception has changed so much. If you cast your mind back to around 2004, Pietersen was the young confident guy who had a mow hawk which was sometimes blue and sometimes blonde. He had publicly stated his love for his new country and showed this off with his new tatoo of the three lions. 

His so called chasing of the limelight seemed to be on the field as well as off. The media made him into a bit of a celebrity after his marriage to popstar Jessica Taylor. It was as if they wanted him to be crickets answer to David Beckham. 

The young KP seemed to have bags of talent and potential coupled with a reputation for not being a team player. This on a few occasions may have come across on the field with many believing that he sometimes used to play for personal glory rather than the teams success. I do not know the man personally but it always seemed like he was an individualist rather than a team player. After following his career a bit more I can say I was wrong about him. 

He does not fit the normal stereotype of your regular English test player like others such as Alistair Cook do. He was brash, aggressive, very confident that he would become one of the worlds best players and carefree of any persons opinions. The key events of his early international career were the ODI tour of South Africa where he was given alot of abuse for leaving the country of his birth and the final Ashes test of 2005 where he announced himself to the cricket world. 

A stick that people have used to beat KP with is the fact that he is South African, so every time he fails to perform people mention this. I do not know why this matters to England fans as he is the best English batsman. He has shown time and time again that he wants to play for England, and has been good for them as well. 

Recently there has been an issue with Pietersen and the other players, which lead to an unfair exile. This and the Peter Moores affair which lead him to be stripped of the England captaincy are odd occasions where he has not faired well. At the start of his international career I would have put money on him being dropped by England for his awkward personality. 

He has been the star for England since his first Ashes series, from this point onwards he has always been expected to be the best batsman for England. Like any person he has had his dips in form, but mainly seen good times with England. Another good thing about him is that he is a big game player, he has seen England to number one in the test rankings and a world T20 title. More recently Alistair Cook has taken over the mantle as being the go to batsman, this has been a really interesting period for KP. He is not talked about as often as Cook any more, this may not have sat well with the old Pietersen. 

I think the old Kevin Pietersen would have tried to be more aggressive and make sure people talk about his game. In this period where Cook just keeps scoring runs he has quietly scored runs. He was a star in the Ashes win down under as well at the test victory in India, mixing well with the in form Cook. In my opinion he knows that there are two big series coming up which are back to back ashes and has put his head down waiting to star in these. I have no doubt that he will be a star in these series. 

The reason I think he is focused on this double ashes series is that he had the chance to quit international cricket in 2012 and become a player like Chris Gayle, travelling around the world making big money in T20 cricket. He choose to go back to England and it would not surprise me if he ends up winning both of the series and retires. 

He also has changed his perception off the field, it is evident that he is now a more mature person. His press conferences used to be very defensive, now he knows when to joke. He famously called Yuvraj Singh a pie chucker, for constantly getting him out. You would think that this could be something to get the Indian public as his enemy, on the contrary he is loved in India. Pietersen can count many top top international players as his friends, people such as Shane Warne, Darren Gough and Virender Sehwag. He always tweets when he arrives in India, this is normally in Hindi. From his tweets he does not seem like the arrogant person that I believed him to be at all, he seems very humble and down to earth. 

I would say that because of the IPL his popularity has sky rocketed, he is now one of the most loved cricketers in India. This was rewarded by him earning a role on Indian television for the world T20 which he had been left out of by England. He has been the only England player that has made any sort of impact on the Indian Premier League, and constantly advocates for teams to buy others. 

Being a Delhi Daredevils fan he is the stand out name in the side, despite there being many top stars. It was evident that their campaign fell short after he left last season. KP is in my top three players currently, he is only beaten by MS Dhoni, who has a similar story to KP and Virat Kohli. He is always a player I enjoy watching as a neutral and a player I fear when playing against India. 

England and India going in different directions - Series Review

The first thing that has to be said is well done England, they outplayed India in every single department. The signs are good for Alistair Cook as he and his team have done something that no other England team has for twenty eight years. For India however they will need to have a serious look at where they need to improve in the future. What makes the win even better for England is that they were thrashed in the first test and improved then after, showing  that they have a lot of mental toughness.

England:

Apart from the nine wicket loss in the Ahemedabad, they never looked in trouble. This was down to England being very clinical and India being poor. Alistair Cook's first series after being made captain could not have gone any better. He has passed the test with flying colours and the experience of captaining in India will stand him in good stead. 

Monty Panesar's selection for the second test onwards played a big part in England winning. In my opinion he is probably the best English spinner, and far better than any spinner India had to offer. James Anderson also played a massive part of this win, he on past tours of India has been clueless, this time he was prepared and performed well. In all the tests Matt Prior has shown why he is now regarded as a top keeper/batsman. The demoralising effect he kept inflicting on India, probably helped out the bowlers. The last test cameo from Joe Root and the century by Ian Bell showed some encouraging signs for the coming year.

There probably is not too many of the players who didn't feel they contributed much in this series, the only exceptions are Stuart Broad, Sammit Patel and  Tim Bresnan. 

India:

At the start of the series Virat Kohli declared that this was the chance for revenge. This was a total wrong thought, India should have concentrated on winning first, then revenge would have come.They lost the series pretty abysmally, didn't show any fight at all. There were problems in all three departments, the most worrying has to be the much lauded batting line up. The openers did not perform that well, Gambhir in particular looking dodgy despite making some runs. Cheteshwar Pujara did his job with the bat well and sometimes showed the senior players how to bat. His only flaw was to drop Cook in the fourth test whilst he was only on seventeen, going on to score a big century. 

It could be the end of the great career of Sachin Tendulkar, if it is then it will be a shame he could not have gone out on a high. There is a series against Pakistan coming up, where he could finish against the team where it all started. 

The series has already seen Zaheer, Yuvraj and Harbhajan cut from the team, it is very likely there test careers are over. Up until the last innings of the last test M.S Dhoni did not do anything. The pressure is mounting on him as captain, but I do not think there is anyone on form who is good enough to take over. It also has to be shown that he battled well for his 99 runs. One positive for India is Ravi Ashwin, this was for his batting. In my opinion he could fill a higher role as a batsman, possibly the position vacated by Yuvraj. On the other hand Ashwin has been very disappointing with the ball. 

The Future:

England will go home for the Christmas period after a few T20 games and come back refreshed for a ODI series where India will still be favourites. Then then travel to New Zealand all in preparation for the big summer. India take on Pakistan, the pressure on the team will double. I would hope by then India accept the DRS system, and make some big changes to the team. 

India ring the changes, but is it the answer?

Indian cricket is in a bad state, at the moment it is probably the worst it has been for at least 20 years. The alarm bells must have been ringing after the bad tour of England or the disaster down under, on both occasions not much had been changed. The signs of a home defeat were also highlighted after a poor showing against New Zealand which covered up the cracks. The final straw seems to be the loss of the 2nd and 3rd test against England. 

For me the old selectors who did nothing after the bad away tours took too long to act, I just hope the new selectors have made the changes out of future thought and not just for a way to differentiate between the old selection committee and new. The players who have got the chop for the last test Zaheer, Harbhajan and Yuvraj. It seems pretty clear to me that these players test careers are finished, they all have been playing for a while and a recall will only now come through influence and not form. 

What is worrying is that Zaheer Khan is a shadow of the player he was, he is not worthy of being called an international cricketer any more, but there is no one to replace him. I am a fan of Yadav, but am not sure if he is injured or just left out. Awana is a good bowler and worthy of a call up in place of Zaheer, but is he a bowler which will scare England? All in all the dropping of Zaheer is a decision I agree to. 

Harbhajan Singh has also been chucked out AGAIN, I am still not sure why he had been brought back into the team, but he definitely will not get another chance. Where has the passion gone for him? He was once the most passionate player for India, always giving his all for the cause. In my opinion he is egoistic, when he was first dropped he did alot of TV work, this is probably his new career. 

My gripe about the squad is the dropping of Yuvraj. He has been one of a bad bunch of batsmen. By far not the worst of them either, it seems that the selectors have singled out one of the batsmen to drum home their message. It really could have been any of the batsmen to get the chop apart from Pujara. 

It is now really clear that the more Sachin plays, the more his reputation will be tarnished. Dhoni seems to be playing with the weight of the world on his shoulders, maybe a change of captaincy could help. All I know is that something is wrong, Gambhir quite easily could have been the man instead of Yuvraj. 

Ashwin showed some late fight on the last two days, a brilliant 91* as well as two wickets on the last day. If it wasn't for this I believe his position in the team could have also been under threat. He probably will get a promotion in the batting, possibly moving above Dhoni in Yuvraj's place allowing an extra bowler in the team. 

The selection committee have no authority to change the coach, if they did I would suggest that they would Fletcher. He has been an absolute disaster, especially as he came with a big reputation. It seems that Gary Kirsten had the right idea leaving India when he did, at number 1 in test cricket as well as world cup winners. He probably foresaw the upcoming problems. 

Whatever happens in the next test, India need a change. People like Ganguly need to be more involved in the selection/coaching process. Pressure needs to be taken off Dhoni, it is not clear what Fletcher does for him. India have made some small changes but surely there is much more to come. 

Punter gambles no more whilst captain Cook slays India

This has been a big week of cricket, especially for two players in particular. It was a week which drew the curtain on the great career of Ricky Ponting as well as being the week where Alistair Cook broke two records. 

Ricky Ponting:

For me Ponting is unlucky as he is playing in an era where it could be easy to forget his achievements because of players such as Tendulkar, Lara and Kallis. Despite having 41 test hundreads and 30 ODI hundreds he will only be considered the second greatest Australian batsman, after Sir Donald Bradman.  

Being the captain after the great Steve Waugh he had massive boots to fill, this was the challenge that Ponting faced, a challenge which he successfully negotiated. In fact I think his period in charge of Australia was more successful than Waugh.  The doubters of his captaincy will always say that he had an easy job as captain, because he had the best players on his side. This is undeniable that he had the best team, but the pressure of leading such a great team also has its burdens. These burdens did not once effect his batting form.

He was part of the team which won three world cups in a row, winning it twice as a captain. An aggressive captain on the pitch always made watching his side exciting. As with Waugh before him and Clarke after him, it seems that being the captain aided his batting performance allowing him to lead from the front.

My lasting memory of him will be the 2003 world cup final, where he destroyed all Indian bowlers especially Srinath in a brilliant display of power and technique. In England he will be remembered as the captain who lost three ashes, while the world will remember him as the captain with the most wins. 

Alistair Cook:

This guy seems to be getting better and better. It is even ludicrous to think that England considered not taking him to the last ashes tour because of poor form against Pakistan the series before. He is the heartbeat of this England side, the captain and the leader with the bat. 

As captain he seems to be in his element, taking everything in his stride never once showing that he is flustered. Just like the new Australian skipper it seems that his form has improved as captain, it will be fascinating to see what happens in the ashes. 

All that said it should be noted that he was dropped by Pujara on 17 runs today, and the bowling attack he is facing is not great. Cook is only 27 years old but has become the highest England century maker. He has one hundred more than Pietersen, who is the only player who could overtake him any time soon. The other record which he broke today was that he is the youngest player to score 7,000 runs. This is something, as he has broken Tendulkar's record. 

India gave him a second chance today, quite frankly that probably will be the difference of winning this match and loosing. It could possibly by the difference of drawing the series and loosing it. If his form stays as it is, he could guide England to a historic win in India, thus putting his name as a legendary captain after his first test tour. 

Lifeless, Lacklustre, Limp - India need some changes fast

First thing that should be said is that England deserved this victory, and look a class above India, in all departments. Kevin Pietersen laid the foundations for a classy win and Panesar completed the job. It gets me thinking about why the England management do not play him more often, being one of the best spinners in world cricket currently.

My main concern is for India, the performance was the worst on home soil for a very long time. It highlights everything wrong with Indian cricket at the moment. 

All the signs were there in the last two away series, in both series team India came back with their legs between their tails. Nothing was changed from these annihilations. Then came the series against New Zealand where India were unconvincing against an average New Zealand side. 

Let me start with the bowling attack, this has to be one of the worst bowling attacks in world cricket currently. In my eyes only Yadav is worthy of being mentioned as good, yet he is the first to be dropped. Zaheer Khan has not performed well for a long time now, he brings bags of experience but he is becoming very predictable. I don't blame him much for two reasons, one that he is getting old and two India do not currently make pitches to help him. He has been a great bowler and will always be remembered as one of the best Indian bowlers, but for me if it came to a choice of him or Yadav, then the younger guy should be preferred. 

Harbhajan and Ashwin likewise have been very poor, both are capable of producing good things but have not done it for a long time. Like Zaheer it may be time to dispense of Harbhajan. In my opinion he is now a better batsman than bowler and therefore pretty useless for India, as Ashwin does a better job in both departments. When was the last time that England had two better spinners than India? The funniest thing I have heard today was that many Indian fans outside the ground were saying about Panesar being Indian, that India should poach him, this is something I would love although it would never happen. 

In the batting department there is a definite problem. The once champions of spin now struggle badly on turning tracks, this is more concerning considering that the last two tours also highlighted that they cant play on seamer friendly wickets either.

Laxman had been pushed out, but was he playing any worse than Sachin has done in test cricket over the last few series? The guy is a legend but every great player has to end some time. I think he should definitely consider his retirement now, maybe wait to finish against Pakistan.  

The batting expectation is left on the two most inexperienced players in the team. Pujara and Kohli, this is something that seems rather unfair, as they have not played many tests yet. Kohli himself seems to have caught the disease, there were signs in the last test. He was very scratchy, looked nervous and his wicket in the second innings was disgraceful. A dolly catch off a full toss, I will allow him a little bit of a dip as he has been great for India in the last two years and every player has a dip.

Others who were guilty of being stupid in the second innings at Mumbai are Ashwin and Harbhjan. Both needed to knuckle down but instead played a fast cameo by trying to hit sixes. 

Lets not start on Dhoni, who has underperformed badly with the bat for the last year or so. In my eyes he has been a great captain, the best captain but he is in danger of loosing his great record as captain. 

I am not advocating dramatic changes through this series, just saying that these players need to have a serious think about their positions. They should have a bit of pride and work harder to change things. That is the only way that India can regain the lead in this series. 

How England could surprise India but South Africa will prevail

The excitement of test cricket returned last night, two fascinating series between some of the best teams in the world will run simultaneously. In my opinion India are the best team in the sub-continent and when they are on form they are almost unbeatable at home. 

The question which should be asked is if England can take advantage of India's new batting line up. The retirement of Laxman and Dravid could be the chance that England have been waiting for. Add to this the poor form which Sehwag and Gambhir have been going through, India's well known batting strength could struggle. 

England also have players such as Bairstow (even if he doesn't play), Bell and Pietersen who are all on form with the bat. Samit Patel looks the real deal as a test allrounder and the bowlers are pretty good. The good news for England is that Broad and Finn seem likely to be fit for the first test. Another factor that may favour the Englishmen is that they now have three genuine spinners. They could actually play all three in a match, not that I think they will. Over the winter England struggled against Ajmal and Hearth, so alot rests on Ashwin. We do not know how England will play Yadav but it is clear to see that Zaheer Khan is not the same bowler which has troubled world batsmen all these years.

I personally think that Sehwag and Gambhir had tons of experience so either or both of them will click very soon. The middle order has talent, even if they are inexperienced. Virat Kohli hasn't played that much but already looks like the real deal as a test player. I can only see this being a close series, but I think India may just edge it, even though England could cause India alot of problems.

The other series may not be as close. After day one of the first test South Africa are 255/2. The number one side in the world looked like that on day one. The ever reliable pair of Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis should both score centuries tomorrow. This could be a hard day for Australia to come back from. The second day will be important for them. The pitch does look like a good batting wicket, but surely after South Africa are done with it, the pitch could change.

The loss of Shane Watson does not help to the cause. Saying all that I think if Watson was fit for the next few matches and Australia happened to find a good spinner from somewhere they could have made the series closer than it will be. One thing is clear though, Australia always have fighters in their team, people such as Peter Siddle and Ponting will battle hard. 

India v England: The preview

The T20 cricket is now over and with that it brings the return of International cricket. One of the many series starting is India v England. A fixture that is considered as one of the best. It has been described by a few in the England team as the final frontier, this is because they have never been able to do well in India. For India it is a chance to avenge the thrashing they received in England two years ago. At that time India were the number one team and England dethroned them. 

The Teams:

It is to be seen if England will play two spinners in any match. That would mean Monty Panesar or Samit Patel could do a job. I personally think they would play two spinners as India play Swann relatively well. India have a pretty settled team but will need to decide if Raina should keep his place. The main competition comes in the form of Yuvraj Singh, who should get the role. England will have to decide between Joe Root, Compton or Trott to fill the boots of Strauss. If they do go with two spinners they may decide to use Trott as the opener allowing for the experienced batsmen to play. 

The captains:

It is a first chance for Alastair Cook to make an impression as the new skipper. He comes up against Dhoni who is very experienced and used to the conditions. It all points for a hard job for Cook, one I'm sure he will relish. 

Players to watch:

England have not seen much of Umesh Yadav, he is a good young bowler who has taken to test cricket very quickly. He was by far the best bowler on the tour of Australia as well as performing well against New Zealand. Ashwin will also be important, if England can play him then they have a chance.

Johnny Bairstow is a talented batsmen, he could be the fall guy if England decide to play one of the new openers and a second spinner. He has made a good start to international cricket and this should be his toughest test yet. Much depends on Finn and Anderson. Jimmy Anderson has in the past looked very average on the sub continent, this is something he would want to right. 

Predictions:

I would say that India will take it as they are used to the conditions. I think that on the sub continent they are the best team and very hard to beat. England have a good team and could cause a surprise but it will be very hard for them. 

Pietersen saga produces no winners and why the ECB needs a total rethink

After 71 days of rumours, tweets, negotiations and apologies Kevin Pietersen's England exile is over. During these 71 days Pietersen has missed the conclusion of the big South Africa series, the retirement of his captain and the T20 world cup. When considering the winners and losers of this saga it occurred to me that there are no winners. 

Firstly Pietersen: lets not forget that before he was actually dropped, he was forced to retire from international T20 cricket as he did not want to play ODI's. He has now signed up to play all forms of the game, so his little stand off did not work. He also had to miss the last test of the South Africa series, a match that could have kept England at number 1 in the rankings. This would have meant alot to Pietersen being South African born. The exile has meant that he had to swap playing to sitting in a studio with Saurav Ganguly. This maybe something which had pushed him to apologise. His other demand was that he should be allowed to play the whole IPL, this again he has given up. So in my opinion he has come back with his tail between his legs. 

The team has also suffered due to his absence. They lost their best player for  an important test match as well as the defence of their T20 trophy. The team spirit is also another issue which needs to be considered. In public all parties have welcomed him back into the squad but things were said and done which cant be wiped away so quickly. In reality it could be the case that like against South Africa he has more friends in the Indian team. 

The ECB have not looked great in this whole situation either. David Collier the ECB chief executive was forced to apologies to the South African board after he suggested that South African players had provoked the text from KP. Also the fact that they had let this situation escalate, when they knew of the problems in advance of the South African series. 

The ECB today launched a 'Brand New Schedule' for the next season. This includes a change from the block of T20 games to be spread over the season on Friday nights. They have also scrapped the 40 over format in favour of a 50 over format. These are changes which are good but do not go far enough. The T20 format was good when it first came in, but now needs a massive overhaul. They should adopt the franchise system that pretty much the whole world has adopted to great success, meaning there will be less teams but higher quality. I believe England have some of the best young players in T20 cricket but they do not get the same opportunities as a young Indian or Australian player would. 

The English teams will not be participating in the Champions League next year, because the season will now start later and finish later, meaning that the last week clashes with the Champions League. I do feel for them here because it has been imposed due to last years bad weather in April. All in all this means that young English players once again will miss out on a big opportunity. This will not stop people like Pietersen going to play for his IPL team during this period. 

The only good thing which has come out of the sorry affair is that Pietersen is back for the series against India. He is the best player and will provide much needed experience.