Australia v India, 4th Test, Adelaide, 5th day

Ravi Shastri: Huge positives for India

January 28, 2008

Ravi Shastri reckons that Virender Sehwag's innings was the turning point, and helped India save the game, and he adds that there are lot of positives that India can take from the series, especially Anil Kumble's captaincy and the emergence of a young pace attack. For Australia, he feels that Brett Lee is in his prime and bowling magnificently

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Comments have now been closed for this article India has been reasonably good in this series.Anil Kumble handled the team very well,but he was really not up there tactically.In Adelaide specially,he kept on striking the ball in the gaps & not taking a run,which was meaninglessly ridiculous.He is a respected character & a legend,& he would also be a superb leader if he can be a bit more aggressive & tactically as good as Sourav Ganguly. Posted by Nipun on January 29 2008, 07:54 AM GMT Whatever Ponting might say about the "Fab 4" leaving the Indian team, he must open his eyes & notice that the likes of Jaffer, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Rohit Sharma, Raina, Kaif are waiting in the wings & would come good once the responsibility is rendered upon them. These blokes have proved to the world that they can stand their ground against any team, under any circumstances. & it might not be too long before Ponting himself along with Hayden hang their boots up. Cheers to the Indian captain, who has shown grit & composure to lead the best Indian team for a long time. Posted by Axl_rose on January 29 2008, 07:38 AM GMT Once again, India has proved its worth on the Australian soil alike 2003-04 tour. Players showed that they have got the skill to beat the champions. India competed with Australia in every aspect of the game. Barring the Sydney test, where the entire things went wrong comprising the umpiring blunder, the series has been immensely competitive. Umpires are human, as a result mistakes are obvious from them, but in Sydney the scenario was different each and every decision went against India, barring that of Ricky Ponting's LBW, though he was out before caught at the back, which Benson refused. The biggest gain of India or the biggest setback for Australia of the series was indeed the Perth Test. Biggest setback obviously for Australia, because everybody before the test was confident of Australia's victory. And, the victory was apparently a reply to those people, who keep on criticizing Indian batters abilities on pace and bouncy pitch. Posted by SG_GS on January 29 2008, 07:30 AM GMT The Indians played extremely well.Eventhough the series was lost 1-2,everyone knows that the least the Indians deserved in the Sydney test was a draw.Sehwag was just terrific and so was Tendulkar.Anil Kumble was fantastic as the captain.I am also quite sure that the outcome of the Melbourne test would ve been different had the Indians had some good match practice.Indian bowling was also excellent in the absence of Zaheer Khan who is their main strike bowler and Sreesanth who performed extremely well in similiar conditions of South Africa. Sharma, Kumble, R.P.Singh and Pathan bowled brilliantly.Ona whole it was a great performance by the Indian team Down Under. Posted by Sidhu1919 on January 29 2008, 06:50 AM GMT Well done to the Indian team for a well played and spirited series. As a Australian supporter I think Sharma and Pathan made the biggest impression on me. Sharma reminds me of a young Glen McGrath and I think Indian officials would be wise not to over bowl him to much until he matures a bit more. Also I think India must start to prepare for the loss of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman. Staggering there departure seems obvious. I think that while Dravid was unlucky he was also quite slow most of the time even when accelerated batting was the best option and perhaps his international career should be wound up by the end of the year. Ganguly and Laxman should be retained until a sustained run of bad form when retirement calls. Tendulkar I think could keep on as long as he pleases but also take on a coaching/nurturing role to younger batsmen coming through. I will be interested to see how the bats in the one dayers preform. Posted by Burgeo74 on January 29 2008, 06:27 AM GMT The real gain from this trip was Inshant Sharma. Give him a few years and a good session with Dennis Lillee and he will be great, greater than Kapil Dev (As a bowler, not as an all-rounder). The great sign India has shown is that they now have the fast bowlers to be competitive on fast wickets, but on their next test series against Australia, will they have the luxury of Sachin? Laxman? Dravid? India's batting is now the critical point, as players of the above class don't last forever. Posted by Brendanvio on January 29 2008, 05:41 AM GMT Overall,our team played as a unit with determinatoin and purpose at Perth.Their charecter and gentlemanly attitude showed.They rose above the shinsnigans at Sydney.Every one played their part under a tough but gentle captain.He showed what a captain should be.Ik this trend continues we have somethings to look forward to.Problems are the selectors and BCCI.The political games played by them over shadows cricket.Our players must be commited,fitand desciplind and play for the National pride.Media and comentrators should be objective and meaningful.Hopefully they dont make Ishant Sharma a hero and put him on a pedestal only to pull him down.Let him devolop at his own pace he will mature and contribute.Bring purpose and mental tuoghness in our players ,they will respond.Let pundits restrain and be real pundits.Mr Shastry has a role to paly and also has the clout to do so,Iam sure he will.Good wishs and respects to MOterIndia.Jaihind n\ Posted by docmeena on January 29 2008, 05:12 AM GMT Reading the reviews on this series you would think that India had won. Stark reality is that they lost the series to Australia. Yes, India can take many positives about how they played this series, and they unearthed a terrific young fast bowler.......but they still came up short. Satisfaction with just being competitive is an attitude that with hinder India in the long term. If the Indian team and its fans are satisfied with being competitive, then Australia has nothing to fear...and India plenty to think about. The more India pat themselves on the back about how well they played, and how scared the Aussies are, the more I think it is a smoke screen to cover yet another overseas series failure! Posted by entropy on January 29 2008, 02:23 AM GMT This was indeed a hard fought series although I remain highly skeptical about India's chances in future encounters on Australian soil given there will be no Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly and Kumble. It remains to be seen how much India would miss them. We have already seen how well Ponting managed to keep this Australian team together after having lost McGrath, Langer, Martyn and Warne together at the end of the Ashes in 2006. Now even Gilchrist has hung up his gloves. What Australia does have in its favor compared to India is the amount of talent coming up from the domestic circuit. Once India loses the cream of its players there is no light at the end of the tunnel. India has to brace a dark era until they find a group of players that can put on the tag of 'world beaters' or at least 'home bullies'. Focusing on this series however, I felt it was a great honor to the Indian team when Ponting called them THE no. 2 side in the world. The Indians did make the Aussies toil hard. Posted by starjay on January 29 2008, 00:48 AM GMT The Indian team really did finish the tour well, and they deserve a lot of credit for that performance in Perth after the finish in Sydney(how could they think about leaving Sehwag out?). But to be honest, the immaturity of some Indian supporters is truly breathtaking. To suggest that poor umpiring is responsible for keeping India out of the series is laughable. Bad umpiring does not result in a 337 run defeat! India were smashed in Brisbane. Neither team scored fast enough to win in Adelaide, but Australia didn't have to, India did. Umpiring went against India in Sydney, and it went against Australia in Perth. Everyone except for the Indians know that is just how cricket goes sometimes. If anything doesn't go their way, they cry that it is a conspiracy. If the Indians ever want to be number one, they need to grow up, and get it done on the field, and not complain once the match is over. Australia is number one, because like the Ashes, they seek revenge on the field, and not off of it. Posted by malph_182 on January 29 2008, 00:47 AM GMT Read all 34 Comments  Top ^