Author: Atreyo Mukhopadhyay

Speculation is a favourite pastime of the great Indian cricket fraternity. This encompasses activities of the selectors, team management, the board that governs and, of course, we the people. This becomes rife in the times of crises. The graver the situation, the bigger the clamour – who, when, what, why, why not! As the second India-England Test in Visakhapatnam comes closer, louder are the murmurs. India, unbelievably 1-0 down after the first match of the five-Test series, have Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul out of the second Test due to injuries. No Virat Kohli. How many reinforcements then? Two changes…

Most of the talk surrounding the India-England Test series has been about spin and pitch. Will the ball turn? How much? From the first hour of the match? This became a national fixation as far as the media of the two countries are concerned. For valid reasons, mind you. Pitches turned heads last year in the series against Australia and also before that. Beneath all that dust and rubble, something was forgotten. Pace, with crafty use of the seam and intelligence, can be an equally deadly weapon on surfaces not rolled out for speedsters. Pitches where the ball ‘grips’ can be…

India lost a Test on the fourth evening after looking like winning for two-and-a half days. In a dramatic turn of events seldom seen on home soil in a long time, they firstallowed England to come out of a hole and then dug one for themselves which proved too deep. With due credit to England and Oliver Pope, there were problems aplenty in the home team. From application errors in batting in both innings, loose bowling at crucial times, passive captaincy and a sudden dip in overall intensity, there were several factors. RevSportz lists what went wrong in Hyderabad and…

In a Test against Australia in Nagpur in 2008, there was an unusual day of play. The pitch was good for batting and it was not easy to run through a strong batting line-up. MS Dhoni stunned everybody by asking his bowlers to stick to a wide-outside-off line with eight fielders on that side for almost the entire day. Frustrated, Ricky Ponting’s team lost the plot, match and, eventually, the series. Pressure is a key word in Test cricket for a bowling side. You may not take wickets for a long time. The batters may be treating you with confidence.…

Reverse sweep on India soil doesn’t evoke pleasant memories for English cricket fans. Mike Gatting had fallen, attempting one in 1987 at Eden Gardens, which even to this day, is seen as the primary reason why Australia clinched their first-ever World Cup. It’s early to say that Oliver Pope has erased that bitter memory, but he has brought England back from the dead, relying heavily on that shot. The visiting team seemed doomed after conceding a potentially fatal first-innings lead of 190 to India in the ongoing first Test in Hyderabad. Pope single-handedly lifted them from looming despair with an…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Hyderabad One innings is in no way a sample size to come to a conclusion about the efficacy or inefficiency of a bowling unit, at whichever level of cricket. It will therefore be foolhardy and nonsensical to say on the basis of their performance in the first Test in Hyderabad that this English spin attack is perhaps the weakest from a leading team to have toured India in recent times. Beg your pardon then for being trigger-happy and saying that this indeed seems to be the case. That’s because they came, they saw and got thrashed. On…

A year ago, he was dropped from the team for the final two Tests against Australia. There was little chance of him playing in the World Test Championship final at The Oval against the same team and the unexpected didn’t happen. The door remained shut when India went to the West Indies in July. His Test career seemed doomed. Credit KL Rahul for scripting one of the most unlikely comeback stories in the recent history of Indian cricket. From nonentity to a middle-order mainstay in a matter of weeks, after spending a few months in Test oblivion, is no ordinary…

The focus on Friday will be on two players billed as the future of Indian batting. The first Test against England in Hyderabad is obviously not about these two alone, but they have an opportunity to stamp their authority on this game, which would help them cement their places in the team. Yashasvi Jaiswal has already made an impression by racing to an unbeaten 76 off 70 balls in a total of 119 for one. He won’t get a better stage than this to enhance his credentials further. It’s not the easiest of pitches to bat on, but the handicapped…

A flawless and rapid half-century by Yashasvi Jaiswal, a rearguard 70 from Ben Stokes, Ravichandran Ashwin unfurling his wide range of skills and a timid performance by England with the bat and the ball. Broadly, these were the highlights of the opening day of the first Test. Buried under the works of individual brilliance and collective failures was an amazing passage of play. It came right after lunch. England were not going great guns, yet looked alright at 108 for three at the break. Runs were coming freely and the scoring rate was just under four after 28 overs. There…

India versus England as a rivalry in Test cricket goes back 92 years. It has been quite intense over the last decade or so, and England are the only team to have beaten India in India in the last 12 years. They may not be the best equipped side for conditions in the sub-continent, but make up for it with their preparation and homework. This bunch led by Ben Stokes is also expected to test the home team. Although they did not spend a lot of time in India to get acclimatised to these conditions before the Test series, spending…