Has India unlocked the secrets of Malcolm Marshall?

[al Furqaan]

I was running some analysis of the WC so far and what took me by surprise was how well India is doing. They are actually the best team in the World Cup according to my numbers (will publish final results after the group stage, so you'll have to take my word on it for now) just pipping NZ.

The other thing is how India's seamers have done. They seem to have moved away from the tall, quickish seamers they experimented with for most of the last decade (Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, etc). Now, they have a bunch of vertically challenged, yet surprisingly quick and slippery seam bowlers.

Shami, Aaron, Mohit and Bhuvi look more like vascular surgeons than they do spin bowlers, forget about international standard quicks (like the backhanded compliment?). Only Umesh Yadav, with his decent physique, and thuggish appearance looks anything like a quick bowler. And even he is well under 6 feet tall.

We all know Aaron's pace...but even Shami is cranking it up past 90 mph regularly, Yadav is just short of express pace, and even tiny Mohit is hovering in the low 140s.

Quite impressive given their physiques!

[Rifat]

India had the best preparation leading up to the world cup: they had a very steep learning curve over the last three months with losses against Australia and England in the tri series and the test series loss against Australia. out of all the countries outside of Australia and New Zealand, India spent the most time in these conditions against fierce opponents. it is paying off right now, and with the momentum they are having they can go very far and if they reach the semis, they will have a very strong shot at winning the world cup.

[Nafi]

Originally Posted by Rifat
India had the best preparation leading up to the world cup: they had a very steep learning curve over the last three months with losses against Australia and England in the tri series and the test series loss against Australia. out of all the countries outside of Australia and New Zealand, India spent the most time in these conditions against fierce opponents. it is paying off right now, and with the momentum they are having they can go very far and if they reach the semis, they will have a very strong shot at winning the world cup.

How is it fair they were given so much preparation compared to other teams.

[Tigers_eye]

Simple; hold your catches. You will most likely end up winning the game.

India is not the best team. May not even make it in the semis. Just as predicted before the tournament started.

[duke]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
Only Umesh Yadav, with his decent physique, and thuggish appearance

Thats the first thing that came to my mind when i saw yadav for the first time .

And regarding Indian bowlers, they play too much. I sincerely believe that thay dont care about winning or losing (what with the amount of money they make).

India play lots of test match and they seem very uninterested playing them. They should stick to the Limited over formats. Leave the test format to teams that are more interested like BD,IRE. Even AFG would be interested to play tests given the miniscule amount of cricket matches they play.
If a things worth doing, then its worth doing right. But India sleep through the test matches and wake up during ODIs and of course IPL.

[senman]

Originally Posted by Nafi
How is it fair they were given so much preparation compared to other teams.

Not fair at all. How about NZ and Aus can we ask them to stay outside of their country for a year before WC? ridiculous theory.

If familiarity is all one needs to win WC everyone can give WC to Aus or NZ and pack their bags.

[BengaliPagol]

Originally Posted by senman
Not fair at all. How about NZ and Aus can we ask them to stay outside of their country for a year before WC? ridiculous theory.

If familiarity is all one needs to win WC everyone can give WC to Aus or NZ and pack their bags.

in world cups its normal for host teams to have an advantage over the other teams. Its their own grounds ffs. But if you have two other teams in Eng and India playing in Australia prior to the world cup thats wen it becomes unfair for other teams.

[rubel_18]

Lets face it guys even if we had so much preparation with our side they just wouldnt be able to handle the pressure. Then they would be expected to do a lot better and we know what Bangladesh team does when there is high expectations..

[tiger_army]

Apart from India and England, SAF toured Aus in Nov and played 5 ODI and few T20s, Pakistan and Sri lanka both played a series each against New Zealand in New Zealand. Sri lanka played 7 odi's and 2 tests just before the WC. Also the associates managed to play few list a games in Australia and Nwe Zealand. Yes India got the opportunity more than the other team but most of the other team had a fair practice in this condition as well. Credit goes to india to utilize the opportunity. never expected them to play good like this..

[NoName]

India have a knack for coming back into form when a tournament is happening, even their bowlers look ATG material. Their 2013CT win was pretty damn shocking, considering the form they were in coming into the tournament.

[senman]

Originally Posted by BengaliPagol
in world cups its normal for host teams to have an advantage over the other teams. Its their own grounds ffs. But if you have two other teams in Eng and India playing in Australia prior to the world cup thats wen it becomes unfair for other teams.

Did ICC funded India's tour of Aus? Did BCCI stopped any nation in coming to Australia? Did Cricket Australia barred any nation in arranging/playing matches with any of its domestic teams?

So England and India prepared for WC marches while other cricket boards did not, hardly BCCI fault, isn't it?

Meanwhile former Pakistan cricketer Sarfraz Nawaz has accused the ICC of favoring the Indian team by providing favourable pitches.

Don't worry guys India will lose in QF or semis, we are not as strong as in the previous WC. Don't lose sleep over it.

[Nadim]

I completely agree with this. Indian's pacer has been really impressive thus far, and tbh this is probably the best seam attack they had in 20th century.

[CricketPagolChele]

Two teams, India and Sri Lanka, are doing exceptionaly well in this WC because these are the two teams have been playing in NZ/AUS condition long enough to have the best preparation.

[Sporty1079]

I think you are comparing wrong bowlers with the great Malcom Marshall.

[aklemalp]

The real question is have they wore out their welcome I the down under?

[fush_montor]

with all due respect to them, apart from the match against UAE they bowled second in the other two which IMO highly inflates a bowler's ability to swing and bowl fast in australian condition

[Neel Here]

Originally Posted by Nadim
I completely agree with this. Indian's pacer has been really impressive thus far, and tbh this is probably the best seam attack they had in 20th century.

our best attack was the one in 2003. a srinath bowling with all his experience and zaheer/nehra at their peak, they blew away virtually every team except steve waugh's kangaroos.

[kalpurush]

If India can go to semi, they can be the champ too. With their experience, they can beat any team in final be it Australia or inform New Zealand IMO.

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by kalpurush
If India can go to semi, they can be the champ too. With their experience, they can beat any team in final be it Australia or inform New Zealand Bangladesh IMO.

Fixed...

[TigersMeow]

If we go into the next round at number 4 in pool A, we will face India. Having made it to the second round, there will be no expectations and no pressure on us. There's good chance we can knock them out once more.

[zman]

They've bowled exceptionally well so far but I doubt it'll continue beyond the group stages. They've been picking up early wickets regularly which boosts their confidence tremendously. Once an opening pair puts up decent amount of runs on the board, we'll see what Shami/Mohit/Yadav are really made of. If they face Eng in the quarters I think they'll be in serious trouble. Ind just doesn't match up well against them. They better pray we beat out Eng

[kalpurush]

*** Good one Mijan bhai!

[BengaliIndia]

On a knockout stage it is just one bad or good day.. Anything can happen... I dont have much hope on the team.. We had had tremendous success in ICC tournaments since 2007.. 7 years is a good run

[Ian Pont]

Mohit has a had a good coach and there are some good pace bowling academies now in India www.ultimatepacefoundation.com

[BengaliIndia]

Originally Posted by Ian Pont
Mohit has a had a good coach and there are some good pace bowling academies now in India www.ultimatepacefoundation.com

Self promotion is the best promotion ---