Roles reversed: Test losers champion in Twenty20 as India beats England

Posted: Thursday, December 20, 2012 by Sanya Michelangelo in Labels: , , , , , ,
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England made everyone happy today. They made Indian team and fans happy by preferring to lose, the Test squad by sending them home, the youngsters by giving them a chance. I doubt if anyone watching the match ever felt England would win or even try to win. This isn't anything new. I remember the one-day series during Sri Lanka tour of England 2006, in which England lost gladly. They simply don't care about winning sometimes. Tests have always been the pinnacle. The series which was just concluded was said to be right up there with the Ashes by England captain Alastair Cook, but I doubt if that would be said when England wins the one-day World Cup.

Am I against them on this? Well, not really. I'm myself a fan of Tests and got annoyed by the Twenty20 today. I didn't like that a Twenty20 was held 2 days after the final Test in a 4 Test series. It takes time to get out of the Test mode. The England players didn't really have to switch their mindset though. The only player who played both the Tests and the Twenty20 is Tim Bresnan. Steven Finn and Stuart Broad are still recovering from injuries and the rest and rested. Even Andy Flower is rested. I'm not against their rotation policy but the war between BCCI and the ECB is doing cricket much damage.

The ECB clearly prefers Tests and the BCCI prefers Twenty20s. Where does this leave one-day though? ICC needs to intervene and try to reduce the number of meaningless matches.

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I'm personally with Tests. India focuses far less on Tests than England. One or two years ago, India were playing much were Tests than other teams and the comments from players, both current and former forced the BCCI to increase them. The great players that India speaks of, they aren't going to have more of them. You don't hear of great players smashing boundaries, you hear of great players who bat all day. Even their captain, M S Dhoni captains in Tests just like he does in the shorter formats. He gave all-rounders a chance in Tests, the result of which we have all seen. Tests are a game of pure batsmen and bowlers rather than handy bowlers and batsmen.

Let me talk a little about today's clash before I go. Eoin Morgan looked like a better captain than Stuart Broad. Debutant Meaker was impressive. I don't want to see Dernbach ever playing again for England. Dernbach's behaviour is as disgraceful as his bowling.

India have made a joke of themselves by losing the 'revenge' Test series by 2-1 and celebrating a Twenty20 win against England 2nd XI wildly. For more mockery, tune in on 22 December, Saturday at 19:00 local (13:30 GMT).

1 comments:

  1. Well they got what they wanted and they are happier than ever so it doesn't matter whether you lose in the smallest version of the game because they have proven themselves in the real version of the game.As far as India are concerned at least they got something to cheer about.