Those above lines may not be as exact as it had been said on televisions but the sequence of events (Vieira -> Pires-> Henry -> Goal) happened countless times during that invincible season by Arsenal. Seasons passed, years rolled over and players moved on but the memories are still present in our minds. As perfectly put down by Henry when the Gunners unveiled his statue as part of club’s 125th year celebration, “I would be nothing without my team mates“. It was that kind of team which had players who bonded together because it always requires something special beyond footballing skills to go undefeated for a full season.

The way this current season began and unfolded so far for Gunners, it can only get better for them if one of the club’s legends may come back, even if it is for a short period of time. Since 2007, there hasn’t been a season in which the fans haven’t made a strong appeal to bring Thierry Henry back in the team. A manager of a great club requires ability to put his emotions behind his decisions and Wenger is a master at doing that. A club like Arsenal would have definitely seen many great players over the past 125 years, but none more special than Henry. Above his status and love, Henry will enable Wenger to move back to his successful 4-4-2 formation. I am very excited to see Arsenal finally getting an opportunity to field two strikers upfront from the beginning of the match because more often than not, it is available goal scoring options that the Gunners have been lacking compared to the other top EPL teams.

Let the statue run around inside the stadium

After saying no many-a-times, Wenger has finally said he is thinking about bringing Henry back.“That’s why I have Christmas Day off – I have to think about that. Short-term is ideal for us, but I haven’t made any enquiry yet. Thierry is not here at the moment. It has never come up in conversation!”.

He further added, “The first of January is the vital date for us. We have seven days to make decisions and I will make a decision in the next seven days on players.”

There can’t be a bigger Christmas gift for the Gunners than Wenger signing Henry on loan and there can’t be better new year gift than watching Henry back again at Emirates in Arsenal colors. Lets hope Arsenal begin their new year match with Henry in the starting line-up.

India is better served with one playing and another resting

Out of 5, two warriors are already wounded in India’s arsenal for the battle which is yet to begin. Both Ishant and Zaheer have always been subject of concern with their fitness in the past and early signs are, this tour might not be much different from the one earlier.

With all the probabilities, statistics, experts and experience indicating this series as the best chance for India to register their first ever test series win in Australia, is it worth the risk of playing two spearheads in the all important first test match? Australia have a vulnerable batting line-up, and it only gets better for them seeing the opponent down to just 3 or even to 2 bowlers mid-way during the first match.

Zaheer has bowled just 90 balls so far in this tour and the reports from the media indicated that Zaheer struggled with his bowling run-up, line and length throughout the warm-up match. If Zaheer’s case is worrying, then Ishant’s is alarming. He bowled just a shade over 50 balls so far, and spent more time worrying about the strapping on his ankle. In view of their fragility, it is better to bench them rather letting them breaking down in middle of the match.

If players fitness are worrying for India, then scheduling of the matches are not going to help them much. The gap between 1st and 2nd test match of the series is just 3 days; In-between those 72 hours, India need to pack-up their bags from Melbourne, catch a plane, travel more than 700Kms for next test venue, have net practice, organise team meetings and last but not least, spare some time to celebrate New year.

India will be best served with one of them watching from the stands than risk injury, by playing both in first two test matches. Ishant or Zaheer or both must be rested for the 1st test match at Melbourne by playing Vinay Kumar in the team. Vinay is like Praveen, who can bowl long spells. He can be used to build pressure, allowing the other two to attack the Aussies for prolonged period with a new ball. Also Vinay has the experience of bowling in these conditions earlier this year (took 12 wickets in emerging series) which puts him ahead of Mithun for 3rd seamer spot.

India should wait till WACA before fielding Ish and Zak. If they both get the nod on boxing, then Dhoni must get ready to roll his arms again.

When everyone called for Ganguly’s head three years ago, there were lot of talks that he was denying a chance to many talented youngsters. As expected, from the moment Ganguly retired, there are many youngster slotted in, yet there has been no one who has cemented his place permanently. Badrinath, Raina, Pujara and Yuvraj, are all immensely talented but somehow even after playing 33 test matches since Ganguly’s retirement, India is still finding someone to fill the hole left by him.

Finally after much struggle, the game of musical chair has arrived to a conclusion and possibly two of the best young Indian batsmen have come in the fray, one who was touted as potentially the world’s best batsmen and other who is expected to break many of Sachin Tendulkar records. Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli doesn’t have much to separate between them in terms of recent form, technique, fitness and fielding.

Who will have the last laugh?

Kohli showed superb consistency when he was given the chances in ODI and became a central figure of India’s ODI team. His ability to score under pressure separates him from current lot of youngsters, and this is evident from Kohli’s record for the last two years. Rohit Sharma has the potential to become India’s best batsmen. His ability to play the short ball is an asset to him considering how other Indian youngsters have struggled against the short ball.

The experts have often said that the best players always have more time to play the ball  i.e they pick the length of the ball early which allows them to have more scoring options. Rohit is one such player who has that immaculate timing to go with his ability to judge the length of the ball early.

Judging both Kohli and Sharma in terms of their performances in the tour games is not a right way to go. Kohli, who was selected to play ahead of Sharma in the last test match should be given a continuous run. Kohli has proved his talent with consistency unlike Sharma, though Sharma has recently corrected the mistakes he made early in his career. If there is a space in the playing XI, I will surely pick both of them because of their talent and current form. It also highlights the fact that the time for the retirement of India’s batting trio is coming soon.

Kohli is an aggressive character, which is similar to the way how Australians play. The moment host gets under his skin, he will either perform or perish with his attitude. It will be exciting to watch him bat and this tour will be a defining moment in his career.

My pick will be Virat Kohli but if team management goes with Rohit Sharma, then they should stick with him throughout the series rather shifting after a single bad performance.

Who is your pick for India’s No.6 for the Boxing Day test?

(Edited by Sambhav Khetarpal)

How many of you remember last years Durban test? Can you recall Sreesanth’s absolute ripper to get rid of a rock solid Kallis? Can you recall when Harbhajan bowled his first doosra last year? If you can’t, then you better take a look at this match.

That win was India’s first ever Boxing Day test win in 25 years. India played their first ever Boxing Day test against Australia in Australia (26-30 Dec 1985). Till now, they have played 10 boxing day test matches so far, they have drawn their first and won their last but in between, they have lost all the matches.

India boxing day test match stats.

India has scored above 400 runs in an innings only once in all their Boxing Day tests. They scored 445 runs in their 1st innings of the 1st boxing day test match against Australia but since then, it has been an uphill task for Indian batsmen as they have failed to touch that mark again in their next 19 attempts. Out of 20 innings in 10 test matches, India were bowled out 19 times by the opponent on the boxing day test match.

Sachin has played 9 matches and the coming match against Australia will be his 10th boxing day test (I doubt anyone would have played more boxing day test matches then him, atleast for a visiting player) and the only boxing day match he didn’t feature for India was their first in 1985.

The batting averages of India’s stalwart middle order in Boxing Day tests are a clear indication of their struggle to post big scores.

Sehwag blazing 195 at Melbourne in 2003 was the highest score by an Indian in a Boxing Day test match and he has better average among the current crop of Indian batsmen. Against Australia alone, Sachin average shoots up indicating his dominance over the former world champions and is below par record in South Africa.

India’s bowling line-up comprises of two seasoned campaigners, two rookies and one of which is yet to play test cricket at international level . Zaheer has played four Boxing Day test matches which shows his prolonged career and experience he carries through to this Indian attack but the numbers are not bright for him. In 4 matches, he has taken 14 wickets at a strike rate of 60 balls per wicket with no five wicket haul (4 for 46 is his best). India have bowled out their opponents twice in a match only three times (1 drawn, 1 lost and 1 won). So, they need a big effort from their bowlers this time to script yet another win, like they did in Durban.

One positive stat for India is that they have won the toss four out of five times against Australia (Kumble lost the loss on the last tour). With Melbourne hosting the 1st test match of the series, I guess, India will need big Santa favour to win.

Merry Christmas!

Stats from cricinfo

“Dhoni doesn’t want Irfan in the team”.

This is the common line-up echoed every time by Indian fans whenever Irfan Pathan was ignored after the spat Dhoni had with selectors over the discussion over Irfan and RP Singh three years ago.

The whole cricket fraternity in India are buzzed about Irfan Pathan’s comeback after Praveen Kumar fell to injury before the start of the Australian tour. Irfan was selected for the last two ODIs against West Indies much against everybody’s expectations, but it was Mithun who was given the license for the Australian tour as a replacement for Praveen. To add more curtains to his hopes, Irfan was again ignored when Vinay Kumar was selected for the injured Varun Aaron a few days later.

Not many remember the 2003-04 and 2007-08 Border-Gavaskar series in Australia, where two men made tremendous comebacks beyond anybody’s expectations. In the first timeline mentioned, it was Anil Kumble and later it was none other then Virender Sehwag. Many people might wonder what I am linking with these two players? There is something common that happened in those two players’ cases and could have been the case of Irfan too.

Dhoni – "You can't push me, better push the selectors"

For the 2003-04 test series, Kumble was selected after a big fight in the selection meeting, the battle which was single-handedly won by Ganguly. It was later revealed by Ganguly himself, that it required to raise his voice higher and stronger to convince everyone about Kumble’s inclusion. He also added that everyone thought Kumble was finished and it is time to look at the future.

Whatever may be the reason for Ganguly’s belief, it turned out to be the best thing that happened for India. Kumble turned the tables upside down and was seen filling the wickets column in both home and away matches from that series onwards. Kumble was the highest wicket taker (24 wkts, 5 for in 1st innings of Adelaide match, 8 for and a 4 for in the Sydney match) in that 03-04 series and also ended up as the highest wicket taker for the year 2004(64 wkts, 15 better than the next and had six 5wkt hauls).

When the next tour to Australia came up, it was Kumble’s turn to show his faith. Out of nowhere, Sehwag was selected for the tour after he was not even featured in the probables list, which even surprised the captain of Australian team Ricky Ponting, “I must admit I didn’t think Sehwag would make the final touring party but he’s here and he had some successes against us last time”. Sehwag hadn’t been in great touch in the Ranji Trophy, with just 66 runs in five innings for Delhi but it was later revealed that Gambhir’s injury and his captain’s faith was instrumental in his selection.

Like Kumble, Sehwag went on to play a crucial role in India’s success in that tour and thereafter. He posted a superb opening stand with Wassim Jaffer on the hostile WACA pitch and followed it up with two crucial wickets to set up a historical win for India (also, Sehwag is the one who insisted Kumble to give Ishant Sharma another go at Ponting which would have been his 8th over at a stretch and the rest is all history). Sehwag scored his first and only 2nd innings century till date, as he notched up 286 runs at an avg of 71 (only bettered by Hayden) from four innings in that series.

Who knows, Irfan might turn the tables like Kumble and Sehwag did after they were backed by their captains. The gates for Irfan may still be open, considering the doubts over Ishant’s fitness. Dhoni has shown great qualities as a leader and it is wrong to criticize him for not backing Irfan on behalf of his own reasons. With the way Dhoni’s words about Indian pitches fall on deaf ears, it may not be surprising to know that his opinion during selections is not heard.

With the form Irfan is showing, the conditions in Australia and considering the Indian bowling strength, should Dhoni have backed  Irfan like Dada did for Jumbo and Jumbo did for Sehwag? Is Irfan worthy enough for Dhoni to risk his captaincy against selectors?

What are your opinions?

(Edited by: Prthvir Solanki)

There is one specific stat that is often highlighted at the start of almost every tour of India, and it us the result of the very first test match. You could hardly remember a series India lost after drawing or winning the first test match in last 20 years. It is a hole that has kept growing for the last few years. More often than not, it is the positive attitude which is found wanting from Team India at start of the tour. But once they found that grip, it is transformed into a heroic performance like it did during the 2002 Headingley test.

All set and ready for the final punch.

India, with their first ever series win in the mind, will start their mission to conquer Kangaroos on their own backyard tomorrow against Canberra, the first of two scheduled warm-up matches before the Boxing Day test against Australia at Melbourne on December 26th. There has been lot talks n topics like ‘preparation’, ‘not enough time to adapt’, ‘more practice matches’ and inevitably on the squad selection. India only had one warm up game before the first test when the tour was first scheduled, but with Kumble’s efforts, India got themselves two warm up games arranged to help them get accustomed to the conditions.

Will India make full use of this opportunity? Only time will tell. But can they approach it positively now? Well, that’s the big question that Duncan Fletcher will hope his team to answer in a positive manner . The most important thing that Indian batsmen should look to do in the two warm-ups is to play positively, i.e play their scoring shots rather than looking to spend time at the crease and restricting their stroke play in the process.

What India batsmen should not look to do is to be defensive during the warm-ups and then arrive to the first test with the over confidence of being well accustomed to the conditions and start playing lose strokes ending up gifting their wickets to the opposition. India should approach warm-up matches as real match. They should look to score and should play their natural game. Only this will help them adjust their timing and their shot selection.

Obviously, they should first look to get their eye in and then only should think of playing extravagant shots. They have two matches i hand before the first test, where they can correct their techniques rather than doing it later down the series.

India must take the practice matches seriously and should think about winning at least one out of two warm up games. This way, they will get a feel of winning before series starts. May be, it is something that changes the India’s fortunes. What do you think?

Edited by Sambhav Khetarpal

The case with Anil Kumble is same because he is a big warhorse, a visionary personality, dedicated and more importantly a very good leader. The man who came over all the problems with his immense hard work and determination in cricket will be solely missed in a Academy created for finding, nurturing and training talents for Indian cricket team. For a young player, he is an inspirational figure when training in NCA. Not only young and upcoming players, even current players can learn lot when spending time in NCA under the supervision of Kumble because he was always talked for his ability to help and sharing his knowledge.

With the quality of spin bowling and the number of quality spinners available for the national team selection declining rapidly towards alarming situation, the absence of probably the best ever Indian spinner as a ahead of NCA will further increase the problem for India team atleast in future if not now.

Anil Kumble who spent over a year in the post of National Cricket Academy Chairman has decided to resign from the job. Kumble resignation letter was accepted by BCCI during its working committee meeting and MP Pandove is temporarily asked to take care of NCA instead of Kumble.

Conflict of Interest? seriously?

Though there is no official statement received yet from BCCI but there are many versions of “reasons” for Kumble decision are coming. Not long ago, media raised conflict of interest issue against Kumble who co-owned a talent management firm called Tenvic which includes players like R Vinay Kumar and Sreenath Arvind. He also was chief mentor for Royal Challengers Bangalore team in IPL along with his Karnataka Cricket Association Chairman post and NCA Chairman post. Soon after the controversy broke out, Kumble was very upset and gave an elaborated explanation on the issue. Some source saying it is because of the difference in opinion with BCCI on how NCA should be run and organised.

Whatever may be the reason, its a big loss for Indian cricket team and NCA. It will be interesting to know the exact reason for the resignation and who will replace the iconic figure as next NCA chairman. As someone from outside who watched Kumble over the years playing for India, i am so sure he will put the country before anything. Questioning the person like Kumble on conflict of interest is the biggest crime you can think of doing.

Is it BCCI arrogance again that led to the Kumble decision? too early to tell but the truth is we never will be able to hear the truth from BCCI.

Although, the current New Zealand team might be the most fragile of all those teams that had ever played test cricket in the last 26 years in Australian, but they have done something which the great New Zealand teams of the past failed to do. Forget about the odds for a win, for New Zealand to even snatch a draw in the 2nd test match after a big defeat in the 1st match and without the services of their savior Daniel Vettori would have been bleak. But, history and records are always created against the odds.

Stop the clock, wait is over.

After getting bowled out on 150 on 1st day of the match, mainly because of a brilliant bowling spell by Pattinson, not even the most ardent Kiwi supporter would have dreamt of a New Zealand win. But that’s test cricket at its best for you. It gives you the opportunity to give it back and NZ did gave it back to Australia heavily the very next day. But the pendulum again swung back in favour of Australia on third day of the match with Australian openers puting on an unbeaten stand of 72 runs after bowling out NZ for 226 earlier in their 2nd innings. It swung again on the fourth day as the Kiwi bowlers swung the ball both ways to knock the Australian batsmen back to the pavilion.

From the hands of victory, Australia found themselves staring at defeat as they lost 7 wickets for just 40 runs (from 159/2 to 199/9), but the man who was written off as slogger stood still at the other end from the very first over, only to see his heroic maiden test century going in vain. Fittingly the only man(Bracewell) in the team whose family member was a part of last Kiwi team to taste a victory at Australian soil, took the last wicket and finished with the superb match figures of 9/60. It was New Zealand’s first test win against Australia in 18 years and first in 26 years in their soil.

What a year New Zealand had, after being whitewashed by Bangladesh and India in ODI’s last year, they managed to qualify for yet another cricket World Cup semi-final, a test match win against Austraia, ended their another 24 year wait and their second Rugby world cup win.

The year 2011 seems to have smiled at the Kiwis. Will 2012 also be a happy one? Only time will tell. Till then, its time for Hakka Hakka!

Edited by Sambhav Khetarpal

Virender Sehwag On His Way To A Historic Knock

When I came to know that the next ODI match was at Indore and the curator is the same as the one who prepared the wicket for the Gwalior match a couple of years ago, where Sachin scored the maiden double century in ODI, I was expecting a very high scoring game. Even in dreams of dreams, nobody (let alone me) would have thought Sehwag will score a double century and that too in the run of form he is going through.

Sehwag was blunt in the press meet, saying that Gambhir, Raina and himself needed to score runs. The only thing that Sehwag did differently from his past innings was the shot selection and the increase in rotating the strike. Form is never a worry for Sehwag because all he needs is a boundary to get it back. The only thing all Indian fans and the team wanted from him was a little more patience and whenever he has had it, he ends up scoring big.

Today, Sehwag was at his best. He was hitting the ball cleanly and even more importantly, he didn’t look to hit every ball, which is the root cause for his failure. Almost after every four or six, the strike was rotated by Sehwag. His eyes were very determined today and it reminded me of the famous “Tiger eye”. During the best of best times, they say only eyes will talk and they did today in each of the 149 balls he faced. Sehwag’s eyes looked at each ball like a shooter taking aim before shooting it.

How many times did Sehwag dive to get back into the crease? How many times did Sehwag wait for bad balls to be bowled during the middle overs? Did you ever see Sehwag milking the bowlers for runs (no hard hitting, gentle push for couple of runs, nudge for single and fine tickles for boundaries behind the wicket)? Sehwag did all of this today. That’s why today he achieved the target he should have achieved sometime ago.

It required an innings like today’s from Sehwag to beat Sachin’s mammoth record. It is easy to say that someone will score 200 runs, but it requires enormous amount of temperament and patience more than hard-hitting skills. Sehwag displayed those abilities along with hard-hitting skill on a few occasions like in Multan(309), Chennai(319) and Australia(195). Sehwag would have dearly wished for Sachin to be in the stands if not with him on the field but all Indians fans never missed Sachin. They rather saw him batting in the name of Sehwag.

8 out of 10 highest individual scores in ODI have come from sub-continental pitches(the other two are Charles Coventry, 194 vs Bangladesh at Bulawayo and Sir Viv Richards, 189 vs England at Manchester). I have no doubts if Sehwag continues to show composure like today, he will get big scores in all kind of pitches.

I was speechless when Sachin scored double century and it was the same when Sehwag did that today. I don’t know how to react. I was very happy and found one way to express it by writing about this knock.

How do you guys feel the moment?

(Edited by: Prthvir Solanki)

A week ago when Kris Srikkanth announced the Test squad for the all important Australian tour starting on December 26, it was for once an easy and expected 17 member team than what it was with the team that toured Down Under in the past three occasions. The selection meeting might not have lasted even 20 minutes.

Probably the only laudable decision is that of the conditional selection of Zaheer Khan “citing satisfactory match fitness“. The point mentioned is something unusually seen as a part of decision making in our part of world, at least in India. Right now, the debate is focused on the selection of the replacement for the injured Praveen Kumar. The selectors have already announced December 5 as D-Day for the selection of the replacement. With both Sreesanth and Munaf Patel injured, the spot is expected to boil down to either Irfan Pathan or Vinay Kumar.

Irfan Pathan, after a long time, has been making the headlines for the right reasons in the last few weeks or so with his performances in the Ranji trophy. After 4 matches, Irfan’s stats read 21 wickets at an average of 14.14, and most importantly a wicket for every 31 balls. Yes, I can hear the question that everyone has in their minds – Has Irfan got his swing back? Is he bowling at a good pace? The answer is that Irfan has been consistently swinging the ball, but express pace is something that is still lacking in his bowling, though it has gone up since the second match considerably. Irfan bowled long and good spells in a pitch that had little in it for the seamers, but what was good to see was his rhythm and the intent to put extra effort.

If Irfan is the people’s choice, then Vinay is the choice on grounds of performance. He had a very good tournament in Australia where he took more 12 wickets at almost a similar average and strike rate to Irfan’s current Ranji season stats. It doesn’t seem right to ignore Vinay just because of the impact Irfan created a few years ago. Vinay has been consistently performing well for India and has moreover been playing competitive cricket at the highest level for some time, unlike Irfan.

Both Irfan and Vinay (also Mithun) possess pace that is similar to that of Praveen Kumar, so you can’t complain for lack of pace. Though Mithun is still around the clock just like Irfan and Vinay in the selection radar, it will be injustice to both Irfan and Vinay if either one of the two was not selected and Mithun got picked (please! No Miami holiday surprise this time). Mithun has received a lot of stick from the selectors before, and on the basis of current performances, there are only two options for the selectors. Whether it’s Vinay or Irfan, but both deserve a place in the Indian team.

If I were Kris Srikkanth, I would pick Irfan Pathan. Not because of his potential, but for what he showed in the Ranji trophy. Also there are already three right-arm seamers in the team, so Irfan can lend some variety. It is either now or never for Irfan, who is looking to get his career back on track.

Who is your choice?