The significance of injuries to teams throughout test history.

[Ollie_H]

Injuries to key players make a huge impact on the game and even the result of a match. India in the recent series is the best example of it.

Thanks mate, really informative.

 

[pcfan123]

I was about to say, sounds like this thread was set up as the perfect excuse for the current series. What are they going to say after the current 4-5 decent players retire? What will be the excuse then?

 

[puddleduck]

I was under the impression that International teams were representing their entire country, so regardless of who is there to play on the day there is a game of cricket between the best set of players two nations can muster to win that game of cricket. I was also under the impression that careers, successful ones, are forged over more than one series. With all these impressions I have, I guess it's easy to see why I developed another impression that this thread question is a strangely pointless one.

If not, then I guess it's only fair to say that England are most unfortunate that the best bowling all-rounder in world cricket and the best reverse-swing pace bowler are still injured. Still, hopefully soon Athers will get over his back problem and finally be able to bat freely, whilst if we're lucky Trescothick has recovered from his mental injury just in time to come and smash some wayward pace bowling attacks around the world... Wait, what? Not one bit of that is at all relevant...... Hmm

 

[Fenil]

I was about to say, sounds like this thread was set up as the perfect excuse for the current series. What are they going to say after the current 4-5 decent players retire? What will be the excuse then?

Honestly, there shouldn't be any excuse. In a country of over a billion people and where we have several cricketers. We are bound to have some good bench strength. Moreover, if players complain about injury due to too much cricket, well then some of key players should start picking the series they want to play and don't want to play. In this way, they can get rest and there won't be too much strain to their body. But well, cricketers are playing for money (at least most cricketers do) these days and for that they need to play as much games as possible and in turn break their body.

This is just a silly excuse.

 

[Ollie_H]

We are bound to have some good bench strength. Moreover, if players complain about injury due to too much cricket, well then some of key players should start picking the series they want to play and don't want to play. In this way, they can get rest and there won't be too much strain to their body.

That's exactly what happened and Zaheer Khan got injured within the first few days of the series.

 

[Fenil]

That's exactly what happened and Zaheer Khan got injured within the first few days of the series.

Yes, a fully fir Zaheer would have made whole lot of difference in India's bowling attack and might have given at least some fight and not losing by such a insulting margin in both the tests. Anyways, its the thing of past.

One thing I always wonder is why Wridhiman Saha is picked up as a back-up keeper in the format of the game that matters the most. He don't deserve these chances. Instead better keeper batsmen like Parthiv Patel, Dinesh Karthik or even Ambati Rayudu can be given the chance ahead of him as they all are better in both keeping and batting than Saha. Probably because he's a member of CSK team?

 

[Aoun13]

Test match is the game of specialists. India "the world best batting lineup" should not find a keeper who can partialy keep and bat. They should find a specialist keeper who can keep best for them becuase they have a long list of batsmen who can win matches for India and if they will add another batsmen it will not effect even 2% of the match result in most cases (batting wise) but will effect much if he drop catches and stumps behind the wickets.

 

[Fenil]

^ Well, thats what the selectors have exactly done. MS Dhoni hardly makes good contribution with the bat in the Tests. So, it shouldn't be a tough job replacing him by a decent wicket-keeper. After all, how long a player can be given the place in the side just because he's a good captain? I know, many people won't agree with me but if you see the stats, Dhoni has not lived up to the batting talent he has.

Talent if not materialize is of no use anyway.

 

[Aoun13]

I am not in favour of Dhoni but I am also not in favour of any bastman who can keep too.

Indian selectors always look for a player who can bat even if it is bowler and player inorder to get selected are loosing thier natural talent so they can bat and get selected. Prime example is of Irfan Pathan.