Please Don't Hype Rishabh Pant!

Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has rewritten the history of another Indian cricket great Yuvraj Singh. No doubt about that, and cricketers and fans now call him the miracle player. While Yuvraj fought and conquered a rare form of cancer and made a brave comeback to cricket, Rishabh fought and conquered a near-fatal car accident in 2022 and made an astounding comeback to cricket in 2024. Not only did he come back but has been playing tremendous cricket in the IPL-2024 and then now in the first Test against Bangladesh with a superlative attacking century, apart from keeping wickets.

Amid the well-deserved international acclaim came the comparison with MS Dhoni--some cricketers saying he has broken Dhoni's record in terms of the number of Test centuries in less than half of the matches Dhoni took to score. Veteran wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik has righteously pointed out that comparison with the legend is unwarranted at this stage. We fully endorse his view and request all to desist from hyping this terrific young player and just allow him to go on playing spectacular cricket on the field. Despite his achievements he's still a learner, in view of his tremendous potential for the future of cricket. Breaking a few records doesn't make one great, it's the test through the years that finally puts him/her in the top position. MS was not just a wicketkeeper, he was the Team India captain, establishing Indian cricket in the new aggressive order, the Finisher made India win many matches/Series and those invaluable knocks need not necessarily include tons. To be very specific, Pant will take much more time to match Dhoni's wicketkeeping abilities and reflexes. In short, such comparisons are totally not the need of the hour.

Besides, we have to examine what happened in the past. Rishabh had begun very well in 2017-18, particularly in the away Tests in England, and he was so overhyped that he got selected for Team India in the World Cup-2019 when a blazing Shikhar Dhawan unfortunately got injured, and despite India having the most experienced keeper-batsman-captain in the team. And what happened? The puzzled selectors had to look the other way as Team India happened to accumulate as many as four wicketkeepers in the playing eleven, leading to disastrous consequences.

Shortly afterwards when Dhoni cleared the way for the overhyped, the same began to falter on the field and the search for a wicketkeeper continued unabated. During 2021-22 Rishabh Pant roared back to form with incredible Test performances against Australia in Australia. And he got back to being hyped again in the media. What happened next? He nearly finished his cricket career in a car accident. That he's come back in full bloom, as we said earlier, makes him a great resilient spirited human being, and definitely not a subject for the hype.

Incredible, miraculous, performing human beings do emerge on earth, but their path is always fraught with dangers thanks to fellow beings' envy, jealousy, egos and of course, over-attention amounting to hype, because of all of which misfortunes keep on happening to them.

Therefore, leave Rishabh Pant alone with his aims and dreams, and allow him to go on mesmerizing us with his spectacular antics on the field, thus bringing glory to the country and to the beautiful game of cricket. We wish him a tremendous future ahead!

India 1st Innings of 416 Vs England: An Innings to Remember for Top (Sans Order) Reasons!

The consistent failures of Indian top and middle batting order since a couple of years at least, barring perhaps a few solid starts of the now-missing Rahul-Rohit opener duo, have become a rule rather than an exception. In the successful Test Series against both Australia and England (so far) we’d seen how the lower middle order, necessarily involving an all-rounder like Ravindra Jadeja or Ravichandran Ashwin and at times even tailenders like Shardul Thakur or Mohammad Shami, coming to the rescue of the Indian innings and most often leading the team to victories. Not to speak about the tremendous bowling efforts of the same players in those magnificent victories. The final and the fifth ‘leftover’ Test match that started yesterday against England in Birmingham has become the latest example. Put into bat, the Indian top and middle order had ably managed to reduce the team to a precarious 98/5, almost giving up against James Anderson, Matthew Potts and Stuart Broad; but then, came the lower middle order with the wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant still standing and joined by the all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, the latter coming after a long injury break. And, the innings has become a memorable one thanks to them and other top reasons irrespective of whatever is the final result of the match, only on its second day today.

 

While Rishabh Pant kept on with his inimitable style of attacking ‘shorter format cricket’ his partner Ravindra Jadeja stood like a rock at the other end, providing a solid anchor to former’s aerobics. Barring Anderson the other English bowlers seemed to have suddenly lost the plot. Pant raced to this fifth Test century, the second in this Series, in just around 90 balls, and then spectacularly taking it forward to score 146 runs in just 111 balls with 19 fours and 4 sixes. His century has become the fastest test century by an Indian wicketkeeper-batsman beating the long-standing record of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The duo registered an incredible partnership of 222 runs, the highest sixth wicket partnership by India against England, with Pant falling to the bowling of Joe Root at the team score of 320/6 while Jadeja saw the day off with his score of 83 runs. The innings was still in the unfolding stage as Jadeja took over today from where he left and he too achieved the brilliant feat of a test century (104), his third Test century, before falling to Anderson at the team score of 375/9. Mohammad Shami also contributed a useful 16 before becoming the 8^th out at 371, giving Stuart Broad his only wicket.

 

And it was still not over yet. Captain Jasprit Bumrah had one more ‘top’ feat in store for the very-happy-by-now Indian fans. He turned Stuart Broad’s last over in the match into history, at times freakishly and at times looking like a solid batsman during the saga of only 6 balls that of course got extended due to wides and no-balls. Fours and sixes started raining; through the bat, wides and no-balls and through the over the top and leg byes. In all, 35 runs were scored off that over, and it became the most expensive over in the history of Test cricket. Bumrah remained not out at 31 runs with 4 fours and 2 sixes. The spectacle reminds cricket lovers of the 6 glorious sixes hit by Yuvraj Singh in 6 balls, of that same bowler Stuart Broad in T20 World Cup-2002. That historical Broad over saw India cross the 400-run mark. 416 was the final total put up on the board and it’s really an unbelievable recovery after losing the entire top half for 98 runs.

 

In hindsight, it seems to be a huge blunder on the part of England to choose bowling after winning the toss. The decision must’ve been influenced by the overcast conditions and perhaps also by the incredible chases by England in the last two Test victories against New Zealand. It has also exposed England’s inability to mop up India’s lower order that was also evident in the previous matches of the Series. James Anderson achieved a fifer, bowling consistently throughout; but the other pacers were lacking. Potts, after having the early breakthroughs, and Broad gave away too many runs between them. The solitary spinner Jack Leach was totally ineffective, conceding 71 runs in 9 overs, more in the T20 way.

 

The scoring rate has been keeping with that of the previous Tests played in England this summer. India scored at the rate of nearly 5 an over on both days barring the in-a-shell top order, ending with 416 in only 85 overs, despite the rain interruptions when an early lunch was taken and play extended yesterday. The Edgbaston pitch has been behaving as a good batting track, but with uneven bounce and at times the ball keeping low.  

 

Captain Bumrah has followed up his batsmanship with some effective fast bowling too in the England innings, capturing all the three wickets to fall so far (the openers Alex Lees and Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope) with rain interruptions. Here we’d only mentioned the Indian innings for the reasons we cited. The match is far from over with almost four days still left. The duo of Joe Root and Bairstow can turn any match on its head on their day. We only hope the weather allows play for a result in this memorable match, and it’s always good to see the efficient handling of the pitch and the outfield and prompt extensions of play for the interruptions.

IPL-2022: As Pat Cummins Gives An Incredible Third Win To KKR Top Winners CSK And MI Complete Hat-Tricks Of Losses!

Indian Premiere League-2022 (IPL-2022), with 10 franchises only for the second time and restricted only to fours stadiums in Maharashtra till the play-offs, was expected produce hot rivalries and upset wins or losses in the process. That’s exactly what’s transpired in the first ten days of the T20 cricket extravaganza. More definitively, the results so far are evenly split between successful chases and defenses, thus neutralizing the perception that in the Indian pitches the chasing teams always win the matches. Before going to those details, we must first capture what Pat Cummins, a leading Aussie fast bowler of world cricket in both Tests and ODIs, has done last night in a match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) played at Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium, Pune.

 

MI put up a rather dicey target of 162 runs to chase for KKR on a pitch where the batsmen have been seen to struggle to score runs. MI had the match in good control capturing the top 5 KKR wickets including the hero of its previous win Andrew Russel at 101 runs in the 14^th over with KKR needing 61 off 41 balls. Pat Cummins comes in at that moment with all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer (50 not out) struggling to retain his place in the team. Cummins does not bother about settling in, and makes it 47 runs off 36 balls to win. In the next over he makes it 35 runs in 30 balls. The match is now in favor of KKR, but the fall of a wicket at this stage is the danger of MI coming back. Anyway, most of the spectators thought the match would go on for at least three more overs. But Cummins had other ideas.

 

He picks up a team-mate Australian debutant fast bowler Daniel Sams for his demolition act. And lo! He settles everything in that single over, collecting 35 runs with 4 sixes and 2 fours and making Sams the fifth most expensive bowler in IPL history. And Pat Cummins becomes the second batsman to notch up 50 runs in just 14 balls thus joining KL Rahul who achieved the feat in 2018 playing for Punjab Kings IX against Delhi Capitals (DC). Pat remains not out with 56 in 15 balls with 6 sixes and 4 fours, hitting the last ball of that memorable over out of the boundary and giving KKR their third win by 5 wickets with four overs to spare. KKR occupies now the top spot with three wins out of four.

 

However, Yuvraj Singh still remains the top batsman to score a fifty in 12 balls in T20 cricket World Cup history in spite of the leaps and bounds the T20 cricket format has taken over the years thanks to the formation many leagues like the IPL. Who can ever forget that memorable innings of Yuvraj Singh in the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup-2007 when he hit six sixes in that over bowled by England fast bowler Stuart Broad in Durban helping India win the match by 18 runs and going on to lift the World Cup beating Pakistan in the final?

 

The most striking feature of IPL-2022 is that, so far, the top championship winners MI (5 times) and CSK (4 times) are yet to open their winning account, both completing hat-tricks of losing three consecutive matches each. CSK and MI occupy the 8^thand the 9^th spots respectively in the points table with negative net run-rates, and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) who had a forgettable performance in the previous IPL version too ornamenting the last spot losing both their matches.

 

The newbies, the KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans (GT), are doing quite well with GT winning both their matches and LSG winning 2 out of 3 matches so far. A few of the biggest upsets so far in IPL-2022 are Mayank Agarwal-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) overhauling 205/2 by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at DY Patil stadium, Navi Mumbai on 27^th March; LSG chasing successfully a mammoth target of 210 runs set by CSK at the Brabourne stadium Mumbai on 31^st March and winning the match by 6 wickets; GT suffocating DC in Pune on 2^nd April and winning the match by 14 runs; and the absolute rout of CSK by PBKS at Brabourne stadium on 3^rd April with the latter winning by 54 runs thanks to an incredible all-round performance by its most expensive buy England cricketer Liam Livingstone.     

 

Of course, it’s still early days to focus upon the possible play-off teams as each team would go on playing 14 matches each. Besides, the greats like Rohit Sharma (MI), Kane Williamson (SRH), Virat Kohli (RCB), Rishabh Pant (DC), Shreyas Iyer (KKR), Jasprit Bumrah (MI), Ravindra Jadeja (CSK), Hardik Pandya (GT) and a few others are yet to play to their full potential. The glorious uncertainties always make cricket exciting in any formats it’s played.

India Vs Pakistan: T20 Cricket Series Drawn As Yuvraj Wins Ahmedabad Match For India!

If Pakistan is winning India cannot be far behind! And vice versa! Whatever one of these two great competitive neighbors do the other can hardly accept and instead of reciprocation they prefer to retaliate! In politics non-acceptance translates shamelessly into denial, and in cricket defeat translates seamlessly into victory. Of course, Pakistan won the toss both the times and chased both the times…maybe that was unavoidable. But after Pakistan won the first T20 international cricket match in Bangalore India was in grave national danger of losing the Series and facing the music. That too…after five long years and being the benevolent hosts. Therefore India had to retaliate or rather deny Pakistan another victory. India won the second and last T20 international in Ahmedabad tonight defeating a valiant Pakistan by 11 runs thus sharing the honors equally with the Series drawn 1-1. 

Player of the Match Yuvraj Singh has delivered a tremendous match winning performance bringing back his past glory so emphatically. Put into bat India made a rousing start with openers piling up 44 runs in less than five overs. But when Gambhir got out at the team score at 44 followed by Rahane at 53 and Virat Kohli falling to a run out at 88/3 in 12 overs the familiar Indian story was unfolding again. But Yuvraj Singh had different ideas this time around. With a healthy run rate still maintained he blazed away to a stupendous 72 run knock in just 36 balls with 7 sixes and 4 fours. Skipper Dhoni (33 not out) gave him solid support and India reached a commanding total of 192/5 in allotted 20 overs. Though hit initially Umar Gul was brilliant again capturing four wickets—the only wicket taker for Pakistan.

Pakistan gave a fitting reply with openers Jamshed and Shehzad piling up 74 runs in about 10 overs when Ashwin made the first breakthrough. Yuvraj made it 84/2 the next over. Player of the Series Hafeez (55 not out) laid anchors for another crucial partnership with Umar Akmal. When Pakistan reached 146 in 16 overs looking set for an improbable victory the wickets started tumbling. The climbing asking rate and an accurate Dinda contributed largely to the slide. Finally the total of 192 proved too much for Pakistan and they folded up for 181/7 in allotted 20 overs. Continuing with his lapses behind the wicket captain Dhoni managed to save the T20 Cricket Series for now though. With the twists and turns part and parcel of the classic encounters between the two and the vice-versa factor added as a topping the three-match One-Day International Cricket Series that kicks off in Chennai on 30^thDecember does not pretend to be but is indeed a mouth watering prospect. The Scorecard:

Cricket T20: Team India Back Where It Belongs, Beat England In Pune Match!

Riding on a vintage knock by the player of the match Yuvraj Singh (38 off 21 balls) and useful contributions by Raina and Dhoni India registered a comfortable 5 wicket win over England in the first cricket Twenty20 match in Pune tonight. Captain Dhoni won the toss and elected to field maybe due to dew factor. England looked to be in position for a big total, but thanks to some good bowling by Dinda and Yuvraj folded up for a modest 157/6 in allotted 20 overs. Team India never had any serious problems chasing it down with more than two overs to spare. India lead the two-match Series 1-0. The Scorecard:

Take a look at the England T20 cricket team—no Test team there at all except for one or two players with captain Cook going back home after a rewarding Series win. Whereas, it is almost the same Test team for India. And MS Dhoni—he captains India or Indian clubs in all possible formats of the game. Poor him! As we all know he cannot be changed or replaced, because he continues to be the top selling brand. His oft repeated complaints of ‘too much cricket’ get invariably drowned in ‘too much money or stakes’. This is the reality of Indian cricket—the money spinning short formats and the IPL have always been founded on the cricket superstars of India as irreversible brands. Any cricket businessman or investor would hardly do business in cricket sans the icons and the super brands. With Pakistan playing a short format cricket Series in India this Christmas now is definitely not the moment for any change. 

And, behold the contrasts this great country offers unfailingly. Last two days the whole nation had been hurt, anguished and angry over the brutal gangrape in Delhi. Tonight you see thousands of crazy crowds cheering and celebrating an Indian cricket victory. The 23 year old victim in Delhi is still critical but stable. She is conscious but cannot speak yet and was communicating through writing—asking her mother if her torturing demons had been caught or not. Then you behold fireworks lighting up the Pune night sky. The Indian news channels busy last two days in full blast social campaigns for the rape victim have today told you only about the results of the elections in two Indian States. Both of the outcomes, particularly for the state of Gujarat, had been more or less entirely anticipated. Everybody expected Narendra Modi to achieve a hat-trick win as Chief Minister in Gujarat and as per rotation rules everybody expected Congress to come back victorious in Himachal Pradesh. But still the hype of hypes (poll of polls?) got no less intense. Well, this is the India we all know and we always live happily ever after.

India Vs England Test Cricket: Yuvraj Singh Completes Comeback!

Yuvraj and Harbhajan

The Indian team to play first two of the four-Test cricket series against visiting England has been announced here in Mumbai today by the selectors of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). It was the first selection exercise of the new Chief Selector Sandip Patil who replaced K Srikkanth recently. The 15-member team looks to be a mixture of experience and youth with the surprise inclusion of spinner Harbhajan Singh. And, Yuvraj Singh completes his comeback to cricket from cancer.

There had been some doubts about Yuvraj Singh’s selection since Tests are hard five-day affairs unlike the shorter formats of one-day and T20 matches where the braveheart already made a comeback in September last. But his great show in domestic cricket where he scored a quick double century and in India A’s practice match against England finally convinced the selectors. Legendary Little Master Sunil Gavaskar has come in support of the decision.

The non-performing and most unfit Indian openers, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, had still been retained mainly due to the experience factor. But their place in the final eleven is not for granted thanks to the selection of youngsters Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Murli Vijay who all excelled in domestic cricket. Leading spinner of the world Harbhajan Singh with over 400 wickets in 98 Tests has been recalled at the cost of Piyush Chawla. Though this amounts a surprise decision England’s poor run against the Indian spinners recently and Indian pitches could be the important considerations. The absence of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman continues to figure in the scheme of things too. Zaheer Khan who caused a scare about his fitness a few days back is in the team too. Limited over cricket stars Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary could not make it to the longer format.

The first Test starts in Ahmedabad on 15^th November just after the Diwali festival with the remaining three in Mumbai, Kolkata and Nagpur. Before Christmas the two T20 matches will be over and Englandwill go home for a break as Pakistan lands in Indiaafter 2007 for three one-day and two T20 matches starting 25^th December. England will come back in January, 2013 to play five one-day internationals against India.

The Team: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay.

Have your fill of cricket this season…non-stop! 

India Vs New Zealand Cricket T20: Kiwis Win A Thriller By One Run, Yuvraj Singh Wins Hearts By Millions!

Brendon McCullum Blazing Away!

New Zealand in the death moments prevailed over India in a nail-biting thriller and won the second and last Twenty20 international cricket match by just 1 run in Chennai today thus winning the T20 Cricket Series 1-0. The first match in Visakhapatnamwas washed out due to heavy rains. And, for all the eager fans—Yuvraj Singh played cricket again. He fielded, bowled and batted. His cancer was a thing of the past now—fought, conquered and forgotten.

Finally in Chennai the rain gods had mercy and play began dot on time. Indian skipper Dhoni won the toss and perhaps to use the conditions and some little grass on the pitch invited New Zealand to bat first. As anticipated by Dhoni the Kiwis started badly losing the openers for just two runs on the board. Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan shared the two wickets. Star Kiwi keeper-batsman Brendon McCullum took charge and made a hurricane 91 off just 55 balls. Kane Williamson (28) gave him able company and the pair added 90 runs for the third wicket.  Skipper Ross Taylor played a cameo of 25 and New Zealand managed to reach a somewhat healthy score of 167/5 in allotted 20 overs. Pathan took 3 wickets for 31 runs in 4 overs. For India the target of 168 was neither here nor there meaning it could be easy meat or could get very risky.

As Virender Sehwag was declared unfit Virat Kohli opened the Indian chase with Gautam Gambhir. Kohli was in an aggressive mood from the word go and despite losing Gambhir early he kept the momentum going. Suresh Raina (27 off 22) joined him and took the score from 26/1 to 86/2. 

Yuvraj Singh Winning Hearts!

And then walked in Yuvraj Singh in his customary No.4 position and provided the most sought after sight for his fans and cricket lover all over. Settling in he made his first boundary, a tricky shot past the slips, off Milne and two balls later he was dropped of the same bowler. Next over by Vettori and Yuvraj was back in his original glory using his crease and lofting the ball tossed up outside his off stump to over long on boundary—a Yuvi six that always makes his fans go wild with joy. A mini crisis next over as Kohli fell to Franklin after making 70 off just 41 balls, but at 120/3 in the fourteenth over it looked immensely attainable for India needing just 48 runs in  40 balls with 7 wickets remaining.

Skipper Dhoni joined Yuvraj and smart slow-pace bowling by the Kiwis made run-scoring difficult for India. New Zealand roared back into the match when India needed 32 runs from the last three overs. Then stiff 25 runs from 2 overs when Yuvraj hit his second six to make things a little easier. Finally 13 runs to win in the last over. First ball—Yuvraj takes a single; second ball Dhoni hits a four and third ball a wide that makes it 7 to win from 4. Dhoni takes a single off the third making it 6 from 3. The biggest blow in the fourth ball as Yuvraj (34 off 26) gets bowled by Franklin to make it 6 from 2. In comes the hopelessly out of form batsman Rohit Sharma ahead of hitters like Pathan and Tiwary and still manages to take a couple to make it the classic situation of requiring a four to win in the last ball. But Rohit fails to clear the boundary and again manages only 2 and New Zealand wins a thriller by 1 run, winning the T20I Series 1-0. Brendon McCullum was both the man of the match and of the Series. And, in T20 Internationals New Zealand makes it 4 out of 4 wins against India. Harbhajan Singh making a comeback after more than a year was not selected with Ashwin getting the nod and Balaji coming back after 3 years made his debut in T20 Internationals. Of course, Balaji has been a veteran in IPL T20 cricket.

It proved to be a glorious cricket match. New Zealand the most deserving winners. Yuvraj Singh making a comeback and winning hands down. For India perhaps Dhoni (22 runs off 23 balls) was a bit slow and he seemed to depend too much on taking quick singles which was a wrong tactic considering the obviously slow reflexes of Yuvraj coming back to cricket after nearly a year. Dhoni acknowledged that India should have won the match after Kohli and Yuvraj, but in the same breath also blamed the pitch as going slower in the second half. The Scorecard:

Anyway, much more to come with the warm up matches of the ICC World Cup T20 in Sri Lanka starting from 13^th September. The scheduled warm-up encounter between India and Pakistan on 17^thSeptember has already got the attention of the cricket lovers and the advertisers. More cricket and more of Yuvraj Singh coming your way! Cheers! 

Cricket Twenty20 Match Called Off! Yuvraj Singh Show Postponed!

What a pity! All the attention and expectations focused on cricket superstar Yuvraj Singh's comeback have finally come to nothing. The first Twenty20 cricket match in Visakhapatnam between India and New Zealand   had been called off due to incessant rains. The rains had been falling almost the whole day and hope of an encounter was diminishing. Rains became the perfect spoilsport for a match made momentous by the eagerness of the fans showered on it. The Yuvraj Singh show thus gets postponed. 

No reason to lose heart though as the brave-heart has already made the journey back into the game after winning a great battle against cancer. We can hopefully catch him in action on September 11 in the second and the last match of the T20 cricket Series to be played in  Chennai. And then all the excitement waits for you in the forthcoming T20 World Cup. 

Over to Chennai now. Make your appointment with Yuvraj Singh for sure! 

Cricket T20: Yuvraj Singh Plays For India Tomorrow Against New Zealand!

The high moment every cricket lover has been waiting for is tomorrow evening 8pm by Indian standard time when the first of the two Twenty20 cricket matches between India and New Zealand will be played in Visakhapatanam, India. The highlight is Yuvraj Singh playing in it after fighting bravely and coming out successfully of a rare germ cell cancer. He played his last international cricket match more than a year back.

Of all his fans the world over one American who is pleasantly surprised by the brave heart’s speedy recovery will also be eagerly waiting to see him back in his game. He is not a cricket fan and he understands less of the rules of the game, but he would be delighted as well. He is an oncologist from Boston, Dr. Lawrence H Einhorn, who treated Yuvraj and signed the cricket superstar’s discharge certificate at the Indiana University’s Simon Cancer Center in March this year. Dr. Einhorn is set to witness Yuvraj’s ‘chemotherapy to competitive cricket’ journey as another success story after he treated cycling legend Lance Armstrong successfully at the same hospital.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has requested media not to hype Yuvraj Singh’s comeback and apply pressure on him. Rightly so, while all of his fans should rejoice at their hero’s comeback they should desist from howling for him to perform right away.

Along with Yuvraj, Harbhajan Singh who co-starred the former in India’s World Cup triumph in 2011 and T20 World Cup victory in 2007 is also making a comeback dropped after the disastrous tours of England and Australia. For New Zealand injured Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram are coming back to strengthen the team. These two T20 matches on September 8 and 11 are going to be dress rehearsals for both the teams for the ICC World Cup T20-2012 starting in Sri Lanka from September 18 and the warm-up games beginning from September 13. The tournament will have 27 matches in all with 12 teams participating and the super eight matches starts from 27^thSeptember. The Final will be played on October 7 in Colombo.

For the moment let us wish all well for Yuvraj Singh.

Cricket: Yuvraj Singh Wins Again To Come Back To Team India!

He has been India’s consistent match winner since 2000. The moment he crosses the half century mark or takes wickets off his slow left-arm spinners India’s win gets almost ensured. He has won many a battle for his country. And, when recently he fought the biggest battle of his life his country gave him full support to win it with flying colors. 

Who could forget his incredible partnership that won India the NatWest Series Final against England in England in 2002? Who could ever rub off the electric memory of watching him hitting six huge sixes in one over by Stuart Broad in a match of the T20 World Cup in 2007? Who could pass over his contribution to India winning the ICC World Cup-2011 where he became the player of the tournament scoring 362 runs and taking 15 wickets? 

Following that historic World Cup triumph he faced the biggest challenge of his life. After a long drawn and agonizing bout of confusion and wrong reports he finally confronted the truth—lung cancer.  He was diagnosed with a rare form of germ cell cancer. He took up the fight against cancer undergoing strenuous sessions of chemotherapy in a hospital in the US, recuperation sessions and a long-term rehabilitation program coming back home. All the time he promised himself to get cured completely and to get to play for India again. 

Yuvraj Singh has indeed won the biggest battle too, and today the southpaw has returned to Team India for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup cricket that starts in Sri Lanka from September 18, 2012.

The Selection Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had a meeting today in Mumbai and included Yuvraj Singh in the Indian squad of 15 players. After he took part in a training camp for over one month and was declared medically fit by a cricket academy his selection had been widely speculated. The decision was not without a few hiccups though with two members expressing doubt on his ability as he had not played competitive cricket for over nine months. But finally the winner had to be voted in. This definitely is a boost for Team India already on a high after winning the Micromax Cup-2012 in Sri Lanka in this month  only. 

His fans all over are eager to see him play again and win again and again for his team and his country! 

Along with Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh makes a comeback too after one year maybe to add experience to the spin department and pacer Balaji known for his swing comes back after three years perhaps for his effective swing bowling in IPL-5. Manoj Tiwary has also been included for his all-round performance in Sri Lanka. 

The BCCI has also declared the Indian teamfor the forthcoming series against New Zealand at home. The biggest surprise being the selection of spinner Piyush Chawla in both Test and T20 squad, because Chawla had done precious little in recent timed except for continuing to be Indian skipper Dhoni’s favorite like Rohit Sharma who still could not make it to the Test team. Veteran VVS Laxman was selected for the Test team despite his poor run in the Test series in England and Australia last year. Maybe his treasure house experience and Indian conditions were the top priorities. Sachin Tendulkar is also going to play for the country in the home series. Selection of promising players like Ajikya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara in the Test squad is good news too, but their inclusion in the playing eleven is doubtful as ever. Therefore the moot point of the selection was that in spite of the utter disasters abroad Team India still remains almost the same. 

Cricket: Yuvraj Singh Wins Battle Against Cancer!

Dashing Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh has just won the most challenging match of his life—his battle against cancer. He had been suffering from mediastinal seminoma--a rare germ cell cancer in his left lung maybe from the time of the World Cup-2011 when he had bouts of coughing and vomiting even while in action. The brave soldier never showed his pain but went ahead fighting for his nation. His exemplary efforts contributed significantly towards India becoming the World Champions and him being crowned with the Man of the Series award.

Yuvraj had been officially discharged from a hospital in Indianapolis, USA where he successfully completed the three cycles of chemotherapy. Doctors said that he had earned the ‘I will never return’ tag and could come back to normalcy within the next two months. Chemotherapy did not affect his liver and kidney adversely and these organs remained robust which was so important for a normal cricketing life, the doctors added.

Yuvraj tweeted his thanks to all his fans and expressed happiness at the great prospect of coming back home soon. After a few weeks of rest and rehabilitation he is likely to run to the cricket field by the first week of May, 2012. He also conveyed his greetings to the living legend of India, Sachin Tendulkar for achieving the historic Century of hundred international centuries.

For his countless cricket fans across India and the world this is a tremendous piece of good news. Fans are eager to see him back in the cricket arena. They want him to play on for India and go on being a match winner for his nation.

Yuvraj Singh had been undergoing treatment in the US for the last three months. In fact his proper treatment was delayed due to a wrong diagnosis by an Indian hospital when his tumor was described as benign. But after a series of tests under the supervision of US doctors the right diagnosis was made and it was described as a first-stage cancer which was curable. Yuvraj and his family accepted the truth and fought on bravely.

Yuvraj Singh will continue to be in USA for a few weeks and he is likely to return to India in April. His fans cannot wait to see their hero back in action.

His tremendous willpower and good spirit combined with the prayers of billions of fans helped him win this crucial match with distinction.  No doubt why he is always called a match winner!

Cricket Australia: Contradictions Galore For Team India!

Just when Indian dashing opener Virender Sehwag was needed most he was dropped or rested or whatever! In the first one day international cricket match between India and Australia in Melbourne on February 5^th Indian top order failed again and Team India had a disastrous start in the triangular one-day series too. 

  

The argument was that youngsters needed to be encouraged. Where were these youngsters when the ‘seniors’ failed and failed and failed in the Test series? During that time Sehwag and others were not considered as ‘seniors’! We have always maintained here that young Indian cricketers should be trained and prepared for test cricket—the real format of the game. If you have no faith in them for the real cricket then your encouragement is immensely ‘short’ sighted! Sehwag has proved his worth in the shorter format more effectively than in the real one and just one explosive innings from him can turn a match on its head.

Then again, on Australian bouncy wickets you go for two spinners which is a rare tactic even in ODIs played on flat Indian wickets. Pravin Kumar and Vinay Kumar gave India a terrific start in that match, but the two spinners neutralized it completely and helplessly saw Australia taking absolute command of the game. And by the way, what’s Zaheer Khan doing nowadays? Is he another ‘senior’ fit only for test cricket? 

And not the least, in place of ‘senior’ opener Sehwag only Sachin Tendulkar came in to open for India! What is his status—senior, junior, youngster or what? Or is it only because he has to accomplish the hundredth hundred feat? It is getting very ominous—the more the delay in achieving this record the more will be the sufferings and humiliations for Indian cricket.  Sachin’s ‘century of centuries’ dangler is almost creating the dilemma of the ‘millennium’ for Indian cricket! Back home, you have lost the biggest sponsor too. 

For the time being, end the contradictions so that the one-day series does not become another disaster. Tomorrow’s match against Sri Lanka is the immediate challenge. 

Meanwhile, medical experts have confirmed that Yuvraj Singh has no lung cancer, but a tumor or a rare form of seminoma in between his lungs just above the heart. Yuvraj is responding  to treatment very well and with his positive energy he will indeed be back into the cricket field in May, the doctors add confidently.

Cricket: Yuvraj Singh Has Lung Cancer, Doctors Say Curable!

Article first published as Cricket: The Full Truth About Yuvraj Singh! on Technorati.

 Indian cricket team’s prime match winner Yuvraj Singh is in trouble. The earlier medical reports indicating his lung tumor as benign had been proved wrong by doctors in the US. It is found to be malignant and India’s star cricketer has lung cancer.

The US doctors have said that Yuvraj’s proper treatment was delayed by a wrong diagnosis given by an Indian hospital. His physiotherapist claimed that the correct biopsy report was done in October end, 2011, but that report was allegedly stolen from his car. Then the Indian hospital gave the wrong diagnosis. This explains why Yuvraj’s family possibly informed the media as late as November end, 2011 that all was well with the superstar and he was likely to join India in the Australian triangular one-day series in February, 2012.

Yuvraj Singh had been undergoing treatment in the Cancer Research Institute in Boston since last month. His lung tumor had been described as a rare one and since the tumor is just above the artery of his heart there is some element of risk involved in medication. Some medical experts also call this disease as Lung Seminoma that mostly affects younger generation.  

But the good news is that the US doctors term it as stage one cancer and thus immensely curable. Ever Lung Seminoma in younger people is more than 95% curable. They have decided upon three cycles of chemotherapy for Yuvraj which is likely be completed in March, 2012. Then the rehabilitation process would start and be complete next month. In May, 2012 Yuvraj is expected to come roaring back into the world of cricket.

Yuvraj played a pivotal role in the ICC World Cup-2011 which India won in style. During that historic period he scored 362 runs, took 15 wickets as an on-and-off slow bowler, won four man-of-the-match awards and was rightfully crowned the Player of the Tournament.

It is very unfortunate that the Indian cricket board fought with its main sponsor for 11 years over the utilization of Yuvraj’s Indian Premiere League (IPL-V) sale price. Yuvraj had been playing for Pune Warriors, an IPL team, as its skipper and now its owner Sahara India withdrew the ownership and decided to discontinue its mammoth cricket sponsorship for Team India.

Indian cricket needs Yuvraj Singh and the sooner he comes back the better. All cricket fans across the world must join in prayers for his immediate and the fullest recovery. He must win this crucial match for India too.

Cricket: The Truth About Yuvraj Singh!

Article first published as Cricket: The Truth About Yuvraj Singh! on Technorati.

  Finally the truth is out about the persistent fitness problems of Yuvraj Singh, the Indian cricket superstar, over the last few months. The truth was revealed to the media by his mother Shabnam Singh. Yuvraj has a golf ball sized tumor in his left lung and was first diagnosed as cancer.

Yuvraj Singh has been a consistent match winner for Team India since 2000 in One Day Internationals (ODI) and in tests since 2003. Whenever he happened to be in full flow scoring big and always quick India won invariably. He is best remembered for his incredible match winning partnership with Kaif in the Natwest Series Final against England in 2002; his six sixes in an over of Stuart Broad in a World Cup T20—2007 match against England again and his man-of-the-tournament performance in World Cup—2011 that India won.

After the World Cup—2011 Yuvraj Singh has been in and out of the Indian team due to fitness problems. He skipped the West Indies tour in June-July 2011 citing lung infection. He arrived in England for the July-September 2011 Test and ODI series, but his performance was not consistent. He was even ridiculed by some who knew nothing about his condition. Yuvraj played two tests for the West Indies tour of India and had forgettable scores. He was dropped from Team India for the ODI series against West Indies and for the Indian squad touring Australia from December 2011.

After a few weeks of the World Cup victory when celebrations were finally over Yuvraj was taken to a doctor due to his persistent coughing and vomiting problems. These problems which he suffered during the World Cup matches too were dismissed as due to allergy and stress. But when the problems continued he had to take medical advice. The verdict was lung cancer.

His family could not accept this and Yuvraj himself did not believe it since he said he felt fine and energetic as ever. Rigorous medical tests were done regularly for three months and the cricket superstar was in constant agony. His mother vouched for the excruciating pain that he used to suffer on a daily basis. Yuvraj never lost hope and spirit though.

And the good news now is that the tumor is benign and not malignant as believed earlier. The third biopsy confirmed it. We lost Malcom Marshall, one of the finest pacers of West Indies, in 1999 to cancer, but several others including veteran Geoffrey Boycott fought cancer bravely and successfully.

We need Yuvraj Singh to go on winning for India. We pray for his immediate recovery. A born winner cannot ever lose the battle against death.

 

Team India Crowned World Champions!

Finally in the Grand Finale Team India played truly to its potential and won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in great style! The Team scoffed at the idea of depending on one or two stalwarts and blazed away to an astounding victory celebrations for which do not seem to end and justifiably so. After 28 years, first team in world cup history to win it as hosts, first team to win chasing in excess of 250 runs and on! Captain Cool also known as the Great Gambler showed why he is indeed the best Indian Captain of all times. Mahendra Singh Dhoni made a masterstroke by promoting himself ahead of Yuvraj and finally delivered with the bat with such determination to win and such obsession that the World Cup had to come running for his country and of course for the living legend Sachin Tendulkar. Forget his decisions or gambling now, his disarming smile and humbleness make the win more memorable.

Superb fielding and terrific bowling by Zaheer Khan in particular never allowed Sri Lanka to run away for a 300 plus total. Thanks to a brilliant century by Mahela Jaywardene and 63 runs in the last five batting powerplay overs Sri Lanka reached 274 which seemed to worry a lot of Indian supporters and which was accepted by Sri Lanka as the invincible platform for their second title. The potential Indian batting strength was just conveniently forgotten. 

To make matters more worrying India lost Sehwag in the second ball of the innings in similar fashion as in the Pak encounter. Sachin showed with a few blazing shots that he was there to stay. But he also went for 18 with a reeling total at 31 for 2. Gautam Gambhir though had different designs and a sound strategy against Murlidharan in particular who was never allowed to settle down to his intensity. With able support from Virat Kohli Gambhir laid the foundation for victory and then Kohli went at 114 for 3, still a fifty-fifty situation. In came the Captain and proceeded with ruthless precision, absolute power and spectacular brilliance. Gambhir threw his wicket with just three run short of what would have been a unforgettable century. He still deserved the Man of the Match award, but Dhoni’s determined and brilliant effort of 91 not out sealed it in his favor.

With Yuvraj Captain Cool clinically completed Mission World Cup 2011 and brought home at home the second glorious honors by dispatching the second ball of the penultimate over to a roaring six. And history was made at the Wankhede stadium, Mumbai.

A sweet revenge for the incredibly cruel defeat in the semi final of WC 1996 at Kolkata by the Sri Lankans. Sweeter, because Team India refused to fall prey to the suffocating bowling tactics of Sri Lanka as has been the trend over the years in sluggish conditions.  Sri Lanka celebrated the fall of Tendulkar like in WC Football match and maybe took it as the final step towards victory. But Indian batting in full flow is capable of conquering all opposition of the world. 

 

What a match! What a victory! Just continue celebrating!