Ganguly dropped, but will it solve India's Future problems?

Unfortunate, isn't it? Its been a little over 12 months since he returned to ODI cricket on the backing of a sound performance in the SA test series. Having done that his batting performance in the that period has been really good and is better (by a good 10%) than his career averages. Though popular perception is that his strike rate has been low, he maintained it at 73+ which is close to his career strike rate.

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50
Overall Career	311	300	23	11363	183	41.02	73.7	22	72
Since Comeback in 2007	32	30	2	1240	98	44.28	73.02	0	12
Before Comeback	279	270	21	10123	183	40.65	73.79	22	60

But numbers don't say the real thing, do they? It neither explains the fact that he is a poor fielder and may not the best runner between the wickets. It may also not outline, as some conspiracy theorists have pointed out, a fissure between the ODI captain MS Dhoni and the seniors.

I don't know if the fissure is for real or not and I am hoping it is not. However, I do feel that Indian Cricket has to start preparing for the loss of its 5 main stalwarts - Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble and VVS Laxman. They have all had pivotal positions in the last few years and each have contributed in an amazingly consistent manner. While Kumble is already announced his retirement from ODI and never played T20, and the possibility of players like Harbhajan and Piyush Chawla stepping in his spin-bowler-shoes, the others don't have viable replacements.

The problem with Batting in Test Matches is going to get acute. Even when they dropped Ganguly in 2006, they couldn't find viable alternatives in the batting line up. I am hoping that some of the youngsters will stand up the void and start performing at International standards. Our recent experiences with batsmen other than the big-4 has been rather bad. We have not yet found a good set of consistent openers and almost nobody to challenge any of the big-4 slots with Yuvraj being the last to be unsuccesful to cement a place. That said, the time to get the void replaced is not much. In all probability, all five will make their exits, either graciously or ungraciously over the next 12-24 months and the replacements should be in by then.

For now, I am hoping that dropping Ganguly will indeed create a better replacement and not just a bunch of failed experiments leading to Ganguly reclaiming his spot.

100th Test roundup on Ganguly

The folks at Cricinfo have always been good with statistics. I wanted to do a roundup on Sourav Ganguly on the occasion of his playing his 100th test match today. But before I could start on it, CricInfo has done a fantastic roundup. Go ahead and see it there.

I am summarizing it here:

• Seventh Indian to play 100 test matches behind Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Gavaskar, Kumble, Vengsarkar and Dravid. Mohd Azharuddin ended his career after 99 tests...
• Due to his good performance against Pakistan, 2007 is his most successful year, completed 1000 runs in a calendar year, second-highest aggregate by an Indian in a 3 match series etc.
• His record is better in away tests compared to home tests, and better as a non-captain compared to while he was a captain.
• He is the most successful Indian left handed player.
• Most successful captain ever.