sachin is a very good player but the fact that remains about sachin is he cannot play in pressure
this is clearly evident in the recent test series in srilanka instead u can find a great batsmen in rickyponting or rahul dravid or vvs laxman
its time for sachin to stop searching for records
and give chance to the youngsters of indian cricket

I am not sure how much Indian domestic cricket has Brendan Layton been watching but pushing Rohit Sharma or an S Badrinath ahead of a Dravid or Yuvraj or even a Kaif is to set them up for failure. With all due respect to even mention Yusuf Pathan in the same bracket would be blasphemous. I remember people talking so even about Tendulkar before he silenced everyone with his bat doing the talkiing in Australia. Their (Rohit Sharma n company) time will come but it is not now...the golden oldies have at least 12 more months up their sleeves!

The difference b/w indian seniors and australian ones is that the indian greats let the pressure get to them. they restrict their natural flow of play and let the bowler settle into his rhythm, which was the case with mendis and murali, with only sehwag taking the attack to them and forcing the bowlers to rack their brains for once.
The seniors shud be given one last chance against australia and shud be told- play like there's no tomorrow. u'll get kicked out anyway if u keep performing the way you are.

The difference b/w indian seniors and australian ones is that the indian greats let the pressure get to them. they restrict their natural flow of play and let the bowler settle into his rhythm, which was the case with mendis and murali, with only sehwag taking the attack to them and forcing the bowlers to rack their brains for once.
The seniors shud be given one last chance against australia and shud be told- play like there's no tomorrow. u'll get kicked out anyway if u keep performing the way you are.

Well said dude. Though Sachin scored lesser than Dravid in the Srilankan series, he didn't seem to struggle that much. Plus Dravid is not in his usual self. His defence is not as it was once. But Sachin is batting beautifully. He is short of match practice i felt. May be comeback along with the fact everytime he came to bat, he came after two wkts falling back to back and he himself is not sure whether to attack or defend and got out. Had a confident Dravid/Ganguly been at other end, he may have played to get settled and got on with his game easily. The main reason forthe Indian loss is collective failure of all. Even Gambhir who had a good series is a failure in the case that a batsman can even get out on ZERo. Its not a crime but to get out after getting settled and this happened to him through out the series. Am still not sure to come into any idea about Kumble.. He is trying hard and beating batsman and some catches are dropped off him.. May be a bad time...

Surely Dada and Dravid are just playing for place in the team just as Strauss for England. Time for themselves to get into a good decision for both themselves and the team.
Anyways, i seriously feel these guys should play Australia in home. They are the ones who made this team from good to great. They deserve a grand farewell. Must play against Australia and win it for themselves and should go off with Heads high. They dont deserve to be pushed out of the team but if they keep on playing with their natural flavour out of order, they are going to create that stage any time..

I agree with brendan that it is time to move on and youth should be given a chance, but a test series vs aus is hardly the forum to experiment. A bad failure could devastate a promising youngsters' career (remember devang gandhi, msk prasad, kanitkar?)I would definitely give one more chance to dravid in addition to sachin and laxman. I agree that kumble does not look likely to pick any big wickets, but I suspect there is no other spinner in India who can provide the same degree of control, especially vs aus..my team would be sehwag, gambhir, laxman, sachin, dravid, rohit sharma, dhoni, kumble, harbhajan, RP and ishant

Maybe my aussie mate here, wants to see the back of Lax, 'The Wall' & 'The little master' , before they become a thorn in Australia's flesh ! Clearly Australia is going to struggle without a quality spinner.

Mr. Brendan

what is the base of you saying that Tendulkar is the second best batsman only to Bradman so easily? I would bet he has never played a single test innings where he single handedly won a match for the team as Lara did many times during his career.
In most of the Indian test wins, there are two or three batsmen contributing handsomely with the bat unlike west indies where Lara had to turn the tide of many matches with little support from others. Scoring most tons and most runs (I hope he will also surpass lara's record of most runs in tests) in both forms of the game are not the only criterias for achieving the tag of second best only to Bradman. I think winning matches for the team should also be a criteria when we evaluate whether a batsman is good, better, great or genius?

I think lack of match practise was one of the main contibuting factors to the big 4 not contributing. It would not be a bad idea for the test players who are not in the one day side or who has less matches under their belt before a series, to play atleast 3 practise matches with the local teams just to get their legs moving.

Selectors face the facts!The fab 4 time is up as the core of the Indian Batting line up.This isnt to say that they all must go.Leave 2 in there (Tendulkar and Laxman) for the upcoming series against AUS and blood Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina.Give them the experience with Tendulkar and Laxman who have been prolific against Australia before these guys retire.I'm sorry Dravid, you have to go.You've been a true legend, though after the SL series & the series in AUS you've shown that you have definitely run out of steam.Who could forget that agonizingly slow innings at the SCG in January 08 and where the crowd gave you a massive cheer after scoring a single of about 50 balls before your previous scoring shot.I think you know your time is up! Ganguly, out you go as well Been a great servent, but see you later. If the selcters really care about the state of the Indian side in the next few years, bold decisions like this have to be made.

I think there are certain types of players who deserved to be persevered with a bit more than others through a patch of bad form:
(a) the captain of a winning side
(b) proven match winners (even those who can be maddening at times, eg Sehwag)
(c) wicketkeepers (almost all strong sides pick a keeper and stick with him)
(d) a half of a successful opening partnership

Having said that, there are times when great players must be given the chop - it happened to Ian Healy, Mark Waugh, Dean Jones and many others. Maybe it's time for the Indian selectors to ask themselves: who wins matches in their side?

I agree that many of the Indian middle order are getting too old, and as for the writer's basis for saying that Sachin is the greatest batsman since Bradman, he has stated that at the bottom of his piece - opinion. Which is fine, as far as it goes. There are many arguments for Lara, Waugh, Ponting or even Greg Chappell or Viv Richards being better than Sachin. However, when it comes down to it, the difference will always be opinion.