Letter of the Day

Review of the Lord's Test

We let England set an imposing score in the first Innings thanks to some in disciplined bowling and partly due to strategic mistakes.

We should play to win, but must know when to go on the defensive and frustrate the opposition. When two batsmen are set the strategy should be, to pack the leg side and bowl over the wicket if it is Nehra or Zaheer and round the wicket if right arm bowlers are operating. This was especially necessary in the second innings or when the tailenders were feasting on our indifferent bowling attack. I suggest we look at the tapes of the 1983 series when Clive Llyod frustrated our set batsmen and quickly moved for the kill when one wicket fell. The fielding needs to be tight, when the opposition batsmen are set, to be able support the bowlers in their effort to frustrate the batsmen. Geoffrey Boycott has repeatedly been advising our bowlers to bowl to a steady line and length and not experiment all the time. We cannot bowl wicket taking balls all the time but we can think Out a batsman- I hope we adhere to his advice.

The batsmen need to apply themselves better. Sehwag is a stroke maker and he must play his natural game, but he needs to realize that time is of essence in a test match, so he should be a bit more discrete in his shot selection. I wish Ganguly would play like he did in the latter half of the Windies tour-very very Straight- '' in the V''. Dravid needs to guard about committing himself too much on the front foot, he should have played back to a short ball in the first innings when he got out. Sachin just had a bad week at the office. Laxman was very good, but he needs to look at every innings from a fresh perspective- he seems to have a hang over of the 286 he made at Calcutta. Just put a heavy price on your wicket is the advice to all the batsmen. The game plan must also take into account the need to combat the second new ball-in the days gone by Engineer, Solkar, Ravi Shastri etc batting at number six or seven did repeatedly frustrate the opposition.

As for the tailenders, if they had done a decent job in the first innings, like they did in the second innings, the outcome of the test match would have been different.

Lastly, this defeat should be a lesson for the forth coming tests- Harbhajan must play- it could be at the expense of Nehra or Agarkar. Ganguly is right, there is still a lot of cricket to be played but one more defeat would mean curtains for India.

Major Ashok