Whenever Sreeshant plays, India win. This 'phenomenon' has been observed of late.
Sreeshant played in the match against BD and India won. He was dropped in the match against England and India did not win !
Sreeshant bowled India to victory against SA in SA, with a haul of five for.
Sreeshant was in the team which won the T20 WC in 2007. He was dropped in the teams for the other WC, which India lost.
This 'phenomenon' prompted Gavaskar to opine "Sree is India's lucky charm. We need all lucky charms, Providence, God's Grace, prayers and talismans for India to win at Bombay " !
There is a popular demand to bring back Sree. In the Malayalam Paper Mathrubhumi, many say he is India's talisman and should be brought back. That India could not win the match against England because there was no third seamer to support the reverse swinging Zaheer and Sree would have won the match ! Bowlers win matches.
Now a warning about England. In the 1987 final, Graham Gooch swept England to victory with a century. The sweep is used to counter spin. It is said that Gooch called the Club spinners of India and practised batting against spin for four days and successfully countered the Indian spin attack and India was out of the Cup. So beware of England. Their intelligence in cricket cannot be underestimated. See how Ian Bell used the sweep against the Indian spinners and blunted them. So England plays spin better than the SAs, the WIs or the Australians !
Pietersen moving to No 1 spot has a hidden meaning. He is eyeing Sachin's record, 200 no ! The Englishmen are professionals and India was surprised at Bangalore !
The opinion that India's fielding was atrocious and bowling mediocre has been voiced by many. Now this is the hallmark of Team India - formidable batting, mediocre bowling and atrocious fielding !
India was weak in all the departments before 1971. The Indian batting improved considerably after the advent of Gavaskar, whose 774 runs in the WI changed Indian cricket forever.
India never had a formidable attack. In 1983, it was a team of bits and pieces men - effective allrounders - who brought home the bacon !
With the entry of Kapil Dev, some respectability crept in to the Indian attack. But then India never had an attack like the formidable pace trio of Australia - Lee, Tait and Johnson.
Indian spin department continued to flourish with the famous quartet of Prasanna, Bedi, Chandra and Venkat. Even today India do not have a dearth of spinners !
India had a lot of good fielders in Pataudi, Solkar etc. But then India could not match either SA or AUS in fielding.
Bowling and Fielding have to be improved, if India is to lift the WC on Apr 2.
Another lucky figure in Indian cricket was Wadekar. A man with Mars exalted in his horoscope, he led India to victory over the mighty WI and England. He was known as a 'lucky' captain. He did not score many runs like Gavaskar and Tendulkar, but was 'lucky'!
LUCK is the make up or break up factor. ( Bhagyanvitha sarva gunair upetha ).
He is respected who has LUCK
Scholar is he, he is the Pundit
Orator he becomes, Philosopher is he,
Fortune(LUCK) is the greatest quality !
Yasyasthi bhagyam sa nara kuleena
Sa Panditha Sa Sruthavan Gunajna
Sa eva Vaktha, sa cha darshaneeya
Bhagyanvitha sarva gunair upetha/
Another lucky figure is Gavaskar himself. It is said that when he made 774 runs in WI, he was dropped 34 times, which made John Snow to remark "I can also score the same amount of runs, if I was dropped 34 times". ! Mars, the sports planet, is exalted in his horoscope.
Tendulkar, another Mars exalted character, also had his slices of luck. LUCK is the X Factor, the Unknown Factor ! It can make you or break you !
We have the ex Minister's, Shashi Tharoor's article on Cricinfo "Is he lucky?". Sashi also says LUCK is the greatest factor. The examples he cites are about two world class spinners, Shivalkar and V V Kumar, who could not make their way into the Indian team, because they lacked LUCK !
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