Cricket News sort by Pragyan Prayash Ojha

We have heard of Test and ODI specialists, but we have never heard about specialists in Tests only in home conditions. India’s left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha might as well be the first cricketer to fall in this category.

It took just a little over two hours for India to wipe out West Indies on Day 3 to wrap up an innings victory in the Mumbai Test. Sachin Tendulkar’s last day in International Cricket came to a quick end with the West Indians surrendering their remaining 7 wickets in a hurry.

The crowd at Wankhede was in for a big disappointment in the morning when MS Dhoni had won the toss and opted to bowl first as the expectation was that Tendulkar wouldn’t get to bat on Day 1.

India pulled off a tremendous victory by 6 wickets in the Mohali Test despite the entire opening day’s play washed out. Needing 133 to win in about 33 overs, India got to the target steadily in the last hour.

The emphatic win at Chennai emboldened skipper MS Dhoni enough for him to proclaim that India have found the settled team combination for the rest of the series. Even though the win was built around a solid team effort, one wonders whether Dhoni has been too premature in his assessment of the team composition.

“Never change a winning team,” the saying goes. Nevertheless, as with every rule, there are exceptions. India comfortably beat back the Australian challenge at Chennai to go one up in the four-test series, but the performance was not seamless and there are adjustments that may lead to an improved performance at Hyderabad.

After the first two days of the Chennai Test, the match between India and Australia was evenly poised thanks to a good fightback from the Indian batsmen, particularly Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. It is in their bowling in the second innings where the Indians could suffer though.

India have traditionally got the better of most opponents at home courtesy their spinners, who have used the helpful conditions at home to great advantage.

India’s most successful spinner Anil Kumble retired in 2008 after a marvellous career. However, even four years after his retirement, India are struggling to find a suitable replacement for him. For a while, it seemed that Harbhajan Singh would be the ideal choice to take over as India’s lead spinner.