India need to execute their plans against Bangladesh: Glenn McGrath

June 9, 2015

Chennai, Jun 9: Australian pace great Glenn McGrath said that Indian team would need to execute their plans properly during their one-off Test match against Bangladesh starting in Fatullah on Wednesday.

indian-team

"There is only one test and they need to play like any other test. When you play in a test series you think about the next test. You do not think about the second or third test here," McGrath said.

"They (Indians) must have prepared themselves for the single test and they need to execute their plans. It is just another test match," said McGrath who is currently the coaching director of the MRF Pace Foundation here.

The Bangladesh tour, which also features three ODIs, will see Ravi Shastri once again donning the role of Team Director. The former India captain has said India doesn't need a head coach now and he might fill up the role if needed. Asked to define the role of a chief coach and a team director, McGrath said: "I do not know what Ravi is doing is different to what a team coach will do. I do not know what the job description is for Ravi. If he is not, then I do not know again."

Talking about the ongoing series of Australia and England against the West Indies and New Zealand respectively, he said: "I think the way the Australians are playing they can win 10-0. If England want to be competitive, they have to really lift themselves."

On his objectives for MRF Academy, McGrath said: "For me personally, we are only giving the facility for the spinners to use and they have their own spin coach here and he is working with them.

"Troy Cooley (Australia's National Cricket Centre head coach) has brought in fast bowlers for training at the Academy. In order to have few games here he has brought couple of batsmen and bowlers including spinners here. "I will work with the boys of the Academy and the junior fast bowlers from Australia and BCCI is sending couple of boys for training here till June 20. We still focus on the fast bowlers. I cannot teach on how to play against spin."

Asked about Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who was awarded Man of the Tournament in the 2015 World Cup, McGrath said: "He always had the potential and bowl at 150kmph, left armer and swings the ball. He is a one day player and knows the one day well very well. "He can bowl with new ball and take couple of wickets and come back with the older ball and bowl good yorkers that not many bowlers in world cricket can do, perhaps excepting Malinga and no one else. He bowls such good yorkers in one day games.

"Still, he can bowl well in test too. I think the confidence that he has got in one-dayers he has carried it to the tests too. World cups, one day games and T-20 games suit his type of bowlers."

Emphasizing on yorkers, McGrath said: "I do not think that the bowlers practice enough at the nets. If you are practicing to bowl yorkers at the nets, you need to bowl behind the line. If you are bowling no balls, you are practicing the wrong way. "Even if you are bowling good yorkers in the nets, you going over the front line and if you do not practice at the nets you cannot straightaway bowl your length in a competitive game," he added.

Heaping praise on the budding young bowlers at the MRF Academy, McGrath said: "I can bet that every one of the boys from MRF Academy is good. I had already mentioned Varon and Ishwar and hopefully they get more opportunities. "Ashwin Christ is coming up well. He always had the potential and now he has started thinking about himself as to what he could do in a game. That is what you want the bowlers to do. They have to think for themselves and set plans and execute them." On ICC rule of having one more fielder during powerplay and allowing one more bouncer, the 45-year-old said: "Probably if you got one more fielder when the power play is up, obviously then you can protect one portion of the field.

"Some batsmen look at the short ball as a scoring option. Again it depends on the bowler. He should know what fields that he requires. It is something that a bowler needs to show more perfection that can work in his favour," he added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
August 3,2020

Silverstone, Aug 2: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on Sunday won his seventh British Grand Prix title after a dramatic last-lap at the Silverstone Circuit.

Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas were at the first and second spot respectively until tyre drama struck.

Second-placed man Bottas was the first to suffer as his tyre deflated on lap 50, resulting in 11th place finish. Hamilton also suffered a similar issue before the final few seconds of the race.

However, with Max Verstappen having opted to pit a few laps from the end to try and claim the fastest lap, Hamilton had enough time in hand to just cross the line first, five seconds ahead of Verstappen and the third-placed Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz had been set to finish fourth, but his own last lap tyre issue saw him eventually come home P13, allowing Renault's Daniel Ricciardo to claim fourth, following a late pass on the sister McLaren of Lando Norris.

Renault's Esteban Ocon finished sixth, having enjoyed a race-long battle with Lance Stroll's Racing Point, with Pierre Gasly having enjoyed a fine race to finish seventh for AlphaTauri.

Alex Albon finished eighth for Red Bull, having recovered from a lap 1 tussle with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen that saw him fall to last, while Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10, Vettel holding off a late charge form the recovering Mercedes of Bottas.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 3,2020

Karachi, Jul 3: There was a sense of insecurity among Pakistan players during the 2019 World Cup, claims former chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, who also reckons that the PCB should have given Sarfaraz Ahmed more time as captain instead of removing him abruptly.

Inzamam said captains need to be backed since they get better with time.

"Even in the last World Cup I felt the captain and players were under pressure because they were thinking if we don't do well in the tournament we will be out. That environment was created and this is not good for cricket," Inzamam said.

"Sarfaraz achieved some notable victories for Pakistan and was learning to be a good captain but unfortunately when he had learnt from experience and mistakes he was removed as captain," the former captain told a TV channel.

Inzamam remained chief selector from 2016 till the 2019 World Cup. During his tenure, most of the time Sarfaraz remained captain.

Soon after Inzamam was replaced by head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan Cricket Board removed Sarfaraz as a player and captain from all three formats.

"Sarfaraz won us the Champions Trophy and also made the team number one in T20 cricket. He got us some good wins. He should have been given more time as captain by the board but it acted in haste and didn't give him confidence or patience."

The PCB has now given the Test captaincy to senior batsman, Azhar Ali while young batsman Babar Azam leads the side in the white ball formats.

Inzamam, the most capped player for Pakistan, also said that the captain's own performance can dip as he had to focus a lot on other players.

"But a captain learns all this with time. There is no shortcut to it."

He pointed out that people praise Imran Khan’s leadership qualities and captaincy but he also won the World Cup on his third attempt as captain.

"He won the 1992 World Cup because by that time he had become a seasoned captain and learnt to motivate his players and get them to fight in every match."

Inzamam said giving confidence to new players and youngsters is very important for the selectors. He gave the example of Babar Azam.

"Babar struggled initially in Test cricket but we never had any doubt about his ability so we persisted with him and see today where he is standing in all formats."

He also described Babar and pacer, Shaheen Shah Afridi as and future stars.

"Babar is always compared to Virat Kohli but the latter has played a lot more cricket and if you look at their stats and performances at the stage Babar is now, he has not done badly at all."

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 29,2020

Melbourne, Feb 29: India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Saturday said the team management has given Shafali Verma the freedom to play her natural game, which has set the Women's T20 World Cup ablaze.

The 16-year-old announced her emergence on the global stage by becoming the second highest run getter in the ongoing tournament. She has so far scored 161 runs, hitting 18 fours and nine sixes in four matches at an astounding strike rate of 161.

On Saturday, Shafali hit a 34-ball 47 to steer India to a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka after spinner Radha Yadav produced a career-best 4/23.

"Shafali is someone who loves to play big shots, and we don't want to stop her. She should continue doing the same and she should continue enjoying her game," Harmanpreet said after the match.

India entered the semifinals with an all-win record as they led Group A with eight points from four games and the captain insisted it is important to continue the winning momentum.

"It's really important to keep the momentum when you are winning games. You really work hard, so you can't afford to lose that momentum. You can't bowl same pace and lengths on these wickets, so you need to keep rotating the bowlers."

"Today I tried to be positive and got a few boundaries. In the upcoming games I'll try to give my best," Harmanpreet said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Atapattu rued the reprieves given by her side to Shafali in the form of two dropped catches.

"I think that score was not enough, we lost couple of chances, specially Shafali, it was hard to stop her," she said.

"Yeah, I got a good start but unfortunately got out in the 10th, would have wanted to stay in there till the 16th or the 17th over. I hope we can beat Bangladesh in our last game," she added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.