Why is Sreesanth considered?

Sreesanth is one such player for India who has made news for the wrong reason most of the times. rarely does he make it to the 15 member squad and still rarely makes it to the playing XI and his chances of playing an entire series without any problem is even more freak. Whenever Sreesanth makes news, it would be either for his onfield spat with the player from the opposition or for injuries. And, this time the news what Sreesanth has made is no different either. Once again Sreesanth is set to return back from the Bangladesh tour owing to a thigh strain he is believed to have suffered during bowling on the final day of the Chittagong test.

Previously, he was awarded the man of the match in the second test against Sri Lanka for his 5 wicket haul in the first innings of the same. But, that was once again followed by Sreesanth being forced to miss the remainder of the series due to a swine flu that followed the tests and the was last seen in the in the T20 game against Sri LankaODIs. And before that home series against Sri Lanka, SreesanthIPL game against Chennai Superkings where his team- Kings XI Punjab was knocked out of the tournament following a defeat in that match.

That was after Sreesanth was ruled out of all forms of cricket for three months due to a back injury somewhere in March 2009. But, Sreesanth was found playing in the IPL in May 2009, which was less than two months since he was ruled out for 3 months due to a back injury as mentioned above. And, before that Sreesanth had to convince himself by playing for his state Kerala though was not included for the Ranji team that year for the same old reason-his fitness not enough. This has been the Sreesanth in the past one year and is no different if his past further is considered.

And now, Sreesanth in once again set to return back from Bangladesh as mentioned above. One thing that is not clear is that, despite all these controversies surrounding Sreesanth, his name keeps on popping up prior to every international tournament that involves India. Fast bowlers like Aashish Nehra had to wait for 4 odd years to make a comeback to the Indian team. And, one has to scan the entire cricinfo website to see when last did Irfan Pathan play for India and so has been the cases regarding Balaji, R P Singh and Piyush Chawla. But, Sreesanth's name is never taken off the selector's list despite his past not favoring him. Any suggestions?

A rare & common loss for India

This was a rare loss for India against Sri Lanka and a common loss in the finals of a multi nation tournament. What a series this has been with India and Sri Lanka winning and losing alternatively everytime they meet up to play a game. And, as the rule went, India had to lose this game. Sri Lanka won the first encounter at Dhaka last week, following which India beat them in their second encounter only to lose in the third meeting with the Lankans. Unfortunately, this happened to be the finals of the tri nation tournament which India lost. Had there been three games each in the round robin stage, may be India would have won the finals of the tournament and with it the series as well.

This once again pointed towards India who always have a poor run in the finals of a tri nation tournament to be more precise. This has been the case since Sourav Ganguly took over as the Indian captain in 2000. But, one thing that needs to be given a close look at is the fact that the series contained Bangladesh as the third team, against which winning is not at all an issue and so is making it to the finals. But, frankly speaking, and if viewers' opinion is considered, it should have been India to have walked away with the honors than Sri Lanka.

India had an upperhand not only throughout the series but also against Sri Lanka if the past three years or so are considered. Sri Lanka have been no match for India as it is evident from the past where Sri Lanka managed to win just 7 matches (including the finals of this tri nation tournament) out of 17 games in the past two years since the bi lateral series between the 2 countries in 2008 which India won 3-2. But, this time when it mattered the most for both the teams, India had to compromise being the runners up in the tournament.

In their last meeting, India had thrashed the Sri Lankans by getting to the target with as many as 104 balls to spare. But, that was not the case when Sri Lanka won the game by taking it until the last 7 balls of the game. Until the last game between India and Bangladesh, India was one of the teams not to have lost all their ten wickets even once in the series along with Bangladesh. But now, in the finals India were all out for a score of 245 which now makes Bangladesh the only team not to have been all out throughout the tournament.