The long and the short of it: We goofed up at Lord's

I just took a chance – Gavaskar at Lord’s, the player whose name we will not take at Lord’s – both have played five Tests there. Gavaskar had a high-score of 57, and an average of 34; the player whose name we will not take has a highest of 37 and an average of 21.66. Now, does height have anything to do with this? Both of these great ones had – or have – a habit of going forward at the ball, and because of their lack of height, the slope at Lord’s thus leaves them vulnerable to catches in the slips or lbw decisions – just see how the player whose name we will not take was out in the recent Test.The Indians with the highest averages at Lord’s? Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Dravid, Laxman, Azhar and then Mankad and Hazare... Solkar... Ganguly... even the great Vishy is down at an average of 34, but he did make a century because he would wait on the ball, not push forward. But most of these batsmen are tall – were tall – at least, not short.Is there a point in all of this? Ask Vengsarkar, 4 matches, three centuries, 508 runs, at an average of 72.57, with Dravid next at 4 matches, one century, 354 runs, at an average of 59.00 – of India’s top ten run-scorers at Lord’s, seven are of average to good height, with Vengsarkar, Laxman, Kapil, and Azhar being actually tall.We lost, and yet, on that wonderful fourth day, with Ishant bowling like a wizard, we had England in a tizzy; we had them and then we let them go – why? Harbhajan... we needed Mishra and of course, we needed Zaheer as well. But Harbhajan just got plugging the ball in, low and flat – the loop, the bounce, the magic was not there. He must be rested – not as an insult, but for the sake of the team – Mishra must play the next Test... he must.[caption id="attachment_49821" align="alignright" width="380" caption="Why does Dhoni not attack? Getty Images"][/caption]Now, not to rub a point in, but just see the performances at Lord’s of those who had played in the West Indies, and those who did not – of the three who did not, and whose names we will not take, one collapsed, and the other two disappointed – Mukund, a much lesser talent than the opener whose name we will not take, played with such conviction – and Laxman and Dravid were superb – Kumar and Sharma, who bowled in the Windies, and learnt so much from doing so, did not collapse, and were unplayable in their best spells.Test cricket... Matt Prior, with his team in all sorts of trouble, came out with guns blazing. Did we not recently have a wicket-keeper/batsman like that, who is now the captain? When is the last time in a Test match that his guns blazed with India in a tough position? Instead, he plods and prods, and goes nowhere.There are three Tests left – I still believe we will win the series – 2-1 – but we are up against a fine, fine team – a fine Test team, they are not the World Champions of limited over cricket, but they do know how to play Test cricket... wonderful.Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell – then Morgan and Prior. These are tough guys... we are under threat. Let us enjoy the challenge, rise to the challenge – no disappearing to hotel rooms, no temper tantrums, no hamstring injuries – let us face these guys, and beat them at their own game.Let us be proud of being the number one Test team in the world and let us prove that we truly are...PS: For those who came in late, Tom Alter refuses to name those who skipped the West Indies tour.