England's Euro 2020 Report

From Fourth place at the World Cup, Third place in the Nations League to runners-up at the Euros. Despite coming so close to vanquishing the ghost of '66, Gareth Southgate's Three Lions have brought pride back to the Nation.  

In the past, ex-England managers have crumbled under pressure, particularly when it comes to major tournaments.  Some of them have also been a little passive in terms of facing the media after being knocked out of either a World Cup or European Championship, but not Gareth Southgate.

A true and honest man who is willing to accept and rectify mistakes, but also some who isn't scared of making the odd harsh decisions such as waiting until extra time to bring on Jack Grealish. Rashford's penalty miss was unacceptable for a player of his caliber, but this will surely be a huge experience for the likes of 19-year old Bukayo Saka and 21-year old Jadon Sancho. The racist taunts from fans were totally out of order. After all, these players are humans, not robots. They are bound to make mistakes at this age, hopefully, they'll learn from it.   

England's player of the tournament has to be Jordan Pickford. Raheem Sterling also had his best performance in an England shirt, but Pickford was the one for me who kept the Lions in the hunt. His performance in the last-16 stage against Germany was heroic, making two crucial saves to deny victory for the Germans at Wembley. Also, the fact that Southgate's men went through the entire tournament conceding just two goals, shows how solid the Stones and Maguire partnership was throughout the tournament. 

As for the penalty decisions, letting a 19-year old take the fifth and vital penalty against the giant of a man in Gianluigi Donnarumma is a little risky as you don't know what he is feeling inside, especially the impact it may have on his career, should he miss. Somebody like Jack Grealish or Sterling may have been a slightly better choice.    

When England had Italy on the rope in the first half,  This is where they failed to drive home the advantage, partiçulary after scoring in only the second minute of the game. Had Southgate's men really pushed the Xcelerator and gone for that second goal, things may have been different in terms of the outcome of the match.  But England slightly caved from that moment in and allowed the Italians a foothold in the game, just like they did in that World Cup semi-final against Croatia. Perhaps a bit of ruthlessness in the attacking third may have been the difference between lifting the trophy and collecting a Runners-up medal.

It was obvious that Mancini's side wanted to take it all the way to a shootout. Had England sussed that out, they should have looked to finish it in 90minutes or extra time, which is another reason why the decision to hold back Grealish until the extra time was somewhat bizarre as the Italians started to dominate in midfield and England were finding it hard to keep the ball. Grealish is someone who likes to dribble with the ball and break up play by winning fouls. and had he came on with half an hour of normal time to go, England could have gone and attempted for victory in normal time.  

Looking ahead to Qatar 2022, it would be interesting to see what the squad would have learned from this experience. Depending on what happens in the next season and a half, it will most likely be the same squad with perhaps one or two new faces. Given that the tournament is almost halfway through the 2022-23 season, Southgate should still have a wide array of players to choose from. Can they go one step further and bring home the World Cup after 56 years?     

Feature Image: From Flickr By Online muhabir from https://euro2020kupasi.com/

 

India's Warriors Triumph Down Under

No Kohli, no Jadeja,no Ashwin, no Shami and no Bumrah. From being skittled out for just 60 in Adelaide, who would of thought Ravi Shastri's India would once again triumph down under in Austrailia. After being completely outplayed in Adelaide as well as losing both their captain who was on paternity leave and then one of their premier fast bowlers in Mohammed Shami, a lot of people were expecting a long and diffcult tour for the Indians. However, stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane had other ideas. 

The small man from Maharashtra made a strong statment in the Melbourne Test with a brillint innings of 112 which gave a strong statement to the Australians that although King Kohli was no longer there, his team was not going to go down like a house of cards, they were there to fight and win. 

Then in the third Test, Jadeja was struck on the thumb via a vicious bouncer from left-arm pacer Mitchel Starc. Followed by the racist taunts being from to drunk spectators in the Sydney crowd who were targeting both Bumrah and fellow paceman Mohammed Siraj who was apparently being called a 'brown dog'. Not to mention Paine's despicable act of removing Keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant's batting guard. 

For a touring team to go down under, face all those incidents and still win a second successive series, says a lot about their character. Paticularly when an injured Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin battled through the last hour and a half on the final day of the Sydney Test. With many of the senior players being in and then out of the series, this gave an opportunity to see some new faces in the Indian side. Shubman Gill, what a talent this young kid is. For someone from the Sub-continent to make from the their test debut in Australia and score 259 runs on those fast, bouncey pitches is a remarkable and brave effort, particularly against the likes of Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins, who were all bowling above 90mph. His innings of 91 was the catalyst for setting up the run chase. 

Chasing a target of 328 on a pitch that was uneven in terms of bounce was not going to be easy, particularly when India lost Rohit Sharma early but the innings in which Pujara plsayed allowed Gill to play a counter attacking innings. the best of his shots was the big upper-cut over third man. If he hit it straight down third man's throat, I can imagine that he would get a lot of stick from the fans and media, but the fact that the ball flew over the boundary for six, sent a strong statement to the Australians saying look, if you want to bounce us out, bounce us out, we're not afraid of you, we're going for the target. For someone to play an innings like that in only his third Test, speaks a lot about Gill's talent and mmore importantly his character. 

Let's also not forget the little Indian superstar Rishabh Pant. Another youg keeper-batsman who plays without fear. Pant has been brutally criticised in the past for giving his wicket away by playing reckless shots across the line, but the two innings he played at Sydney and the Gabba showed everyone the talent he has and the belief that he can turn a draw into a win, particularly if he stays at the crease for a couple of hours. The way he plays, reminds me about a certain Virender Sehwag in his prime, particularly with his flamboyant stroke play and fearless attitude as a cricketer. 

Another crucial turning point the Test match was the sixth wicket partnership of 123 off 216 balls between Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur. without those 115 runs, India would not have come close to parity with Australia on first innings runs. The hosts were leading the tourists by a minor 33 runs at that stage of the match. On previous tours to Australia, the lower order has just been blown away by the pace and bounce, but the way Thukur and Sundar counter attacked the Aussie bowlers was just enthralling to watch as they although they were scoring fairly quickly, the shots they played were traditional cricketing shots and not slogging across the line.

India's next assignment is a five-match Test Series against England, where should they win that series by two matches, they automatically qualify for this year's Test Championship Final in June. England in fact were the last team to win a Test series on Indian soil back in 2012/13, where Alistair Cook's side defeated MS Dhoni's side by 2-1. Joe Root's side have recently won the first of two Test against Sri Lanka, they are favourites to take that series 2-0, but Will Kohli's India win another series on home soil?

Australia in The Naughty Books Again

During the third Test of their home series agian India, Austrailia Test captain Tim Paine was caught on camera removing India Keeper batsman Rishabh Pants batting guard. It wasn't just Paine who was in the naughty books but the crowed at the Sydney Cricket Ground were cuaght racially abusing Indian pace bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah. Siraj was allgedly calle a 'brown doog' and a 'big monkey by a group of spectators whilst he was feilding near the boundary. The Indian team reported the incedent to the umpires who then removed that section of the crowd who were involoved in the racists chant. Meanwhile Veteran off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was quick to point out that this was not the first time that he had heard such nasty chants from the Austrailia crowed.

"I would like to point out something, this is my fourth tour to Australia and Sydney especially here, we have had these type of experiences in the past as well. I think one or two times players have reacted to this in the past and they have gotten into trouble, it is not because of the player, it is because of the way the crowd has been reacting. The fans have been quite nasty, but this is one occasion where they have gone one step ahead, it is a case of racial abuse, we lodged an official complaint yesterday and we brought it to the notice of the umpires," Ashwin said. "It is definitely not acceptable in this day and age, we have evolved as a society and this roots to the upbringing, this should be dealt with an iron first, by iron fist I mean the way we deal with it."

We all know that sledging is part of Australia's DNA when it comes to playing cricket, but there have been some incidents, where the players have also stepped over the line, for exmaple, during the 2013-14 series, former Austraian captain Michael Clarke got quite aggresive with seamer James Anderson aksing him to 'get ready for a f'cking broken arm.' Which sounds like a threat rather then a sledge. Sledging is a verbal conversation between two players from either team use to immitate each other as a way of getting lose concentration. But as always, there is always a boundary.,which should not be crossed. Especially if it involves racism or beomes personal. So, why does it always happen in Australlia? All we want to see is a good game of competitive cricket between two teams and it should not be ruined by instances like the this. Racisn is not tollerated in any sport and Cricket Austrailia should know that. Sometimes you wish people who go to watck cricket in stadiums should think about how they behave rather than just drinking too much and then behave like idiots, this is setting a bad example in proffessional elite sport. I think that all cricket stadiums around the world, especially Sydney should have cameras in the crowd to keep an eye on their behaviour as this issue has been going on for years. This is ruining tthe game. It's time for change. Feature Image: India gamers allege abuse by followers on day 4 at SCG vs Australia; six spectators eliminated by Tanveer Sheikh.