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In the Sunday Guardian, Dileep Premachandran writes that India’s batting greats should bow out like Nasser Hussain, who scored a century in his final Test and timed his retirement perfectly, and not like Kapil Dev and Javed Mianded, who played on for longer than they should have. Regardless of where the big three go from here – and let’s hope it’s not down the Kapil-Miandad route – Indian fans would do well to eviscerate these two tours from memory. For more than a decade, these same men made a country…

The very thought of Sachin Tendulkar and his contemporaries being shown the exit door would have been dismissed a year ago, but the majority of the Indian cricket fans are now convinced that the 'golden generation' should make way for new blood.

In his blog on the Times of India’s website, Avijit Ghosh says Indian fans should thank Australia for doling out a thumping that will force the India team to confront harsh realities. The series, he says, will settle the debate on whether ageing players should be allowed to continue, make the selectors consider dropping the opening pair, and perhaps even the ineffective Ishant Sharma. Let us accept that Tendulkar’s form too is a major issue. What do you do with a player who plays badly but cannot be dropped? Tendulkar…

In a series speckled with Indian wickets, the spell Peter Siddle remembered most fondly was one that passed without reward

Friday the 13th. Contrary to what the date suggested, it turned out to be a brilliant, sunny day at Perth. For the Indian cricket team and the hapless Indian cricket fan, though, it could not have been gloomier.

The stock of Indian cricket is at its lowest since the match-fixing crisis of 2000, says Ashok Malik, writing in the Hindustan Times. As the Dravid-Tendulkar generation moves on, as India starts to put together a new team, the India XI’s performances will be erratic and valuations will drop. In these circumstances, the entire Indian cricket industry that has come up in the past seven to 10 years – and which now employs tens of thousands – could find the IPL a safer bet. This may sound abhorrent to some…

N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, has said the Indian board will not prepare rank turners for home Tests

Shorter format of the game, nonstop matches or the Indian Cricket Board.

ONE ball remaining, six runs to win, 3450 metres above sea level in the mystical embrace of the Indian Himalayas.

Ishant Sharma’s average of 81 and strike-rate of 131.2 on India’s tour of Australia would have been more appropriate for a batsman, says G Unnikrishnan in the Deccan Herald. Unnikrishnan says Ishant has shown glimpses of promise, like during the tour of the West Indies in 2011, but has not sealed his role as the next leader of the Indian attack. But one point is lost between all these arguments – the role of bowling coach Eric Simons. Before the arrival of the South African, Ishant has taken 54 wickets…