Here we go again. Yet another series between two teams that cannot seem to get enough of each other. Fans are not bothered and who can blame them? Rivalries are exciting when teams play each other occasionally. This creates a sense of excitement that keeps building until the series eventually starts. During the recently played Asia cup, a friend remarked that his interest in the tournament was restricted to watching India play Pakistan. India may have played SL in the final - but that was just another India SL game. Who cares?
Team building for the WC is possibly the only consolation of what is becoming a tiresome exercise. India are testing the bench strength and I think it makes sense. Kohli & Sharma will know that they have been in the side for long enough now. They cant hide behind the excuse of inexperience for any longer. Yuvraj will pile the pressure on himself if he has another bad tournament. Karthik was the man of the match in the Asia cup final and will be keen to continue impressing. Yesterday's debacle in the first game against NZ will mean that India will have to keep winning from here on to make the finals. It should turn out to be a good test for some of the youngsters irrespective of whether they succeed or fail. It should also give us the spectators & the selectors a better idea of how the squad will look like come March next year.
I would also like to hear Dhoni / the team management define the word allrounder. What has Jadeja done that seems to have transfixed the selectors and the team management? At his best he can be economical with the ball - but there's hardly been a single performance to suggest that he should be a permanent fixture in the side. An allrounder's importance is well documented. It's about time time we admitted that we don't have one. The point in playing anybody and everybody and hope they turn into world class allrounders is crass stupidity. Our world beating allrounders in the recent past have ranged from Agarkar to Powar from Pathan to Jadeja. Shastri even mentioned during India's disastrous T-20 campaign in the Caribbean that Chawla is in the side because he's an allrounder. When are we going to learn?
It was good to see the Kiwis play well yesterday. Taylor has to be one of the most devastating hitters in the world game at the moment. It will also be good to see how they go on as the series progresses. Tougher tests will definitely come their way and it will be interesting to see how they progress from here.
And finally, SLC have to do something to ensure that matches played in SL don't depend very heavily on the toss. NZ played very well yesterday and deserved to win. However, the importance of winning the toss in these conditions is extremely high. Equal chances for both sides, generally, makes for far better cricket.
2 comments:
The allrounder problem is something that is destined not to be solved, I feel. The logical thing for me would have been to fix that spot for Irfan Pathan whose batting is good enough for the no.7 position, but the selectors seem to have washed their hands off him. I really don't hold out much hope for Yusuf or Jadeja, surely the IPL should have given us a few candidates for that slot?
India's best combination for me has always been the 7 batsmen+4 bowlers model we followed in the 2003 world cup. Thing was, the pacemen then were doing such a good job that there was hardly any pressure on the backup men. The bowling now looks really dicey. Still, I think we should be able to get 10 overs out of Viru, Yuvi and Sachin..so I think we should just stick in another hitter at 7, and hope that at least 3 out of 4 frontline bowlers do the job. I suppose this is what I would have in mind for the WC:
1.Sehwag 2.Sachin 3.Gambhir 4.Yuvraj 5.MSD 6.Raina 7.Kohli/Uthappa(?) 8.Harbhajan 9.Zaheer 10. Ojha/Sharma/Sreesanth 11.Nehra
I agree with you on Irfan. Atleast it's worth giving him a few games in the run up to the WC. If he has a couple of good hits out in the middle, he could atleast be part of the squad. Also reckon that amongst the current candidates (Yusuf, Jadeja) he remains the best option. Uthappa for me should be a real dark horse. In Indian conditions he can be seriously dangerous as a floater. He certainly strikes me as a far better option than Yusuf. Raina is another bloke who can be used as a part time bowler.
The bowling like you said is pretty weak even at full strength. Unfortunately, we are probably playing the best we've got at the moment.
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