Indian cricket has been in the doldrums for quite a while to be frank and with cricket nothing less than religion in their country, the media & the fans wouldnt let them go off the hook so easy.
Some people blame the coach, in fact quite a lot of them blame poor Greg Chappell. He didnt know what he was up against before taking over the job. I am sure the big money was involved with India being the worlds biggest commercial capital at least when it comes to Cricket.
Arright so what has Chappell done. Lets see. The first and most controversial thing he did was get rid of Saurav Ganguly as he didnt envision him in his team. He had his reasons, the lethargic cricketer, a weaklink in the field and a misfit according to him in the middle order with Sehwag, Tendulkar opening. The lack of form also led to his misfortune and Chappell got him out.
Dravid has been my personal favourite player cos I am a big fan of people with STRONG temparent. I think every team should make their captain a player who is mentally strong. That should be top priority, second priority being experience. Dravid took over the reins of captaincy and well has been an average captain to say it safe based on the results. But you need to give him more time, I feel. He is the best choice currently.
Next, Chappell realized they need a genuine allrounder. He tried searching but apparently to no considerable talent available he decided he needs to explore the available options. If Irfan Pathan could develop as a better batsman or Dinesh Mongia develop as a better bowler, he could have that allroounder he wants in his team for the world cup. Thats what he did.
That plan has backfired I feel, for various reasons. Irfan Pathan was developing into a great bowler. Excluding the nippy pace, he was looking in the moulds of a certain Wasim Akram and hence the go-to guy for a wicket. The extra responsibility of batting affected his bowling big time. One down in the batting lineup is a position where the likes of R. Dravid, Ponting, Lara play not to mention a few players in the world who bat lower in the order even though they should play No. 3. Anyway, Irfan Pathan was experimented with there to avoid the new ball and maybe get in at a time where he could play his shots and gain confidence. Not to be ...he absolutely lost confidence in his abilities and that left him bowling indifferent as well and led to missing out the position of being the lead bowler. Sad...but its not over...he should develop.
D. Mongia can not be a genuine bowler but he can occasionally turn his arm over and for that matter so can Yuvraj (when fit), Sachin & Sehwag. So, I feel the Chappell theory though honest needed a different approach.
I must mention here that the Indian unit is definitely the most talented when it comes to batting and that area just needs some consistency in performance. Its the bowling thats the problem and wasting a resource such as Irfan pathan will hit them bad. Hopefully it is realized in time and he can get back to concentrating on his bowling.
The strategy in yesterday to go in with 5 bowlers was a very good ploy, I think. An Indian team with the batting lineup they can afford to go in with that. Even though it backfired with some out-of-the-ordinary batting from Kemp but I think they should stick to that formula. They need options while bowling and the likes of Zaheer Khan and Kumble should play to provide that extra edge.
If Yuvraj is fit, the lineup looks killer on paper:
Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif, Dhoni, Irfan, Kumble, Agarkar, Harbhajan, Zaheer
Waiting in the pavilion is Ganguly, M. Patel, Sreesanth, D. Mongia. I think they have the side for the world cup. I really feel the experimenting needs to stop. In my proposed 11 for India you got 5 of the world's best batsmen. Dhoni an explosive 'bat-anywhere' guy and then extra bit of batting from Irfan, Kumble, Agarkar. The bowling looks good too. Batting is their strength and they need to play their matches around that. Ganguly plays in my squad just cos he got experience and can replace an injured guy in there whenever required. Of course differences with the coach can make way for another played who could be anybody really. They got an extra keeper/batsman in D. Karthik as well.
They need to implement the same and let them play together for a while to build up for the world cup. Thats their best option according to me. The experimenting has to stop, NOW!
Formally published at SPORTINGO.com
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