CricDigs Blogs

It was about to happen at any time again — India’s susceptibility to playing too many shots on pitches that were even remotely assisting bowlers was highlighted in the just concluded T20 World Cup and the West Indies used the same clues to defeat Dhoni’s men in the second one dayer of the ongoing one-day series. However, I don’t agree with the experts commenting in newspapers that Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan should bat up the order. For starters, Dhoni is integral to the Indian middle order and Pathan just cannot play the moving ball. It is the batsmen who need to be reconsidered, particularly Rohit Sharma who is always in a hurry for some inexplicable reasons. Maybe, Badrinath or Murali Vijay could be given a chance to try and have someone in the Dravid mould bat at number three, i.e. consolidate at one end while the other stroke-makers play their shots?

Although, MS Dhoni was extremely appreciate of the match-winning effort by Yuvraj Singh for his century in the first of the four one-dayers against the WI, he was quick to add that the team relaxed a bit too much towards the end of the game. In fact, he emphasized that the 20-run win margin was much tighter than suggested by the scoreline, since some of the fielders relaxed a bit too much once seven of the West Indian wickets were down. In a way, you cannot disapprove of what Mahi is trying to say. The team did become a bit too casual once it seemed that WI would fall short of the target and some of the bowling towards the end was very pedestrian. Regarding the bowling, it remains to be seen how effective will the combination of Yusuf Pathan and Jadeja bowling in the middle of the innings will prove, since they need to fill-in about 8 – 10 overs in each of these ODI matches.

Fine, India did win the first ODI against the WEST INDIES but one aspect of the game is very evident — the Indian bowling looks very suspect with Zaheer Khan not playing and RP Singh bowling well below par. I believe Ishant Sharma should be made to open the bowling to give his confidence a boost and may be, Praveen Kumar could be the first change seamer. Kumar has the ability to bowl well with the old ball and has some very handy variations, including a few slower balls.

On the other hand, the Indian batting, though it clicked in this match, looked a bit shaky with Rohit Sharma getting out casually yet again. India could use a more sustainable batting option for the number three position — someone who can grind out 20 overs at just about 70-80% strike rate to ensure that a launch pad is provided to the likes of Pathan and Dhoni down the order.

As India get ready to take on the West Indies, it would be interesting to see who are the chosen openers. For starters, Gambhir too isn’t looking in the best of touch and if he falters in the first two games, then he too might be rested for the last leg of the one-day series. On the other hand, Virender Sehewag’s spot still remains to be taken. I don’t believe that either Karthick or Rohit Sharma have consolidated themselves as the opening choice. Again, there is Murali Vijay in the team who is a specialist opener and is known in the domestic circuit for his ability to handle the short ball. This is what the Indians must be preparing themselves for - a lot of short bowling by the fast bowlers from WI and they would need players who can pull with ease at the top. Who are they? there are no overwhelming faves although Yuvi does pull it pretty decent on ocassions. May be Badrinath could be given a run at number 3 as we no longer have Suresh Raina at that spot??

Was it a glut of cricket matches, which resulted in severe fatigue that lead to the dismal performance of the Indian cricket team in the recent T20 World Cup? It seemed so, very much. Dhoni was talking of grey hairs, Yuvi was not even interested to give complete replies to questions in interviews, and Sehwag was hurting from an injury yet still playing on – all signs of stress and fatigue. It seemed as if the team went out and played on an imperfect auto pilot system that was ready to malfunction. Obviously, the result was not impressive.

If we look at the match schedules for the last 8-10 months it would become quite clear how much cricket India has played. The Australia tour, the series against England at home, the Sri Lanka tour, the New Zealand tour, and then the IPL – the last months have been quite hectic. These days tours involve T20 matches in addition to tests and ODIs. Though T20 matches are very short, the mental energies expended in them are no less than tests or ODIs. And every time the team toured or played there was this huge expectation to win. This was so because Dhoni & Co. had formed a habit of winning after the 2008 T20 World Cup. They did win on majority of the occasions bringing joy to the cricket fans.

Let’s us be easy on the players. They are only human and have physical and mental thresholds. It would be unfair to blame the players now. Having a team of mostly young players doesn’t mean that they will not be tired and can go on and on.

Ricky Ponting expected several of England’s 2005 squad to be recalled for this year’s series…but the selectors look like surprising the Australian skipper.

There has been mounting talk that England will look to those who delivered the goods four years ago, in the greatest ever Test series, as they look to reclaim the Ashes on home soil.

But former skipper Michael Vaughan and paceman Steve Harmison look set to miss out having been excluded from the pre-Ashes training camp squad.

Vaughan was hoping that his experience of playing against Australia would stand him in good stead for a recall, but inconsistency for Yorkshire looks to have ended his hopes of a recall.

Harmison meanwhile, has been in decent wicket-taking form for Durham but his chances of playing this summer have diminished, with James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom, Graham Onions and Tim Bresnan all selected ahead of him.

Andrew Flintoff, one of only five players in the training squad to have played in 2005, has seemingly done enough with Lancashire to prove his fitness and has been included in the 16-man party.

With regards to first Test betting, the selectors look like they haven’t made their minds up as to which spin bowler will make the line-up in Cardiff, with three included in the training squad.

Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar and Adil Rashid all have the chance to impress, with Swann the strong favourite to be handed a starting berth should, as expected, England go with just one spinner.

Owais Shah looks to have blown his chance of featuring this summer and possibly in future Test series, having looked shaky at the crease in recent times. The Middlesex batsman is omitted but Ian Bell is included, as he looks to put the pressure on Ravi Bopara.

An England team, led by Andrew Strauss, will face Warwickshire in a warm-up game on July 1-3, while the selectors have named an England ‘Lions’ side to take on Australia at Worcester with four members of the 16-man squad not playing against Warwickshire - Bell, Bresnan, Onions and Rashid - lining up in that match.

Be sure to bear all this in mind for your 2009 ashes betting and, if you want to get in the betting mood, check out Betfair’s fan v fan site.

If there ever was a nation that desperately needed to see its team win a major tournament to bring some hope in a state-of-affairs that only seem to be deteriorating with every passing day, then it has to be the modern-day state of Pakistan. Nearly every bit of news emerging from this nation is typically about terrorist attacks, the counter-attack measures by the military and more body count. It should be stated that besides cricket, the nation just does not endorse any kind of sporting achievement and so it is befitting that when the nation needed the game to bring some degree of happiness into the lives of the suffering millions, the Pakistani national cricket team has delivered. I guess, now that the team has won, their captain, Younis Khan, would like to change his view of T20 not being “serious” stuff. Once again Pakistan has proved that they are the true dark horses in any tournament.

Like Nasser Hussain says, “With Pakistan, you are not sure which team you will face — the one that self-destructs or the one that destroys you.”

When Misbah played that dreaded scoop shot to get out in the finals of the inaugural edition of the World Cup 2007, many experts commented that Pakistan were just too mercurial to sustain their tempo in the knock-out kind of situations. Well, in this year’s World Cup too, the team didn’t have the most experienced of players to ensure that the squad doesn’t dither under pressure situations. To everyone’s surprise the man who has ensured that Pakistan win in the semi-final and final stages of their World Cup campaign is the perpetual under-achiever and typically impulsive — Shahid Khan Afridi.

Everyone knows how hard he can hit the ball and his bowling has made tremendous progress in the last two years but to see him actually bat till the end of an innings, although in the T20 final it was just about 12 overs, is something refreshing. Probably, someone has finally made him realize that just being good doesn’t solve any purpose unless you can contribute to the team’s cause.

Just one look at the reports in the newspapers and the constant discussion in the media about how the Indian players had apparently hidden their injuries makes me feel how stupid and judgemental people can be. Just imagine what would have been the reaction had Dhoni lifted the T20 World Cup, yet again?

Would the supposed report on injured Indian players created so much ridicule among the cricket experts who are branding the Indian team members as ‘greedy’. It is a sorry state of affairs that a team has to face such varied reactions in case they have a week of bad performance. I can only hope that these things don’t start to hamper Dhoni’s progress as a skipper though my gut feeling is that he is already beginning to show signs of feeling the pressure of Indian captaincy that has flattened so many men who have held this profile.

Anyway, the Caribbean tour is coming up and it would be interesting to see the reactions if the Indian team manages to win all its matches. The only good thing for Dhoni and the team is that they have already flown to the Islands rather than come back home and answer questions that would have linked their schooling, family relations, their cultural background, the way they feel about money, the number of hours spent shooting advertisements and God knows what all ridiculous theories to their defeat.

It is time people accepted a simple fact: the Indian cricket team is almost always over-worked so it is a law of probability that will make them fail every now and then.

There has to be something about Asian teams that makes them so good at T20. It is not just a personal opinion but the facts themselves point to this: last edition of the T20 World Cup saw India and Pakistan slug it out in the final and now it will be Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It seems that the Pakistani side has somehow managed to adapt itself to this format of the game and maybe their extremely volatile nature and the unpredictability with which they play suits the T20 format more than the ODIs or the Test matches. It would be a big heartbreak for the Pakistani fans if their team loses two consecutive World Cup finals.

Sri Lanka on the other hand look well-prepared to remain unbeaten in the Tournament and would pose many challenges for the Pakistani side, particularly against performers like Umar Gul, Afridi and Ajmal. It can be guaranteed that the Lankan team will have some sort of a plan against the 12 overs that will be bowled by these three men.

One man who could seek instantaneous redemption is Abdul Razzaq. It is hard to comment on his choice of drifting over to the ICL, but now that he is back, one good match, i.e. the final itself could be his platform to rid himself of all the ridicule that has come his way in the last couple of seasons. My Verdict? I would have to favour Sri Lanka a bit more, although Pakistan’s bowling looks much better.