The emerald island misadventure

By Rajadhyax

India lost the Micromax Cup final against Sri Lanka and left the island not in a very happy state. Though they were not exactly a dejected lot, they had no cause to rejoice. Newspaper articles appeared almost instantly to discount India from the probable teams to win the World Cup next year. Coffee-table critics used sharper daggers while describing the Indian team performance. From bowling inadequacies to the failure of the younger batsmen everything came under the scanner.

Like ventriloquists, the doubting-lot or the critics appear to say a lot of unparliamentary stuff, but you can never pinpoint that they said it. One suggested a change in captainship. Another recommended a recall of many older men back to the fold. A radical idea of playing only spinners was also tossed around. One from Kolkata called me to suggest that Ganguly must be our captain for the World Cup. Suddenly one called for the services of John Wright rather than Kirsten as coach. I was mildly surprised that no one came up with an idea to play the same team that won the 1983 Prudential World Cup with Kapil as captain. May be with a small change like inducting Nawab of Pataudi as vice-captain and Sachin in the middle order instead of Yashpal Sharma. Oh come on, folks, where is the need to panic? Yes, India was not exactly at its best in the recent tournament but that is not reason enough for sweeping statements and ludicrous changes. Let’s not forget that even prior to the famous 1983 victory at Lords, India had come through bruising losses against West Indies and New Zealand.

India played the recent tournament without bowling spearheads Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. Sachin and Rahul Dravid were given much needed rest. Fitness worry kept the aggressive Gambhir out of the eleven. First choice bowler Shreeshanth was replaced suddenly due to injury while Yuvraj had only just returned to international fold after nursing a career threatening injury. To add to the woes most wickets were such that matches were decided more by the toss and less by the actual action on the field.

In South Africa the things will be far more different. The wickets will be truer with an even bounce and good carry. The Indian speedsters have consistently done better in those conditions. Spinners can regale with their guile on bouncy tracks. With Zaheer back in the saddle and Harbhajan as the first-change spinner the Indian bowling is a lesser worry. In the batting line-up Gambhir will be back, fit and raring to go. Sachin comes back with one remaining dream of winning the WC for India and that means a highly motivated Sachin. Any player who played against him will tell you that a Sachin is dangerous enough. Fully charged like this, he is unstoppable!

Instead of the whole veteran’s brigade, Dravid may be considered to bolster the middle order. Assuredly, there is nothing that has suddenly gone wrong in the captainship of MS Dhoni. Let’s grant it to fate that he lost eight of the ten tosses in recent matches and the conditions were such that it decided more than it should. Kirsten’s coaching also need not be doubted at all. Remember it is this very support team that has made India number one in Tests and they are still at that position.

Yes, there are one or two worries! Needless to say the Indian fielding is better than before but way below world class. Men like Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha almost never catch a thing unless it is hit at them at a comfortable position. They need to practice out-of-comfort-zone catching. Those half chances are all you get sometimes in a match and the call “great catch” needs to be more common than “well tried”. Ground fielding of guys like Munaf and Ishant is embarrassing. Younger batsmen need to show some consistency to pass at the highest level of cricket. Hordes of centuries at Ranji-level need to become at least regular 50s or 70s at this level.

On the plus side, mental strength of the team has improved over the last two decades. Players like Raina and Gambhir can be termed as brilliant fielders. Sachin-Sehwag combination is deadlier than any other opening combination of the present teams. There is a distinct improvement in Dhoni’s wicket-keeping. Zaheer and Munaf are difficult to score against. That means there are pluses to work with too. So if they pull together some lose ends we mentioned before, India should still be among the teams with a serious chance to win the WC this time. And if they actually pull it off, the sceptics will disappear into the woodwork, from where they came in the first place.