’’Spit on your hands Take the black flag And start slitting throats’’
-- Navjot Singh Sidhu.
After the 2 nil drubbing Indian team recieved in the V.B series against the Aussies, the agony of defeat is tormenting the ’’emotionaly frail ones’’ yes that will be us the INDIAN FANS.
Lot has been said , with the way our team played the last four matches especially the two finals, questions were already raised about the loss of spirit to fight the mighty Aussies.But I guess the thing which pains the most is the the way they played the game, if there was a rule of resigning in a game like chess I bet Ganguly would have done it after the 1st final straightly , atleast would have saved from so much disappointment.
So what went wrong ?
The media has been hyping on the the indian team is weary with a long two and half months trip and are homesick , right a good justification but do you think thats just it? Naa think again & faults are scattered here and there.
For first I personelly feel Indian team should follow a roational policy of players and
give rest to key players to avoid on future injuries to players and general weariness. Look at the Aussies ? how best can you explain the momentum they kept in the series with smart decisions of resting players, Hayden, pointing Gilchrist getting match offs, ensuring they had players fit to play up to their full potential.
India did gave some players rest but those were not well timed, example Dravid was overworked up and got his match off too late in the series, With the injuries hit to star batsmens Sachin and Sehwag I guess both of them got their share of rests but did it helped the team when they made their comebacks ? No and why ? cause it was tough for them to get their form backs after weeks of no match practice it costed the team performance dearly.
Sooner or later Ganguly and Wright got to give the policy of rotation seriously, with injuries to harbhajan singh and zaheer khan and many other players feeling the heat of too much matches played a good rotational policy can ensure player burn out plus it will give new players a chance to play for the indian team which is always a plus.
Secondly Indians got to learn how to play the shot pitched delivery. So Mr ganguly weakness for some sweet chin music is been exploited well by the Aussies in the tour, the pace of Bret lee has left even our prolific batsmen Sachin and Laxman wonder how you handle the pace of this lad ? I kind of think Sachin being more of a classical styled player should stick to his basics and not play nothing shots to the ones he did poking outside the off stump to Lee or try to straight drive the rising pitched up deliveries in Perth.
More to getting their choices of stroke play, the body language got to be positive and sadly it was no where near to what our boys were in the test series. And I hope the team would discuss this and do the needful for the coming series in pakistan cause the reception wont be any better to what they faced in Austraila, the pakis have a lethal line of quickies in name of akhtar who already is vouching for revenge on Sachin and the team.
Thirdly if you see the performances of our players the top 5 batsmen have not hit a single century in all the finals recently and that is what they got to work on. I think Sehwag is over rated and is playing in a wrong position. If you think by just having him opening the innings and applaud in his one half century in as many as 6 innings makes you feel he is best suited for opening slot you must be joking.We all know that Sehwag plays and will plays the way he plays, that is play his shots standing with no footwork.
I am not criticizing Sehwag here but I feel just having him open the innings so that to see him hit a century or a ru na ball 60 or 70 in as many as 6 to 9 innings is sorry to say waste of talent.
He is better suited to come in down the order somewhere 6 so that we have someone who can genuinely murder the bowlers in late 35 to 40 overs time when bowl is soft and doing nothing and the bowlers are tired. Compare it to a player Andrew Symond of AUstralia and observing what he has done for the team coming lower in the order and being true to his reputation of a butcher. Sehwag could be our own Symond and can wins us matches.
And that brings me to our opening batting, reply in Sachin and Ganguly, yes Ganguly. We all know the most successful opening combiNation for India in long time has been this pair. Just look at the past record, its imperitIve to stick with this combination of players who play their shots but do not give away their wickets recklessly. The only hinderence has been Ganguly recent out of form and that also due to his inability to handle the sweet chin music. I am sure he will come out of this limitation real soon as his past records have showned he is a survivor and a fighter and he wins matches when he hits big ones.
Fourthly, the problom of our 5th bowler needs to be worked on. Depending upon the wicket condtions and players available, there always been a debate on the ratio of spinners and fast bowlers to be included. Harbhajan singh and Anil Kumble are our big guns and are here to stay. Unfortunately Harbhajan is injured and wont be available for the Pakistan tour. India desperately needs a spinner cause there is bound to be turning wickets suiting the spinners in pakistan and there are doubts on Anil Kumble fitness and taking the burden of only class spinner to tour pakistan is asking too much from him.
What we are lacking is a genuine express fast bowler of likes of Lee, Akhtar and Bond. Then a genuine wicket keeper all rounder cause Dravid won’t be handling this task for long. Third is the need of all rounders and it seems still a long time we see one. Irfan pathan shows he can play some got shots down the order, if only he is groomed we might have a useful all rounder of likes of Roger Binny reputation. It was good to see Indian tail wag in the V.B series though, our top 5 batsman need to hit on big occassions, law of averages of players just ain’t going to win you matches, in the end you got to perform.
Still I am impressed with our team and its only matter of time we displace the world champion from their number 1 position and adopt to playing the game as a winner.
Cheers team India.