one need not strike the short ball but leave it in test cricket but has to score from it in t20 and one day international. the other major teams have been playing more normal test cricket.
Rohit & RP played very well under Gilchrist's captaincy. Even Kumble was a nice captain respecting all the players. Jadeja, Yusuf played well for Rajasthan..
Think about Raina, he was never allowed to settle in no 3 position by Dhoni.He discourage players in presentations after match when playing for CSK. I remember he did not even see Badrinath getting MOM in one match. Very egoistic behaviour with Sehwag. In the last match, did the same with Yuvi. Its high time for Dhoni to become humble and take right decisions.
Re: captaincy
by Asim Mehtani on Jun 16, 2009 12:21 PM
You are in wrong foot. Dhoni was the person only who changed the Indian team completely by involving more youngsters, and new players. Criticism is good, but criticsm for the sake of criticism is not healthy. The whole Indian team was running out of form except Yuvraj. Even the two matches against Bangladesh, and Ireland the victory was not convincing. Every team passes in a bad phase. Look how Australia was outplayed.
Indian team young guns played a wonderful innings in IPL t20 with lot of confidence and enthusiasm, in IPL1 Yusuf patham turned the title to Royal Raj's. Rohit played an 21 in 1 over to promote DC to semi's. Raina only indian batsmen in IPL2 scored more than 400 , RP leading wicket taker.
When it comes to national duty where did this enthusiasm and confidence gone.
Is IPL is the platform for other countries to perform.
Excellent analysis by Mr. Prem Panicker-the shortcomings have been well pointed out. There is no denying that nothing went right with India in the last two matches and the writing was on the wall(about their imminent exit). Further, getting two warm up matches (albeit , one against Pakistan) and the two regular matches against the not so regular teams put paid to their exposure to stronger sides.
The two most apparent weaknesses are: (a) the balls aimed at the body and the reluctance of two or three players at the top of order not being able to play them correctly and (b)the overall form of Ishant Sharma and , to an extent, even, Zaheer Khan-he has not been among the wickets and has leaked runs at will!!
However, with gary Kirsten at the helm of coaching, ity is hoped that the flaws exposed under foreign conditions are ironed out and the team does better in the one dayer versus West Indies in their next bout.
1) Playing Ishant Sharma instead of Praveen Kumar or Irfan Pathan. 2) Not allowing Zaheer and R.P Singh to bowl full 4 overs and instead Ishant given full overs to bowl. 3) Yuvi should have been promoted up the order instead of Ravindra inexperienced or a message should have been sent not waste balls or no discussion between Gautam Gambir & Jadeja how to tacle or score runs. 4) Dhoni should have taken responsiblity to open the innings and pushing Rohit to his earlier position or Yusuf should have been made to open the Innings. 5) Very rediculous and casual feilding by Indian players( not serious at all) 6) Dhoni should have played by loosing up his stance to score at a higher rate than he played (as like hit or get out) 7) Defensive captaincy rather than tactful captaincy or aggresive captaincy.
The writer has omitted to mention horrible bowling by the usually effective Zaheer.Ishant bowled better in the second spell. Tall batsman can tackle bouncers better.Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan should bat earlier.
ONE CHANGE IN WRITER'S TEAM TO BE MADE,INSTEAD OF OJHA ,JADEJA SHOULD BE PLAYING.HE IS A GOOD ALROUNDER.GIVE HIM GOOD SUUPORT,HE CAN HIT ALL BOWLERS OUT OF PARK.
The writer put his thoughts very well and it is a good article.One strong decision on which India should take a decision is who is their No. 1 spinner in ODI & T20. The answer is P.Ojha. Do not compromise with Bhajji more. It will only lead to more losses though he will be first choice in test cricket.
