Cricket Tournaments

‘And a tremendous win by West Indies over India.’ We used to hear about this news quite frequently during the 1980s and 90s. Defeating West Indies in their own den is even more difficult, with their fast bowlers who were harrowing the batsmen for almost 2 decades. But their performances have just been dropping since then.

Once hailed as the dominant team, nowadays aren’t even close to being one. India taking their apparent ‘A’ team, says it all. India’s series against West Indies was basically a chance for youngsters to prove themselves and a chance for India to test their bench-strength. But with West Indies struggling big time and hardly able to get their combinations right, India had a good chance to set it straight up for them. After winning 3 matches convincingly, India was already out there to prove what they have in store for the world. But the winning combination was changed in order to give everyone an equal chance, but the chance to whitewash West Indies was lost and over. Losing the last 2 ODIs, the sight wasn’t great.

HIGHS

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Amit Mishra have been the highs of this series. Rohit Sharma pioneered Indian innings and helped India India win in a couple of matches. Averaging 128 and scoring around 257 runs in the 5 matches he played, he obviously has acknowledged many greats who have predicted him to be a future great for India. Kohli, another person who has been scoring consistently for India has had a pretty good series, but is capable of much more. Scoring 199 runs in 5 matches, he couldn’t score at all in a couple of matches as he lost out on capitalizing in the games. Parthiv Patel also gave us some solid starts in the games, and is trying to capitalize into the 2nc choice wicket-keeper place in the squad.

Among the bowlers, Amit Mishra was tremendous. Aggressive, he has always been looking for wickets. Picking up 11 wickets in the series with an exceptional economy rate of just 4, he has an awesome future to look at. Along with Harbhajan Singh, a defensive off-spinner, this leg-spinner can have a phenomenal partnership in the spin-bowling department. Munaf Patel has carried his form since the World Cup and looked good here again, picking up 8 wickets in the 3 matches he played.

LOWS

Suresh Raina was an utter disappointment. Playing rash shots, he was certainly over-burdened by the captaincy.  Making him a captain was a bad decision anyway, since he doesn’t have much experience anyways. Virat Kohli, who had the experience and certainly a good captain, could have been given the opportunity. Even Harbhajan Singh, a senior player could have had the chance to be what he ever wanted to be. Scoring just 82 runs, he certainly didn’t play to his capabilities. Even Shikhar Dhawan, lost out on a golden chance to prove his worth scoring as low as 69 runs, which included a fifty. Inconsistent performances are going to hurt. Manoj Tiwary, though didn’t get enough opportunities at the moment, but he certainly couldn’t get in through how many ever opportunities he was given.

Harbhajan Singh, being the senior-most player in the squad with his experience should have inspired the youngsters. Instead he himself wasn’t playing to his capabilities. Picking up 4 wickets in the 3 matches he played, his economy rate was good, and shows his defensiveness and the tendency to not look for the wickets. Even, Praveen Kumar was in the same league though his economy rate wasn’t as good as Bhajji’s. Even Ashwin couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities given to him. Actually he quite failed picking up just a wicket in the 2 matches he played.

WORSE

The biggest disappointment of the tour being, Subramanium Badrinath. Hailed as a great player, ignored by selectors all the time scored just 40 runs in the 4 matches he played.  Scoring well in the IPL, he lost the opportunity he was waiting for. Then why perform in the league games, if you don’t want to perform at the big stage? Nerves! Playing at the big stage is always a challenge and he needs to cope up with it. Dhoni brings out the best in him, and possibly his run tally could have been a lot better if he would have been around. Yusuf Pathan also couldn’t live up to his reputation of being a pinch-hitter and a clean striker of the ball. Poor selection of shots, he had a good opportunity to retain his place in the last ODI. When India actually needed him in the last ODI where wickets were consistently falling, he got a good start but fell for 30. Again losing out big time.

Ishant Sharma, who had a great opportunity to regain his lost glory again disappointed. Hailed as the one to put off fire in India’s fast bowling department when he actually made Ricky Ponting hop around in his crease he certainly has lost all the confidence in himself. He has to work on himself, indeed very hard.

It was a dream, but the dream just remained a dream. A whitewash and what would have been the frolic in the country. History would have been made, and how!  A golden opportunity, lost big time for the players as well as for the history to be made. Hopefully, they will create more opportunities for themselves in the near future.

India has had it all when it’s come to the number of pacers in their ranks but, none of them with the exception of Zaheer khan has been able to perform consistently and more importantly economically at the international level. In the last ten years we have seen these cricketers sweat it out without much success:

• Praveen Kumar
• Ishant Sharma
• Munaf Patel
• Ashish Nehra
• S Shreesanth
• Irfan pathan
• L balaji
• Sudeep Tyagi
• Ashoke Dinda
• RP Singh
• Ajit Agarkar
• VRV Singh

All these bowlers be it after injury or after a certain lay off seem to have either lost their pace or swing or their length. Something has definitely gone wrong. India has used all these bowlers in the last 5 years. None of them are a permanent fixture in the Indian team currently. To add to this Abhimanyu Mithun (taking nothing away from the youngster) has been added to the squad for the South African series. Starting right from the beginning

Praveen Kumar: This young man has a good set of skills in his kit bag. However, the only thing missing is the pace. He is still a handful and is perhaps the only bowler out of the above who can swing the new ball both ways. As far he is concerned more consistent performances in the domestic level along with pitching the ball up to the batsman could help him.

Ishant Sharma: This young lanky pacer burst on to the scenes in Australia troubling the likes of Ricky ponting and Matthew Hayden. However, after that golden year of his he seems to have lost out on all the pace he had. The nip back in to the batsman seems to be missing and the rhythm is just gone so much so that he was dropped for most part of the 2009 season in the Indian sub-continent. He needs to get his focus right and that will only happen if the training gets more intense.

Munaf Patel: Perhaps India’s most steady bowler. But, the thing that’s hitting him the most amongst competition is his inability with the willow in hand along with his miserable fielding performances. I still believe that Munaf would have been a regular in the Indian XI had his fielding been of decent standards. Munaf needs to come up with a couple of striking performances so that he is back in the reckoning.

Ashish Nehra: He played his last ODI in about 4 years in September 2005 against arch rivals Pakistan. After that he has suffered several ankle injuries hits and misses. He finally with his good performance with the Delhi daredevils in the IPL West Indies in the absence of Zaheer khan and assumed the role of the strike bowler pretty well. He provided good performances until the back end of the year where his form started to drop and he started to leak runs

S Shreesanth: India’s antic boy—S shreesanth has shown a lot of promise but delivered very little. Barring his performance in South Africa in 2006 shreesanth hasn’t made one series his own. The pacer needs to calm his antics down a little and pay more attention on getting his out swingers going at decent pace.

Irfan Pathan: India’s lost wonder boy. No one knows where he is—after one of the best debuts he could ask for irfan pathan has found himself wanting and is clueless what to do next. After showing himself as India’s next big thing Irfan pathan’s actual performance on the field has left a lot to be desired. The sad thing for irfan is that the selectors have lost hope in him and was seen missing from India’s top 30 squad for the champions trophy. Pathan seriously needs to get his act together and come up with a strong performance in this year’s IPL and show not just the selectors but the entire nation that he is still world class.

L Balaji: Balaji has seen misfortune like no other. After a wonderful start to his career down under that took shape in Pakistan in 2004-2005 balaji looked one for the future. However, after his wonderful tour of Pakistan he was hit by an injury spade which has haunted him ever since then. He did manage to make a comeback which perhaps was his last go and that failure certainly does not hold good for him. His future unfortunately looks a grim one.

RP Singh: RP Singh very similar to Irfan Pathan lost his swing and pace after a decent start to his career. However, the good thing for RP has been his performances in the IPL which has helped him gain a spot not once but twice although he seems to throw it away after that. Another good IPL performance should hold him in good stead and RP must make sure he grabs the next Indian chance he gets which might not be too far considering his colleagues bowling form.

Ajit Agarkar: Once, India’s young and only bowling prospect. Agarkar delivered for a lot of years. He has always been a wicket taker but his backdrop has been his leakage of runs which in this era will not do. Agarkar was a pretty handy bat down the order too with a top score of 95. The selectors seem to have look past Agarkar and its up to Agarkar who has to come up with some strong performances in order to be back in the reckoning.

Sudeep Tyagi, Ashoke Dinda and VRV Singh: the three of them put together have only played a handful of matches. Out of the three Sudeep Tyagi looks the most likely for an Indian future and rightly so. The young pacer very similar to Ishant Sharma has to make sure that the pressure and success of international cricket doesn’t get to him. As far as the other two are concerned they need to continue the good work and give good performances in both the IPL and the ranji trophy.

India have their batting sorted; but the bowling continues to be a big worry. Zaheer khan seems to be the only one to be missing in the list due to his continual strong performances in spite of all his injuries. The long and short of it is that: You need 20 wickets to win test matches on a continuous basis. In comparison to top ranked teams Australia seem to have a super pace battery with Johnson , Lee, Clark, Bracken, Siddle, Hilfenhaus, Bollinger, McKay, Tait and now Harris all rearing to go and firing on all cylinders when fit.

As experts say gyms and training is all worthwhile but the only thing that helps bowlers is spending hours and hours at the nets doing nothing but BOWLING!!!

In the second part, the teams that will be in the spotlight are the champions of the inaugural IPL, Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings

1) Rajasthan Royals
Rajasthan created history by winning in the 1st season, after defeating Chennai in a thrilling final. However, the second time around, Shane Warne’s magic didn’t work as the Royals finished at a lowly 6th spot.

This time, they are determined enough for another IPL trophy with the addition of Australian players such as Damien Martyn and Adam Voges, who were bought for a base price of $100000. The team strategy would be easier for Shane Warne to follow since communication would become easier. Not many changes in the Royals squad is also good because the players are used to playing with each other.

Warne’s all-round role as a determined captain and a champion leg-spin bowler would be crucial for the team’s success. Along with Graeme Smith, who is by far the trump player of the team. Youngsters such as Ravindra Jadeja, Munaf Patel, Naman Ojha, Amit Singh and Swapnil Asnodkar make Royals a team to contend with.

However, the Royals need to deal with the fact that only England’s Dimitri Mascerenhas is a match-winning all-rounder. They will miss Shane Watson dearly like the last season. However, they are a decent fielding side, so this should help do really well.

2) Kings XI Punjab
Punjab reached the semi-finals of the 1st season unexpectedly. And last year, they finished 5th, missing out the semi-finals yet again by a narrow margin. Despite good performances, it is quite mind-boggling that Yuvraj Singh was replaced by Kumar Sangakkara as skipper.

They are a good unit with the likes of Mahela Jayawardene, Yuvraj Singh as a player, Shaun Marsh, Ramesh Powar as well as youngsters such as Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Yusuf Abdulla, Piyush Chawla, Sunny Sohal and the impressive left-handed batsman Karan Goel. The presence of Indian youth makes them a crowd favourite.

Who knows Sangakkara’s captaincy could be worth the risk just as he is inspirational for Sri Lanka. Tom Moody as coach would ensure that there is a good working relationship between Moody and Sangakkara. However, this move shouldn’t backfire like Kolkata’s where Brendon McCullum was made captain in the place of Sourav Ganguly. This will ensure Punjab an outright chance for victory.

3) Chennai Super Kings
Chennai are a side that has been the most consistent in the first two seasons. Could it get any better when it is known that they were the finalists in the first season and 4th in the 2nd season, losing to eventual runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore in the semi-final in Durban in South Africa.

It can get better and more exciting cricket is expected from Chennai. With Mahendra Singh Dhoni as captain and wicketkeeper, Chennai has got the right balance. Their team is flexible enough to perform with newly acquired all-rounders such as South Africa’s Justin Kemp and Sri Lanka’s latest sensation Thissira Perera.

Who can count out Jacob Oram and Albie Morkel? Despite Andrew Flintoff’s and Michael Hussey’s absence, Chennai has the star power to perform consistently. The likes of Matthew Hayden who was the top-scorer of the IPL last season, Suresh Raina who played the perfect second fiddle to Hayden with the bat at the No.3 position and sometimes won matches due to his exceptional fielding, S Badrinath who is undoubtedly the next big thing of Indian cricket alongside Parthiv Patel who has won Dhoni’s faith thanks to his contributions at the top of the order as well as improved wicketkeeping, allowing Dhoni to focus on his captaincy.

The bowling too is strong and is led by Muttiah Muralitharan. Laxmipathy Balaji is an experienced bowler. Makhaya Ntini adds to the firepower of the bowling attack. Not to forget that Chennai has a number of bowling all-rounders which gives Dhoni various options in forming his bowling strategy.

Youngsters such as Srikkanth Aniruddha, Manpreet Gony, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi and Shadab Jakati only enlighten Chennai’s position to win the IPL this time. Undoubtedly, Chennai is an overwhelming favourite to not just win the IPL, but also qualify for the Champions League 2010, which they missed out narrowly last season thanks to controversies created by the IPL.