The Indian team unusually did very well in this world cup winning 4 out of the 5 matches and getting the opponent bowled in all the victories which is no mean feat for a team like India.The Indians went into the tournament as favorites boasting of a strong squad that had talented players."But did it really?" is the question to be asked after its ouster without reaching the semi finals for the third consecutive time??
The problem started right from the time when the team was selected for the series.It was bizarre because the team had four players who were coming back into the Indian team at least after a year.Harbhajan for one even after playing in the domestic circuit after for almost a year failed to make a single worthy headline. He was average on his stint in England and didn't do much to impress the fans and yet he was given a ticket to Srilanka on the basis god knows what!Yuvraj Singh won a great battle against Cancer.It was admirable and was a heavy struggle that he endured.But his selection was not justified at all because he was yet to play a single international game before the squad was announced. Balaji was pretty okay compared to the others mainly because he had a very good IPL and he was regularly picking wickets in the domestic leagues.The most absurd selection was that of Piyush Chawla's. He wasn't in the scene for more than a year after the 2011 world cup and was not preferred over the likes of Ojha and Rahul Sharma.He had a pretty ordinary IPL though he picked up 17 odd wickets.He went for runs and was singularly responsible for losing a match for the KXIP. His selection was a shock to the whole of the cricketing fraternity ahead of spinners like Ojha who had a very good series against the Kiwis.
Due to these selection blunders there were few good talents left out of the squad.The selectors should have selected an extra opener in place of Tiwary because Indian middle order is quite strong and since Viru was out of form and with Rahane in blazing form after the IPL,the selectors should have had a back up for the opening slot.Picking Rohit after a very ordinary series against Srilanka was a huge mistake.The selectors could have had a solid middle order player instead of him or a slog hitter who could have gotten some runs.But the selectors persisted with Sharma which was a big mistake.
The blunders didn't stop with selection alone.Those players who were an integral part of the Indian team like Sehwag,Gambhir,Dhoni and Zaheer failed to make any impression on the tour.Gambhir was a huge failure making only one score above 40 and that too came in a dead rubber match.Sehwag was totally out of sorts not making any note worthy contributions apart from the 29 odd runs he got in the match against Pakistan.His form has been so poor that he was made to "rest" for two consecutive matches.Yuvraj for more than once was the pick of the bowlers bagging 8 wickets in the tournament second to only Balaji who was a pure bowler.But his batting form was pretty mediocre and his highest score was 21 in the tournament which was very average for a player of his stature.
Dhoni had a very poor tournament both as a player and a captain.His batting was very poor and his trademark shots went missing everytime he came to bat.His strike rate was not of t20 level .More than his batting what affected the team was his small captaincy blunders.His decision to promote Irfan ahead of Kohli was a huge tactical blunder against the Aussies and Irfan failed to deliver the huge shots that he was known for.I'm able to agree with the dropping of Sehwag but India has been successful always by deploying a 7-4 combination.Dhoni did a huge mistake by trying out a new combination over a well tested one in a crunch match.It back fired very badly allowing the Aussies to tame India for 140.Another mistake was opening the bowling with Ashwin against the Aussies when we had two good swing bowlers who could have stopped the run flow and taken some crucial wickets.Irfan Pathan has always delivered with the new ball and it was a huge mistake not opening the bowling with him.
Harbhajan Singh shouldn't have been in the 15,not for his experience or previous performances.Frankly,he had a poor year and didn't merit selection in any 'quota'.So was Ashok Dinda.Though he is a very good bowler,he did not play the majority of IPL this year and was not in great form.Instead a bowler like Parvinder Awana could have been picked.It was not the amount of wickets that he picked in IPL that is making me say this but the manner in which he got those wickets.He got 17 odd wickets in 9-10 matches which was pretty incredible for an Indian fast bowler.He might have come good or he might have flopped but it was worth a try in my opinion because there aren't many good fast bowlers in our country and he could have been a surprise package like a Raza Hasan of Pakistan or an Akila Dananjaya of Srilanka ,two new faces who have done well for the team.
More over the tactic of sending Raina at 6 failed big time.Raina is one of those players,once he sets in ,it is difficult to stop him.But for him to get settled he needs at least 15 overs in hand with enough wickets behind him,for him to play some fearless cricket.But Dhoni always chose to bring him at no 6 when half the team were back in the pavilion and with almost 12 overs gone already.Raina did hit few runs in the tournament,had he batted a bit high things could have well been different.
Dhoni's defensive approach in the last game was very sad to see.He kept Ashwin back till the 9th over when India were in a difficult position to stop the Proteas from scoring the stipulated 121.He should have asked Ashwin to bowl from the 5th over itself because we were virtually defending a small target of 121 and to defend that you need to use all your trump cards front up because if the batsmen are going to play out 10 overs,they will eventually get the runs by the end of 20 and to stop them doing that the only possible way was to attack with all the 5 bowlers in tandem and putting pressure on the opponents.Sadly,our captain failed to grasp that which 'might' have cost us the tournament though not the match in the end.
The selection committee needs to look into these matters soon enough and in order for India to be successful in the shortest version,infusion of more young blood are the need of the hour.Seniors should content themselves playing the longer formats and leave the shortest one alone. The one man who has stood apart through all of this has been Virat Kohli and the selectors would do well to make him the skipper for this format.I do not say this because we lost the tournament but also because Virat is the most obvious candidate for captaincy in near future and if he's made the captain in this format,it will help him in learning the nuances of captain slowly without putting too much pressure and he will have time to settle down as the captain before he can take up the mantle in all the formats one day.
Though India didn't make it into the semis,they played some good cricket to win 4 of the 5 matches that they played and that augurs well for the country.India weren't really bad and a little bit of luck and change of decision here and there could have changed the way things went.So hard luck to Team India and I sincerely hope that they perform better in the upcoming series.
The problem started right from the time when the team was selected for the series.It was bizarre because the team had four players who were coming back into the Indian team at least after a year.Harbhajan for one even after playing in the domestic circuit after for almost a year failed to make a single worthy headline. He was average on his stint in England and didn't do much to impress the fans and yet he was given a ticket to Srilanka on the basis god knows what!Yuvraj Singh won a great battle against Cancer.It was admirable and was a heavy struggle that he endured.But his selection was not justified at all because he was yet to play a single international game before the squad was announced. Balaji was pretty okay compared to the others mainly because he had a very good IPL and he was regularly picking wickets in the domestic leagues.The most absurd selection was that of Piyush Chawla's. He wasn't in the scene for more than a year after the 2011 world cup and was not preferred over the likes of Ojha and Rahul Sharma.He had a pretty ordinary IPL though he picked up 17 odd wickets.He went for runs and was singularly responsible for losing a match for the KXIP. His selection was a shock to the whole of the cricketing fraternity ahead of spinners like Ojha who had a very good series against the Kiwis.
Due to these selection blunders there were few good talents left out of the squad.The selectors should have selected an extra opener in place of Tiwary because Indian middle order is quite strong and since Viru was out of form and with Rahane in blazing form after the IPL,the selectors should have had a back up for the opening slot.Picking Rohit after a very ordinary series against Srilanka was a huge mistake.The selectors could have had a solid middle order player instead of him or a slog hitter who could have gotten some runs.But the selectors persisted with Sharma which was a big mistake.
The blunders didn't stop with selection alone.Those players who were an integral part of the Indian team like Sehwag,Gambhir,Dhoni and Zaheer failed to make any impression on the tour.Gambhir was a huge failure making only one score above 40 and that too came in a dead rubber match.Sehwag was totally out of sorts not making any note worthy contributions apart from the 29 odd runs he got in the match against Pakistan.His form has been so poor that he was made to "rest" for two consecutive matches.Yuvraj for more than once was the pick of the bowlers bagging 8 wickets in the tournament second to only Balaji who was a pure bowler.But his batting form was pretty mediocre and his highest score was 21 in the tournament which was very average for a player of his stature.
Dhoni had a very poor tournament both as a player and a captain.His batting was very poor and his trademark shots went missing everytime he came to bat.His strike rate was not of t20 level .More than his batting what affected the team was his small captaincy blunders.His decision to promote Irfan ahead of Kohli was a huge tactical blunder against the Aussies and Irfan failed to deliver the huge shots that he was known for.I'm able to agree with the dropping of Sehwag but India has been successful always by deploying a 7-4 combination.Dhoni did a huge mistake by trying out a new combination over a well tested one in a crunch match.It back fired very badly allowing the Aussies to tame India for 140.Another mistake was opening the bowling with Ashwin against the Aussies when we had two good swing bowlers who could have stopped the run flow and taken some crucial wickets.Irfan Pathan has always delivered with the new ball and it was a huge mistake not opening the bowling with him.
Harbhajan Singh shouldn't have been in the 15,not for his experience or previous performances.Frankly,he had a poor year and didn't merit selection in any 'quota'.So was Ashok Dinda.Though he is a very good bowler,he did not play the majority of IPL this year and was not in great form.Instead a bowler like Parvinder Awana could have been picked.It was not the amount of wickets that he picked in IPL that is making me say this but the manner in which he got those wickets.He got 17 odd wickets in 9-10 matches which was pretty incredible for an Indian fast bowler.He might have come good or he might have flopped but it was worth a try in my opinion because there aren't many good fast bowlers in our country and he could have been a surprise package like a Raza Hasan of Pakistan or an Akila Dananjaya of Srilanka ,two new faces who have done well for the team.
More over the tactic of sending Raina at 6 failed big time.Raina is one of those players,once he sets in ,it is difficult to stop him.But for him to get settled he needs at least 15 overs in hand with enough wickets behind him,for him to play some fearless cricket.But Dhoni always chose to bring him at no 6 when half the team were back in the pavilion and with almost 12 overs gone already.Raina did hit few runs in the tournament,had he batted a bit high things could have well been different.
Dhoni's defensive approach in the last game was very sad to see.He kept Ashwin back till the 9th over when India were in a difficult position to stop the Proteas from scoring the stipulated 121.He should have asked Ashwin to bowl from the 5th over itself because we were virtually defending a small target of 121 and to defend that you need to use all your trump cards front up because if the batsmen are going to play out 10 overs,they will eventually get the runs by the end of 20 and to stop them doing that the only possible way was to attack with all the 5 bowlers in tandem and putting pressure on the opponents.Sadly,our captain failed to grasp that which 'might' have cost us the tournament though not the match in the end.
The selection committee needs to look into these matters soon enough and in order for India to be successful in the shortest version,infusion of more young blood are the need of the hour.Seniors should content themselves playing the longer formats and leave the shortest one alone. The one man who has stood apart through all of this has been Virat Kohli and the selectors would do well to make him the skipper for this format.I do not say this because we lost the tournament but also because Virat is the most obvious candidate for captaincy in near future and if he's made the captain in this format,it will help him in learning the nuances of captain slowly without putting too much pressure and he will have time to settle down as the captain before he can take up the mantle in all the formats one day.
Though India didn't make it into the semis,they played some good cricket to win 4 of the 5 matches that they played and that augurs well for the country.India weren't really bad and a little bit of luck and change of decision here and there could have changed the way things went.So hard luck to Team India and I sincerely hope that they perform better in the upcoming series.
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