Here's a review of the last match in one line- Bring back Yusuf Pathan!
The series seems to be a very close one, but India have some areas of genuine weakness. To begin, there's virtually no chance of them chasing a massive total as this 350, and it's only a matter of good luck that they amassed 347 just within 50 overs. You can't blame the batsmen for throwing their wickets away; the pressure of chasing a total as high as this always tells on the fielding side. The bowlers are guilty of giving it away, least of all Munaf Patel and Ravi Jadeja, both inferior replacements for missing (or discarded) players. This isn't about a few batsmen throwing their wickets away when they were set. This is about batsmen who looked completely out of their depth in a high-scoring encounter. This is about bowlers who struggle to survive on a flat deck. This isn't about squandered opportunities like in Mohali, but about obvious weaknesses and inadequacies. They can't afford to keep giving away totals so big, as it's almost impossible.
The position of the all-rounder is a big one- Shane Watson is lightyears ahead of both Yuvraj and Ravi Jadeja. Watto revels in bowling duties and gets wickets that change a match, and has done it twice in a row. On the other hand, Yuvraj Singh's bowling has been atrocious, and is reflected in his average of 79. Worse still, his batting average is a paltry 30, and when your team is trailing this series, it's inadequate. When it's got one of your top three batsmen struggling, you know something is seriously wrong with it. It's a double-blow here, as you not only have a mediocre all-rounder, but you also lose one of your prime batsmen. As for Jadeja, the flat-deck encounter found him wanting with bat and ball. They'd get more out of frontline bowlers Harbhajan and Praveen, or the benched Mishra or recovering Zaheer, collectively, than out of him alone.
The biggest problem, however, is that of player management. It has been completely shoddy and, may I say, destructive. They've lost a lot of talented players, not just due to injury, but also declining form, but the replacements have been inadequate. While we talk so much of the Aussies winning even with a depleted side, they use their limited resources a lot better- both players' skill and team management win the games for them. Planning at the camp, preparatory drills and a clear role for each player makes a difference. The Indians, axing player after player, are depleting their own resources with bad management and the results show. Every defeat weakens the team further. You can make a proper playing XI out of the players that have been lost, but a lot of the current replacements are not good enough. Each time the team fails, some players are blamed and lose their places, but the management seems to get away with their failures, time and again.
Questions may be raised about whether Hyderabad should get any more international matches. The Indians have a weakness on flat decks, yet Hyderabad repeatedly offer a flat deck for a game. This has often happened when a State association serves up a bad pitch or one where the Indians are found wanting, like Nagpur in 2004. All teams enjoy a lot of home advantage, except possibly Sri Lanka with their roulette ODIs in their grounds, where the toss decides the game. India don't seem too strong at home in comparison. Although we don't want a pitch like the one in Delhi these days or that in Mumbai five years ago, when a venue offers a pitch so skewed against the home team, so often, something is wrong here.
It's also a surprise that Guwahati gets a match in this series. Their management of international matches in the past has been quite bad, and the city these days isn't safe either.
