SJS said:
Its not all hunky dory for India as may appear at first sight. There are issues that need to be tackled. A look at them.
1. 180 runs in 20 overs - recipe for disaster ?
The other day Sri Lanka reached the 30th over with just 120 runs on the board a miserly 4 runs an over. They then proceded to hit another 178 runs in 20 overs.. This was a sustained onslaught far more devastating than India with Tendulkar and Pathan, Sehwag and Dhoni or Tendulkar and Sehwag managed for such a sustained period of time. If Sri Lanka were to get off to a flier as they do have the wherewithal to do, where are our bowlers going to look ?
India seem to have no clue still as to how to bowl in the slog overs to rampaging batsmen. Every team seems to have one tail ender who eats Indian bowlers for breakfast. Sri Lanka seems to have Mahroof for this job.
2. When is the "obvious talent" of Yuvraj going to make an appearance ?
Yuvraj scored 50 in Sri Lanka in July 2004. Since then he has scored (against NON-MINNOWS)
8, 13, 4, 24, 9, 0, 78, 16, 15, 1, 35no, 13, 18, 12, 42, 1, 22, 20, 14 and 18.
WOW !!
What a talented player. An average of 19.1 and we use him and others to keep out (rightly sure) someone like Laxman because of his fielding ?? Is that it. If Laxman can be kept out of the side because he cant field brilliantly cant we say something about keeping out batsmen who cant bat except on paper ?
What dio you say, he score faster than Laxman ? Want to face the facts. Against these non- minnows, Yuvraj has a strike rate, over this period of 75 runs per 100 balls. Want to know Laxman's - 80 PLUS which incidentally is one of the best in the Indian team during the last two years barring Sehwag and maybe Sachin amongst the top order.
But this is not about Laxman. This is about the problems that india still needs to resolve.
Yes sir, number five in the order is surely a problem for the Indian team. We may need his runs one of these days you know !!
....to be continued.
SJS said:
3. The number three position is still unsettled.
Having two big knocks at this position isnt necessarily a solution because we will probably have a new occupant in ths pivotal position tomorrow. I hope it is a senior like Sehwag and we dont stretch our run of good luck too far by trying another experiment. We have achieved the desired results and we ned to get back to a settled batting order. I have a sneaking feeling they may not drop Yuvraj and send him at three. I am nost so sure thats such a great idea though. They might try Venugopal or even Raina. No clues whatsoever.
4.The bowling hasnt been great
Although Sri Lanka were once bowled out for 122, the Indian bowling has varied from competent to toothless. Harbhajan has bowled well but never looked like geting big wickets. Pathan(who has got the break throughs) and Agarkar have bowled plenty of wayward deliveries too. The only one who has bowled upto the level that was expected of him or better consistently is JP Yaadav and that too is a comentaty on the rather low expectations from him. Will Sri Lanka oblige with bad bating again, perhaps not.
5. Jayasuriya is due for a big one.
Inspite of his injury, which might be restricting his reach for the delivery wide of the off stump, Jayasuriya's confidence against India from his past record always makes him danger man number one. The law of averages is moving in his favour.
The big plus maybe, Sehwag isnt out of form and must surely be due for a big one *fingers crossed*
1) That was a poor effort from the Indian bowlers, but equally an amazing effort from the SL batsman. Sangakkara and Jayawardene were brilliant, and Maharoof was picking Pathan off like he was a dibbly dobbler medium pace bowler. I think, as Marc suggested, Pathan should be bowled out before the last 10 overs (at least last 5) until he improves his death bowling. He's lethal with the new ball, and cannon fodder with the old ball at the death. I like the idea of Yadav and Harbhajan bowling in tandem at the death, but once again they like bowling Harbhajan out early to restrict the runs.
2) It is seriously worrying me, because for some reason he demands a spot in the ODI team, when he quite clearly shouldn't. Your point about VVS is so true, but you know my stance on that as you and myself have made it quite clear last year (or earlier this year) in a specific topic. I think Laxman's ODI career is over unfortunately, but if that's the case someone else must still be putting pressure on Yuvraj. Gambhir, Raina and Rao can all take his spot. I still like Yuvraj and his fielding ability is brilliant but we can't afford to have any coasters who are in the team specifically for their ability to field.
3) I think Mohammad Kaif has shown he's the best man for the job at the moment. However he's obviously injured, but I think your worry for the batting order being unsettled is misguided. Chappell has quite clearly used the past few months since he took over as a way of seeing which formula works best. There was a great article somewhere, I can't remember where, regarding his experiments and the positives that have come from it. I think if India bat first in the 4th ODI, like you said, a senior person must come in that place. Rao or Raina aren't ready yet, and Yuvraj could be a disaster. That only leaves Dhoni, Yadav (not really senior) and Dravid. I wouldn't mind any of those.
With Kaif back, here is my idea batting order (Assuming Rao is dropped for Kaif)
Tendulkar
Sehwag
Kaif
Dravid
Yuvraj/Rao
Dhoni
Yadav
Pathan
Agarkar
Harbhajan
Kartik/Srees Santh etc.
Super Sub: Raina or any bowler that wants to be used.
Now if India are chasing big targets, Dhoni could be promoted to number 3 if the pitch is flat. I think a flexible, yet at the same time stable batting order would be most beneficial for India. Otherwise I like that team.
4) It hasn't been great no, but the fact that we're 3-0 up without bowling outstanding is something positive to take out of it. Hopefully Pathan and Agarkar can bowl even better with the new ball, and Harbhajan can keep what he's doing up. I think he's bowling fine. Wickets will come if he continues to bowl like that. The fact that he only gave away 30 runs despite SL making 298 was fantastic.
5) He's due, let's just hope that India have already sealed the series with their 4th win before Jayasuriya turns it on. Let's also hope Sehwag gets a ton, because he is batting better than he has for a while in ODIs, but still yet to get more than 30-40 runs.
