Blackboard CWC 2015: Too many issues for India before World

[[JUGRAJ SINGH]]

So it’s been over two months and 9 international matches since the Men In Blue won a game of cricket.

Sometimes they came close, sometimes agonisingly close, sometimes threw it away, sometimes succumbed to pressure and sometimes never made a human chance out of it.

No, before you assume that I’m here to throw my furnitures at the Indian cricket team regarding their recent heroics abroad, as much as I’m tempted but that’s not the case. They escape today, marginally so.

My agenda today is a little far sighted, approximately 382 days away. It is the cricket World Cup 2015, to be hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and to be defended by, erm, us.

I’m writing this specifically to emphasize that “erm” there. And of course, I have enough details to scare you guys a bit more if the boys haven’t done enough already.

The past and the present maths: source of the scare

What happens if you grab your goldfish out of the aquarium and put it on the desk for a minute? It starts trembling, crawling and waving its fins desperately in need of the oxygen it’s used to.

That goldfish is the Indian team outside the subcontinent, on the bouncy green decks, facing an average to a good bowling line-up, exposing the familiar woes; out of sorts, moving in no direction.

No kidding, the current set is brave, brave enough to overcome these, but then my friend, you ought to say that the results are yet to show up. The overseas record since the last World Cup in 2011 has been well, shameful. Yes, big enough word but 4-0 (England), 4-0 (Australia), not making the finals of the CB Series, 2-0 (South Africa), 1-0 (South Africa) and now 3-0 (New Zealand), the list just keeps getting longer and longer and painfully longer.

And you know what’s worse? The schedule coming right up involving tours of England and Australia just threatens to add a bit more to the sorrow.

So brace yourselves, I intend to break down the issues neat and clean. If at all, we are to retain our glory, a serious post mortem is in order.

Opening woes: once resurrected, twice fatal

We thought we had this in the bag, damn it.

But thanks for making our heaven drop right back to Earth and now inching towards hell, dearest Rohit and Dhawan. They batted like a dream, not putting a wrong foot forward; it was unreal to think that we found Viru and Gauti 2.0 so soon.

Oh yes, too soon.

Dhawan averaged 24.00 in the 3 ODIs vs South Africa and 6.00 in the 3 ODIs vs New Zealand till he was dropped on the fourth one to make way for Ambati Rayudu.

Not to dwell on the results, but it was his manner of dismissals that would make you frown. Cross seam deliveries at a genuinely quick 140+ pace, short of good length or banged in short. He pulled, it went to the keeper. He pulled, he mistimed it. He pulled, straight to the man on the boundary. Personally a fan of his, I was gutted. He was last person I wanted to put in the Raina-Yuvi category.

Rohit on the other hand, threw it away mostly like only Rohit Sharma can do; fired up by verbal duels or a string of fishing outside off.

So what do you do? Bring back Gambhir and Sehwag? Stick with these two? Make Virat open? Make Rahane open? Make it a combination of experience and youth? Drop Rohit back to the middle order and let Dhawan stay? More options the merrier? Not.

Bringing back Gambhir doesn’t seem like a bad idea after all. He has the experience, he has the anchor as long as he doesn’t wish to poke. Him and Dhawan will do. The latter has some serious sorting out to do though.

Or Che Pujara. He provides the solidity and consistency a Kane Williamson does for New Zealand. I’m not with Virat being made to open, although there is not much difference, the No.3 position has some blood-flesh relationship with him. Why not let the man have it?

Over dependence on the men in charge

Just because they don’t disappoint you 99.99% of the times, if you’re banking on Captain and Vice-captain to win you every match, day in, day out, I’m sorry, that’s called burdening.

There are people who would blame it on Virat and Dhoni, saying that they got out at the wrong time. Maybe they did. But for heaven’s sake, what are the nine other men doing? Is it just their responsibility to take you over the line all the time? No, it isn’t. Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are your trump cards, key players, they’ll set it up, they’ll finish it off but you ought to have another guy or two stepping up, supporting them.

Swing ‘em, eh?

I remember the cricket pundits nodding in approval when four successive balls went past Mohammad Hafeez’s bat in Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s debut match. It was fun to see him playing the oh-so-close oh-so-close game with the top orders of the oppositions. He didn’t have the pace but the accuracy was admirable.

He has been looking a bit ordinary for some time now. Be it Mohammed Shami bowling in tandem or whatever, too many down the leg, too many loose balls and barely any swing can be seen from Bhuvi. On the other hand, Shami, having the pace, the ability to take wickets, does save the day more often or not but he’s quite expensive as your leading bowler.

All you can hope for is that these two too don’t end up in the eventually swingless, ineffective list of the Kumars of Indian cricket. Varun Aaron, fresh off a prolonged injury break, I’d give him some time before I judge him. But he looks raw, pacey, lack of direction and variations so far. So is Umesh Yadav where Ishwar Pandey and Rishi Dhawan are yet to be given chances to prove themselves. This 3rd option will cause some headache and if fit, Irfan Pathan is my man.

Oh, I forgot Ishant. Keeping him on the bench looks like good karma, we should stick to it for some time. (i.e. forever)

Part time options, the lack of quality

The fifth bowler. It’s like you have to choose between candies, sugar and honey. Yuvraj Singh, and to an extent Suresh Raina were the best we had. Had.

When you see Virat Kohli bowl those nasty leg cutters, full tosses and no balls off the wrong foot with that ridiculous to the power ridiculous action of his, you know you don’t have many choices.

Seeing Ambati Rayudu bowl yesterday, it felt like even Virat would’ve been better. Rohit being the other option and all three being good enough to give away 20 an over, you have to pity Dhoni.

So what do you do? Keep your fingers crossed that Binny bowls as hardcore as he looks. For now.

Captaincy: Y U no attack?

A captain is as good as his team. Yes, most certainly. Although a certain Tiger Pataudi would’ve disagreed with the cliche. To him “A bad captain can make a great team look ordinary.”

This is certainly not a great team but MS Dhoni the captain isn’t great either. Why does your part timer bowl 3 overs at 7.25 and the all-rounder you picked in the expense of an One Day veteran bowls just one when you are defending 278?

When the best Test line-up in the world is as cornered as it could be, why do you start the final session with your 5th bowler? Just because you lost two matches chasing, why choose to bat first when your bowlers are unable to pick wickets at the right time?

Oh the questions are endless. To be honest, we all know that MS Dhoni does pull out a rabbit from his hat but overseas, if you cancel out the Champions Trophy, I see the hat but where is the rabbit? You have to question his field sets, his decision to “back” non-firing players for longer than any captain should, his approach to win a match, his favoured team combinations with the luxury of two spinners on foreign tracks and of course, his prized tactics.

I think Gideon Haigh, the master of words has put it right. “Dhoni isn’t a tactical commander, rather a supervisor. He leads by ineffectual experience.”
(Reference: Here)

Mind you, this is about Dhoni the skipper & has nothing to do with Dhoni the batter.

There is a level till which one can tolerate, hoping for magic, luck and even fairy tales.

But that level has been crossed by far, don’t you think? As a friend said, he has to be a very lucky person to be asked to lead the team with the dubious set of overseas records he carries with his ever so cool, ever so calm, ever so smiling persona.

He is the luckiest, no doubt. I cannot imagine another captain from any other country, continuing or being asked to continue with half the burden from Dhoni’s records. But then, Indian cricket doesn’t work that way.

Maybe we need to believe in some supernatural overhaul that takes away all the cool & calm and transforms Dhoni the defensive to Dhoni the aggressive overnight.

Or you could try out a Virat Kohli. Please, enough of that he’s yet to mature shit. There was a smooth transition possible a half century ago with Tiger taking the responsibility from Nari contractor and if we have to believe the history books, there wasn’t any outrage seeking maturity from a 21-year-old.

There is a famous footballing philosophy saying, “You are old enough if you are good enough” He is good enough and with that he should be allowed to take the reigns from a captain who is struggling to turn the tides overseas. Why?

I’d rather lose with the youth who learns from his mistakes.

Death bowling : well…
“When it comes to the bowling department, we are still in the same phase wherein we are still looking at who our permanent bowlers are. We know the spinners and they look good and we know they are the ones who will carry on until the World Cup provided there are no injuries.

Fast bowling, we are still not sure who our choices are and what individuals we are looking forward to. Back at home we talk about pace and bounce. We get bowlers who bowl quick but they end up giving more runs without even bowling at the slog. So we have to find a fair balance.”
That was MS Dhoni in his press conference yesterday. There, you have your answers. We don’t have the crop of fast bowlers to bowl you out anywhere, forget the death. Bowling is our main worry, as always, heading into an international tournament but giving away 80-100 runs in the last ten like they are now, is an alarming practice to be beheaded as soon as possible.

Easier said than done and then batting has always been our aura. But it is time when batting marvels are unable to bail you out, there is just too much to do. It is time when our bowling is disappointing and disgracing our batting.

So what do you do? There is not one pleasing answer, unfortunately. You groom Shami, who looks the best bait so far, you hope Jadeja-Ashwin keep up the good work since the 2nd ODI and then you have a blank to fill in the form of your 3rd go to man.

Bhuvaneshwar is sincerely, not cut out for death.

There are so many more problems, so many more issues to address, so many weaknesses, so many gaps.

There is slip fielding that make you pray that may Rahul Dravid gets out of the commentary box and take the field. There is the familiar issue of tackling short balls. There is overall deep fielding, in the form of Ashwin, Aron who needs to improve by far. There is Suresh Raina, whom you have to decide on. There is the lack of a genuine all-rounder, you have to stress about. There is the toss factor, the pressure, the expectations and well, I will just stop and let you enjoy the depression.

It is easy to say, based on the present that Cricket World 2015 looks like a dream with thousand stairs leading up to it. We have to climb and climb hard, solving the issues, giving the answers and showing the results. Dare I say, it looks unlikely with every passing match we lose and of course, the credit is mine for reverse jinxing if they make the finals after all.

But we can’t just give up, can we? We are world champions. We bleed blue. We will fight.

Here’s crossing my fingers & hoping for the best.

[I think I'll check for white hairs now that I'm done with the piece. You should too.]