Why, Karthik?

As a Tendulkar fan I can’t help but ask, did you have to hit that six, Karthik?!

Baffling batting order

As I write this at the half way mark of the ODI between India and Sri Lanka at Rajkot, India have posted their highest score in one day cricket – 414/7, giving themselves more than an excellent chance to go up 1-0 in the series.

The batting display was superlative. Sehwag continued his excellent form and smashed 146 off 102 balls, aided brilliantly by Tendulkar (69 off 63) and Dhoni (72 off 53). With 43 hits to the fence and 12 over it, there were plenty of excellent strokes. Being a Tendulkar fan, I immensely enjoyed the two upper cuts he played in 15th over against Fernando’s bouncers – first, initially ducking, before deciding at the last moment to cut to third man and the next, even better, swaying slightly and delicately cutting it fine, just wide of the keeper.

Despite the batting heroics, I found Dhoni’s shuffling of the batting order, baffling. Instead of using his experience to shore up the inexperienced lower middle order (especially, with Yuvraj out to injury), from his usual position at five, I couldn’t understand why he had to promote himself to three. This is even more baffling considering that he came up at the expense of Gambhir, who arguably is the best top order batsman currently in the team. Gambhir, pushed down to five,  looked totally out of sorts in the lower order.

Next, Harbhajan was promoted ahead of Kohli and Jadeja. If the Dhoni – Gambhir swap was baffling, this was outright illogical! I mean, with more than 300 on the board and more than 10 overs still left to be bowled, what was the need to send a bowler to throw his bat around, ahead of a specialist batsman and a batting all-rounder? And what kind of message does that send to the youngsters – that their captain thinks a bowler with no batting technique, can bat better than them on one of the flattest of the batting pitches you would ever see? In the end, after Harbhajan’s ugly swipes failed, both Kohli (27 off 19) and Jadeja (30 off 17) played smart cameos proving Harbhajan’s promotion wrong.

India vs Sri Lanka - Preview

After the loss in the Asia Cup finals, the Indian ODI Team faces off Sri Lanka once again in a five match series starting tomorrow. As in the Test series, the focus will be on how well the Indian middle order handle Mendis and Murali, especially with the absence of Tendulkar.

While the core of the team remains unchanged from the one that played the Asia Cup, there are still six changes in the squad -

Zaheer and Harbhajan back for Sreesanth and Chawla - With Ojha preferred over Chawla based on his performances in the Asia Cup and Sreesanth asked to prove his match fitness, an easy decision of seniors coming back to replace the juniors in the team.

Virat Kohli and Badrinath come in for Uthappa and Ishant Sharma - Uthappa was expected to make way for Sachin, but with Sachin out to injury, Badrinath gets a chance. Ishant gets a rest, but why did Kohli get his spot?

Parthiv Patel for Yusuf Pathan - With Dhoni complaining about non-stop cricket and even skipping the Test series, the selectors have recognized the need for a backup keeper in the team. Parthiv gets the nod over Karthik, though nothing really differentiates the two - both performed poorly in the Test series. Nevertheless, this should give Parthiv some confidence going forward. Yusuf Pathan is unlucky to miss out. He didn't do much wrong in the Asia Cup and if someone had to make way for the backup keeper, it should have been his brother Irfan. While Irfan is the better bowler in helpful conditions, he looks distinctly off-color otherwise and considering the slow pitches in Sri Lanka, Yusuf would have been the better choice.

Munaf for Gony - As I recall, Munaf was dropped for the Kitply and Asia Cup tournaments after a lackluster performance in the CB series wherein questions about his fitness and commitment were questioned. With Gony not grabbing his couple of chances of well enough, Munaf is back. This can mean only one thing - the selectors dropped Munaf more as a warning to get his act together and had every intention of bringing him back. Munaf could now either come back strong or get complacent realizing that there is no better to replace him. Either way, Gony must feel used!

Murali Karthik - He bowled well against Australia and Pakistan last year, but unfortunately got injured. Though he has recovered now, he finds his place in the queue behind Harbhajan taken by two spinners in Ojha and Chawla. Very unlucky for him and am not sure if the selectors even remotely considered his name!

Despite the threat of Mendis and Murali, I still believe our strength is batting and that we should stick to a five bowler strategy. Here is my playing XI for the ODI series -

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Gautam Gambhir
3. Suresh Raina
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. MS Dhoni
6. Rohit Sharma
7. Irfan Pathan
8. Harbhajan Singh
9. Praveen Kumar
10. P Ojha
11. Zaheer Khan

Fabulous Four - Beginning of the End

With Sri Lanka wrapping up an easy win, a very disappointing series for the Fabulous Four of Indian Cricket - Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly comes to an end.

One way to look at their failure is to consider this as an aberration in their wonderful career and a watershed moment  in history when a talented spinner in Ajantha Mendis made a remarkable debut. After all, I don't think there has been any other series where all four collectively failed and based on his performance so far, Mendis (especially in tandem with Murali) does look like a quality spinner to watch out for. Plus, if these four with all their natural talent and vast experience couldn't perform, who else could have? Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma? I don't think so. Olympics and the upcoming ODI series should provide enough distraction to forget this failure and move on!

But, the other way and I think the right way to look at this is as the beginning of the end of a wonderful chapter in Indian Cricket. The build up to the series couldn't have been better - the all young ODI team in good  form was rendered clueless by a new spinner and the stage was set for the aging champions to show the new kids on the block how it's done. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. If these four with all their talent and experience could not produce a decent performance in even one innings, what is the point of persisting with them? If their talent, form and experience is not making a difference, then what value do they bring to the team? If their aging bodies and slowing reflexes has  overwhelmed their talent and experience, how are they superior to other players waiting in the wings?

This doesn't mean that all four need to be dropped and replaced with the Rohits and Rainas in waiting. I cannot confidently name one player that absolutely deserves a spot over any of the fab four. But, this does mean that the playing field between the seniors and juniors is level now. Instead of being considered automatic picks, they need to be compared and evaluated against other players. Instead of being assumed superior, they need to compete for their place with the rest. Instead of blindly preferring the old masters, the selectors should take a chance and opt for some young blood. It's not the end, but the beginning of the end.

India win Galle Test to level series

After three days of intensely fought competitive cricket involving spin bowling - spinners running through and batsmen countering them - an unexpected, fiery spell of fast bowling by Ishant Sharma on the fourth day of the second Test match between India and Sri Lanka at Galle, tilted the match in India's favor, helping them win the match by 170 runs.

And a what a well contested match it was! If Mendis shrugged off Sehwag's assault to take 10 wickets, Harbhajan shrugged off his indifferent form in recent times to match that effort. The Lankan top order's composed batting was matched by Gambhir's crucial fifties. Until Ishant's spell sprinted forward India to the finish line, both teams were running close all through the match.

The real difference for India, of course, was Sehwag's heroic, assaulting double century. In the very first session of the match, he had tamed the 'unreadable' Mendis, dismissed the wily Murali, calmed India's nerves and single-handedly laid the platform for a memorable win.

Apart from methodically and completely destroying the spinners, his best moment was not during one of the 250+ runs he scored in the match, but the one run he didn't score in the third ball of the 81st over - the one that would have taken him to 200 with last man Ishant at the other hand. He refused the easy single to shield Ishant and waited until the last ball of the over to get to his personal landmark! That moment once again exemplified his style of batting - treating each ball in its own context. Forget text book technique, his simple approach to cricket is what every young cricketer should be taught.

Mendis spins Sri Lanka to victory in the Asia Cup finals

Ajantha Mendis' spectacular spell of 'mystery' spin bowling rendered the in-form Indian batting lineup chasing 274 clueless and led Sri Lanka to a comfortable run win in the Asia Cup finals on Sunday. He ended the day with astonishing figures of 8-1-13-6!

Introduced into the attack in the tenth over with India cruising at 76/1 on the back of a blistering 60 off 34 balls by Sehwag, the Indian middle order facing him for the first time, struggled to read his flicked deliveries and were deceived out in no time. Only Dhoni who played him as late as possible reading the deliveries off the pitch was able to handle him a little better but with Mendis reducing the Indians to 98/5, it was just a matter of time before Sri Lanka wrapped up the win.

Earlier in the day, Dhoni took the field with an extra batsman, called right and put Sri Lanka to bat. Despite Jayasuriya's awesomely aggressive 125 - 26 of which were scored in the one RP Singh over (three sixes and two fours), with Ishant picking up early wickets, Sehwag and Ojha bowling tightly in the middle and RP Singh cleaning up the tail, India had restricted Sri Lanka to a sub par 273. In the end though, it turned out to be 100 runs too many!

Mendis or not, it should be noted that Dhoni made two tactical mistakes even before the match began - one, he chose to abandon the five bowler tactic that was so effective in the tournament & opted instead to strengthen the batting with a seventh batsman (Uthappa) and two, having won the toss, put the Sri Lankans to bat. Both these decisions were particularly bewildering considering that he justified these decisions as playing to his team's strength - batting. Since batting is our strength, my logic dictates that we should back our batsmen and bolster our bowling with an additional specialist. Also, instead of putting our weak bowling to test by bowling first, we should bat first, trust our strong batting to put up a big score and ease the pressure on the already weak bowling.

Looking ahead, the Test series coming up in a couple of weeks promises some thrilling cricket with the prospect of India's batting Trinity facing this exciting new spin sensation!