One down – What next for Team India?
July 29th, 2008Indian team is down, although not out of it yet but they will certainly need to come out all guns blazing to make a comeback after the crushing defeat in the first test. They managed to get just six wickets bowling for almost six sessions and were bowled out twice within four sessions. The more crucial thing for the Indians would be to be up mentally for the next challenge that is just four days away.
The players need to be motivated and fans need to keep patience as these are definitely the best test players in India. Let us analyze the performance of Team India members and what could they do or not do to turn the tables around.
Openers
Gautam Gambhir must be thanking his stars that the team doesn’t have his substitute at hand otherwise he could have been thrown out, not for his failure to score but for his attitude. He got out in both innings jumping out to Muralidharan, caught at short cover in the first innings and stumped in the second. He needs to show a bit more responsibility and resilience.
Virender Sehwag is one batsman whose batting style cannot be changed. And, a team can afford a luxurious batsman like him if they have as solid a middle order as India does. He was caught in the deep trying to pull Kulasekara in the first innings and got a rough decision in the second innings. A review request of the bowling of Murali by Jayawardene turned against Sehwag as Rudi Koertzen missed the ball’s deflection off the front pad.
Flop err Fab Four
Eyes refused to believe the scenes as the fabulous four succumbed to spin bowling from Murali and Mendis. Bowled through the gate and bat-pad on front foot; these are not the modes of dismissal one associates with great players of spin. All of them were completely at sea against the rookie Mendis. Perhaps they were in over-confidence and will surely need to watch and re-watch tapes of Mendis’ bowling.
These are great players and it is just a matter of time before they strike gold. Captain Kumble would do better not to shuffle them and must look to play Dravid at three. Sachin will look to play positively while Dravid will probably drop anchor. Dravid hasn’t ever been vocal on or off the field and is probably the biggest under-sung hero of cricket. As always he will let his bat do the talking and is still the favorite to come up with the goods.
The person who is under the severest of pressures is Sourav Ganguly but he probably has learnt to live life the tougher way. He doesn’t have the best of technique against the fast bowlers and the fact that he is not much impressive against the spinners either has remained under-observed due to his big hitting against slow left arm bowlers.
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Wicket Keeper
Dinesh Karthik had an pathetic outing both behind and in front of the wickets. He failed to stop the ball in either role. Every player has bad days but Karthik must be shown the door at least for the next test match not because of the poor performance but for his attitude while batting. A kid in cricketing circles, he was trying to lift Murali out of park on every ball. What on hell was up his grey matter only he can tell.
People have voiced about giving an emergency call to Dhoni but the man needs some rest and it would be foolish to think that he would have scored against a bowling which toppled the likes of Tendulkar and Dravid.
Pacers
There was absolutely nothing in the pitch for the faster men. In fact Zaheer and Ishant did a great job picking up four wickets. If the pitch at Galle offers the fast bowlers any help they are the two Indians most likely to make full use of it.
Spinners
Kumble and Harbhajan were disappointing to say the least. They failed to bowl enough wicket taking deliveries. Both of them will need to show more character and hit the right areas consistently. Adding to their poor form they had to bowl on placid day two and three pitches and the Sri Lankan batsmen handled them extremely efficiently.
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Tags: 2008, india, Series, Sri lankaPosted in Cricket News |