Monday, April 18, 2005

Indian Cricket Team - A Short Essay

Indian Cricket team has dipped a new low, but, it is not the lowest it has sunk yet. But definitely with the expectations of millions, sorry billions, of cricket lovers in the country and abroad, it has sunk to a new low.

The composition of Indian Cricket,

Viru Sehwag - One who has everything going onto his head, with a lot of over-confidence that he can defy anybody (any bowler) who can bowl to him, but he forgot about the fielders who can catch him out, either as runout or catch. The only thing he has contained is he has not forgotten how he played street cricket in Delhi.

Sachin Tendulkar - A class apart, it is very mesmerising to see him fail four or five times and then produce a gem of an innings, as the 123 against Pak in the fourth one-dayer. He seems as relaxed as he can be without any pressure. Sometimes too much relaxed.

Rahul Dravid - Still stroking the ball nicely, the only hope for India to salvage some pride, but do we have to push him in with more burden for Captaincy.

Young lads: Yuvraj, Kaif and not to forget a match-winner in 2nd one-dayer, MSDhoni. These guys are lightning in the field, great to pounce on any opportunities and fast to lose their wickets at seemingly favourable conditions and situations. Dhoni can be barred based on his freshness. Kaif because of his match-saving knock in Kanpur. But Yuvraj, besides the 33, I haven't seen him in the lime-light (NOTE: India has won more matches when he had scored a fifty & he and Kaif lead our team for the first record-breaking above 300 run-chase).

Sorry Bowlers: Unless they pick a wicket these bunch of guys have been seen as guys without any full-energy. Zaheer & Nehra bowling well within themselves, All erring in their line & length (count the extras given you will know), and whenever put into bowl India providing a 300 run scoreline to the opposition is very disheartening. The bowlers seem to have lost their confidence level somehow bowling in these flat pitches and the form of Afridi and Inzamam in particular hasn't helped them either. I don't feel anything but sorry for these members in the team.

Captain: His name defies any explanation, everything he does has come under criticism. The field changes, or discussing his bowlers during the over, over rate and finally his bad run with the bat. Its too much for Ganguly to take. May be he takes a well deserved rest from International Cricket with the ban and retrospect and learn about his basics, how he played at the grass roots level (street/school cricket). He has to play at least a season at Ranji to get back into his strides and come back with a bang (I hope).

And finally, what went wrong for India - by the looks of the above lines almost everything went wrong, they have to pull up their socks and listen to their inner selves. The answer lies within them. They have to come out of this shell, with a new found coach and mentor (whoever that is). This was the same team which was going glorious just two years ago in the world-cup. It just has to play the long rest which has been planned for the team in retrospection and come back with one little thing which is a must in every sportsman's mind - CONFIDENCE

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your comment about Thanda is overrated.

Yesterday, the City Police commissioner gave a speech on TV (tamil channel starting with J).
that whenever Thanda scores india would lose. And only yesterday that Thanda didnt score and India still didnt win.

It only shows that Thanda in the team is Thandam. And without Thanda we used to be better. And more importantly, earlier Thanda's rare rare century made india lose. Now Thanda's physical presence is itself enough.

he's like a tortoise in a indian household. (age old proverb

Charles said...

One more thing that you should add in everyone's list.

They should forget acting in the field and learn to play....