India desperate to end their overseas woes

Amidst controversies of spot fixing and India constantly losing matches abroad, the visitors gear up for the test match at the, ‘Windy Wellington’. This ground holds a special place in achieves of our memories as the last time, when India toured New Zealand in 2009, Harbhajan Singh’s magical spells yielded him seven wickets which helped the Indians clinch the series. But the times have changed. The players who played then have retired or are no more a part of the squad.

Coming back to India’s pre match preparations, the highlight was that the skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to keep himself away from the media glare and chose to send Shikhar Dhawan instead for the pre match conference for the obvious reasons. A- The spot fixing controversy B- India ending up on the losing side every time they play overseas.

Addressing the media, Dhawan sounded pretty positive as he said, “We have been doing well. Unfortunately, we are ending up on the losing side. It is a new team, young players who have got five-six matches under their belt. Of course, it takes a bit of time. We fought back nicely in the last Test and we batted really nicely even in the last innings. There are a lot of positives to take from the last match and it is building our confidence and our strength."

No sooner the captain stepped on to the field, bad news came in. The hosts  threw up a challenge by offering the visitors with a lush green wicket. Expressing their interest to bowl first, the Kiwis, will be playing the match with five pace seamers. The first couple of hours for the team batting first are touted to be extremely crucial. The venue is also said to be windy thus one just cannot predict the direction of the ball. In these conditions, Ravindra Jadeja, will play an important as the left arm spinner. Thus one can predict that Ravichandran Ashwin might not get a place in the playing eleven.

The key word for the Indians is ‘implementation’. From here the only thing that the Indians can do is stick to the basics.  If India wins the toss and chooses to bowl first, then the pacers will have to stick to their line and length. If the visitors bat first, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli will have to chip in a make runs. Kohli will have to be extremely cautious, with the short pitched deliveries, which have bothered him way too much. The pacers will have to repeat the act of the second innings at Auckland. The hosts will have to have minimum of 300-350 runs on the board.

Dhoni who usually does not believe in team meetings, will have to sit an draft a strategy, for each of these bowlers and make sure the strategies have been implemented. The Indian squad has performed in patches, thus they will have to come together as a unit.  

Mumbai’s loopholes exposed!!

The day when India was playing its second ODI against South Africa, the so called hub of Indian cricket, Mumbai was biting dust against the rookies of Jharkhand at the Wankhede. All of us saw the same happen to the Indian team. 

Right from the day one of the match Jharkhand left no stone unturned to get into the skin of Mumbai. Though the top order of the guests didn’t do a great job, it was all thanks to Saurabh Tiwary who remained unbeaten making a double century. But apart from that from the batting line up, there was no one who did enough to make a comprehensive score. The bowling department was led by the fastest bowler of India, Varun Aroon. Ripping apart the top order of the hosts, Varun bowled nasty bouncers coupled with edgy and quick spells which made it difficult for the batsmen to stay on the crease. Even the Pathan of Mumbai cricket, Wasim Jaffer, could not hold on to the pressure and made an immediately departed to the pavilion in both the innings. The specialist opener of Mumbai, Sushant Marathe failed to impress in both the innings. Jharkand might have remained on the bottom of the table but at the same time it managed to expose a lot of loopholes of the Ranji Champions, 2013. 

From this match one could clearly see that Mumbai missed the services of Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane. The bowling department was led by the skipper Abhishekh Nayar, Vishal Dabholkar and Javed Khan.  The batting department lacked luster, the decision of picking up Marathe in placed of Kaustabh Pawar proved to the biggest gamble. The visitors looked much more active on the field as compared to the hosts. 

The match ended up with a draw but left a lot of homework and immense of thinking for Mumbai to do before their match against Orissa.

Why India lost the first ODI against SA

Well well! The ghost of England and Australia has returned and after making merry in the sub continent, the Indian team was once again thrashed by 141 runs. Though there are quite a few reasons for the same. Here are a few I could jot down.

1.      Over dependence on Mhd Shami: Now here is the rooky bowler all set to prove his worth on the fast and nasty pitches of SA. Shami tried his level best to rip apart the batting line of the hosts and he managed to claim three wickets but the other bowlers like Mohit Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were hit all across the ground. Neither of the two looked in control for getting rid of the nasty batting line up of the proteans. The bowlers were all over the place. here comes the role of the captain before the match. Why was Umesh Yadav made to warm the bench, he could have come handy considering the conditions of South Africa.

2.      Absence of an experienced opener: Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan steeped on to the field as openers and goofed up big time. India clearly missed the services of Gambhir.

3.      Rohit Sharma’s Runout: This gyan comes to me from one of the very eminent coaches of Delhi. “Whenever an opener of any side gets run out 90% of the time the side loses.” This very much got proven yesterday when Rohit Sharma got out.

4.      Dhoni’s batting order: Dhoni comes at Number six and chips in after the situation goes out of control. Leading the side, he needs to promote himself up the order. Even the veterans of cricket have asked him to do so.

5.      Failure of the stalwarts: After the opening pair struggled to score runs, the big names like Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina easily made their way to the pavilion. Though Dhoni tried saving the ship but the damage was done.

The curious case of Suresh Raina

One of the most eligible bachelor of the India team and the so called buddy of MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina’s running skills got exposed last night at the first ODI against SA.  Though its not just about his running skills that I am talking about its also about the scorecard highlighted on the TV sets while he was on his way back to the pavilion.

With an average of about 35 and 3 centuries in the ODIs Raina is termed as the backbone of the middle order. With statistics like these do you really think that he even deserves to be in the team? Raina has been playing for the team since 2005. When Greg Chappell was asked to handle the reins of the Indian team as a coach, Chappell was extremely impressed by his batting and the fielding skills. He went on to be the blue eyed boy of the coach. Off the 116 ODIs, in the last 7 years, the blue eyed boy of the skipper has hit only 29 fifties, though we also consider the position he comes on. Also does he have an average of 91.38, but all that is on the Indian pitches.  On the foreign pitches he looks like a dodo who fails to even face the bowlers (he he did well for CSK at the Champions League). How long will the blue eyed boy of the skipper continue to be the first choice of the selectors? Will he always remain in the squad just because he happens to the favourite of someone or the other?

5 Reasons why budding cricketers should be like Tendulkar

Well the world is going berserk with the Master Blaster retiring, here I am analyzing about why on earth should the youngsters become like Sachin Tendulkar. If you think its because of his technique, then no. I could jot down five major reasons for the same:

1.       No one including the selectors would have the guts to ask him to retire: First of all with all due respects to him, his larger than life image, no selector in India, has posses the guts to ask the, master blaster to retire.  If you actually sum up the experience of the selectors from all the five zones, North, east, south, west and central, it does not even come to a couple of decades. Mind you! Even the selectors become Toothless Tigers before the God. 

2.       Could sustain for more a couple of decades despite 5 centuries a year:  Now here is another one! Sachin is undoubtedly a great batsman and has hit 100 centuries both in the test and ODI’s. Master Blaster has been in the circuit for 24 years now. Which means he has scored approximately 5 centuries a year.  According to me, if a player can stay in the team by merely scoring 5 centuries in a year, every budding cricketer would want to be like him. 

3.       Could create a divide Mumbai v/s Sachin: Last year when Mumbai played Saurashtra in the finals at the Wankhede and  when it was the openers of Mumbai who came on to bat, the whole stadium encouraged the openers of the batting side to leave the crease, just to see Sachin’s batting. 

4.       Could hold on to a place in the domestic team which could actually belong to a youngster: Here is another one, the God of Cricket can walk up to the domestic circuit and not only play a match but also occupy the place of a youngster. 

5.       A huge turnout despite expensive tickets: Lastly, despite the tickets being unavailable and overpriced, they (the budding cricketers) can expect a huge turnout.

From Gully to Galleries

Akram: Oye Sachin tu piche ja thoda! Yeh circle ke bahar he rehna. Upar marega toh pakad lena.
Sachin: Arey tu teri bowling pe dhyaan de. Mujhe mat sikha
Sehwag: thoda aage aa.
(When Waqar drops A catch)
Akram: kya yaaar itna nahi ata…. Ab yeh out nahi hoga jaldi.

Hang on! If you think, we are talking about the World XI team then you are wrong. We are talking about gully cricket, where every lane has a Tendulkar, Sehwag, Dhoni and of course a Harsha Bhogle or an Ian Bell, who occupies the coziest corner during the match and chips in with his expert comments. I vividly remember a scene from the Chillar Party wherein the kids in the locality were teased by the elders for losing the match against the next gully. Winning a match against the children from next gully;  is not less than winning the world cup. Each member of the team is nicknamed after a renowned cricketer and puts his best foot forward. This obviously resonates an old adage, “Cricket is a Religion in India.”

Not just in films, but also in reality, winning a match against a gully/ mohalla is a feat which leaves you wondering that is it true that only in these gullies are the real sportsmen born?  

Every child who picks up a bat wants to become Sachin, Sehwag, Dhoni or a Yuvraj… Where do all these thoughts come from? All thanks to the endless hours glued to the television or a radio commentary during the matches. Remember the journey of Irfan and Yusuf Pathan who played in the narrow lanes of Masjid in Baroda? It is from here that they started dreaming of becoming the next Wasim Akram of India. Very few cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar are privileged to step on to the international circuit even before crossing the fence of the school.Players like Mohamad Azahruddin who lived in the narrow lanes of Hyderabad never even thought that someday he would grow up to handle the reins of the Indian cricket team. These were the real gems of India cricket who made it big from these gullies. In one of the interviews I remember Irfan Pathan mentioned that they dint even have the luxury of affording a rubber ball forget television. But it was all thanks to these gullies that made this young, ‘Guddu,’ a speedster of India. It is here that a child learns to accept challenges and overcomes failure.  It is in the narrow lanes of the Majid that he learnt the art of bowling and that too playing with the shoes bought from the Friday market.

It is in these gullies, that the upcoming stars get a chance to have a close look at their heroes and follow them. It is here that they cheer when their idol hits a century. It is here that they laugh and cry with their heroes. How many of us didn’t dance or celebrate in these gullies when Dhoni hit that the last historic six. We still get goose bumps when we relive the moments of 2007, when an underdog team like India who had been thrown out of the quarter finals for the World Cup lifted the T20 Cup. Not to forget even Dhoni, hailing from a small state of Jharkhand, was a part of this young gully 25 years ago when Kapil Dev and his men scripted history in England. He was known to smash the window panes of the neighbors.

This gully gives you a chance to live, a chance to breath, a chance to dream and live the dream which you have seen at one point in time. It is here that the real cricketers are born. It is here that they learn the spirit of unity and the strength of togetherness or be it standing up for someone when he fails to do so. It is here that their innocent eyes watch the dream of becoming someone from no one.