World Cup win in 2011. Dream come true for millions. But what happened after that. No one wants to remember. Whitewash against Australia. Retirement of Dravid and Laxman.Whitewash against England. ODI team which once looked impeccable now is in shambles. It was a huge relief India didnt let a whitewash happen against Pakistan. Now England are back to take revenge of their 5-0 ODI loss last time that happened in India. And of course, GOD's retirement from short format to add to the woes. His need is no more in ODI, still the confidence and aura will be missed. So what does the Indian Cricket team needs now?
India is in a transitional stage like Australia was when the famous Warne, Mcgrath, Hayden, Gilly retired. Not the whole team is new. Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhoni and Yuvi are old enough to be called experienced players. I wont be surprised if one or two calls it a day. I wish though. Raina, Rohit, Kohli, Ashwin, Jadeja are no more new bloods. They have played enough international matches. They have been exposed to all kinds of situations and pressures. So its mindless to call this team as new inexperienced. Maybe this is the team to prove themselves in Australia, England and S.africa. But no excuses should be made in terms of their talent or experience.
Well. Let us look each and every department and the format to know what needs to be done. Lets start with batting which has been our only strength for years. No doubt we have lot of quality talented players. Unlike an era where we were struck with Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly in ODIs and with VVS added to Test format, now all have proved themselves well either in Ranji or IPL. But the problem is our batsmen are low on confidence and have become complacent. Playing carefree innings, going after the ball always, not spending enough time in the pitch, not rotating the strike, seeing of the new ball are some of the basic problems that we face. In test cricket, except for Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhoni, its a relatively new team. They have to be groomed. We saw the horrible performance of India when all the experienced failed as a unit. Except for Pujara, Indians fell like a spineless team.
When it comes to bowling, we never had upper hand. Problem is with identifying and grooming youngsters. Our sister nation Pakistan is known for producing pace bowlers and spinners of world class. India has serious problems in this area. Munaf, Praveen, Sreesanth, Irfan, Ishant who were once seen as prodigy are no where in the scene now. The reason being they changed their original style for the sake of extended career. Be it reducing their pace, run up, changing their action etc, has never been fruitful.
Fielding is one area that the present Indian team can be proud of. The young blood have again and again proved themselves in this. Captaincy - We can see Dhoni's skills have deteriorated with time. He is not experimenting things as often now. The risk taking ability is gone and he has become more of a safe captain now. But with the present team we dont have an option for replacement. Sehwag and Gambhir are fighting for the place in the team with their consistent poor performances. Kohli can be an option, but its too early. He is aggressive and he needs time to get matured. So Dhoni is the only shoulder to rest upon and hope he gets his midas touch again. Fletcher doesnt seem to add any value to the team. Its important to get new coach. Ganguly name is surfacing often for that. But management team has to consider the team dynamics, team politics and other factors before calling anyone.
So problems are there in every area and as a holistic part, it leads to the downfall of Indian team. Preparing team for 2015 world cup is too futuristic. But its time to experiment with the bunch of players we have. But making a test team is of utmost importance. Pujara, Kohli looks good for test arena. Gambhir and Sehwag have to hit their form back. Its time to look for opening options. Also our middle order without Dravid & VVS and Sachin in awful form looks vulnerable. Its high time for selectors and captain to make some tough decisions if necessary to build a strong team.
Every team has gone through this tough phase. India has got talent and it depends how well we identify, groom and stick to those talents. IPL is blamed for the catastrophe. I dont think any player wearing Indian T shirt in front of 30000 odd crowd will play to fail. Problem is not with the dedication but with talent and confidence. So, right now Indian team needs Dhoni and supporting coach more than ever. They have to back up and hold up each other. It should be a history in the making. Hope Dhoni delivers.
India is in a transitional stage like Australia was when the famous Warne, Mcgrath, Hayden, Gilly retired. Not the whole team is new. Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhoni and Yuvi are old enough to be called experienced players. I wont be surprised if one or two calls it a day. I wish though. Raina, Rohit, Kohli, Ashwin, Jadeja are no more new bloods. They have played enough international matches. They have been exposed to all kinds of situations and pressures. So its mindless to call this team as new inexperienced. Maybe this is the team to prove themselves in Australia, England and S.africa. But no excuses should be made in terms of their talent or experience.
Well. Let us look each and every department and the format to know what needs to be done. Lets start with batting which has been our only strength for years. No doubt we have lot of quality talented players. Unlike an era where we were struck with Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly in ODIs and with VVS added to Test format, now all have proved themselves well either in Ranji or IPL. But the problem is our batsmen are low on confidence and have become complacent. Playing carefree innings, going after the ball always, not spending enough time in the pitch, not rotating the strike, seeing of the new ball are some of the basic problems that we face. In test cricket, except for Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhoni, its a relatively new team. They have to be groomed. We saw the horrible performance of India when all the experienced failed as a unit. Except for Pujara, Indians fell like a spineless team.
When it comes to bowling, we never had upper hand. Problem is with identifying and grooming youngsters. Our sister nation Pakistan is known for producing pace bowlers and spinners of world class. India has serious problems in this area. Munaf, Praveen, Sreesanth, Irfan, Ishant who were once seen as prodigy are no where in the scene now. The reason being they changed their original style for the sake of extended career. Be it reducing their pace, run up, changing their action etc, has never been fruitful.
Fielding is one area that the present Indian team can be proud of. The young blood have again and again proved themselves in this. Captaincy - We can see Dhoni's skills have deteriorated with time. He is not experimenting things as often now. The risk taking ability is gone and he has become more of a safe captain now. But with the present team we dont have an option for replacement. Sehwag and Gambhir are fighting for the place in the team with their consistent poor performances. Kohli can be an option, but its too early. He is aggressive and he needs time to get matured. So Dhoni is the only shoulder to rest upon and hope he gets his midas touch again. Fletcher doesnt seem to add any value to the team. Its important to get new coach. Ganguly name is surfacing often for that. But management team has to consider the team dynamics, team politics and other factors before calling anyone.
So problems are there in every area and as a holistic part, it leads to the downfall of Indian team. Preparing team for 2015 world cup is too futuristic. But its time to experiment with the bunch of players we have. But making a test team is of utmost importance. Pujara, Kohli looks good for test arena. Gambhir and Sehwag have to hit their form back. Its time to look for opening options. Also our middle order without Dravid & VVS and Sachin in awful form looks vulnerable. Its high time for selectors and captain to make some tough decisions if necessary to build a strong team.
Every team has gone through this tough phase. India has got talent and it depends how well we identify, groom and stick to those talents. IPL is blamed for the catastrophe. I dont think any player wearing Indian T shirt in front of 30000 odd crowd will play to fail. Problem is not with the dedication but with talent and confidence. So, right now Indian team needs Dhoni and supporting coach more than ever. They have to back up and hold up each other. It should be a history in the making. Hope Dhoni delivers.
