da pixbet： Good-bye to New Zealand and its green tops, seaming pitches, andawkward bounce
Erapalli Prasanna21-Jan-2003Good-bye to New Zealand and its green tops, seaming pitches, andawkward bounce. Good-bye to Daryl Tuffey too. I am sure that mostIndian batsmen have nightmares of facing the tall burly fastbowler.After the dismal showing in the Tests, I had hoped that thisIndian team would show more resolve in the limited overs games.But that was not to be. Even though India won a couple of gamesafter the series was lost, there was not one convincingperformance to suggest that this team is prepared for the WorldCup.After the 5-2 loss, it is indeed time for a serious selfexamination, and that must happen within the team. The coach andcaptain should sit down with the boys and analyse why and wherethings went wrong. A few weeks away from the World Cup might notbe the best time for a post-mortem but there certainly are a fewthings that nobody can gloss over.
© CricInfoRakesh Patel, for one, would have been better off playing forBaroda than being on a paid holiday in New Zealand. His fate wasbut one instance of how there was absolutely no clarity in theIndian think-tank; they were hoping for a miracle that was nevermeant to be. As for the famed batting line-up, the fact thatnobody with the exception of Virender Sehwag averaged even 20runs per innings was by itself a damning indictment of their socalled prowess.Interestingly, Dinesh Mongia has not been able to justify hisinclusion in the squad. Perhaps it could be attributed to a senseof the complacency setting in within the squad. One need not lookany further than Mohammad Kaif, who averages below nine runs perinnings in his last eleven games. It is about time the selectorshad a strong word with young talented players like him.Moving on, didn’t Ajit Agarkar come close to scoring a hundredbatting at number three in an ODI not too far ago? I just cannotunderstand why that ploy was not tried out again in New Zealand.Towards the end, the one-day series became a futile exercise ofgetting the established players searching for some sort of form.I sincerely hope that their pride has been hurt and that theyhave learnt some lessons. If they haven’t and fail in the WorldCup too, they would well know that a major restructuring of thisteam could happen as there is enough talent in India no matterwhat the man who speaks in idioms tries to tell the world.It is the fact that India surrendered so meekly to a veryordinary New Zealand team that annoys me so. Make no mistake: ifboth the teams were to carry their current form into the WorldCup, they will struggle miserably.It was probably easy for New Zealand cricket chief Martin Sneddento blame the poor quality of the pitches than the lack oftechnique of his own batsmen or of the visitors. But finding suchescape routes will do neither team any good.
© ReutersIn the final analysis it was the better New Zealand bowling andfielding that made the difference given the dismal failure ofbatsmen on both the sides. Apart from Javagal Srinath and ZaheerKhan, no other Indian bowler was good enough to claim ten wicketsin the ODI series. If someone like Ashish Nehra could only getyou five wickets at almost 39 runs apiece in six games, whatlogic can explain the decision to give our proven strike bowler,Harbhajan Singh, just two games in the whole one-day series?No one questions the talent of this Indian team. Neither do I.The only thought that refuses to leave me is: whether the teammanagement did enough to harness the talent on offer. Not toolong ago, one Indian skipper said, “The captain is as good as histeam”. Well, the other side of the argument is that a team isonly as good as the management is.