Glasstops, Dustbowls and bittersweet Dilemmas

A somber thought to start with: Today marks the end of the first two weeks of this World Cup. Take a moment of silence while we reflect on that…

Well then, back to business, India has played two largely contrasting games in the WC so far, and if experiences teach us lessons, we have learnt more than we could have asked for! It isn’t necessarily a bad thing to learn without too much damage upfront in a tournament, but not implementing the lessons learnt is a rookie mistake. Dhoni & Co. should be salivating at the prospect of implementing some new strategies in the upcoming games.

Ireland and Netherlands have both shown grit in this tournament, and India should of course try to stay clear of any evil thoughts of complacency. But while keeping things under check, they could venture out into some unchartered waters to fine tune the somewhat-jarring engine that the Indian team is sounding like right now.

For starters, we could try our hand at bowling first after winning the toss. Our batters can put together (seemingly) insurmountable totals but it might be a good idea to challenge our bowling unit a bit and set them upfront with a target.

Bangalore pitch is flatter than a champagne bottle that remained in my fridge without a cork for a month (it tasted just fine though). Going in with two spinners might not be a great thing on this pitch and we should think about getting Nehra in the mix against Ireland to get him off the bench for some match practice. We could also toy with the idea of going in with five specialist bowlers! All this by no means should be seen as being complacent, it is all preparations for tougher days and that is the story that I am going to stick with!

Now that the Kotla pitch isn’t threatening to take any more lives, International Cricket has come back to Delhi! And that is where India plays Netherlands on Wednesday (weekday meaning I am going to suddenly fall sick for work that morning). Delhi pitch should provide a bit more bite than the Bangalore Ice-Skating rink, which provides an opportunity to give Ashwin a game (and perhaps have Chawla practice pitching the ball anywhere but the center of the pitch).

Lastly, we have got to try and attack a bit more. We can’t go back to defensive fields after being hit for a couple boundaries. And I am not saying that we do that because we are playing against minnows. We need to work on building an attacking strategy that eventually becomes our way of playing.

Like the great Ian Chappell once said, the best way to keep the batsmen from scoring is to get them out! I say, Fair Point Chappell, Fair Point!