With the last game of the group stage fast approaching, Indian Cricket Management must be looking back and wondering if they made the most out of the games so far to fine-tune all moving parts of the team. I fear we may have missed opportunities to test-fire some weapons, and ended up shielding some of our high-risk areas instead of challenging them.
First and foremost, I feel that we should have tried opening with a spinner in one of the games, just to see how our spinners adapt, how the tracks respond, and perhaps evaluate if it is a potential option for the future. Almost every other top team has at least tried it once, some have even developed it as an alternative strategy, and besides, it is not as if our seamers have been giving us dream starts!
Furthermore, it just feels that we have held Ashwin back for too long. With a sluggish pitch and an associate team, there was a great opportunity to play him in Delhi, but the logic of having home-boy Nehra play instead just didn’t come off as a good idea to try in a World Cup. Nagpur added another entry to the list of wasted opportunities, along with registering our first defeat in the WC campaign.
Harbhajan has been blowing-hot-blowing-cold this entire tournament in terms of taking wickets, but the one thing that he has consistently done, is containing batsmen. I agree that it is not his primary function, but still, if Dhoni can get through ten overs rather cheaply, he will take it with both hands. That leaves us with a serious issue of not having a strike spinner for powerplays and crunch situations. Chawla has proven beyond doubt that he is not that spinner yet. And that again begs the question, why are we not giving Ashwin the much needed match exposure, to get him into the driving seat alongside Harbhajan for the knock out stages?
I am fairly sure that Ashwin will get a chance against West Indies (since it will be his home ground, and shockingly, that is how decisions are being made in the Indian team these days), but if he comes off rusty in that game, wouldn’t that be an issue that we forced upon ourselves?
The World Cup can not be played with a ‘one-match-at-a-time’ strategy, it has to be thought-out like a chess game. Grounds, opposition and conditions should all only create minor tweaks, and flexibility must never undermine the need of having a master-plan. And in this tournament, an integral part of our plan needs to be a potent spin attack which we have failed to develop so far.
Games are going to be won and lost in the middle overs, where we are just not creating the impact that we need. With four fielders on the edge and part-timers operating, we continue to invite trouble every game, while waiting for wickets to fall in our laps. Sometimes our mighty batsmen bail us out, sometimes they don’t.
It is about time we realized that the group stage is almost finished, and a single defeat now means the end of the road.
We can grab the initiative or go home. Well, in this case, stay home. But you know what I meant!
First and foremost, I feel that we should have tried opening with a spinner in one of the games, just to see how our spinners adapt, how the tracks respond, and perhaps evaluate if it is a potential option for the future. Almost every other top team has at least tried it once, some have even developed it as an alternative strategy, and besides, it is not as if our seamers have been giving us dream starts!
Furthermore, it just feels that we have held Ashwin back for too long. With a sluggish pitch and an associate team, there was a great opportunity to play him in Delhi, but the logic of having home-boy Nehra play instead just didn’t come off as a good idea to try in a World Cup. Nagpur added another entry to the list of wasted opportunities, along with registering our first defeat in the WC campaign.
Harbhajan has been blowing-hot-blowing-cold this entire tournament in terms of taking wickets, but the one thing that he has consistently done, is containing batsmen. I agree that it is not his primary function, but still, if Dhoni can get through ten overs rather cheaply, he will take it with both hands. That leaves us with a serious issue of not having a strike spinner for powerplays and crunch situations. Chawla has proven beyond doubt that he is not that spinner yet. And that again begs the question, why are we not giving Ashwin the much needed match exposure, to get him into the driving seat alongside Harbhajan for the knock out stages?
I am fairly sure that Ashwin will get a chance against West Indies (since it will be his home ground, and shockingly, that is how decisions are being made in the Indian team these days), but if he comes off rusty in that game, wouldn’t that be an issue that we forced upon ourselves?
The World Cup can not be played with a ‘one-match-at-a-time’ strategy, it has to be thought-out like a chess game. Grounds, opposition and conditions should all only create minor tweaks, and flexibility must never undermine the need of having a master-plan. And in this tournament, an integral part of our plan needs to be a potent spin attack which we have failed to develop so far.
Games are going to be won and lost in the middle overs, where we are just not creating the impact that we need. With four fielders on the edge and part-timers operating, we continue to invite trouble every game, while waiting for wickets to fall in our laps. Sometimes our mighty batsmen bail us out, sometimes they don’t.
It is about time we realized that the group stage is almost finished, and a single defeat now means the end of the road.
We can grab the initiative or go home. Well, in this case, stay home. But you know what I meant!
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