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Interesting Challenges Ahead

India have finished their so called revenge series against England today. From the moment the Test series ended in the lifeless fashion that it did in Nagpur, India have won and lost five Limited overs International matches in the space of a month. Even though the numbers don't show much, there have been quite a few positives for India in the month that has gone by. For starters, India have found decent enough pace bowling replacements for Umesh Yadav and Zaheer Khan, Ashwin has been bowling slower through the air, getting more purchase off the pitch. Ishant Sharma too has hit a purple patch getting his consistency in line and length, the only question being whether he can keep it going till the Tests against Australia. The biggest positive of all has been that Ravindra Jadeja has sort of established himself as a decent enough bowler to bowl 10 overs in a One Day International Innings. 

The batting however remains a worry with Dhoni and Raina, the only 2 batsmen who have impressed with some consistency. In the past 2 years, 9 opening partnerships have been tried in One Dayers, 2 of which are now rendered pointless after Tendulkar's exit. Surprisingly, the best averaging opening partnership in the past 2 years after the Tendulkar-Sehwag pair has been the Parthiv Patel-Ajinkya Rahane pair averaging 39.77 from 9 innings which is an amazing number in itself. However, on current form no one can see the Indian management selecting Parthiv Patel which leaves us with 3 opening pairs, all of which include Gautam Gambhir partnered by Virender Sehwag, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma respectively. Sehwag has consistently proven that he cannot change and hence India should be going with the more successful pair of Rahane-Gambhir averaging at 36.28 from 7 innings which is why the constant selection of Rohit Sharma after so many failures defies logic. The top order has been broken way too early and way too consistently by both Pakistani and English bowlers and no matter how good the team is on the field with the ball, the runs have to be up on the board to defend.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni now enters this stage where he can take this team to the next level and win a few tests with this team in transition which would be one of the most valuable accomplishments in his already successful career as captain. For that to happen, the batting order has to buckle down and play responsibly. Far too often flamboyant shots are attempted and they end up nicking the ball. At the post-game show after the 5th ODI against England today, Sanjay Manjerakar made a point that although Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been getting out to loose shots outside the off stump, it is Rohit Sharma who is more of a worry because he has always been getting big scores, but not being consistent. It is the same with Kohli and the rest of the middle order too who have been getting out to loose shots throughout the Test series and here in the ODI series as well. 

The Australians too are a team in transition, but they look much better in comparison with India. For starters, they have an opening pair which has been clicking far too often. They have a captain who leads from the front and is always up for it when it comes to making aggressive decisions which can take a game by the scruff of the neck and then comes their four-prong pace attack along with the spinner. The move to have Mitchell Johnson as an all-rounder is one of the bold decisions that they have gone with in the series against Sri Lanka and that adds a lot of value to the bowling attack. They look very well established for a side in transition. This upcoming test series is going to one of the most fascinating ones as it marks the start of the biggest test for Dhoni in which he will attempt to take this young side to the next level. If the Indians have to come close to winning this series, their batting order has to kick this habit and be more patient. If they do that the bowlers and fielders on the field, I believe will do their job in a decent fashion.

The Indian Squad should consist of:
Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, M S Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shami Ahmed, Amit Mishra


Comments

  1. Manu28 January 2013 at 00:09

    Nice read....but the main problem I saw was that you are talking about the ODI team till the third paragraph and you moved suddenly to talking about the upcoming test series with no transition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mukund Manikarnike1 February 2013 at 09:10

      Thanks!! And yeah, I understand what you're trying to say. I was talking about the One Dayers because the series had just concluded then. The point was to just look at how India have fared recently, whatever format it is. It doesn't really matter for India because they have almost the same team for all three formats unlike other teams.

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