Australia’s Close Shave
The first match of the Australia-India series had some fireworks towards the end, but it didn’t quite end in the right climax. Praveen Kumar and Harbhajan Singh took India to the cusp of victory, but then gave it up. So Australia continue their excellent ODI streak (just the one loss to England in a dead rubber match). This was the second time in recent time they have kept their nerve, the last one being against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy.
Interesting lineup for India: Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Kohli, Dhoni, Raina, Jadeja, Harbhajan, Praveen Kumar, Nehra and Ishant. This seems like a good template for going into the 2011 World Cup. Assuming no injuries hit and Yuvraj is back, we should see something like this:
Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, batsman/allrounder, allrounder, spinner, fastbowler, fastbowler, spinner/fastbowler.
It is difficult to predict the bowlers for two reasons. One is injuries, obviously. The other is that there are several months before the World Cup where you have T20’s and other World Cups. It is quite easy for a good bowler to get smashed up badly in a critical match and then be dropped and not be considered for selection. The top 5 of the Indian batting lineup don’t have such problems.
I am of the opinion that Raina and Ishant be dropped. Neither have done much in recent times. Raina doesn’t have a great career record to begin with. And Ishant’s body language surely speaks volumes about his low confidence.
I am rather worried about the spinners. Harbhajan Singh has been on and off, but we don’t seem to have any good alternatives, either. The pace front doesn’t look too bad, but it is a matter of clicking at the important moments.
Still, it is early days. Let’s wait and watch!
I think Aus dominated the match, and were pushing themselves by continuing with Watson towards the end, he has been their death bowler for quite a few matches now. A good experience for him, you cannot keep bowling full deliveries wide of the off stump and when the going gets tough you need to change things up a bit.
Coming to the team, I disagree with dropping Raina, he was totally done in by Johnson’s slower, almost as funny as Ambrose’s slower ball to Healy. By the time Raina had come in the rate had soared to 8 an over and they were in the middle of a batting powerplay. Raina definitely deserves a place ahead of Kohli, as does Rohit Sharma who has been dropped since the world T20 where they wanted him to be a Sehwag, makes no sense. I’m not sold on this batting line-up, I’m a huge Sachin fan, and I can see that he wouldn’t want to bat at 4, but I think there are a lot of merits to the role, the least being Dhoni can concentrate on being a power hitter instead of a consolidator. For me it should be:
Sehwag, Gambhir, Raina/Sharma (left/right for the opener dismissed or based on form etc), Sachin, Yuvraj, Raina/Sharma, Dhoni, 4 bowlers, one of whom I think should be Mishra for Bhajji, 4-0-59-0 aside, he needs to be given a chance. As you say, picking the bowlers is difficult, the only certainty is probably Zak. With Sehwag, Yuvi, Raina and Sharma (and Dhoni if we REALLY need it
) there are enough top quality bowlers to chip in for the fifth option on spinning tracks, now that Sachin seems to have stopped. Ouch long comment… one final add, Ishant needs a rest and they need to justify picking Munaf. There was a time people spoke as highly of Munaf’s pace as they did of Ishant when he first joined the side. I don’t know if its right to blame Prasad, but these massive drops in pace are alarming.