Tag Archives: india cricket

India Batting Depth

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While writing my post on India chases, I wondered how much depth India does have in its batting ranks. India is known for its strong batting lineup. So I thought I would take a graphical look at the most recent matches starting from the first World Cup match against Bangladesh and continuing to the latest match against West Indies. The big caveat being that many team members are missing from the squad after the World Cup.

What this shows is that the top order has mostly done its work. If you look at the World Cup batting aggregates, Tendulkar (482), Gambhir  (393) and Sehwag (380) lead. The better averages belong to Yuvraj and Raina, but primarily because of the not-outs. We don’t have many data points beyond the 6th wicket partnership, but among those, very few have been significant. In fact 2 matches (the one against the Pakistan and the 3rd ODI against WI) have all but one of the 20+ partnerships beyond the 6th wicket.

During this period, there have been a few collapses of the lower order too. India made 33 for the last 6 wickets against England, 29 runs for 8 wickets against South Africa, and 36 for 5 against West Indies in the World Cup, not to mention the disappointing performances by the lower order in the last two matches against the West Indies. India needs to do a lot more work to have a deep batting lineup that extends beyond the middle order.

On another note, you can find examples where the middle order has rescued India from a top order failure. But it is important to realize that the middle order (No. 5 and No. 6) are supposed to be people who can bat. And they are there to contribute to the team. If a team never fails to make a score when its top 3 fail, then that is a strange team indeed. It doesn’t mean that a team bats deep.

Serious Thinking Needed for India After Series Defeat Against Australia

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Today’s loss against Australia at Guwahati meant that a full-strength India lost a home series against a depleted Australian side with one match to go. It is too early with respect to the 2011 World Cup to hit the panic button, but make no mistake, this is a serious setback to India’s preparations. And the Indian management have to think deep and hard about the choices that they need to make.

Apologists for India’s performance would point to three close matches that could have gone either way and to Tendulkar’s brilliant century. They would also be right in suggesting that a weakened Australia still has considerable strength in its ranks and also that the experienced team members (Ponting, Hussey) were in good form.

This obscures the details. First, the close matches were bolstered by a rearguard performance from Harbhajan and Co. Tendulkar’s 175 stands alone in a batting scorecard that shows no significant support. India fielded its best lineup in both batting and bowling, and were bowled out for 170 and conceded 350.

There will be a few scapegoats to be sacrificed at the end of this series. Probably one or more of the bowlers will be axed, and perhaps we will see a new No. 6 or No. 7 in the team. But that is not solving the problems that we saw in this series.

The first problem is that the bowling, for the most part, has been toothless. Unable to pick wickets when needed and unable to control the acceleration. Australia crossed 250 four times in the first five one-dayers. This was emphasized clearly when India used 9 bowlers in the just-concluded match to try to force the Australians to make a mistake. Usually, that shows a captain trying hard, but today, it just showed desperation.

The batting has been better, but it has not come together as a unit. The contributions of the lower order has masked the poverty of the performances. It doesn’t look likely that India will change their top five, except if forced to by injury. So it is time for them to step up.

The one blessing of this series has been Dhoni finding his place at No. 5 and not floating around. That is a good spot for him in my opinion and if India can find some better team performances from the top order and get a couple of good allrounders for the next two spots, the batting should be India’s strength at the World Cup.

India v Australia One Day Series Schedule

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It starts from Sunday. Here you go:

October 5 (Sunday) at Vadodara – starts at 9:00 am IST

October 28 (Wednesday) at Nagpur – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

October 31 (Saturday) at Delhi – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

November 2 (Monday) at Chandigarh – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

November 5 (Thursday) at Hyderabad – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

November 8 (Sunday) at Guwahati – starts at 9:00 am IST

November 11 (Wednesday) at Mumbai – Day/Night starts at 2:30 pm IST

I don’t much like the 7-match ODI formats. Maximum 5 would be better. But India v Australia does seem a good competition. So as long as the matches remain closely fought, it should be okay. Australia should generally be the favorites, but on Indian soil, the home team may be able to pull some surprises. And India also has some players coming back from injuries. So game on!

India Coast to Victory Against Pakistan in Warm-Up

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It was touted as the most important match of the Twenty20 World Cup, albeit a warmup match that was not part of the World Cup. Because of the seedings problem we talked about, the only way Pakistan and India can play against each other in this year’s edition of the World Cup is if both of them reach the finals. Possible, but perhaps unlikely.

In the end, it didn’t even turn out to be close. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat, but were soon reeling at 63/5. Thankfully they had kept their run rate up while all the wickets were tumbling, and Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Yasir Arafat took them to a respectable 158/6. Under the circumstances, it was very commendable and India perhaps missed a trick by failing to keep the pressure on.

But that was all soon forgotten when the Indian openers slowly, but surely made their march towards the target. A 10-wicket thrashing was in the works when Rohit Sharma fell to a top edge with 19 required. Dhoni once again came in at No. 3 and finished the match off with a couple of quick blows. Pakistan will be pretty disappointed with this outing.

A few quick comments:

  • Pakistan’s batting was better than that in their previous outing when they were all out for 127 against South Africa. They were 65/5 then too, but today they managed to score a few more. Since Sri Lanka only scored 109 against South Africa today, Pakistan’s grade is somewhere like “B-” instead of an “F”. But they have to step up. Thankfully with England and Netherlands in their group, they have time to recover.
  • Bowling is a different issue altogether. Conceding 186 yesterday and 159 in 17 overs is a failing grade. And Pakistan was supposed to have the better bowlers.
  • India too has some bowling problems, especially in the death overs. That is why they lost the New Zealand match. And today, they gave the Pakistani bowlers something to defend. They need to keep the pressure on.
  • Is Dhoni going to be the official No. 3? If so, great. If not and he has been using these warm-up matches for experiments the results of which he is not going to use, then India are going to risk facing some unpleasant surprises.

In summary, good comeback for India after the fiasco against the Kiwis. Some more thinking for the Pakistanis before their first match against England on Sunday.

Should India Have Declared Earlier?

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As the last Test against New Zealand was disrupted by rain and the match ended in a draw, once again the cricket fans and commentators have turned against the Indian cricket team captain and management saying that they should have declared earlier. The final result of the match with India just 2 wickets short of a victory gives some credibility to their opinion.

This is perhaps the 4th series in recent memory that India has not attempted a second victory in the series. Two of them came against England – one in England and other at home. The other came against Pakistan. But in all the matches, India could have easily lost.

So I don’t think this criticism is really fair. By playing it safe, India ensured that there would be no New Zealand victory under any circumstances, thus delivering a historic series victory in New Zealand after four decades. The series victory was the prize, not trashing the Kiwis 2-0, even though that would have been welcome too.

What the critics miss is that India, for far too long, has been mocked as tigers at home and paper tigers abroad. We have seen too many tours where the vaunted Indian batting lineup has crumbled like dry, rotten bread. India’s performance abroad was a joke and everyone knew that.

But in this decade, India has made great progress towards getting rid of the “poor tourists” label. They have won series in West Indies, England, Pakistan and now New Zealand, and matches in Australia, Sri Lanka and South Africa. That is the yardstick and that is what matters.

If India wish to become No. 1 in Tests, they have to rake in these series wins and become formidable enough not to lose Tests. Right now, they are on that path to establishing themselves in that respect. At that point, let us clamor for whitewashes.

[Photo licensed from koppdelaney]

India Make Major Inroads Towards No. 1 Status

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chepauk-stadium

As I write this, New Zealand are 235/5 chasing another 382 runs in just over 70 overs. Practically impossible. More to the point, they may not even survive those overs. India would have won the series by 1-0 or 2-0 by the end of the day.

This marks yet another frontier that India has successfully crossed in recent times. Here are some of those:

  • Beating England in England and in India
  • Beating West Indies in West Indies and in India
  • Beating Australia 2-0 in India
  • Beating Pakistan in India

The only setback that India has encountered has been the Sri Lankan tour where they were beaten comprehensively. In Australia, although they lost 1-2, that result hinged on the unfortunate Sydney Test with its umpiring howlers. India has been the only team to have had a consistently good record against the Australians this decade.

What next for India if they want to gain the No. 1 status? They will have to take on Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka playing away and beat them. India also lost to Pakistan away, but they beat them the last time they played against each other (in India). Besides, the tensions between the two countries and the security considerations will mean that the next Test series against Pakistan will be a long time coming.

Obviously, Australia will be the most difficult to beat, but the recent Aussie-SA series has muddied the waters a bit. Are the Aussies really back in form? What happened in the 3rd Test? Or was it Johnson and Hughes dragging the Aussies over the finish line? We will have to wait for the Ashes to get a clearer picture of the situation.

[Photo licensed from Srini G]

A Missed Opportunity by Sehwag

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When India was asked to follow on in the second test against New Zealand, I thought Virender Sehwag would set up and intriguing final two days of the match. We all remember how Sehwag pummeled 83 runs off just 68 balls, giving India a great start in their chase of a daunting 387 against England in Chennai last December.

I was expecting him to play a controlled innings this time.  Instead Sehwag, the skipper of the India side in Dhoni’s absence,  fell cheaply once again, playing an ugly shot.  Sehwag went for a big swing over midwicket on a bent knee and missed. The ball floated on the off stump line and hit Sehwag’s back leg.

Since Sehwag took himself out during an important juncture of the game, he has positioned himself to be criticized by many people for his shot selection. I know his fans will say that that is how he plays, refusing to let any bowler settle. But as a captain, he has to be more careful.

It is very frustating to see a player of Sehwag’s caliber attempting such atrocious shots without concern for the match situation. Luckily, because of the efforts of Gambir, Dravid and Tendulkar, India managed to escape on the fourth day, but they may still have to pay for it on the last day. As far as I am concerned, Sehwag missed an opportunity to prove his mettle.

[Photo Credit: NASA]

The India-New Zealand Blogging Wars

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DeadBall and Short of a Length have been going at each other over the India-NZ series. Right now, it is kind of a wash as NZ won the T20 series handily and India is leading the one-day series 2-0. Of course, India have the momentum now, but the series could easily swing the other way.

Anyway, it is all in good fun. Here are some of the missives back and forth:

DeadBall: Indian Summers

SOAL: Announcing the Cricket Blogger Wars

DeadBall: The Phony War is Over

SOAL: Are You Not Entertained?

DeadBall: The Power and the Glory

It would have been nice if the Kiwis won the match to keep the series away, but Sachin Tendulkar deserved it. Whatever they say about the man’s contributions in Tests, he owns the one-day arena. In the dusk of his career, he makes the 43rd century in the country where he reshaped his ODI career. Anyone remember the 82 off 49 balls back in 1994?

India as Usual in New Zealand

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mahendra singh dhoni

If anyone was expecting the Indian team to be behaving different on this tour of New Zealand, they would have been disappointed, but not surprised. If India was Australia’s Final Frontier, then New Zealand is India’s Collective Train Wreck. Not withstanding the Kiwi’s recent tendency to drag matches to the last over, this was a comprehensive defeat of India in both matches.

There is no silver lining in the results of these T20 matches, however Dhoni may think the opposite. No new player has broken out of the pack. Most of the batsmen played poorly and that will give them little confidence for the one-day matches. These Twenty20 matches, by their very nature, offer little practice for the ODI matches, serving mostly as entertainment for fans.

We had previously posted about the different India squads for the three forms of matches that would be played. The one person selected only for T20’s, Ravindra Jadeja, got a single look-in for the 2nd Twenty20 match, and is probably on a plane home.

The one-dayers may provide more time for the Indian team to accustom themselves to the conditions. However, 6 members of the Test squad are not in the ODI team and two of them (Laxman and Dravid) will definitely be playing without any exposure to the real match environment in New Zealand. Tendulkar, although included for the ODIs, is unlikely to play most of them.

Therefore, I am not too sanguine about the potential of India carrying the Test series. Of course, there are 3 Tests and a more confident Indian team, so anything could still happen. New Zealand hasn’t announced their Test squad yet. Once that is available, we will try another analysis based on the team composition and ODI performances.

[Photo licensed from lensmate]