Swinging Yorker

Srikkanth & Co: What about your accountability?

2010-05-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

With the spotlight firmly on MS Dhoni and his team after its exit from the T-20 WC, those who were equally responsible for how India fared are now staying away from the cameras and having a silent laugh: The K Srikkanth-led selection panel of the BCCI.

These are the guys who had chosen the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla and Dinesh Kartick---the non performers of our WC team.
Srikkanth and his fellow selectors are the guys who had chosen to overlook, while selecting the WC team, performers like Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra and Robin Uthappa.

Uthappa, I guess, was ignored to make way for M Vijay who is a Tamilian like Srikkanth.

Srikkanth's love for cricketers is no secret.

We all remember how Srikkanth had gone to town over the allegedly-fiery pace of another cricketer from TN, Abhimanyu Mithun.

Mithun of course, when he represented India, turned out to be a 125kph-plus bowler with no swing/seam abilities.

Mr. Srikkanth, how about sitting on the hot seat and explaining your panels' performance over the year?

ALL IS WELL, INSISTS BCCI

2010-05-15T03:01:00.000-07:00

All is well with the Indian T 20 team, says the BCCI.
All is well, especially, with its captain MS Dhoni, it adds with emphasis.

So, forget the fact that our top batsmen ran away from short-pitched balls in the T20 WC. Or, they gave catching practise off them.
So, forget that the batsmen had forgotten to play cricketing shots. That they played a T20 game with the mindset of a T 5 game.
They could not even clear the ropes when they were required to for a win.
That, aware of their inability against fast bowling, but eager to protect their big-hitting reputations built on dead tracks of India at the same time, the batsmen tried hitting their way out of tough situations.
But, they could find only the fielders.

All is well, though our bowlers failed miserably.
Dhoni's two big hopes, Zaheer and Harbhajan, among them, have hardly any scalp to show in their kitty.
The part-timers gave the matches away to the opposition by leaking runs.

Dhoni chose spin, when pace was the need.
He chose the likes of Kartick, Jadeja, Vijay Zaheer, when Rohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav could have done the job.
He chose being stubborn, when flexibility would have won him the day.

The BCCI lives in a state of denial.
Worse, it will get away with it.
They are the think-tanks that keep the likes of Dravid, Pragyan Ojha, Robin Uthappa, Amit Mishra out. For paper-tigers like M Vijay, Jadeja, Kartick, etc.
The government needs to dissolve this body and scrap the selection panel.

And, begin anew.

PICKING UP THE PIECES

2010-05-14T01:06:00.000-07:00

Dhoni To Go?
Two days after Swinging Yorker suggested Dhoni be replaced, as the T 20/ODI captain, with either Sehwag or Gambhir, TOI reported on Friday the BCCI might do exactly that.

GET FRESH BLOOD
The new ODI/T20 team should be without these players who are either out-of-form or do not relish lively, sporting pitches: Dinesh Kartick, Murali Vijay, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan, Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan and Piyush Chawla.
Suresh Raina's technique is suspect, too, against the fast, moving ball but he is an improviser, a fighter. Keep him.
Yusuf Pathan has to find a way to score off short-pitched balls and yorkers.
Keep Vinay Kumar, U Yadav in the team. Are Ishant and Sreesanth in form now?

TIME IS UP, DHONI

2010-05-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

In the end, India lost to Sri Lanka rather tamely in its final Super-8 tie.
But what else does one expect after scoring 30 less against an average attack and feeding their batsmen with fours and sixes in the last eight balls of the innings?

Dhoni now feels the IPL parties "distracted" his players! Well, who had forced them to attend?
Let's see what he did, when something else could have been done with better results, perhaps.
WHY STICK TO A MEDIOCRE SPIN ATTACK ON PACY PITCHES?

On pacy, bouncy Caribbean pitches he chose to back a spin-led bowling attack. An attack that was a mix of a non wicket-taker, Harbhajan Singh, and a gaggle of run-leaking part-timers: Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Yuvaraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja.
This, when he had the opportunity of using three specialist seamers.

WHY PERSIST WITH ZAHEER?
Despite knowing Zaheer Khan was woefully out of form, Dhoni chose him over promising pacers like Vinay Kumar and Umesh Yadav till the do-or-die match. It was too late by then.
Vinay bowled with accuracy and sting. He had the highest number of dot balls and two top wickets. A talent for the future?
BACKING THE WRONG 'UN

Harbhajan kept feeding 4s and 6s, yet Dhoni persisted with him. Why?

DRAVID SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE TEAM

The 'Wall' was sorely missed on the fiery Barbados pitches where the Indian bats struggled against deliveries zipping past them. A Rahul Dravid could have anchored the innings, shepherded the young bats.

DINESH KARTICK SHOULD NOT BE IN THE TEAM

Dinesh Kartick is not a specialist batsman. His place will be debated.

RESCHEDULE THE IPL AFTER THE NEXT T 20 WC/IMPORTANT TOURNAMENT

IPL is a tiring club-level tournament. Make it only a season-finisher.

DHONI SHOULD GO?
Dhoni should go as the T 20 and ODI captain. Either Sehwag or Gautam Gambhir. The new captain should select the team based on merit alone and be open to new ideas.

INDIA'S FAMED BATSMEN HOP LIKE CATS ON FIERY BARBADOS PITCH

2010-05-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

On a lively, bouncy pitch, with quicks hurling down short-pitched balls at the ribs and necks, India’s cricket team collapsed like a pack of cards.

In Sunday’s do-or-die match against the West Indies team, India came up woefully short. We went down like a club side battling a world class team.

BATTING BLUES

One after another, the Indian batsmen were hunted down by some accurate, fast bowling that gave no quarter. If, we keep aside the wides and no balls bowled.

The batsmen showed no technique to either defend or attack.

There were no straight, dead bats to kill a fast delivery. Or, authentic cricket shots to score and yet not give a way the wickets. The way a Rahul Dravid, a Sachin Tendulkar does.

There was no display of clean hitting, stroke-making to clear the ropes.

They hit but lacked the timing, the positioning and the power to clear the ropes through air. Fielders around the boundaries pocketed all that came their way.

All that the Indian batsmen could attempt tonight were mis-hits off 148 kph deliveries rising from the green pitch at their throats.

TOO LATE, TOO LITTLE

Dhoni, like always, showed he had the stomach to fight fire with fire but it was not for long. Yusuf Pathan shined briefly but let go the one chance he had to redeem his failing reputation as a competent international-class batsman.

BOWLING BLUNDERS

As I have been saying, MSD’s bowling attack, unchanged from the last game, just did not have enough firepower to destroy any team away from the dead, home pitches.

His favourites, Jadeja, Bhajji were taken to the cleaners. They dealt in sixes.

Zaheer did not fire at all.

Nehra’s accuracy and swing were missing.

WHAT AN UMESH YADAV COULD HAVE DONE?

Imagine, what an Umesh Yadav could have done?

Like Kemar Roach, Nannes and Tait, he could have fed the batsmen with 145-kph missiles going for their ribs, necks and heads. Defending such deliveries, most Indian batsmen had perished.

MSD Does It Again

2010-05-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

THE INCORRIGIBLE

By deciding against making any changes in the team that took a drubbing from the Aussies 72 hours ago, MSD is living up to his reputation: Of being an incorrogible stronghead.
Ravindra Jadeja is neither a specialist wicket-taker nor a strokemaker. He needed to be yanked out.
Dhoni could have brought in Umesh Yadav for his extra yards of pace, or even Vinay Kumar for his knack of taking top wickets.

CHAWLA IGNORED AGAIN

Yusuf Pathan needed to be thrown out too. Chawla could have been taken in to take wickets.

BHAJJI GETS THE NEW BALL!

Zaheer, woefully out of form already, and Ashish Nehra should have at least been given the new ball. For operating with the new ball has been their forte.
But like the last match, MSD has handed over the ball to Harbhajan.

Gawd
Let's see what happens now...
But irrespective of the results, MSD might have to take the rap for sticking to his whims.

Wake Up, MSD

2010-05-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

India's crushing defeat against the Aussies on Friday might just be the wake-up signal its cricket team needed badly.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a shrewd, fearless captain. That is, when he wants to be.

At other times, MSD shows the same defensive and stubbornly- unimaginative approach that had characterised our former captains. He is usually known as a practitioner of the out-of-the-box thinking but periodically his decisions defy his profile.

MSD shies from taking risks, backs his 'favourite' losers and shuns fresh options.

The Barbados pitch and Bhajji

On a lively, hot and pacy Barbados pitch, our great captain had chosen to fire with spinners, two of them were only part-timers. Why, he even opened with Bhajji.

Dhoni thinks Harbhajan Singh is his magic weapon. No, Harbhajan is only a defensive bowler. His wicket-taking days are firmly behind him.

Why have the quick Vinay Kumar in the team then? Will he bench Umesh Yadav, with his consistent 140-145 kph speed, too?

Zaheer is off-colour

Dhoni should realise Zaheer Khan, our spearhead, is not in form. His swing is missing, and so is the pace. Dhoni has to find his substitute/s quickly in this competition.

Rohit is all class

Rohit Sharma's gutsy knock should remind MSD that there is no substitute for class.

MSD's reliance on average cricketers like Dinesh Karthick, Joginder Sharma, and Piyush Chawla might not take the team anywhere.

India's best wicket-takers, Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha, are at home, and sitting idle.

Thanks to Chawla's inclusion.

Praveen Kumar
His departure is going to hurt the Indian team. Though he bowls only at around 125 kph, Kumar is a fine swing bowler and uses the slower ones well. He is as wily as they come.

Dirk Nannes

Among the Aussies, Nannes stood out. The wiry pacer was simply unplayable in his best deliveries. Time for Australia to take notice of him. Till recently, he did not know who would want him to represent: Australia or Holland?

extra

2010-05-08T05:20:00.001-07:00