Cricket: From the Far End

A major win in the first game against England (http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/ENG_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/ENG_IND_ODI1_28MAR2006.html). It didn’t look like it when we were batting. Somehow the top order is not firing in absence of Tendulkar. By the time they find a stable partner for Sehwag, Sehwag may himself need to be replaced, looking at his recent ODI record.

We now have about a year to try various options out before the World cup and it may not be bad to keep Ganguly in contention. Amongst the likely openers who are likely to contribute substantially with bat - Tendulkar for sure but neither Sehwag not Gambhir have been generating a lot of confidence lately - Gambhir got 4 consecutive matches against RSA and then 3 against Pakistan before this one and he has scored 1,38,11,0,2,21,38 & 25. Sehwag has scored only two ODI hundreds since the last world cup. I think these likely 7 consecutive matches will give a very good idea about what they can do.

Looking at the transformation that happed with Tendulkar in early 98 when he was removed from captaincy, Ganguly can be expected to perform better with no captaincy pressure and full focus on being the opener. If Chappell can’t influence Sehwag on how to play or avoid playing a rising ball, it puts the similar problem with Ganguly in a different perspective. Ideally they can take Ganguly to WI and see how he performs there. Overall the top order batting form doesn’t look so good to keep Ganguly out of the equation totally - in ODIs.

So Harbhajan finally got out of his “right arm wicketless” label that stuck on him recently in tests. India defending such a small total hasn’t been seen for a while now. Moreover after a really long time in a team scoring only 200 was able to win. In the last four years in matches in India involving India, only once a team scoring less than 250 has won - Australia against India in the TVS cup final. And probably if it wasn’t the final they would have lost, anybody can win against India in a final with any score.

Overall England seems to have missed an opportunity when for a change Indian batting didn’t score much. I think it’s not likely to happen anytime soon now. Moreover if England kept losing like that they run the risk of having to play the qualifier rounds of the ICC Champions trophy later this year. India did face similar embarrassment at the start of this season - although India would have qualified just because they are the hosts. That sounds more like our old childhood rules, the guy who brings a ball to play used to get to bat first and sometimes would get finally out after being really out 2-3 times.

Are we heading for another Karachi? Can Dravid & Co make it different this time? Will they make a gallant and successful chase today? Of the out of form players, Kumble has already done his bit in the last test and has also contributed here, so this looks to be mainly a test of Tendulkar and Sehwag, Dhoni and Jaffer, with Sehwah now expected to come in after five wickets fall. (I am sure there will be at least one piece written somewhere talking about why Dravid “chose” to send him so late, and will try to put that link here). If they contribute significantly and together, we may see a win or at least a fight - never mind it’s for a test they were supposed to win handsomely. Otherwise there is no point following the rest of the match. A failure of Tendulkar at home is no indicator of how he will do in WI or RSA later this year but it sounds funny to have people contemplating about how he is going to face “real pace of Fidel Edwards and Darren Powell in WI”, about a player who you saw hungry for strike to face Ambrose after he had knocked Jadeja and Sidhu down in the 1996 match (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=sports&xfile=data/sports/2006/March/sports_March480.xml).When we started watching cricket on TV, I remember watching GR Viswanath struggling for form in pretty much all the games. Finally he was dropped after the tour of Pak in ‘83. When Vishy was in his prime not many households in India had a TV and when people started watching a lot of cricket just before the world cup all we saw of him were those failures. As a result our general impression about him was that of a failed player at that time. It was only later when I read about him that I came to know how good he was before that. Now if it wasn’t for those recent ODI games, the new generation of cricket fans watching Tendulkar in the last 1-2 years might be having similar thoughts about him too- they hear about a glorious past but don’t see much proof when they watch live. Hope he has more cricket left in him than Vishy had by ‘83, and his recent ODI performances give that hope. If he is going to be successful in only one form of the game now on, I wish it’s the tests. It’s good to see him timing the surgery with the ODIs and not the tests.

Ganguly apparently can not be selected now until the selection committee itself changes, but looks like he can have a say in how the selection happens (http://ia.rediff.com/cricket/2006/mar/10gang.htm) as six current and ex-players will examine the current system and give their suggestions. Strangely all those players are batsmen, unless the BCCI also thinks of Ganguly as an all-rounder. So if More doesn’t select Ganguly now, there is a chance Ganguly may not select him in future!

Ganguly is still hopeful of selection. If Aussies can select Damien Martyn again (http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/rsavaus/content/story/239796.html), why not Ganguly? At least for the test series there is no reason for closing doors on him unless his form is bad even in domestic. Martyn was the main contributor for Australia in their wins in the subcontient in 2004, but didn’t contribute at all in their Ashes series which caused his ouster. Ganguly may not have had so much contribution with the bat but one must not forget that he was leading India in most of the successful season of 2003-04. Letting him lead the team unconditionally through 2005 was one extreme, but keeping him out in tests is the other. For ODI, it makes sense to look at the world cup next year and build a team for fit and atheletic players for that, but for test matches every upcoming series is equally important for India and he should get his chance just as a batsman.

Lots of approaching/achieved milestones for senior players with Kumble nearing 500 test wickets, Sachin equalling Kapil’s 131 tests, Dravid reaching 100 tests in the next one.

Can VVS Laxman come back? I just wish he does, because with current competetive selection, that will probably result into some magical innings.