Thursday, October 18, 2007
At A Loss Against Odds
India's loss to Sri Lanaka in the Ahmedabad one-dayer only goes to show that its bench strength as far as bowling is still not upto the mark. It is not new that S. Sreesanth and R.P. Singh were overawed. They bowled four-five deliveries in the corridor of uncertainty, only to be followed by one or two short and wide balls, which naturally got punished at this highest level. They need to work on their fitness above anything else to strike the desired level of consistency. It seems that the spirit of experimentation has not yet fully permeated into the batting order. Otherwise, Suresh Raina or Venugopal Rao would have been sent to tackle the pressure situation, when the wickets of Virender Sehwag, M.S. Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh fell in heap. The old warhorse Rahul Dravid emerged instead. And if Sourav Ganguly can be dropped for inconsistency, why not Yuvraj Singh? It is an irony that Sourav Ganguly did not get a look-in after pounding V.R.V Singh in a recent Duleep Trophy match, and the bowler who can bat a bit got the nod of ascent from the selectors. Mohammad Kaif who has been in good form before injury could have been rested for the series and Ganguly, who is scoring runs and taking wickets should have been allowed another chance at this juncture. Another ominous sign for Indian cricket is that after Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh no spinner of calibre good enough to represent India on a regular basis is coming up. Murali Karthick seems to be a dead duck in unfavourable conditions.
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