Monday, August 11, 2014

India's debacle at Old Trafford, Manchester

What happened few days back in Old Trafford, Manchester Test match was a Cauchemar. There are so many things debatable about this match.
Beginning with the decision to bat first. Was it a right decision. Apparently not. When four of your batsmen get out at a score of 8, it certainly can not be called a right decision. But, I think, it could have been proved a  right decision, if our batsmen would have shown little temperament to stick around. When one or two of your wickets go down, one should get extra vigilant for every ball thrown towards them. If nothing else, the way English batsmen batted proved the point. They played well enough to get a lead of almost 200 runs, a lead bigger than what Indians scored overall.
Indian batsmen did not learn their lesson even in the second inning. I tried to follow the inning for some time. I took  few minutes break and when I returned to the match, India was one down. Murali Vijay was gone. Another 20 minutes and Gambhir was on his was back to pavilion. I kind of gave up seeing this performance and started watching a sit com that goes for around 20 minutes. When I returned once again to the match after 20 mins, India went down 61-5. That felt disgraceful to even watch. Why can't Indian team adapt to the condition on foreign soil. Agree that there is a swing of as big as 28 cms at occasions, but guys, you are professional cricketers! You are supposed to play those balls right. Forget English batsmen, even low order batsmen managed to survive those balls to an extent. Dhoni, who is not a technical batsmen could survive and score 71 runs in first inning. Even Ashwin could score 40 runs. This probably is more than the collective effort of our top 5 batsmen in both the innings.
One good thing is Dhawan is rested. I don't believe, he is a player for India in  a long run. India should continue with Gambhir instead of Dhawan. Also, give rest to Kohli. He is probably busy with other curricular activities, so as not to concentrate on his game. I am wondering what is the problem with Pujara. He is supposed to be the next Dravid in making for India. With this performance, that seems doubtful. Rahane is instead succeeding in his efforts to stay strong, but even he is not consistent. And what to say about Sir Jadeja. No doubt, Ashwin is better alternative for him in the next test.
Our bowlers are also funny. Ishant Sharma, played one good game and then he got injured. How on earth, do you expect to be the spear head of Indian attack. Who is this Pankaj Singh? Never saw him playing anywhere. Never heard of him and suddenly he is the main Indian attack who is preferred over Shami or Varun. Some thing is not right.
Indian think tank is probably resting in some corner and  the Captain is still in Lords. Wake up, do something in the last test match. Make Indian batsmen realize that they are supposed to consistently score runs. With out runs, our already weak bowling attack becomes pathetic.
For last few days, we rather enjoyed watching Common wealth games over the test matches. Probably it will be good to make this a habit to look for other sports rather than this pathetic Indian performance.

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