Australia IS Australia After All....

DLF Tri Series Trophy Australia Vs India Match 2 - 22 September 2006

India may be adding to its population an equivalent of Australian population every single year but it doesn't seems to be able to find 11 men who can beat Australia consistently. What is even more apalling is the fact that they never seem to be using their grey matter while using the 'grey matter' is something which is more than often evident in the case of Australia.

See how they utilized Watson which also paid off in this do-or-die situation, while the same can't be said of the Pathan experiment. Indian batsmen though woefully out of form did manage to put up up a fighting total which eventually fell short by about 25 runs. But all the effort was undone by the indian pace attack if i can take the libert to call it so. India it seems has to look for pacemen of indian origin from Australia or even Pakistan to play for India....because as soon as someone with promise comes onto the international stage , his performance just wanes like a matchstick which starts to burn with a lot of light and fire but when the tip is done with all you are left with is a waning flame.

Sehwag in this match tried to get out of his slump by some innovative shot selection stepping away from the line and hitting it, but when the time came for him to go on and make ammends with his strike rate in this innings (65 of 90 deliveries) played a lazy lookin shot. The way he was running between the wickets gave an indication that he was not used to staying at the wicket for long and taking singles.

Sachin has made it a habbit to fail against teams where contribution from him is required the most. Idont know what stops him from playing like he should be in ODIs. Gone are the times when he should be thinking of staying at the wicket and grafting his innings which was the case when the indian team was called a one man army and as soon as his wicket fell indians switched off their television sets. I think at this stage he should try and dominate any bowling attack and not worry too much which seems to be the case. If he just comes down the track occassionally and try to hit through the line a bit (horizontal bat shots) i guess any bowlers rythm will be disturbed and the stature of Tendulkar will definitely play on his mind. The two indian openers need to go all out ...just like the way Ganguly and Tendulkar did and thats why they were so successful. I agree Tendulkar is not getting any younger but that makes my point even more important. I think an innings of 50-60 with innovative shots from Tendulkar at a good strike rate will prove more effective than a subdued innings of 100 or more.

In this game against Australia Mongia once again proved that he might just not be the right one at this level of cricket. He aint a grafter or a shot maker and somehow he doesn't give you a feel of a matchwinner in any case. I don't know why they are persisting with him. India should try out new faces. I am sure their is much talent out their beyond the Mongias and the Badanis.

Also in this match India missed out on an opportunity to send Dhoni up the order when they sent out Kaif before him and then certainly at the time when they sent out Raina ahead of Pathan.
In the final overs Australins bowled the right length and beautifully avoided the big shots either from Raina or Dhoni. Something that Indian bowlers didn't do. They bowled short repeatedly and as if they had express pace so as to disturb people like Ponting and Gilchrist (the best pullers that i know of in contemporary cricket).

Pathan did swing the ball but he sprayed the ball all over the place not being consistent with his line or length. Ajit Agarkar, another bowler whom i call the FourGiver proved that he gives too many Four deliveries in the match against West Indies which might have sealed a place for india in Semi-Finals. Though he did not play in this match i would want indian selectors to look beyond him...please are you listening ?
We need tall, healthy and bowlers with some express pace...atleast one such bowler. Or better find someone who is more consistent with his line and length... Idont know what happened to Aviskar Salvi (the indian McGrath as he was touted to be)

I wonder whether the Indian team ever tries to pre-empt things that could go wrong and plan against them in advance apart from the nets and all before a game specially against such opposition....because all that i see always with the Indian team is that they seem to be working out plans on the field and don't seem to react quck enough. Rahul being the captain of India, i expect more planned approch to things. I dont know why they cannot just write it down on a peice of paper and keep it handy when playing.

We all know what Woolmer did with Hansie. A peice of gadget in his ear was all that he did to do exactly that. As soon as something went wrong their was the advice directly given by Woolmer to Hansie. So why not write it down before a match and try to implement that in the game.

What are the weaknesses of a particular batsmen ...Which bowler has got him most times and where to have the fielders....etc. Also i dont think Indians have got the mettle to do some experiments as well. Why did Dravid realised that it will be the slow bowlers that can restrict the Australian run making and introduce Harbhajan qickly enough?Maybe just give an over or two in the middle of a spell from the two opening bowlers to see how things turn out. Until and unless you have guy you can ALWAYS trust (a McGrath or a Shane Warne) you need to experiment a bit.
It took Greg to suggest India that they should try out Pathan as a Pintch Hitter. I am not saying that should experiment all the time and also in crucial matches. But over the years i dont see that kind of attitude with India even when thay are playin tems like Zimbabwe or a Bangladesh.

Please...we need cricketers with the right attitude as well...and attitude to experiment. Unless you do a certain thing in real you will never know its right or wrong. Things in India seem to come full circle all the time.

Also one thing that even Ian pointed out during this match was that India need to produce more pitches like Mohali and i fully agree to him. Because almost all the time the teams from outside the subcontinent are more easily able to adjust to the lower bounce and turn rather than the Indian team getting used to higher bounce when playing outside ....so please have more pitches like Mohali. Don't know what happened to the Pich Improvement drive a couple of years back when experts from New Zealand were hired for the job of making true bounce pitches in India.

Lastly, I can go on and on and on with this if i have to just write about why India has failed abroad even after having such a talented team (apart from a few others which always seem to be the difference in the end). I dont know why team India should have had players like Sunil Joshi, Hemang Badani, Bangar, Rathore, Khurasia, V. Prasad, MSK Prasad(he went to that all important tour to Australia ...what a pity), Deep Das Gupta, Agarkar (he too i think falls in this category...though he might even had had a century at Lords), Gambir (i hope India dont resort to him again for the tour of South Africa). Get in some new faces. We will surely hit upon someone who belongs to this level.

Players i want ot see playing often: Romesh Powar is one, Suresh Raina (all this talk of him not belonging to this level in the last match is crap)VRV Singh and i am sure their are many others.

I just pray that India learn from their mistakes and start working on PLANS and STRATEGIES for the South African tour as soon as possible and be be prepared for the tough times in advance rather than making long faces when it's crunch time in the middle of a match in South Africa.