Indian showing a major disappointment
Even after taking into account the fact that expectations were not very high, it must be said that the showing - or should one say the non performance - of the Indian team at Dhaka came as a major disappointment
Partab Ramchand
04-Jun-2000
Even after taking into account the fact that expectations were not
very high, it must be said that the showing - or should one say the
non performance - of the Indian team at Dhaka came as a major
disappointment.
Yes, it was known that the bowling was woefully weak and
inexperienced. And true, what with the match fixing scandal having
engulfed some of the players in the team, they could not have been in
a proper frame of mind to perform even upto their potential. But even
after considering all this, there is little doubt that the Indians
fell below expectations. After all, the Pakistan and Sri Lankan teams
too had weaknesses. And it must not be forgotten that Pakistan too
figures very prominently in the match fixing scam. But these countries
never allowed these shortcomings to disturb their performances.
Mentally, they remained very strong.
Losing by 71 runs to Sri Lanka and then by 44 runs to Pakistan was the
Indians' woeful record. Even against Bangladesh, the bowling was seen
in poor light. The Indians conceded 249 runs to a side which a few
days later went down to Pakistan by the record one day defeat margin
of 233 runs. One thought that the Indian batting was strong enough to
over ride any weakness in the bowling. But that was obviously a
mistaken impression.
Of course it could be said that the alarm bells started ringing the
moment the team was selected. It was certainly not the best team that
could have been picked. A bowling line up that has Ajit Agargar as the
spearhead and continues with Kumaran and debutant Amit Bhandari would
have any opposition batting line up licking their lips in
anticipation. Sunil Joshi and Nikhil Chopra do not have an impressive
one day record and so even in the spin department India were ill
equipped.
As so often in the past, one looked up at our traditional strong
batting line up to cover up the deficiances in the bowling. But Saurav
Ganguly and Rahul Dravid obviously found it difficult to make the
transition from English conditions to the hot weather of the sub
continent. The additional pressure on Sachin Tendulkar told on his
batting. Md Azharuddin is in the twilight of his career. And Jadeja
too seemed jaded despite his 93 against Pakistan, a distinctly lucky
innings. The silver lining was provided by new boy Hemang Badani who
displayed his class and skill in his 35 in the opening match. One only
hopes he is persevered with for he is obviously a long term prospect.
It is about time the Indian team management stop this foolhardy
experiment of Dravid as wicketkeeper. They persisted with this risky
policy despite having a specialist wicketkeeper in Mongia who had
flown in to replace the injured Saba Karim. An international cricket
team should have a specialist stumper. This elementary fact is
astonishingly lost on our team management. By continuing with Dravid
behind the stumps, one is not only risking the injury factor to one of
our premier batsmen but also admitting that it is a cover up policy
for inherent weaknesses and lack of balance in the side.
There are no international competitions for the Indian team for some
time and this lull could not have come at a better time. It is time to
rebuild the side and since this process takes time, it is better to
start right now in real earnest. For a start, let us invest in the
lads who won the under-19 World Cup for us in January this year.
Remember them? This is the way Pakistan has unearthed talent like
Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq and Imran Nazir. We too have young gifted
players. The time has come to shed our traditional approach, take bold
steps and encourage them.