Captain Aaron Finch- Pune's worst mistake.

Nothing seems to be going right for the Pune Warriors this IPL season. Neither they are able to form a stable team nor any of their experiments are working. Amidst all these, the decision of making Finch the captain in place of Mathews has done more harm than any good for the franchisee.

Whether it be making on-field calls, or selecting the team combination, Finch has in no way proven his worth as the captain of the Pune team. The team, which according to me had enough material – at least to make their way to the play-offs – are now placed at the bottom of the table. No doubt Finch is an exceptional opening batsman, but the additional burden of the captaining a high-profile team in a high profile tournament has only hampered his batting form.

It is said that a team is as good as it’s captain. And when your captain is not performing according to his merit and also taking wrong calls at the right times, has added to the despair of Pune team.

Even if we keep his batting form aside for a moment, his decision-making skills as a captain are proving no good for the Pune team and also for the owners. We have failed to see a stable pune team through out the tournament. The bundles of changes that were made in almost every match through out the tournament, has not done any good to the Pune side. They have used 3 captains for this season, which is the worst thing for any team.

Take for example today’s match, we all know how dangerous Bhuvi can prove with the new ball in hand on a pitch that had something for seam bowlers. Yet he was taken off the attack after bowling mere 1 over at the start. And adding to that he ended up bowling only 2 overs. Now, a bowler in the rank of Bhuvi, probably the only in-form man for Pune, not even completing his quota of 4 overs in such a low scoring match, seriously gives enough material to the critics for questioning the captain-ship skills of Finch.

This was not the first occasion when something like this happened, in the last match against KKR, Kumar was given the 5th over, only after the opening bowlers were hammered by the batsman. Now, if a captain uses his wicket taking bowler as damage control bowler, I think no more justification is required by anyone to question his merit as a captain. I am not saying that, he is the only man responsible for Pune’s position, but yes he is the main culprit to be blamed for.

We all know how dangerous Dinda can prove while bowling the end overs for his own team, yet continuously giving him that responsibility is not so cool decision by the Captain. Not giving a chance to the bowler of the ranks of Mendis, is very much frustrating for a Pune fan.

Well, in short no experiments proved right for the Pune team. Or they made quite a lot experiments than what they can handle.

Well, lets bring an interesting stat to everyone’s notice at the end of this article - Pune has maximum number of 50 plus partnerships in the Pepsi IPL 2013, the count being 14. Yes, you read it correct, maximum number of 50 plus partnerships in the entire tournament. Now just imagine how inconsistent their middle order is. With these many 50 plus partnership, you are definitely not eligible to end the tournament at the bottom.

Probably, Pune will learn from their mistake and will come back stronerg in the next edition. And for the remaining portion of this tournament I think Pune should stop experimenting and Finch must prove his worth as a captain.