India's World T20 Debacle: Who's at fault?

Losing the Midas Touch Mr. Cool?

India’s loss to WI in T20 yesterday has been greeted with equal measure of outrage and grief. Its Deja Vu all overagain. Captain Cool isn’t cool anymore for us. Neither does Gambhir looks serious enough. The Prince has turned Pauper and the mighty Pathan looks shell shocked.Rankles as it is to see our team going down lamely yet again in T20 WC, perhaps its time for us to take an objective view of the matter while keeping our emotions in check.Not really easy in a nation that goes hyper on anything to do with cricket.

Lets first look the key factors in loss as commonly agreed by all fans, commentators, ex cricketers and Media. And the first one will be undoubtedly our weakness against the fast and short delivery. Second going with a bowler short and lining up the same XI who were taken to cleaners by the Aussies. Third was Playing Ravindra Jadeja. Fourth was Dhoni choosing to bowl after winning the Toss. Fifth has to be the miserable fielding performance and dropped catches. Except the first point others are in no particular order.

Lets analyze them one by one keeping the bouncers for last. Should Dhoni have dropped Jadeja and got Piyush Chawla in or perhaps the rookie Vinay Kumar? I for one firmly believe that WC matches are not the occasions for debut. Its nothing to do with the talent but everything to do with Big Match Battle Ready mindset. Thats why most of fellow Keedas agree Uthappa should have been chosen over Murali Vijay. And looking at our much experienced Fast Bowlers were not really spectacular, Vinay’s chances to come good is highly hypothetical. As far is Chawla’s inclusion is concerned lets only rewind a couple of weeks back when his selection in the team was being openly questioned by all. His performance even in IPL was not upto the standards.

In happier times

In comparison Ravindra Jadeja , who i am sure will be a contender for top spot in public enemy No.1 contest for the week, has figures to back him up , IPL or no IPL. In last One year his ODI economy is miserly 4.78 . And believe it or faint before the last two T20 matches where he was carted around the park his T20 economy rate was 5.65. Though not backed by a bagful of wickets this kind of economy rate is a rarity. Certainly he deserved a chance . What Captain can be called a leader of men if he dumped his lieutenants after one failure. If we get fired for every little mistake at workplace, most of us would have been in 50th job already. Let’s not be cruel to the young 21 year old Jadeja dismal though his performance is.

Looking at all kinds of trouble our Batsmen got into batting second, wonder what would have been our situation if the team had to bat first in conditions even more conducive for fast bowling. I rest my case. Harbhajan did nothing wrong as an opening bowler but our lack of a Quality fast bowler and below par show by Nehra and Zaheer is a serious concern.

Dropped catches and misfield is one itch that refuses to go away. Gayle’s dropped catch literally cost us the match. Wonder when our fielding will of Aussies or Kiwis standard, one can only imagine a day when opposition will fear our fielding as much they fear our spinners on Nagpur and Ahmedabad pitches. The team should be fined a percentage of their match fees for all mis fields. The collection that would be in tens of millions should be allotted to the best fielders in Domestic tournaments and no that does not mean IPL at all.

Sweet chin Music

And finally what the hell is BCCI doing?When will they have vision for anything other than the much desired Gandhi on paper. Dhoni says Indian Player’s short coming againt the Chin Music is chronic and has been there for ever. Yeah But admitting your weakness is no relief for the fans Mr. captain. Your use of it is pathetic even if its true because no efforts are being made. Why doesn’t the team practice it in nets like a Sachin used to practice on a concrete surface with a Tennis Bowl. May be that’s too much to expect from today’s players. Why sweat when you can shoot instead and with full backing of the parent body. Every team knows it and they plan the game accordingly, we know it too and are do nothing. And its a matter of real shame for BCCI. Nine Months back in another T20 WC in England we were routed in similar manner. Its almost the same team. Still clueless and still at sea with the short stuff. After last year debacle the wise men at the helm brought back Dravid for Champions trophy as a desperate measure to prevent another collaspe. India were ousted from the tournament early and the wall was dumped once again.That was it. Since than the team has been playing in subcontinent. No bowler was a threat except the fast and furious Steyn in one test match. Since than we have played only ODI’s and T20′s all at home and everyone has scored. No opportunity to fine tune the game. No planning. No long term thinking. Perhaps they expected that if the Raina’s and Gautam’s play long enough they will transform themselves into Sachin, VVS or Dravid just like that. The BCCI has never cared about putting its house in order. And when the team struggles as they are unrealistically expected not to, the public fury is on players and not BCCI.

Train your batsmen, look for a genuine fast bowler or two. The ones who can slug out entire day and still bowl at speed in an empty stadium during a Ranji Match . Watch those matches too selectors. Build grounds where a fielder is not afraid to slide and dive. Do that instead of filling coffers which is never put to smart use anyway. The average Indian Cricket fan gives a damn to what happens to Lalit Modi but does care about his team winning. Cricket is his greatest escape from everyday’s rigor. Its termed as a religion not for nothing.Any wonder the National Mood was bit low today.