Lessons from Zimbabwe for Cricket India

A script different from the one which fans are used to seeing run a number of times over the last three years – India erasing the poor showing in a world cup by winning the subsequent tournament. In 2007, it was the Bangladesh tour after the ODI World Cup while in 2009 it was the ODI series in West Indies that followed the T20 World Cup. This time, though, the blots have increased after the tri-series match against Sri Lanka at Harare, one that saw the second-string Indian side getting knocked out of the tournament.

A tournament that did not generate any enthusiasm suddenly became a talking point after the first match in which India went down to Zimbabwe. A brief lull during the win against Sri Lanka before it began to gain steam during the second leg when India crashed out to Zimbabwe in a low-scoring encounter. It finally peaked yesterday after India crashed out to Sri Lanka who won by 6 wickets to enter the final.

The swords are out against the selectors. They should take the blame for some weird selection decisions. Appointing Suresh Raina as skipper lacked any cricketing logic. His is a classic example that shows the selectors probably do not look at domestic performances. He has limited experience captaining Uttar Pradesh and his elevation to captaincy in the IPL was based more out of reputation than experience. A better choice would have been Dinesh Karthik with an impressive record of captaincy of Tamilnadu especially at the domestic one-day level that saw him lifting the Vijay Hazare one-day trophy twice in a row in the last two seasons. Umesh Yadav’s performance proved that raw pace is useless if not backed by a wicket or two. Murali Vijay proved he was at his best only on flat pitches while Yusuf Pathan is yet to display his IPL brilliances at the international level.

There has been a brighter side to this too. Vinay Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin have picked wickets in the solitary opportunities they got. The latter was brilliant with the bat as well, scoring 38 off 32 balls in the death overs. Ashok Dinda proved to be far more effective than Umesh Yadav with the variations in his pace, line and length. Ravindra Jadeja proved his effectiveness as a one-day player with his tight bowling while Virat Kohli established his credentials at the highest level. Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha proved they too belong while Dinesh Karthik with his 100 runs off 146 balls in four innings showed he is the best backup batsman who can anchor the innings. If he gets to partner Virender Sehwag when he returns, he can anchor the innings at his end while allowing Sehwag to go guns. Rotating the strike is what he showed he can do if he gets to partner Gautam Gambhir or Sachin Tendulkar. With the ODI world cup less than a year away, these players would do well to seize their opportunities at the highest level and keep performing consistently in the various domestic competitions coming up. Unfortunately these positives will be overshadowed by the team’s loss and even these players become culpable for no harm of theirs.

After the match, Raina conceded that the team did not bowl well. Bowling second in a must-win game means wickets are important irrespective of the target. Failure to use two more spinners in Rohit Sharma and in himself made the difference between him and the experienced Dhoni, who, at times, did not hesitate to use all his part-timers.In all, this series exposed some serious mistakes in the team selection. It showed the importance of domestic captaincy track record over international reputation. It told us not to overlook wicket-taking ability in favour of raw pace. It yet again proved that the IPL is not the best parameter to judge performance.

With this loss, India slip to No.3 in the ODI rankings while South Africa have pipped them for the second spot after their Caribbean whitewash. Chance to regain the second place comes when they take on Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (yet again) in the Asia Cup starting later this month. Every one of India’s ODIs over the next eight months should be taken seriously even if they are going to be against Sri Lanka.