Indian Cricket News
After a poor series loss at home to the Australians; Indian cricket tragics and the general Indian public must be wondering “What went wrong!”, as MS Dhoni and his merry men crashed and burned at the hands of a very young Australian ODI side.
People watching the games on PayTV or free live cricket streaming casts on the internet were in shock as the indian team reeled at 5/27 and looked like crashing out for a total well below 100.
India’s batting line-up is considered one of the best in the world, but on Sunday they were reeling at 27 for 5 against Australia.
If not for Praveen Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja’s half centuries, the mighty Indians could have been bowled out for a total well below 100 runs!
Such a collapse could have been acceptable against a bowling attack made up of Brett Lee or Glenn McGrath…. but they crumbled against Doug Bollinger who was playing in only his seventh One-day international match.
The Indian batsmen who failed to handle the slight movement off the air and off the pitch were those who had played over 150 one-dayers each, except for Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina who are only 75 One-dayers old.
It all just seems strange that not one of them could stem the collapse. Is it that they took it easy or was it sheer irresponsibility?
It is in moments like these that you need a batsman who can stay there and resurrect the innings.
Rahul Dravid, cannot even get a start in the Indian team? Selectors have a lot to answer for here.
With so many key batting gurus in the lineup – why have India struggled with the bat too? Only Sachin Tendulkar and his big innings got them close in the previous match. Sehwag always goes out hard and slogs, but others such as Dhoni haven’t been at their dynamic best.
The cool hand of the likes of VVS Laxman are certainly being missed in the upper and middle order of the Indian cricket team.
Misery
One-day cricket requires much more patience than the newer Twenty20; the batting lineup need to be steady and ease into an innings. Then looking to build up a very big score.
Scary that India were beaten on home soil, it makes victory in Australia sound even harder for them as they chase the title of the ‘best one day cricket team in the world’ which currently sits with the Aussies. A major tournament victory has eluded them for long… they could not even make it through to the finals (semi finals) (final four) during the recent Champions Trophy.
Indian cricket has the strongest following in the world, big crowds, big sponsors and powerful backers – they surely won’t tolerate things going this bad for too long. Expect possible changes to the players in the cricket side for indian as selectors start to make hard decisions.
(And this is a baby Australian side that was playing with near 7 top line players out with injury)
What about the Indian cricket bowling attack? Poor at times, where were the leading fast bowlers and why were they not available to play?
Some say its a case of playing too much cricket and others say its the influence of Twenty20 (20/20 cricket) that is becoming more common. But this was an Indian cricket team playing at home and things need to come under review.
Many feel the current crop of players in the Indian cricket side including MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Yuraj are all world class leading batsmen. Then you have a good selection of young bowlers that can do the job too!
