Mohammed Siraj Powers India to Their 8th Asia Cup Title!

Powered by an incredible surge of the rising Indian fast bowler Mohammed Siraj India have crushed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the Asia Cup-2023 Final played in Colombo today, winning their 8^th title of the tournament, followed by Sri Lanka with 5 and Pakistan with 2 title wins. The hosts won the toss and as expected chose to bat first. So far in the tournament, all matches were won by teams batting first; however, in the Final today things took a different turn. The match was also delayed by rainy weather and the Indian pacers smelt some swing in the pitch of which they took full advantage. After Jasprit Bumrah removed Kusal Perera in the very first over of the match, Mohammed Siraj achieved the rarest of rare feats by taking four scalps in just one over or in just six balls—his second and only the fourth over of the match. Four wickets in the Lankan top order reducing the hosts to a sorry 12/5. And the slide did not stop there. Siraj fired on to his fifer in just 16 balls and then to 6/21 overall. Pandya delivered the final blows for his 3/3 figure bundling out the Lankas for just 50 runs—their second lowest total ever in ODI cricket. It was all over for Sri Lanka in 15.2 overs and India looked at the target of 51 runs in 50 overs which they did achieve in style—openers Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill hauling it up in 6.1 overs.

Mohammed Siraj becomes the first ever Indian bowler to capture 4 wickets in 6 balls and the third in ODI cricket history. Incidentally, the first two cricketers to have achieved this are both from Sri Lanka: Chaminda Vaas against Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup and Lasith Malinga in the World Cup-2007 against South Africa. But I think Siraj’s feat should be judged as the best ever from two standpoints: first, it was the Final of an international tournament, and second, he initiated the damage in the very top order of the team, never relenting till the finish. We talked about India’s rarest of rare kind of feat in the Super-4 match against Pakistan earlier: whereas it was an incredible display of Indian batting in that match, in the Final today it was an incredible display of fast bowling.

Team India is immensely capable of such feats whenever its immensely talented cricketers play to their true potential, and this point naturally brings up the most crucial point about the constitution of the team: when you do have your best team at any juncture, why don’t you allow it to go on playing and winning! Why, like in numerous other occasions in Indian cricket history, did you need to change the team in the match against Bangladesh? Why your players needed to be given rest in the midst of an important tournament and that too in the run-up to the ODI World Cup-2023? You still experimented just because your team had already reached the Final and thus let your team lose unnecessarily. Why do you have such repeated urges to lose? A win against Bangladesh would perhaps have further pushed India up in the ICC ODI rankings. Was it not better even otherwise to prepare for the World Cup with the maximum possible wins? And, had either Tilak or Prasidh or the perplexingly axed and demoralized Shami and Suryakumar or the enigma Shardul played the matches of their life would you have selected them for the Final? If not, obviously, then why was that experiment necessary? For accomplishing a consistently performing team you must stick to the best team available and you must be ready to drop any player in any position if out of form or just non-performing for which, luckily, you do have plenty of options.

Now, for the Final of an intensely competitive tournament in its two stages the final match was a perfect anti-climax—a real letdown for the thousand of enthusiastic cricket fans. Again, for a tournament that’d been dominated by the spinners all the way the Final was entirely on a different footing with the spinners not getting a chance even to bowl a few overs, forget about taking wickets. Although for the Indian fans the Final proved to be a huge relief of sorts the Sri Lanka fans and genuine cricket lovers were thoroughly frustrated, a 100-over match getting over in only about 22 overs. However, cricket has always been the game of glorious uncertainties and such things do happen and will continue to happen. And star performers like Siraj will also continue to dazzle us. 

And India in Asia Cup-2023 Final!

 

Dunith Wellalage

Just when this writer expressed his extreme disillusionment with the cricket of Team India thanks to the haphazard style of player selection cum mindless experimentation in the run-ups to all possible international tournaments, and even threatened to permanently lose interest in the matches India play or is going to play, Team India had bounced back to the winning habit by first bamboozling Pakistan into one of its most crushing defeats of all time in the reserve-day yesterday, the 11^th of September 2023 and then defeated the hosts Sri Lanka in a low-scoring match today, the 12^th of September 2023, thus making way to the Asia Cup-2023 Final to be played on Sunday, September 17. India have now 4 points from 2 matches continuing to top the points table with a formidable net run-rate (NRR) and either Pakistan or Sri Lanka can join them in the Final depending on their virtual semi-final clash on Thursday, September 14. Conceding two defeats from their two matches Bangladesh is out of the tournament and can look forward to having two points at best if they manage to defeat India in the last Super Four match on 15^th September.

In the momentous match against the archrivals yesterday all in the top four of Indian batting delivered, and delivered in a roaring style. It is indeed the rarest of rare kind of feat for India with its openers, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, helping themselves to half-centuries each and then in a memorable display of strokeplay the next two of the top order, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, notching up their unbeaten centuries. Amid the ecstasy generated for Indian fans it was also a huge sense of relief that finally Kohli had found his long-lost century touch and Rahul who had joined the team after a long hiatus got into the act immediately. This also proves the fact that once the India top order plays to potential no rival team could hope to win on that particular day, and this is also part of the main problem as most often all or most of the top order continue to fail to serve the team, so much so that the team almost loses the winning habit and the hopeful management never daring to apply the axing policy on them. Anyhow, the glorious unbeaten partnership between the two augurs well for the upcoming ODI World Cup-2023. India raced to a mammoth 356 for the loss of only the two openers, and Pakistan looked so lost and totally demoralized that they failed to offer even a worthwhile fight, folding up their reply with a paltry 128 in 32 overs after a devastating spell by the Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav (5 for 25 in 8 overs). No Pak player could even register an individual fifty. The result of India winning by an incredible 228-run margin came in the reserve day which was also affected by repeated rain interruptions, but luckily not enough to wash out the match completely. On the first day of the match Pakistan won the toss and chose to field. The Indian openers laid a solid launchpad on which flourished the Kohli-Rahul partnership in the second day.

That terrific batting display naturally prompted India Captain Rohit Sharma to choose batting first after winning the toss against the hosts in the same venue in Colombo today. After a fairly sound start by Rohit and Gill things, however, began to change as the Sri Lanka spinners, true to their ‘choking’ fame at home turfs, successfully controlled the supposed masters of spin and the wickets began to tumble. The 20-year-old star spinner, Dunith Wellalage, who made his international debut just a year ago dictated the goings-on by achieving his maiden 5-wicket haul and later was ably assisted by Charith Asalanka (4) to restrict India to a modest 213 all out. Even as the Indian spinners were expected to have their tight grip in the Sri Lanka innings the vital blows struck by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohd Siraj helped India to go on taking regular wickets. They knew that taking wickets was more important, because with a target of only 214 restricting the hosts was not going to be effective. And as the match progressed Sri Lanka kept on losing wickets while the runs required were always less than the balls available. The Sri Lankans tried very hard indeed to get to the target for a secure place in the Final, but finally ran out of wickets. Incidentally, it was the youngster Wellalage again who kept the Lankan hopes alive with the bat too (42 not out).  Kuldeep following the match against Pakistan had success in this match too with four scalps and two each by Bumrah and Jadeja. India won by 41 runs and sealed their place in the Final. The Asian war is on for the second spot. 

India Vs Pakistan Cricket: The Zing Seems to be Missing!

 

The cricket matches in all three formats of the game between the arch-rivals India and Pakistan have become a rare variety in the recent years with the ardent discerning cricket lovers waiting for their matches at neutral venues. The matches between them in the one-day World Cup, the T-20 World Cup, and the Asia Cup have always been eagerly awaited. However, in the last two years the fan enthusiasm seems to be dwindling with a sense of listlessness seeping in as regards both Team India and their matches. And risking being rough or grossly unjust I have to point the finger at the Head Coach Rahul Dravid who was appointed in the job in November, 2021. No doubt, he had taken over with the ripe legacies of India—not able to break the jinx of not winning a single ICC title since 2011; India’s group-stage exit in the T20 World Cup played in 2021; Team India management blinded by too many choices of young cricketers (courtesy IPL) thus ushering in the mindless and endless experimentation in the run-up to any international tournament; and the unshakable trust and dependence in the Team India veterans despite their continuous poor show on the field. But Rahul Dravid was appointed with high hopes that being player of legendary status he’d bring in the necessary changes and rejuvenate the team. Unfortunately, the opposite happened.

India lost the Series against South Africa; India’s group-stage exit in Asia Cup-2022; India got ousted in the semi-final in the T20 World Cup played in 2022 and India lost the World Test Championship again this year. What the team managed to do was to win a few scattered matches, mostly against the much weaker teams. All the legacies we mentioned above were continued with unabated energy or even further emboldened. For example, the experimentation-laden team was administered more severe shock treatment bringing in or dropping or inexorably sticking to key or non-key cricketers at mere will or whims or prejudice or favoritism or clout, so much so brazenly that nobody in the Dravid-led management even bothered to justify or make a bid to defend the decisions in some way. The ageing Captain Rohit Sharma followed by the record-breaking Virat and the shifting openers kept on failing the team while the Head Coach kept on looking the other way. The most notable player to gain unjustified faith, apart from the untouchables, is Shardul Thakur while the most-axed but trustworthy players to suffer are Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal at times and even Mohammad Shami and Surya Kumar Yadav who got dropped during the ensuing Asia Cup, in the most crucial league match against none other than Pakistan.

Well, I cannot represent the fans spread globally for Team India, but I can say for myself that I had lost interest in Team India matches played inside or outside, including the most-awaited Indo-Pak encounters. For example, I never even bothered to find out when India was going to meet Pakistan in Asia Cup-2023 that had moved back to the 50-over format which should’ve been matter of keener interest. No doubt, the weather gods too didn’t like the way India prepared to meet Pakistan and the match had to be abandoned. Of course, India successfully moved to the Super-4 stage by defeating Nepal (a Dravidian achievement?). Now, tomorrow, the 10^th of September 2023, India is set to play the arch-rival again, and I’m not seeing any kind of keen interest, far from the usual hype, demonstrated in the fan-fares or in the media for the match. And feeling the guilt somehow I’ve decided to write out my or our agonized frustration.

There is another crucial factor though for the seeming lack of interest—the obstinate rains there in Sri Lanka. Today, I read what Sunil Gavaskar wrote about the organizers not willing to consider changing the venues despite the looming rain threats. He indicated the organizers must be under acute pressure that is most often exercised by the influential players, not just Team India players, but others too. Maybe, this is being my guess; some team would like to play it safe by sharing a point with their rivals rather than working it out in the field and hope for the best. For example, if the Indo-Pak match in Colombo washes out despite having a reserve day Pakistan will get to three points having already vanquished Bangladesh and India just getting one which would mean that to qualify for the Final India will have to beat both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the coming matches, no minnows by any standard.

I never imagined even in my wildest of dreams that one day I’d not only be upset with Dravid, but would also write about his wrong ways, conclusively in my way only; because I always loved and admired that great Wall of a cricketer who stood for the pride of the nation in the most adverse conditions, more often in the Test arena. If you search for him here in this blog you’re sure to find at least one piece written about Rahul Dravid in his glorious years. Ultimately, this is a matter of sadness only, that, a player of that level of excellence should fail the national team so utterly, so miserably. I was never a pessimist, particularly in my cricket writings. But at the moment, I feel no surge of optimism as regards Team India’s progress in this Asia Cup, or much more importantly in the upcoming One-day ICC World Cup-2023—a tournament that is to be played in the subcontinent, and the Head(ache?) Coach prepares well by axing out Ashwin and Chahal, although it’s presented as only a provisional team which, in a more monstrous way, would mean that experimentation is still a far way off from being finally over.

Is Team India Ready for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2022?

It’s always opined by knowledgeable folks that when a car is kept sitting in the garage for months its maintenance suffers—ranging from battery disorders to even rusting in the body—not to speak of the atrocities heaped upon the inactive object by the rats. This means that all humans of various professions and even lifeless objects need to do what they’re meant to do, on a regular basis. Else, maintenance issues emerge leading to breakdowns of various types and escalation in the expenses. Cricketers are much more prone to such inactivity disorders, because it follows naturally that the more they play the fitter they get. Thanks to the experiments-cum-rest syndrome adopted religiously by the cricket management of India these basic principles have not been followed. As one of the results, the crux of the Indian bowling attack, Jasprit Bumrah who had been on indefinite rest, is out of the ICC Cricket T20 World Cup-2022. Now, the entire Team India management is in a daze, unable to take the final decision on Bumrah’s replacement. Unfortunately, things are getting confounded as quite a few of the main Indian pacers like Mohammad Shami, Deepak Chahar, and Mohammad Siraj etc. did not figure even in the experiments galore of late, but inexplicably figured in the list of reserves.

 

Confirming our worst fears the Team India experiments did not subside even during the three-match India vs. South Africa T20I Series, the last opportunity offered by the ICC to prepare. Of course, someone had to be tried for Bumrah’s back maintenance issues (despite the fact that he was rested again for the last match against Australia.) and particularly for assessing the replacement possibilities. But why on earth should Bhuvneshwar Kumar get rested again? Why on earth should they rest the coming-into-form batsmen, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, for the last encounter against South Africa as if they’d been hopelessly tired playing the well spaced-out five 20-over matches? Why on earth should they even think of Shreyas Iyer who had been abandoned in the most obsessive manner of late despite his selection as a reserve? Why on earth did they not push for a morale-boosting 3-0 victory over a clueless South Africa, instead of restoring the latter’s confidence by fielding a mindlessly self-defeating team? Again in hindsight, the 2-0 Series seal for India cannot be considered fully convincing as in the second encounter South Africa nearly chased out India’s fourth-highest total of 237 runs which underlined India’s consistent bowling woes.

 

We also fail to understand why on earth either the ICC or the BCCI should insist on having a one-day international series against South Africa at this juncture when all teams are on the way to Australia for the World tournament in the shortest format! Well, it seems to be helping the partially retained SA team to have a little more of batting and bowling practice to get a little more confident for the world event; but Team India, primarily the WC-selected Rohit franchise, had overwhelmingly ruled out the ODI Series and the obliging cricket board has fielded the not-forgotten Shikhar Dhawan franchise. Just look at the disarray of choices in the team—all the openers who’ve been abandoned from the experiments find themselves augmenting the batting order while even the ‘partly-experimented-then-abandoned’ bowlers like Ravi Bishnoi and Avesh Khan are back in the team without having any relevance for the World Cup.

So, apart from Bumrah, Jadeja and the lot, how well prepared Team India is for the World Cup? The batting order seems to be in good stead if the batsmen, particularly Rahul, Kohli and Pandya after the layoff, resume immediately from where they left. Selection of both Karthik and Pant in the playing eleven also seems to be a possibility and that is quite healthy. The bowling, however, is in extremely dubious territory. The often dropped-n-rested Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin would be expected to deliver immediately, if selected, as well as Pandya and Shami or Deepak or Siraj depending on the selection. The IPL rookies of Arshdeep and Harshal Patel would also be expected to reproduce some of their excellent spells seen in the recent matches. In the spinning arena Yuzvendra Chahal is always a candidate of glorious unpredictability whereas Axar Patel is indeed a tantalizing prospect as far as India’s bowling attack is concerned. 

 

It’d all depend on how the eleven players finally perform on the field on the crucial days. Chance or sheer luck seems to have a better role to play than the recognized or otherwise capabilities of the players. The good thing is that Team India would still have a few practice matches to get ready when the qualifiers are on from 16^th October. As is usual in most of the world cricket tournaments India is going to start the campaign with the opening encounter against the archrivals Pakistan in the former’s favorite ground in Melbourne on October 23, 2022. Millions of Indian fans would expect their team to leave behind the Asia Cup-2022 legacy and fight it out diehard. Anyhow, you do get ready for the world cricket bonanza! 

Is The Dinesh Karthik Riddle Over Now?

Continuing with the Asia Cup-2022 legacy and the experiment-legacy since time IPL the swashbuckling Team India management, the dead- ‘wall’ coach and the devastatingly discerning selectors had once again preferred batsman-keeper Dinesh Karthik ahead of Rishabh Pant in the playing eleven pitted against the T20 World Champions Australia in the first of the three T20Is in Mohali on 20^th September, 2022. Keeping up with the ‘traditions’ Karthik came in to bat after the supposed all-rounder Axar Patel and was still lucky enough to have four overs to play out. Unfortunately, he could not capitalize on this golden opportunity and perished cheaply. Not only that, he failed miserably to read a suspected LBW ball to convince his captain Rohit Sharma to go for a DRS. As the replays showed the ball hitting the leg stump clearly Rohit vented out all his pent-up anger on the poor but experienced Karthik. Rohit’s magnanimously displayed public anger could perhaps also be the result of the ceaseless accumulation of the same thanks to the ‘stakeholders’ described at the outset.

 

During Asia Cup-2022 that the hosts Sri Lanka won magnificently roaring back into tremendous form the stakeholders included both Karthik and Pant in the second league match and then decided to forget about the former in the crunch matches. This time, however, things could be much firmer and more decisive. As we already said Dinesh Karthik had scored an all-round failure-laden outing in the match, he seemingly gave sound enough reasons to the constantly-experimenting-scheming stakeholders to rule Karthik out on a permanent basis thus justifying the esteemed management’s outstandingly long-lasting ‘kindness and understanding’ to ‘experience’ while basking in the spirit of experimentation; this ‘experience’ also has an unmistakable Dhoni ring that surfaced during the times of the devastating (for India) ICC Men’ World Cup-2019. We need not worry at all as far as the riddle called Dinesh Karthik is concerned because it is set to be crystal clear in the second T20I against Australia tomorrow.

 

The dead- ‘wall’ coach has vindicated his age-old preferences very ominously now: Yuzvendra Chahal is to be played in every possible eleven irrespective of how he bowls and to be denied rest at any cost; Hardik Pandya (he displayed tremendous batting in the first T20I against Australia) is now a confirmed batting all-rounder along with Ravindra Jadeja whose injury could well be the ultimate cause of Rohit Franchise’s possible downfall (God forbid!) in the coming T20 World Cup; Jasprit Bumrah is to be kept on indefinite rest till he is ‘exclusively fit’ for the World Cup; the batting order has to be an ever-alterable variable, never a constant; encouraging the captain to insist on bowling the same bowlers (mostly five in number) irrespective of how they bowl till their quotas are fulfilled and to immediately take a bowler who captures a wicket in his first over off the attack; and contradictory contempt for youngsters cum veterans like Ravi Bishnoi or Deepak Chahar or Ravichandran Ashwin while welcoming the other, mostly youngsters, players as the future of Indian-Cricket (read IPL).

 

The unpredictability of the dead-‘wall’ coach is also as glorious as of the game itself. One of the consistently striking bowlers in all formats, Mohammad Shami, was benevolently considered meritorious enough to be included as one of the reserves for the T20 World Cup; but unfortunately, he caught the COVID virus perhaps due to the wantonly liberal ‘rest’ he was conferred with by the omniscient stakeholders. But horror of horrors of unpredictability! Umesh Yadav who was nowhere to be seen in the playing arena for quite some time was not only included in the revised reserves but was also played in the first T20I against Australia.     

 

That the Rohit Franchise lost against Australia despite putting up a formidable total in excess of 200 runs had been a forgone conclusion. Call it the result of the ‘price’ to be paid for the ‘essential’ process of experimentation so mind-blowingly required to finalize the playing eleven in the World Cup or the reign of the glorious uncertainly or the dead-walled team management or whatever. The call is yours as you must bear with the future of Indian Cricket (read IPL). As a vital reminder you have to take notice of the only experiment that Australia made while chasing—asking their rank-new bowling all-rounder Cameron Green to open with captain Finch and the former breathtakingly took the match away from the dazed Indians. Having said all these rather dubious things the final outcome of the T20 World Cup starting in Australia from 16^th October 2022 could still change everything for Indian Cricket (don’t read IPL) for the better, hopefully.

Asia Cup-2022: Teams Playing for National Pride, India Played for IPL Pride!

That India had been kicked out of the Asia Cup-2022 should hardly come as a surprise or some kind of a setback for the Indian cricket board, the Selectors, the India captain and the India coach, because this tournament too has been another clog in the machinery of experimentation for determining a ‘national’ squad for the ICC T20 World Cup-2022 that starts in October in Australia this year. While the ICC had been trying laudably hard to provide valuable practice in the shortest format for all the contesting national sides Team India or the franchises thereof or the team management had been basically trying to justify the IPL and to vindicate the selections therefrom. During this time most of the cricketing superstars of India had been rested or allowed to recuperate from supposed injuries, and as a crucial part of the experiments the superstars, all IPL-captain stuff, were brought in for this international tournament which totally neutralizes the earlier experiments with the IPL stars and rookies. No doubt, as we indicated in an earlier post, after the epochal revenue deal struck for the IPL, cricket in India has virtually become IPL-oriented, and so the endless experiments that are set to continue even during the upcoming big international event. Since the IPL is the future of Indian cricket there’d hardly be any national side for any international event in the coming years, and therefore, in this particular tournament Team India has right royally played for IPL pride, thus disappointing and frustrating the genuine cricket lovers and fans of the country.

 

We see no other alternative but to stick to this opinion after considering the ‘decisions’ regarding the playing eleven in Asia Cup-2022. First of all, knowing fully well that most of the crucial Super-4 matches are to be played in the pacer-friendly Dubai pitches the selectors included only three pacers in the squad, that too consisting of two IPL rookies, and fielded four spinners. Apart of course, from the ‘definitive’ all-rounders like Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja and it has not been clear at all if they were bowling or batting all-rounders. Perhaps, the absolute drive to make Jadeja a superstar batsman, also an IPL-must, contributed toward his becoming unfit in quick time and repeatedly over the last two years, and he being ruled out of the tournament seemed to have made the entire team utterly useless, even making Pandya so frustrated that he could not bat nor bowl effectively. And all the while the team management talked of a cohesive and fighting playing eleven.

 

Dinesh Karthik, the experienced keeper-batsman, was included in the squad and was allowed to face just one ball in the group matches, and was dropped inexplicably from the Super-4 matches. As the India batting saga in the Pakistan and Sri Lanka matches unfolded it was Karthik who was missed sorely and almost fatally; in both matches India fell short by 15-20 runs and lost both. A genuinely promising batting all-rounder Deepak Hooda was included in those crunch matches; but Pandya superseded him in the batting order every time, and in the bowling department despite Pandya being hit mercilessly and ceaselessly Hooda was not at all tried by the ‘experienced’ India captain as the sixth bowling option. Why? Because the promising IPL-captain stuff had to be promoted at all costs.

 

Of the pacers, the rookie called Avesh Khan got injured and was ruled out of the tournament; therefore, the other rookie Arshdeep Singh had to be included along with the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Now who is Arshdeep Singh? That he was trolled for the simple catch he dropped in the penultimate over against a struggling Pakistan just could not be a national news with all the masala ingredients. It was simply a reaction of the hapless fans, caught in the continuously frustrating chain unleashed by the selectors or the captain or the coach or the Board or the IPL mandarins or whoever concerned. There are other more pertinent questions that are integral to the experiments: where is Deepak Chahar? Where is Mohammad Shami? Where is Mohammad Siraj? Where is the fiery Umran Malik? Of course, the superstar captain-stuff Jasprit Bumrah is too delicate to be wasted in the mundane international matches or minor tournaments. Of the spinners if the experienced Ashwin was to be considered he should’ve been considered from the beginning of the Super-4 stage. However, when he was finally considered he replaced Bishnoi who, though another IPL rookie, fought spiritedly in the Pakistan game instead of replacing the listless Yuzvendra Chahal. Well, contradictions are bound to happen in a mindless quest!

 

After the Asia Cup hosts Sri Lanka came roaring back into form eliminating an equally determined Bangladesh at the last group match the Super-4 stage was bound to be tough and fiercely competitive. Pakistan too asserted their determination after routing Hong Kong, and Afghanistan was waiting eagerly for their encounters, being the group topper along with India. With the exception of India all the three teams have fighting-fit national sides not beleaguered by the senseless changes, and are fighting for sheer national pride, determined to enter the World Cup as serious contenders. In cricketing terms the basic differences between India and the three teams are the former’s batting inconsistency cum a haphazard batting order and their bowlers, particularly the spinners, lacking the intensity required in such competitive tournaments.

 

Afghanistan was extremely unlucky to falter in the last over against Pakistan, losing a low-scoring match while Pakistan’s fighting spirit till the last man outstanding must be appreciated. With that win by one wicket Pakistan entered the Final to meet Sri Lanka on 11^th September, making their Super-4 encounter on September 9 inconsequential, but of great value for both in gaining confidence for the Final. Meanwhile as expected, Team India experimented in an exemplary manner in the match against Afghanistan with the captain dropping himself (read resting himself) and giving another go to the franchisee captain KL Rahul. In some kind of a sadistic joke the selectors included Dinesh Karthik again and also decided to try Deepak Chahar. My God! What apathy and total disregard for the national spirit of the country!

 

With the ICC still providing more T20 practice by facilitating two three-match T20 series of India Vs South Africa and India Vs Australia India later this month in India the India experiment-juggernaut can still go on testing their IPL rookies priding itself of having the strongest bench-strength in the world with limitless choices of players and give a much-deserved rest to their superstar cricketers, again. But unfortunately, at almost the same time the glorious Selectors will have to finally announce their ‘dream’ squad for the World Cup even as the dream of an India-Pakistan Asia Cup final, the third much-awaited encounter of a rare variety of cricket, got cruelly dashed by that same bunch of businessmen of cricket.  Amen!

T20 Cricket: Why Should Team India Need Batsmen?

Well, as far as the three batting stalwarts of Indian Cricket—Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul—are concerned they’re needed all the time irrespective of the relentless experimentation process with promising youngsters and whatever frame of mind or form they’ve been in recently. They can come anytime anywhere and for all key white-ball world tournaments they are a must, and they’re always justified in displacing batsmen like Deepak Hooda, Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan and even seasoned campaigners like Shreyas Iyer and Shikhar Dhawan. However, it stops just at that point. After they do or don’t do their bit in their batting the all-rounders take over. No doubt, all-rounders like Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya have been doing great in recent times. But putting in them all the responsibility to bowl, to bat and to win the matches cannot be a long-term strategy. Besides, as has been witnessed in recent months, the in-form and specialized batsmen like Suryakumar Yadav and Dinesh Karthik are demoted down the order to facilitate the all-rounders and the hapless Karthik is even asked to bat after Axar Patel if that all-rounder figures in any of the Team India franchises.

 

Again beyond doubt, the new ‘batting’ order has been delivering in terms of wins. In the second match of the Asia Cup-2022 hosted by Sri Lanka in UAE against the archrivals Pakistan Team India Rohit Franchise managed to win in the last over thanks mainly to the all-rounders, Jadeja and Pandya. But as we’ve said this cannot be long-term strategy, because the presence of Shaheen Afridi in the Pakistan team could’ve altered the course of the game and in that eventuality the demoted batsmen couldn’t have offered suitable resistance to win the game. This is very obvious that putting bowling all-rounders ahead of the established batsmen would inevitably affect their confidence and performance adversely. On the Australian pitches in the upcoming ICC World Cup T20-2022 this strategy is fraught with the gravest of dangers, if the previous T20 World Cup in UAE is any indication. The ICC has been doing everything to help the international teams prepare well for the event including that of converting the format of the Asia Cup-2022 into T20. But unfortunately, Team India with all its varied franchises, all-rounders and experiments is not able to reap the benefits in the desirable way.

 

Now to Dinesh Karthik of whose peculiar position in the team we’d mentioned in an earlier post too. It’s being said that in that crunch match against Pakistan he was preferred over the inimitable Rishabh Pant due to his ‘experience’. If that is so, then his ‘experience’ as a batsman who can dramatically change the course of a game with his furious shots must have weighed more than his ‘experience’ as a wicketkeeper. And if that is so, then why he was sent after all the bowling all-rounders to face just five balls when India needed seven runs of that. But for Pandya’s six in the fourth ball of the last over the match could’ve ended in any direction. The Indian bowlers did a great job to get the Pakistan side all out to a total less than 150 and with Team India’s batting strength it should’ve been an easy chase. But for the ‘superseding’ experimentation you know…!  Anyway, a lot has to be been seen yet in this tournament. An upbeat Afghanistan routed a crisis-laden Sri Lanka in the first match of the tournament and has emerged as a strong contender for the Super-4 stage from Group-A with Bangladesh being the third team. India is set to face Hong Kong next before proceeding to the Super-4 and we can expect one more encounter of the rarest variety, India Vs Pakistan, at that stage, and a possible third one if both teams make it to the Final.

India Asian Champions Again, Lift Unimoni Asia Cup-2018!

It is only logical that the unbeaten team of the Unimoni Asia Cup tournament become the eventual champions. India was the only team that remained unbeaten and in the Final tonight became the worthy champions beating an upbeat Bangladesh by 3 wickets. However, the highly competitive match was not without its moments of worries or even scares. First, it was a risky toss to win owing to India’s decision to field first, because in the slow pitches of UAE a total around 250 often proved to be insurmountable. Second, Bangladesh did show the promise of running away with the match while batting. Third, in the Indian innings loss of Dhawan and Rayadu early and the departure of Rohit while in full flow raised scares for an Indian conquest. And then the fall of Dhoni at the score 160/5 put the onus of a victory on the bowlers again.

Put into bat Bangladesh started a brilliant opening partnership of 120 runs in just 20 overs and looked set for a total of over 250 runs. However, all the Indian spinners including Kedar Jadhav got into an action mode accounting for a flurry of wickets in the next few overs. Opener Liton Das batted till the 40^thover for his superlative century (121). Unfortunately for Bangladesh there were only two innings of substance from Mehidy Hasan (32) and Soumya Sarkar (33). The unlucky hero of the match against Pakistan Mushfiqur Rahim also fell cheaply. India seemed to be happy with the final Bangladesh target of 223 runs, the target looked immensely achievable by a team in top form.

The Indian innings was marked by ups and downs of the epic variety. At one time they looked to be winning easily and at another time suspense creeping in. The match turned into a thriller after MS Dhoni was the 5^th wicket to fall at the score of 160 still needing 63 runs to win. However, there was no worry as far as the remaining overs were concerned. Kedar Jadhav and Ravindra Jadeja just needed to stick on. To add to the tension building up Jadhav had to retire hurt. Bangladesh pacers Mustafizur, Mashrafe and Rubel got really charged up firing all cylinders. Finally the Asian champions prevailed overwhelming the target in the last over, in fact the last ball, thanks to good work by Jadeja, Bhubaneshwar Kumar and Jadhav again. The Scorecard:

Interestingly in the tournament the teams that ran closest to beating India were Hong Kong—the newest entry in the Asian cricket arena, and the resurgent Afghanistan. Of course, the curious Indian experiments were largely esponsible for this scenario. The main contenders for the title, Pakistan and Bangladesh, were defeated by India in extremely one-sided matches, twice each. The Final was hard-fought going down the wire. 

India begin their campaign against the visiting West Indies next month with matches in all three formats when the regular captain Virat Kohli is expected to lead the team again.

Unimoni Asia Cup-2018: No India-Pakistan Final, It’s Vs Bangladesh!

In the last Super Four match of the Unimoni Asia Cup-2018 played in Abu Dhabi tonight Bangladesh played like tigers overcoming a spirited-in-splits Pakistan by 37 runs. It was a virtual semi-final with the winner set to meet India in the Final to be played in Dubai on Friday, 28^thSeptember, 2018. Seemingly Pakistan could never recover psychologically from the dumps inflicted by arch-rivals India, not once but two times. Their batting was lackadaisical and painfully slow this time too. More importantly for millions of fans all over the globe, a possible third encounter between India and Pakistan in the tournament was snuffed out. 

  

Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat first. After a shaky start they finally managed to put up a competitive 240-run target for Pakistan thanks to a glorious but unlucky innings of 99 by Musfiqur Rahim and a dashing 60 by Mohammad Mithun. Pakistan bowled them out in 48.5 overs. In reply Pakistan also tottered at the start losing three wickets quickly. Then Shoaib Malik and Imamul Haq steadied the innings. Malik was dismissed by a brilliant one-handed catch by Mashrafe off Rubel ending that partnership and Pakistan was reduced to 87 for 4 wickets. Very soon they were 95 for 5, and when it seemed to be a point of no return Pakistan staged a fighting comeback thanks to a solid partnership between the lone man standing Imam and Asif. Although Bangladesh catching was brilliant throughout Asif’s dropped catch by the wicket keeper could have proved to be a turning point, but a short while after Asif was consumed by Mehidy Hasan and the match was in the balance again with the asking rate going above 7 per over. Bangladesh sealed the match and almost earned a berth in the Final against India by capturing the prized scalp of Imamul Haq (83) at 167 for 7. Bangladesh bowlers, both pacers and spinners, delivered an intense performance and suffocated Pakistan batsmen effectively. Pacer Mustafizur Rahman took four Pak wickets. Finally it was all over for Pakistan ending a sorry tale at 202 for 9 in 50 overs.  

Last night India, as habituated to it, experimented with fire (read Afghanistan) again, and nearly lost the match. Realistically speaking, it’s no use blaming only the team management and coach. You can call it the experimental mindset. Even legendary or famous ex-cricketers or experts and prominent sports journalists ask for ‘experiments’ whenever possible and constantly push for their favourite cricketers for a ‘look-in’ in the national squad. In most of such experiments India suffer defeats or near escapes from defeats. Irrespective of whether a match is inconsequential or not a loss is a loss and it never helps a team in future assignments. India rested five top players, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni came out for the toss giving his fans ecstatic moments. Perhaps it was well thought out plan to make Dhoni stand-in captain for an already stand-in captain and thus giving him the 200^th opportunity to lead India in an ODI. 

In the absence of three Indian strike-bowlers Afghanistan had it relatively easy and raced to 252 in 50 overs opting to bat first. Opener Mohammad Shahzad hit his fifth ton in a brilliant innings of flamboyance and belligerence—a century that can match the highest professional standard of international cricket. On the slow UAE surfaces chasing a 250+ total has always been tricky, and India without the high-scoring openers was in a spot of bother. However, Lokesh Rahul and Ambati Rayadu had mounted a 100+ run partnership, and just when India seemed to be cruising the middle order collapsed, of course, with at least two doubtful umpiring decisions. Unfortunately India had no DRS review left after Rahul, surely playing only this match, wasted one in his clear out decision. The match went down to the wire, and in the last over India needed 7 runs with 9 wickets gone. Jadeja almost made sure with just a run needed off the last two balls, but he lofted the penultimate ball to get caught at midwicket and the thriller ended in a tie making Afghanistan burst into a tizzy of excitement and joy.

Letting the syndrome of experiment rest for the moment we must say that Afghanistan played valiantly in the tournament and really deserved more. They topped Group B at the league stage beating both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka convincingly, and in Super Four they lost narrowly to Bangladesh and Pakistan getting knocked out in the process. And Afghanistan tied India in an inconsequential but an unforgettable match, unforgettable particularly for them. Afghanistan is sure to create a commotion in the 2019 World Cup.

Now, all set for the Friday Final at Dubai International cricket stadium. Hope India do not resort to experiment again!

Asia Cup Cricket: India Pulverize Pakistan, Enter Final of Unimoni Asia Cup!

India enter Unimoni Asia Cup Final to be played on 28th September, 2018 beating Pakistan by 9 wickets, their second win against the arch-rivals in the tournament. Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma hit a scintillating partnership of 210 runs and Pakistan had to engineer a run-out to separate them. In the process Shikhar hit his second century of the tournament with other consistent good knocks. Consecutive explosive knocks by captain Rohit Sharma is wonderful as compared to his earlier habit of following a terrific knock in one innings by a failure in the next. His century too was brilliant and worthy of a captain making the win a mere formality. 

Never saw such an extremely one-sided India-Pakistan encounter and such severe Indian mauling against Pakistan. Their first encounter was also one-sided, but that was largely due to an absolute Pakistan batting collapse. In this match Pakistan started shakily or rather over-cautiously, but finally put up a total which could be called competitive (237/7 in 50 overs) in a high-pressure match between the arch-rivals. Pakistan tactics were surprising--electing to bat first despite the previous match, total lack of aggression in batting, dropped catches and sting-less bowling. As a total contrast the Indian reply was electric and incredible. The Scorecard:

This doesn't mean that India start experimenting again against a formidable Afghanistan on 25th September, 2018 in Dubai International Cricket stadium. Let an unchanged team go on winning.  

India look to be the team worthy of winning the Cup at the moment. Of course, if Pakistan too makes it to the Final then it will be a brand new encounter with any kind of result possible. On the other hand Bangladesh and Afghanistan are also immensely capable of entering the Final. 

By the way what will India do with the heap of the overs spared so far ?? 

(PS: Afghanistan was again unlucky to lose narrowly to Bangladesh by 3 runs in a thriller in Abu Dhabi last night. With Afghanistan thus knocked out of the tournament the Pakistan-Bangladesh last Super Four match on 26th September, 2018 will be a virtual semi-final.) 

Asia Cup Cricket: What A Relief, India In Super Four!

Yes, it is indeed a huge relief that India have reached the Super Four stage of the Unimoni Asia Cup-2018 and that they are going to play Pakistan at least two times, the big one coming up tomorrow in Dubai. Because, Team Hong Kong has suffered two losses--one at the hands of Pakistan and the other to India tonight, the latter being a most unwelcome thriller for Indian fans. This sense of relief owes its origins to two basic reasons, like it or not.

First, after the ODI series loss and the Test series disaster in England Team India has suffered a telling loss of credibility. There, only captain Virat Kohli played with some of the bowlers in tandem, and now here in UAE even the captain is missing with the one day specialists brought in again. Therefore, you never know who in Team India will play and who will play how. Upsets are common in tournaments, and last night Afghanistan eliminated Sri Lanka, one of the main contenders for the Cup despite everything. Tonight's match was almost another upset with India winning narrowly by 26 runs. The noisy celebration of the Indian fans expressed the same sense of huge relief. With Rashid and other spinners Afghanistan is going to be a challenge for any team in Super Four.

Second and most importantly, India seems to be continuing relentlessly with its selection blues. This was India’s first match and the crucial start of the Asia Cup campaign. And yet, India have begun their campaign with experimentation. They have given debut to one and took in a few others in lieu of experienced cricketers who were available, sitting resting or whatever in the  dressing room. Selection of Dinesh Karthik is also to be questioned, because he was taken in only in the third and final ODI against England where he couldn’t do anything special. So, why select him adding one more wicket-keeper to the team? Team management defends it thus—resting important players from the sapping heat. Well, do they play the IPL during the great Indian winter back home? Of course, there is one more defense still—the uncanny schedule giving India two back to back matches. However, such games do help players warming up well for bigger games.

The basic point is that team management has deprived their most experienced players of precious match practice just a day before the all-important encounter with Pakistan. It is to be noted that Pakistan had fielded their full-strength team in their first match against Hong Kong. Pakistan have already been playing mind games, openly relishing the idea of Virat-less India, and now the Indian Experiment would further embolden their approach. After the Indian batting and bowling displayed tonight there will be more questions regarding selection in the Pakistan match.

India failed to reach the 300 mark against a team playing a major international tournament for the first time making just 48 runs in the last ten overs losing five wickets. Except for the Shikhar Dhawan century, a bright starter from Rohit Sharma and a good effort by Ambati Rayadu there was hardly any major score from anybody including the crucial factor of MS Dhoni. Of course, Dhoni is here to stay, but will they drop all others who were only experimented with? How would the selectors ensure that the experienced players to be taken in now will deliver in the very first match? What would they do with Kedar Jadhav? Get rid of him after this solitary chance? We watched tonight Hong Kong tackling Indian pacers most efficiently scoring more than 50 runs in the first 10 overs without loss, and keeping up the momentum overcoming the Indian spinners too till the match was nearly sealed by them. Would the strike bowlers to be taken in strike indeed in the very first outing?

Therefore, this profound sense of relief! Whatever happens in the next match, India will be one of the top two teams from Group A and will continue to play the Super Four matches including a second encounter with Pakistan from 21^st September onwards.

Hope Team India rebuilding happens quick and fast, and the liabilities both in the team and in team management removed faster. Some sort of a ‘problem of plenty’ is setting in ominously for the Indian cricket management. With the ICC World Cup-2019 round the corner India cannot afford to go on with its mindless experimentation killing players’ spirit and confidence in the process. Identify your best 15, make them bind into a team, give them trust and confidence and give them a run till the World Cup so that they can fight single-mindedly to win it. This Team-15 is for the one day format, and ideally for all the formats with the barest minimum of ‘specialist’ interchanging.

Cricket: Asia Cup-2018 Begins, Bangladesh Crush Sri Lanka in Inaugural Match!

The 14^th edition of Asia Cup of One Day Internationals (ODI) between cricket playing nations of Asia began tonight, the 15^th of September, 2018 in United Arab Emirates. UAE hosts this tournament for the third time due to well-known reasons. In the inaugural match played at the Dubai International stadium Bangladesh crushed Sri Lanka by 137 runs. Bangladesh, batting first, innings was built mainly on a superlative 144 runs by Musfiqur Rahim who was the last man out setting a competitive target of 261 runs. Sri Lanka began very shakily and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals including a  run-out, the whole team finally getting bowled out for a mere 124 . With its string of successes in last two years Bangladesh has become the team to watch out for in this two-week tournament. It was nice to see Lasith Malinga back in the Sri Lanka team and also among wickets again.

Asia Cup this year has six teams with Hong Kong joining the five full ODI members—India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The tournament, normally played in the round robin format, this time is having two groups and a Super Four. Group A consists of India, Pakistan and Hong Kong while Group B has Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Winners and runners-up teams of each group will go to the Super Four stage on the basis of points at the group stage and in Super Four all four nations will play each other with the top two teams qualifying for the Final. There will be two venues—Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Omission of Sharjah is perplexing which is also pointed out by Sunil Gavaskar.

After a long while cricket lovers are set to enjoy encounters between the eternal archrivals India and Pakistan. This rivalry becomes far more interesting with the former ace pacer Imran Khan becoming the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The two nations are set to meet on 19^th September in Dubai for the group match. Supposing both teams proceed to the Super Four stage which is the most likely scenario they will meet for the second time sometime after 20^thSeptember. If both teams turn out to be the top two teams in Super Four they will meet for the third time in the Final on 28^th September. Cricket lovers will really relish that possibility. Of course, as we have pointed out earlier, Bangladesh would be a tough team to overcome and Sri Lanka could come roaring back any time.  

India has a new captain Rohit Sharma for the tournament as Virat Kohli was rested after the Test disaster against England. India, the defending champions, has been consistently proving its dominance in the shorter format and the absence of Kohli is not likely to impact team performance adversely. Of course, performance of MS Dhoni is going to be a crucial factor with wicket keeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik also featuring in the team. Selection blues in Team India visibly affected team performance in the England tour, and therefore team management has to be very careful about the final eleven in each match with a lot of options available. The omission of Rishav Pant seems illogical, because he went from the IPL straight to the Tests.

With more teams, interesting format and the extravaganza spreading over two weeks Asia Cup-2018 promises to be absorbing and exciting.

All details about the tournament:

Cricket T20: Australia Bashers Thrash Sri Lanka To Win Series 2-1!

Ravichandran Ashwin--Player of the Match & Series

India today clinched the T20 International Series against Sri Lanka 2-1. In the 3^rd and final match played at Visakhapatnam Team India annihilated the visitors wining by 9  wickets. For a change skipper Dhoni today won the toss and put the visitors in surprising everyone—perhaps keeping in mind the dew factor. And the decision vindicated him thoroughly. He opened the bowling attack with Ashwin and two wickets fell in that over. Ashwin went on to capture 4 wickets for just 8 runs—a no mean feat in the shortest format. Displaying a total lack of application and spirit the full Sri Lankan team folded up for a humiliating 82 with Nehra taking 2 and part-timer Suresh Raina chipping in with 2 wickets. The victory for India seemed a mere formality which they completed in 13.5 overs with the loss of Rohit Sharma. The slow track where Sri Lankan spinners got some turn delayed the proceedings a bit. Shikhar Dhawan (46) and Ajikya Rahane (22) remained not out.

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Player of the Match CAK Rajitha

Just a touch of the green makes Team India scream! There was some green in the Pune pitch for the 1^st match of the T20 Cricket Series between India and Sri Lanka. If we go by the history of IPL matches played there the Pune ground has been largely a low-scoring one with lot of help offered to the seam bowlers. Sri Lanka skipper Chandimal sensed Team India’s contempt for greens well and cleverly put the hosts in after winning the toss. The Indian top-order batsmen wanting to start from where they left in Australia went for big shots immediately and perished with two wickets falling in the very first over, Virat Kohli missed dearly at the No. 3 spot. The middle and lower order, always in doubt of their ability, did not learn anything and contributed to the collapse with only Ashwin helping the team reach a paltry 101 runs—not even being able to last the full twenty overs. Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets with 12 balls spare—but not before some anxious moments.

Plalyer of the Match Shikhar Dhawan

Team India came back magnificently in the 2^ndT20 international at Ranchi. Finally Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was at home at home. He kept wickets and commanded the team brilliantly. We talked earlier about his tendency to promote himself in the batting order once the top order fires. However, despite Ranchi being his home ground Dhoni resisted the temptation after Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma delivered in great style with some support from Ajikya Rahane and sent Pandya ahead of him which proved to be a very good decision. Pandya built on the momentum provided and kept the Indian run-rate consistently over 10 per over with a quickfire knock. Team India was also helped by the Sri Lanka captain’s decision after winning the toss. Perhaps the fact that the Sri Lankan batting strength was not really tested in the first T20 match influenced Chandimal’s decision to put the hosts in again on a seemingly perfect batting track. The Indians accepted the generous offer and they were unstoppable except for a Perera hattrick in the penultimate over. The target set was 199 and it was almost beyond the reach of the Sri Lankans. And it proved to be like that with just 127 runs put up on the board for the loss of 9 wickets. It was a huge win by 69 runs and the Australia bashers got it right in every sphere of the game ruthlessly.  

The Scorecard:

The 3^rd and final match in Visakhapatnam was thus set up as the decider of the T20 Series and top ranked T20 team in ICC rankings justified their position.

Earlier in Australia, as widely expected after the Sydney ODI and Adelaide T20 victories, India went on not only to win the T20 Series but whitewash the hosts 3-0. After comfortably winning the first match in Adelaide India won the Melbourne T20 in a ‘similar’ fashion sealing the 3-match Series at 2-0. The third and final match in Sydney proved to be the most exciting one. Breaking the ‘similarity’ syndrome Australia this time decided to bat first and put up a mammoth total of 197 on the board with a brilliant century by Watson. The shortest-format Champs still won the match by 7 wickets with no ball to spare. The top order roared with explosive innings by Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan. Raina and Yuvraj in the end scored 17 runs in the last over. It was exhilarating to witness some vintage cricket by Yuvraj Singh. However, the veteran southpaw is not getting enough time in the middle to prepare well for the upcoming ICC World T20. India start as hot favorites for the big event starting 8^th March. But before that it is destination Dhaka, Bangladesh for the Asia cup that kicks off from 24^th February. This Team India, a mixture of experience and youth, augurs well and significantly, Dhoni fielded the same eleven for the third consecutive time today.