Cricket: India Beat Sri Lanka in Perth One-Dayer! Rotation Continues!

Virender Sehwag came back into the team, but Gautam Gambhir was out! It was some weird kind of a rotation policy that drops one established or maybe a ‘senior’ player and takes in one youngster that is to say Rohit Sharma—to be more specific. He was kept out of the Test series consistently and now somebody is trying to make amends! The pertinent question is why rotation? For a team that almost forgot the winning habit overseas winning must be the main objective and for that you have to put in the best team possible. That India managed to win against Sri Lanka by four wickets in the second match of the triangular series in Australia was not a masterful statement of authority, the team with rotation in full swing is still suspect against Australia or maybe even Sri Lanka in matches to follow.

Zaheer Khan came back too into the team and kept the Sri Lankans at bay by capturing two wickets. With disciplined bowling and R Ashwin’s great bowling of 3 for 32 restricted Sri Lanka to 233 for 8 in the allotted fifty overs. The target of 234 for a win was not a stiff one and Sri Lanka definitely fell short of at least 20 runs for a challenging total.

Except for good batting by Virat Kohli (77) and Sachin Tendulkar (48) the Indian reply was almost the predictable one with all top batsmen back in the pavilion at the score of 181 for 6. That was the moment when Sri Lanka could have stormed back and won the match. But all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and spinner with some batting ability R Ashwin batted sensibly and had an unbeaten partnership of 53 runs seeing India through with 20 balls to spare. They in fact showed the right way to the genuine batsmen how to play for win when the asking rate was not all the concern. R Ashwin deservedly won the man of the match award.

The ill-advised rotation policy must end if India fancy chances of going into the final of the series and even winning it. Just thinking if Yuvraj was also fit and playing what the rotation policy would have been like! Anyway, it was refreshing to see World Champions overcoming their World Cup final opponents yet again after about ten months.

Nurturing youngsters for Test matches, particularly overseas, remains a huge problem that needs lot of introspection by the people who matter. The lifeless and slow Indian pitches are no answer to this problem whatever form of cricket you play thereon, T20, one-dayer, tests or Ranji matches. 

Cricket Australia: Contradictions Galore For Team India!

Just when Indian dashing opener Virender Sehwag was needed most he was dropped or rested or whatever! In the first one day international cricket match between India and Australia in Melbourne on February 5^th Indian top order failed again and Team India had a disastrous start in the triangular one-day series too. 

  

The argument was that youngsters needed to be encouraged. Where were these youngsters when the ‘seniors’ failed and failed and failed in the Test series? During that time Sehwag and others were not considered as ‘seniors’! We have always maintained here that young Indian cricketers should be trained and prepared for test cricket—the real format of the game. If you have no faith in them for the real cricket then your encouragement is immensely ‘short’ sighted! Sehwag has proved his worth in the shorter format more effectively than in the real one and just one explosive innings from him can turn a match on its head.

Then again, on Australian bouncy wickets you go for two spinners which is a rare tactic even in ODIs played on flat Indian wickets. Pravin Kumar and Vinay Kumar gave India a terrific start in that match, but the two spinners neutralized it completely and helplessly saw Australia taking absolute command of the game. And by the way, what’s Zaheer Khan doing nowadays? Is he another ‘senior’ fit only for test cricket? 

And not the least, in place of ‘senior’ opener Sehwag only Sachin Tendulkar came in to open for India! What is his status—senior, junior, youngster or what? Or is it only because he has to accomplish the hundredth hundred feat? It is getting very ominous—the more the delay in achieving this record the more will be the sufferings and humiliations for Indian cricket.  Sachin’s ‘century of centuries’ dangler is almost creating the dilemma of the ‘millennium’ for Indian cricket! Back home, you have lost the biggest sponsor too. 

For the time being, end the contradictions so that the one-day series does not become another disaster. Tomorrow’s match against Sri Lanka is the immediate challenge. 

Meanwhile, medical experts have confirmed that Yuvraj Singh has no lung cancer, but a tumor or a rare form of seminoma in between his lungs just above the heart. Yuvraj is responding  to treatment very well and with his positive energy he will indeed be back into the cricket field in May, the doctors add confidently.

Cricket: Yuvraj Singh Has Lung Cancer, Doctors Say Curable!

Article first published as Cricket: The Full Truth About Yuvraj Singh! on Technorati.

 Indian cricket team’s prime match winner Yuvraj Singh is in trouble. The earlier medical reports indicating his lung tumor as benign had been proved wrong by doctors in the US. It is found to be malignant and India’s star cricketer has lung cancer.

The US doctors have said that Yuvraj’s proper treatment was delayed by a wrong diagnosis given by an Indian hospital. His physiotherapist claimed that the correct biopsy report was done in October end, 2011, but that report was allegedly stolen from his car. Then the Indian hospital gave the wrong diagnosis. This explains why Yuvraj’s family possibly informed the media as late as November end, 2011 that all was well with the superstar and he was likely to join India in the Australian triangular one-day series in February, 2012.

Yuvraj Singh had been undergoing treatment in the Cancer Research Institute in Boston since last month. His lung tumor had been described as a rare one and since the tumor is just above the artery of his heart there is some element of risk involved in medication. Some medical experts also call this disease as Lung Seminoma that mostly affects younger generation.  

But the good news is that the US doctors term it as stage one cancer and thus immensely curable. Ever Lung Seminoma in younger people is more than 95% curable. They have decided upon three cycles of chemotherapy for Yuvraj which is likely be completed in March, 2012. Then the rehabilitation process would start and be complete next month. In May, 2012 Yuvraj is expected to come roaring back into the world of cricket.

Yuvraj played a pivotal role in the ICC World Cup-2011 which India won in style. During that historic period he scored 362 runs, took 15 wickets as an on-and-off slow bowler, won four man-of-the-match awards and was rightfully crowned the Player of the Tournament.

It is very unfortunate that the Indian cricket board fought with its main sponsor for 11 years over the utilization of Yuvraj’s Indian Premiere League (IPL-V) sale price. Yuvraj had been playing for Pune Warriors, an IPL team, as its skipper and now its owner Sahara India withdrew the ownership and decided to discontinue its mammoth cricket sponsorship for Team India.

Indian cricket needs Yuvraj Singh and the sooner he comes back the better. All cricket fans across the world must join in prayers for his immediate and the fullest recovery. He must win this crucial match for India too.