The aftermath of the Champions trophy

We have already seen enough India and Dhoni bashing – after basically one loss of the Indian team. Maybe more than the loss, it was the manner of the loss, where India’s bowling looked awfully short of what world’s number 1 team should boast of. However, a few things to remember here – firstly, we only lost 1 match, and it is the ridiculous format (yet again) of another ICC event which has more contribution to this rather than the woeful form of Indian bowlers itself. God only know why does ICC have to have a 2 month long World Cup in 2007, which just refused to end once it started, and such a short ICC Cahmpions Trophy, which does not even have a reserve day for the Final. Obviously the monetary implications of the upcoming Champions League and the power of the Indian Board has something to do with it, which in a way serves us right by eliminating our team courtesy a rain wash out. I am not indicating that we have played well in that match, but the fact is, India has successfully chased higher and tougher targets in the past, and had the match been completed, atleast we would not have been in a world of could-have-been.

Anyway, that’s that – and the more important issue is that we as fans and cricket analysts need to understand that the team is not bad. It was short of 3 key players, and you remove 3 key players from any team in the world and see the impact. I understand some changes need to happen, and there is no justification for short pitch bowling, but let the team learn from its mistakes rather than branding 20 year old players as liabilities.

Lastly, the team management also needs to take a good hard look at the bowling. Why on earth would you want a guy like Ishant Sharma to bowl slower balls is beyond my imagination. The alarming frequency with which he has started the use of the slower ball has definitely got something to do with the bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad. I think someone needs to tell him to just bowl fast, and aim the toe (The batsmen’s – that is) for a few years. He has his entire life to try bowling slower balls after that. Harbhajan needs to learn to flight the bowl. I know it sounds sarcastic, but honestly after all these years, I would not be wrong in saying that Harbhajan is far from being a consistent match winner that a bowler of his class should be. He is just too inconsistent, and his record is nowhere close to fellow spinners. Amit Mishra should play more, even in the one day version. Finally, it is high time we try developing some bowling allrounders - along with some sporting pitches. World cup is not very far, and with this bowling attack on our kind of pitches, we will more or less be chasing 300 in each match.