After looking at Indian team's performance at the WC till now, I think we have lost the tag of clear favorites which is fair and we shouldn't have had it from the beginning. There was never a doubt that we will not make it to the QF but manner on which we reach would determine how far we go ahead. Yes, bowling and fielding have come under the hammer from all quarters. Well there is not much improvement we can do on fielding front apart from making sure we do not drop catches but there is a huge scope of improvement in the bowling department.
Factors led to believe why Bowling is an issue:
- Unable to defend 300+ score on a belter of a track. (I believe smart bowlers will defend 300+ no matter what the track is because no batsman can hit you for extended period time unless you bowl bad)
- Unable to run through mediocre batting lineups by our frontline bowlers (Bangladesh, Ireland & Netherlands)
Apart from Zak no one looks part of winning WC bowling unit. Munaf bowls well only in patches which is simply not good enough if you are the 2nd seamer. I think going forward team will stick with Nehra unless he performs bad which will mean India chances will suffer. I do not think Sreesanth will get a chance unless someone gets injured and then it will be toss up between him and Munaf. I really think Sreesanth has all things needed to be a world class bowler and a perfect foil for Zak to open the bowling in the country only if he has his mind set straight. I really don't understand what is all the fuss about dropping Chawla, he is just short of confidence and all he needs is the support which he is getting from his captain. Dropping him now will mean loosing him for some time since it will severely dent his confidence. He too is a terrific talent and bowling leg-spin in batsman friendly era is not easy. I do not think Ashwin's confidence will falter for not getting picked because he will get his opportunity. The real disappointment has been Bhajji, team expects him to lead the spin attack and pick wickets which is not happening. I really do not understand the role of Eric Simmons (Bowling coach), it is him who really should be under the fire rather than bowlers.
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Minnows of cricket
So far all that minnows have done is provide match practice to the teams except for England, but as a real cricket lover I want more exciting games like Eng-SA. I believe the best way to go forward is to have two divisions in World Cricket, top 8 in Div1 and rest in Div2 and allow relegation and promotion at the end of year. This is the best way to have strong cricket program is the respective countries. I think Ireland, Netherlands & Bangladesh will be knocking on the door of World cricket if correct path is shown by ICC. You do not learn anything if you get hammered down by the strong team it is analogous to a weak student appearing for a hard Math exam which will do him no good but to break his confidence.
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My team 99ers(club for which I play for) has got off to a wining start to the new tournament in style hopefully we keep winning.
Factors led to believe why Bowling is an issue:
- Unable to defend 300+ score on a belter of a track. (I believe smart bowlers will defend 300+ no matter what the track is because no batsman can hit you for extended period time unless you bowl bad)
- Unable to run through mediocre batting lineups by our frontline bowlers (Bangladesh, Ireland & Netherlands)
Apart from Zak no one looks part of winning WC bowling unit. Munaf bowls well only in patches which is simply not good enough if you are the 2nd seamer. I think going forward team will stick with Nehra unless he performs bad which will mean India chances will suffer. I do not think Sreesanth will get a chance unless someone gets injured and then it will be toss up between him and Munaf. I really think Sreesanth has all things needed to be a world class bowler and a perfect foil for Zak to open the bowling in the country only if he has his mind set straight. I really don't understand what is all the fuss about dropping Chawla, he is just short of confidence and all he needs is the support which he is getting from his captain. Dropping him now will mean loosing him for some time since it will severely dent his confidence. He too is a terrific talent and bowling leg-spin in batsman friendly era is not easy. I do not think Ashwin's confidence will falter for not getting picked because he will get his opportunity. The real disappointment has been Bhajji, team expects him to lead the spin attack and pick wickets which is not happening. I really do not understand the role of Eric Simmons (Bowling coach), it is him who really should be under the fire rather than bowlers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minnows of cricket
So far all that minnows have done is provide match practice to the teams except for England, but as a real cricket lover I want more exciting games like Eng-SA. I believe the best way to go forward is to have two divisions in World Cricket, top 8 in Div1 and rest in Div2 and allow relegation and promotion at the end of year. This is the best way to have strong cricket program is the respective countries. I think Ireland, Netherlands & Bangladesh will be knocking on the door of World cricket if correct path is shown by ICC. You do not learn anything if you get hammered down by the strong team it is analogous to a weak student appearing for a hard Math exam which will do him no good but to break his confidence.
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My team 99ers(club for which I play for) has got off to a wining start to the new tournament in style hopefully we keep winning.
Going into the WC - I reckon we had the worst bowling line-up of the 8 teams: All of SA, Aus, Pak, Eng, SL surely have better bowlers. WI and NZ have comparable if not better bowling, but their fielding side just makes their bowling more effective.
ReplyDeleteSo - I won't brood over how bad our bowling is. Dropping catches, at any level, is inexcusable. It is probably the most, let me stress, the most basic skill one needs to play the game of cricket. Catch a ball. It is that simple.
I won't quote a single day example to point out bowling weaknesses, that is not how it works. By that measure Australia had the world's worst bowling attack when they let SA chase 434. Having said that - our bowling is surely poor, and the real question is - can we bat consistently enough to compensate...?
@Abhinav - The answer to your question is NO. In a such long tournament you are bound to have an off day in batting and bowling will have to step in. If that off day is in KO stage then it is bye-bye. I do not think we have worst bowling line-up for any conditions, at this moment we are few levels down than what we should be.
ReplyDeleteDuring Aus-SA record chase, don't just look at the bowling line-up but how Aus bowled on that day which allowed SA to chase.