Where is the hurt India?

When most teams lose, there is an expression of hurt, disappointment. Australians talk about ‘being gutted’. South Africa usually crash out of tournaments shell shocked, oftentimes resembling characters from Tintin when struck with lightening or something entirely unexpected and its often hard not to laugh at their plight. When Pakistan lose the infighting intensifies but the desire to win and the hurt at not getting it is amply expressed.

However when India lose the entire apparatus gets into overdrive to deceive themselves that…you know what, its not as bad as it looks. If they are disappointed then the evidence is nowhere to be found.

It’s always ‘that one partnership that was the difference’ or ‘we are going through a bad time’. There are attempts to put the loss in perspective. Matches long archived in history are referred to, to suggest that things were fine not so long ago and the current loss is just an aberration. Lady luck is accused of not being in escort. ‘We will show you in our backyard’ or dialogues to that effect are muttered. The team almost wishes that when they lose the individuals should still be adulated for glories past.

The defenses come up even before criticism is expressed.

For starters, I do buy the assessment that the margin of loss to Australia hurt us in the World T20. It is also obvious that the rain hindered India’s chances.

But where is the disappointment? Where is the hurt?

Why are attempts made by the team to justify status quo? Why is it that with India that a year and more of sustained drought of wins does not trigger attempts to change things to find wins?

When you look at it individually perhaps there is a case for Virendra Sehwag to be given more chances, may be it would be harsh to drop Gautam Gambhir, may be Zaheer Khan still has some wickets in him. May be Yuvraj Singh, he batsman, will eventually find his form and further that he is entitled to use international games as net practice. May be Sachin Tendulkar deserves to carry on and achieve whatever it is that he has set his eyes on. May be there is some future value in giving Rohit Sharma endless chances, may be celebrating Harbhajan Singh’s monthly comebacks mostly with the bat are justifiable.

May be…

Collectively however, its simply not working. Not in Tests, not in ODIs and not in T20s.

What is it about India that it has found comfort in losing? Has the benchmark for success changed? Has pride in winning given way to pride in TRP ratings? endorsements?  revenue?

Is this what it means when they say that cricket is now a business and players are entertainers?

Does winning not matter at all?

Is this time for South Africa to unchoke?

One day, India will lose a World Cup game to Pakistan. Till then every unanswered win against Pakistan in any 'world event' is cause for celebration. 

Champions Trophy does not count. 

And even if the World T20 is not a World Cup, we will call it one; especially now since Pakistan have yet again lost to India.

For those of us who have lived through Sharjah...may the wins keep coming.

The current Pakistan team had gathered a lot of adulation and respect for their performances over the last year. They betrayed that thoroughly today. They fielded like the Pakistan team we know of, batted with little brains and their bowlers lined up to pay tribute to and further feed the legend of Virat Kohli.

Can't remember a more hollow win for India against Pakistan. 

Both teams are still alive. Both teams can lose their last Super 8 games and still hope to qualify on 'Net Run Rate'. Both teams to a large extent control their own destiny. Purely in a logical sense, India are better placed however. They play last knowing exactly what they have to do in their game against South Africa. Pakistan on the other hand will be at the mercy of Shane Watson. A daunting task for any team. 

A cricketer I had initially written off as Australia's version of Sanjay Bangar or Manoj Prabhhakar. Shane Watson, has since silenced me but the way he is playing in this tournament, if he were to compete as his own country he would start as among the favorites.

Australia and Sri Lanka do look like they could win this thing. Sri Lanka along with West Indies was of course in my list of teams favored to win the World T20 but now I would like to swap West Indies with Australia. 

There haven't been very many close matches but close finishes do not define a good game of cricket and the Super 8s have been exciting even without them.

South Africa and New Zealand have been surprisingly disappointing but while South Africa have always choked from positions of strength, this is the first time they are playing with their backs against the wall.

Who knows...

This may trigger a South African resurgence that might get them their first ICC Trophy. 

The Undropppable Mr Sehwag

Once selected for a tour, Virendra Sehwag is essentially undroppable.

What I mean is with players like him it is the selectors who need to drop him for poor performance. It should not be left to Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Its unfair.

The only way for Mahendra Singh Dhoni to come of this unscathed was for India to win the match and once he executed on this ‘most difficult decision’ he exposed himself to criticism if India lost the game.

They did lose the game and the criticism that was expressed as analysis during the match is now a full blown questioning of Dhoni’s decision making abilities.

I feel for Dhoni. The selectors are not doing their jobs and the task of managing the egos of the seniors while still trying to win games is squarely on his shoulders.

During India’s 0-8 run, he never once influenced any change in the batting team composition or the batting order but in the LOI format he feels he has enough control to exert his influence.

I have always argued that Virendra Sehwag is more comfortable with the Test format and his consistency after a decade of LOI cricket nowhere near his Test match consistency. His career should be managed like VVS Laxman’s and preserved for Test matches.

That will require selectoral consensus, which was too much to expect from Srikkant’s team. Will Sandip Patil be any good?

Time will tell

The skill gap on paper between India and Australia without Sehwag is too huge. Even with Sehwag in the team the bowling is threadbare.

Had Sehwag played and scorched a 100, I have no confidence that our bowlers would have defended the score. Not with the rain that clearly hindered an almost all-spin attack.

I think the right thing for Mahendra Singh Dhoni to now do is to show he is flexible, get Sehwag back in the side for the must win game against Pakistan and deal with the issue of Virendra Sehwag with the selectors.

There are a few players who are above such policies like ‘horses for courses’. Even in the most abject of forms like the one he is in right now, Virendra Sehwag is one of them.

Dhoni should be applauded for trying but in the supposed power struggle between him and Virendra Sehwag, he may have raised the stakes higher than what was necessary.

It’s better to lose with Virendra Sehwag in the team than lose by benching him

The World T20 finally poised for a take off

The World T20 Story so far... 

Rain

3 matches affected by rain. A must win game ends in a no result and we find out that West Indies make it to the Super 8s without winning a single game. More rain is expected and the ICC responds to questions of the scheduling of the tournament with “Everyone knew and agreed to the schedule”. Actually such is the pull of cricket’s newest format that ICC can organize a night game in the North Pole in the middle of the summer and make a profit. This one though has all the makings of another Champions Trophy from a decade ago when India bowled twice in the finals on consecutive days only for the second innings being washed out on both days. 100 overs of cricket and the trophy was shared.

Me No Love

The minnows, who don’t like to be called that we learn, had earned much sympathy and love during the 2011 World Cup and the previous edition of the T20 Cup 2 weeks ago or so. This time with most matches being lopsided, the minnows have been shown their place and the only love they are getting is based on ‘archived in statsguru’ performances. Much like the lifeline India’s seniors are enjoying

The Format

Even after a week, the tournament feels like its still in the warm up matches stage. SA have batted for all of 19 overs, England technically ‘threw’ their match against India for it was a game of absolutely no consequence and no matter how hard the ICC tries they just cannot design a format that can keep all stages interesting. In that the fault lies less with the ICC and more with the disparity of skills between the Test and the non-Test playing countries.

The Leading Unfavorites

India - I am not reading too much into the embarrassingly thumping win against England for India. For all its experience with the IPL, India seems to be a side just a nudge away from completely falling apart. Ever since Virat Kohli carried Sachin on his shoulders after the World Cup win, the list of seniors that India have had to carry is mounting. Sehwag, Gambhir, Zaheer… and now, Yuvraj. I was very excited with Yuvraj’s return and said to whoever would listen that he would be biggest thing in Indian cricket for a while but he just does not seem match fit to me. It’s only a matter of time when one of these non performing seniors will cause the camels back to break only for the blame to be shifted to Ashok Dinda.

Of the Other Unfavorites

England are not as stupid as they looked against Harbhajan and Chawla, South Africa are actually looking good, Pakistan likewise. Australia were mauled by Gayle and remain along with India the most unfavourites.

If the rains stay away most of the games in the Super 8s will be worth watching. Also with no baggage being carried forward from the previous rounds all teams start as equals. The idea of carrying forward points while it worked to create an incentive to take every group match seriously, had the downside of not allowing lower seeded teams any room to make a run to the top in the Super 8s. 

Better to have meaningless matches in the group stage than in the Super 8s

Personally, I would love for West Indies to win. 

The Unfavourites

If cricket boards across the world could figure out how to make money on the sighting of Haley’s comet, they would find a way to make that thing appear every other year. With T20, they don’t have to do anything as dramatic other than dropping the ‘World Cup’ tag from this tournament. People are somehow conditioned to think that World Cups happen every 4 years so by smartly dropping the tag it has allowed boards to have this tournament every week if they so choose.

Of course we will be following the World T20 cup. So lets kick start the coverage with these teams who are most unlikely to win the cup; “The unfavourites”…

India

There is enough evidence to suggest that wearing the same uniform design does not yield similar results. From what I can tell the strategy failed in Tests. I have vivid memories of India wearing whites when they became the #1 Test side in the world and then promptly lost 8 Test Matches in a row; also in white. In addition the ROI on winning the World T20 cup is questionable.

England

There was a bowler... correcttion.. Fast bowler. He was once carted for 6 sixes in 6 balls. He now captains his country. Enough said. On the bright side England are united and united they will fall.

South Africa

At the end of the day they are a team of proper cricketers. Ultimately too good to win the World T20. On the positive side I did not suggest they will choke

Australia

Their captain will not even make the 15 member squad of 80% of the countries including Ireland. Its hard to see why he would end up holding the T20 cup. They are also ranked below Ireland in the T20 rankings. There is nothing to be said on the brighter side for Australia

Pakistan

In all probability they will end up issuing a formal complaint to the ICC that no one told them that the game they just won against India was a warm up game. Then they will boycott the rest of the actual tournament and hold their own World T20 cup. Ajmal will win the man of the series award.