ZIM TRI-SERIES - IND VS SRI

Another incomprehensible performance by India leads to a grim defeat, eliminating them from this tournament. Batting performance, though far better than the previous game, not only in terms of the amount of runs scored but also in terms of the intent and attitude, was still not upto the standards expected at this level. The biggest problem seems to be the inability of the batsmen, sans Rohit, to nudge the ball in the gap for singles. This resulted in Virat Kohli and Yusuf giving away the little initiative that India gained during the batting powerplay. Rohit seems to be the most apt of the lot at finding singles with ease and anchoring the innings. He is a great find for India but needs to really work on his fitness to carry on for a long time.


Thanks to Ashwin’s blinder, India could cross the 250 mark. Ashwin could prove to be a handy batsman lower down the order but his bowling leaves a lot to be desired. He has to learn all the arts of off spin bowling and needs to vary his speeds more often than he does now to hope for a carrier at international level. Ashok Dinda is a good prospect for India but it i doubt if he will be able to sustain for long at this level with the kind of action (he has a highly injury prone jump in his action just before he delivers the bowl) and physique he has. I really fail to understand the role of Jadeja in this team.”Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.” Jadeja and batting are just like the current US-Israel relations; they do not go well together!.. His current bowling avg. is 43 which is worse than that of Michael Clarke or Kevin Pietersen.


Coming on to S.Raina, i think he needs to be rested so that he can work on his weaknesses and return as a better batsman. He had a lot of unseen things to offer as a captain! He forgot to inform the umpire about the bowling powerplay and he denied Virat and Rohit the batting powerplay when they asked for it in the match against Sri Lanka, indirectly denying India a possible bonus point. He also kept defensive fields throughout the match against Zim while defending a small total of 194. Even in today’s game, he kept widespread fields though India needed to bowl out Sri-Lanka below 214. Pushing himself down to No.5 has not helped India’s cause either. I think Rohit is far better when it comes to anchoring the innings than Raina, who is an attacking batsman.Yusuf could have been tried as an opener in the initial phase of the tournament. Promoting him to No.4, a position normally reserved for a batsman apt at anchoring the innings, and immediately taking the powerplay resulted in nothing positive of substance. The bowling and fielding was as usual. Whereas the Sri-Lankans lifted their fielding standards for this crucial game, there was no change in intent from India in this department even though it was a knock out game for them. Overall, the young Indian team failed to impress comprehensively!.. It’s high time for some serious thinking and a lot of effort has to be put in by both, the players and the board to raise the level of Indian cricket..