India showed great character in coming back after the depressing loss in the Karachi Test and the first one-dayer to swamp Pakistan 4-1 and win the one-day series in style. The team was helped by the fact that a few new players came in, who did not have the trauma of having been in a losing team and also the fresh legs made a big difference to the team as the runs that were conceded in the Tests were stopped by fielders throwing themselves at the ball and restricting the threes to twos and twos to singles. In one-day cricket fielding is crucial and India did not have to hide anybody which can be done at the Test level.
The man who transformed the side was the skipper Rahul Dravid, who showed by example what application and common sense can do. If there’s a tough situation then he would be the first one in there and not send some inexperienced player to carry the can. In the Tests too, he had shown the way by opening the batting when an opener had to be dropped and he scored two centuries in the first two Tests and when he failed in the third Test India lost. In the one-dayers too he took tough decisions and was savvy enough to realize that if it didn’t work, there is no point in being stubborn about it. Of course the best thing that he did for the team was to win the tosses where it mattered and gave his team the option that they preferred and that is to chase the target Pakistan put up.
The Man of the Series was Yuvraj Singh, who after his fighting century in the lost Karachi cause simply went from strength to more strength. He is one of the longest hitters of a cricket ball but he curbed that instinct to bat according to the needs of the situation and by the end of the one-day series he was looking as solid as Dravid and that’s saying something. What his display showed was a maturity that augurs well not just for him but also for the team. He now is a genuine candidate for the captaincy in the future and India is indeed fortunate that they have in Yuvraj, Kaif, Pathan and Sehwag of course, guys who without curbing their natural game can make the clever adjustments to come out on top.
Dhoni’s magnificent batting and clean hitting has given India more flexibility not just in the batting order but in the combination that they want to play in a particular match. Hopefully he will not neglect his keeping for he will be the first to admit that there’s scope for improvement there. The beauty of this team is that they seem willing to learn and add more strings to their bows so a specialist in one department is also trying to better the other departments of his cricket.
Pakistan looked lost and they weren’t helped by the fact that their coach got distracted by the comments that were being made about their tactics. Instead of giving some thought to that criticism, which after all was coming from Pakistan’s most successful captain, the coach decided to dig his heels in just to try and prove the former skipper wrong and the result was disastrous. One-day cricket thrives on the unpredictable and that’s why pinch hitters and spinners opening the bowling have worked but not consistently. So if some tactics fail then they have to be changed. India did that by dropping Irfan Pathan back to his usual slot after his failure in the first two games and it worked.
India outperformed Pakistan in all departments of the game especially the tactical one and were deserving winners. The comprehensive win will put them in good heart as they take on England shortly. That however may not be as easy for England will be definitely more prepared and tactically aware than Pakistan were. But don’t be surprised if it’s a big yawn as most previous tours by England have been.
