On the day India and Australia played their first games of the ICC Champions Trophy, the contrast in attitudes was stark. Despite having to play on a wicket where the bounce was often steep the Australians made a dogged effort to hang in there and counter the conditions. The inexperienced West Indian attack had just about every Australian batsman hopping and Ricky Ponting had to bring all his skill into play to stave the bowers off.
Then when the Aussies were on the ropes the West Indian bowlers showed their inexperience by allowing Mitchell Johnson to swing his bat merrily and get his team to a total that looked beyond the second string West Indian team.
The West Indians made a spirited reply and at one stage Ricky Ponting looked a bit worried but once again the inexperience of the West Indians was exposed as they lost the last five wickets within the space of a few overs adding a few runs and thus ended up losing by margin of 50 runs. The Australians just did not give up in the field even when the West Indians were building partnerships and were relentlessly at the batsmen.
In contrast, the Indians seemed as if they had little idea how to counter the partnership between Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf. Both these experienced players started slowly and took their time to asses the pitch and the bowling and once they had settled down they accelerated and made up for their earlier slow start. The Indian skipper has blamed the bowlers and that is understandable as Pakistan were allowed to get over 300 runs but the signs have been there for some time now that the seam bowlers in particular with the exception of Ashish Nehra are struggling for rhythm and are way short of confidence. It’s all very well not to make drastic changes to the squad but there comes a time when a player has to be dropped if only to allow him to reflect on why he is not playing as well as is known to and to then come back once his mind is sorted out. It is all a matter of confidence and the Indian new ball bowlers don’t seem to have too much of it at the moment.
Dhoni also repeated the mistake of sending an inexperienced batsman like Virat Kohli at No. 4 like he sent Ravindra Jadeja high up the order in the ICC World Twenty20 in England. Then, Jadeja simply did not have the experience and the range of shots to get the ball away and here again young Kohli has struggled to get the board moving at the pace that Indians needed. If anything, Dhoni should have come himself at No. 4 to give himself more overs at the crease. In situations like these, the skipper has to lead the way and show the inexperienced players how it’s done but Dhoni’s reluctance to promote himself is hard to understand. Kohli will have his time but it was not to be in the crucial game against Pakistan. India thus find themselves in exactly the same position that they were in the ICC World Twenty20 in June earlier this year where they now have to win both the remaining matches in their group, and playing against an in-form Australian team on these bouncy pitches is not going to be easy. Brett Lee has been bowling speedily and Peter Siddle is proving hard to get away so unless a miracle happens and the Indians lift themselves up for a superhuman effort the campaign may have come to an end even before it has begun. As an Indian I am hoping that the team proves me wrong.
— Professional Management Group
