Cricket World Cup 2011
The cricket world cup is in the ball park and India has been quite successful in all forms of the game since the youngsters have entered in the side. The new youth powered exuberant team India has been in good form. They have retained a slot in the top three teams in the world in both ODI and Test formats. Indian squad has settled well at the international stage. The composition of the team seems well balanced. We have maverick aggressive openers in Gambhir and Sehwag or Tendulkar who is amongst the world’s best international batsman. Yuvraj, Dhoni and Raina consolidate the middle order. And, we have some good veteran bowlers in Harbhajan and Zaheer. So, do we don’t have any loopholes?
Yes we do! The persistent problem of India is dearth of all-rounders. I should even say that we never had a world class one! We have no player who can fit into that number 7 spot and make some positive contribution to the side! Coach Gary Kirsten has been exasperated. Our leader Dhoni has also been incompetent to find one. Everyone is shattered in regard to this recurrent problem and we have even lost faith that we can find a proper one.
Amit Mishra once said in an interview that we have me, Bhajji, Yuvraj and Sehwag who are kind of all-rounders! These all have good potential. But, hang-on: Is any of these players the real kind which can fill in the slot? The answer is an obvious ‘No’. These above mentioned players can be classified to be ‘part-time’ all-rounders. In this list some have the potential to bat, but can bowl only part-time and vice-versa. We lack accomplished all-rounders like “Angelo Mathews” or “Andrew Symonds”. We never had someone of their sort who can turn the whole match around! Someone who creates his own distinct aura on the field and sends tremor attacks to the opposition as he walks on the field!
There has been a lot of experimentation done with this number 7 spot. We had Ravindra Jadeja who was given many chances to prove self, but, repetitively he has failed to show character! We also have given a chance to Robin Uthappa and his performance was quite okay although a bit inconsistent. But, actually we are hunting for some bowling assistances as well for a player at his position! So, one may Yusuf Pathan is a better choice. But, after being given his chance he also fared far below expectation with ODI batting average a mere 22 and a bowling average of 40 and economy of 5.75! He would have been a palpable choice if the averages were opposite in the two departments!
There had been glimpses of sparkle too. We had Irfan Pathan who showed signs to be one. But, then, Kirsten rightly commented : “we can’t have a guy who is bowling say only around the pace of a hundred and fifteen kilometres an hour and is holding up an end, but capable of taking only one wicket every five or so matches.” So, the hunt is still on. But, rather than inviting fresh talent I feel we can actually cultivate someone who has the potential of being a good player to fill that slot. This would be a safer and concrete thing to do with the World Cup 6 months away!
By: Chintan Zalani
Tags: All-rounder, Cricket, Cricket World Cup 2011, India, Indian Sports, ODI Cricket, Sports, Sports India
