is dhoni getting exposed...?

dhoni, the captain, has every trophy in his cupboard that can make any captain envious...

in one day cricket he is undisputed king and one of the most valuable batsman...

but when it comes to tests... the doubts start to creep in... with his keeping... and batting...

dhoni wicket keeping of late is almost everything that has made kamran akmal the butt of all jokes...

he is not going for catches... fumbling with regular takes... standing some steps back only to gift himself some much needed time... and before you jump on me that in english conditions keeper requires bit of time to cover for late movement... you obviously missed the west indies series...

it screws our slip cordon is one side-effect...

dhoni collecting ball below knee is a regular feature... as is ball dissecting him and first slip with him stuck on his feet...

india could have still afforded his keeping services given his batting was as stable as is expected of wicket keeper batsman... but here dhoni is regressing fast to say the least...

when india plays at full strength... the batting line up of viru, gambhir, dravid, sachin, vvs, raina/yuvi/che precede him... followed by a lower order crisis man harbhajan singh... who has played more match winning/turning innings than dhoni for quite a while...

one can clearly see the class in batting line up... and invariably at least two out of first six batsmen clicks for india big time and we manage to score a decent total if not outright winning total to give our bowlers a chance to force result... so dhoni not scoring on consistent basis goes un-noticed... india winning more matches than it loses also glosses over dhoni poor form with bat...

so when team india loses (like in this series with england)... or plays understrength team that requires dhoni to step up as batsman... he gets exposed...

a lot of dhoni being the next gilchrist is based on his odi career... while in tests he is yet to prove his credentials with reasonable consistency...

he was and never will be a technically sound test batsman... his play is based on percentage cricket... so when there is slightest movement in that percentage towards bowler... he obviously finds it difficult...

even gilchrist was not technically accomplished batsman... a lot of his batting was hand eye coordination... but what differentiated him with dhoni is... he trusted his instincts...

if a batting line up of viru, gambhir, dravid, sachinn, vvs, raina/yuvi/che, dhoni followed by bhajji cannot make dhoni confident enough to go for shots... be the player he promised... be the player he can be... wonder what will...

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what is pathan doing in the team...?

india's campaign is just two match old but one can already see a spot being wasted... the no.7 batsman...

sachin, sehwag, gambhir, kohli, yuvi, dhoni is the batting order to die for and on our wickets you won't see pathan batting too often to make an impact...

dhoni is not using him to 'up the ante' like yesterday match when the situation was ripe to steal some quick runs but decided to send yuvi instead of him... although holding kohli, a last match centurion, was a daft move in first place but that is beyond the scope of this post...

the less said about his bowling the better... even dhoni don't have any confidence on his bowling and there you go... its not hard to see the point...

as we go more into the business end of world cup... i guess india will have to rethink its strategy... keep on wasting a spot as a protection for 'those days' or continue to give itself an option of a specialist bowler to throw ball to...

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dhoni's message is loud and clear...

if piyush chawla was looking at dhoni with some positive intent after his match winning performance in the warm-up match against australia... dhoni was quick to dispel that in no uncertain terms...

"Well, he has done really well in whatever games he has played. But I think he needs to contribute with the bat. One of the main reasons for his selection was our need to have a specialist spinner who could also bat a bit. If he could bat a bit better and contribute 15-20 runs then it would be good for the side. But as a specialist spinner he has done well in whatever games he has played," Dhoni said.

what dhoni is trying to say is that he don't need a 'specialist bowler' who will take four wickets in successfully defending 200 odd runs...

but what he needs is a 'specialist bowler' who can contribute with 15-20 odd runs with bat and if, in doing so, he doesn't take 4 odd wickets in defending a small total is cool with him...

and we blamed bhajji for going defensive all this while...

chawla... now you exactly know what you have to do in next warm-up game against new zealand...

not with the ball you stupid...

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seven batsmen irony...

during the wonderful debate on my last post - first thoughts on team india world cup squad selection - and even elsewhere one point that stands out is that almost everybody considers it given that only way to go out in this world cup or even in general is... pick seven batsmen... that, naturally, i find bit baffling...

the first thing that crosses captain's mind whenever he sees tinge of grass on pitch is how to beef up the batting to cover for the exaggerated movement of ball swinging or seaming or both...

going by the same count... why not then the same captain should not trust his batsmen on patta wickets to come good and aid his bowling instead where the bowlers will be reduced to the level of just being there to make up for the numbers...?

i think not only the cricket but fans too in general are getting more and more defensive and don't demand positive or attacking cricket from their respective teams...

so next time when you see a captain deploying a fielder at the rope after just one hit to the fence... think again before calling him a defensive captain...

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india's exit: whom to blame... dhoni or selectors...?

dhoni because...

the flexibility for which dhoni used to be known for has been replaced by some fixed notions as far as his leadership goes... his insistence on preferring pathan and jadeja over specialists has started to hurt india badly... even when selector gave him specialist spinners in the form of mishra and ojha... he kept preferring pathans... for the 'balance' sake... its not only the caribbean even in sri lanka where pitches and conditions were more conducive to spin... he did not play mishra...

he has also started to take 'reactive' decisions... in champions trophy first he said we can't play extra bowler coz it disturbs the balance of the team... then after a defeat and facing elimination... he said extra bowler helps coz you don't have to score that many runs... even in the crunch game his decision to bat first seems reaction to the criticism of bowling first decisions earlier rather than on sound logic...

he kept on bowling first when he did not had bowlers who could exploit the conditions and in crunch game yesterday he opted to bat when the situation was similar to say impending rain... when you want to chase coz you want to keep pace with revised target... but he chose to bat instead coz that appeared more convenient to him...

this goes to show how defensive he has become and do not want to push himself as well as the team... he seems content in the comfort zone... so does the team...

selectors because...

when your chief selector pledges in front of nation, after first test fiasco against south africa, that he will never select players who are not fully fit... and went on to do so for no less than a world cup... what can you do...?

the selections were based on reputations rather than form... the thinking was clear... stuff the team with batsmen coz t20 is a batsman game... and chawla's selections indicated that... who was apparently preferred over mishra and ojha for his batting skills... but they forgot that you just cannot bat and bat... but have to bowl too to defend the total... and no amount of big hitting can defend bad bowling...

dhoni was just not given bowlers to fall back on... instead he was given assembly of part times... it came as no surprise that when situation demanded dhoni could not find bowler to throw the ball to knowing he will give his 100%...

the squad for the world cup should be like where every player can make it into final xi depending upon conditions... situations... but we carried 3-4 passengers in a squad of 15 when even some main players were not close to the top form!

where does this leave captain...? what options dhoni had to maneuver...?

selectors stint thus far has been rank conservative that lacks vision... and if they continue to do so... this will erase everything what team india has achieved of late... despite their insipidity... and one wonders they are actually paid 40 lakhs a year for this crap!!

bcci... attention please... i can do as bad a job for even 10 lakhs per annum... or i might actually...

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why seven batsmen theory of dhoni is flawed...

"The balance of our side doesn't encourage it (five bowlers). It's tough to play with just six batters for if you lose early wickets, it's difficult to make a comeback," said Dhoni on the eve of the match.

there is not much problem when you want to go with seven batsmen... sourav did it with good results in 2003 world cup... but for that to happen... you have to have 4 bowlers in top form so even if one bowler has off day that can be made up with other 3 going for the kill backed up ably by decent part timers... not when all four bowlers you have are in worst form of their lives... struggling to send ball to batsman at other end leave alone thinking it of landing at right places...

another flaw with seven batsman theory with dhoni version is where is seventh batsmen...? can you call yusuf pathan a batsman...?

earlier we have tried kaif, raina, karthik and even dravid (i think) but the common thing in all these options was that all these batsmen have game to survive and not just close eye and hoik across the line types... no wonder that kaif on many occasions came so low down and still scored a century or finished the game coz he had the game for it... while if yusuf survives for more than couple of overs even he seems to surprise himself...

opposition teams too are smart these days... they know that once you are entering with seven batsmen and your four front line bowlers are not in any kind of form they don't mind even losing two three wickets like pakistan did knowing that by deciding that you will step in ground with four bowlers only you have in a way declared your intent that you are not looking to take wickets in crucial middle overs... hence they could take it easy...

and that's exactly what happened... in spite of being under pressure and struggling to rotate strike... specially malik... they went unchallenged in middle overs... coz india could not find any bowler to challenge them... stifle them into submission with his guile and variation in spin friendly conditions...

so the question is... can india still make it to semi final stage...?

to that my answer will be... highly unlikely...

it would be nothing short of miracle and probably first time in the history of cricket if this will happen... coz no team till now has reached semi final stage of any cricket tournament without having bowlers in their ranks...

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