TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2016
C3
SPORTS C O M M E N TA RY
Umesh Yadav is disgusting, but why isn’t anyone telling him the truth?
Under-pressure Dhoni gets board’s backing
T
he most ridiculous moment at Melbourne was when Umesh Yadav gathered the ball at square leg and denied himself a great opportunity to run Glenn Maxwell out. A direct hit would have ended Maxwell’s innings, giving India a chance to win as Australia were 36 runs still behind, with just three wickets and 32 balls left. Still, even when everyone merrily roasts Yadav and Co and MS Dhoni happily scapegoats the fall guys, it’s not out of place to pose the question: are the Indian bowlers getting just deserts for their misdeeds or are they sitting ducks for the big shots who failed to do what they are fabulously paid for? Yadav got the breakthrough for his team off the first ball of the eighth over with a perfect delivery that forced Aaron Finch to edge, but the next ball to Steve Smith, the new batsman, was a wide down the leg side. An extra run, an additional ball and a waste of opportunity to put pressure on the new guy at the crease, all right, but was it the first time he was doing something like that? Absolutely not. Yadav had done it before. He has a disgusting focus on leg stump which, in an ODI game, offers batmen an opportunity to play their shot and there is always a risk of conceding a wide. At Melbourne, Yadav began his next over with a good delivery pitched outside off stump that beat Shaun Marsh as he tried to drive, and you hoped he would test and tempt the batman with a few more of the similar stuff. That never happened. Whose job is it to tell the bowler when he is not bowling to plan? On the field, obviously, it’s what a captain does: getting the guys to stick to plan. There’s no point blaming the bowler at the news conference after losing the match for sending down two balls in a row down the leg side, both of which were patted to the fine leg boundary, for the simple reason that the joker in the 33rd over comedy was Yadav. He should have been made aware of, and warned against, his foolish indulgence a long time before that stupid double trouble. Off the field, it’s the responsibility of the coach to get the team to deliver, so Indian team director Ravi Shastri is just as responsible as Yadav and other wayward bowlers
swirling over the and sloppy fielders for the Indian failure. Indian fast bowlers are not world class. But are the guys managed well to get the best out of them? It’s convenient to blame the lack of resources for poor performances, but what’s happening right now is pathetic management of the available resources. You need the skill and build of a Mitchell Johnson to get the ball to travel at speeds above 145kmph fairly consistently to put fear in the mind of batsmen, but you only need a bit of discipline and commitment to stick to a good line and length, which is common. Skill is inborn, discipline is acquired. The Australian bowlers are lucky to get away with their performances. Conceding 300-plus runs in back-to-back matches, and nearly 300 in the third one, on their home turf was poor by any yardstick. The Indian bowlers’ inability doesn’t look just as horrible if the facts and figures from both sides are put alongside on a common canvas. The difference between the two teams is not in the playing eleven, but in the backroom staff. That’s where the Australians cocked a snook at the Indians. Darren Lehmann and his team did their work well to draw a winning strategy and Smith and his boys executed the plan on the field. That’s team-work. It’s time India got to think a bit unconventionally. Ideas such as one of the top batsmen scoring a century, the rest of the guys batting around him, the guy lasting until the final over, waiting for the death overs to accelerate or make up for the overs wasted, etc. etc. might not work always. There was an Indian century in all the three matches, but the Australians got to their targets without anyone scoring a century in the big run chases in the two of the three games. Finding out how they did it is some homework for Shastri and his team. The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman
CRICKET
PROMOTION: BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur, right, ICC Chief Executive David Richardson, second right, former Indian cricketer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Sachin Tendulkar, second left, and UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia Karin Hulshof during the launch of ICC’s CSR initiative ‘Cricket for Good and Team Swachh’ campaign, in association with UNICEF and BCCI. – AFP
India will get full-time coach after World T20, says Thakur NEW DELHI: BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur on Monday said the Indian cricket team will have a full-time coach after the World T20 and the high-profile advisory committee comprising Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Saurav Ganguly will have a say in the appointment. Thakur also threw his weight behind under-fire skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, as the team slumped to three successive losses in the ongoing fivematch ODI series in Australia. “There has been a demand for a full-time coach for a long time. We had decided that Ravi Shastri will be the Team Director till the World T20. We do not want to do anything between the season but we also need to decide on the future. We will be playing 13 Tests next season. Like a team is selected series to series, we need to have full-time coach,” Thakur
Uncapped Bumrah to replace Shami in T20 squad
Speculation has been
responded to a query from PTI on the sidelines of an ICC promotional event here. Thakur did not get into the details about whether the BCCI would continue with Shastri, only hinting that even the former India all-rounder could be considered for a long-term role. “The decision will be taken in consultation with the Advisory Committee (Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly). We might decide on a coach even before World T20 but the announcement will only happen post tournament.” Asked about what can be expected of the senior players like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra — all three are part of T20 squad, Thakur was cautious. “Let them go and play. I am sure they would also want their performance to do the talking,” he said. - PTI
future of the 34-yearold who quit Tests in late 2014 but remains in charge of the team in shorter formats
NEW DELHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s job as India’s limitedovers captain is safe despite the team’s third successive one-day series defeat, the country’s cricket board (BCCI) said on Monday. Speculation has been swirling over the future of the 34-year-old who quit Tests in late 2014 but remains in charge of the team in shorter formats. The recent results, however, have not really enhanced the reputation of the man who led India to virtually every honour across formats. Under him, India lost their first ODI series in Bangladesh in June last year and went down to a visiting South African team in October. On Sunday, Dhoni’s men succumbed to their third successive defeat in Australia who took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series, chasing down big totals in Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne. While some pundits believe Test captain Virat Kohli should take over the limited-overs duties as well, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur insisted Dhoni was the right man to lead India in shorter formats. “The kind of performance we have had from Dhoni and the team under him in the last eight-nine years, I think it’s unfair to question his leadership after just one series,” Thakur told reporters. “Dhoni is one of the most successful captains of the country. Under him, we won the World Cup in 2007 (T20) and 2011 (ODI). Team India rose to number one both in Tests and ODIs under his leadership. “Unfortunately we lost all three matches so far, and we’ve noticed our bowling limitations too, not being able to defend big totals. “It’s a concern and the selectors and team management would assess the performance keeping the Asia Cup and the Twenty20 World Cup in mind,” Thakur said. Dhoni himself felt more than his captaincy, the team needed to look at the grey areas and how to fix
If you are getting a chance to play for your country, irrespective of the situation, it isn’t unfair. As captain that’s what you have to communicate to these youngsters Mahendra Singh Dhoni India Captain
them. “It’s not about the leader. I’m there (now), somebody else will come later,” the stumper-batsman said after the loss in Melbourne. “What is more important is to see the areas we are lacking in, the departments which have to improve when it comes to shorter formats.” ‘Brave youngsters’ The likes of Barinder Sran and Manish Pandey are going through a trial by fire n just their debut series but Dhoni feels there is nothing unfair about putting them up against a rampaging Australia as the team needs a ‘brave’ bunch of youngsters going forward. The youngsters have not quite made a resounding impact but by Dhoni’s own admission, it is too early to judge them on performance. Sran has been decent in his three outings so far, bagging three wicket in the process. Pandey came in to bat at 276 for 4 with four overs left in the Brisbane ODI. Despite his IPL showings, he is not a slam-bang cricketer and yet had to go for it, managing 6 runs off 5 balls in the end. “If you are getting a chance to play for your country, irrespective of the situation, it isn’t unfair. As captain that’s what you have
to communicate to these youngsters,” said Dhoni in Melbourne, the venue of the third ODI. “There is a lot of scrutiny and players who tend to bat at Nos. 5 or 6, they tend to think of surviving till the end and show off as if they are hitting, remain not out in the end and are happy with it. That’s not the kind of culture you want in the team,” he added. Dhoni said the exposure so far may not be a clear indication of their talent but their character is certainly revealed. “When it comes to these youngsters, Pandey in the last game and today with Mann and Dhawan, there was no hesitation of playing a big shot. When you play tough games, it gives you more experience than playing just a normal ODI. This is what has happened with them. You can’t really judge their performances because they have only batted 12 to 15 balls. But you can judge their character based on those few deliveries.” “That is something you have to encourage, and at the end of the day the captain and the selectors have to look at that specifically. Because it tells you a lot about the character of these individuals, and you want brave people in the side. Winning and losing keeps happen-
MUMBAI: Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will replace injured Mohammed Shami in India’s squad for the three Twenty20 internationals against Australia, the country’s cricket board said on Monday. The 25-yearold has not played international cricket since finishing as India’s second-highest wicket taker at last year’s World Cup with 17 victims. Shami underwent surgery in March and was named in the squad for the limited-overs series in Australia, only to be ruled out again with a hamstring injury. The 22-yearold Bumrah sprung to prominence playing for the Mumbai Indians franchise in the Indian Premier League and is the joint-highest wicket-taker in his country’s domestic Twenty20 competition this season. - Reuters
ing, but you want good characters in the side,” the skipper added. While it was about scoring a few more runs in the first two games, much about the defeat in the third ODI was to do with fielding. At the same time the bowlers weren’t left alone either. “If you see the squad for this series, it is a relatively inexperienced bowling lineup. Ishant Sharma has played a lot of international cricket but he is not someone who has been consistently part of the format. Umesh Yadav has been on and off and there are others who have made their debuts here,” said Dhoni. “So we have to assess right now is how good the individuals are and what are they doing and what’s their rate of development. I have always said that you have to groom youngsters. We won’t find the complete product and we have to groom them, make them play and you will that they will service the team for a long time.” - Reuters, PTI