28
cricket
January-2016
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FIJISUN
Can Team India repeat ICC World Twenty20 glory again this year? After that heady victory in 2007 when MS Dhoni's men won the inaugural ICC World Twenty20, former international Aakash Chopra writes about the challenges the Men in Blue have to overcome to clinch international T20 cricket’s biggest prize at this year’s edition in India Can India win the World T20 in March? India won the inaugural edition in South Africa and came perilously close in the last edition too. Before going further with regards to India’s chances in this edition, let’s take a moment to look for the common thread between the previous two successful campaigns. While batsmen walk away with the accolades, it will be criminal to ignore what the bowlers bring to the table. In South Africa, it was India’s pace bowling of S Sreesanth and RP Singh, while the spin of Harbhajan Singh that played a crucial role. Then the good showing in Bangladesh was also largely due to the superb performance of the spin trio of R Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja. It’s commonly believed that T20 games are won by explosive batting, but nothing can be farther away from the truth. If the pitch is good enough to post in excess of 180, batting from both sides is likely to cancel each other out. That’s exactly what happened last year in Dharamsala when India posted 200-plus but South Africa chased it down without a fuss. Now, the difference between winning and losing wasn’t the quality of batting, but the quality of a bowling spell, which Kyle Abbott produced for the visitors. Bowling worries This forces us to look at
the Indian bowling attack closely and, unfortunately, that’s where the fault lines lie. Indian bowling has been quite toothless in the business ends of a T20 game — which are the first six overs of power play and the last four overs of an innings. Indian pace bowlers have not only leaked a lot of runs in these periods but also failed to pick wickets, and hence the results haven’t gone India’s way post the initial success. Given that India hosts one of the best T20 leagues (Indian Premier League) in the world, India should have found an answer to this problem, but unfortunately, that’s not been the case. These ‘tough overs’ in the IPL are bowled by the overseas recruits and
hence Indian bowlers often slip under the radar. Obviously, that’s not possible in international cricket. So, how did India make it to the finals in the last edition? Well, the pitches came to India’s rescue, for it assisted Indian spinners. Most games that India played were 140-150 run games and MS Dhoni could control the game with his spinners. And that’s what India must do in March-April to give itself a chance to recreate the magic of 2007. If India plays on flat pitches, Indian bowling will show up but if the pitches are slow and turning, India’s spinners will rule the roost. That’s when Ashwin & Co will come to their own and spin a web around most batsmen.
Power-packed batters On paper India boasts of one of the most aggressive T20 batting order, for there’s a fair sprinkling of
match-winners from top to bottom. Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina are as good as gold in this format, Virat Kohli averages in 40s and
Dhoni has been one of the best finishers this game has ever seen. Dhoni is at his best, both as a captain and as a player, in T20 cricket. Remaining calm under pressure is an asset in this format and Dhoni has shown that in abundance over the years. India’s fortunes in this World T20 depend a lot on how he leads this unit and, more importantly, how he bats. His hitting abilities have been on the wane for quite some time and it’s quite apparent that he needs more time to explode but for that to happen, he must bat higher up in the order. In all likelihood this is Dhoni’s last ICC tournament as a skipper and it’ll be interesting to see if he has one more world title left in him. Then, there is Yuvraj Singh, the only man to hit six sixes in a T20 Internationals. Ideally, this batting should not only win matches on its own but also make up for the mediocre bowling. But that’s unlikely to happen in this World T20 till a few things fall in place. India’s taking a huge gamble with Shikhar Dhawan in T20, for he isn’t the same impact player in the shortest format as he is in ODIs. So much so, that you’ll struggle to recall any T20 game that he won on his own. Moving from one southpaw to the other — Raina is one of the finest T20 batsmen in the world but only if he gets enough overs to make an impact. He’s done that for eight years for CSK because Dhoni allowed him to bat mostly at No 3 and definitely not later than four. Can India find a way to give him the right order to bat? Not to forget that sending him down the order cost India the finals in Bangladesh.
SA batsmen lost confidence on tough Indian pitches: Mickey Arthur Johannesburg: Looking to dissect South Africa's dismal performance in the Test series in India, former coach Mickey Arthur today said the Proteas batsmen lost their self confidence on difficult Indian tracks during their 0-3 loss. The Hashim Amla-led side not only recorded their first overseas Test loss in nine years, but also two of the matches in under three days. Arthur, who was Australian coach when the Kangaroos lost to India 0-4, said that it's tough batting on Indian pitches. "The wickets in India are extremely difficult and you can see how the entire batting order
lost self-confidence. The same happened to Australia in India during my last tour with them there. We had exactly the same pitches there, which Australian and South African batsmen struggle with," Arthur, who was fired from the Australia job after the loss against India, told the Afrikaans daily Beeld here. Arthur called on the senior Proteas players, especially Faf du Plessis and Jean-Paul Duminy, to put up their hands and help the batting order regain its confidence. "They are good, experienced players and it's high time that they played their part," said Arthur. Arthur also
believes that the national team's think tank should not use star player AB de
Villiers as a wicketkeeper. "The temptation to use AB as wicketkeeper
is always huge, because it places you in a position to choose an extra player," Arthur said. "(De Villiers) is the best batsman in the world and you render him less effective as batsman by giving him this additional role," Arthur added. Arthur said he would opt for Stephen Cook to anchor the innings because he did not see Stiaan van Zyl having the natural ability of an opening batsman. Arthur said South Africa needed consistency at the top of their batting list. "It reminds me of the time when we roped in Neil McKenzie as (captain) Graeme Smith's opening partner (in the 2008 and 2009 sea-
sons). "He gave us consistency in a time when we needed it. I think Cook can be a shortterm solution." McKenzie was brought in after four years away from Test matches as a substitute opener post Herschelle Gibbs losing his place in the side. Although Cook has not played in any Tests yet, he has been one of the best opening batsmen in local cricket for a number of years, recording his 34th century in an inter-provincial match last week. "A good opening partnership reduces the pressure on all the other batsmen and also improves the rest of the batting order," Arthur said.