The stage was set and so were the actors. There was a glint of hope among the millions of fans that India will make a comeback and enter the semi-finals of World T20 2010 by beating Sri Lanka at Gros Islet. But the final nail on the coffin was hammered by Sri Lanka on 12th May, 2010. And India crashed out of the tournament with a dismal performance. The once invincible Men in Blue failed thrice successively in ICC events starting with the last T20 World Cup in England, Champions Trophy in South Africa and now the T20 World Cup in West Indies.
Major Players Never Got Going
Several questions crop up if we do a post-mortem of India’s disastrous display in the Caribbean Islands. And many of these have been plaguing for quite some time now, even before the tournament kicked off.
FIRST the poor team selection for this tournament, credit for which goes to the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) and the Indian Team Management. Questions were raised about non-inclusion of players like Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Manish Pandey, Virat Kohli and Robin Uthappa. What made the selectors and the team management ignore these in form players is still a mystery. True Yuvraj Singh had been a match winner in T20. It is also true that India had seen some brilliant performances in the past by Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan. But in the world of cricket, what should matter is the current form and fitness level. And by those means, none of these players met the standards to be in the current team. Surprisingly, most of the players who did not get a berth in Indian World T20 squad had amazing run in the IPL 2010 that just concluded before the World T20.
Indian Bowling Looked Helpless All Through The Tournament
SECONDLY a very old question that has again resurfaced at Indian captain M S Dhoni’s post match conference after crashing out to Sri Lanka. Gary Kirsten had raised his apprehensions last year that the time gap between IPL and World T20 was very less. But none paid heed to this. Even, M S Dhoni chose not to take this into account when he was asked repeatedly before the World T20 2010 that how justified is it for the cricketers to play such back to back tournaments? But now after this debacle he has changed his tune completely. He blamed the post tournament parties in IPL 2010 along with host of other factors like frequent traveling, lack of match practices and exhaustion as reasons taking toll on the cricketers. Without getting into the controversy that how much of weight-age should be given to these “excuses”, there are some clear facts that even the layman can see. The team had players who were already exhausted by the grueling schedule of IPL 2010. A match winner like Virender Sehwag was out of the World T20 squad due to injury and some of the players in the current team were not entirely fit either.
THIRDLY, how long are we going to show the cricketing world our inability to play against short pitched deliveries? It happened in England last year and it happened again in West Indies this year. Even the immensely talented Yusuf Pathan seemed to be at lost when full yorkers were bowled outside the off stump or while facing short deliveries.
Catches Came And They Went Without Being Caught
FOURTHLY, people are also blaming the strategy of Indian Team Management. Why did India choose to field despite winning toss in the matches against the Aussies and the Windies? The question still baffles us. Yusuf Pathan should have been given the opportunity to face more balls rather than sending him batting down the order. And after Ravinder Jadeja’s performance in the match against Aussies, he was least expected to be in the Playing XI in the match against Windies. Why did India refused to play a third pacer in the bouncy pitch of Barbados will also remain a mystery.
Despite all these let us be clear on one thing. None of the teams participate in a tournament to lose and come back empty handed. And it will also not be fair to put blame entirely on the captain and make him the punching bag for all the failures. That will be a fatal error. The BCCI and the Indian Team Management should do a proper analysis of the team’s performance and chalk out a comprehensive, unbiased and logical plan of action. That will be the only way to help the team turn around.
