All sorts of permutations and combinations are being worked up now to figure out India's path to progress in the World Cup.
Thing is - Is India worthy of being in the next round in the World Cup?
For long time followers of the Indian team, the loss against Bangladesh should not come as any surprise. If anything is surprising, it is the progress Bangladesh has made in the past year and a half. India's performance was par for course.
And the rot begins at the top.
I called Rahul' captaincy whimsical - Kartikeya articulated it more clearly when he called it "bloodyminded - yes, tending towards the recklessly aggressive option rather than the more rational reason ".
And it is that reckless aggression that is costing India games.
Again, it is not so much about winning or losing- but the approach that a team brings to the game that matters. By being recklessly aggressive bordering on the irrational - Dravid is putting India on the back foot right off the blocks.
Any team, going into a game, assesses its strengths and weaknesses, the opponents strengths and weaknesses, and plans accordingly.
Additionally, fall back plans are made to account for any deviation or shortcomings in Plan A. Watching Rahul captain, both when India is batting or bowling, there is the marked impression that he starts off with Plan W and sticks to it no matter what - match situation be dammed.
Then there is the noticeable decline in batting standards when Team India is faced with wickets not so conducive to stroke play. And this is not a new phenomenon either.
This trend has been on view for the last two years or so. So what does it say of our back room planning that we have neither identified or taken any corrective action to arrest this slide?
The teams application is suspect, as is its ability to adapt. Hitting the road running is a concept alien to Team India. As is the need for sustaining momentum.
Situational awareness is non existent.The Indian team has had a pretty ordinary record coming back from a break into international cricket
If "the best lessons have been when we've done badly." then what does it say of the think tank's ability to identify the right lessons and the team's ability to assimilate and improve upon those lessons?
Prem touches upon Chappell's comments about India getting all the brand names in the WC team. Rahul, in an interview in the not so distant past, spoke of how brand recognition was a factor in team selection.
Given India's proclivity to brand names, we get saddled by a team that is big on brand value but not so flash in purely cricketing terms.
If,and it is a big if, India advances to the next round, a lot of the problems facing Team India will get papered over.
And will bite us at a later stage, leading to irrational outpourings of emotion by all and sundry.
Given all of this, does India really deserve to get into the Super 8s?
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Does India deserve to advance in the WC?
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7 comments:
Homer. You have a valid point while questioning if India deserve to get into Super 8s. The team undoubtedly performed much below its capability, but also nothing went India's way. It was one of those days where nothing went India's way, right from the toss (how I wish Bashar had won the toss).
But, to be fair to India, it was just a bad day at the office rather than an atrocious performance (like Pak). The better team won.
What was really disappointing, to me, was the post match comments by Dravid. He did a perfect Inzamam by his seeming loss of confidence. "We could have just batted a lot better. The ball did seam around a lot more and for a bit longer than we had expected." I expected him to be a bit more positive than that and say that the team will be looking to put the baggage behind them and concentrate on winning the next couple of games convincingly.
Sorry for going on and on. Its just the disappointment of being an Indian fan, at this point!!! :(
WhoElse,
The reason Rahul cannot be too positive about the result is because this is more the norm than an aberration.
If this was a one off, one can be dismissive.
That however, is not the case.
Homer,
If you come to think of it, this is more of an aberration than the norm from the captain himself. "Big Picture, Processes, Implementation." Doesn't confidence in your own team come in the picture somewhere?
I really do hope that the team takes some learning out of this bashing and be a bit more sensible on gambles.. like Pathan instead of Sehwag... Atleast Pathan has a better probability of success as a one-day utility player, even without his forgotten deadly slingers.
who else,
If Bangladesh won the toss, they would have bowled first. It takes a captain with "courage" and "conviction" to bat first.
Apparently, Dravid has those qualities in spades. The qualities he doesn't have are: flexibility and adaptability.
Homer,
Dravid's captaincy is very stolid. He can't read the game like great captains do. Nor does he have the cricketing instincts Ganguly did. The problem is, he has brought the qualities which make him a great batsman (stubbornness, willingness to stick it out, etc) to the captaincy. Sometimes, that does not work. A successful captain's top trait has to be "flexibility"
Somebody has to give Dravid, Mike Brearley's books. Dravid might be willing to listen because it is in a book. Better still, lets call common sense and flexibility "processes" and teach that to Dravid.
Mephistopheles,
I concur.
homer, i get the reasoning for your ire.
But think about this- if, as you say, such performances are the norm rather than aberrations; and that this standard of the Indian team has been the standard for some time now, then should you not have been saying even before this world cup that we did not, in reality, deserve to go through to the Super 8s to begin with?
I'm not defending the woeful performance, merely querying the reaction. :)
Shakester,
I plead guilty.
I had written well before the World Cup started that India was not good enough to get past the Super 8s.
The semi finals was a chimera.
What I had not anticipated is just how far Bangladesh has come in their cricketing development.
Also unanticipated was the Indian bowling folding so quickly- the batting was along expected lines.
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