Why India lost -- II and the road ahead.

The T20 world cup failure is just not a big deal. Not as big as ODI world cup 2007. We would lose the title in a week’s time. But thanks to ICC scheduling we have a chance to regain it in March 2010 again. So the new champions keep the world title only for 9 months. Whats the use? This is first failure for MS and it should be just about ok. True his few decisions didn’t work. But then this has always been his style. More often than not they have fired and that’s why he was a darling of the media and public. Now one world cup loss and he is termed as no more cool. Namakewl. Yes he did mistake in promoting Jadeja over Yuvraj and himself, in bowling out Ishant Sharma while Zaheer and RP, better bowlers than Ishant were under bowled. Jadeja was bowled one over more than required. Again the stage wasn’t set for experimentation. But then what can you do when you don’t have a Virender Sehwag in the team? The starts that win you matches in Tests, ODIs and T20s were missing. Make shift openers don’t always become Sehwag. And if they are IPL stars and India flops, then just forget it.

Indians were performing consistently below par their true potential. Not like their mercurial neighbors whom we don’t know which side they would be. Winners one or whiners one. Call it luck, they are still in the contention and we are out. We lost to 2 teams against whom we were never expected to lose. It was a collective slump. Batting, bowling, fielding. Just like Australia in 2009 World T20 or the Border Gavaskar trophy or the SA series. So why cry foul and focus on one man as reason for loss. If MS didn’t fire, then so did not Raina and Rohit Sharma who were IPL stars. Yusuf Pathan and Irfan Pathan didn’t fire as they did in IPL. Yuvraj did his bit. Zaheer wasn’t consistent as he has been since England 2007. RP Singh wasn’t the same bowler we saw in IPL. So whats Dhoni ’s fault here? He tried his best to do the stuff he could do. But then every team has off days. So did India. Unfortunately at wrong time. If I have to axe somebody I would kick out Mr. IPL and Mr. Useless Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma and put Raina on the fringe. A notice service must be done to the people who take their places for granted. IPL success is fine, but they gotta play for country too and do it with responsibility. By no means today Sharma and Raina can be said as replacements for Tendulkar and Dravid in Tests. These lads don’t even have 10% of commitment the senior pros have. Tendulkar and Dravid made money, this lads are doing better than the senior pros. But then didn’t the senior pros deliver when it came to ? 2007 was an aberration. 2003 was peak for the trio of Indian batting.

This loss could be a minor setback for 2011 mission. Every player in the squad has little bit of experience in the international arena. Most of the lads have played cricket now for an average of 3 years. Dhoni has 5 years, Yuvraj, Zaheer have 9, Harbhajan has 11, Gambhir, I Pathan have 6, Raina has 3, Sharma bandhu have it for 2 years, RP has it for 4 years, DK has it for 5 years. So the experience going to the 2011 world cup would be there. How much the lads would perform remains a different story. We need to identify the backup for openers. Sachin Tendulkar won’t be forever playing ODIs. Sehwag ’s injury exposed us. Gambhir looked fatigue after an outstanding year in the international scene. Who after this 3? Who if one of the 2 gets injured ? Rohit Sharma? Joke. Manish Pandey ? Karan Goel ? May be. They need to be groomed. What if Rohit Sharma doesn’t deliver again in ODIs ? Who to replace him ? Manoj Tiwary was one of the man after 2007 debacle identified to replace one of the batting greats, but injury forced him out of reckoning. What about Cheteshwar Pujara? Doesn’t he need to be given a chance to prove before ODI world cup ? Or some successful IPL stars ? Just identify them and test them in the upcoming ODI series in WI and Zim (if it happens). Rest the key players, send a good A team to play oDIs. May be a comeback for Uthappa ?

This are few of the questions the think tank of Indian management along with 5 wise old men would need to do including Gary Kirsten. Later this year, his contract would come up for renewal (hopefully would be extended). The debacle might not be of huge impact as compared to 2007 World Cup, but still some glaring questions need to be asked of fading stars like Rohit and Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and Suresh Raina.