India's failed tactics

India’s tactics in Melbourne for accommodating the new millionaires was baffling.  To play with all slow bowlers in Australia is something that would never win any game for you. When the attack reads PK, VK, RJ, RS and of course R Ashvin, the odds for winning go very high. 

Baffling to see the world cup winners Sehwag and Zak rested / dropped. Also Umesh Yadav who would bowl with much pace than VK+PK combined, was rested.

Tactics ?

No, mental disintegration of the team management whoever forms it. Selector, captain, vice-captain and of course good for nothing coach Duncan Fletcher. Such a move would have been impossible in the days of Gary Kirsten or even John Wright.

Lack of strategy or lack of vision. Stubbornness, adamant, hell bent to play Jadeja no matter if he doesn’t perform or gives too many Six hitting balls.  Whatever you want to call it.  MS Dhoni is now trying to sound as a captain who has a feeling of “I cannot go wrong any time”.  He’s got a 17 strong squad and 2 pace bowlers, 1 bowling allrounder who has proved his worth in this country are resting the bench and the lads like Vinay Kumar and Jadeja who for no worth of their own got million dollars in their bank played in the team.

Result : Jadeja was spanked for 41 runs off 16 balls.  How many runs did he make or save? If you sum them, they wont exceed 41.  So is that an allrounderesque performance?  One game on same ground (different format though) you give 16 runs in 3 overs and immediately the next game 41 runs off 2.4 overs? What about the confidence / momentum/  consistency? Now that he is in CSK, he would virtually be immovable in the team and none can touch him.

Australia were 2/35 in 11 overs when rain stopped the game and when they returned they scored 181 in 21 overs out of which 167 runs were scored off spinners.  R Ashvin and R JAdeja are CSk properties and they would be given an extended run of play in all formats of game irrespective of their performance.

Compare the performance of Ashvin in IPL and then in international games where he has come in place of Harbhajan Singh. And the reason for Bhajji’s ouster ? Not taking enough wickets and more of containing bowler. So how has Ashvin corrected those to justify his continuous inclusion? Why would anybody not doubt that his allegiance to CSK and Srikanth is sole factor for him being in the team and not wickets / performance. He cannot run, he gets run out every 2nd game.

His performance from England tour :

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/26421.html?class=2;spanmin1=01+Aug+2011;spanval1=span;template=results;type=bowling

20 wickets in 15 games. 16 of which are against weak England team in 10 games. And if you remove them then the figures are very poor. 4 wickets off 5 matches. 4 of which are against West Indies in India. 4 in 4 in India are sorry figures. Where are the wickets? Where are the carom balls? Where is good damn performance?

A look at his T20I and T20 career reveals even more stark contrast:

T20Is

6 games, 6 wickets,  Average of 47.5, economy of 7.91 and best figures of 1/22.

Compare that with the T20, most of which are in IPL:

60 games,  74 wickets, 4/18, 6.35 economy rate,  S/R of 18.4 half of T20Is

He has to take wickets and become an aggressive spinner as opposed to the version he is now.

And if India has to compete in Australia and “defend its title”, then they have to respect conditions and chose their sides accordingly.

And you don’t have to rest a player who has hit the highest score in an ODI in his last game.  

My XI for today’s game:

1.      Tendulkar

2.      Sehwag

3.      Kohli

4.      Sharma

5.      Dhoni

6.      Raina

7.      Pathan

8.      Ashvin

9.      Praveen

10.     Zaheer

Australian tour going England way

The Australia tour is turning out the England way. The maiden win is elusive and the pattern of defeats is disheartening from the fact that the Indian team is just not showing up the fight or desire to fight. The excuses are readymade and put up after every debacle. Rain in T20 defeat, the pitch in first 3 Tests and lack of fight in the 4th one. Seniors were the scapegoat for the Tests whitewash, who’d be the scapegoat for the T20I whitewash, which is a game away.

The new folks have arrived, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and of course Lord Ravinder Jadeja, the next IPL multi-millionaire.  A lot of noise was made on why Rohit Sharma was not played in Tests especially in Adelaide when Lax was having disaster of time in the middle. He was supposed to be the god sent savior to the losing Indian side. Unfortunately he didn’t have any magical wand that could have turned the defeatist attitude, lack of fight to a winning one. He lasted a ball and was bowled to the daddy of international cricket,  Brad Hogg first ball.

The selection of the playing XI was ridiculous:

• No Zaheer Khan or Irfan Pathan in the playing XI. The seamers who played were Praveen Kumar and Vinay Kumar. One was returning from injury lay-off, the second one was exposed in Test in Adelaide, yet somehow he continues to find a place in XI.  He bowled decent enough, but not good enough to justify his continued selection in the team. No pace, no variation, no skills. Vinay Kumar for you,  the reason that seems he is in the team is just cos of South Indian lobby that now (Chennai, to be precise) rules Indian cricket.

• Ravinder Jadeja at 7.  He is deemed to be a person who gives the team as balance. Balance as in a bowling allrounder or batting allrounder?  He concedes 23 runs in 2 overs, he makes 7 runs and saves a few. Saving and making still fall short of conceding. So where is the balance?  He cannot contribute when needed and often plays when all is lost (like he did in England T20).  MS Dhoni is in awe of him and that is harming the team.

• R Ashvin.  Supposedly new age bowler who can bowl anytime, the bowler who can do no wrong. He proved his worth for CSK in IPL and CLT20, but when it came for impact on international stage, he froze. He continued bowling full tosses and down the leg side. Easy meat for someone like David Warner to display their switch hit skills.  The only reason he still plays every game and Harbhajan doesn’t is he is from Chennai and represents Chennai Super Kinks whose captain, owner and brand ambassador occupy strong posts in Indian board.

• Virender Sehwag is fast turning out to be a flat track bully. I hate to say this, as I still feel he is a great, but he has done his reputation no justice on this tour.

• Gautam Gambhir and Kohli would probably rue the way they got out and their dismissals gave Australia an opening that was match winning in the final context of the game.

• And MSD, the man who once could do nothing wrong, now can do nothing right.  He has been stubborn, defensive, defeatist and strangely passive and switched off from the proceedings. When Ashvin got hit for runs in 2nd over, he still found himself bowling 3rd over in trot.  Ashvin completed his quota before 10th over was bowled and that suggests the blind faith of MS in him and also a glaring proof of being stubborn and close to experimenting.  Rahul Sharma was introduced late in the attack and he did impress in bits and pieces.

• Part time spinners might work in India, but not in Australia.  And there were plenty of them. When the runs were scored, there was no pace around to put some brakes and get some wickets. Only options available were Raina or Jadeja or Sharma who might grab wickets in India, but would be hit for runs elsewhere.  I don’t get the fascination for part timers for Indian captains off late.  Ganguly did use part timers but they had some quality – Yuvraj, Sachin and Sehwag then did use to take wickets and break partnerships. Jadeja actually gifts away runs, easy runs to the opposition. He might have got few wickets against England, but then who wouldn’t against England? They are such pitiful spin players. And based of that success, he finds himself part of every limited overs team India puts up.

The patience is long running thin and unless there is a drastic change in the mindset of the captain and the team, the fans would be forced to switch off  from watching the games. I spoilt my night yesterday sacrificing 5 hours of sleep to watch the flop show of the team who once was world champion in this format.

What an irony, the team of country that hosts the richest T20 league in the world, doesn’t have players who can combine as a team and win games consistently.  The top 7 of this team or top  8 are star players for their respective franchisees in IPL, but in the Indian team they are zilch contributors.  That makes the fans pose questions on the mindset and attitude of this players – do they really want to play for India to win or just turn up and grab their booty from BCCI and not bother to show up a fight.

I think the latter one is fast turning out to be a reality and unless addressed soon, the IPL would become a monster who would be hated more than it is loved.

India go 1-0 up

India won the first one dayer in Cuttack after a lot of drama and a batting collapse which should not have happened. 212 was a very easy to achieve target even though 3 of the World Cup winners were not present in the team. 

Parthiv Patel has been very lucky to be getting a lot of chances recently (his 4th consecutive series post world cup), but he hasnt seized a single chance to cement his place in the team. He got a start today and threw it again. He can bat aggressively, we all know that but he needs to convert those starts to substantial scores. 

Gambhir should have batted for longer period and he must be very angry with himself to have let gone a very good chance to bat longer in a ODI. Ditto for Kohli, Raina and the captain himself who continued his trend to hit the very first ball to boundary he faces. 

The move to promote Patel as opener was inexplicable given that the best openers were  around to bat. I think Gambhir and Sehwag should resume opening together from Vizag ODI.

Jadeja, a changed player (till now) supported Rohit Sharma (who is redeeming himself) for a good 83 run partnership before the brain fade returned to haunt Ashvin yet again.  He has got a  ridiculous running. His running in Mumbai Test cost India a golden chance to whitewash West Indies and yet again today he showed he is useless when it comes to running. 

Probably when he bats a burning cracker should be put up his ass to keep him on his toes. Or probably a sight of Mumbaikar makes him nervous enough to complete a 2nd run. 

Rohit Sharma fell just before the victory and in the end it was left to the 2 worst batsmen in the side to complete the job. They played out 15 dot balls amongst themselves and in the end with the help of Darren Sammy, they got India home.

It should have been Kemar Roach to bowl that over instead of Sammy, but then he is captain and the decision to bowl himself backfired. 

India won its 10th game in row in home soil  and are now 1-0 up in the 5 game series.

India vs West Indies : First Test at an interesting stage

India are 124 runs away from a win in Delhi Test.  This has been an attritional Test match, albeit an old school classic. One team ending up dominating a day's play followed up by comeback by the other next day. Something I hope wont be the case on day 4 and in almost session and half India shall be home with a comfortable win in the end. 

The pitch has been slow, low and having variable bounce. Not that it has impacted a lot of stroke playing or resulted in dismissals of a lot of batsmen. If one is ready to grind on this wicket and have patience, the runs scoring would be lot easier. Chanderpaul showed it in both innings, Dravid has shown in both innings aided by Tendulkar in 2nd innings. Sehwag too had said that the collapse in the first innings had to do with the soft dismissals rather than the demon in the pitch.  

India were typical of them in the first innings when they batted, collapsed. Worrisome part is they havent got to 300 more often than they would have liked to in past 8 Tests (starting WI tour, disastrous England tour). 209 is not a  score that reflects the batting might of the line up India has, but it does say of the sorry state of mind India had on day 2.  They self destructed, which they so very often have done in the 2nd part of this year in longest format of the game. It seemed that India were still stuck in the ODI mode. The likes of Tendulkar, Laxman and Yuvraj fell to soft dismissals. Sehwag and Gambhir fell to freak ones.  And Dravid in first innings was setup off a short ball by Rampaul which invoked wild celebrations by WI captain Sammy.

Can you believe 3 wickets in first innings fell to Sammy and he further had a hand in 2 more wickets.  Barring openers and Dravid, none reached 25 and India conceeded 95 run lead. The highlight of the first innings was the approach from Sehwag that showed that he is almost back to full fitness.  Dravid continued his good form and barring that nothing much to write about. Chanderpaul continued to torment Indian bowlers for 10th year in row now which began in 2002. 3 hundreds then followed by 2 this year in back to back tests.  His stance has grown weirder than ever before and he has been dour and ugly to watch. But he continues to make runs, valuable to the team which boasts of youngsters and has inexperienced batsmen.  

Ojha got 6-for and Ashvin got 3. 

2nd innings, West Indies had a chance to extend the lead to 350 plus and shut the door on Indians but they collapsed in the end and except Chanders and Sammy, none of the batters contributed. Ashvin got a dream debut with a 9 wicket haul, 2nd best to Hirwani, current selector.  Ojha got 7 wickets in the match, Ashvin got 9, Yadav got 2 and Ishant Sharma got 2. 

Ishant Sharma impressed with his rythm and pace. He almost got 3 wkts on 3rd morning but for crooked ignorance of Dharmsena to a plumb lbw and a drop catch (tough) from Ashvin, he could just show for 1.  Umesh Yadav showed pace, but leaked runs at critical juncture on 3rd morning just before lunch to ease off pressure on the Windies. Still early days for him in Tests and he would (should) learn in the future.  Both spinners earning wickets mean more bench time for Harbhajan Singh. He going wicketless in Ranji game didnt help his case either.  Except for injuries and dramatic collapse on day 4, the team for 2nd Test shouldnt change.

India's 2 most experienced batsmen are on crease and they would want to ensure on day 4 that they do the job for India rather than leave it to the next 3.  They survived the day 3 with some resolute batting and gritty determination. 

IPL Ashvin has evolved a great deal and I have to eat my own humble pie when I said previously I wasnt a big fan of Ashvin.  He would need to continue to be in the wickets for the remaining 2 Tests to be able to remain in contention for Australian tour later this year. 

Gambhir and Sehwag need to bat longer than just 12 and 9 overs in this game and convert 50-100 to a 100-150 as they did in the past.   Laxman and Dhoni would need to get some runs under their belt too. 

All and all a good Test match with a classic finish in sight.

Backing Ashvin for success in West Indies ODIs

R Ashvin, the tall 24 year old spinner from Chennai and one of the vital cogs of CSK's twin IPL titles. He has been hailed   as country's second best spinner after Harbhajan in ODIs at least. He has just played 9 ODIs, 2 in World cup, 5 in NZ series and 2 in that ill fated Zimbabwe tour. But he has earned a place amongst fans to be brave hearted and a constant trier. He doesnt held himself back from tossing the ball up in the powerplays in ODIs and T20s, he  gets thrashed but more often than not he picks up wickets. 

He proved that in the IPL and CLT20 that he can be a very good new ball bowler and he often started the attack in the world cup (against West Indies and Australia - 2 games he played).  Got Watson in the Quarters in the first 10 overs. And then he was dropped for  the next 2 games. He again proved his mettle in the IPL when he constantly grabbed Chris Gayle in the final and a game before when later was rampaging. 

MSD has handled this man very well and its fortunate for Ashvin that MSD is also India captain. When he returns for the England ODIs, Ashvin would be keen to perform well in the West Indies ODIs and sneak a place in the starting XI ahead of Harbhajan Singh. Its most likely that Harbhajan would always play ahead of him in conditions favoring just one spinner, but if Ashvin could keep Bhajji on toes, only the Indian bowling attack would be benefitted. 

After Kumble's shoulder surgery of 2001, India hasnt had an attacking spinner in the ODIs. Harbhajan fitted that role very well in early 2000s but in last few years he has become more of containing bowler than an attacking bowler. He cannot be always relied to grab wickets in pressure situation, something which Kumble always did for Azharuddin and Tendulkar in 90s. 

India has tried a lot of spinners in supporting role to Harbhajan after Kumble bowed out of ODIs -- Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra (very few ODIs), Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawala, Ravinder Jadeja etc. But none of them have been able to cement their places in the starting XI. Also Sehwag's dodgy shoulder in last 2 years havent helped India's cause,  he has proved many times he is better off spinner than Harbhajan Singh. 

If Ashvin is able to replicate his IPL success in ODIs and T20Is for India then not only he would be a serious contender for Tests but also India would have much better bowling attack as compared to now. He is in the team in West Indies only for the ODIs, but if he puts up a strong performance, say 2 wickets on average per game and giving away 4.5 - 5.5 runs an over, he would be very tough to ignore for the tougher tours coming up later this year. 

And thats when Ashvin would be just Ashvin and not IPL Ashvin.

India win by 16 runs in the first T20I

India began the tour well by winning the 1 off T20 against a depleted West Indies side. This win was India's first ever in T20Is against West Indies. Strange fact given how weak the Windies has been over years now and yet India had to wait so long for the win. 

The short ball woes, it looked would return again to haunt the inexperienced lads, when Dhawan got out to Samy in 3rd / 4th over. That was a nothing shot and Dhawan had no clue what to do for the delivery. Patel and Kohli then rebuilt for a while before Sammy returned to take 3 more wickets to leave India at 4/56.

Kohli, Raina and Patel dismissed.  And then our Chennai hero Dabrinath settled to a run a ball knock which was sufficient on the uneven, turning pitch and alongside Rohit Sharma he led India to a decent 159/6 after a miraculous 72 runs off last 5 overs. 

West Indies were given early blows by Munnabhai and IPL Ashvin, but Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo batted without sense and urgency till 16th over without losing further wicket and any sense of urgency to win. And when the surge came, it was too late for them as run rate had already climbed 17 a over. Hyatt and Barnwell put up a fight though, it was an easy win for India by 16 runs. 

What is very disgusting to see is 3 good players of T20 -- 2 of them hyped in the IPL were not part of Windies team. Gayle, Pollard and senior Bravo. WICB has to get its act straight to get its best players playing in a team to have any chances of revival in the international cricket, else its all downhill for them.

IPL 4 : Chennai Blooper Kings Preview

Its IPL time and time for team previews.

Start with Chennai Super Kinks. 

The team consists of 2 men who are most widely disliked -- Srinivasan and Kris Freekanth.

One of them owns and the other is brand ambassador.

One of them is BCCI prez elect and the other is national selector chief.

Son of Freekanth plays for Chennai Kinks and Kanth would use IPL 4 as launch pad for launching his team into the national colors. May not be in ODIs now, but may be in T20Is. ODIs team tinkering wont be possible for long time since we are the world champions.

Okay back to the preview.

Captain : MS Dhoni, the Indian world cup winning captain

They retained 4 players -- Dhoni, Vijay, Morkel and Raina. 2 of this are world cup winners and one of them is a loser and the other a world cup discard.

The team:

Indian players : Dhoni, Raina, Ashvin, Dabri, Vijay, Junior Freekanth, Joginder Sharma (YAY YAY he is same bowler who got Misbah off Freeesanth), Jakati, Yo Mahesh, Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Saha and some Vasudevdas.

Abhinav Mukund was the other man in that monsterous partnership in Ranji trophy game in 2008 which saw Murali Vijay picked up and drafted in for banned Gambhir in 3rd test vs Australia in Delhi. May be when both Delhi lads get injured in Tests at one go (GOD forbid), Mukund could find himsef playing for India alongside opening with Vijay. May be then he would still pretend he is playing for Jaya and Karuna and Freekanth and Srini and RAJNIKANTH's state. 

So many almighties for Chennai Fooper Kinks and biggest of them MS.  Rajni's team. Oh man. Yenthiraan's team.

Foreign players:

Hussey, Styris, Kulasekra, Albie Morkel, Randi bhai, Hilfy, Bravo, Southee, Bailey,

Kicked out players:

Hayden, CHuckli

The team is defending champions and they say that they are the most consistent team in the IPL. They have always made it to the Champions league (2009 and 2010) and have been to the semi-final of IPL at all times. They won in 2010, lost in semis in 2009 and choked on the last ball in 2008.

The crunch players for CSK in past year have been Ashvin, Raina and Vijay. Vijay who knows to play only for IPL and is subdued for the other formats for India.  There is going to be no Hayden and Chuck this time around. Chuck is now playing for Mahila's team that is, the Tuskers.

Hayden was left out.

If CSK win this time, it shall be another glorious campaign for MS, but it might also see some more Boss DKs kinda players making way to the team as reserves.  We've had already enough of Vijays, Dabris and BossDKs.

BossDKs is furious at Freekanth cos he didnt convince Srini to buy for him and instead now he is playing for some other team.  Dunno which.

Batting shall wholesole depend on Indian players (or Chennai local players) as Hussey shall be coming in late and most of the foren recruits are bowlers.

Expected XI for tomorrow:

1. Vijay

2. Mukund

3. Aniruddh Freekanth

4. Raina

5. MSD

6. Dabri

7. Morkel

8. Southee

9. Ashvin

10. Randi

11. Kulasekra

Bollinger is out injured, Dwayne Bravo is out injured. So the team for first few games is going to bit on this lines.  Randi bhai is back and he wont be balling no bowls any more arbitarily. 

Lets see if this time CSK is Chennai Super Kings or Chennai Blooper Kings

India's through to the semifinals

Australia's World cup run has ended. And in what a style. India was the team who did it. They have twice ended their run of 17 tests wins and now 12 years of unbeaten World cup run has been ended by the team called India. 

None gave India the chance to beat Australia today given the way they played in the league games. League games saw India taking few games easy and most of the experts called India a undeserving favorites. 

India has never thumped minnows. Thats Lankan speciality. India is known to beat big teams. Australia to be precise. The quality that two teams produce is of highest order. No half measures. Emotions run high, banters and everybody gives more than 100%. 

Everybody within the 2 teams want to win and not give an inch to the other team. And probably thats the reason why Tests or ODIs between this 2 teams are sparkling and intense. 

Today's game was no different. It saw Ricky Ponting ending his century draught. It saw Indians fielding the best in the entire tournament. It saw MSD handling his bowlers too well and rarely earning plaudits from the pundits in the commentary box. 

Tendulkar was at his imperious best before walking yet again. Gambhir was furious when he was out run out in the 3rd attempt, but that was his fault. Yuvraj replied to his anger saying he is not Viru and  they havent batted together that much. Point taken. 

India committed harakiri but then Yuvraj the man came to the fore yet again. What a world cup he is having. 341 runs and 12 wickets with 4 MoM awards. He is India's man of the moment. Not too long ago his commitment was questioned and so was his place and attitude. He's replied to every one those who questioned him. 

Virat Kohli continues to be an ass finding newer ways to get out. MSD continued his wretched run and when he departed at 187 the match was boiling towards Aussies but then in came Raina and the next 2 overs that got us 27 runs changing the equation dramatically in India's favor. 

Think about the commitment of Bret Lee. He was injured on head just above left / right eye and yet he bowled last 2 overs. He wanted to win it. But India had some other plans.  India are through to their 5th semifinal and 3rd one at home. This time they should go one step better. Beat Pakistan and go through to the finals. 

Today was that day when everything went right for India -- the fielding, bowling and batting. Ashvin took 2 wickets. How many runs did he give ? 52. Did he turn the ball square? How many wickets he got with peach of a ball ? Wild slogs both time to get Ponting and Watson.  He has not done any better than Chawla.

India have to think about Munaf what to do about this guy. He is listless, needless and useless. Anybody can hit him for runs. He doesnt take wickets, he cant field and he is even lax on the field.  Either play Nehra or get in Sreesanth. 

Today's win provides an deep feeling of satisfaction. India has come to full elements. And it would take huge effort from Pakistan to stop India from playing finals.  But thats for another day. 

Ponting has had his moments under sun for 12 years in World cups  but now its time for new champion. New team to take the reins. And hopefully it would be India, for the consistent run it has shown in ODIs post 2008.

Wooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo we are in semis. 

India win by 80 runs

India won and they play next Australia. Australia's quest for the 5th title is going to end in Ahmedabad and Ponting is going to continue walking to his ODI sunset. Doesnt matter if he does not walk on the field.

India won by 80 runs however not before getting a scare when Devon Smith and Ramnaresh Sarwan were batting with ease. That time, the Indians had given up on the chase and they looked despirited, deflated and even disinterested.

It took Zaheer to strike once again as in England game to bring India back in the game and after that Windies choked or they just didnt have it in them to win from the strong position they had for 2nd game in running. R Ashvin made his way to the team on his home ground and got 2 wickets. Well he didnt inspire a lot of confidence as in that he shall turn the bowling woes to riches. He got 2 wickets, which even Nehra got that day and even Chawla got. 

He didnt turn the ball square on a pitch he knows more than anybody else other than Tendulkar. He didnt bowl that many carrom balls....So whats the hype and talk all about? Harbhajan Singh was useless in the first spell but then it took his maiden over to get Zaheer strike off Smith's stumps in his 2nd spell. 

Munaf Patel, well he is as useless in the team as is Yusuf Pathan, the fuddi Pathan. Good for nothing lads. Cant bat, cant bowl and cant field. 2 liabilities. Munaf did a ugly swipe in the 50th over 5 balls 2 soon. Ashvin hit the ball to a 4 in the 49th over and he looked to take score past 270 but our Munnabhai couldnt stick around yet again. This lad was insipid in the field and when he bowled. He looks so disinterested and he sleepwalks the game. Why is he even in the team ?

Sachin Tendulkar walked when he was not out given by Steve Davis. He should not have walked and should not walk in the knock out games ahead esp against Australia. He didnt nick it and there is no snickometer for the DRS. So even if there was a review, he would have got away. But then the man has played his cricket with integrity, so he wont compromise against it. 

Gambhir again threw away the start he got. Kohli and Yuvraj then took the score to 173 when it looked India would cross again the 300 mark, but it was a distant dream. They collapsed yet again losing 7 for 50. Rampaul took 5 as did Bresnan and Steyn previously. 

This kind of performance wont be good enough to win the world cup. So India has to address the batting powerplay and middle order batting below 4 once again. That just cant do in the quarters especially when the next 2 games are against Australia and Pakistan(if both win).

Accounting for India's 1st warmup game

India has kick started its world cup campaign with a comfortable win over defending champions in a warm up game. Holds not that good significance but there were few positives out of this game coming out leading up to the tournament opener on next Saturday.

Batting did not click, the usual suspects with the bat continued to fail, the seamers in their whatever quota of overs they got, did not impress. But the biggest positive of this game was the way Chawla bowled. Sure, the aussies set panic for a modest target and they could have won had they got patience.

But Chawla got them to play those foolish shots and thus earn a very good chance to play ahead of Ashwin in the finall 11.

Ashwin as usual was at his restrictive best not looking for wickets. Thats what he is good for. Restrictive line and length, good for blocking runs. But dude we need wickets too in the ODIs to win games, not just stop runs. We dont need defensive mindset spinners. There are lot of part timers -- Pathan, Sehwag, Yuvraj and Raina who do that precisely.

Another baffling question is why the hell did not Tendulkar play in the warm up game? Is he going to go in the world cup on the back of just 4 ODIs in a  year? Has he recovered fully? We got no clue from what MS had to say in the post match talk. Tendulkar has to be in imperious form along side Sehwag to provide fiery starts which India has not got in 2010 thanks to rotating opening pairs and injuries.

The next game is against Kiwis and thats when India would need to finalise the starting XI against BD in the revenge game on 19th.