TEAM INDIA IN T-20 WORLD CUP 2010

No win in the T-20 World Cup and Indian cricket is back to its old rotten ways.It is amazing to see that some sections of the BCCI are going for M S Dhoni's scalp.
It has been a debacle,a miserable performance by Team India in the Carribean Islands.No department of the team fired in a single match.To counter this all-time low,the selection committee needs to have a real,calculated foresight,and it cannot just hit and chop the team at random,on which it seemed well-bent on till a couple of days.

Frankly speaking,it is apparent that it is Sachin Tendulkar s as-a-matter-of-factcomments to the press,urging one and all to stand by the team and not revert to stone-pelting,have come across the cricket board s unholy intention.

 It is time again to give Yuvraj Singh a much-awaited rest-his paunch,that seems to be coming in the way between his actual talent and his timing with the bat,has been looking ugly for a long-time,for about a year and a half,so much so that it is visible in the advertisements he has been appearing in.He was a flop in the IPL too.

The factor of Inclusion of Ravindra Jadeja in the team is being pointed as a gun towards Dhoni.In India,the team is not made by the captain alone,the coach and the board play a part in it too,perhaps far more than the captain.The board cannot wash its hands off now that he got severely belted in the matches,though that does not absolve Dhoni of his own lack of foresight.

Performance in the IPL is a good parameter for team selection when a player' s current form is taken into consideration.But it applies for players who have been in the international scene for sometime. But rookies like Murli Vijay and Ravindra Jadeja shouldn ve been selected through this thought.Murli Vijay scored runs in the IPL with a healthy strike-rate and with some lusty hitting which is actually NOT his usual forte.Though he was successful after changing his technique to suit the 20 overs format,his success in the IPL shouldnt ve been the parameter,as the standard of cricket in the IPL is much below the international standard-one truth Indian Cricket as a whole seems to have overlooked amidst all the hype and glamour.There is a long way to go before he reaches the potential to make it to the national team.

All the bowlers underperformed in the World Cup.The reason,which seems to be the reason for the poor batting,was visible in every match.The team lacked the aggression and the do-or-die attitude.Yes the players were fatigued after the gruelling IPL schedule,but Dhoni can t give that as an excuse.These are professionals who are expected to know the requirements of a situation and the value of a particular competition.Dhoni should have pointed the fact and shared his opinion with the selectors during the IPL itself.It was a long tournament where there were,not one or two,but plenty of late-night parties.This excuse of Dhoni for the poor performance puts his own cricketing aptitude under a question-mark.It doesn't need a high intelligence-quotient to deduce IPL cricket and late night parties shall lead to fatigue-a truth which cannot be put up as an excuse.

Jadeja and Murli Vijay were clearly premature selections,and they have to perform consistently at superior levels before the Indian cap once again.
Suprisingly nobody has singled out Gautam Gambhir.A famous cricket historian has commented that since M.Vijay failed to step into Sehwag s boots,Gambhir was not given his own space to perform.This suprises me.Vijay came at Sehwag s alright,but did the selection panel expect Vijay to score the way Sehwag does?In fact,Gambhir being the senior partner should have  got rolling,showing the rookie the way.

In India,our reaction to failure is not new.We make superstars out of mortals in an instant,and bring them down in half the time.We have targeted the likes of Tendulkar,Dravid and Kumble in the past before they came back to excel and shut our ever-babbling mouths.True cricket enthusiasts should analyze the failure of Team India in the proper perspective and not crucify the players like fanatics.Media follows public reaction,and their reactions shouldn' t control the  shouldn't control the team selection process.

Non-performers like Yuvrag whose disciplinary track-record is not exactly clean should be selectively taken out.We have done this in the past,having rested Sehwag and Yuvraj,and they have come back into the team leaner and fitter.

And it would be just mad to strip Dhoni of his captaincy.He is motivated,ruthless,adventerous,and depends on intuition(which has put India in the course of victory more than once).One week before the World Cup,he led the Chennai  Superkings to the IPL trophy.He is the man the team shall need in the next 5 years.

Last but not the least,the BCCI itself should be given a strong knock,starting with K.Srikkanth.His role as the chief-selector is questionable after his the back-door flight from the questioning media.In crisis he hasn t stood by his chosen team and this undermines his capacity as the chief selector.But one shall have to wait to give this rap to the Board.It is already in soup,getting entangled more and more on the Lalit Modi issue.

I am sure Team India shall hit back once again.Best of Luck tilll then.