- Before you can say Woolangabba it will be time for the Boxing day test match. The Indian team has been announced and it looks like the Indian selectors are reading Ian Chappell’s column, for they have got back Veerendra Sehawag into the team. Of course how someone who is not in the original 24 can make it to the final 16 is explained by our motto and guiding philosophy, “We are like that only” (Rama Bijapurkar solpa adjust maadi). But back to the tour of Australia and our own team morale, clearly it must be at an all time high as we have beaten Pakistan (however depleted and however divided) at home after a small matter of 27 years and more significantly beaten England in England after 17 years. And if we are to beat Australia we need to be confident perhaps not of the brash Ganguly variety but perhaps the more understated Kumble variety, or so one hopes! Can we beat Australia at their den, where they have not been beaten since the Golden era of West Indian cricket? Yes we can, however audacious that sounds today if we do a few things right and how easy it sounds sitting in front of my Sony Vaio and sipping chai! But how do we do this?
In transition
Australia are a formidable team and perhaps more so at home in front of screaming fans in their sea of gold and yellow, who wish everyone goes down under the Aussie juggernaut. Yet they are not the same invincible team of 2007. Players like McGrath, Warne, Langer and Martyn cannot be replaced overnight. Suddenly after a decade of Warne magic Australia is talking about a four man pace attack. How boring! Isn’t South Africa already there with this sameness? I strongly believe that they will be hard pressed to bowl the Indians out consistently in pitches that have slowly and surely become so batsman-friendly that wins if not draws are actually a possibility if the Indians play to their potential. People like Michael Vandort and Kumar Sangakkara have demonstrated just last month that it is possible to score and score heavily against the Aussies. The Indians are batting as well as they have ever been. Ganguly is oozing with confidence and fit enough to bowl after scoring a century! Wonders as they say never cease! Sachin has a point to prove I am sure to himself if to no one else and Dravid must be smarting at his own recent lack of success. Throw in a VV ‘Special’ Laxman whom the Aussies dread and an irrepressible S Yuvaraj, then you have a batting line up (on paper at least) that is extremely reassuring. Yet I suppose our normal diffidence must assert itself. The opening pair is still uncertain and if we lose early wickets it could be back to our own sorry past. If Jaffer can get past his early jitters, I am sure he will score and score heavily and who knows what Sehawag can do, not even himself. They used to say that our great Indian match winner B.S. Chandrasekar did not know what ball he was going to bowl, which explains his enormous success. I dare say the same thing could be said about Sehawag’s batting. If he is emotionally fit, he can make a difference. Maybe our great comeback king Saurav Ganguly should have a chat with him. God knows what a Gary Kirsten can tell him even if he makes it to Australia before the series is decided! But all these ageing warriors make for a pathetic fielding side and an even more disastrous set of runners between wickets. We will bleed runs and must do the simple things right. Let me just
explain how things can go wrong if not enough attention is paid to detail. In the recent test match at Hobart, Marvan Attaputta who is currently in Chandigarh with the ICL hooked Brett Lee and was caught on the fence. Neither he nor his partner Sangakkara ventured an inch outside their creases even though the ball hung in the air for ages. Of course he was caught as one would expect in Australia and yet because they did not have the cricketing sense to cross over, the right handed Jayawardene received a swinging yorker first up only to lose his off stump and watched his team lose the game and the series from the comfort of the dressing room. I am sure the well-settled left-hander Sangakkara would have handled that delivery if only they had the good sense to cross over. It is in moments like these that matches are lost and won. India must seize the moment every time. It is difficult to come back in Australia and a poor session could mean that we are on the back foot. Lets hope that it is the Aussies are on the back foot and they are not cutting or pulling!
A Don’t Do list for the Indian team
Do not read the newspapers while on tour.
Do not watch TV. If you must watch TV then see “Desperate Housewives”
Do not talk to strangers (if they are Australian)
Do not engage in conversation with cabbies.
Do not sledge with the crowd. That is a battle that you cannot win.
Do not get sidetracked by sledging. Let the bat or the ball do the talking.
Do not respond if they ask you where Sreesanth is.
Do not send anyone who knows English to talk to the media. How about RP Singh?
Of course if we do well Saurav should handle post match conferences and be late for the media briefing!
Do not win the toss and field for God’s sake!
Do not get run out.
Do not bowl short to Ricky Ponting.
Never, ever declare even if you are 900!
And finally, do not come back if you lose! (Okay not even I can give all nuggets, can I. Just ignore the last one. We will always love you, but perhaps more if you beat the Aussies)
Remember you have a billion people who want you to win and remember you have support from South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, England and the West Indies and even Bangladesh who might be a bit reluctant given the generosity of our aid!
Yes, heads up Australia, we are arriving shortly on platform No.1!
(Ramanujam Sridhar is the CEO of brand-comm and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds).
3 comments:
Great stuff! Only Sachin & Rahul have the technique to handle the bowling, but what about their eyesight & hand-eye co-ordination. While VVS is a delight to watch, his lack of footwork will be exposed. And Yuvi is a shaky starter. Very pessimistic, but I would love to be proved worng!
- Sunder
Perhaps our pessimism is borne out of years of disappointment at our non performance.
The Aussie pace attack if the one day series with New Zealand is any indication, seems pretty good even in good batting pitches.
Yes lets hope for the best.
Yes the excitement is on. The countdown has well and truly begun. But the uncertainity in the Indian camp is quite clear already. They aren’t sure who is going to open. They don’t know which bowlers are going to be part of the first test. I feel our biggest weak link is our batsmens inability to post a good total in the first innings of any tour( except Bangladesh). On boxing day or two days after we would be pinching ourselves as to whether it is the same batting line up that scored 600 plus total against Pakistan. Our batsmen have a peculiar herd mentality. Either all of them score ( including irfan pathan) or all of them fail. Do we call that the height of team spirit. And I honestly cant see this bowling line up getting 20 wickets in a match. Maybe they will pick up twenty wickets in the whole tour. Playing Sehwag could be a lottery. As you have said rightly he seems to be just getting physically fitter and emotionally weaker. And he hasn’t changed his game after bowlers have figured our clear weaknesses in his technique. I think they should play irfan pathan as the opener and let dravid go in at his usual no.3. They should play pankaj singh and the other tall guy who took 5 wickets against Pakistan. The fourth bowler being kumble. Well fingers crossed. The team has already arrived on platform no.1. But I am more worried about their departure and subsequent arrival in India. Hope they don’t have find their ways to their homes through the back door at the middle of the night. But for now all one can say is Chak-de India, be prepared to face some Chuck-de delivers from Shaun tait and Brett lee. Mera Bharat Mahan.
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