Nowhere to turn, India are losing the plot

December 7, 2012

England_form

England's ascendancy after two days of play in the Eden Gardens Test has served up a timely reminder of some deep-rooted problems in Indian cricket. There are worrying signs that the team may not be so much in transition as in precipitous decline.

Judging by the poor batting performance on a flat Eden surface and the sub-par bowling, the defeat on a rank turner in the last Test in Mumbai does not seem an aberration. It could just be a logical progression from the losses in England and Australia over the last year, although on very different kinds of pitches.

As captain Alastair Cook marched away to a record 23rd century for England on Thursday in excellent batting conditions, India's supposed supremacy in home conditions seemed distant memory.

Firstly, there's the retirements of two great batsmen. There's an inconsistent opening combine,a dodgy middle and lower-middle order and the lack of convincing new bowling talent in either the spin or pace department. All these problems have forced India to increasingly rely on luck and stray individual brilliance to wriggle out of tough situations.

Both have continued to elude them more often than not in the recent past.

The problems begin with captain MS Dhoni, who continues to take some questionable decisions in the field and looks lost and defensive when his plans don't work out. The tendency to give away easy singles and give spinners short spells have come under the scanner. Under pressure to justify his place in the side of late, Dhoni finally came good with the bat but not before betraying a lack of conviction by asking for turners when his team clearly couldn't match England's skill and confidence.

The hosts have been out-bowled , out-thought and outclassed by Cook's men. Has Dhoni been too obsessed with the pitches to focus on these shortcomings?

With Umesh Yadav, who looked impressive in Ahmedabad, out with injury, the bowling resources are threadbare. Zaheer Khan is clearly in decline and his strike rate — the average number of balls bowled per wicket taken — is a steep 98.5 this year. He started well on Thursday but has generally failed to inspire the fast-bowling flock. Ishant Sharma's comeback looked undeserving as after a good start, he too faded away. His last 4 Tests have fetched Ishant a strike rate of 208 and only 3 wickets. Was it a mistake to pick him over local lad Ashok Dinda, whose domestic record continues to impress?

The spinners — Pragyan Ojha and R Ashwin — are still young and finding their feet. They were guilty of straying in line all too often and have not looked half as effective as the England duo of Panesar and Swann. The highly-rated Ashwin has been guilty of trying too many things and losing the plot. Maybe, they could do with the guiding hand of a spin bowling coach.

Worse, there doesn't seem to be a second-rung of bowlers capable of holding their own in Tests.

Then there's India's problems with the bat, which caused this predicament at Eden in the first place. The batsmen again performed below par, much like they have in the past year and half, but this time it was on a friendly home surface. Sadly, India's batsmen are not masters of playing spin anymore and they continue to be suspect against the faster stuff.

Virat Kohli hasn't justified his billing and Yuvraj Singh's Test career may not undergo a grand resurrection after all. There is no Dravid or Laxman to hold things together. Tendulkar is nearing the end and Sehwag and Gambhir are too inconsistent to be relied upon.


Only Cheteshwar Pujara offers hope but he is a baby in Test cricket, even if he has taken some giant steps.

This leaves India without a dependable rock in the batting, one who the team feels confident will do his job and around whom the rest can bat. From a situation not so long ago when there were three of them — Dravid, Sachin and Laxman — the cupboard is almost bare. It's been a crippling blow.

Of course, Dhoni and Co will be looking to pull things back in the series. If they don't , convincing Test wins like the one in Ahmedabad in the first Test may soon become blips on the radar rather than the norm. A cricket-crazy nation may have to reconcile to a long period of lowered expectation.

By playing into the talk of a 'revenge series' and aiming to blow England away on rank turners, Dhoni & Co forgot to confront their deepest fears: that man to man, England may be the better team, no matter the conditions.



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News Network
May 7,2020

Melbourne, May 7: Australia opener Joe Burns is eyeing the Tests against India should they take place later this year, to stabilise his stop-start international career, saying "you want to play in and do well in" in this kind of series.

India is scheduled to play four Tests in Australia in December-January, a series which is currently in doubt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 2.5 lakh lives across the world.

"They are obviously world class team. I think the two teams going at each other will be very exciting to watch and players playing against each other as well," Burns told reporters in a video conference on Thursday.

"You look at the world ranking, they were number one and now we have got to number one, so I know that series will be anticipated by everyone and as a player this is a sort of series you want to play in and do well in."

With the coronavirus also threatening the T20 World Cup, Cricket Australia is under financial stress and has gone on a cost-cutting drive, which included standing down 80 per cent of its staff at 20 per cent salary.

There are also speculations that the Sheffield Shield for 2020-21 would be curtailed to cut costs.

Burns, however, hoped it won't be tinkered with.

"I love the fact we have a really strong first-class system. The 10 games, where you play everyone twice," Burns, who was struck down by a fatigue illness after an indifferent season, said.

"It leads to world-class players coming into Test teams. You don't want to see that get changed.

"Obviously it is unique circumstances at the moment and There's a lot of things to work through ... the players' association is consulted on those things."

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News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, Jun 13: Five centrally contracted Indian cricketers including Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul have been issued notices by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing to disclose their whereabouts as the BCCI cited "password glitch" as the reason for delay.

The other players to have received the notice include women stars Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, who are among the five cricketers in the 110 strong National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP). Speaking to PTI, NADA DG Navin Agarwal confirmed that BCCI has sent an official explanation for their five NRTP players' failure to submit whereabouts.

"There are two ways to fill up the whereabouts form in the ADAMS (Anti Doping Administration & Management Systems) software. Either athlete does it himself or association fills it up on his or her behalf," Agarwal said. "Now athletes in some discipline aren't educated enough or do not have access to internet and find themselves unable to handle the whereabouts clause of the ADAMS or upload the filled up

"They use assistance of their concerned federations. So federations have accepted responsibility of uploading their whereabouts," Agarwal said.

He said cricketers too at times find it tough to complete the process on their own. "Similarly in cricket also, although these people are well qualified and they can do it, perhaps they don't have the time for whatever reasons, so the federation concerned, the BCCI has taken upon itself the responsibility of uploading their whereabouts." So why didnt BCCI upload the the three-month whereabouts this time?

"Well they have given an explanation which appears to be reasonable but a decision will be taken. They have said that there has been a glitch with regards to password in ADAMS. Now they have said that issue has been resolved," Agarwal added. NADA DG added that "BCCI's explanation will be discussed as to whether it will be counted as one of three filing failures or not. It will be decided on the explanation given and how they (BCCI) proceed from here."

While country has been under lockdown, the rule to submit three months of whereabouts is mandatory. Three such failures to disclose leads to one Anti Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), which could lead up to two years of suspension upon hearing.

While BCCI has "officially gagged" its employees from talking to the media, it couldn't be ascertained that why as normal a glitch as a password error took days to resolve. A BCCI veteran, who has been privy to cricket operations, asked why the five cricketers were not told to upload the form themselves.

"This was lockdown period where they are not living out of suitcases. Some of the names have also engaged in multiple instagram chats and podcasts which their agents are managing," he said.

"If cricket operations team were having a glitch in fixing password, well the five cricketers could have been asked to do so and they would have done it individually with some guidance. "Probably NADA would be lenient this time but if it becomes an official warning, then who's responsible," he added.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Melbourne, Mar 6: Experienced middle-order batter Veda Krishnamurthy believes that "destiny" is in favour of first-time finalist India to win their maiden ICC Women's T20 World Cup title provided they get a grip on their nerves in the summit clash against Australia on Sunday.

India will have a psychological advantage going into the final as they had stunned the defending champions by 17 runs in the tournament opener.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led India reached the final on the basis of their unbeaten record in the tournament after their semifinal against England was washed out on Thursday.

Krishnamurthy, who was a part of the Indian team that finished runner-up to England in the 2017 Women's ODI World Cup, knows the pain of missing out on a world title.

"It's all about destiny, and I'm a big believer in destiny. I feel like this is the way it was meant to be. There is a joke going around that this World Cup is made in such a way that it's helping us, starting from the wickets to everything else," she was quoted as saying by the tournament's official website.

"Being in the final is just reward for the way we played in the group stages. There was an advantage to having won all our games with the weather not in our hands."

The team's first target of reaching the final having achieved, the 27-year-old player said the Indians now need to hold their nerves and remain focussed leading up to the big day on Sunday.

"We said the first aim was to get to the final and take it from there. We've crossed the first stage. We need to make sure we hold our nerves and we do what we need to do on the final day," she said.

India's recent rivalry with Australia has taken fascinating twists and turns, with Kaur's outfit chasing down 173 in their recent tri-series, then getting home by 17 runs in the T20 World Cup opener.

But all is not hunky-dory for Krishnamurthy on the personal front. Considered a great finisher, she has recovered from a series of single-digit scores in the tri-series to score 20 from 11 balls in a finishing role against Bangladesh.

Having amassed just 35 runs from four matches in the tournament so far, the Karnataka batter knows her role in the team.

"As an individual, the role given to me is very consistent in the last year. They've put the effort in the last year to keep me there and I've been supported by every individual, not just one or two. The entire team, with all the support staff, have shown faith in me," she said.

"I know coming into the World Cup, I would play a crucial role to finish the innings well, which I felt I was unable to do in the last World Cup in the West Indies," she added.

Krishnamurthy said specific roles have been set for every player of the squad and they all are trying to contribute as much as they can to help the team achieve its goal.

"I was very motivated to do my role and I've been working on that. It's not just me, all 15 players involved know what their role is," she said.

"I'm happy we're all putting in efforts and executing our role properly. Even if it's a smallish contribution of saving a couple of runs, it's all panned out really well."

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