When Ambati Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja ‘˜lack of communication’ judgement cost them a catch of Brendon McCullum; it all summed up ‘“ Team India had self imploded.
When Ambati Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja ‘lack of communication’ judgement cost them a catch of Brendon McCullum; it all summed up – Team India had self imploded. That 2011 feeling of losing overseas is coming back to haunt India again. Here is a track record of India in ODIs from December 2013 – L L NR L L T L. A disastrous outing in South Africa and now on the shores of New Zealand, MS Dhoni and company is feeling the heat!
In his post-match presentation, Dhoni said, “We struggled at the top; I think last game we got some kind of start going. We tried to hit that slightly back of a length and bowl in that channel which their bowlers did. We lost a few wickets early, but we did get some kind of partnership going late in the day but we were 20-30 runs short. Bowling was a quite disappointing and we often complain about the five fielders outside the circle, when you bowl short and wide it doesn’t matter. We’ll take it one game at a time, most of our batsmen have got starts but they were not able to push on. They’d need a bit of luck too.”
Prior to the 4th ODI, Indians had the fair measure of chopping and changing with the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina dropped with Ambati Rayudu and Stuart Binny getting the nod. Even though Rohit Sharma got a fifty and India did fare well with the bat, somewhere the writing was on the wall for MS Dhoni.
The bowlers lack the cutting edge and that ‘extra’ pump to deliver crucial wickets. Except for Ravindra Jadeja and somewhat ‘rejuvenated’ Ravichandran Ashwin, the quickies lacked guile and pace to grab 10 wickets. Varun Aaron, playing his 2nd game on the trot ahead of Ishant Sharma was disappointing.
If there are fingers pointing out to the likes of Ishant Sharma and Suresh Raina, well one can point it too – MS Dhoni. The skipper looked out of sorts, numb and lost out of ideas. Where his bowlers were leaking runs, the ‘Captain Cool’ looked perplexed with his bowling changes and field placements. Even when the Kiwis required 59 runs of 52 balls, MS Dhoni felt no need of going on the attack and changing the fielders. Instead, the fielders were spread out on the boundary and the likes of Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum glued on with easy singles.
Take no credit away from the Kiwis who have been superb throughout this series, Ross Taylor with a brilliant century followed it up with Kane Williamson, Corey Anderson and Martin Guptill have been Indian bowlers’ arch nemesis.
The ICC World Cup is scheduled at the same venue next year and here is Team India – the current champions who have to register a win. This series victory for the Kiwis was their first over a top side besides Zimbabwe and Bangladesh! Don’t be surprised if India kept the ‘losing’ streak going.
A major overhaul is needed in this team starting from the selectors.
