Hussey Cat and Billy Goat do India in!

If a cat has seven lives, Mike Hussey had at least 6 last night as the Indian cricket team drove itself to destruction last night during the 5th ODI match of the 2012 tri-series in Australia. The match started off on a promising note with the Aussie version of the Ws (Wade and Warner) extremely subdued. Rohit Sharma possibly playing his last game in the series (except for the lucky break with Dhoni's suspension) set the tone for India's game by unnecessarily getting between the ball and Sachin and dropping Wade on the second ball of the game. With the Aussies coming of a terrible loss to SL where they failed to score much, a second ball wicket would have hurt them badly especially with the stand-in captain and 1-down batsman Ponting in such a bad form. Despite that set back, the Indian team bowled fairly well and kept the run rate down. Dhoni taking a bold decision of dropping Ashwin on a pitch that had some grass and going with 4 fast bowlers, clearly missed his 'go to' off spinner. He then tried his best to recreate that with Sharma and Raina. This duo did fairly well but were given overs at the expense of Jadeja who usually bowls his quota of overs. This was just one of the many weird decisions by Dhoni all game. It was almost as if he wanted to get a suspension because he made Shewag sit this game out (official reason - back spasm). Here are some of the decisions that I question:

1. Not bowling Jadeja despite him having a great previous game with the ball
2. Opting for Praveen Kumar to be a substitute fielder despite having Manoj Tiwary and Parthiv Patel on the bench
3. Persisting with Tendulkar in the slips especially when he has a good arm from the deep and quick access to fluids
4. Keeping the live wire Kohli in Mid off/on and the boundary when he clearly has crowd issues
5. Taking incredibly long time between balls and overs to set fields for left and right handed batsmen

If these five decisions weren't enough to hurt India, the six lives they gave Hussey and four they gave Forrest did. Starting with the horrendous decision by the umpires to recall Hussey after being given out stumped, to the catches dropped by Sharma (yes, 2 catches) and Yadav, and the complete lack of ability to hit the stumps on numerous occasions from close (will Dhoni ever stand behind the stumps to gather a throw?), the Indians were a terrible unit on the field. To add to that umpire Billy Bowden did his part by calling chest high balls 'wides' which basically took the short ball out of the Indian bowling and helped Forrest a lot (Forrest seems uncomfortable facing the short ball into his body). Towards the end of the Aussie innings, the Indians lost the plot totally letting the opposition score 100 runs in the last 10 overs. This completely gave the momentum to the Aussie bowlers. With just 2 batsmen in form (Gambhir and Dhoni), chasing over 280 was never a possibility. Ben Hilfenhaus and Brett Lee showed how its done. The spirit and enthusiasm with which they bowled and how they walked back to their run up after every ball is something that the Indians need to learn. Walking quickly back to the top of the run up helps maintain a bowler's momentum and gives less time for the batsmen to calm down and prepare for the next ball. This aspect of coaching seems to be clearly missing in all levels of Indian cricket. As a result when the going gets tough, the Indian players are mentally out of the game and don't even put up a whimper of a fight. And needless to say, the Indians kept losing wickets and eventually they were put out of their misery by the prowling Aussie bowlers and fielders. The win gave the Aussies their much needed 5 points (including a bonus point for trashing the Indians) and put them in a good position to qualify for the finals which looked bleak just a day ago.

Where does India go after this? Dhoni sits out due to suspension from a poor over rate (India took half an hour extra to bowl 50 overs, yes half an hour!) and Patel comes in. Sachin is clearly injured and will not play the next game. Patel will even open if Shewag really has back spasms and cant play (which I doubt). If Shewag doesn't play, Sharma gets another chance. Tiwary will surely play the next game. Zaheer who looked off color may rest giving Ashwin his place back in the XI. So here is what we are looking at: Gambhir, Shewag, Kohli, Tiwary, Raina, Patel, Jadeja, Ashwin, Pathan, Vinay Kumar, and Yadav. If Shewag sits out, Patel opens with Gambhir the captain and Sharma is back in the middle order. Despite these changes, my crystal ball predicts a loss against Sri Lanka.

IPL-4 Day 1 - Winners and Losers (part 2)

The next team is Delhi Daredevils. They retained only Viru Shewag and ended up losing almost all the components of the winning team they had (Gambhir, Karthik, Vettori, Nannes, AB, Dilshan, and Amit Mishra). What they do have is a good set of openers in Shewag, Warner, and Finch. One of these 2 Aussies would play all the games for Delhi. Other than openers, they have good allrounders in Irfan Pathan ($1.9M seems a lot) and James Hopes. They also got wicket keeper/opener Naman Ojha and fast bowler Morne Morkel. They now need middle order batsmen, fast bowlers, and spinners. On day 1, they lost many bids to other teams which leaves them over $3M for day 2. Among Indian players on day 2, they would go for Umesh Yadav, Sudeep Tyagi, Manpreet Gony, VRV Singh, and Pankaj Singh. Their focus on overseas players would be batsmen and spinners like Katich, Andy McDonald, Abdur Razzak, Mike Lumb, and Suraj Randiv. Delhi do however, have talented players from the Catchment area like Rajat Bhatia, Ladda, Vikas Mishra, Mithun Minhas, Pradeep Sangwan, and leggie Nanda. Overall, I would rate them a B- (for losing out on the Indian players they wanted).

The new team Pune warriors showed their inexperience. They spent $6.87M for 8 players. Its not clear to me what their strategy was or who their captain would be. They got Uthappa for $2.1M (yes, its not a typo). Then Yuvraj for $1.8M (Punjab couldnt get rid of him any earlier). Their international players include Angelo Mathews (their only decent pick), Graeme Smith, Callum Ferguson, Tim Paine, and Nathan McCullum. The only true fast bowler they picked was the home town boy (rather man) Nehra. Based on this selection they don't need anymore wicket keepers. They would need help in all the other departments. With only $2.13M left, they would be pressed to bid for most domestic players remaining and hope for a lot of luck. Their performance on day 1 would get them a C- grade.

Kolkata Knight Riders seemed to have turned a new leaf by not taking Ganguly and not having Mr. Khan on the bidding table. They did end up spending $7.57M but they got a good group together headed by the future India captain Gambhir. He would be ably assisted by batsmen Eoin Morgan and home boy Manoj Tiwary, allrounders Yusuf Pathan, Kallis, and Shakid Al Hasan, fast bowler Brett Lee and keeper Haddin. They would now go after home boy Dinda and other fellow Indian fast bowlers. Among non-Indian players Tamim Iqbal and Syed Rasel from Bangalesh would be key additions apart from West Indian players Benn and Simmons. Unfortunately I don't see too many valuable catchment area players. LR Shukla, Ranadeb Bose, and Goswami would make it to the playing XI. Overall a grade of B-.

Now to the last 2 teams who made it into IPL-4 due to their lawyers. Rajasthan Royals retained Watson and Warne. In hindsight they should have kept Yusuf Pathan as well. In any case, they have their key international picks: Ross Taylor, Botha, and Collingwood. The only Indian player they selected was Rahul Dravid. So, this team would be actively pursuing all the Indian players and very few international players. Even though they made it to the Ranji players, I am not sure if they have a good group of catchment area players. So overall I don't expect them to do well and would rate them an F (they have little more than $2M to spend on day 2). One word of caution - wily Warne is capable of springing up many surprises like he did in the first 3 seasons.

Finally, Kings XI Punjab, who have cleaned shop and started on a clean slate. They picked up 9 players with only Chawla and Shaun Marsh coming back. Gily would be their new captain and a nice group of new ball bowlers in Praveen Kumar, Ryan Harris, and Stu Broad. They also got a good allrounder Abishek Nayar and back-up keeper Dinesh Karthik (out bidding Delhi with ($900K). They have over $2.17 remaining for day 2 and could go after every remaining Indian batsmen and international spinner. Their catchment area players of note include young Karan Goel, Ladda, and Rahul Sharma. I would however give them a B+ since they have picked all high impact players who will contribute their best.

Hopefully, I will have a shorter one after day 2. Cheers!

IPL-4 Day 1 - Winners and Losers (part 1)

Day 1 of the auction is now over and a total of $68.55 million has been committed as payment to players from 8 countries ($38.265 million to Indian players). Indian economy seems to be truly doing well!

Chennai Super Kings retained 4 players (Dhoni, Raina, Vijay, and Albie Morkel) which in hindsight seems to be a good move. If they could retain more they would have. With the remaining money they were going for the same winning combination that they had last year. Unfortunately they missed out on Muralitharan (losing a close bidding war with Kochi) but gained Bravo (for a bargain - relatively speaking). They still have $1.375 million to pick the remaining 5-6 players. Here is the team so far:
MS Dhoni - $1,800,000.00
Suresh Raina - $1,300,000.00
M Vijay - $900,000.00
R Ashwin - $850,000.00
S Badrinath - $850,000.00
Doug Bollinger - $700,000.00
Albie Morkel - $500,000.00
Michael Hussey - $425,000.00
Dwayne Bravo - $200,000.00
Wriddhiman Saha - $100,000.00

They now need openers and spinners. They have selected the 4 international players who they would want to play each game. They might get 3-4 more international players as insurance (this might include Thisara Pererra, a SL allrounder, Ravi Bopara, England allrounder, or even Chris Gayle). Among Indian players they would go for Balaji and Gony. They would also try to pick up Mukund, Hemang Badani, Anirudh Srikanth, R. Satish, and S. Sriram as the 'cachement area' picks. On the whole this team would closely resemble the team from last year (Hayden might even be the batting coach with his Mongoose) and I would give them a A grade.
 
Mumbai Indians like CSK had also retained 4 players. And on day one they picked up 4 more players. This is how the team looks like as of now:
Rohit Sharma - $2,000,000.00
Sachin Tendulkar - $1,800,000.00
Harbhajan Singh - $1,300,000.00
Kieron Pollard - $900,000.00
Andrew Symonds - $850,000.00
Lasith Malinga - $500,000.00
Davy Jacobs - $190,000.00
James Franklin - $100,000.00

At this point, MI have their marquee players but still need to build a team. This team of strong personalities might come together out of respect for Sachin. The team still needs openers, wicket-keepers, batsmen, and spinners. With the remaining $1.36 million they may not get good talent in all these positions and would have to rely on 'cachement area' players like Rayudu, Dhawal, Rahane, and Pinal Shah. Paying $2 million to Rohit seems a lot (may be a million more)! Tomorrow they would go for Wasim Jaffer, Ajit Agarkar, Jaidev Unadkat (who may get a lot of interest and sell for over $200K). They already have 5 international players and would try to get up and coming players like Xavier Doherty, Moses Henriques, or Paul Harris. Overall at this point I would give them a C- grade.

Bangalore Royal Challengers had Anil Kumble help them with picks which in my opinion is a great idea. They had retained Kohli who can learn a lot from Vettori about captaincy. They also picked the other 2 members of the future Indian team middle order: Saurabh Tiwary ($1.6M seems like a lot) and Cheteshwar Pujara. They have Zaheer and Dirk Nannes as they fast bowling pillars while Dilshan and AB round up their selection so far. This well balanced team seems to have the best fielding side of all teams but they have spent the most. With little more than $1M remaining they would go for Vinay Kumar, Mithun, and Pankaj Singh among the Indians and look for openers and wicket-keepers among international players. They are sure pick up the entire young Karnataka team as their 'Cachement area' players (Manish Pandey, Akhil, C. Gautam, and Binny). They must be glad that they didn't pay the $2.1M to get Uttappa (they stopped bidding after $900K). And they have built yet another good and entirely new team compared to last year (with all selections being good team players). Overall I would give them a B+ (highest spenders without any 'super stars').

Hyderabad Deccan Chargers is another team that has an entirely new look. In fact, they have picked up key players from the Bangalore Challengers last year's team (Steyn, White, Pietersen). In all probability Sangakara would be their captain and JP Duminy their solid middle order batsman. Among the Indian players they selected Ojha, Ishant, Shikar Dhawan, and Amit Mishra. This team has all the elements needed to be a contender this year. Like Bangalore they would also look for wicket keepers and openers tomorrow. They would also be interested in middle order allrounders. They can afford to do that since they have $3.5M still to spend. I would expect them to bid for every overseas allrounder (not many Indian all rounders remain). The key catchment area player for Hyderabad is T. Suman. He gave a good account of himself last year. Among Indian players they would surely go for Venugopal Rao, Rayudu. Overall I thought they did very well and I would give them A+.

The Kochi (only team with no name yet) side like the conglomerate that they are went for every player and got the following (as a result over paying for everyone and getting the discards of other teams for the most part):
Mahela Jayawardene - $1,500,000.00
Muttiah Muralitharan - $1,100,000.00
Ravindra Jadeja - $950,000.00
Sreesanth - $900,000.00
RP Singh - $500,000.00
Brendon McCullum - $475,000.00
Brad Hodge - $425,000.00
VVS Laxman - $400,000.00
Parthiv Patel - $290,000.00
Steven Smith - $200,000.00
Ramesh Powar - $180,000.00

But the fact of the matter is that they assembled a good team and still have over $2M to spend tomorrow. They would go for all rounders and middle order batsmen. Mahela, Muralitharan, McCullum, Hodge, and Steve Smith are excellent international picks. With Jadeja and Powar they have a good spinning combination. Sreesanth and RP may not pose a strong fast bowling duo but having Parthiv Patel (back up keeper and opener) and VVS should help with grooming young 'Mallus' from the catchment area. Oveall I would rate Kochi's day one performance a B- (lacked maturity by bidding for every player).

Stay tuned for part 2....

Indian Understudies - A look to the future

Akin to a fine Broadway play, the Indian cricket team and the cricket board need 'super star' understudies' for each legend that adorned the famed batting line up in the first decade of the 21st century. This is needed not just to preserve the much hyped '#1 position' but to ensure that the millions are raked in at a faster rate than the previous decades.

So let’s start with the opener Virender Shewag. He reached the super star status immediately after the 300 that he scored against Pakistan in Multan. To find an understudy for him is not an easy job. He scores at a rapid pace in test cricket and has been successful but not as good in the ODI and 20-20 formats. The closest player in my opinion who could be a Shewag is Ajinkya Rahane. Rahane has the ability to light it up and has a tremendous potential. Will he live up to it is a question that will be answered in the next decade. Another player with similar potential, Shikhar Dhawan seems to be messing up every opportunity he has been given. Gautam Gambhir is next up. He is quite young and still is yet to reach the 'super star' level. I see him as a future captain of the Indian team in all 3 formats of the game. To keep up with the spirit of this blog, if I had to name his understudy I need to see no further than Abhinav Mukund. Mukund another lefty is 8 years younger than Gambhir and has been a prolific scorer in the domestic seasons and A-team tours. The special aspect of Mukund's game is his temperament and the ability to play long innings much like how Gambhir did early on in his career.

The famed middle order of all times included Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman. Saurav's understudy Suresh Raina is already in his 3rd test. Similar to Ganguly this lefty has no fear and is very strong using his feet. Unfortunately similar to Ganguly, Raina seems a suspect to the short ball. But regardless, this good looking young player has a bright future as a player and a captain. I did consider Yuvraj for this spot but his attitude and knee didn’t help his cause. Dravid's understudy has to be Badrinath. Badrinath has waited a long time for a break and during this time has been the main stay for Tamil Nadu, and India-A. Considering Dravid's decreased run production and increased catch drop rate, Badri's permanent position seems less than a year away. I would name Cheteshwar Pujara as VVS Laxman's understudy. Similar to Laxman (especially in his early days) Pujara scores not in centuries or double centuries but in triple centuries. Finally the selectors have given him a chance to 'hang out' with the Indian team and one hopes he learns a lot from this exposure. The good thing he has going for him is Saurav's backing. His KKR captain has been Pujara's best PR manager! Finally, the understudy for the great Sachin Tendulkar - (drum roll, please) Virat Kohli. This young lad has a good cricketing acumen and similar to the great one started off very early. Kohli is young and seems to have the right attitude. He needs to work on his temperament and the ability win matches (which Sachin has developed off late). Based on how Sachin is going, Virat might have another 2-3 years before the stage is set for him.

Identifying understudies for Dhoni and the bowlers is too farfetched. The cricket board will not let Dhoni go anywhere for the next 10 years (as will the CSK franchise). If there are any 12 year old wicket keeper batsmen here is your chance, grow your hair and drink lots of milk! The only bowler who seems decent in the current Indian lineup is Zaheer Khan. Jaidev Unadkat seems like another decent left arm fast bowler. He needs to continue to develop as a bowler and his confidence. I am not quite sure why Harbajan Singh is still in the team. It’s about time Anil Kumble gets truthful and looks for a real spinning champion. May be the answer is R. Ashwin.

Only time will tell!

To sum it up, here is the lineup: Ajinkya Rahane, Abhinav Mukund, S. Badrinath, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, M.S. Dhoni, R. Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Ishant Sharma, and Jaidev Unadkat.

No Umpire Decision Review System for the SL Tour - Summer of 2010

The ICC rule regarding the use of UDRS is that both teams should agree to use it. The rule is not specific to India. BCCI has the right to protect its interest and its certainly not 'strong arming' in this case. I for one do see a point in BCCI's decision. Until the technology sourrounding it is fine tuned, perfected, and consistently institutionalized in every ground and country, its not right to use it. Sports fans should remember a system that was discontinued in tennis which would beep if it felt the ball was out. This was because that technology was not fool proof. Similarly the current UDRS is not fool proof. The 3rd and 4th umpires are not neutral umpires and dont seem to have definitive guidelines on how to interpret the television replays especially for spinners. Folks should remember that if such a system was in place for previous Indian tours of Australia the results would have been different. Australia would have been de-throned long before.

India-A Tour of England - Summer 2010

The tour from an Indian stand point proved what we have always suspected - Cheteshwar Pujara is certainly the best prospect to fill the future void in the Indian test team middle order after Sachin, Rahul, and VVS depart. But his performance as a captain/leader will have to be questioned. Based on the Cricinfo reports one cannot make a definitive conclusion but it is clear that there was no inspired leadership. Apart from him, we have a decent young opener in Mukund who could play both tests and ODIs and a young wicket taking fast bowler Jaidev Unadkat.

Abhimanyu Mithun should consider himself lucky to tour SL with the senior team. Dhawal Kulkarni and Ajinkya Rahane didn't put together consistent performances and left a lot to be desired. Shikar Dhawan missed out on an opportunity to seal an ODI spot. Hopefully the rest of the squad gained personally from this experience.

On the whole it was a mediocre tour from the Indian stand-point unlike some of the previous A-tours where the team has excelled.

IPL 3 - Good Talents Who Missed Out

This IPL like any other tournament has shot few people into prominence. Some obscure names have become common household names: Suman, Naman Ojha, Siddharth Trivedi, Rayudu, and Saurabh Tiwary to name a few. A common point in all these cases has been that their captains (Gilly, Warne, and Sachin) have seen their potential, backed them up, and given them the confidence to bring out their best. Not all the captains are willing to try out fresh talent. Few of them are keen to stick to the tried and trusted players. Here are a few talented players who have missed out on this year's IPL.

Harshad Khadiwale is a fine young opening batting talent who is the main stay for Maharashtra. He has done exceedingly well in the domestic circuit and has even played for West Zone. He is only 21 years old and has already taken over the captaincy of his state team with just 4 years of Ranji experience. He truly deserves a chance to play in the Kolkata Knight Riders. Unfortunate for him that he competes for the same spot as his KKR skipper. If at all Ganguly steps down, this lad ought to get a chance.

Thissara Perera the left hand batting all-rounder whom the Super Kings picked up in this year's draft tormented India in the recent ODIs against Sri Lanka. He got just one game in the IPL. I think he can do some serious damage in this form of the game. He has the ability to slog and slog well. He is primarily a bowler who can share the new ball with Bollinger. We can only hope Dhoni gives him some opportunity to come good and earn his pay check.

Avishkar Salvi was once a top fast bowling prospect for India along with Balaji. In fact he did go on a few tours with the Indian team. Unfortunately he got injured while he was being talked about. Since then he has come back and is getting some playing time in the last two years at the domestic level. He has been in the Daredevils roster for a few seasons but has not got the consistent opportunity that a Sangwan has got. I truly think that Salvi still has something to offer and the captain who sees that would reap the benefits.

Chandrasekar Ganapathy has been a stand out for Tamil Nadu the last couple of seasons. He has blossomed into a dependable all-rounder. This year he has scored over 500 runs and taken 18 wickets in the Ranji Trophy. He got a chance to play one game but was given only one over. The commentators did mention his name a few times when he came close to Gony as Gony dropped Uthappa. And that was it! I strongly believe that he could be the all-rounder Chennai is looking for as the team wonders how to bring Murali back into the line-up.

Dhawal Kulkarni is one of the brightest fast bowling talent to emerge from Mumbai in recent times. He has done really well in the Ranji trophy and few India-A team tours. He was even selected to the Indian team's tour of New Zealand before fading away from the limelight. After warming the bench, he got a chance to play for the Mumbai Indians. He has the potential to be a match winner. He can bowl a tight length and line and keep the opponents run rate low. Let’s hope he gets more chances to showcase his talent.