Monday, November 07, 2005

Where are our spinners?

The defeat at Ahmedabad is the best thing that has happened to Team India in recent times. This is a defeat – by five wickets – India can take in its stride and think about the positives of the outcome.
Victories often conceal the cracks and repairmen never arrive on the scene.
India should use the Ahmedabad defeat to rectify its fatal flaws.
India lost because it did not have adequate bowling resources. India missed Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh while defending 285.
And it was such a pity that two brilliant centuries – from Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir, of same value but that came in contrasting styles -- went in vain.
More about Dravid's batting, at another time.
Skipper Rahul Dravid, however, has backed his boys. He did not blame his bowlers but was all praise for the job on the field.
“It's not easy to say what went wrong but I think we were 25-30 runs short. I thought we had a lot of positives form the game - the attitude and the fielding were good and the young boys did a great job.”
Well, it is a great approach from a captain to his teammates in the aftermath of a 'soft defeat'.
Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell were right to make the changes to the squad that played in Ahmedabad. Since series victory has been achieved there was no harm in disrupting the winning combination.
After all, if we did not try out players now, then when?
Of the three changes effected, one clicked while other two may lead to more churning of the bowling options.
Giving Sachin Tendulkar time to breathe did not affect the content of Indian batting. I feel Gautam Gambhir, Tendulkar’s replacement, played a better knock than Mumbai Master tend to play now.
Indian batsmen played out one of their plans to perfection –they denied Muralitharan wickets. But that was little consolation as Gambhir, Rao, Raina and Agarkar perished to super-sub Maharoof who should have been blasted out of the Moetra Stadium on Sunday to give the Indian total an imposing look.
Reining in Sri Lankan batsmen without Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan was tough for stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag. Though India succeeded in prising out the so called Lankan dangermen, they missed the kind of pressure tactics Harbhajan could have applied in the middle overs.
It also brings in the big question. Where are our spinners?
Those who know the answer should contact Dravid immediately.

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