Abject & Meek Surrender

Abject and meek surrender best describes India's performance agaisnt England in T20 match. India bowled without any intensity and batted as if they were playing test cricket.

To lose to English side is really pathetic. Jadeja and Gambhir never even attempted to score big in first 10 overs. Whatever happened to our big hitters? Where were the Yuvrajs and Pathans. Ravinder Jadeja a rookie looked completely out of depth and his 35 ball 25 was a model for how not to bat in T20.

Ishant Sharma as predicted earlier looked out of class. He bowled at 140 without any swing or seam; without mixing it up. I'm afraid in this form of the game unidimensional bowling would be punished severely. Whatever happened to his inswingers ???

Dhoni's captaincy was miserable. Decision to promote himself to No 3 in last match against West Indies and to promoter Jadeja to no 4, were un-Dhoni like thinking.

As a captain he lacks aggression which unfortunately has impacted his batting as well. For more than a year now, it appears Dhoni has lost all his shots and is merely looking out for singles all the time. What happened to the batsman who scored 148 against Pakistan in his 3rd ODI?

In summary, this has been a very disappointing campaign without any planning of any sorts. Team appeared very tired after such a long season and administrators should look into some sort of planning especially before such a big tournament.

My money is on the Aussies

World cup T20 Preview:

India or SA seem to be everyone's favourite to win the tournament. I would pick a resurgent Aussie (I hate the team though) team to win the tournament.

I think the way Super 8 groups are being formed (not as per standings but as per seedings), India are in a potentially very strong group in Super 8s.

Possible groups could be:

1. India
2. Netherlands (given England have lost)
3. Australia
4. South Africa

The other group would be:
1. Bangladesh
2. Pakistan
3. West Indies (or Srilanka)
4. Newzeland

I think second group would see Newzeland & Pakistan going thro to semi finals. The first group is group of death with 3 very strong teams - the three favourites in the same group.

I suppose Australia & SA should make it thro to the semi finals from the other group.

Much against my heart, I feel India could potentially self destruct against a strong SA & Australian team. The Team would be fatigued after tough rigour of IPL and I honestly dont fancy our chances. Plus Indian team never plays well with favourites tag. Remember 2007 -- we won because no one even considered as the dark horses - a team w/o Sachin, Sourav, Rahul & Zaheer. I hope I am proved wrong

Stick with Viru - Gambhir at the top

Rohit Sharma's imperious form has meant India has yet another selection headache. I would still stick with tired and tested dynamic duo of Viru & Gambhir at the top. Viru can change a game single handedly and must remain at the top. No one in the team can change a game in matter of 2 overs as Viru can.

My team would be
Gambhir
Viru,
Raina
Yusuf Pathan
Yuvraj
Rohit
Dhoni
Bhajji
Zaheer (Irfan Pathan if injured)
Ishant
RP Singh


T20 is a game where you need 6 hitters spending 3-4 overs at the crease. We need guys who can score from ball~1. Dhoni is not thee same come to crease hitter that he was he came on the scene. He scratches around for couple of overs before he starts even attempting to score big. He should bat lower down the order and not at one down.

On another note, happy to see England lost to the Dutch. English T20/ODI team is still playing in archaic/traditional manner which will never win them a single match. They have look around other teams & play modern ODI cricket. I cannot understand how guys lik Collingwood are in the T20 squad, let alone the captain. He could not even be part of 4 foreign members of Delhi in the IPL. Cannot fathom English cricketing brain.

More tomorrow,
cheers