Can India handle pace bowlers?

For the last many years India is struggling to stamp its authority in overseas conditions. India has won a few matches and series overseas but has never been consistent. Even on flat sub continental tracks, at times India has missed the bowling fire power to take 20 wickets. Actually, India has been missing a genuine quick bowler who can give you wickets on his own and trouble the batsmen with his pace.

It is not as if India has never had good bowlers. India has had a few good swing bowlers in their ranks but rarely a one who can be termed as genuine quick and can run through sides and this is the problem that has got unsolved as we go down in another overseas test match at Manchester.  

The issue with the swing bowlers who are low on pace, like the Indians have always had is that once the ball becomes older then more often than not their swing will not be utilized until the next new ball unlike a quick bowler who can extract some reverse swing at a healthy pace to become lethal even on flat tracks when the ball gets older. If reverse swing is also not happening, he can test the batsmen with quick short stuff and it is a fact that no batsman in the world, irrespective of his stature and ranking, does not like  to be tested with quick short stuff. The wickets of Gary Balance and Moeen Ali in the first innings of the fourth test and the England second innings collapse at Lords against the short ball are prime examples of what pace can do.

Just think of a kid who was born in mid eighties in India and started following cricket in early nineties would have seen Jawagal Srinath as quickest in India and Wasim Akram , Waqar Younis, Allen Donald and a few others bowling quicker for the erst of the world. As the kid grew older in late nineties and twenties and started understanding cricket, he saw the emergence of new quickies such as Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee and Dale Steyn for the rest of the world. Now this kid started questioning if India can produce genuine quick bowlers?

With the advent of IPL, one thought that the question was answered in the form of Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav, two of the quickest bowlers India has right now. But sadly, India has not found a way to utilize these two bowlers and the team management has not been able to find a combination which has place for both especially in test matches to show the world that India can produce fast bowlers. Agreed that these two may be a bit erratic at times but these are attacking bowlers.

Ask a captain for his choice over a bowler’s figure of 0 for 150 or 3 for 150 in a test innings and you will get the answer if the captain is thinking for winning the test match. But may be the Indian captain, coach and the team management think differently and believe that they require those bowlers who can give steady overs in a test match may be without taking wickets than a bloke who can bowl quick, can take wickets but can be a bit costly.

 In an interview  Shaoib Akhtar explained how Wasim Akram , the then captain of Pakistan, had told him to go out and bowl as quick as he can. The same advice was given to Akram and Waqar by Imran Khan which helped them becoming the legends they are today and one feels this is how the Shoaib Akhtars, Brett Lees and Dale Styens are discovered.

What it also shows is the defensive mindset of a captain who believes in stopping the flow of runs by spreading the field than by taking wickets and somehow the same thing is reflected in his team selections which shows that the team management does not have confidence in picking up two genuine fast bowlers and may be this is the reason that bolwers like Ihant and Munaf gave up on their pace after starting up at good speeds.

Throughout his growing days, that kid kept on thinking that given the batting legends India has produced had there been no division of India, India would have had the best cricket team in the world with the fast bowlers like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar etc coming from the other side.  But now with this thinking, the hypothetical situation of this world beating Indian team is shattered because we might not have even selected these quick legends.  

So the question which comes up in front of all the cricket lovers who have grown up seeing the Indian medium pacers against the quickies from the rest of the world, BCCI and team India is that can we handle pace bowlers?

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Team India - Where is the bench strength??

In nearly four months, India have been knocked out of two ICC events in the very first round. First, the T-20 World cup and now the Champions Trophy. There were a few big names missing from the Indian side in both the events and it is being termed as one of the big reasons of ouster of the Indian side.If we take this reason then the next question that arises is about our bench strength.Where is the so called bench strength? In the last couple of years since Dhoni took over the leadership of Indian team, team has looked for the replacements of the three big guns of Indian cricket i.e. Sachin,Saurav and Dravid. Sachin is still playing,fighting with injuries but Ganguly is retired and Dravid was sidelined from the one day unit until he made an unexpected come back call. What prompted the selectors to look back to someone like Dravid who has not been selected in the side for nearly two years? The answer is quite simple. The young guys like Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina and others just did not look that comfortable filling in those big shoes of the three big gunes. So the selectors had no other option but to call back Dravid. If we look at the bowling line up that we had a couple of years back then we had R.P.Singh, Munaf, Irfaan, Ishant, Shreesanth and suddenly we thought that we had a bunch of world class fast bowelrs with Zaheer being the strike bowler. The bench strength looked really good. Two years down the line we have none. We got a fast bowler back after nearly four years in Ashish Nehra and suddenly he becomes the strike bowler, leaving behind every one else. I wonder where are Munaf and Shreesanth and where will be Ishant and R.P. if things keep going like this. We certainly need to address this issue quite tactfully. Moreover we need Fast bowlers not only gentle medium pacers if we really want to win matches consistently. Ishant, R.P., Irfaan, Munnaf they all started their careers bowling in the range of 140 km/h and now they are finding it difficult to operate in the range of around 130km/h consistently. Wasim Akram rightly said that this is a big problem with Indian bowlers as he cited his own example as how he was told by his captain Imran Khan to just bowl fast,forgetting about line and length because bowling fast can win you matches on any kind of surface. Something will have to be done regarding this because if despite of having such a world class coaching and support staff such problems occur then the role of the coaching and support staff also comes under scrutiny. A packed schedule is waiting for the Indian team and they really need to fix their problems if they really want to sustain in the number one race.

Sachin wrote the script and Yuvraj,Dhoni and Harbhajan played their parts wonderfully well

10 years,21 finals,17 lost,2 shared and 2 won.This is certainly not the record to proud of,for a team just before another final(Compaq Cup), which is supposed to be itching closer to the no. 1 spot in the ICC rankings.If this was not enough then there was a "World no. 1 for 24 hours" tag given to the team after a humilating defeat on Saturday against the Lankans.

Both of these things were hurting the Indian cricket fans as well as the Indian cricket team.If there was a way to make any statement then certainly the Team India took the right day and the very right manner to avow that they really deserve to be at the top spot.

In the final on Monday,the script was written by Sachin Tendulkar, a veteran,who has scripted a number of blockbusters for his country.With a scintilatting 138 runs knock and a strike rate of more than run a ball,here was a champion to defy all the odds.The change in the opening combination also worked well for India as Dravid provided the solidity required to allay the things down at the other end when Sachin was in his full flow.Certainly it was Dravid's archaic but good approach to milk the bowling which allowed Sachin to play his natural game.Dhoni,promoting himself in the batting order also clicked as he also played a sedate knock.The partnership of Dhoni with Sachin was also a very a very important one as it provided India with that kind of a platform from where the power hitters could really launch themselves.

Yuvraj came at the crease to join hands with Sachin, at a very crucial juncture as the situation was tricky and another wicket could have brought Sri Lanka back into the game.Surviving the initial anxious moments against Mendis,Yuvraj showed why he is one of the most feared batsmen in world cricket at the moment and when India posted 319 on the board then the Lankans knew that it will take some doing to get to this total.

Dilshan and the old horse Jayasuriya did what they do the best, just blast any bowling attack and had Dilshan and Jayasuriya stayed at the crease for a bit longer, it could have been a different ball game all together for the Indians. India kept on tacking wickets at regular intervals,which worked against the Lankans. In the end Kandamby was the only balk between India and the cup who was done in by the Turbanator who was at his very best after a long time especially in one day cricket.India could not have asked anything more than a five wicket haul from its one of the finest spinners, that too in the final,which eventually won the match for India.

Still the win was not flawless.If the medium pacers were ordinary then the fielding was at its mediocre best.India need to really improve their fielding standards if they want to have any chance in the Champions Trophy later this month and certainly to claim the top most spot in the one day cricket.

CHINTU JI - movie review

When we talk about the accomplished works of Rishi Kapoor then normally the movies come to our mind are Karz,Bobby,Sargam and many more but take my words, Chintu ji is one of his finest works so far.
It is a small budget, not very hyped movie and may be for this reason it springs up with an amiable surprise.It is really an adroitly made movie as all the characters whether in front of the camera or behind the camera,play their part honestly.
The story revolves around a small village in which no one spekas a lie.They don't lock their homes as there is no chance of a theft.The people of the village come to know about actor Rishi Kapoor(played by Rishi himself),for whom that vilaage was his birthplace,as his father Raj Kapoor came to that village at the time of his birth and his mother gave him birth in that village.The villagers invite Rishi Kapoor(Chintu ji).Rishi Kapoor comes there with his pa(played by Kuljeet Randhawa).

The villagers are very loyal to him but same can't be said for Chintu ji.How the story goes from here till the end when Rishi regrets,proves it to be a very adroitly made movie.Priyanshu Chatarjee,playing the part of the editor of the news paper of the village,enacts his part quite honestly.Kuljeet too,despite of it being her very first movie,she has not look into any ado.

But the scene stealer has been Rishi Kapoor as he delivers his one of finest performances till date.

Its an honest effort.A nice time pass to get some refreshment and also to check oneself too.

Rating ***