"Sri Lanka sinks a billion hopes" read the cricinfo website after India's game against Sri Lanka of the ongoing 8th Cricket World Cup. It ended India's campaign for this World Cup. They became 2nd team after Pakistan to crash out of the World Cup in the first round. India started their World Cup with a surprise loss against the minnows Bangladesh. They then recovered well with a convincing win against Bermuda. But, the real test was against Sri Lanka. They had to win this game to qualify for the next round.
Yet...once again the famous Indian batting line up failed to deliver when needed the most. The Tendulkars, The Dravids and The Gangulys only managed to retain the chokers tag which was given to this team long ago.
So, what went wrong for Men in Blue? Already a billion angry fans/analysts have started to scratch their heads to find the causes. These are some of the top of my head,
Yet...once again the famous Indian batting line up failed to deliver when needed the most. The Tendulkars, The Dravids and The Gangulys only managed to retain the chokers tag which was given to this team long ago.
So, what went wrong for Men in Blue? Already a billion angry fans/analysts have started to scratch their heads to find the causes. These are some of the top of my head,
- India lacked strong opening partnership. The experimentation of Uthappa failed in all 3 games. The only way Mr. Ganguly can score runs is by hitting boundaries. No quick singles or two's to make fielding captain rethink his field placings.
- Dhoni's failure in both games which India lost. This hit hard as Dhoni had rescued India from difficult situations in the past.
- Rahul Dravid's captaincy. It's too predictable and reactive at times. In the game against Bangladesh, he should have opened with Munaf Patel or should have brought him in the attack early.
- India only had 3 wicket taking bowlers. Spinners, especially, Harbhajan Singh failed to maintain the pressure in the middle overs created by opening fast bowlers.
- Indian team lacked discipline in the field.
- The fear of failure.
Indian cricket team has lot of rethinking and rebuilding to do for the road ahead. Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell will have to answer a lot of questions. BCCI president has already announced that they would be making some unemotional decisions.
All said...an avid Indian cricket fan like me has to wait another four years :(
All said...an avid Indian cricket fan like me has to wait another four years :(
