Once again India Disappoints in ICC Event

So once again India has fared poorly at an ICC event (2007 WC, 2009 T20 WC, 2009 CT, and 2010 T20 WC). However this time it wasn’t such a big disappointment for me as I had expected it. The only little hope was due to the expected slow nature of the West Indies pitches but as soon as I saw the pitches at Barbados and Kenningston Oval, the scene had become very clear. Indian squad had only one player that could hook and pull, the skipper himself rests were dancing puppets.
Why the selectors showed hurry to pick the team was a curious case because the squad wasn’t supposed to join any camp and all barely got a 5 days rest after the IPL. But in the process they left the most dangerous Indian Batsman, Robin Uthappa (who had hit almost 2km of sixes in the IPL and had the best strike rate after Kierron Pollard), preferred to choose a spinner (Piyush Chawla) who had gone for most number of sixes rather than the one among the highest wicket takers (Amit Mishra) and an all rounder who was without any match practice (Ravinder Jadeja).
West Indies had shown the world that the Indians don’t like the ball at their chin and it was amusing to see that even after knowing that they once again would targeted, no one had done any preparation for that.
Gambhir , test player of the year, got out to similar length deliveries throughout the tournament and his running between the wicket in the match against Sri Lanka prompted Ravi Shastri to say “worse than gully cricketers”!!
It was always going to be difficult for India without Sehwag to get a flying start because though how good form Murali Vijay was in IPL, he neither possess the instincts, attitude or caliber of Sehwag. Yes he had scored a terrific 127 off 56 in IPL but there he had benign pitch and at least 3 sub standard bowlers to prey upon. Here he had to face quality bowlers bowling in tandem.
The inform Raina looked dangerous in St. Lucia but was soon found out at Barbados. Yuvraj looked more interested in sporting new goatee than cricket. Once touted as the best fielder India had, he made too many misfields. Dhoni never seemed as pumped up as he was playing for Super Kings (remember the game against Kings XI when he almost caused cricket to be censored!!). The generally tidy spin of Jadeja was easily hit for maximums and he spilled more catches than anyone else. Pathan as expected was never as dangerous as in IPL. Bhajji was economic but failed to take wickets, Zaheer was off colour too.
Mind you all batsmen struggle against good quality short pitched bowling not only the subcontinent batsmen but the problem is that we don’t have the ability to give them their own medicine. Even after over 50 years of cricket we still haven’t been able to unearth a genuine quickie who can bowl consistently at 150 kmph mark. So its our batsmen only who find them at the receiving end. What Nehra and Praveen did to the minnows Afgani batsmen, came back to haunt our own batsmen! But then there was Pieterson showing that it wasn’t any difficult to handle short pitched stuff even on Barbados against Steyn and Co. which was for me the innings of the tournament alongwith Cameroon White’s 85 against the Lankans.
The fielding of the Indians was below standard too with catches being dropped on regular basis and easy runs being provided in the field whereas England and Australia held on to even half chances and fielded and attacked the bowled like tigers.
India actually never played the fearless brand of cricket that won them the inaugural T20 WC. The Proteas also paid price for the same mistake. The teams faring best in this tournament are the teams who have played fearlessly i.e. England and Australia. Kieswetter and Lumb have added freshness in the English team and this time they are the best considering the Powerplay scores are concerned. Kevin Pieterson has looked the old fearless, dominant, arrogant KP.
Aussies have the best new ball pair in both batting and bowling. Both Nannes and Tait can hit the 150kmph mark consistently and trouble anyone with their pace (infact Johnson, Harris also cross the 145 mark regularly!) and bounce and the pair of Warner and Watson are the most destructive pair to say the least. The Aussies have always found a rescuer when the chips were down like Mr. Cricket Mike Hussey, Cameroon White and even the kid Steven Smith.
So most likely its gonna be or should be an England vs Australia final. Australia have the edge in bowling department while probably Swann gonna hold the key against them. Australia will be wary against the new daddy Pieterson and Morgan. Whatever be the final result I would say that I have enjoyed the English team play this time.
BTW, it looks like for India to win the ICC T20 WC again, they have to organize it in subcontinent or get it approved from ICC that they can play four foreign players in the team!

P.S. Vishwanath Anand once again made India Proud by winning the World Chess Championship on the same day the Indian Cricket Team was knocked out.