Think Dhoni, think!!!

India’s expected victory against Netherlands has sealed their quarterfinal berth in the twenty eleven edition of the World Cup, but bowling still remains a sore area for them. They have been struggling in this department right from the word go. A weaker team like Bangladesh managed to score 283 against them, while England almost chased down a huge total of 338. Ireland threatened to go big with a 100-plus run third wicket partnership and it took a special effort from part timer Yuvraj Singh to restrict them to 209 with a five wicket haul. Against Netherland, their front line spinner Harbhajan Singh yet again went wicket-less, while Dhoni’s blue-eyed boy Piyush Chawla continued to prove more than a generous host to yet another associated nation.



It’s hard to decipher Chawla’s inclusion ahead of Ashwin, even when Dhoni says that he needs more practice, for I can’t see him taking any further part in the crunch games ahead with his current showing in the three matches that he has played. Dhoni is bang on when he says Chawla’s confidence is down, in fact that would be a gross understatement. His confidence and form has hit rock-bottom, almost to a point of no-return, at least in the near future. At this moment, nameless batsmen from the weakest of sides are looking like Viv Richards in front of him, and it would not take a rocket scientist to figure it out that his rightful place is nowhere else but the bench.

Backing a less than capable player has been the Dhoni’s hallmark for quite a while now. Remember Ravindra Jadeja? He formed part of Dhoni’s scheme of things for more than a year ahead of Yusuf Pathan, and it took a spectacular series of domestic performances on Pathan’s part and international non-performances on Jadeja’s part to save India the misery. In Chawla’s case Dhoni doesn’t have the luxury of time, as we are barely five matches away from the cup, if at all we get there. And if we really intend to get there, Ashwin has to be in. We can’t penalize a deserving bowler (Ashwin) for not bowling leg-spin, and reward an undeserving bowler (Piyush) who is going to feed international batsmen with club bowling-stuffs match after match. Dhoni has to put his thinking cap on, and get it right pretty quickly. We had discussed about his dilemma in a different post, but he stumped us all with an entirely different approach!

I wouldn’t read too much into their batting effort in this five wicket victory though. As explained by Dhoni, it was just an experiment, not only in batting order, but also in style. It did look like they were trying to go after the bowlers to hone their fluency, always aware of the fact that they had the depth to pull the shutters down and cruise to victory in a more traditional manner in case a few quick wickets went down in their quest to oil their big hitting machineries.

Yuvraj Singh helped himself with yet another half century, his third in this tournament and second without getting out while chasing. This augurs well for India. His confidence is on the ascent, and it’s evident in his body language. Make no mistake, he is far from the old match winner India had, at best, you could say he is just about sixty percent of his abilities. But what is heartening is, Yuvi is willing to take responsibility out there in the middle. He is still struggling to get right behind the line, to pick gaps in the effortless manner he used to do, to time the ball as gracefully he is capable of, but all that will come back. As the experts say, the best way to get back there is to spend time in the middle. Seems like he is putting his best efforts there, and the results are bound to flow sooner than later.

We have two more important matches coming up in the group stages, and we would do well to use them to get our bowling attack right before the knock out stage comes up.