Amit Kumar : A rare talent who never got his due

(NB: This story is set up in the pre-internet era, in a remote village that doesn't feature in the maps of modern India, where those days the only source of information was All India Radio)

Coming from an extremely orthodox family where movies were at best a festive-time affair, I was introduced to Hindi film music quite late. It must have been one such occasion that we typically celebrated with vibrant new clothes, delicious home-made cakes, and non-stop music on loud speakers – when I came across this remarkable voice.

The song on the loud speaker was, “O yaara, tu pyaron se hai pyaara…”- which at a much later date I would come to know, was sung by a legend called Kishore Kumar. The moment I heard that deep baritone, it left an indelible mark in my heart. A few days later I was allowed to watch a movie “Alag Alag” and I heard that voice again. The song was “Dil mein aag lagaye sawan ka mahina…”. Instantly, the flood gates were open – I took to Vividh Bharti with full vigour and started listening to as many Kishore Kumar songs as were aired. Within no time, I had turned into a full-fledged Kishore Kumar fan. I would listen to all his songs for hours together - old, new, contemporary, master pieces, dance numbers, sad songs – over and over again until I could remember them word-by-word. So captivated was I by Kishoreda's magic that no other voice, even that of legends like Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh, Manna Day would appeal to me. In my mind I always found a huge factor missing in all other voices – a factor without which a song was incomplete for me – style and machismo. Kishoreda had these in abundance, besides all other qualities I could think of. You felt suave, stylized and even invincible while humming a Kishoreda song. It was amazing how I had been able to completely black out every other voice from my mind, but I had managed just that. Bottom line was, one and only one voice existed for me – that of dada. And I never felt the necessity to look beyond. (I could go on and on about Kishoreda but that’s another story for another day)

Years passed by. One fine morning, I switched on the radio to hear a refreshing song “Main jis din bhoola doon tera pyar dilse…” from a movie called Police Public. Lataji was in her elements as usual but what caught my attention was the male voice. At first I thought it was Kishoreda. yet there was something unusual about it. I came closer and listened very carefully, but despite my best efforts was unable to completely rule out Kishoreda from the track. At the end of the song when the announcer (was it Amin Sayani?) declared the name of the singers, I was shocked to hear the name of a certain Amit Kumar, who had rendered the song alongside Lataji. Who on earth was this Amit Kumar, who could sing so much like Kishoreda? How was it even possible? There was nobody who I could turn to for the answer. But I kept hearing more and more of Amit Kumar in days that followed. And it turned out, many songs like “Dushman na kare dost ne who kaam kiya hai….”, “Jeena hai to Ji bhar hanslo…” were indeed sung by him, which hitherto I believed were Kishoreda’s songs.

I undoubtedly loved Amit Kumar’s superhit songs from “Balika Badhu”, “Love Story” and “Romance”, but out of curiosity started paying more attention to other tracks as well that were not as popular. The more I heard Amit, the more convinced I got that Amit Kumar had to be related to Kishoreda in some way, else nobody would be able to carry off the same accent, the same style and almost the same voice quality with such elan. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with this voice too. At a later date when a friend told me that Amit Kumar was indeed the elder son of my favorite Kishoreda, I was not surprised. By then I was kind of expecting it.

After my school days, I moved to a city and along came the access to Cassettes then CDs and finally Internet. Today, when I have all the sources, materials and information at my disposal at a click of a button, I still have Kishore Kumar and Amit Kumar as my first two playlists in all my music libraries.

Here are my favorite ten random Amit Kumar tracks in no particular order, along with the reason why I love them so much:

1."Main Jis din bhoolan doon tera pyar dilse… (Police Public)” – The first time I heard this as a young kid, I couldn’t make out if this was Kishoreda, I still tend to feel the same way even after all these  years.

2. "Soone saanjh savere…. (Khel)” – Just for the fantastic voice quality of Amitda.

3.“Dheere dheere, chori chori…. (Imtihan)” – The sheer style of Amitda that reminds me of  Kishoreda in “Kaate nahin katti yeh din yeh raat...(Mr India). But I genuinely believe Amitda  has outdone even the great Kishore Kumar here!

4."Maang teri saja doon main…(Baaghi) – The sad verson, I do not believe any other singer could have given the desired effect here. Amitda just wrenches your heart with his soulful rendition.

4.“Kajal, Kajal…. (Sapoot)” – Just listen to the other version that they kept in the movie. You  will know why no other singer should ever attempt a song that is also sung by Amit Kumar, unless of course, he just wants to be chewed up – that’s what happened here.

5.“Naina O mere Naina… (Yaad Rakhegi Duniya) – Again that dard in Amitda’s voice makes  you cry along with him.

6.“Keh do ke tum ho meri… (Tezzab)” – Who doesn’t love this song?

7.“Sanam mere sanam…. (Hum)” – Just listen to the attitude in Amitda’s voice in this song. You'll know what I'm talking about.

8."Raat ko neend aati nahin…. (Judaai)” - Again, how does he bring so much style into his voice? I rate Amitda slightly ahead of Kishoreda in  this department, my personal opinion though.

9."Mujko yeh zindagi lagti hai ajnabee…(Sailaab)” – That kashish in dada’s voice!

10."Filmon ke saare hero... (Swarg) - For the wholesome entertaining rendition with no inhibitions whatsoever.

  

Its great news for his fans that Amit Kumar has started KBM. I already love “Baba Mere” and “ Haan main hoon badnaam”

What I wish though, is dada would eventually consider singing for other music directors and lyricists as well just for variety sake.

For now though, we are not complaining.

Apple Event 2015 : Why I felt a bit let down

May be my expectations are a bit too high. May be I am a little unreasonable. Or, may be, I'm just over-reacting.

But for me, last week, the Apple Event left a lot to be desired. Not that I was expecting a whole lot of revolutionary products to be announced. This year, thanks to the routine leaks that by now are pretty standard into the run up of the actual event, we all knew what to expect. This years' iterations of iPhones were only expected to come with marginal improvements. The iPad Pro, after repeated deferment, was expected to be launched, but apart from the speculations on its size, nothing much was known. IOS 9 had already been announced earlier this year.

The only real deal was the overhaul of the Apple TV. A major upgrade was expected to this product, that had last seen a sort of a touch up during 2013. With the market place dominated by streaming devices like Roku, Amazon Fire and Google Chromecast, Apple was expected to come out with some break-through features that would swing the demand in its favor, gaming being just one of them.

What we saw on the D-day though was too little and too late from Apple. Here is my take on why there was nothing to be excited about the announcements:

• The iPad Pro: Well, no denying, this is the most powerful tablet device on earth. And it looks stunning like every other product from Apple. And undoubtedly, many developers out there would be truly excited to utilize that huge screen. But my issue is, where exactly are they going to position this product? With the growing size, the portability factor is starting to be compromised.And I don't see it replacing laptops either, even with the smart key board. And that stylus called Apple Pencil makes me feel that Apple just threw the last bit of Job's philosophy out of the window! Jobs, while introducing the original iPhone, had said, "Who wants a stylus? Nobody wants a stylus!" And today we are talking about all the great features on the Apple Pencil. The pressure sensitiveness, the tilt, the easy-to-use natural feel and what not. But the fact remains that Apple just did a Samsung here. The iPad Pro, however, in my understanding could be used as a great product for media consumption with the gorgeous display and the four speakers.

• The iPhone 6s and 6s plus: Absolutely nothing out of routine here. We knew what was coming our way and it did. The camera was bumped up to 12 mega-pixels, RAM to 2 GB and the processor to A9. And thanks to the bend gate, the current iteration is now strengthened and is therefore a bit heavier. And it can do 4K now. The force touch feature from last year's Mac Books, makes an appearance here as the 3-D touch technology. That's about it.

• Apple TV: Apple did overhaul some of the features of this box, but there is nothing, with the exception of gaming, that other media streaming boxes can't do at this moment. It doesn't do 4K. And I really don't think the games that Apple TV is going to come up with will exactly set fire in the gaming industry. At best they would be pretty basic. It certainly is not going to compete against the big bad world of gaming consoles. Then what's the point? Unlike other streaming boxes, Apple TV won't allow you to steam your personal digital collection from your hard drive, only, Plex could come to your rescue here. Netflix and Hulu are not available in India, so that's another restriction one has to deal with. The show on the Keynote, I thought was a bit elementary. You can't show the current generation how to shop on an app on a TV! Who does that? Nobody. The touch remote was cool though. And the Siri feature on it that pulls out your favorite movie and show was superb. Overall, the box, as a product could still work if Apple does come out with that much anticipated subscription service quickly.

But overall, we saw Apple coming out with nothing original, nothing break through and nothing revolutionary. And that to me is so un-Apple like.

iPhone 6 Plus - Where my tech-quest achieves nirvana

“You don’t choose the iPhone, the iPhone chooses you.”

I take no credit for finally owning this spectacular piece of breath-taking craft. This was destined to happen ever since Steve Jobs conceived the very idea inside his head and was only a matter of time before my wish list met Apple’s viewpoint. It's only ironic that it was the man's philosophy of "one-handed use (of phone)" that had kept buyers like me at bay for so long.

Circa 2013, already spoiled by the giant displays of the ubiquitous android phones, I was dreading the very idea of sizing down to a smaller handset, in case I did opt for a full-fledged plunge into the Apple-ecosystem, iPhone being the only device missing from my collection. And I was hoping, Apple would notice the visible shift in user-interest towards larger screens. My hope didn't last long. Unperturbed by market expectations, Apple went ahead and released yet another 4 inch phone, the iPhone 5s. Frustrated, dismayed and disgruntled at Apple’s adamant fixation on beautiful yet tiny screen devices, I had all but resigned to my fate of spending an entire life-time without ever owning an iPhone. (Refer my last post “The man who never had an iPhone”).

Things finally changed last fall. Apple at last decided to play the catch up game and I got what I wanted. While both iPhone and iPhone plus were large enough, I went as big as I could and got myself the iPhone 6 Plus. Today, after a period of over ten blissful months with my prized possession, I have come to a conclusion that unless they tell me their new phone could teleport me to another planet, I’ve got no reason to look beyond what I have got.

Bewildered by the numerous technical reviews splashed all over the web, many people I know, were looking for an unbiased view of a layman iPhone user, so here I’m,  capturing my first few months’ experience with the best piece of gadget that I have ever owned, thus far. And I’ve owned quite a few of them.

The retina display

So what do I like about this iPhone so much? Well, pretty much everything. Having used the top-notch Galaxy S series and the Xperia Z series and the Galaxy Note series and the not-so-premium Nokia series and the erstwhile Ericsson series, I can tell you that none of the above experiences come even close to that of holding and fiddling and caressing an iPhone. It feels sleek yet sturdy in your hand with the all metal aesthetics oozing class. The rounded edges and the trademark seamless glass-metal transition completes the visual treat. Fire up the screen and you are greeted with that ever so familiar retina display that presents you the world on your palm in crystal clear clarity. Well, I am aware that iPhone has only 401 ppi (1920X1080) compared to Sony Xperia Z5 that boasts of a whopping 806 ppi (3840X2160), but who needs 4K resolution on a tiny screen? Being an AV enthusiast, even after so many years I’m yet to notice lack of those extra pixels in my giant 55 inch screen HD TV, in naked eye that is, leave alone a tiny 5.5 inch phone.

(N.B. For the record - if my family is reading this - I’m not messing with our bank account or bedroom space by getting that 65 inch 4K TV, so please don’t worry. If at all that happens, it would be a case of the 4K TV choosing me and not the other way round. And like always I would claim no credit for that either.)

Coming to the 8-megapixel camera, compared with those 13, 16 and 23 megapixel ones sported by rival manufacturers, don’t fool yourselves, I’m yet to see a phone that captures better picture than the iPhone 6 plus. Well, the iPhone 6S and 6S plus are set to debut with 13 mega pixel cameras, if the rumor mills are to be believed, but that alone doesn’t justify an upgrade as of now.

When I first started using iPad it had brought about a paradigm shift in how I looked at internet browsing. So much so that I almost stopped using my laptop or computer altogether, unless it was for off-line stuffs. Here was an all-in-one device that kept me abreast of news, entertainment, social media and to a large extent even books & magazines. It became an integral part of my day-to-day life. This was also the time when I was using my large screen android smart phones, which undoubtedly i liked. But none of these devices came even close to threatening my iPad, primarily due to the unbelievably smooth experience that IOS provided, the classy Apple hardware being the icing on the cake. The sheer joy of zipping through web pages, apps and games on a neat interface is something that no android device has ever achieved. Hence I would always use my iPad for all purpose except when I wanted to make a call. But when I was not carrying my iPad my android phones would do just fine albeit that inevitable scaled down feel of their comparatively scratchy interface.

My kid examining the iPhone & the iPad

But all that changed the moment I got my iPhone 6 plus. It effortlessly carried out all the tasks that were hitherto shared jointly by my iPad and my Xperia Z & Galaxy Note and before I realized, it quickly slipped into the slot of being my No.1 device. Now, any gadget that has the ability to make my iPad gather dust on my shelf has to be pretty special. Mind you, here we are talking about the new iPad Air 2 - I had upgraded to this iteration immediately after getting my iPhone more out of curiosity than necessity (also to match the gold color of my iPhone) - and not any other 1st generation random tab. Need I say more? 

To round things off, my iPhone provides me close to two days of battery life. That's commendable, given the heavy duty user that I am - the only exception being the absence of my official mails in there - It allows me to effortlessly stream YouTube to my Giant LG web OS screen, to watch a movie from the comfort of my couch, albeit the one-time effort of setting up a Plex server that streams my huge digital media library and last but not the least, to shoot amazing photos leaving my digital point and shoot camera almost worthless. 

Contrary to popular belief, an iPhone is nothing about status symbol, neither is it a gadget that you would go around displaying with unabashed pride - that is reserved for Samsung with all those funky party tricks - For me it’s about making myself comfortable, content and blissful. It has blended so well into my life that I can’t even remember what it was like when I didn’t have one.

And my final words on owning the iPhone? Here you go!

“You don’t own the iPhone, the iPhone owns you.”

Guys! Just leave Virat Kohli alone, for heaven's sake!

Amid an unexpectedly exhilarating test series, notwithstanding the current score-line that tends to suggest otherwise, Indian cricket has indeed witnessed the emergence of a brand new facet of combative leadership in form of its new age hero, Virat Kohli. Arguably the most promising young cricketer of the present generation, Virat, armed with a magnetic persona, an on-your-face attitude and a no-nonsense approach has managed to bring in this refreshing and much needed ruthlessness into the Indian side, that had hitherto humiliatingly suffered in the hands of its more aggressive oppositions time and again, on almost all overseas tours, despite possessing better skill-sets and the best of talents.

At the start of the series when most experts had predicted another 4-0 white-wash, if today we stand at 0-2 (that so easily could have read 1-1 or even 2-0 in our favor with a little bit of luck), a super-aggressive Virat Kohli has a lot to do with it.

Dhoni's retirement under mysterious circumstances, might have taken the focus temporarily away from this Delhi lad, ever so slightly, but there are enough experts out there, busy bombarding a flurry of advices upon him, justifying why his aggression could lead to his eventual down fall, so he should mellow down as soon and as much as possible in order to keep succeeding at this level.

Virat Down Under

Sanjay Manjrekar wants him to let his bat do all the talking as he believes only skills win matches and not aggression. Sanjay likes Pujara’s response more when greeted with sledging. That is, just ignore and go about the job on hand. Sunil Gavaskar repeatedly keeps mocking at Virat’s statement that India would go after whatever target is set. Sarda Ugra reminds Kohli of what Sachin had once said, “Cricket is played not with passion, but with awareness!” (Though I think the choice of words in her article ‘passion’ for ‘josh’ & ‘awareness’ for ‘hosh’ don’t completely do justice to what she meant to convey). Harsha Bhogle too, talking of attitude, prefers the good boy Pujara more than the spoilt brat Kohli. For him cricket is literally the age old gentle man’s game with no room for temper. If the opposition plays the aggressor, good luck to them, we would just smile and get on with our job, however ridiculous it appears. Pretty similar thoughts to Sanjay.

Ignoring all these uproars though, Virat meanwhile has sledged, led, battled and gloriously batted his way past records after records, that were earlier associated with all-time greats around the world. And the good news is, he has done so without making the slightest alteration in his approach.

At Adelaide, it was heartening to see his refreshing approach. The thought of going after a target in excess of 300 on a fifth day pitch would have crossed no other Indian captain’s mind, but Virat is different. He demonstrated that he doesn't mind risk losing a game in order to achieve victory. Not only did he ask his team to go full blooded for the win, he himself led from front by smashing a hugely entertaining yet responsible hundred and almost managed to cross the line for his side. Here is someone who not only talks about ruthlessness, but also walks the talk.

That verbal duel

Now then, why are these experts so much averse to Virat’s approach, despite of acknowledging the fact that he is our best bet to take us to that thus far elusive overseas success? I believe, the answer lies in our mind-set.

No offence to anyone, but we Indians are obsessed with this typical modest, soft spoken, genial understated mannerism for ages. This has got a lot to do with the success of gentlemen cricketers like Sachin, Dravid and Laxman over the past couple of decades. We have been so overwhelmed by these cricketers that we won’t approve of any other approach which we haven’t seen these players adopt.

Over the years, while we’ve taken great pleasure in enjoying a fiery spell of a Wasim or a Shoalb or a McGrath or the swagger of the great Viv Richards, notwithstanding the stuffs that was not entirely skills, we have never come in terms with a similar approach from an Indian.

But that is past. And what we see in Virat is the present India. Gone are the days when a Sachin would just nod to a mouthful from a McGrath. Today’s generation would settle the score there itself.

Coming back to Kohli, he is a naturally passionate guy who gets even more switched on when confronted with verbal duels. That's working for him. Why try and change it? He has fortunately found some support in Ravi Shastri, the team director, who is willing to back Kohli's natural instinct. Sourav Ganguly, Dean Jones and Viv Richards too have all endorsed his approach.

Why can’t we just leave him alone? 

My first impressions - Samsung Galaxy Note 3

In a recent post I had mentioned how I wish I owned an i-Phone. 

Less than a couple of months away and here I’m fiddling around with the supposedly most powerful mobile device on this planet, the Galaxy Note 3 from Samsung, Apple’s biggest rival. 

Galaxy Note 3

While I had managed to hold myself back with some gritty display of restraint (a rarity in my case) during the release of the earlier iterations from this phablet family, this time around, Samsung finally got me with loads of interesting features, a bucket-full of high quality functionalities and to top it up, with some innovative promotions. (They always had this habit of tossing at you more than you could take - but we love that anyway.) The adventure set me back by Rs 46999/- and I was desperately hoping not to end up disappointed with my effort. 

A fortnight with this beast, and I must admit that I’m mighty impressed with what I have got. It does everything I thought it would do and many things I didn't imagine it could do.

The first time I fired it up, it simply blew me away with its gorgeous 5.7 inch full HD, 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED display – they have managed to fit in this gigantic screen within an even lesser real estate compared to Note 2, thanks to the ultra thin bezel running around the edges. 

The Snapdragon 800 processor allows you to run your apps lightning fast and provides you a astoundingly fast browsing experience. Battery back-up is vastly improved with the 3200mAh battery hidden in its slender frame.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it shoots 4k videos. Even though my LG LED Smart TV doesn't do 4k, the videos I shot with Note 3, looked extra ordinarily amazing and lively on my giant screen.

S-pen action memo is quite cool; it lets you do much more this time around. Jot down the name of a place; it takes you right there in the Google maps. Quickly pen down a number and you could dial or save it in your contact list. All these stuffs were carried out with minimum fuss albeit my deliberate poor hand-writings, which is quite amazing. You could also draw a box anywhere on the screen and it re-sizes itself with a number of essential apps. I also love the scrap-booker and screen writing features that allow you to store a part of a web-page, video or a link for later under different categories.

It has got some cool party tricks too - hover your palm over the screen; it wakes up and dances to your gestures – makes you look like a Himalayan saint with divine powers.

It has taken multi-tasking to a whole new level. Pull out two apps from the left side multi-task bar and you screen runs them in two separate windows 50:50. Samsung’s touch-wiz interface was always nice, no surprises there this time too. Widgets are as seamless as ever and the 13-mega pixel camera is better than I would have imagined, with a loads of shooting options.The front facing camera is of 2 mega-pixel too.

The unimaginative faux leather finish rear cover

So do I have any complaints at all? Yes! The faux leather finish on its rear is a bit of a spoiler to an overall amazing experience. It looks tacky and just doesn’t work for me. Even as we all were hoping to see a HTC-like metal chassis, we could still have lived with that ever so familiar glossy cheap plastic-finished rear cover this one more time. Nevertheless, on a positive note, it does provide a better gripping experience in your hands.

That’s about it for now, will post a detailed review once I get to play a bit more with this latest addition to my gadget collections.

For now I’ll be switching between my Xperia Z (black) and Galaxy Note 3 (white) depending upon my mood and attire. 

The man who never had an iPhone!

“If you don’t have an iPhone, then you don’t have an iPhone!” – says Apple.

And unfortunately, that’s the story of my life, so far.

Not that my life has ended. By no means. So, as a matter of fact, I may still get a shot at this spectacular piece of technological marvel of our age.

But then, it’s entirely up to Apple.

As has been the case with most men of my generation, I started out with dumb phones (no offence to those big brickish Nokia phones - that’s all we had got those days), gradually progressed to semi-smart ones (mostly walkman and camera phones from Sony Ericsson and Nokia) and finally graduated to the top of the league smart phones.

Right through this journey though, I had always secretly nurtured this desire of owning an iPhone.

Fast forward to 2013, by now I have already experienced the best of the offerings from almost every maker who has ventured into our country (there are not too many who haven’t – who on earth can afford to ignore an alluring market like India?), but somehow, the iPhone has still remained elusive for me.

Meanwhile, Apple did manage to find its way into my private space through its offerings like the iPod and the iPad and I must admit that I absolutely adore them.

Then what could be the reason that has kept the iPhone out of my reach? Following are a few of them for starters:

Size, this is the age of Phablets. The merger of phones and tablets has not entirely materialized out of whims and fancies of a few modern age manufacturers, it has also come into existence out of necessities of today's generation. It’s all about the convenience of carrying a single gadget instead of two at a time. When Samsung released the first iteration of its Galaxy Note, people raised their eyebrows. But its roaring success not only silenced its critics but also paved way for the entry of what we see today in abundance, a distinct category called the "Phablets". And Apple falls woefully short here. Apple's age-old philosophy of one-handed use of phone has managed to keep many a prospective buyers like me at bay. It has adamantly stuck to that tiny 4-inch screen at a time when most of the successful phones of the present day are pushing 5 or 6 inches.

Android vs IOS: Well, in my case I already use IOS in my iPad. But I personally prefer android not due to any technical reason, but due to the simple fact that it gives me more options. I click pictures, shoot high definition videos and load a lot of stuffs in my android phone, which allows me to stream all these contents directly to my smart TV via my WiFi network. Also, from the comfort of my couch, it helps me watch a movie or a video stored in my media player, hard drive or my laptop. Android helps me do all these and much more, IOS doesn't. Well, you can still tweak your settings a bit and get some stuffs done, but the fact remains that IOS simply wouldn't allow you that freedom.

Free contents and Apps: This is self explanatory. IOS forces you to buy everything from iTunes stores, which despite of having a larger amount of contents, pales in comparison to Google play when it comes to free contents. Not everybody’s cup of tea this, but I love android for its flexibility.

Last week, Apple launched iPhone 5S with the same design as its predecessor. And in doing so, it has shown no signs of any changes in its stand point. It is certainly not considering to increase its screen real estate anytime soon. Understandably so.Why pose any sort of competition at all (however small) to its own iPad and iPad mini which are vastly successful? Rather, to boost up its declining sales, it has come out with a cheaper iPhone (iPhone 5C) with a plastic body. I don’t necessarily agree with this strategy, for, many people I know have waited for a bigger iPhone with baited breath, not a cheaper one. And they will have to keep waiting.

I'm just one of them. Is Apple listening?

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.

A re-evaluation of my world cup favorites

Even though it has come a bit late in the day, I guess it would still be relevant to evaluate my list of teams that I had thought were favorites to lift the twenty-eleven edition of the world cup, even before the first ball of the tournament was bowled. And since by now, we are already two weeks into the mega-event, we do have an opportunity to examine the validity of my initial predictions against some actual performances of the teams featured in the list.

Out of the ten teams that are participating, I had picked three teams in order of their strength, and added another as a dark horse on the basis of its sheer talent at the fourth position. Here are my initial choices, the reason behind, the till date performance and the revised ranking if any:



The Favorite

1. India: This home team was my clear favorite to lift the trophy, primarily due to the batting heavy weights it boasts of in its lineup. Any team which opens with the best ODI batsman of all times (Sachin Tendulkar) and the most destructive batter of his era (Virender Sehwag), follows them up with two top ten ICC ranked batsmen (Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli), then back them up again with two hardest strikers and match winners (Yuvraj Singh & Mahendra Dhoni) and is still left with a fearsome hitter of the cricket ball to come in next (Yusuf Pathan) has to be up there as the team to beat. The fact that all the above guys are in excellent form barring Yuvraj (even Yuvi has shown some early signs of getting back into touch), presents a strong case in their favor. They also have a crafty seam bowler in Zaheer Khan, an experienced off spinner in Harbhajan and some very useful part timers who can do the job in the sub-continent conditions. Hence despite the fact that they lost a recent series in South Africa, I thought, they had to be the favorites here under more familiar placid home tracks.

By now, they have played two matches, and having won one and tied one have already accumulated three points. With two relatively easier games in hand against Netherland and Ireland, their quarterfinal berth should be a near certainty. The only worrying factor is that their bowlers have looked clueless in both the matches so far. While Bangladesh managed to score more than 280 against them, England threatened to hand them with their first defeat in the cup as they weren’t able to defend a mammoth total of 339 in Bangalore. They have to do some serious re-thinking there before any further damage is done.

Hence, in my ranking system, even though they still appear there as the number one favorite, which is again due to their batting prowess and knowledge of the conditions, there is certainly some amount of doubt that has crept in at this point. What if on a knock out match, the batsmen don’t manage to score 300 plus? Still I am willing to give them the benefit of doubt at this stage.



The Lions

2. Srilanka: They are always a force to reckon with, in the slow and low sub-continent tracks and hence despite the fact that they have a relatively weaker middle order, I had ranked them as the second most likely side to lift the cup. To support my reasoning, I have to point out at a decent opening pair in Dilshan and Tharanga, followed by the classy duo of Mahela and Sangakkara and then a smart choice in Samaraweera at number five to lend some stability in the middle order. With the versatile Angelo Mathews and the hard hitting Tisara Perera to follow, they seem to have one of the most balanced sides in the tournament. In Malinga, they have a dangerous wicket taking fast bowler and in Muralidharan, they have that world cup winning experience, who could guide spinners like Herath and Mendis when the situation so demands. How I wish they had picked Jayasuria at least in their 16 member squad, in place of Chamara Silva or Kapugedara! A slightly out of form forty-odd year old Jayasuria is still ten times better than either of the above. The Lankan selectors may have missed a trick here.

Notwithstanding that, and their loss to Pakistan in their group match, the Lions are still my choice as the second most favorite even now. They have already secured five points and with two games against the Kiwis and Zimbabwe, they would probably back themselves to qualify for the quarter finals as one of the top two teams from their group. 

The defending champions

3. Australia: The Aussies, despite of their humiliating ashes defeat, have quickly bounced back with a six-one home series win against their traditional nemesis England and looked quite formidable ever since. The addition of the pace duo, Brett Lee and Shaun Tait, has added that extra spark to their bowling attack, and despite of missing Mike Hussey in the middle order, they are looking every bit the defending champions, if only marginally subdued. They have an invaluable player in Shane Watson, who coming at the top of the order, not only destroys bowling attacks, but also is adept at sneaking away those important wickets as an extremely handy seam bowler. While Mitch Johnson, as a first change bowler, doesn’t provide any respite for the opposition, Jason Krejza & Steve Smith look to form their other attacking option. Alongside the above six specialists, the world champions also have the option of bowling White, Clarke and David Hussey, and that undoubtedly ranks as the best bowling unit of the tournament.

Here again, my evaluation doesn’t change, and I still go with them as my third favorite to win the cup. I hear that they are in the process of getting a replacement for Doug Bollinger, and if they manage to get Mike Hussey, then, in all probability, I would place them ahead of the Lions as my second favorite beyond any doubt.



The unpredictables

4. Pakistan: Having selected my top three favorites to go all the way, I have the supremely talented but extremely unpredictable Pakistan team as my dark horse to lift the trophy. Coming into the tournament, they look a very flexible but strong batting unit and a very balanced bowling unit. In batting, Ahmed Sehzad and Mohd Hafeez at number one & two, Kamran Akmal at number three, Younis Khan at number four, Misbah at number five, Umar Akmal at number six, Shahid Afridi at number seven and Abdul Razzaq at number eight do make their batting look super-strong. In the bowling department, a mellowed-down but controlled Shoaib Akhtar still packs a punch as a fast bowler, and is well supported by Umer Gul and Wahab Riaz. With Shahid Afridi himself breathing fire with the ball, this team has the ability to defeat any opposition on its day.

The only reason why they are outside my top three list is because of their unpredictable nature, which yet again resurfaced & made them fumble against as weak an opposition as Canada, before Afridi rescued them with the ball.

England doesn’t feature in my list for obvious reasons and South Africa, in my opinion don’t have the ability to win three knock-out matches in a row, against three good oppositions, which severely dilutes their chance winning the tournament. This is the very reason why the Proteas have been unsuccessful, despite of looking really strong, in each of their previous attempts.

That sums up my list of probable winners of world cup 2011. But funnier things have happened in cricket, and who knows, a surprise might just be round the corner.

O Brien's Glory, England's Misery

The unlikely hero

Kevin O’Brien’s sparkling innings against England would certainly be up there as one of the best ODI knocks ever seen, for the simple reason that it turned an almost lost match on its head and helped his team achieve the unachievable. Even otherwise, you don’t get to see too many fifty ball-hundreds every other day! At this moment, the impact of this superlative effort is yet to be known in its entirety, but certainly it has the ability to cause some serious headache for England so far as the world cup quarter final lineup is concerned. Not that it would automatically put England out of the race straightaway, but it has rendered all the forthcoming matches for England that much more important.

From here on, England is scheduled to play South Africa, Bangladesh and West Indies, and none of these matches are going to be easy for them. Adjusting against Bangladesh’s slow ball bowlers is going to be as much a challenge as negotiating the quick bowlers like Steyn & Morkel. West Indies too, is running into some serious form and could multiply England’s problems. If England does lose to South Africa, the next two matches would turn out to be knock-out encounters for them. And because they have had a forgettable campaign till now, it only adds to the pressure.

Catching-up time

They have come into this tournament on back of a six-one loss against the Aussies, and done nothing here to get their confidence back. They have somehow managed to scrape through against Netherland, tied a match against India and then lost to Ireland. With two of the relative easier matches out of their way, they have to quickly regroup, if they want to travel any further in this edition of the world cup.

South Africa and the West Indies are sitting pretty with two wins each. Since both these teams are due to play against Ireland, you could safely assume that they would comfortably book their quarter-final berths. India too are playing against Ireland, and that should provide them a chance to secure two more points, and hence a claim on the third QF spot. It would be too much to expect O’Brien to repeat his heroics yet again against any of these sides.

So, in my opinion, only the fourth quarter final spot in Group B is logically up for the grabs and England has to race against Ireland and Bangladesh to secure that.

But then Destiny and O’Brien might have other ideas.

Dhoni’ Dilemma

A lot to ponder over

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a lot to think about before India takes field against South Africa on 12th March 2011 at Nagpur. He has got this unenviable task of settling the demons of his side’s hapless bowling performance against England. Unfortunately, the games against Ireland and Netherland are not going to help him much in finding the right answer, for, theoretically, India could win those matches with its batting strength alone.

But it’s going to be a different matter all together against stronger opponents, during more important matches. If we are unable to defend 339 runs against a team who notwithstanding its Ashes form, is not considered the best of sides in the limited overs format, how are we going to do so against top ranked sides in the later stage of this tournament?

Now, Dhoni has always preferred to go with four specialist bowlers, which he seems to have inherited from the age-old Indian practice that has been prevalent since time immemorial. This is primarily because India never had that elusive all rounder at their disposal since Kapil Dev’s retirement. Occasionally we have had guys like Irfan Pathan, who rather than providing a long-term solution, have flattered to deceive after some amount of early promise. And because we have had to deal with quite a few batting collapses intermittently, we have not been too inclined towards including a specialist bowler in place of a batsman. As a result, we have had to be satisfied with, batsmen who could turn their arm over to fill in the fifth bowler’s slot. And that has worked for us most of the times. But the question to be asked is, how long? It could well be a blessing in disguise that the tied match against England has posed that question right at the outset.

Let us try to answer that for Dhoni:

Option 1: Stick to the same combination, try Ashwin or Nehra in place of Piyush

Experience could prove handy

Now, if Dhoni goes for this option, which looks more likely at this moment, his reasoning could be this - it’s too early to change a long successful strategy only after a single reversal. We must also be mindful of the fact that our field placing was woeful during that match. We were only following the ball rather than being proactive. If we can tie that loose end up, this four-bowlers-three-part-timer-strategy might look formidable yet again. The upside of sticking to this combination is that we are that extra bit protected against the ever round the corner batting collapse, and we would also be able to maintain the on paper mighty look of our lineup. The downside is that, if one specialist bowler has an off day, It becomes that much more difficult for the part-timers to fill in those extra overs. This weakness could be exploited by better oppositions, as we saw in the match against England.

In my opinion, even if we go with this combination, we have to have three pace bowlers and only one spinner, since all our part timers are spin bowlers. In a spinning track, even Yuvraj or Pathan could be as effective as anybody. And in matches like the one we tied, it would be always harder to hit a pace bowler out of the park for sixes in the closing overs. Had there been a seamer to bowl that penultimate over in place of Piyush Chawla, we still could have ended up in the winning side.

Option 2: Play an additional bowler in place of a batsman

Yuvi could be dropped

If Dhoni finally plans to get the balance right by going for this option, a further confusion awaits him here. Who does he drop? Virat Kohli could be a natural choice. But as rightly pointed out by Rajiv during a recent conversation, if there comes a bad batting day, only guys like Gambhir and Kohli are more likely to bail you out of that, not our Yuvraj or Pathan. If today the line up looks strong, it’s because the former two are in red hot form, and hence it would be a mistake to leave Kohli out. Now dropping Pathan would not be advisable because he is a game changer, who could turn a few matches around for you, all by himself, not to forget his bowling. And the fact that he is in some serious form, can’t be ignored. That leaves us with Yuvraj, who is still struggling with the bat, and you would most definitely not pick him for his bowling alone. The matter further worsens when you do decide to drop Yuvraj, because, yes, you preferred Pathan over Yuvi due to the reason mentioned above, but how about Raina? Could you include him in place of Pathan? Would that be better, as he is more reliable than Pathan and is in better form compared to Yuvraj? Perhaps yes. That would give a completely newish look Indian one-day side, which despite of being logical, I am not very comfortable with. Forget about me, it doesn’t matter, but would Dhoni be comfortable? I doubt.

We will have to wait and watch.

Ashes 2010-11 and World Test Cricket

Sweet taste of victory

With a convincing victory in the Ashes over Australia in Australia’s own backyard, England has established itself as a serious contender for the No.1 spot in test arena. England’s coach Andy Flower too has echoed this view, “It’s realistic, and it’s achievable.” Not many would disagree with that. England team has been on the ascent for quite some time now. Right after Andrew Strauss had taken over from Kevin Pieterson, they have gone from strength to strength. With the most balanced test side in world cricket at this moment, they indeed looked too hot to handle for the Aussies right from the word go during the Ashes. In the end the result of 3-1 all but confirmed their dominance. Clearly the better side had stamped its authority over the other.

Perfect Farewell

England’s awesome batting line up, superbly penetrating bowling line up and brilliant fielding unit, both close-in and otherwise, ensures that they start as favorites almost against any side in the world at this moment. Even Paul Collingwood’s retirement has come as a blessing in disguise to this immensely talented side as that was the only position which would be up for discussion at any selection committee meeting. With Eion Morgan breathing down his neck, Collingwood was under serious pressure all the time and it reflected in his recent performances. With him retired for good, in my opinion, Ian bell should move to the number three position (Bell batted at number six in the Ashes, he is too good a player to bat that low down the order) after Strauss and Cook, followed by KP at his customary number four and Trott at number five. Eion Morgan should take up the crucial number six position to make it one of the most formidable batting line up in the world. At seven Mathew Prior would provide the desired impetus, where as Tim Bresnan or Steward Broad would bat at number eight. Number nine is taken by Swann beyond doubt and would have to be followed by James Anderson and Cris Tremlet. Looking at the team, one would feel that such a combination comes once in a life time, as the experts opine, “This is the most settled side in world cricket.” And no, I am not getting carried away by their Ashes triumph alone; I am never bothered by results. I was impressed by how this team went ahead with the task in their hand. They played aggressive cricket right through the series, with a lot of self belief and showed everybody that they are indeed a force to reckon with as far as the test top ranking is concerned. 

The faces say it all 

On the other hand, Australia are reeling at number five in the ICC ranking at present and I truly believe that they are placed at their rightful place. They don’t accept it, as Mike Hussey said a few days back after losing the test series to India, “I don’t think we are the number five side in the world, obviously there is something wrong in the ranking system.”

Well, I agree with him for the second part, that the current ranking system is not the most perfect as it gets, but certainly, it has got it right by ranking Australia at number five. The reason being, England, India and South Africa beyond doubt and Srilanka probably by the skin of their teeth would deserve to be placed ahead of the fast sliding Aussies. Shane Warne was bang on when he urged them to accept that they are indeed at the fifth position, because only by doing that would they strive to improve.

Time for serious introspection

Indeed, Australia has to shed their arrogance in a hurry. Ricky Ponting, if he wants to play for a couple more years, has to let go of the captaincy and concentrate on his game alone. And they just can’t play Steven Smith at number six; he is just not good enough for that position. He can’t be played as a batting all-rounder. They need some drastic changes, may be a near complete revamp. I don’t follow their domestic cricket that much, so can’t really comment on who should be brought in, but all I can say is that the current bunch of players are victims of so much negativity at this moment that they simply don’t seem to be able to move forward. They have been losing almost every match they are playing and that’s certainly not a great feeling.

All said and done, the Ashes, in my opinion, has put things in perspective for two of the top five sides in world cricket. While it has helped the cricket world to sit up and take notice of England as one of the best three sides (even you could call it one of the best two- we would discuss that in a different post) in the world in terms of ability and not ranking, if also has confirmed the Aussies to be at the bottom of the top five.

India wins 5-0 as expected

When Yusuf Pathan said that the knock of 123 not out against the Kiwis might just prove to be the turning point in his career, he was right in many ways, or so it seems. At least history is on his side, for New Zealand has regularly allowed Indians some truly career-transforming moments, ever since I can remember.



Yusuf played a blinder

About a decade ago, on 2nd August 2001, Virender Sehwag played his life changing knock of 100 off 70 balls against the Kiwis, coming at the top of the order. He has not looked back ever since. Go back seven more years, and on 27th March 1994, yet again New Zealand witnessed a young Sachin Tendulkar playing that unforgettable inning of 82 runs off 49 balls opening in absence of Navjot Singh Sidhu, a knock that would re-define his batting position and in turn his LOI career forever. You could probably add to that a hattrick in world cup to Chetan Sharma, or the only one century of his career to the original little master Sunil Gavaskar, or the other 123 to Rahul Dravid that resurrected his one day career, but we need not go that far.

Today, if Pathan feels history may repeat itself yet again, you can’t blame him for sure. But then the onus is entirely on him. What this particular knock has done for him is that, it has allowed him a fresh lease of life in this over competitive Indian batting line up. To say that this knock has cemented his place in the world cup side would be logical, but slightly tricky. That’s because, the timing of this epic innings has made Pathan a certainty for the five one day matches against South Africa, and if due to any reason he fails there, it might just go against him when the wise men sit for picking the world cup squad.



Pathan handled the short ball well

But from what I saw in that knock of his, Pathan was in fact handling the short ball much better than he used to, something that would stand him in good stead while dealing with the likes of Styens and Morkels in the bouncy wickets of South Africa. Also, since all our big guns would be back there in the squad to test themselves in match conditions for the final time before the world cup, Pathan would only be batting only during the last few overs, if at all. That he should be able to manage.

One more demon should have been laid to rest as a result of this performance of Yusuf, i.e. the unreasonable competition with Jadeja for the number seven slot. In all fairness, going by ability alone, this comparison should never have been made, for Yusuf is a game changer and a match winner, where as Jadeja is just an accumulator of runs even though a slightly better bowler. Though both have similar kind of records in international cricket thus far (request Sankara to provide us with a qualitative analysis on this piece of statistics), we need an impact player at the number seven slot, which tilts the scale towards Pathan beyond doubt.



Gambhir lead from the front

Now coming back to the series against the Kiwis, a five nil white wash has given India a very good momentum and self confidence, especially due to the fact that they were able to achieve the result in absence of quite a few regular players.

It has helped Gambhir, Kohli and Pathan immensely, and to an extent Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma have also benefitted from their knocks. In the bowling department, Sreesanth, to my surprise has done quite well and Pathan and Yuvraj chipped in with wicket when needed. Ashwin did justice to the faith that was reposed upon him, carrying the mantle of the lead spinner role with élan, in absence of Harbhajan. Parthiv Patel too, helped himself with a couple of half centuries in as many matches. I am not sure, where he features in the future plans of the selectors, but all credit to him for grabbing the opportunity and showing that he is now a much improved batsman and wicket keeper who can be considered when Dhoni is not playing. Dinesh Karthik has competition here.

Of course, like Sankara, I too would have preferred to give Rayudu or Robin Uthappa a go in such kind of a series, but can’t really complain much especially the way Patel batted and kept.

The biggest dissapointment of the series emerged in terms of Murali Vijay, who despite of a fair run at the top of the order for three matches, could not capitalize on the oppotunity. It is extremely difficult to get your chances in this Indian batting line up, more so, at the top of the order, as we have stalwarts like Sehwag, Sacin and Gambhir in our wings, hence it's absolutely important that Vijay should have grabbed the rare chance that came his way. This was the second time after the series in Zimbabwe, where Vijay was seen wasting the opportunity.

Now the focus shifts to South Africa, where the battle for the number one position in test would take the center stage to begin with, and then to the ODI series, which would, as I mentioned earlier, be a defining series for the Indian world cup campaign.