Current State of Indian Team - Analysing the causes of sucessive defeats in ICC T20

Is Dhoni an Important cause??

Success or failure is something that people should judge over a period of time. Dhoni has shown in the past couple of years that he is one of the best leader of Team India. I am sure he will continue to do a good job as I rate him highly as a thinking cricketer.

However, in the last few months Dhoni has been performing many technical and tactical errors.

1. "Do not shuffle a batting order when your team is doing well. If you do so, make sure that you do not redefine individual batsmens' roles": Top 4 or 5 batsmen in a line-up have roles that should fit into their batting slots. I do not mind sending in a pinch-hitter or commonly known as a "floater" in modern cricketing terms. But the floater is not someone who shifts his role to the batting slot. He is an insertion in situations that demand such insertions. So if you are a hitter, be a hitter and do not try to be a nudger or a stroke-maker.

When Dhoni was captaining Chennai super kings, he was sending Badrinath down the order and promoting himself up the order. Badrinath is a nudger with stroke-making abilities. However, he is not a hitter who will clear boundaries. A Rahul Dravid style player. What is the point in sending him down the order when you know that his batting style fits in well in the top 4. Badrinath did perform well as a number 4 player and was giving good support to Suresh Raina or Hayden. Dhoni is a different style of a player. He is not a stroke maker, but a hard-hitting batsmen. In the recent past, he has tried to play the role of a nudger with little success because he is playing 2 or 3 slots above his usual slot.

Always remember this basic, if the opposition has a good bowling attack then stroke-makers do a better job than hitters. Purely because stroke-makers make good deliveries look ordinary. Eg, Sehwag, Sachin, Raina, Gambhir, Yuvi, etc. Ask yusuf pathan to face good quality attack and he will crumble in the top 4. Yusuf is a great striker and a hard-hitter, but he does not have the variety of strokes to make good deliveries look ordinary. On the contrary, down the order, the field setting is normally defensive and the bowlers are looking to contain than to be attacking unless the opposition is 8 or 9 wickets down. In such a situation, the hitters are more powerful since they can clear the boundaries. In a similar sense, stroke-makers are platform builders, while hitters are finishers. Be very careful not to mix their roles.

2. "Make hay while the sun shines. Make runs when you are in good form": Hayden and Raina were is good form for the Chennai super kings and to drop them as an excuse for experimentation is not sensible. When these guys return back to their own slots after missing some games or playing in a different slot, it affects their game. In the last few games, the Indian batsmen were bounced out more often! Well, if you are in good form it will not matter if its a bouncer or a yorker. Suresh Raina did have some problems with the short pitch delivery and was softened-up in more than one occasion. I can assure you that on a different day if he was not dropped from number 3 and in good form would have played it better. Playing the short ball is all about foot work and to make the right judgement when to pull/hook and when to leave it alone. Raina's footwork was poor with his weight falling forward and was not able to hit the ball late with a better balance.

3. "Do not replace quality for quantity": A player with good quality will do well in any format of the game. Many people believe that 20-20 is all about all-rounders and not about specialist. I would on the contrary say if you have one or two all-rounders of good quality like Albie Morkel, or Kallis, then thats an added advantage to a team. But bits and pieces players would not do it for you consistently and against good oppositions. Irfan Pathan was a great success in IPL, can bowl and bat and a decent fielder. However, RP Singh is definitely a better bowler considering his pace and his abilities to bowl well at the depth. Irfan has won a few games for India, but still his bowling is weak and his batting is not

completely reliable. Yusuf Pathan is similar to Irfan but with better fielding capabilities. Just use one bits-and-pieces player in the team, not too many. Always remember, if the first 6 cannot make runs, the last 5 cannot either.

4. "Being in good form also holds good for bowlers": Tyagi of Chennai super kings was bowling in a decent manner and was consitently taking a wicket in his first spell. Gony was replaced for Tyagi. Gony did not perform well and the opening bowling attack of Albie Morkel and Tyagi that was so good for 5 matches was unnecessarily disturbed. Dropping Jakarti was another insensible move when he was among the

wickets. Ishant Sharma is a wicket taking bowler, but can go for a few runs in the slog overs. He is more a hitter of the deck which means that he will give opportunities for players in the depth to go underneath the ball and wack him out of the park. Dhoni should use him only in the middle overs. I actually do not mind him taking the new ball in some occasions, but Zaheer and RP singh would be the number one choice to open.

5. "Difference between experimentation and fine-tuning": Being innovative and willing to experiment is a good leadership quality. But when to do experimentation and when to do fine-tuning is an important decision to make. If you take the Sri Lankan team in 1996, they experimented with Kaluwitharana as an opening batsman in Australia, but when it came to the world cup they already set their top 6. A guy like Gurusinghe was at number 3 to hold the innings together, with 3 match winners playing around him. Ranatunga never suffled the batting order once he knew that the experimentations are over in Australia and the results are well analysed into a stable game plan. One can do fine-tuning if the situation demands so by introducing a floater, but then this floater should know his role, the game plan and go according to it. Stop experimentation went you are about to deliver the final product.

Cheers and Thanks incase you have read this review!!!

Will be back soon with more.