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Monday, June 15, 2009 21:46 IST

In post-match interviews, Dhoni said he sent Ravinder Jadeja out to bat ahead of Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan and himself, to stabilise the innings after the loss of two early wickets. The asking rate going up to 10 around the 10th over is no problem for the lower middle order of the Indian batting, according to him.

To me this is more worrying than India's early exit from the World Cup. Dhoni may have just been rationilising some of his blunders. But it could also mean that he has learnt little from the back-to-back defeats against the West Indies and England.

What is the point of "stabilising" the innings and then forcing the next few batsmen to start scoring at 10 plus an over from the word go, without the benefit of a few balls to get set? This is guaranteed to make India fall short, whether chasing or setting a target, nine times out of ten.

Against the West Indies, it was Dhoni himself who played the sheet anchor much like Jadeja. He scored 11 runs in 23 balls. This meant India could only get up to a modest score in spite of a dream innings of 67 in half the number of balls by Yuvraj. Again, against England, India failed to get to an ordinary target in spite of Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan going great guns and remaining unbeaten at the end. And there are others like Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan whose pinch-hitting abilities remain unutilised in this business of "stabilising" the innings.

Losing two or three early wickets in the first six overs as the batsmen have a go at the bowling to exploit the field restrictions is nothing new in T20. That doesn't mean you pull the shutters down and play for singles for the next 8 overs. What you should do instead is to keep in touch with the asking rate even if it means taking a chance and losing more wickets. The chances of getting bowled out in a T20 game are much lower compared to the chances of collapsing when you have to go at 10 plus an over.

And it's not just in the World Cup that Dhoni has adopted this keeping-wickets-in-hand policy. He did it in the IPL in South Africa, which proved to be Chennai's undoing. Dhoni is basically not using his batting resources because of a defensive mindset. This is not how he played the first World Cup. So, one can only surmise that too much experience of T20 cricket has not been good for him. He was better when he went by his aggressive instinct. Or, perhaps coach Gary Kirsten is the one to grill about our faulty strategy, not to mention the poor team selection.

8 comments

Anyone who watched Ind-WI would have seen clearly that Dhoni & Yuvi were not smiling or talking to each other during the few minutes that Dhoni stayed. Yuvi made 60+ runs. As happens in politics, the leader normally tries to suppress a dynamic and rising star, feeling threatened about their status. Dhoni played politics, not cricket, in not sending Yuvi at number 3 or 4.

West Indies lost early wickets against us, including their star Chris Gayle. But Bravo and Co never let the asking rate go beyond 9. Bravo would step out and take a chance everytime it did. It's harder to figure out an 'asking rate' batting first, but usually one can arrive at a par score based on recent history on that ground. SA felt 140 was a good score at Trent Bridge. It's true other teams, especially in the IPL, have also been messing up their targets with the singles-in-the-middle strategy, but India has been the most extreme in this regard in the current tournament, continuing to play for singles even when the asking rate has risen beyond 'acceptable' levels, which depends on several factors such as the ground and quality of 'death' bowlers. There is no point aiming to go at 10 plus against Malinga in the final overs, because you will fail nine times out of ten. Of course, that doesn't mean you throw your wickets away against a great spinner having a dream spell in the middle overs. But India played safe against mediocre bowlers in the middle phase against England and the Windies, and set itself up to play the big shots agaisnt the better bowlers at the end. That's stupid.

Are other teams that have won — more notably, South Africa and Sri Lanka — adopting a strategy different from India's? Are they going after the bowlers in the middle overs? If not, then, strategically, all teams are on the same plane. And if that's true, what is the differentiating factor between India and other teams?

Sir, I earnestly wish Dhoni and Gary Kirsten read this at least once and take a leaf out of it. Let me find their email ids and forward this to them. I think Dhoni is losing his sight to learn out of mistakes.

Dhoni sent Jadeja before Yuvraj because India had lost their two big hitters — Raina and Sharma. If Yuvraj, the big hope, had been dismissed cheaply early, it would have be even more difficult for the team. The hope was that Jadeja would stabilize things while scoring at a fair clip, allowing Yuvraj to hit out when the target was nearer. Unfortunately, Jadeja stabilized things but did could not score briskly. The English started bouncing him and Jadeja had no answer.

It's also amazing that nobody highlights the pressures on the Indian team from a multi-provincial, often chauvinistic media that has made cricket coverage nothing but speculation on who is feuding with whom, and half-baked, infantile theories about why games were lost. Most journalists lack understanding of the complexities and subtleties of cricketing situations.

Good point.

Totally agree with you. Dhoni's captaincy seemed to be lacking not only in this tournament but in the IPL as well. He seems to be stuck in a rut and doesn't seem to be the innovative captain who took risks before. If we had RP singh who was bowling well, why didn't he bowl him and finish his quota of overs? If not for anything else, he could have experimented with his part-time spinners just for a change. Instead he seemed to be playing musical chairs with the batting lineup, which led to our ultimate exit from the tournament.

Dhoni needs to get his spirit back. His body language seems to be terrible and it seems to have rubbed off on the rest of the team. Here's to hopefully some better and inspired cricket in the days to come.

Sir, thanks for the comment, but we do have other issues that need to be taken care of. Anyone playing the game at that level will learn the lessons. Why don't we understand that the players also feel the anger of losing? We are all humans and bound to make mistakes. Does sitting in the pavilion or in front of the idiot box give us the authority to say anything? We need to be responsible. Are we?

Why not concentrate on doing what we can do best and then comment on everything that we don't understand?

When we judge too much, then we can't love.