Lacklustre Batting Display Proved Too Costly For India

by Sumit Srivastava

When the India- Australia ODI series got underway, India had a real chance of topping the ICC ODI Championship table but with a 4-2 loss, with the final match being washed out at Mumbai, India slipped back to third position.

It was certainly not the score line that the Indian fans were hoping for, especially with this depleted Australian line up. Australians showed that they have got the domestic structure which produces champion players.

After Australia squared up the series at Mohali, the way was not easy for India and when they were defeated in a cracker of a contest, at Hyderabad in the fifth ODI, it was always going to be an uphill task for Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men to bounce back and win the series.

In the end, the margin of the defeat at Hyderabad, was just three runs but it could have easily been on the higher side without the heroics of Sachin Tendulkar. This knock was a masterpiece by master Sachin as he unleashed an array of shots all around the park. But like the 1999 India-Pakistan Chennai Test match, he just could not be there till the end.

Dhoni has been widely criticised for electing to bat first in Guwahati. The pitch had something in it for the fast bowlers for sure but certainly, it was not like playing on a green top in the English conditions where the ball was moving or swinging viciously. It was just a reckless batting display by a side that aims to be at number one.

It was once again proved that cricket is a team game. Individuals can win a few matches for a side but to win consistently, one has to look beyond the individuals. India had a number of individuals but the Australians had a team. India had a group of super stars but Australia had a bunch of lesser known but hard working players.

In the Australian batting line up, Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting at the top and Michael Hussy in the middle order were consistent throughout the series and they guided the rookies like Cameron White wonderfully. That kind of consistency was missing from the Indian batting line up. Barring a hundred by Sachin and a couple of good shows by Suresh Raina and Dhoni, the side was missing a cumulative effort in the batting.

The Australian new ball bowlers bowled with venom and passion. They bent their backs to extract some extra bounce and pace even on a dead track in Delhi and they got the results too. The off spinner Nathan Hauritz deserves some special praise. He may not have earned a stature like Harbhajan Singh but he was one of the biggest reasons of this Australian success as he checked the flow of runs in the middle and often took important wickets at crucial junctures.

Except Ashish Nehra, no other Indian bowler looked like troubling the Australians. Praveen Kumar was good till the ball was new and moving but he was unimpressive once the ball got older. It was Ishant Sharma, who was the biggest let down once again. He needs to find solutions to his problems as soon as he can. Otherwise we may have another Irfan Pathan in the making who made a dream start in Australia but lost it later.

Harbhajan Singh was another disappointment for the side as neither could he take enough wickets nor could he stop the runs. He needs to check the speed at which he bowls. He is an attacking bowler and needs to do the same, attack and just try to take wickets. A horrible show in the fielding department by the Indians didn’t make life easier for Harbhajan either.

In fact, fielding proved to be the decisive point between both the sides. Remember the Ricky Ponting’s run out of Yuvraj Singh at Mohali or Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s and Praveen Kumar’s dismissals in Hyderabad, every single one was a delightful display of fielding.

It was a series that should have been comprehensively won by India but for some lacklustre performances by its players, especially in batting, proved too costly for India. They need to pull up their socks against the Sri Lankans and play some hard and tough cricket which had given them a string of victories over the last two years. Indian cricket lovers are looking for the piece de resistance from this Indian outfit now, putting the 4-2 series loss behind them.