One final tilt at redemption
India face an uphill task of beating Lanka with bonus point to keep hopes afloat
Perhaps, the Indian team has got so attuned to failures on this trip Down Under that skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni appeared a little startled when reminded that India have still have a theoretical chance of entering the tri-series final.
Margins of 65, 110, 51 and 87-run defeats reflect the heaviness of India’s defeats. After such poor outings, no captain would believe his team still can qualify for the title round.
If India can beat Sri Lanka at the Bellerieve Oval on Tuesday with the bonus point, they will have 15 points, the same as the Lankans. India will go then through to the final if Australia defeat the Islanders at the MCG in their last league encounter, a distant possibility considering the brand of cricket India have been playing. Dhoni was understandably relieved to find a small creek.
“I am quite happy to hear that. It gives us another chance to enter the finals. That would be saying I am very optimistic seeing that we have not consistently done well with the bat, which means whatever the opposition scores, we will have to score in 40 overs. It’s a very difficult task. But I am happy that at least there is a chance subject to some other game. But I would love to take it,” Dhoni said.
It’s quite easy to tear Dhoni apart for his ignorance about the situation, but it would have been an improbable task for him without proper assistance to keep abreast of those mathematical possibilities considering his heavy workload as captain, wicket-keeper and batsman.
Now, he also has to work with team equations in the possible absence of R Vinay Kumar, who has a hamstring injury, and Zaheer Khan, laid low by a calf niggle. He also will have to grapple with the fitness of Irfan Pathan, who collided with Suresh Raina while going for a catch in Sydney on Sunday.
Duncan Fletcher comes under scrutiny here. The coach needs to keep himself in touch with such mathematical options, and feed the skipper well in advance.
Fletcher, who was a strict disciplinarian while in charge of England, seems to have tempered down after assuming the reins of India, more of a passive onlooker of the damage around him.
He has the tough job of sustaining the flow created during the Gary Kirsten era, and the Englishman is still to give an indication in that direction. Behind the curtains, Fletcher might be working hard but the results have yet to justify his efforts.
Another reason to rope in Fletcher as India coach was technical expertise and his ability to mentor youngsters, but his effect hasn’t been visible in this area as well. Raina still struggles against the short-pitched ball, Rohit Sharma still seems incapable of excelling in pressure situations consistently, while Ravindra Jadeja still stands at the same point as a year ago as a cricketer.
There certainly are some ray of hopes like the splendid maturing of Virat Kohli and the sustained intensity of Umesh Yadav, though his run-leaking ways are a bit of a concern. But those shards of positives are not enough to paper over the aforementioned shortcomings that seriously undermine the status of India as a power away from home.
A spate of injuries might have given Fletcher and the team management as a whole an excuse to offer for the paltry showing in England. But the tour of Australia hasn’t given them any such chance as players were fit till a few niggles – common feature of such long trips – caught up with them towards the second leg of the series.
Dhoni admitted as much. “It has been a real difficult series, especially the Test series. We were not competitive enough like we were in England, and there we had a lot of injuries that really bothered us. But over here, we had a stable dressing room in the sense that we didn’t have too many injuries.
Most of the players were fit and available for selection, so it is a bit more disappointing series compared to the England series,” he said.
But there’s still one last chance for redemption.
