Batting (Dis)order

There is a Hindi saying that goes as “jo garajate hain, woh barasate nahin”.

For last year or so, we Indian cricket fans have heard a lot of ‘garajanaa’ from our not-so-new coach, but when it comes to ‘barasanaa’, it’s been only the case of untimely rains during cricket matches.

Greg Chappell is like any other Australian cricketer – loquacious. And like any other loquacious person, he has talked a lot & at length, but has done hardly anything that can be called as spectacular. If there is anything worth calling spectacular then it’s collapse of once great Indian batting order.

Just a cursory look at Indian cricket history will tell you that most of the success that India has achieved, is on the back of its strong battling line-up. While the country has had its share of great bowlers in the form of spin quartet, Kapil Dev, Srinath & Kumble, there are only a handful in the 70-year long history. Indian middle order has always been an envious lot of people for opponents, with the best of domestic talent finding it impossible to crack into. In last 10 years, we have done well in test cricket because of the strong backbone (middle order) in the form of Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly & Sehwag.

All this, however, has now become a history in ODI cricket. With all the jumbling of batting positions, the only set of people that comes to one’s mind for middle order are Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif, Mongia & Raina. And there are no back-ups if any of these is woefully out of form (which unfortunately is the case, of late). By the way, except Raina, didn’t the same set of people played World Cup 2003 as well? So what’s this ‘Chappell’s Theory of Youth Experimentation’ has given us apart from instability. I remember, prior to WC’03, each and every place in the team was so fiercely contested, that as a Indian fan, I felt proud of it. No wonder, the team made it to the WC finals.

Yeah, our last coach didn’t do too much of ‘garajanaa’ but he ensured that there is enough ‘barasanaa’ in the form of WC final, series win in Pak, strong performance in England & Australia – overall, a very satisfying four years. And the same period also gave us gems like Dhoni & Pathan.

Next World Cup is not too far away. We need to settle now.

1. Pathan is a bowler. Please let him concentrate on that. We would like to have him as an all-rounder, but not at the cost his bowling prowess.
2. And please stop that 5 + 1 + 5 nonsense. While 7 + 4 demanded too much out of Dravid, making 5 bowlers play is equally stupid. 6 + 1 + 4 is the best bet.
3. Last year has seen 10 to 15 opening pairs. That’s just horrible. Sachin – Sehwag remains to be our best opening pair. May be we can have Uthappa / Gambhir as a back-up, for they have played some fantastic cricket in the Challenger. Kaif performs very well at #3. May be Dravid should drop back to #4 for he can strengthen the batting low down.

We are badly waiting for a dramatic turnaround and sincerely hope that that the Hindi saying doesn’t hold true in case of Chappell and Indian cricket team.