Team India's 'opening' woes........!

After having won the first test match in the on-going Border-Gavaskar Trophy,  the focus now shifts to Hyderabad, the venue of the second test match, commencing on 02 March, 2013.

Though Team India had a convincing victory at Chennai, they still have quite a few problems on hand.

The opening combination of the seasoned Virendra Sehwag and the Chennai local lad, Murali Vijay failed to give good 'starts' in both the innings in the first test. 

Virendra Sehwag, particularly has not been having 'good time' with the bat. He should, in fact, avail each and every playing opportunity that comes his way and try to get back to the 'run making' ways. Sehwag lost a good opportunity in opting NOT to play the Irani Cup, prior to the Chennai test, under one pretext or the other.

It would be worthwhile to note that at the back of a dismal test series against    England, not too long ago, it is absolutely essential that Team India go on to win the current series against Australia and win it convincingly, preferably 4-0.

Going into the second test,Team India skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has a lot of thinking to do. 

• Should he persist with the opening combination of Virendra Sehwag and Murali Vijay? 
• Should he rest either Sehwag or Vijay and bring in Shikhar Dhawan, who is in the squad as the 'third' opener?
• Should he opt for drafting Ajinkya Rahane in the Playing XI, to partner either Sehwag or Vijay, even though Rahane is in the squad as a 'middle order' batsman?

Looking back at the Chennai test match, one thought that the so-called 'body language' of Virendra Sehwag was 'a shade' suspect. Given the fact, that being an experienced and a senior player, Sehwag did not apply himself and appeared to have played 'lazy' shots, literally 'giving away' his wicket in both the innings.

Murali Vijay also failed to take-off, inspite of playing in his home-ground. There could not have been a better situation/occassion to show-case his talent. A great opportunity lost by Vijay.

Shkhar Dhawan is in good form, having had a good Ranji Trophy season. It is just about time that he be given an opportunity to play at the top level. This will also be a move forward in 'building' the team with the grueling South Africa tour in mind.

Ajinkya Rahane has opened the innings in the shorter version of the game and handling the new ball would be no issue. Having been in the squad for a reasonable period of time, it is just and equitable that Rahane gets a look-in. 

The problem with the opening combination needs to be sorted out so that the team gets a good start and the middle order can go on building on that. 

It is definitely not going to be an 'everyday' or an 'every match' affair that Mahendra Singh Dhoni would go on to bat, the way he did in Chennai.

Hence it is absolutely essential that the 'openers' fire and give a good platform for the middle order to consolidate.

K Subramanian
28 February 2013

First test match between India and Australia......!

Well the first of the four test match series in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy got over yesterday (26 Feb 13) at Chennai. India went on win the match convincingly..........although it should have been an 'innings victory' for India.

Blame it on Moises Henriques and Nathan Lyon who frustrated the Indian bowlers for one full session n Day 4 and denied India and luxury of an innings victory.

It was really good to see the Indian middle order coming good. The middle order did not 'fire' during the tst series played against England and that as one of the prime reasons for India to lose the series. The boys had out in real hard work at the nets and came out successful when it rally mattered.

Cheteshwar Pujara,Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni........all scored big time and helped the team reach a formidable total of 572 runs. Sachin fell short of a great century by 19 runs. Virat Kohli (presumably the future captain) got a big century.....107 runs to be precise and it was a pleasure watching Virat Kohli score that century in the company of the present skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Not to be left behind. Dhoni himself went on to score a double-ton (224) and became the highest individual scorer in the 'wicket-keeper-captain' category.

Indian spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and (the part-timer) Rajendra Jadeja simply ran through the Aussies, with Ashwin picking up 7 wickets in the first innings and 5 wickets in the second, taking the match tally to 12 wickets.

It was good to see Harbhajan Singh, get back to the wicket-taking ways and he ended the math with a tally of 3 wickets. However, a lot is expected from this 'turbanator' in the games to follow.

Dhoni's batting deserves all the credit when he went on punishing all the Aussie bowlers in his journey to the double hundred.........particular the stretch 100 to 200 was a tad faster compared to the first 100.

Indian pace bowlers went wicket-less in the entire match while the Aussie fast bowlers took wickets 'by the heap'. Ishant Sharma, particularly was very ineffective, wavering both in length and direction. The debutante Bhuvaneshwar Kumar also did not have much to do with the ball (he was the second pacer in the team).

While Kumar could not do much with the ball, he compensated more than enough with the bat. Playing in his very first test match, he showed a lot of resilience in the middle. He stuck to his wicket taking the ones and  twos, thereby giving good company to Dhoni who was plundering runs from the other end.

If we credit graciously Dhoni for his double-hundred, some portion of that credit should go to Bhuaneshwar Kumar........not for the number of runs scored by him but for time spent by him in the middle, without throwing away his wicket.

Coming to the Australian's innings, they scored a total of 380 runs in the first innings, aided by a grand century by their skipper, Michael Clarke and India replied with  a lead of 192 runs. The second innings of Australia was nothing much to write home about, except that they avoided an obvious innings defeat and set up a meager target of 50 runs for India to score and win the game. This India did, losing the openers, Virendra Sehwag and Murali Vijay in the process. Nathan Lyon who was instrumental claiming the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar in the first innings got a raw deal from the master. Sachin struck him for two big sixes......making it clear to him who was the BOSS.

Now that the first test has been won by India, the focus now shifts to Hyderabad, the venue of second test commencing on 02 March 2013.

Inspite of winning the opener, India's 'cup of woes' is still full.

India is struggling to find the right opening combination with both Virendra Sehwag and Murali Vijay failing in both the innings. While there are options available in the form of Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, old war-horse Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir and even a Manoj Tiwari who has expressed his desire to 'open', if the team desires.

While the spinners have done full justice to the confidence reposed in them, the pacers have failed to live up to the demands. In the absence of Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron on account of injury, the options available are in the form of Ashok Dinda (who is already in the squad), Santhakumaran Sreesanth and Abhimanyu Mithun.

It is highly unlikely that the skipper might want to bring about any change in the 'winning combination' and might prefer to go with the same squad.

Let us all hope that everything would 'fall in place' at the right time and India would continue is winning streak and finish the series 4-0.

Last but not the least.......India started off with a massive win against England....in the recent past and eventually went on lose the series to the Queen's Men.

Well................history need not repeat itself.........new history can be created.

All the best............Team India.............!


K Subramanian
27 February 2013