The moment of truth has arrived for Ganguly & Co.

By S. Dinakar

COLOMBO, JULY 23. Two matches, two setbacks. It is a perform or perish situation for the Indians. The man on the hot seat is Sourav Ganguly. There is a mountain to climb from here on and he knows it. And the skipper is talking tough.

``Playing for India has become easy now. I played for the country in '92 and did not get a game for the next five years,'' Ganguly said while talking to the media here, on Monday, a day after his team's agonising six-run defeat at the hands of Lanka in the Coca-Cola triangular competition.

The Indian captain was particularly unhappy that the youngsters were not grabbing their chances. ``They are getting so many matches these days, they have to deliver.''

The fact that India could not get six runs an over towards the climactic stages of the Sunday contest, with enough wickets in hand, rankled the skipper. ``I can understand it is difficult to go after Muralitharan, but they should have attacked the rest. Murali finished his 10 overs and we couldn't get the runs against Dharmasena and Jayasuriya. We required a couple of boundaries, but they didn't come.''

The inexperience of the batting order clearly showed itself in the heat of the battle. Nothing illustrated this more than Sehwag's dismissal, when the Delhi cricketer perished after attempting a non-percentage shot against Muralitharan. ``Murali had just two balls remaining in his spell, and Sehwag could have taken Dharmasena on. They have to learn. There can be no excuses.''

The Bengal cricketer went on.``It is a demoralising defeat because we went into the game with more batting depth, lost the toss, and then had a good chance of reaching 222, but could not finish it off. We had a bowler less, since we wanted to bat deep. Ironically, Yuveraj and Sehwag bowled well, but failed with the bat.''

Yuveraj unconvincing

The skipper appears to be convinced that Yuveraj does not quite fit the bill as an opener. ``We thought he could play his shots, but he has not scored, and doesn't look comfortable. And we are considering Hemang Badani only as a middle-order batsman.''

Now, the Indian think-tank is toying with the idea of asking either V.V.S. Laxman or Rahul Dravid to open the innings. ``We are looking at that as an option.''

The skipper said it became mandatory for him to bat in the middle-order since there was not much experience when it came to countering Muralitharan. ``Except for me and Dravid, this line-up has hardly batted against Murali. It was important for me to drop down the order. Among the three of us (Laxman, Dravid and himself) at least two of us have to bat at No. 4 or 5 because there is so much inexperience.''

Ganguly was disappointed that he could not carry on till the finish, when he was dictating terms to the bowlers. ``Yesterday I had a chance to bat 42 overs, but got out in the 38th over of the innings. We still had a chance...''

He refused to admit that there was too much shuffling in the batting order, coming in the way of the team settling down. ``If at all there has been any shuffling it has only been with me. I don't think that is the reason.''

The Indian captain harbours the hope that youngsters like Sehwag, Yuveraj and Badani would display more consistency. ``They have the ability, but then they have to perform on the field of play. As a captain, I can only talk to them. It would really help if the youngsters in the middle-order got the runs.''

Ganguly did not quite agree with the suggestion that the Indians were playing too much cricket, with the Lankan tour close on the heels of the Zimbabwean campaign. ``It is not too much cricket for the young guys. They are doing what they like to do, instead of sitting in an office. If anything, it is guys like me, Dravid and Laxman, who have been constantly playing over a period of time. We can't complain because the itinerary is already fixed.''

He observed he had invariably backed the youngsters. ``I have always supported them. I feel if you believe a guy is good, give him a run. Don't pick him in January and drop him in May.

The selectors have on occasions not liked me because of that.''

Ganguly defends Harbhajan's promotion

The captain defended the decision to send Harbhajan Singh as the pinch-hitter against Lanka and added the move did not smack of desperation. ``We sent him up because we thought he could play his shots in the first 15 overs. He has been batting well and if he had struck two or three boundaries, we would have been close to 80 by the 15-over mark. In any case, he was being wasted coming in at No. 9.''

Ganguly noted that his young side, despite the stumbles, has not performed too badly over the last 12 months. ``We have not lost a Test series, this includes the away series, beat the Australians at home, have won 74 per cent of our one- dayers, reached the final of the ICC Trophy, something that we had never done before. In Zimbabwe, it was just a question of one bad hour in Tests and one-bad match in the triangular series, which happened to be the final.''

Despite the disastrous start in Lanka, Ganguly feels India can bounce back.``We have to win at least two matches and we can do it. Ideally we would like to clinch three or four, preferably two against one opponent. All the three sides have plenty of young players and it all boils down to how a team plays on a particular day. We have bowled and fielded well so far. We have to pick our batting up.''

For that to happen, the Indian batsmen will have to show some character that has sadly been lacking in their performances so far. It is clearly the moment of truth.

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