Tuesday, Jul 09, 2002
Tuesday, Jul 09, 2002 |
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Cricket
By G. Viswanath
I AM READY: V.V.S. Laxman (padded up) who is likely to play against England in the NatWest Trophy tri-series match at the Oval, London, on Tuesday, seen with Mohammad Kaif during India's practice session. — Photo: N. Sridharan
Sourav Ganguly said after the team's long training session that Venkatsai Laxman will take Dinesh Mongia's place and bat at No. 3. The stylish Hyderabad batsman Laxman could not stake claims for selection in the previous four matches with less than a thousand runs (859) in 38 internationals. Laxman has been a difficult batsman to be ignored from the squad after his match winning 281 against Australia at the Eden Gardens. By picking him for the full tour of England the national selectors were only making point that he would ultimately come good in one-day internationals. Laxman's inclusion in the eleven for the fifth match of the NatWest Trophy III tri-series has to be seen as a first and immediate step taken by the tour selectors to find a remedy for the lack of form shown by left-hander Dinesh Mongia, who since his incredible century against the Zimbabwe at Guwahati was regarded as having established permanency in the team for limited over international and was pressing hard for inclusion in the Test squad. Things have not gone on Mongia's favour in England. He made a poor start bowled by left arm spinner Ashley Giles in India's first match at Lords, which turned out to be a batsman's paradise. There was a significant improvement in the second match at the Oval against Sri Lanka when he made 33 and off 55 balls and put on a partnership of 71 for the third wicket. But the Punjab left hander has not looked a part so far. Like the two openers who go ahead of him — Ganguly and Virender Sehwag — Mongia has found `swing and movement of the seam' complicated to play. Ganguly was forthright in admitting that he and Sehwag have not been hitting freely and fluently and that it has been an awesome effort by the middle order which has seen his team through to the final. The tour selectors must have thought of making the change after India's win against Sri Lanka on a seaming pitch at Edgbaston. Mongia made five runs off 30 balls and in six minutes short of an hour, which was a clear indication that the left-hander was not comfortable on a track which was not a true batting deck, but one which encourage sideways movement, Left arm-seamer Chaminda Vaass spells of 10-1-38-2 and 10-1-26-2 demonstrated his wily bowling against the Indian top order. Even Dilhara Fernando had excellent figures of 10-022-2 against the Indians at Edgbaston. Mongia was in a real plight and his technique against the moving ball has been exposed to an extent. His place has gone to a batsman of proven quality in Test cricket, but considered an underachiever in one-day internationals. Ganguly's 200th one-day Laxman has played 38 internationals, sixteen more than Mongia. Laxman's inclusion means that only wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra and medium pacer Tinu Yohannan have not taken part in the NatWest Series.The Indian captain also expressed genuine concern about his own and Sehwag's lack of form. Ganguly will be playing his 200th one-day international on Tuesday and he wants to make the occasion a memorable one. He looked quite scratchy when making 43 in two hours and three minutes against England at Lords. Thereafter his scores have been 7,0 and 24. Sehwag made 71 off 83 balls against England at Lords, but since has been a failure scoring 12,16 and 0 in the next three matches. Ganguly is keen to bring a halt to the run of poor scores. He spent a long time in the nets having a knock on good practice pitches. Talking of having come through two matches from 52 for 3 and 33 for 3 he said: "It's always going to happen in England. The white ball seams around a bit. It's good the middle order batsmen are standing up to it and seeing us through. With the three seamers — Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan — having settled down, Ganguly does not want to fiddle with the bowling combination. When asked if giving a break to Tinu Yohannan has crossed his mind he said: "Well, there are lot of matches after the one-day series. There will be opportunities for him. Spin (in the form of Harbhajan Singh) is still an option. But the conditions are to favour the seamers. Ganguly saw the England middle order cave into the Sri Lankan spinners at Old Trafford. "I thought they (the Sri Lankan spinners) bowled very well. There was some turn. But Nasser (Hussain) is doing a good job out there as captain. Commenting on the low scores in the last couple of matches he said: "It's going to happen in England with the ball seaming around. The Oval helped the seamers in the last match. I thought the pitch at Edgbaston was underprepared. If Sri Lanka had got 220 or 230, it would have won the match for them. He also explained the reasons for such a good performance from the Indian team in the four matches and generally in recent times. "We have been having a good time in the dressing room for the last 18 months or so. We have realised the importance of playing well as a team. We have great individual records. We realised that we have to win for those records to stand out. Winning is important, whatever might be an individual and teams performance. It's a young team wherein everybody is attempting to make a name for himself and establish himself in the team. Answering a question of Yuveraj's wonderful showing so far and that selectors decision to leave him out of the team for the Test series he said: While Ganguly and India have decided to make one change and pick the best possible eleven, England may contemplate bringing back left-hander Graham Thorpe (for Nick Knight) and left arm spinner Ashley Giles (for Snape). England has the option of opening with Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan who has opened for England in Test matches and has when the situation demanded, scored runs at a clip. The defeat against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford came as a jolt because its batsmen were so bungling against ordinary spinners. A wet Tuesday has been forecast. Even as Ganguly was talking to reporters, thin rains made him wear a protective jumper and quickly pick up a couple of bats from the ground and rush to the pavilion. When asked if he would like to go into Saturday's final with 6-0 record he said: "One day is strange. It is the team, which performs well on a particular day that wins the match. Have not we heard this for years from captains? The teams: India (from): Sourav Ganguly (Captain), Virender Sehwag, Venkatsai Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuveraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Anil Kumble, Dinesh Mongia, Ajay Ratra, Harbhajan Singh, Tinu Yohannan England (from): Nasser Hussain (Captain), Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff, Ronnie Irani, Alec Stewart, Ashley Giles, Darren Gough, Alex Tudor, Matthew Hoggard, Paul Collingwood, Jeremy Snape, Nick Knight Umpires: Messrs: Messrs. Dave Orchard and Peter Willey
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