Sport - Cricket

Simply horrendous!

For the sake of countless supporters back home, the least the Indians can do is to bat out the full fifty overs.

Whatever the excuses may be, to get bowled out twice in the series for scores just over hundred shows a lack of fight from the Indian batsmen. The New Year does not seem to have brought about a change in their approach.

You don't have to be a greatly talented player to succeed in cricket. In fact, some of the most remembered cricketers are those who fought hard in a crisis situation, and managed to find a way through.

There are so many players who would simply not give in during an adverse situation and would keep their team in the hunt, until the others rally around them. This is where character and positive thinking come into play.

Even batsmen with technical shortcomings can survive in wickets and conditions not familiar to them if they have the will to battle it out.

I am extremely disappointed by Indian captain Sourav Ganguly's reaction to the defeats. Blaming the pitch is not going to get the side anywhere.

Ganguly should first make runs himself. He has been without a good score for far too long and as captain, he has to take up responsibility, and lead the side by example. He has failed to do that on this tour.

The Indians should take a look at their own performance. I would tell them `first bat 50 overs and then talk about the pitch.' If a side cannot even do that, then it has no right to offer excuses.

There seems to be absolutely no planning in the Indian approach, and the players appear to be simply going through the motions. And for the third time in succession in this series, the Indians have failed to last 50 overs.

The Indians could have at least tried out a different combination, but that opportunity was wasted in Christchurch. Wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel could have played in this game.

He is not only a competent wicket-keeper but is also the kind of batsman who would occupy the crease and India, presently, needs its batsmen to stay at the wicket. If you look back at the third ODI, even a score of 175 could have been a match-winning one.

Looking at the sequence of Indian defeats, I am worried. Around 95 per cent of players from the Indian side in New Zealand would be travelling to the World Cup, and about 90 per cent of the cricketers would have been in most lists, including mine.

But if this is the performance we are going to see from them, then I am worried about the depth of talent in the country, at the lack of options. It is here that I am extremely pained that a genuinely promising cricketer like Murali Kartik does not figure in the side.

The time has come for us to encourage young talent. Otherwise, it might get too late.

www.kris-srikkanth.com

By K. Srikkanth

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