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 Does
Indian Cricket really need an Australian Coach?
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Article by Vidyuth Jaisimha |
Published on Oct 30, 2006
 The
pressure of having an Australian coach who wants
every move of his enforced in the middle is
finally telling on Rahul Dravid. Where has
Dravid’s identity gone? One feels that he is
being led by remote control with Greg
Chappell being the non-playing Captain.
India’s loss against the West Indies in the
Champions Trophy is an example of how
obvious this has become.
When has India ever had four medium pacers in
the team with just the one spinner? To make
matters worse Dravid, instead of realising his
mistake, continued with his pace bowlers hoping
that something would happen. India’s captain
does not need to justify his mistakes at the
stake of India losing. Instead of bringing on
his other part time spinners Sewhag and Yuvraj,
he continued to bowl R P Singh and Agarkar (who
looked most innocuous) just to justify a foolish
selection.
Greg Chappel is taking Indian cricket backwards
and sadly Rahul Dravid is going down with him.
It’s time Dravid realised that playing
favourites of the Coach instead of going by
instinct is only going to harm his Captaincy
career. He is India’s best batsman and has to
bat at no.3 for India to make use of his full
potential. Instead, silly changes in the batting
order with Pathan batting at no.3, just to keep
him in the eleven, is inexplicable.
Pathan, Sewhag and Raina don’t deserve a place
in the Indian team on present form. Why are we
continuing to go with players that are out of
form? If Sachin Tendulkar can perform without
being 50 percent of his original genius, why
can’t we go with players who are in form? Any
one who is not playing to potential must be
dropped. The ideal batting order for India is
Dravid at no.3 and Yuvraj at no.4 with Tendulkar
opening the innings. We have to give our best
players enough time to get themselves in.
Sending Pathan at no.3 is suggesting that our
best batsmen need to be shielded. Irfan Pathan
bats for his State at no.7 in the Ranji Trophy.
Why is he batting at no.3 for India? The Coach
and Captain need to answer this question.
Suggestions that we are experimenting is just
not good enough. Simply because Australia
rotates players around and we have an Australian
coach does not mean we are as good as them.
Australia has players that can replace each
other at any time. India does not enjoy this
luxury. While writing this piece
India has just been humiliated by Australia
and knocked out of the Champions Trophy. Instead
of consolidating and reaching at least 280, the
middle order collapsed. The Australians are far
too professional to let go of an opportunity
like this one. Sadly Rahul Dravid just does not
seem to learn from earlier mistakes. Ramesh
Powar was left out of the eleven again and four
medium pacers were played. This resulted in
Dravid having to bowl Mongia and Sewhag. Why has
the Indian captain suddenly forgotten that
India’s strength lies in its spinners?
The Indian team
to tour South Africa has also been named.
Kumble, Zaheer and Jaffer making a comeback into
the side is a good sign. The selectors have
shown that they are being positive and not
writing off players because of their age. This
will send encouraging signals to motivate
cricketers to perform so that they can make a
comeback into the national team.
Sourav Ganguly please note!!!
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