26 matches, 5 pairs, 1 helluva problem

Pitch-reading, a day before the match, for any cricket captain is a tough task. And it becomes much tougher, if the pitch hasn8217;t been used in an international match for the last five years.

Pitch-reading, a day before the match, for any cricket captain is a tough task. And it becomes much tougher, if the pitch hasn8217;t been used in an international match for the last five years. Rahul Dravid, the Indian skipper, was faced with a similar situation against England on Saturday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.

Dravid walked out to the middle before anyone else did today, read the pitch and came back to enlighten his team about how the strip would behave on the next day. 8216;8216;It looks strong and firm and should be a good batting wicket,8217;8217; said the Indian captain after each and every team member had finished a tidy stint with the bat at the nets.

If the Indian captain8217;s words turn out correct tomorrow, then runs will come aplenty on this pitch which looks like a tiled-patch hurriedly prepared for a typical subcontinent one-dayer in the waiting. To Dravid8217;s eye, the wicket will not be as bad as the one on which India won the second one-dayer in Faridabad.

Now, with predictions done, India can sit back and wonder what their single biggest problem has been in the one-dayers, despite having done exceedingly well over the past three months.

In the 26 one-dayers that India have played since Greg Chappell took charge as the coach, there has been only one opening stand of 100 runs when India played Pakistan at Rawalpindi early this year. The highest opening stand for India in almost a year has been the 105-run partnership between Virender Sehwag 67 and Sachin Tendulkar 42 when they helped the side chase Pakistan8217;s total of 265 runs.

In the remaining 25 ODI innings, the highest opening partnership has not gone beyond 69, with as many as five different variations having been tried. In fact, in 14 matches, the opening partnership hasn8217;t crossed even the 20-run mark. 8216;8216;These are some of the problems at the moment which we need to sort out. The batting, especially the top-order, hasn8217;t been up to expectations and we will be looking to overcome that,8217;8217; said Dravid.

India will do well to remember that they aren8217;t playing the best one-day team in the world. In fact, England 8212; sixth in the ICC8217;s ODI rankings 8212; have recorded ODI series victories in the last five-odd years against teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh only. So, it is no surprise the visitors are struggling in the on-going series. Their problem compounded further with as many as five top players not in the team.

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In a bid to experiment and bring about certain dynamism to the side, the Indians have time and again flirted with the idea of using Irfan Pathan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the primary weapons in their one-day scheme of things. However, they will do well to remind themselves of the way Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir batted in the last match.

The former, looking good for his 26 runs, tried sweeping Ian Blackwell with an unnecessary stride across the line, edging it back to the stumps. Gambhir, knowing well that Sehwag was out, needed to stay at the crease. Instead, the southpaw tried an unnecessary pull and was back in the pavilion within next 10 minutes.

A comparative analysis will reveal that India8217;s opening statement has been the meekest as compared to other top international teams preparing for the 2007 World Cup. And now with Tendulkar ruled out until the tour of West Indies and Sehwag in the poorest form possible, this could become a serious issue for India.

Therefore, as they approach the third match, they need to make good use of the opportunity to get rid of this opening blues as soon as possible.