Badani back in backyard after leading from front

Leading the team in the one-dayers, Badani stood out with his fine performance with the bat as India hopefuls remained unbeaten. Does this display justify his appointment as the captain in one-dayers over SS Das. The Chennai-based batsman is non-committal, ‘‘I don’t know.’’ While there was a lot of talk about the two-captain formula, Badani says there was never a problem between him and Das. ‘‘Shiv and I go back a long way. We know each other since the under-16 days so captaincy or no captaincy does not make any difference,’’ he says.

But any queries on his performances in the one-dayers visa-vis his captaincy gets a better reply. ‘‘You do not always lead an India ‘A’ side. When you lead the side you play on your own because you are the leader and you have to set an example,’’ he says.

But despite all the focus being on his performances in the one-dayers, the India discard defends his showing in the first class segment of the tour. ‘‘I don’t think I did too badly. I scored a 100 early on and then a 50 against South Africa. And since we had to try out everyone, I missed a couple of games. But a bad decision and a couple of run outs did upset my showing to some extent.’’ The best part he says of the tour was how the team stuck together over a period of 40-day of the tour and how they ‘‘had a good time’’. But he is not ready to pick a ‘find of the tour’. ‘‘Most batsmen were in top form. In fact till the last day of the tour, Wasim was the only one without a hundred but even he ended the tour with a big one (213 vs Warwickshire).’’

While coach Sandeep Patil reckoned that the pitches were flat and thereby defeated the Indian bowlers, the Chennai left-hander has a different take on the matter and talks about a couple of games where the ball did do the talking.