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, 8216;8216;I don8217;t know.8217;8217; While there was a lot of talk about the two-captain formula, Badani says there was never a problem between him and Das. 8216;8216;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,8217;8217; he says.

But any queries on his performances in the one-dayers visa-vis his captaincy gets a better reply. 8216;8216;You do not always lead an India 8216;A8217; side. When you lead the side you play on your own because you are the leader and you have to set an example,8217;8217; 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. 8216;8216;I don8217;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.8217;8217; 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 8216;8216;had a good time8217;8217;. But he is not ready to pick a 8216;find of the tour8217;. 8216;8216;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.8217;8217;

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.