Vital cog missing,wheels fall off

Without the resources of an essential all-rounder,India lose T20 by 6 wickets.

As he hit his third straight four of the final over and England escaped with a win in the only T20 game of the tour,Samit Patel looked towards a relieved Ravi Bopara in front of him,while a remorseful MS Dhoni shrugged his shoulders behind the batsman. As the NRI-heavy crowd at Old Trafford watched Samits over-the-top celebrations coupled with Boparas restrained elation,they quickly seemed to take solace with the Indian connection the fact that every player on the field in the final moments of the game was of Indian origin. Dhoni,though,couldnt care less. The dejected skipper had more pressing matters in mind.

Dhoni had failed to find a solution to curb the England storm yet again. On this forgettable tour,he couldnt stop the hosts from winning the Test series 4-0; now,in a starkly different format,it had come back to haunt him again. There has been a certain sense of incompleteness to the Indian team,and on Wednesday night,Dhoni was yet again missing that vital piece of the jigsaw that makes his team look perfect without which they seemed glaringly unfinished. That vital component is referred to as the fifth bowler on match days,but in general that piece is usually called a genuine all-rounder. During Indias triumphant World Cup journey,that essential component was Yuvraj Singh.

Historically,the strongest of teams rely overwhelmingly on that one man who can efficiently bowl his quota of overs while also doubling up as an effective slogger in the death overs as a batsman. Thats one of the biggest reasons why Australia were so dominant,for they had a succession of such all-rounders overlapping each other during their reign over cricket.

Michael Bevans time intersected with formation of Andrew Symonds,who exited well after Shane Watson had made his bones in that role. It led to the Aussies winning three consecutive World Cups in that epoch. And who did it take to end their run four years later during the quarterfinals in Ahmedabad? Man of the Match Yuvraj Singh. A week later,as Dhoni held his most sparkling piece of silverware yet,Yuvraj stood beside him in every frame holding his,the Man of the Series trophy. With 15 wickets and 362 runs,Yuvraj was Dhonis ultimate go-to man on all occasions.

Unpaid dues

For long,cricket hasnt paid its dues to these role players,giving modest names to the most important man in a team. They are often slotted with part-timers,or even worse,with the bits-and-pieces cricketers. However,these all-rounders are as important to cricket as a creative playmaker is to football.

With Indias leading playmaker nursing an injury at home,Dhoni has to bank on his part-timers during the five-match ODI series to follow. But unlike his injured all-rounder,Rohit Sharma,Virat Kohli and even Suresh Raina cannot be trusted to efficiently share 10 overs between them. They will of course have their moments like Kohli did when he dismissed the dangerous Kevin Pietersen with his dibbly dobblies on Wednesday but more often than not the captain will cross his gloved fingers when they come in to bowl. Also,nothing makes the opposition happier than when they milk runs off a part-timers spell,as England would have felt when Rohit went for 16 in his only over.

With Indias part-timers unable to bowl four overs between them in Manchester,Dhoni must be wondering how they will complete 10 at Chester-le-Street on Saturday. But at the end of the game,Dhoni blamed the late-order collapse for the six-wicket loss. We knew that we had to score 15 extra runs because we had just four specialist bowlers and the pressure to increase the run-rate saw us lose wickets, he said. By Dhonis statement,it was clear that Indias top-order too felt the pressure of an inadequate bowling department.

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So why cant India play with five specialist bowlers? According to Dhoni,compromising Indias muscular batting to cushion the bowling is a senseless move. Dhoni is also a believer in history. During the several peaks he witnessed as Indias captain during the last two years,Dhoni and the management have religiously stuck to the four bowlers-seven batsmen combination. But for that machinery to work,Yuvraj becomes the most vital cog,ever since the Yusuf Pathan experiment failed to provide long-term results.

With this background in mind,its easy to understand why Dhoni called for left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja as a replacement for specialist top-order batsman Gautam Gambhir. Jadeja,after all,is a poor mans Yuvraj. Something is better than nothing at all.