Saturday’s lesson: pick five bowlers

You can’t let Tendulkar, Sehwag and Dinesh Mongia bowl 40 per cent of the team’s overs. As it is, our bowlers are either new (Balaji), coming out of injury (Zaheer and Nehra) or short of confidence (Murali Kartik). Our four bowlers are in fact only two — and so it won’t matter even if our batsmen pile up a mountain of runs.

So what’s the option? We got to play only six batsmen. It would certainly keep a talented batsman like Hemang Badani out but it would lend better balance if another bowler, say Ramesh Powar, comes in. It’s a tricky choice between Kaif and VVS Laxman, surely returning to the side in the next game. Laxman is popular but his inclusion could cost the team the fielding edge of Mohammad Kaif and we are talking about the team, not an individual.

And why aren’t we talking about Yuvraj Singh? The Punjab youngster is a match-winner on his day but is he consistent enough? He is a marvelous fielder also but batting is not our concern at the moment, bowling is. Our top six batsmen should be able to put the required runs on the board. We don’t need extra depth.

Everyone’s happy India put up 350 on the board but it should have been more. Only 140 runs were raised in the second 25 overs when at one time, it did appear a total of 400 was a possibility. Virender Sehwag must take a share of the blame for that. He has the ability to cut the attack to ribbons but why isn’t he batting 50 overs? Why is he wasting good starts? He already had 12 runs from the over when he went for that strange shot. Somebody needs to tell him to realize his maximum.

His presence is already making bowlers run scared. He has them on the rack and at his mercy. They feel that if they give him the slightest of margins he’ll put them over and beyond the ropes. So why let them breathe freely? Sehwag is giving us runs, is a tremendous striker, but is selling us short. He needs to provide that great finish.

We are fielding well but I thought the fielders were coming from the boundary line; they needn’t be so deep. So even if the ball is only a foot on either side, it was allowing batsmen to scamper for twos. Inside the ring, you’ve got to keep four fielders and the best three positions are occupied at covers, point and midwicket. Mid-off or mid-on is where Sourav Ganguly positions himself. He is not our quickest of movers but as a captain, he can’t stand in the outfield.

In the end, all the drama centred on the final over. I think Navedul Hasan let his team down. You don’t let dot balls happen in the final over. He didn’t need to take that wild swing. He needed only to put bat to ball, take a single and give the strike to Moin. Even a strike on his pad could have given Pakistan a run.

We all watched Javed Miandad tutoring the Pakistani batsmen from the dressing room. It is normal for batsmen in the middle to look at the dressing room and Miandad was trying to catch their attention. There could be two opinions on it — some say it could distract the batsmen from playing their normal game. Others could say coaches beyond the boundary giving tips to men in the middle is like what happens in soccer all the time. I think there was nothing wrong in Miandad trying to advise his men from the dressing room. He was trying to help his players. He gave enough impression how badly he wanted his team to win.

One area where Pakistan might have erred was in not sending Abdul Razzaq a little higher up the order. I thought he should have come in place of Younis Khan and given the innings the right impetus.

(Cricket News)