In another 8 months, the world cricket is going to witness the Biggest Cricket War. The sub continent nations like IND-SL-BAN are going to host the 2011 ICC ODI Cricket World Cup.The preparation by all the cricket playing nations are in a full swing and are gearing up for the most important tournament which comes once in 4 years. Let’s have a view over our team’s(India) preparation especially the batting which has always been our strength.
There is no doubt about our opening combination as we have the two best openers in the world, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
Gautam Gambhir, though he has not played any World Cup, looks determined and likely to play at No. 3 this time.
Yuvraj Singh has proved to be the best batsman in the middle order and playing at No.4 though he is not at his best recently.
The skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni himself have promoted and demoted according to the situation the batting order but, batting at No.5 Position has been the best for him.
Suresh Raina is currently the best from the younger lot and can make big difference at No.3 which he has already proved his mettle in the Indian Premier League (IPL) while playing for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). But, since Gambhir also opened few times in the past, so he is the first choice to play at No.3. Raina, though can be a good finisher if he asked to bat down the order at No.6 position.
For No.7, there few options Robin Uttappa, Irfan Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.Besides this, India has also tried Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.From the three batsmen,Uthappa can prove to be the finisher since his S/R clocks to 92 in ODIs.Ravindra Jadeja has wasted the chances given to him. He hasn’t fared well either with ball or with the bat. There is a serious contention for this position along with the proven all rounder Irfan Pathan.
Now, the more important aspect is the time.Since there is no much time left for the preparation for the world cup event 2011 and more over India has only 8 more ODIs to play at home before the event.The final squad with a PERMANENT BATTING ORDER should be addressed immediately,which will help players to prepare mentally for the allocated batting positions.
One more major issue Indian team facing is the burn out. India is playing non stop cricket for the last 1 year and all the key players are getting injured in each and every series and it has lot do Specially with our openers, who either were injured or have opted out due to fitness problem before an important series.Because of this major reak down,in the last 1 year we have tried the combination of Tendulkar+Sehwag,Sehwag+Gambhir and Tendulkar+Gambhir for the opening pair in the last 1 year.
Because of the absence of either opener,the No.3 was also affected and the position was experimented with too many batsmen. The batsmen who played at No.3 were Rohit Sharma,Virat Kohli,Dinesh Karthik,Suresh Raina and M S Dhoni.
Early in the year,2010,Yuvraj Singh was also injured and prompted Virat Kohli to bat at No.4.Thus the entire batting order has faced the flexibility issue in the recent past which is actually not a good sign as the World Cup event is approaching near.
Let’s consider the ongoing Tri-Series between IND-SL-NZ itself.Sachin Tendulkar has opted out for rest,Gautam Gambhir,along with Harbhajan Singh,has been rested due to fitness problem.So,currently Dinesh Karthik has taken the opening position with Virender Sehwag while Rohit Sharma has been preferred over Virat Kohli at the no.3 position.These two players (Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma) know very well that SachinTendulkar and Gautam Gambhir are certain for the upcoming World Cup playing 11 at their respective positions unless an injury and hence,they still don’t have their place in the team line up.
And because of this make shift in the batting order,has created many problems.The skipper himself has tried at No.3,4,5,6 and 7 and thinks that the flexibility has been good for the team.(But if we consider the few matches were we lost badly,the flexibility in the batting order was one of the main reasons).
After India’s debacle against the black caps in the ongoing Tri series,Dhoni may plan to promote Suresh Raina at No.3 because of his current form.We know,the best batsman of the team should bat at No.3.Rahul Dravid was batting at this position who provided the solidity in the middle order.Gambhir was giving good support from this position untill injury.Raina,too,can manage himself at No.3 but with Gambhir’s return Raina may have go back to play at No.6.
The team management should fix the batting order for Raina and should look for the long term goal rather than solving the short term by sending Raina at no.3.
The upcoming series against the world no.1 Aussies will be crucial for Team India at home.Hopefully,the world cup rehearsal will go in a smooth way without any injury.
The sooner the team management addresses this all more important issue, the better is for the Indian cricket.India is a cricket craze driven country and the billion people will be pinned lots of hopes on the World cup event which will be played at home.
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