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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

World Cup 2011 - Kirsten needs a change of plan

As one read the article about Gary Kirsten in IE, it gives a lot of insight into the coach and his skills on the ground. This text stands out for me.
You can ‘go with the flow’ if that is your preferred option, and I’m happy with that. But if the ‘flow’ is going against you, then it does no harm to rethink your approach. I’m happy for players to rethink their careers by themselves, if they prefer to, but I’m here to assist if they require me. And also Paddy (Upton, mental conditioning coach) is there all the time, too.”
It is such a neat way to deal with players, especially so with the stars that man the Indian team.

But, I think, it is time that Paddy and Kirsten now take a session to find out what is going wrong with the Indian team - a team cannot slump in their batting so miserably twice (England and South Africa). The players did not seem to be having any plan in their mind, where to hit the ball or whether to give the strike to the non-striker. The lower order (last four bowlers) with the bat, if one looks at the statistics here, average 1 run per wicket - a grand total of nine runs in eight innings!!! This is ridiculous numbers, even if you are playing for the associates.

The other article in IE about Dhoni's twelve is so true. Surely, MSD must be thinking how to have Raina and Kohli both in his team during fielding. But, here is where I find it interesting. In both matches that India have not won, Kohli has not been able to get going. This role is better when played by Raina than Kohli. In the form that you see the top three in, there are going to be lesser opportunities where Virat has to shore up the batting. Why not play Raina in his place? He is the best player to play the PowerPlay overs. Dhoni prefers his CSK team-mate to Yusuf (with the ball) during slog overs.

What do you think about this? Should Dhoni's team-mates from SuperKings (Raina and Ashwin) come in to the next playing eleven? Let me know.
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1 comment:

Biswajit Agarwal said...

now it looks very obvious that in match against WI,India will have Raina and Ashwin in place of Nehra/Munaf,Pathan.If not then India lose their last chance of testing the bench strength.I dont know why people are not saying anything about Bhajji whose primary job is to take wickets and he is failed in all the matches so far barring SA.