It's January 14th 2014 and the cricket World Cup campaign for India will begin exactly 13 months after i.e on 15th of Feb'15 at Adelaide Oval against our arch rival Pakistan.
So, how good is our team now and how good are the preparations going?
Inspite of being Ranked 1 in ODIs we are not at our dominant best. The last time we showed dominance on the field was during Champions trophy. The recently concluded ODI series against SA showed we are still not a force to be reckoned with. Even the India vs Australia series that was held recently was very closely fought.So where does the problem lie? isit batting? bowling? or fielding? .
Fielding is certainly not a problem as we have a best fielding side in the world and they are performing very well over an year. The major worry for me is our bowling. Our best fast bowler in matches played in India was dropped for 66.66% of the matches of the ODI series vs South Africa. You guessed him right, he is Bhuvi! Just as Bhajji took the baton of spin bowling department from Kumble , Ashwin took it with ease from Bhajji. But, of late Ashwin doesn't appear to be the bowler that he used to be. In short he appears to be short of ideas. Although his batting has improved drastically and in fact he has become a better batsman than Jadeja. But this won't solve the spin department problem for India unless India finds a new spinner , but that too is not possible because the time is running out. So, the only solution that looks feasible is either Ashwin should improve his bowling or we will have to bring in Ojha! The bowling of Jadeja and Shami are the only two highlights in the Indian bowling department. Sorry to say this, but the bowling of Zaheer doesn't appear as threat a to the opposition these days. Talking about Ishant Sharma, he should have been a very good fast bowler given his height and repetitive action but he appears a shadow of his abroad's performance when he plays in India. To be honest he is pretty decent bowler in foreign conditions so, he can be considered for WC squad. Talking about the 5th bolwer( mind you we are not talking about Jadeja as a 5th bowler) it can go to either of Umesh/Aaron/Zaheer depending on the current form during the tournament.
In the squad for NZ series we have an interesting character. You again got is right, he is Stuart Binny.
For me he should be the ideal guy at number 7 for India because of his swing bowling and hard hitting abilities, but again it is too early to comment because the guy is yet to make the debut.
Talking about the batting , the moment we think about cricket matches in Australian subcontinent we think about the bounce and then the short pitched deliveries and immediately we imagine red flags on the names of Yuvi and Raina. Both have a prerry ordinary average in Austraila (30, 26 respectively) but the positive with Raina is that he has played recently in Australia plus he is in the squad for NZ series so he has a chance to improve his shortcomings. Surprisingly Yuvraj hasn't played in Australia for 6 long years!!
The opening pair of Rohit and Dhawan looked steady before SA series but now there are doubts about that. If they don't perform well in the NZ tour then Rahane can be given a chance on top of the order.
So, the picture looks very unclear at this moment but hopefully will be clearer by the time we are playing the Asia Cup .My assumption is that, 9 out of 11 players will definitely play the WC'15 who play the Asia Cup if we remain positive about fitness.
So, how good is our team now and how good are the preparations going?
Inspite of being Ranked 1 in ODIs we are not at our dominant best. The last time we showed dominance on the field was during Champions trophy. The recently concluded ODI series against SA showed we are still not a force to be reckoned with. Even the India vs Australia series that was held recently was very closely fought.So where does the problem lie? isit batting? bowling? or fielding? .
Fielding is certainly not a problem as we have a best fielding side in the world and they are performing very well over an year. The major worry for me is our bowling. Our best fast bowler in matches played in India was dropped for 66.66% of the matches of the ODI series vs South Africa. You guessed him right, he is Bhuvi! Just as Bhajji took the baton of spin bowling department from Kumble , Ashwin took it with ease from Bhajji. But, of late Ashwin doesn't appear to be the bowler that he used to be. In short he appears to be short of ideas. Although his batting has improved drastically and in fact he has become a better batsman than Jadeja. But this won't solve the spin department problem for India unless India finds a new spinner , but that too is not possible because the time is running out. So, the only solution that looks feasible is either Ashwin should improve his bowling or we will have to bring in Ojha! The bowling of Jadeja and Shami are the only two highlights in the Indian bowling department. Sorry to say this, but the bowling of Zaheer doesn't appear as threat a to the opposition these days. Talking about Ishant Sharma, he should have been a very good fast bowler given his height and repetitive action but he appears a shadow of his abroad's performance when he plays in India. To be honest he is pretty decent bowler in foreign conditions so, he can be considered for WC squad. Talking about the 5th bolwer( mind you we are not talking about Jadeja as a 5th bowler) it can go to either of Umesh/Aaron/Zaheer depending on the current form during the tournament.
In the squad for NZ series we have an interesting character. You again got is right, he is Stuart Binny.
For me he should be the ideal guy at number 7 for India because of his swing bowling and hard hitting abilities, but again it is too early to comment because the guy is yet to make the debut.
Talking about the batting , the moment we think about cricket matches in Australian subcontinent we think about the bounce and then the short pitched deliveries and immediately we imagine red flags on the names of Yuvi and Raina. Both have a prerry ordinary average in Austraila (30, 26 respectively) but the positive with Raina is that he has played recently in Australia plus he is in the squad for NZ series so he has a chance to improve his shortcomings. Surprisingly Yuvraj hasn't played in Australia for 6 long years!!
The opening pair of Rohit and Dhawan looked steady before SA series but now there are doubts about that. If they don't perform well in the NZ tour then Rahane can be given a chance on top of the order.
So, the picture looks very unclear at this moment but hopefully will be clearer by the time we are playing the Asia Cup .My assumption is that, 9 out of 11 players will definitely play the WC'15 who play the Asia Cup if we remain positive about fitness.
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