India says Canada has not shared any specific evidence or information yet
Chandigarh, Ravindra Jadeja — age 27, India cricketer for seven years — seems to have a problem. It seems that he’s unable to chat freely with his teammates when batting in the middle because, apparently, he’s not “somebody who really speaks a lot”.
Now, it’s completely unfair to blame one player for India’s extraordinary collapse against Australia yesterday, when they went from 277/1 to 286/8 in 10 balls, and then collapsed to 323 all out. The fact is that experienced batsmen like Shikhar Dhawan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli lost their wickets to balls that were innocuous.
Ajinkya Rahane had had stitches in his hand after injuring it while fielding. This meant that greenhorns Gurkeerat Mann and Rishi Dhawan (in their second ODI) were put into a high-pressure situation. They hit a four each but immediately after that, they fell trying to hit big shots in the air. This was due to pressure and inexperience — playing on a foreign field, against a very tough opponent. The Australians have been playing their second-string attack in this series, but the quality of their first class cricket is so good that their second-string attack is not sub-standard in the international context.
Mann or Dhawan could have played coolly, mixing care and aggression, and become heroes. But they did not.
But this collapse can’t be pinned to any one individual, though Dhoni manfully said that he was responsible for the defeat because “it’s my role to finish off the game”. It was a team failure.
Quiet Jadeja
However, Jadeja’s role in the collapse is curious. The fact is that Jadeja was a non-participant in the collapse. He had no role in it. With him at the wicket, India lost six wickets, and he remained unbeaten on 24 off 27 balls — yet he didn’t step in to play a role in the drama. His role could have been this — farm the strike, hit an odd four or six to ease the pressure on the other batsmen, and counsel youngsters like Mann and Dhawan to keep calm.
But, as Dhoni said yesterday in an extraordinary claim, we have to take into account the fact that he is not someone who “really speaks a lot”!
“The main batsman has to communicate, especially with the lower-order batsmen because it’s not easy out here,” Dhoni said. “He’s amongst the most experienced when it comes to the lower-order batsmen, so it’s not totally about your batting. In the end, you have to tell the people who are batting with you what the bowler may be doing and what the batsman should be looking at. A bit more communication will definitely help, but I don’t think he’s somebody who really speaks a lot, so that’s something we will have to take into account.”
That’s quite amazing — a professional cricketer who’s played for India since 2009, who’s communicated with foreign players in various IP teams, doesn’t counsel his young partner in the middle because he doesn’t “speak a lot”!
Harsh steps needed?
Sunil Gavaskar has said that India must take harsh steps after this series defeat. “There are players who have made 3-4 trips to Australia but they have not learnt from their mistakes,” he said.
Who are those players who’ve not performed in this series? Among the bowlers, they must be Ishant Sharma (7 wickets for 190 runs in this series, economy rate 6.33 and average 27.14), Umesh Yadav (6/263 in four matches, economy 6.6, average 43.83) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0 for 111 in two matches, economy 6.52). Ravichandran Ashwin has played two games, and he’s not shone — 2/128, economy 6.73, average 64.
Among the batsman, Dhoni averages 13 in four matches (52 runs in four innings). These are the players Gavaskar may have been referring to — they’ve toured Australia multiple times, and they failed on this tour.
Who do we replace them with? It’s a tough one — the young men being groomed on this tour as possible replacements haven’t been extraordinary, either.
And let’s not forget that Australia is very difficult to tour, even in the best of times. Since 1991, India have lost 26 ODIs there to Australia, beating them only five times (3 of them in one year, 2008). During much of this duration, many all-time greats were part of the Indian team — Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan… Yet India’s record in Australia was quite terrible. Australia is hellishly difficult to tour.
