Indian Cricket Team : A New Force

The recent run of Indian cricket team has been phenomenal. Three players stand out for this: Dravid, Pathan and Dhoni [aside : Dhoni is from my school and same batch, although there is no chance he can recognize me :((, it was a HUGE school! ]. It is amazing what a wicketkeeper batsman and a quality allrounder can do to the balance of a team. The team is still work in progress though.

There are at least two players who are becoming a drag on the team. The first is Kaif. He has been extremely lucky in his career. From whatever I have seen, he has very limited skills as a batsman. When he is doing well, which happens very rarely, it is mostly because of the 'temperament'(taking quick singles, rotating strikes etc...). The only thing is that he did really well in domestic competition, otherwise he would have been out of team by now. The selectors should decide to give him one final chance though.

Sehwag is another. What is going on with him is kind of difficult to keep a finger on. There was a time when Laxman would gift his wicket after playing some gorgeous shots to get to twenty. Sehwag does the same thing. He blasts a couple of fours, all clean hits from middle of the bat, and suddenly he is gone. I would not be as harsh on Sehwag because he has shown how destructive he can be. The captaincy thing should however be kept away from him. I would say groom Yuvi or Dhoni for captaincy.

Finally, just to rub it in, Ganguly really is history, no matter how much his fans (yeah, there ARE such folks) demonise Chappel, Dravid or Kiran More! Swaahaa!!