World Cup Preview: India

[Don Ricardo]

In response to the large number of posts regarding india and their chances at the world cup, it thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at their strengths and weaknesses in all facets of the game:

Batting
Obviously this is regarded as their main strength, and with the likes of tendulkar, ganguly, dravid and sehwag they have the potential to make really big scores. Looking closer, however, there do appear to be some cracks opening up in this area of the team: aside from tendulkar their is the problem that the batting line up lacks the complete techinique necesary to prosper on bouncy pitches against quality pace bowling. they use very heavy bats, which are effective on the low bounce of the subcontinent, but get them into trouble against rising deliveries. their is also an unhealthy relience on tendulkar to score the bulk of the runs, and when he gets out the overall morale of the side seems to drop. sehwag has been much hyped as a quality batsman, but will he have the techinique and temprement to withstand the bouncer barrage teams like australia and south africa are likely to give him?

Bowling
with the new rule allowing a bouncer each over, and the fact that the cup is being played in south africa, it is a necesity for teams to have a strong pace attack. this is one area which india are particularly weak and this will be exploited by the better sides. The spinners have the ability to exploit the turing pitches of the subcontinent, but there are doubts about whether they will be effective at keeping it tight when the conditions do not suit them.

Fielding
this is one area which can not be underestimated. the top 2 teams (aus and sth af) are the best filding sides in the world, whilst the most improved side in recent years (new zealand) is also becoming very strong in the field. frankly this is india's big weakness, and will probably cost them dearly. they dont seem to have the comitment or team spirit to win games in the field like the better sides do (ie south africa). dravid as keeper is also a huge flaw and may end up costing the side more than any benefit gained by freeing up and extra spot in the batting order

 

[Andre]

I agree here with DR.

Fielding is probably the key element in ODI cricket - as we have seen, guys who save 15-20 runs in the field through a match is a match-winner in their own right. India has possibly one brilliant fieldsman - Yuvraj. Apart from taht, it's up in the air.

The pace bowling attack is weak, agreed. I also really wonder about the 5th bowler position. It seems Ganguly has no faith in Bangar, and stuffed if Ganguly will get through 10 overs at a decent rate.

For mine, there is just too much going against India to make it any further than the super sixes, and even then they are no certainties for that!

 

[Gotchya]

Fair assesment.

And Andre, you are right about the saving runs part, but IMO good fielding dealts more pyschological pressure then the runs it saves. I mean here is a bad ball in an over of six, I smash it to cover and the guy stops it with a well timed dive....I'll start wondering, where do I get my runs from ? and thus errors creep in...

 

[Bazza]

Yes fielding is a huge part and an area where England are also not among the elite, which could count against us.

A fair assessment of India's chances DR. I predict a Super 6 for them.

 

[aussie_beater]

Yes that's a fair assesment, I believe.

India's fielding looked to be on the up till the ICC trophy in Lanka, but in one or two matches in NZ it seemed that it has come off the rails actually. Yuvraj and Kaif brought in a sense of urgency in the field which is very rare for India.And Yuvraj has shown his fielding skills by taking those spectacular catches in the ICC trophy. Kaif is good but I have seen that he tends to overdo it at times resulting in unnecessary misfields which can be easily avoided if he is a little less hurried in his approach.

 

[aussie_beater]

An interesting picture...... ofcourse its not Sachin, its his lookalike in a party in Bombay

 

[Top_Cat]

And Andre, you are right about the saving runs part, but IMO good fielding dealts more pyschological pressure then the runs it saves. I mean here is a bad ball in an over of six, I smash it to cover and the guy stops it with a well timed dive....I'll start wondering, where do I get my runs from ? and thus errors creep in...

That's why South Africa were such a good side in the 90's Let's face it, before Kallis and Gibbs, South Africa didn't have any really 'great' batsmen (Cullinan possibly.........). I mean, Gary Kirsten, Andrew Hudson and Hansie Cronje were very solid players but none of them were game-breakers in the Ponting or Gilchrist mode. But they were ALL gun fielders, which is why they won so often. The bowling was very tight too but any bowling backed by fielder like Kirsten, Rhodes, Cronje etc. is going to do well. Also, teams like Zim babwe in the 90's were only competitive at all because most of their fielders were guns too.

So if a team is going through a patch were the players aren't the best, sometimes it helps if the fielding is what you work on so that you can put SOME pressure on the opposition if your batting and/or bowling isn't going to.

It can go other ways too; the West Indies of the mid-90's had some VERY talented players but even with super bowlers like Courtney Walsh, Curtley Ambrose and Ian Bishop coupled with batsmen like Shiv Chanderpaul, Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams (when he was in form) and Kieth Athurton, the decline was dramatic. Why? Because the fielding wasn't supporting the bowlers or backing up a good effort by the batsmen, hence teams which were in trouble would be let back into the game.

People trumpet the ability of the 80's WI team and whilst they had a lot of GREAT players, if those same players weren't sensational fielders, the team probably wouldn't have been half as successful. Very good fielders like Gomes, Greenidge, Haynes and Marshall were backed up by unbelievable fielders like Viv, Lloyd and Garner and this would have made a huge difference.

So my advice to India would be this; work on your fielding and the rest will follow. There are too many talented and potentially great players in the line-up for the fielding to not make a difference. If their fielding improves even slightly, their chances of winning increase a LOT.