 Bowling millionairesSix dot balls in a row would be the ultimate luxury. The Indian team management will welcome with betel and nuts, as the Tamil saying goes, anyone who can even bowl one dot ball in an over. When the Duckworth and Lewis rule came into play after bad light stopped play in the Karachi ODI, Pakistan were justly declared winner. They would have won fair and square, judging by the comfort with which they negotiated the poor fare dished out by the Indian bowlers. The medium pacers were all over the park, and at their military medium pace, they were fodder for the Pakistani batting artillery.
Left arm spinner Murali Kartik bowled as if he had just been woken up from deep slumber. He could get neither length nor direction right and bowled one wide too many. More unforgivably for a spinner, he bowled a no-ball as well, driving captain Rahul Dravid to despair. What can a captain do, if his bowlers cannot defend a total of 328?
Unless something drastic is done by the captain and coach, further mayhem is in store for the Indian team, with the kind of thin bowling resources at its command. Critics of Greg Chappell are already baying for his blood. I am no fan of some of his methods - especially his apparent mania for experimentation, and generally confrontationist attitude, even if in the best interests of the side, with those he sees as opposed to those interests - but no bowling coach can teach the Indian bowlers line and length, at this advanced stage of their careers.
What they perhaps need much more urgently is help from a yoga-pranayama teacher, who will help them to stay calm and think straight in the face of the Pakistani batsmen's sustained onslaughts. Our bowlers seem to rush in and hurl the ball with no thought in their heads other than that of somehow getting rid of the missile. There seems to be no forethought, no plan and no intent to dismiss a batsman.
In a post-match analysis, Imran Khan spoke of how as captain of Pakistan he often went in with two leg spinners in the eleven. He urged the Indian selectors to call Anil Kumble to strengthen the squad in Pakistan.
While that may not be an altogether bad idea, what about the options available to Dravid from within the 14 already on tour? How come Sachin Tendulkar rarely turns an arm over these days, and when he does, is too erratic to be effective? What happened to Virender Sehwag's off spin? Yuvraj Singh's left arm spin? Haven't Sachin and Sehwag not won matches in the past and why aren't they playing a serious role as part time bowlers now, especially as every batsman in the world is wary of Tendulkar's variety and Sehwag has this partnership breaking ability? Are Indians satisfied with playing one part once they are comfortably ensconced in the team, rather than contributing in every way possible to the team's cause?
Remember a couple of batsmen called Viv Richards and Carl Hooper who could have held their places in any international team as batsmen, but completed their quota of ten overs each in ODIs for the West Indies match after match, season after season?
V Ramnarayan
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