Oh Lord Shiva: how about a wicket?
After going through the pains of the 90’s, India’s journey to the top of the cricket world has been greatly satisfying. But yesterday, we were reminded of those pains all too well.
Dale Steyn unleashed his awesome skills on the Indians and was rewarded with a 10 wicket haul for just over 100 runs. Hashim Amla batted for 2 days and scored 20 more runs than the entire Indian team in the 1st innings. So what happened to the much vaunted Number 1 test team in the world?
Poor selection happened.
The blame is directly pointed at Kris Srikkanth and his band of inept morons. They dropped a season wicketkeeper in Dinesh Karthik for the uncapped Wriddiman Saha for no explainable reason. The morning of the 1st day, both Laxman and Rohit Sharma were deemed unfit which left the team management no choice but to include young Saha.
Saha was out for a duck in the first innings, his nervousness getting the better of him against a fiery in swinging ball. Why Virat Kohli, the best young batsman in the country, had no place in the squad despite his recent successes in the one-day game remains a mystery.
Then, to prove their ineptness to the world, the selectors picked four fast bowlers ven though India had no intention of changing from their 2-seamer-2-spinner strategy? One of the selectors told Ravi Shastri that Abhimanyu Mithun was picked because they “wanted to have a look at him.” All this when we desperately lacked a quality batter.
Damn this was easy!
Is this sport or a beauty pageant?
Saying that, the team is in desperate need of a bowling overhaul. Ishant Sharma labors in like a camel after a long Sahara sojourn and Amit Mishra’s spin is as threatening as a schoolgirl bowling underarm. And then there’s Harbhajan Singh. He can consider himself lucky for picking up 2 wickets. His bowling was pathetic.
Saying that, credit to the Proteas for their performance. They outclassed the hosts and pushed them into an embarrassing loss. With just 1 test match left and Steyn troubling batsmen with both conventional and reverse swing, there is little hope for India to walk away with a 1-1 draw.
And *poof*! There goes the much vaunted Number one ranking.
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