Despite Asia Cup win, cobwebs not cleared from Indian side

The good news is that India won the Asia Cup. And after a substantial gap at that. And, by defeating Sri Lanka in the final in their own country, which made it doubly sweet. But, to me, it looks like the triumph has only managed to gloss over the inadequacies that the side still possesses, less than nine months before the first ball in the World Cup gets bowled.

The selectors had made the right call in showing Yuvraj Singh the door for the tournament given his woes in the game in recent times. But, without him in the middle-order, and with MS Dhoni’s penchant to promote himself up the order on most occasions, the middle and the lower-middle order stood exposed on multiple occasions. It was then, that one felt the absence of a fit Yuvraj Singh; someone who could take the bowling on after getting set and allow that cushion of the extra 20-30 runs for the side.

The problem for India has been that the likes of Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja failed to do with the bat, what an Andrew Symonds or a Michael Bevan could for Australia. Pathan’s strong hitting is restricted to T20 cricket only despite giving enough indications that he had the prowess to capitalise on his strengths. Jadeja, on the other hand, has been a disappointment in every sense of the word, with the bat. And that is where the Indians have missed out on the runs as well almost making me believe that the side erred during the Asia Cup by not taking the batting Powerplay within the first 30-35 overs when the likes of Dhoni, Raina and Rohit Sharma batted.

The other big worry was the pace bowling. Barring the final, the Indian medium pace bowlers were way off-target. There was no menace about them, and one got the feeling that they could be easily collared. Ashish Nehra’s fitness and Praveen Kumar’s pace were quite questionable, and had it not been for the swing that the two were able to obtain under the lights in the final, things could have been quite different.

This is a surprise. Not so long ago, the Indian pace battery was slowly building steam towards being one of the better one in the world, and only months on, the deterioration has been for all to see. The selectors have pumped in Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth for the Tests against Sri Lanka, but their form and fitness over the past one year has been anything but consistent.

So, unless the Indian side can be propped up by the return to the squad of the likes of RP Singh and the younger guns like Sudeep Tyagi, Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun, the side could do a lot of praying before the start of the World Cup!

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