An over-rated batting line up

Do you still think, India can win the world cup and is favorite for becoming the world champion?

To me, there is no reason for thinking so… If India’s media advertised and presents its team as world’s best, it does not mean they are. You have to have few qualities to be number one in the world.

Without having fighters in the team, no one can beat the world in such a big tournament. India lacks fighters. They have great names and as one of the spectators said “entertainers” but not the match winners. None of Indian player can be considered as match winner. They are outstanding players in favorable circumstances.

Sachin Tendulkar proved himself as an individual performer again. Even when he was about to cross the magical figure of 100, he stopped playing his nature strokes. He did not maintain the momentum of the scores and used reasonable 8 balls to get his last 2 runs to complete 99^th international hundred. Isn’t it amazing that a world class batsman who is about to achieve 100 or 100s is still greedy for runs but not to win matches. His performance revolves around his individual scores. And as soon as he completed his century, he started playing unreasonable strokes.

A great name like Tendulkar should have played till the end of the inning or at least till the end of the power play.

I was a child when I heard from one of my cousins that Sunil Gavaskar would never play for the country but he plays for his records and Miandad plays for his country. I was not able to understand that as I was not a professional cricketer, by then and never knew that 20 runs under pressure are more important than 200 in favorable conditions.
My cousin told me (which anyone can verify) that in world cup 1975, Gavaskar was the opener of Indian team. India was playing against England who batted first and gave a target of over 300 runs in 60 overs which was a huge total in that form of cricket. Gavaskar came into the ground as opener who should have tried to win the game and to set the example for rest of the team to play positively by trying to win the game but he played a “captain’s knock” and made 36 runs in 60 overs (that is a world record by any opener) and remained not out. Gavaskar did not even thought of achieving the total although they had a huge batting line up.

Having a matchless media does not mean players have improved. As a cricketer, I have great respect for Sachin Tendulkar. I am not sure if anyone will be able to beat his records even in next 100 years. To me, he is a god for all the generations of batsmen but no one can rate him a fighter or match winner and so is the whole team.

What happened to Kohli, Pathan, Yuvraj, Dhoni and others over rated player that they couldn’t even survive for the whole 50 overs??? And this is not the first time, Indian batting line up has showed same performance against England and their average bowling side could not even restrict Bangladesh.

Even if Pakistan encounters India in quarter final or semifinal, Pakistan must remain positive as Indian batting line up cannot resist fighters and their bowlers are not worthy enough to restrict any good batting line up below 300 on South Asia’s flat tracks especially under lights when ball gets wet after 15 overs and does not create difficulty for resistant batsmen, in second inning. Indian cricket team is not a threat in the tournament. Pakistani players need to stay and play their natural game. Although they have not great names like Tendulkar, Sehwag, Ghambir, Dhoni, Kohli, Harbhajan and Yuvraj but they have world’s best fighters like Afridi, Razzaq, Misbah, Younis, Umar Gul, Umar Akmal, Saeed Ajmal and many others. They need to follow three points to be on top;

1.    They should play their natural game which contains fighting spirit

2.    They should consciously avoid Indian media

3.    They should consciously avoid Indian bookies

They will be the champions, I am sure…