India ODI team: dawn of new era!

The gabba ODI against srilanka was fantastic rearguard recovery by Team India. From 83/4 in 20.5 overs to final score 267/4, Gambhir and dhoni showed excellent understanding of game. They ran their singles, twos and threes, played low risk lofted drives and never let team India lagging on run rate. Those are the key factors:-
#1 They did not desist from taking risks, but the risks were low.
#2 They kept score board moving and never had their team lag in run-rate.
This is probably dawn of golden era where all players play for progressive team totals; unless it is stunned by selectors bringing in spent forces (ganguly, dravid & laxman).

Whats heartening is the fact that team India still has room for improvement.

1. Shewag may be an explosive batsman, but he does not have pull shots; or atleast not against quick bowlers. In power plays, pull shots are high value yielding shots (that’s why the first defensive move a fielding captain does is to send square leg fielder to fence and bring in fine leg). Ideally, batsmen with good and natural pull shots should be at top of the order. India has sachin, gambhir and rohit at top order who have good pull shots. So my 1-3 would be sachin, gambhir and rohit. This move achieves two good things for India. (i) shewag who is somewhat disadvantaged at top of the order (lack of pull shots) is not sacrificed (also that he is probably best attacking batsman of slow and medium bowling). (ii) It allows team india to exploit power plays to a maximum with minimum risk.

2. The other room for improvement is bowling. By fielding 4 bowlers, india’s bowling is quite precariously placed. If opponent team does not lose early wicket and puts up a brisk score, then they would just have to milk from there with spinner and part time spinners with spread fields. My five bowlers now would be Sreesanth, Ishant, Irfan, Praveen and Harbhajan.

So my 11 (with batting order) would be
1. sachin
2. gambhir
3. rohit sharma
4. v shewag
5. yuvraj
6. dhoni
7. irfan
8. Praveen
9. harbhajan
10. sreesanth
11. ishant sharma

Unfortunately, uttappa is left out. But that’s the wealth in this team; even with ganguly and dravid out of team, a talented player like uttappa cannot make it to 11. With uttappa sitting out, now even sachin can feel the heat.

Lastly, Rohit sharma was extra-ordinary in terms of talent, poise and time available to play strokes against gabba ODI against aussies. Though he could score only 29, hee not only looked like belonging there, but he showed promises of high class batsmanship. It really is dawn of an era!