Sitting at the G watching India, my hangover making it a long day, I’m reminded how shizenhouse India are in the field, as fielders and in keeping the pressure on.
They amount of time their players stroll to a ball, dive over a ball, throw like a 12 year old girl, or dawdle between overs is amazing.
If I was coaching a junior side who fielded like this I’d drop the whole team, but then again, I’m an @sshole.
Most cricket pundits believe India will be the next number one team in world cricket.
From time to time I am one of those people, not today though.
If a country has a kabillion people, most of which are obsessed with the sport, it makes sense that they will eventually take over world cricket.
You can correct me if you think I’m wrong, but 4 sides have been the best nation in the world at different times.
Australia, for most of the time.
South Africa just before apartied.
West Indies late seventies to mid nineties.
And England for the times Australia allowed them, mostly before Hitler killed his dog.
Australia’s game plan has always been pretty similar, don’t back down, keep the pressure on, always attack, back yourself and do all the little things right.
The West Indies bullied you with bouncers and bounaries.
South Africa just had a class team of all rounders, gun batsmen and quick bowlers.
England, were lucky that others weren’t any good at those times.
Discounting England, as I often do, these teams were different, but had one noticeable similarity, brilliant fielders.
Over the years India have had some fair fielders, Azharuddin and a bunch of awesome short leg fielders immediately come to mind.
Mostly the fielding in India test teams is worse than any first grade side in Australia.
Bad fielding is one thing, but when included with shocking running between wickets and lack of urgency in the field , it looks even worse.
If cricket were all about batting and bowling India would definitely be the next country to take over.
It’s about runs and wickets though.
Hitting a pretty cover drive may get you 4 runs, but 4 nudges will get you the same.
Bowling an unplayable wrong un gets a wicket, but so does a direct hit from cover.
For India to ever get to the top of world cricket they will need to improve the parts of their game, that in reality should be the easiest to fix.
The hard bit is finding someone who can bowl like Kumble or bat like Laxman, the easy bit (in theory) is teaching them to run, and field.
Cricket is a multi dimensional game, much more so than hurdles or hop scotch, and you need to make sure your team is constantly working on all facets of the game, not just the cool ones.
India who do you want to be, Waylon Jennings or Johnny Cash?www.cricketwithballs.com "the hooking & pulling specialists"
No comments:
Post a Comment