No semis three times in a row. Who will face the axe this time?
By stardustcdsd
@stardustcdsd (1856)
India
October 3, 2012 6:22am CST
hi friends.india finally broke one jinx that they haven't won any super 8 matches after the inaugural edition of T20 world cup.but unfortunately another jinx caught up with them.no semi-final birth for the third consecutive year.
indians may consider themselves tad unlucky because their group is tougher among the 2 but i dont hear pakistan and australia complain about it.
what usually follows after an unsuccessful world cup tournament is dropping players or others from the squad.
lets start with players.
Dhoni scored 65 runs from 51 balls from 4 innings with highest being his last knock of 23 with a nice strike rate of 176 but against england and australia it was just 74 and 112.
sehwag played 3 matches and scored 54 runs with a strike rate of just 112?
gambhir played all 5 matches and scored just 80 runs with same strike rate of 112.considering his top score is 45,he scored just 35 runs from the 4 matches.
when openers have scoring such less runs with below par strike rate of 112,no wonder india had trouble geting good starts.
i am not bothering with kohli because he played very well but ended up on the losing side.
yuvraj singh scored 66 runs from 4 matches like dhoni but at a strike rate of just 108?
no wonder we went out on net run rate.if any of those guys barring kohli scored at a strike rate of 130 or 140,we would have been in the semis.
rohit sharma scored 82 from 4 matches with a better strike rate of 130.still not enough.
raina scored 110 runs from 4 matches with a nice strike rate of 127.guess runs came from lower midle order.
irfan not included because he batted only in 2 matches.
now the bowlers.
zaheer khan bowled 13 overs in 4 matches ,got 3 wickets which came in the last match with an economy of 7.23.he didn't get a single wicket from his first 3 matches.so much for the pace spearhead.
ashwin bowled all his overs from his 4 matches,got 5 wickets with an impressive economy of 6.a couple of more wickets would have looked good.
balaji has had ups and down but from the 12 overs he bowled in 4 matches,he got 9 wickets with an ok economy of 7.33.
irfan had a tough tournament.he got 5 wickets from 5 matches but went for plenty as his economy of 8.64 would suggest.
blame it on short and wide deliveries.
yuvraj singh kinda made it up with his bowling just like afridi.he got 8 wickets from 5 matches with a very impressive economy of 5.92.no wonder dhoni was adamant about the 4 bowler theory.
harbhajan bowled just 6 overs in 2 matches but got 4 wickets and a impressive economy of 5.33.
conclusion:
except irfan all bowlers bowled economically and also took wickets so i see nothing wrong with the bowlers
its the batsmen who let the team down.
other than rohit,raina and kohli,all other batsmen failed and also wasted deliveries resulting in poor strike rates and there you have it.
the mystery behind why a team which won 4 out of 5 matches is out of semis.
its top order batsmen.
1 person likes this
6 responses
@pratik87 (1927)
• India
4 Oct 12
Hey stardust quite a detialed study but everyone knows that the batsmen have not performed well barring sharma and kohli. Raina too was not able to strike at a better rate. I think the main blame has to be directed towards the captain. He did not pick the right players and did not plan well enough. Let us hope we get a better captain now. There is no jinx.
@stardustcdsd (1856)
• India
4 Oct 12
true but barring Ajinkya Rahane & Manoj Tiwari,i dont recall any bursting talent missing in action.let me think for a minute.may be Ambati Rayudu? or were you saying about not using talents from the given squad like playing chawla and bhajji for 2 matches and dinda in just one match? but other problem is not many contendors for captainship.
yuvi just returned,gambhir out of form so is sehwag.bhajji is not even in playing XI.kohli too young to lead this team.problem is we had too many vice-captains under dhoni but not sure how many were groomed for captaincy.just notice how easily they replaced gambhir with kohli.
BTW missed you and your discussion.
@pratik87 (1927)
• India
4 Oct 12
yeah was a bit busy. great to see your discussions too so could not resist posting. Manoj tiwary is a good batsman but it was a complete waste to take him since there was no place in the middle order. It would have been wise to pick ajinkya rahane as an extra opener since both sehwag and gambhir were not in good form before the t20 world cup. Bhajji was also not used for the last match and i do not understand why. Dhoni said that they will look at the first match in the day which was Australia versus Pakistan and make a selection based on the conditions in that match. pakistan used 18 0vers of spin in the match and yet dhoni did not select a second spinner. We know south africa do not play spin well. For future captain how about gambhir who led kkr quite well. Kohli is a future captain for sure and there is still time till the next 50 over world cup so i do not see any issues in giving him the captaincy. Even dhoni was nothing before the first t20 world cup. Even Raina is not a bad option since he is regular in the one day and t20 side and is the most experienced batsman after yuvi.
@stardustcdsd (1856)
• India
4 Oct 12
as I said gambhir has been demoted from vice captain because virat the batsmen played well. That alone shows what management thinks of gambhir the captain. Virat showed his captain ability during u 19 world cup but making the youngest player the captain might raise ego issues among the seniors . But as you said dhoni was untested when he was made captain so a new captain might work wonders too. On the other note I think team india should have a separate side for t20s with younger players and let seniors take care of the longer formats. It worked on 2007 it might work on 2014 too.
@akash009 (452)
• India
5 Oct 12
hello,
i don't think that anyone should face the axe this time except rohit sharma. all the players were good except him. i don't know why team india keep playing him series after series. he is totally out of form and is a serious waste in such an important tournament. for the rest of the team we can say that they played quite okay. they won 4 out of the five matches they played. it was a good performance. it's really heart breaking that they were unable to reach the semis. but still they showed some good performance on the field. i am happy with their scores. they should really make some good changes in the team and make sure they reach the semis next time.
@ram_cv (16513)
• India
3 Oct 12
I actually think that despite not making the semis, India did well. They won 4 out of 5 matches and the one match they lost rain played a big part. This is the nature of T20 matches. Having said that, this might be a time for Dhoni to think if he wants to step down from T20 captaincy to focus on the other two formats. Similarly, some of the ageing stars like Sehwag should retire from this format to give some of the younger legs chance to settle by the time of the next world cup.
Cheers!
Ram
@rajesh_111 (595)
• India
3 Oct 12
As per stats given by you I would suggest a team building for future. Drop Dhoni, Sehwag,Zaheer, Irfan , balaji, chawla and Harbhajan . Pick the players from under 19 team .
I think this players are playing T20 internationals to just keep their place secured at IPL. If India is going to loose each and every important T20 tournament like this why not give the opportunity to youngsters.
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
3 Oct 12
good detailed analysis. I think M S dhoni the captain should be removed of captaincy and also player status and this responsibility given to another suitable person.
@subhojit10 (7375)
• India
3 Oct 12
Hey thanks a ton for such a detailed analysis of the Indian team's performance. Let us forget for a while whatever happened with India in the last two editions of T20 wold cup, but whatever happened with the Indian team this time was real heart breaking. It was very disappointing to see India failing to make it to the semis even if they won by a small margin. This is pure luck and i think India should have played this match with a much more vigor and passion but whatever happens, happens for the good. lets hope India does not repeat its mistake and focus on the coming matches in the future.
What say?
