Was India Too Cautious against the Windies?

Hi to all Indian cricket fans who stayed up till 1:00 last night to watch the India Vs Windies match and to the ones who saw the Indian innings and went to sleep. I am going to tell you guys what I thought about the performance of the Men in Blue.

Team Selection:

Dhoni’s team selections has been worrying me right from the time he decided to play Jacob Oram who neither batted well nor bowled really well ahead of Ntini, when he was leading the Chennai Super Kings. I am disappointed with his team selection once again in this Super8 match against the West Indies. I really don’t know how he would justify his decision to pick 5 regular (so called) bowlers for a T20 game when you have part-timers like Raina, Yousuf and Rohit, who have done so well with the ball in the recently concluded IPL.

Top Order Collapse:

The Indian top order which comprises of the make shift opener Rohit, Gambhir and Raina (finally Dhoni realizes that No.3 is not his birth right), didn’t last long, thanks to some great seam bowling and ordinary shot selection. This forced the middle order to play a damage control role and play fewer(?) attacking shots.

Super Cautious Approach:

The first defensive step that we took when we went into the match was picking 5 bowlers to tie down Gayle & co. The immediate effect of this showed when Dhoni and Yuvraj were batting. They were reluctant to go for their shots because they knew that they had just one recognized batsman (The Older Pathan) to follow. Imagine if they had an extra batsman (Ravindra Jadega) in place of a bowler they could have gone for big shots much earlier.

Another worrying aspect of this defeat is that MSD has forgotten that it’s his hard hitting ability that got him into the Indian team. Dhoni in his attempt to play an anchor’s role in the team has almost stopped using his bat to clear the fence at ease. Looks like this Samson's power has gone with his long hair.

In the end, we scored a below par score and the Windies chased it’s score quite easily. Dwayne Bravo had a perfect day on the field and won the ‘man of the match’ award hands down.

What Next?

We have two more matches in Super8, one against England the other against the mighty Proteas. We need to win both the games convincingly to get into the semifinals. We have to wait and watch if Dhoni’s men change their approach and retain the T20 World Cup.