Indian team gets a break before 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup takes off

#2015iccworldcup #carltonmidtriseries India take on arch rivals Pakistan in the opening game of the 2015 ICC Cricket World cup in Adelaide on 15 February 2015 and, given their miserable showing in the Carlton Mid tri series, BCCI has agreed to give them a break. This has been reported in sports.ndtv.com dated 1 February 2015.
The intention is to allow the players to regroup themselves and make an effort to put the bad show behind and rise as one to defend the title.
When India won the last time around in 2011, the venue was India – this time it is in Australia. They have been in Australia for quite some time and should have got acclimatized by now, hopefully.
Moreover, in 2011, India had stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Virendra Shewag – but, alas, this time, those names are absent and India would have to rely on a whole bunch of newbies. Newbies in the context of the World Cup even though most of them are exciting players. The worry is their performances have lacked consistency. They have been flashes in the pan and, at the world cup level, what is necessary is determination and consistency.
Captain M S Dhoni has an unenviable task ahead of him – he has to extract the best from his players and, the whole country would wait with bated breath to see how best he can make use of the resources at his disposal.
As per information – the team has been booked into a resort near Adelaide where they would have the option to switch off their mobile phones and relax and recover comfortably. It seems Sourav Ganguli had suggested that the players need to send some time with their families. Accordingly, permission was granted to a few players who wanted to go to Melbourne or Sydney to meet their relatives.
India is in Group B with Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland and the UAE.

India is out of Carlton Mid tri-series – what will happen in the 2015 World Cup

#carltonmidtriseries #dhoni #2015worldcup The do-or-die match against England in the WACA stadium, Perth has showed up the shortcomings of the Indian cricket team that is defending the World Cup and, the continuous failures of Indian players with both the bat and the ball is a matter if grave concern for captain M S Dhoni. With hardly a fortnight left for start of 2015 World Cup and the Indian team in disarray, one wonders just how India will defend the title.
The performances of our players are like flashes in the pan – our batting stalwarts love to throw caution to the winds and, when they fail to live up to expectations, the same is justified by saying that he will come out of the bad patch. Unfortunately, the bad patch keeps tagging along.
As to our bowlers, they love to be inconsistent. They bowl wide balls, they do not want to bowl to a set field and pay the price. And, when it comes to bowling in the death overs, they are just clueless and, at times, gift the match away. Then there are the injuries – most of our players have bandages that they love to show off. It is strange as to why they keep getting injured and sit out matches. Is it that they want to be in the team and earn the benefits without playing?
It is a sad state of affairs that India are not able to bat out the 50 overs – the match at Perth finished in 44 overs.

India lose in Brisbane – beaten hollow by England in Carlton Mid tri-series ODI

#INDvsENG #carltonmidtriseries #gabba #2015CricketWorldCup It was yet another collapse of India at the Gabba in Brisbane when England beat them hollow by 9 wickets to earn a bonus point in the Carlton Mid tri-series. It was England’s biggest win against India. One wonders why the captain opted to go in for batting after winning the toss when it is a fact that Indians are good at chasing targets instead of setting targets.
The poor form at the top order continued with Shikhar Dhawan raising doubts of whether he would find a place in the playing eleven of the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Virat Kohli, India’s test captain failed yet again and this was strange.
As to Suresh Raina, he wanted to blast off from the word go to prove a point that he had arrived but was stumped – he had gone way outside his crease and committed suicide.
Captain M S Dhoni with Stuart Binny tried to mend the innings but could not and India crumbled to end at 153 runs – it was at least 100 runs short – and could not even complete the quota of 50 overs and finished in 39.3 overs. This score of 153 was their lowest ever ODI score against England – the previous low was 158 at Headingley in 1996.
Such display of attitude and irresponsible play is not what India would have wanted as the World Cup draws near and it would require complete attention of the captain, the team manager as well as the director to work out better strategies.

Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli fail - India lose the Melbourne ODI against Australia

#IndiaVsAus #MitchellStarc #RohitSharma #carltonmidtriseries #2015cricketworldcup In spite of the hype surrounding the Indian ODI team, it turned out to be a forgettable Sunday when the Indians could not put up a sufficiently big score to overawe the Aussies. With the fabled batting lineup that India boasts of, a total of over 300 was on the cards but, they struggled to post 267 for the loss of 8 wickets – and it was chickenfeed for the home team.
The devastating spell of Mitchell Starc who bagged 6 of the wickets for 43 runs allowed Australia to win by 4 wickets with six balls left.
Rohit Sharna did score a century and Raina chipped in with another 50 plus, but the failures of Shikhar Dhawan (who perished in his famous chasing the balls outside the off stump) and that of Virat Kohli plus that of captain M S Dhoni added to India’s batting woes.
And – to cap the miseries, the Indian pace battery failed to make any impression – neither did the spinners. All in all, Indians were outplayed in all departments and Australia won its match with ease at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the Carlton-Mid triseries.
Let us hope the Indians regain their form and, with hardly one month for the 2015 Cricket World Cup to begin, the captain should try to ensure that only the best payers get selected. Past performances are no guarantee of future glories.