Cricket

Did India learn from the 2nd defeat in England

I believe that India lost to England in the 3rd match due to 3 reasons :

a) Fielding not good enough – If you saw England, they must have saved at least 30-40 runs by good fielding. Not only this, they took 3 excellent catches (apart from the the ordinary ones). The idea of this article is to assert that the Indian camp needs to get some criteria going which prevents unfit players to pass certain criteria before inclusion in the team.

b) Bad running between the wickets – This has always been a problem for India.The only time when India could be proud of this was when Kaif and Yuvraj took on the pitch a few years ago. But as of now, the running is not only shabby, but the bad fitness levels of some players add to the problem. I fail to understand why Dravid sent in Powar (when Yuvraj was out) at such a crucial position when India needed good running between the wickets.

c) Bad start – Being 40/50 for no loss at the end of 10 overs not going to count as a good start if the first few overs as as shabby as what they were in this match. For God sake, Ganguly scored his first run after 13 balls. It does not matter what these players make at the end of the day but it is the pressure right from the beginning that matters. Look at England, the pressure was on India inspite of their regular loss of wickets.

The Indians really need to make corrections in their complete system (lets hope the BCCI upcoming clubs and ICL will help) and stress more on fielding and other factors indicated above. They need to re-think their strategy and work on a better master-plan. Their batting line-up is much stronger than England although the bowling is stronger at the other end.

What will be the key in the 4th one-dayer is the fielding and running between wickets. Lets hope they make the necessary corrections. All the best Team India.