By Ajit Vijaykumar
Brisbane (Mail Today): There is no place to hide in international cricket, especially when your captain points a finger at you in public. After being ripped apart by Australia in their tri-series match here on Sunday, the Indians were left to lick their wounds. Sadly, they had to do it while enduring admonishment from MS Dhoni.
In the post-match press conference, Dhoni made it clear that the current side will always remain behind when it comes to fielding and that Australia and Sri Lanka will exploit the massive drawback. And he took names.
“It’s not only these three players (Tendulkar, Sehwag and Gambhir) that we are talking about. We also have quite a few other players who are slow on the field. It (playing them together) will just add on to that, and we will be left with just two or three good fielders. These are not bad fielders, but in these conditions with big outfields, they are slightly on the slower side. Once the ball goes to them, the Australians or the Sri Lankans will try to exploit them, by taking twos and threes. It will put more pressure on their body,” he said.
The senior members of the Indian team aren’t used to such name-calling in team meetings, let alone in public. While he has been known to call it as he sees it, the captain is now letting loose his views left, right and centre. The danger of such assessments is that it alienates players. There is a sharp edge to the frankness of Dhoni and it is cutting the wrong way.
India were never known for their fielding and with the number of passengers in the side, runs were never going to be stopped. The team is fiddling with a rotation policy and not filling the side with youngsters so as to provide stability. In the process, the youngsters have been given a free reign, and the seniors stationed on a merry-go-round. The not-so-old brigade too hasn’t set the stage alight with its fielding. So if there are only three or four good fielders in the squad, Dhoni’s angst seems unwarranted.
The Indian side didn’t arrive at this juncture from a time capsule. The management knew what lay ahead when they proceeded with the likes of Sehwag, Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan on the big outfields here. So if it pains Dhoni so much, it would be advisable to play a young team. If not, keep going.
Reproduced From Mail Today. Copyright 2012. MTNPL. All rights reserved.
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