Faded Blue - The conclusion!

You got to admire Indian skipper for admitting the fact that from here on it gonna be a real test of character not only for him but the team as whole. A team that supposed to defend the title got out from the tournament prematurely was extremely embarrassing for every inidians not only for the portion of the crowd which booed the England players in their own home ground but also every Indians around the globe who watched the match in television channels! Nobody could have imagined it would be this bad when Sourav Ganguly said before the T20 World Cup in England real test for Dhoni will come very soon, first it was West Indies and now England tried and succeeded to defeat India with short balls, as they said “ perfume balls”! The whole Indian team including coaches and other staffs need a reality check for hyping it up instead of pumping it up! Let Sachin’s tongue turn gold as he is the first one to predict this Indian team will win the cup again! The Indians couldn’t win even a coffee cup if that is what Sachin meant in any stretch of imagination; instead they looked up and panicked to see the short balls going like meteoroids! I heard Suresh Raina complained to the captain and coach for being targeted by short balls; don’t be surprised if he files a case to ICC against England players for throwing short balls at him!

It was like " a midsummer night's dream" the victorious Indian team arrived in Mumbai after winning the inaugural T20 cup. Well, a lot of water had flown under the bridge after those happy days of 2007 when Dhoni lead a bunch of youngsters to triumph in South Africa, now even Dhoni’s strongest supporters in the team are having two minds to support him!

Dhoni hailed as a thinking captain, always seemed to have the Midas touch about him, everything had taken for granted that he simply can’t do wrong, even his miscalculation became right calculated and swept on by the euphoria in the wake of his stunning deeds. However his recent inability to carry Cehnnai Super Kings in IPL-2 despite of having a boasted team besides his repeated failure as a big hitter in slog overs contributed to a sharp decline in his cricketing fortunes if not endorsements.

Dhoni will come under increased scrutiny in coming days, the Captain who can’t do wrong did everything wrong in this T20, rather strange decisions one should say like how he promoted Jadeja ahead of himself or Yuvraj, omission of better all rounder Irfan Pathan to replace with RP Singh who just can’t bear to stand in front of the stumps for batting etc. I am sure Dhoni would know his team is ill-prepared for the tournament after the wretched issue over Sehwag that cast a shadow besides back to back cricket that drained player’s body and mind alike.

When the billions of Indian cricket fans were shell shocked over their team’s premature exit from the T20 World cup, it was no surprise for former England captain Nasser Hussein. In his view the Indians exposed in conditions that afforded movements besides their notorious inability to handle short pitched balls. In short India had succumbed under unfriendly pitch that behaved like a drunken bitch!

For sure Dhoni had made some blunders this time, sending Jadeja for stabilizing the innings as he said in presentation party is a good thinking, but he failed to measure a most important fact, how long Jadeja would take to stabilize the innings?! By the time he stabilized the innings the game was over, the opposition won the match! The batsmen who came after him were under tremendous pressure to score the runs. Yuvraj bored of standing inside his crease and came out for a change, wicket keeper rattled his stumps in a flash, Dhoni came and hit hard squire cuts and powerful lofted shots to score some singles when a four or six was the order of the moment! Sticking the bat out of the off stump hoping for the ball to come and hit is not a crime, but you can’t expect that ball to go for a six! It is undoubtedly a big crime that deserves capital punishment! Finally Dhoni gave up and took singles to give the strike to Yousef Pathan hoping he would hit three consecutive sixes to win the game!

Despite of odd victories in abroad the stirring performance in Australia and few outstanding batting displays; Indians are still ill-equipped to bat in conditions other than at home. The Indian performance in abroad was never been consistent enough for us to believe that the Indian cricketers have come of age!