Indian cricket team’s tail of troubles

LONDON, JUNE 6: Where does the tail of India's batting begin? Some uncharitable critics answer the question by saying,"with Azharudd...

LONDON, JUNE 6: Where does the tail of India’s batting begin? Some uncharitable critics answer the question by saying,"with Azharuddin". That only reflects the public dismay with the current batting form of the Indian captain. But the truth is that when all-rounders like South Africa’s Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock, Pakistan’s Wasim Akram, Azhar Mehmood and Abdul Razzaq, Australia’s Steve Waugh and Tom Moody, New Zealand’s Chris Cairns and Chris Harris and Zimbabwe’s Neil Johnson are playing key roles in these teams, the Indian tail rarely wags.

Although Nayan Mongia has a Test century to his credit and an average of around 20.00 in one-dayers, the tail really begins with the Indian wicketkeeper. An occasional good knock by him is far outnumbered by the let-downs.

Pakistan’s Moin Khan hit a sizzling 63 in 56 balls against South Africa yesterday in yet another instance of his fighting abilities which have repeatedly come to the fore in crunch situations, this World Cup in particular.

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Contrast thiswith the miserable two runs Mongia made when he came in after a great stand of 141 between Ajay Jadeja and Robin Singh to give India faint, very faint, chances of pulling off a miracle against the Australians on Friday.

Mongia scratched around for a short while even as an infuriated Jadeja wanted him to go for shots and run faster between the wickets. And then, the man playing his 137th one-day tie simply threw away his wicket with a run out when the situation demanded that he help add as many runs as possible so that India can improve their net run rate, the only way then can, if at all they do, of reaching the semi-final.

Mongia either does not perform at all, or on the few occasions he gets going, plays reckless shots to gift his wicket away instead of finishing the job with victory near. At Chennai, in the first Test against Pakistan, Mongia brought India close to victory in a big partnership with Sachin Tendulkar, but went for a needless heave immediately after the star batsman was dismissed togift-wrap the Test to Pakistan.

Another example came at Leicester against Zimbabwe. Mongia seemed to be playing sensibly when he gave an almighty heave to be comprehensively bowled to trigger a collapse and India lost by three runs.

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Mongia, who was once suspended for a match with Manoj Prabhakar for slow batting in a 1994 one-day tie at Kanpur, seldom performs with the bat but Indian selectors seem to be oblivious of his shortcoming as well as that of the longest tail in any international team.

Indian tail-enders suffer the jitters at the barest hint of pressure, unlike those from other teams who revel when their main batsmen have failed.

And they are not inspired by feats from those like South African Lance Klusener, who hit 46 not out off 41 balls in his continued brilliance as a lower order batsman in their dramatic win over Pakistan.

The Indian team management here seems to be oblivious of this major shortcoming which is telling in India’s sputtering campaign which looks to end prematurelybarring a miracle.

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This despite India playing the highest number of one-day ties — they played over 40 last year. The team is rightly branded as perennial poor chasers and proves it every time out chasing, immaterial of the size of the target.

Late order collapses are a regular feature with even Javagal Srinath, considered to be an all-rounder of some merit, rarely showing the grit to stick around and see his team through.