68 more days now! It seems I have never waited for any World Cup more than this one. The reasons I have faith in not only the team but also the captain as mentioned in the first part of the story in my previous blog. Coming to the here and now, India playing a mostly second string side white washed the Kiwis in a five match ODI series. Nothing great about the victory as the same Kiwi side was blanked by Bangladesh a couple of months ago in Bangladesh. What needs to seen from this victory is that now at least India has a second string side which can pull off victories and be consistent. The new players on the Indian team are no longer worried or bothered by the so called pressures of the international cricket and are willing to express themselves under crunch situations without the fear of failure. The innings Yusuf Pathan played shows that. I am not going to the extent of saying that Yusuf as the player we want him to be has arrived. For it was a flat sub continent wicket, the opposition bowlers were not really fast to exploit his weakness against the short ball and similar arguements against him. Well, I agree to the point that he has to play similar knocks against better attacks in other parts of the world as well to truly prove the player in him but I am not talking about skills here. And playing spin bowling is a skill as well. What I mean to say is that how many people can hit Daniel Vettori out of the park at will. Not many included the best and the most destructive of batsmen across the world can do that. I have two points to make here for the selection of Yusuf Pathan in the Indian team for the world cup.
Since the world cup will be played on the flat low bounce pitches of the sub continent, Yusuf's ability as a bowler and as a batsman coming at number seven increases manifold in comparison to any other player who is going to play at that position for India. Add his more than good fielding and a strong arm which can rocket throws from the deep tilts the balance in his favour. His fastish off breaks can be very useful in the power plays as a surprise weapon which was very wisely used by Shane Warne during the IPL and he did the job against most of the teams. What happens predominantly in Yusuf Pathan's case that we expect him to score big and fast on the every opportunity thrown at him. People tend to forget that the IPL which made him the next big thing on the Indian scene was the one where he was sent to bat higher in the batting order. That helps as the batsman gets more time to settle down into his own groove. In most of the opportunities he got to bat for India were when hardly 7 to 10 overs were remaining in the innings. It becomes a different game then but such things are never accounted for. Even when Sachin batted at number 6 for India he did not score a single ODI century. It was only when he went out to open he did score his first ODI century. So, yes the more opportunity one gets to spend time at the crease the chances to score more and big increase as well.
Now the second point, why does Yusuf or any other sub continental batsman has to prove his mettle on the fast bouncy tracks of Australia or South Africa to be hailed as a good batsmen. I have never heard similar cries for australian batsmen or english batsmen who fail miserably against spin on the sub continental pitches. And I am advocating Yusuf's case with the perspective that this world cup will be played on the so called flat tracks and batsmen friendly pitches of the sub continent.
Just before I sign off, one more point worth mentioning is when they do make bowler friendly tracks (Spinner's paradise named minefield by the foreign experts of cricket), not many test matches last even three days. And it draws a lot of criticism from the experts. However, they tend to ignore the results when green pastures await the teams from sub continent. Double standards should never have a place in sports.
Here is a player who is a definite match winner. The external environment is in favour of him. If somebody has some common sense left, one should know this famous adage-"Horses for courses". My money is on Yusuf Pathan!
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