Pakistan’s chronic ‘multi-skipper’ symptom raises its ugly head again

If you are talking about a side that has issues due to a staggering number of present, ex and wannabe skippers in the team, then Pakistan is the unquestioned focus of such discussion. The present side has been under a lot of pressure due to reasons that are beyond their talent or their inherent abilities—I guess, we all understand that in terms of raw talent, there is no team that can catch-up with Pakistan. The team did have some degree of success playing in the T20 matches and Afridi looked like someone who could take charge in an unchallenged manner in the ODIs and T20s and Younis Khan seemed to be doing reasonably well as the test captain. But then, the old symptom of Pakistani selectors doing something totally inconceivable and avoidable happened—Mohammud Yousuf has been made the new skipper and Afridi’s displeasure about the entire issue is crystal clear. Yousuf is a great batsman no doubt, but his leadership is passive. Further, there really was no need to bring him in at a time when the team is in a difficult situations, trying to reassemble itself. The results of this utter stupidity by the PCB administrators is there to be seen—the Pakistani team is playing like a bunch of reluctant schoolboys and the Aussies are walking all over them in each match since the day the Pakistan team landed Down Under.

Watson and Marsh—Next ‘Big’ Aussie Opening Pair?

They aren’t Hayden & Gilchrist by a long shot, but still, the Aussie opening pair of Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh could the opening solution that Australia had been searching for some time. While Watson has impressed everyone with his graduation into a mainstream batsman, Marsh was always considered the next big thing to arrive from the competitive Aussie domestic circuit. I first saw him in the first season of IPL and he still looks as impressive he did when I first saw him straight-lift bowlers over their heads, making the ball often step over the boundary ropes. Both the batsmen don’t have any particular vulnerability to spin or pace and with Watson having proven himself in the test match arena recently, this could well be the opening pair that will be uniformly used in T20s, tests and ODIs. The only unsightly thing—that absolutely ridiculous dance cum hopping routine that Watson bursts into while bowling.

After Test-match glory, India's poor going in T20s is re-surfacing

It might have been largely unnoticed owing to India’s decent ODI status and their extremely improved test rankings, but their showing in the T20s has been on the downslide ever since they became champions at the inaugural T20 World Championship. It is hard to pinpoint the reason for this but it seems that the bowling department isn't able to come good, as there are no seamers who can hit the block-hole with regularity.
It is precisely the same reason, turned opposite, that is working for Pakistan’s success as the current World Champions of T20 and their continued success in this format. With Umar Gul and Mohammed Aamer bowling a good, yorkish length repeatedly and with Ajmal able to fox-out the batsmen, scoring runs against them isn't very easy. Similar is the case with the Lankans, who have Malinga and Kulusekera who generally are adept at bowling tight overs when the batsmen are going crazy. The same cannot be said about India wherein they have more line-and-length bowlers who are also handicapped in terms of bowling some pacey, short-stuff that can curtail the run making.

Sehewag's ODI predicament

There is no other way of saying that it was extremely sad to see Sehewag get out on 293, just seven runs short of becoming the cricketer to have scored most test centuries. Looking at his amazing test record, I wonder what is the reason behind his modest average of just about 33.00, considering that most ODIs are high-scoring run affairs, these days. Further, it seems that the ODI format just fails to bring the best out of Viru, irrespective of how mediocre the bowling may be. His humble average in the 50-over format could be due to the fact that he is not sure about the run rate that he should be maintaining in comparision to test cricket wherein run rate is not his first priority and he can select balls to hit or like the T20s wherein he can madly slash at every ball, since that is what is expected of every opening batsmen batting for just 20 overs. Still, considering his record and his appetite of runs, Sehewag's ODI batting average is a baffling fact.