England captain Alastair Cook won the toss and elected to bat against India in the first ODI at the new Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot on Friday.
Despite losing the three-match ODI series against Pakistan, a consolation victory in the third and final ODI has give MS Dhoni & Co. the momentum ahead of the five-match ODI series against England.
Dhoni will also have one eye on the ICC ODI Rankings as a 5-0 victory in the series will take India to top spot. With criticism coming in from all quarters, Dhoni would love his team to come on top at the end of the series.
As far as England is concerned, this series will be a test of their number one ranking in ODIs. Currently they are marginally ahead of South Africa and will hope to stun the home side like they did during the Test series.
England have handed Joe Root his ODI debut while India have not included Cheteshwar Pujara, giving Ajinkya Rahane another chance at the top of the order.
Teams:
India: Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda
England: Alastair Cook(c), Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Samit Patel, Tim Bresnan, James Tredwell, Steven Finn, Jade Dernbach
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We are a nation of stargazers. On the streets, a face seen on television, even in the most inane show that assaults intelligence and sensibility, brings traffic to a standstill.
We are fascinated by the spotlight. That’s our dream, our holy grail. That is why we train our young kids to dance to raunchy numbers, gyrating their baby hips and rudimentary bosoms, to qualify for some obnoxious dance show that will pitchfork them into the living room of millions.
We love celebrities and Page 3. We have 24x7 shows which enable us to know about the details of their private lives. We like to know what they have for breakfast, the colour of their bed sheets and who sleeps on them.
If we are honest – which is not really our strongest asset – we will acknowledge that cricket tickles our imagination less as a sport and more as a reality show. We love the cricketers. Not because they toil hard and sacrifice most of the best years in their lives for a game they love. After all, that is the story of so many thousands who never make it even to Indian Premier League (IPL) – thousands of faceless drudges in countless clubs, maidans, academies and even Ranji Trophy sides we don’t really care about. We love the superstars because they are celebrities, always in the news, who step out of the field and endorse products. We love to know which of them is dating the latest Bollywood nymphet. We also love the cheerleaders who shake their hips and more after every notable and not so notable event in the modern day manifestation of the game.
And we do love to collect trophies – those quaint brushes with celebrityhood that lends a splash of borrowed glamour to our lives. We love being photographed with superstars, love having them on our Facebook friend lists. We go overboard when they wave at us. We love to follow them on Twitter. We love to send them Tweets using the @ utility, and are on seventh heaven when we are retweeted.
Dissent and insults
Yet, we do not only worship and deify them. We are besotted by a nagging sense of unease when we know how much money they make. Forget the talent they are blessed with, the hours they put in – the enormous sacrifices they make to get to that level. Sitting on the couch, we find that we make much less than them. And that produces sparks of dissent.
When we dwell on the money, we revel in tearing apart the biggest sporting heroes we have ever been blessed with – calling them selfish, calling them a money-grabbers. We can tar and feather him with all our creative zeal which finds expression in millions of forums. Sparks of spontaneous wit are used with nonchalance, to pull down the greatest cricketers we have ever had.
And if we can do this to Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar, in methods suited to their respective day and age, does someone as insignificant as Ravindra Jadeja stand a chance? He cannot really bat, cannot really bowl … can only score triple hundreds against weak domestic sides.
What? He was the best bowler in the series against Pakistan? Bollocks, we don’t care about numbers… The only number we see infront of us is the money he makes - and it is outrageous.
We have thrown rotten tomato and orange peels at Gavaskar. We reserve the right to heap abuses on Sachin Tendulkar on discussion forums. In these circumstances, can someone like Jadeja get away with it?
We have abused him often enough in the past, about his performances and the atrocious disparity between his pay-cheque and his runs and wickets. He seems to have absorbed all that, they don’t affect him anymore. But, we know where to hit so that it hurts the most.
We have long experience in mental disintegration. Mohammad Azharuddin knows all about it. In 1998, Azhar was at his beloved Eden Gardens, having taken India to the brink of victory with a classy 163 against the Australians. He was standing in the slips in the second innings, when a ball passed Nayan Mongia and sped towards the fence. The captain pivoted and chased with the lithe panther like strides, that fielder the likes of whom we have never seen in India, and stopped the ball with a slide just inside the boundary line, keeping the batsmen down to three. And we knew where to hit so that it hurt. There was one of us right where Azhar was retrieving his cap, who bellowed in a proud voice amidst the facelessness provided by the massive crowd. The cry was heard well into the field of action: “Sabaash, Sangeeta!”
The section seated next to the fine boundary where Azhar had fielded the ball had roared in laughter and titters. And the man had just glanced up at the crowd, picked up his cap and returned to his place in the slips.
That’s after all what these celebrity cricketers are supposed to do. Digest the insults that we fling on them with our ‘brilliant sparks of witticism.’ And if that same man is later accused of match-fixing, we cannot forgive him. He has committed the cardinal sin of letting his fans down - those very fans who sat next to the fence shouting “Sabaash, Sangeeta” when he was unleashing his brilliant effort on the field. The loyalty of cricketers and performances that make us feel good are after all our birthright.
Yes, we do have experience in these matters. So, we decide to taunt Jadeja with remarks that are insensitively communal – using ‘Bapu/Darbar’ and Saurashtra to generate the local flavour. That shoots mercilessly at him and his community. And we have a new technology enhanced weapon to deliver these insults right into his sphere of awareness, from which he cannot shut himself off. We tweet the insults tagging the man himself. We get lots of kudos too. After all, we fans stick together – and ganging together on one who cannot defend himself is another of those traits we specialise in. Perhaps the only thing we specialise in.
Social Media is so wonderful. We can live virtually next to all the celebrities and can get under their skin from the comfort of our homes. We can hurl abuses at a stretch, pushing some buttons, taking time off to blacken our Facebook profile pictures to protest against the Delhi gang-rape. Social Network has made it easy for us follow cricket by indulging in insults, as well as becoming social activists without getting up from our arm-chairs. These duties of the honest Indian citizen performed, we can go back to sharing all the Rajnikanth jokes at our leisure.
And would you believe the cheek of this Jadeja? Instead of letting it hit where it hurts and swallowing it in meek silence that he owes the Indian cricket fan, he decides to send a Direct Message asking us to shut the f*** up, threatening us with consequences otherwise.
This is a disturbing trend. These cricketing celebrities are not swallowing the shit we throw at them anymore. A few days back, when the Virender Sehwag maniacs among us had heaped uncouth slangs upon Aakash Chopra for daring to criticise our hero, he had responded by retweeting our brickbats. What on earth was that meant to be, I ask you! We had provided strongly-worded constructive feedback for him to digest and adhere to in his next article, and he had made the confidential communications public, so that the world could witness the full colour of our rather restricted vocabulary.
And now, Jadeja has decided to respond with a Direct Message. He is not fit to use Social Media if he cannot control these urges to respond to abuses of fans in kind. And he used some f-words too, which as the world knows is the sole prerogative of the hordes of cricket fans. Sorry state of affairs indeed.
(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix)
Battered and bruised by yet another series defeat, India's struggling cricketers will seek to restore some pride when they go into the third and final one-dayer against arch-rivals Pakistan at Delhi on Sunday with the future of some of the under-performing stars at stake.
The collective failure of the top order batsmen even in home conditions has hurt the team badly in recent times and the hosts will need a huge spark of inspiration to prevent the spirited Pakistanis from achieving a 3-0 clean sweep.
Clearly, the pressure will be on the Indians who have been plagued by an inexplicable form slump of their star batsmen while the limited and inexperienced bowling resources have compounded the misery for the hosts who have now sunk to a new low with the recent debacles.
With the series already out of their grasp, the Indians may experiment by giving a chance to some of their bench players but whether they can change the team's sliding fortunes remains to be seen in a day-night game which will start at noon to neutralise the dew factor.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in good form with the bat, has been at a loss to explain the repeated failures and there have been suggestions that he should promote himself up the order considering the poor form of the top half.
The hosts lost the first game in Chennai by six wickets and the second in Kolkata by 85 runs to give their arch foes their first series win on Indian soil since 2004-05.
Unless the Indians put up a far better display, the Ferozeshah Kotla could be a witness another drubbing for Dhoni and his struggling men.
Ajinkya Rahane, who has surprisingly not played a single match despite his decent showing in the two T20 games prior to the ODI series, is almost certain to feature in the playing eleven tomorrow.
The two experienced openers -- Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir -- have invariably failed to give a good start and that has hurt the team badly. The Indians may contemplate benching either Sehwag or Gambhir and let Rahane open the innings.
The form of Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina has been patchy and none of them have shown consistency nor have they shouldered the responsibility.
In the absence of retired greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, the experienced players in the team have not shown the willingness to take the batting load.
Dhoni has acknowledged time and again that the batting has let the team down.
"Everybody knows it's disappointing. When you are going through transition, you want your senior players to perform and groom the juniors. Once two-three wickets start falling, you need someone to soak up the pressure and consolidate the innings", Dhoni said.
"But again our batting was disappointing. It's important to have wickets in hand in the end. If you have wickets in hand, it's possible to score 80-odd runs in the last 10 overs," Dhoni said.
India's bowling also does not have the bite to pose much problems for the strong Pakistani batting line-up which has been well-served by left-handed opener Nasir Jamshed who has cracked back-to-back centuries.
The trio of Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda and Bhuvneshwar Kumar neither have the pace nor the consistency to evoke any confidence while spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have also not been in the of best form.
The absence of a genuine all-rounder in the team has hurt the Indians, particularly with the new rules coming into play.
The new fielding rules, which allow only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle, have made it difficult for Dhoni to use his part-timers like Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina for their full quota of 10 overs.
That has really handicapped the Indians who have always preferred an additional batsman with the part-timers filling up the fifth bowler's slot.
The home team may toy with the idea of giving a chance to rookie paceman Mohammad Shami Ahmed and leg spinner Amit Mishra, both of whom have warmed the benches in the first two games.
While India's cup of woes has been brimming, it is a totally different story for the Pakistanis who have found everything going in their favour.
The batting has clicked with Jamshed in stunning form while the experienced Mohammad Hafeez and Younis Khan have also chipped in with useful contributions.
But it is their bowling which has really made the difference, particularly the potent pace trio of Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan and Umar Gul.
Junaid has shown an exceptional ability to swing the ball and used the damp conditions in Chennai to devastating effect by ripping through India's top order.
Junaid was impressive in Kolkata also where he got reverse swing going and the jittery Indians must find a way to tackle him.
Irfan, the towering 7 feet one inch speedster, has also proved to be quite a handful for the Indians, getting the ball to bounce disconcertingly while Gul has also been impressive.
In the spin department, Saeed Ajmal can prove to be a wily customer while Hafeez and Shoaib Malik are good at doing the containing job.
Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq could not have asked for a better show from his teammates who have outplayed the Indians in every department of the game.
"Indian batsmen are struggling for quite a long time. But I think our bowlers exploited the conditions better. Normally we get flat pitches here in India. But both the pitches -- in Chennai and Kolkata -- were challenging for batsmen," he said.
Misbah is now looking for a clean sweep and it should not be difficult.
The toss may play a big role given the dew factor and the chilly winter conditions. The team which wins the toss, may opt to bowl first as dew may hamper spinners later.
Though the match has been rendered inconsequential, a full house is expected at the Ferozeshah Kotla with tickets being sold out for the Sunday showdown.
Teams:
India: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma.
Pakistan: Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Kamran Akmal (wk), Azhar Ali, Shoaib Malik, Junaid Khan, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan
Time: 12:00 local time (12:00 IST)-M R Mishra
An insipid India slumped to yet another series defeat with a pathetic display as arch-rivals Pakistan thrashed the hosts by 85 runs in the second cricket one-day match to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series on Thursday.
Riding on opener Nasir Jamshed's second consecutive century, Pakistan posted 250 all out and then shot out the Indians for a paltry 165 to record a convincing victory with two overs to spare at the Eden Gardens in the east Indian city Kolkata.
It was yet another woeful display by the famed Indian batting line-up, which has been struggling for sometime now and has been largely responsible for the team's forgettable results in recent times.
The huge defeat to the arch-rivals will now raise questions on the future of some of India's under-performing batting stars, who have let the team down more often than not.
Jamshed (106) notched up his third ODI century, all three coming against India, but Pakistan suffered a dramatic collapse after being at a healthy 141 for no loss at the mid-way stage. Mohammed Hafeez was the other contributor with a rollicking 76 off 74 balls.
The floodgates opened up after the dismissal of Hafeez as none of the other batsmen could hang around for long on a slow Eden Garden track, which made stroke-making difficult after the ball became older.
The Indians needed a good start from their struggling openers -- Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag -- but it did not materialise yet again, putting pressure on the jittery middle-order.
Sehwag (31), Gambhir (11), Virat Kohli (6), Yuvraj Singh (9) and Suresh Raina (18) perished in quick succession to give the visitors the upper hand in what eventually turned out to be a lop-sided contest.
Skipper Dhoni, who scored a heroic unbeaten 113 in the first ODI in Chennai, again provided some resistance with a cautious and unbeaten 54 but wickets kept tumbling at the other end to nullify his efforts.
The series defeat against Pakistan marks another low for the struggling team which suffered an embarrassing Test series debacle against England at home and levelled a T20 series 1-1.
This defeat has also rendered the third and final ODI to be held at Ferozshah Kotla stadium in Delhi on Sunday inconsequential.
Brief Scores: Pakistan 250 all-out in 48.3 overs (Nasir Jamshed 103, Mohammad Hafeez 76; Ravindra Jadeja 3 for 41, Ishant Sharma 3 for 34) bt India 165 all-out in 48 overs (MS Dhoni 54* Virender Sehwag 31, Saeed Ajmal 3 for 20, Junaid Khan 3 for 39, Umar Gul 2 for 24) by 85 runs.
Man of the Match: Nasir Jamshed
