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| Image Credit: wikimedia commons Image Design: Bala Kumar |
Hello Friends,
I am sure
right now most of you finding it difficult to get back to normalcy without
the excitement of world cup cricket as the last one & half month had been a treat for the cricket
lovers. What an amazing tournament this year's ODI world cup proved to be. Even though it
was a heartbreak for the billions of Indian fans on the finale day, quality of
cricket played over a month was astounding. In a time when there had been constant talks regarding the future of one day cricket such high quality tournament is a real booster.
Fair to say that eventually two best teams of the tournament played the final
and the best team on the finale day reached the ultimate glory. Other than a
blockbuster final major talking points have been defending champions' ’dismal
performance, not so impressive show by Asian teams barring India & Afghanistan,
dominance of men in blue, some extraordinary individual performances, controversy surrounding Angelo Mathews being
the first international cricketer to get timed out in a match against Bangladesh and the common thread of
injuries to players amongst the teams.
Talking
about teams South Africa really raised a hope for ending their trophy drought. But
it wasn’t supposed to be. Another knockout game and yet another heartbreak for
the Proteas. It could have been an ideal farewell for Quinton de Kock who was
playing his last tournament in the format. The more we thought about England’s
poor show the more puzzled we became as that sort of a performance was a real
shock from a team of their stature. Despite lot of expectations based on the
performance leading to the tournament Pakistan yet again failed to deliver. New
Zealand were steady and competitive as usual but a thought or two must be given
by their board on their results in ICC knockouts games. There had been enough
talks over the years on nurturing associate nations to improve their
performances in big tournaments but there is hardly any action. Performance of
Netherlands is a testament to the fact that they can get better if given the
opportunity to play against top teams more frequently. Even performance of
Afghanistan was really encouraging. At one point of time they were fighting for
a semi final berth.
This world
cup has seen some of the individual brilliances that are difficult to replicate in future. With all probability this was the last ODI world cup for a few
stalwarts of the game. We may not see the likes of David Warner, Rohit Sharma,
Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Quinton de Kock (Already announced ODI
retirement), Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult in the next ODI world cup. Thus all of
them tried their best to make it a memorable one for their respective countries. Maxwell’s breathtaking double
hundred against Afghanistan will be remembered for ages as one of the best
match winning knocks under tremendous pressure. Kohli’s consistency in the
tournament once again established his supremacy in the format. Rohit Sharma’s
aggressive intent at the top was a treat to watch. David Warner loves the big stage and this world cup was no different for him. He smashed 500+ runs including twin centuries. Quinton de Kock looked in ominous
touch for his last appearance in the format too. Not to forget the bowlers.
Despite white ball format being mostly batter friendly these days the bowlers
did stamp their authority. Starc, Bumrah, Shami, Boult, Zampa, Shaheen Afridi,
Jadeja, Cummins, Hazlewood, Madushanka, Santner, Rashid khan were not the ones
to get bogged down by the batters’ onslaught. Even the future generation was not too far behind. Likes of Head, Shreyas Iyer, Markram, Labuschagne, Rachin
Ravindra, Samarawickrama, Daryl Mitchell, Coetzee left their mark as probable
future superstars.
Organizing
such a big tournament at different venues involving 10 teams for over a month
is no cakewalk. But credit to BCCI for making it a grand success. Not to forget
the contribution of the ground staff who worked really hard to prepare such
excellent pitches and the support staff
of the teams who kept the players fit both physically and mentally. All in all
it was as grand as any other global cricketing event. Quality of cricket was
definitely a notch higher than the previous editions and it should get even better
in the future editions too. Let’s take a quick look at the top stories of the cricketing extravaganza.
The Afghan Courage
Several success stories surfaced during this world cup. But the one that
has been most astonishing is one of Afghanistan’s. What a journey they had in the tournament.
There is a political turmoil going on in their country. Cricketing
infrastructure in the country is not upto the mark either.
Shock For The Defending Champions
A below par
performance by defending champions England has been the major talking point throughout the world cup. It was kind of a shock for all the cricket lovers to
see that sort of a performance from a team who has been dominating white ball
cricket for a while now. The players know themselves more than anybody else that
they had been way below their potential. Lot of theories had been coming from
cricketing circles with respect to English performance. It is evident that the
English cricket board will be taking required measures in due course with an
eye on the future. Considering this could be the end of the road in ODI world cups
for a majority of the current bunch of the players in their team it would be
interesting to see how the team shapes up post this debacle.
Crisis For
Asian Cricket
ODI world
cup organized in India could have given that extra bit of confidence to the
fellow Asian teams at the start of the tournament. But at the end of the league
phase the story was completely different & surprising too. Apart from the
host nation the other Asian team that performed well was Afghanistan. It puts a
serious question mark on the preparation of veteran teams like Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh. In fact it’s been a while that the quality of cricket
amongst the Asian teams barring India is going down drastically. Sad to see in
a World cup hosted at an Asian venue there was only one Asian team that
qualified for the knock-out stage. Recent news of Sri Lankan cricket being
dismissed by ICC was another blow to the Asian contingent. Asian teams’
performance in test cricket also has gone down over the years. It all boils
down to the domestic cricket structure and how efficiently that is being
managed without any compromise due to the increasing amount of T20 cricket.
Quality pitches, consistency in selection, workload management, and right sort
of financial benefits are kind of major factors in producing quality players
and eventually better performances at the big stage. Most of the Asian teams
are struggling at the moment on most of the above mentioned parameters.
Team like
Sri Lanka had to play the entire tournament without a few of their main players
including the captain who was ruled out at the initial league phase due to
injury. Knowing that there is a global tournament scheduled at the end of the
year key players’ workload could have been managed lot better for last 8-10 months
to keep them fit for the big games. But that was not the case with Sri Lanka. Story
is not much different for Pakistan and Bangladesh too. All the teams had to
deal with injury to key players including India who were at one point the risk
of missing out on key players like Bumrah, Rahul, Shreyas Iyer. But fortunately
they all recovered in time to be able to participate in the tournament. Also a
lack of hunger was clearly visible amongst some of these teams that could be
for multiple reasons be it lack of ideal preparation, fitness or anything else.
Right now it is fair to say that the Asian teams can definitely take a clue or
two from their Indian counterparts overall to improve their cricket.
The Blue Juggernaut
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| Rohit Sharma Image Credit:Prime Minister's Office, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
Without a
doubt the home team had a fantastic campaign. Loss in the finale definitely is
going to hurt for a long time but let’s accept the fact that we were not good
enough on the big day. It all started with the most important position in the
team, the captain. Rohit Sharma set the benchmark early in the tournament on
how he wants his team to approach the entire tournament. Starting aggressively
with the bat, being proactive on the field with his decision making, ensuring
consistency in team selection and most importantly creating a healthy environment
off the field that catalyzes the winning mindset. He did everything that an
inspirational leader does and the results do reflect that. He may get
disheartened due to the fact that he could not fulfill the ultimate dream of a
billion people but that does not take anything away from him considering how he
has shaped up this team leading to the world cup. It was great to see how every
individual of the team responded to the captain. Aggressive intent shown by the
team throughout the tournament was a testament to the captain’s mindset. It is
unlikely that we will see Rohit wearing the captain’s hat four years from now
but how he has managed this team so far especially in a global event like
this will definitely give him
satisfaction when he will look back at his career.
Marvellous
Marnus
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| Marnus Labuschagne Image Credit: Ben Sutherland from Crystal Palace, London, UK, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
Throughout the tournament lot of individual performances have been lauded. Be it Virat, Warner, de Kock, Shami or Rachin Ravindra, all of them mostly have single handedly taken their teams to victory. But there is one player whose contribution should be highlighted considering he wasn’t a one man show yet contributed immensely towards his team’s fortune especially during the crunch moments. A month prior to the World cup and Marnus Labuschagne was out of Australia’s plans for the big event. Entry to the ODI series against South Africa as an injury replacement paved the way for him to be part of a memorable tournament for his team.
His changed
approach that saw him batting with caution in crunch moments as well as playing
aggressively when needed made the selectors rethink their decision to exclude
him from the preliminary squad for the world cup. Eventually entry to the final squad as
replacement for Ashton Agar made his dream come true. An absolute livewire on
the field causing runouts and taking catches in crucial moments, playing
important hand more often than not mostly as a second lead and overall played
an important role in Australia’s winning campaign. He couldn’t have asked for
more. Ironically he was excluded initially due to his lack of ability to rotate
the strike or playing impactful innings when needed the most and eventually he
became un-droppable towards the end of the tournament as he was needed to kind
of stabilizing the innings on spin friendly pitches. Not to forget his
contribution with the bat in both the knockout games when he survived rather
tricky periods without showing much of a nerve. What a story. There have been
many heroes in Australia’s triumph this year but Labuschagne’s name will
definitely go as an important cog in this power packed victorious Aussie side.
Silencing The Crowd In Style
This post
will remain incomplete without a special mention of the champion Australian
side. What a tournament they had. Starting with two big losses that made them
vulnerable in the eyes of so called experts, gaining momentum match after match
and delivering the killer punch when it mattered the most in the big final.
Definitely this win is going to be marked as one of the memorable wins in Australian sporting history. Probably this
was the first and last time when an Australian cricket team was termed as
underdogs in a world cup final. As they always do they saved their best for the
last. They played their perfect game in the grand finale. Throughout the
tournament barring the first two games they have been exceptional in executing
their plans with always a scope to improve. The ability to constantly improve their skills in big tournaments like these makes them such a fearsome opponent.
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Pat Cummins Image Credit: www.davidmolloyphotography.com from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
There had
been a lot of individual brilliance throughout the tournament but the only
constant was an inspirational leadership from Pat Cummins. Someone who came to
the World cup with hardly any experience in leading in ODI format and was
criticized heavily after their first two losses gave a fitting reply to all the
doubters in the most emphatic manner possible. He wasn’t at his best as a
bowler too during the initial phase of the tournament. But he kept improving as
a player and leader as the tournament progressed. Played some important knocks
with the bat too when his team needed. In a team full of stalwarts like Smith,
Warner, Starc he was never found timid or hesitant. Rather he was at his best
to extract the best from every individual.
Creating a
winning team like this in such a short span despite all the odds is a
phenomenal task. At the same time he has been bold too in his decision making as and
when required. Keeping faith on Travis Head’s ability despite his
unavailability at the beginning and electing to bowl in a world cup final were
couple of decisions he will be proud of for the rest of his life. A home Ashes
win, away Ashes retention, WTC title and now ODI world cup Pat Cummins
couldn’t have asked for more to start his captaincy career. As far as this
Australian side is concerned there will be few who will be ending their career
sooner than later but one quality that
will remain constant in this team is that ruthless attitude to win.
Stay tuned for more at this space.
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