India should have better prepared their No.4- Yuvraj singh

[Ankit_sharma03]

Yuvraj Singh, the Man of the Tournament in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2011, said that India failed to plan well for the No.4 position going into the 2019 edition of the flagship one-day tournament.

The No.4 position in ODIs had been one of the most hotly-debated issues in Indian cricket before the tournament, with a number of candidates auditioning for the role. However, though they played some outstanding cricket before crashing out after defeat to New Zealand in the semi-final, India never managed to settle the No.4 issue. They began with KL Rahul there, before he had to move up to open with Rohit Sharma once Shikhar Dhawan got injured. Vijay Shankar replaced Rahul at No.4, before he, too, picked up an injury, after which Rishabh Pant took up the spot.

But while those injuries undoubtedly played a part, India did not have an assured candidate for the position before beginning their campaign, and Yuvraj felt the team should have zeroed in on one player and stuck by the choice - a principle he said that should extend to the team on the whole.

"The team management should have groomed someone. If someone was failing at No.4, the team management should have told that player that he was going to play the World Cup," Yuvraj told the Times of India. "Like in 2003 World Cup, we were playing New Zealand before the tournament, everybody was failing. But the same team played in the World Cup."

Yuvraj cited the example of Ambati Rayudu, who recently retired from all forms of cricket, and was among those in contention for the role in the months leading up to the World Cup. But he lost form during the home series against Australia before the tournament, and was subsequently left out for the tournament. Rayudu was also not considered later, when the team had to pick replacements for Dhawan and Vijay, despite being named as one of the reserves, as team management chose Pant and the uncapped Mayank Agarwal.

"He was in the contention for the World Cup. He got runs in New Zealand, but after three or four bad innings, he got dropped," Yuvraj pointed out.

Once he was drafted in, Pant made some handy contributions from the position, but none that made a huge impact. Yuvraj maintained that whoever they ultimately go with, team management will have to back the player and let them enjoy a long rope.

"If No. 4 is a crucial position in ODI cricket, if you want someone to do well in that position, you will have to back him," he said. "You can't drop someone if he is unable to do well all the time."

 

Link - https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/1278543

[vvvslaxman]

I am not so sure Rayudu would have survived either. They played pant at 4. Pant survived long enough. Problem was 1,2,3,5 in that match.  Tony was hiding behind KKD/Pant when the situation demanded India needed someone to survive there. Pandya, KKD, Pant would have done a very good job of finishing. India was tactically poor against a good bowling attack. They could have even sacrificed KKD up the order if they thought ball was jagging around. This was like 4th time Indian top order imploded against nZ bowling attack in this year alone. In similar conditions i am sure this Indian line up will continue to lose their top order against NZ attack. TM could not simulate swinging conditions in the nets. India's best bet was reducing them to a total below 200 and chasing it down. That is where SHami was sorely missed.

[vvvslaxman]

All said and done we need someone like Yuvraj singh. Tall powerful languid sensible batsman in the middle.

 

 

 

[GolGappe]

They kept on betting on the wrong horses. Rayudu has no power game, takes forever to get going, and struggled against high quality fast bowling.

Rahane - Limp and no power game. Manish Pandey - Inept.

Vijay Shankar - Too raw. Dhoni - Too fossilized.

 

KL Rahul was not a bad option. He doesn't get bogged down against spinners and can hit effortlessly but Dhawan's injury killed that short-lived experiment.

 

Pant with 40 games under this belt would have been a much better option.

Edited July 16, 2019 by GolGappe

[Reddysaab]

3 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

All said and done we need someone like Yuvraj singh. Tall powerful languid sensible batsman in the middle.

 

 

 

 

its not easy to find someone like UV. who is the greatest indian LOI lower middle order bat ever.

[cowboysfan]

1 hour ago, GolGappe said:

They kept on betting on the wrong horses. Rayudu has no power game, takes forever to get going, and struggled against high quality fast bowling.

Rahane - Limp and no power game. Manish Pandey - Inept.

Vijay Shankar - Too raw. Dhoni - Too fossilized.

 

KL Rahul was not a bad option. He doesn't get bogged down against spinners and can hit effortlessly but Dhawan's injury killed that short-lived experiment.

 

Pant with 40 games under this belt would have been a much better option.

yeah the dhawan injury probably caused us a spot in the final.

[Vilander]

When dhawan injured himself they should have flown in Rahane. have Rahane take KLRs spot int he middle order. we would have had the wc now.

[vvvslaxman]

1 minute ago, Vilander said:

When dhawan injured himself they should have flown in Rahane. have Rahane take KLRs spot int he middle order. we would have had the wc now.

I still cannot understand how the heck India would keep on collapsing against NZ. Infact Kohli opted to bat first in the warm up against nZ "to challenge themselves" lol Sure they did. Flunked in the warm up. Flunked in the main match as well. 

Wish India had faced England in the semis.

[Deleted_User_1]

There is a reason why we won the WC in 2011. I mean, look at the lineup

 

Viru

Sachin

Gambhir

Kohli

Yuvi

Raina

Effective Dhoni

 

Solid experienced bat all the way to No. 7

 

I do not think any team had such a stable lineup so deep in this this version. England comes closest.

 

We flopped because of our batting. The bowling performed well except the England match.

Edited July 16, 2019 by Audiophile

[Vijy]

1 hour ago, Audiophile said:

There is a reason why we won the WC in 2011. I mean, look at the lineup

 

Viru

Sachin

Gambhir

Kohli

Yuvi

Raina

Effective Dhoni

 

Solid experienced bat all the way to No. 7

 

I do not think any team had such a stable lineup so deep in this this version. England comes closest.

 

We flopped because of our batting. The bowling performed well except the England match.

Also had Ashwin at 8 and some of our tail could knock a few like Zak. A time when our bowlers could bat a bit and more importantly some of our top 6 could bowl.

[Singh bling]

1 minute ago, Vijy said:

Also had Ashwin at 8 and some of our tail could knock a few like Zak. A time when our bowlers could bat a bit and more importantly some of our top 6 could bowl.

Ashwin only played 1 match in 2011. Bhajji was main spinner at that time.

[cricketfan28]

It is not easy to find someone like Dhoni and Yv .. so we should aim for 5th  position next wc to be realistic.

[Vijy]

7 minutes ago, Singh bling said:

Ashwin only played 1 match in 2011. Bhajji was main spinner at that time.

well bhajji was not a bad no. 8. compare this to now with likes of shami at 8 followed by bumrah-chahal-kuldeep.

[mishra]

Word of wisdom. Fro Yuvi. “Tell the player/ talen that he will be representing India in WC” and then talent will automatically put time in nets.

 

But our principal was a merry go round and horses for courses.

[TheWall]

6 hours ago, cricketfan28 said:

It is not easy to find someone like Dhoni and Yv .. so we should aim for 5th  position next wc to be realistic.

Still it will be 8-0...

[bahubali]

10 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

I still cannot understand how the heck India would keep on collapsing against NZ. Infact Kohli opted to bat first in the warm up against nZ "to challenge themselves" lol Sure they did. Flunked in the warm up. Flunked in the main match as well. 

Wish India had faced England in the semis.

I would call it bad prepration...surely you can't prepare swinging condition in nets but you could playn your strategy. India was well aware that wether is going to support swing and they already have faced wrath of swing in warm up still the top order batted like deer in the headlight . Other than rohit rest all played needless shot and worst of all was kohli cross batted shot where need of the hour was to survive first 10 o era without loosing more than 2 wkts.

[ShoonyaSifar]

Between the two WCs, the guy who batted most number of times at 4/5, chickened out at the most critical moment and came in at 7. No expert seems to be pointing this out