Lessons to learn for India from Australias Win in CT

[Mamu]

JOHANNESBURG: The difference between India and Australia in the Champions Trophy was the difference between complaining and doing. Both teams were robbed of some essential personnel yet Australia had more realism. You can either throw stones, stumble on them, or build with them. While MS Dhoni kept harping on how India had lost too many match-winners at the same time, Ponting rallied his young crew and stoked their inner fire. They had lots of reasons to moan: Australia had virtually lost their aura of invincibility over the past two years. Lost Hayden and Gilchrist. They lost Test series home and away, including the Ashes. They flew into this tournament at the last minute and had the least time to acclimatise. They were even without Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Nathan Bracken. For a while in the past, they had been unromantic, unwanted winners. Their hegemony was getting boring for the sport. The idea of Australia losing regularly was even welcomed by those excited by the prospect of other teams wresting top-dog status. They forgot that it wouldn't be so easy for Australia, with or without experience, to get used to the idea of losing. They are not champions here by default. What they did have was Ponting, a leader who performed when the chips were down and raised the bar for his team. There was no failure, only feedback. They used the Natwest series as starting point for their preparations. They knew Australia's reputation as big-match bullies needed sustaining. Now, they have rediscovered a bunch of players who perhaps lacked the self-belief earlier. Shane Watson is the standout example. It wasn't a cakewalk for Australia: Mitchell Johnson bailed them out with the bat against the West Indies. They scrapped through into the semis by virtue of a nerve-wracking last-wicket stand against Pakistan, dislodging India in the process. Watson overcame big-match nerves, as he himself admitted later, to score centuries in both the semis and final. Cameron White surprised himself. A revitalized Brett Lee was backed up by young Peter Siddle and Johnson. Ponting, in pristine form, walked away with all the top honours. He was the glue binding them together. On Monday night, the skipper, beaming in his white winner's jacket, resembled more Roger Federer than hard-nosed Aussie battler. "To see youngsters stand up and get us across the line was very satisfying," he said, "It's been a bit of a struggle since some big names left. Now, the young guys are starting to make major impact in world events. The last couple of months we have started to see the real Shane Watson. I think it's one of our strengths that when the so-called big names don't stand up, others get up and do the job. We pride ourselves on big events. We were prepared." India, in contrast, looked reluctant on the field and reclusive off it. Their young pacers fell away and now must regroup. They need their big batting guns back. Most of all, they need to look the part. MS Dhoni will need to do a Ponting when the teams clash soon in India.

[vvvslaxman]

Again with "learning from" someone else. India won T20 with rookies. India beat much better OZ team in CB series. In championship trophy you have to click on a given day. If you fail you are out. India "harping on" about absence of key players like Sehwag and Yuvraj is legitimate because India depends heavily on their batting. Fact that not a single bowler is in top 10 of ICC rankings yet India reached no.1 means it was because of batsmen. Every time a team wins and another team loses they have to come up with cliche crap "losing team has to learn from winning team". Remember after first Test in Ashes, everyone said England has to learn from Australia. After 3rd test they started saying Australia has to learn from England. It is really annoying to read these cliched articles.

[Mamu]

Again with "learning from" someone else. India won T20 with rookies. India beat much better OZ team in CB series. In championship trophy you have to click on a given day. If you fail you are out. India "harping on" about absence of key players like Sehwag and Yuvraj is legitimate because India depends heavily on their batting. Fact that not a single bowler is in top 10 of ICC rankings yet India reached no.1 means it was because of batsmen. Every time a team wins and another team loses they have to come up with cliche crap "losing team has to learn from winning team". Remember after first Test in Ashes, everyone said England has to learn from Australia. After 3rd test they started saying Australia has to learn from England. It is really annoying to read these cliched articles.

Yes and that is exactly the problem Indian batsmen have bailed out India far too many times. Out inept bowlers cannot keep teams below 300. That is a Huge Problem. How on the earth did India let an out of form Malik run riot is beyond me. Understandbly toss did play a critical role, and possibly India could have managed 300 if they were not batting under lights -- but that would have been another case of Batsmen bailing out the inept bowlers. It doesn't matter what the wicket is -- giving away 300 is inexcusable. Same was the problem with South Africa too. In my opinion I have been calling for Ishant's sacking from Limited Overs Cricket for more than 6 months now. He is a decently good test bowler and lets him at that. He should not be playing any form of Limited Overs cricket from here onwards.

[coffee_rules]

Where were these kinds of articles when India was winning in the 2007-2009 timeframe? We lose one match and all armchair experts are out with their half-baked-ass ideas out in the open.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Wasn't Ponting the 1st to complain about too much cricket? Dhoni hardly said anything till a day or 2 before the 1st game.

[patriot]

Again with "learning from" someone else. India won T20 with rookies. India beat much better OZ team in CB series. In championship trophy you have to click on a given day. If you fail you are out. India "harping on" about absence of key players like Sehwag and Yuvraj is legitimate because India depends heavily on their batting. Fact that not a single bowler is in top 10 of ICC rankings yet India reached no.1 means it was because of batsmen. Every time a team wins and another team loses they have to come up with cliche crap "losing team has to learn from winning team". Remember after first Test in Ashes, everyone said England has to learn from Australia. After 3rd test they started saying Australia has to learn from England. It is really annoying to read these cliched articles.

You are right for most of it. But what is to be learned and admired about the Aussies is, how their talent after a period of failure in international cricket comes back astonishingly well. Case in point. Langer Haydos Punter of the early days Watson

[Mr. Wicket]

Add to the list Martyn, Brad Hogg (**** debut in 1996 where he was complete crap, returned several years later as a solid ODI support), Steve Waugh, Simon Katich and a whole lot of others.

[saneindian]

The only lesson I could see is dont discard a young player if he is good enough. Had White, Watson, MJ, Siddle et al played for any other country, after first few failures they wud have been thrown out by their teams . Imagine a young player scoring 2 back to back ducks in India, there's no way the media will let that guy continue to remain in the team.

[cowboysfan]

our bench strength is not very good to be honest.I think to win major tournaments you need your bowlers to step up and ours didnt,that is not a recipe for success.

[DomainK]

It's a stupid article. Australia did things right, won the tournament. India had a bad tournament. When India was kicking Australia's backside in the test series, Australia had plenty to learn from us.

[Zap_Brannigan]

The only lesson I could see is dont discard a young player if he is good enough. Had White, Watson, MJ, Siddle et al played for any other country, after first few failures they wud have been thrown out by their teams . Imagine a young player scoring 2 back to back ducks in India, there's no way the media will let that guy continue to remain in the team.

Rohit,Ishant,Yusuf Pathan were all recent newbies in the side that got more chance than they deserved.Ishant and Pathan are still in the team even after a bad start to their career. Raina, Ghambir were dropped after a 1st stint in the team for non-performance and have now become regulars. So what is it that Aus does that India doesn't do?

[Mr. Wicket]

Lessons to learn: At the end of any tournament, if India loses, people will write stupid articles overanalyzing the defeat and reaching as far up their asses as possible to pull out any sort of pseudo-insight. If India wins on the other hand, people will still write stupid sh-t but instead they'll praise various players/the team to the heavens, big them up ridiculously for the next big tournament and then write more stupid articles once India loses.

[King Tendulkar]

Lesson- make sure YUVRAJ is fit! and Sehwag!

[champ]

lesson to be hard is learn from the mistakes.. what are the mistakes? 1) first choice players not keeping themselves fit for big tournaments. 2) show more hunger to win big tournaments. i dint see any hunger in our team .. just usual case of ' if we had our players available, we would have won' .. kind of mentality .. what the heck .. we are embarassed in 2 major tournaments.. sucks badly for an indian fan.. 3) make use of power plays in a smart manner. 4) bowl to ur fields .. keeping a good line and length at pace of 130 kph is still good.. our bowlers dint have that control and kept spraying all over the place. 5) plan chases well with a set target.. just going out there without a plan and just slog out does not help. the score of 302 was chaseable by this team .. but failed.. aus will always win more than us .. we like it or not ..