More »
Showing posts with label Ravindra Jadeja. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ravindra Jadeja. Show all posts
How Dhoni stopped Jadeja from sleepwalking through the IPL
It was down to an open-door policy
On Labour Day, CSK delivered. It was a normal delivery. Everything seemed normal. MS Dhoni had appointed MS Dhoni in-charge of the mothership. He had relieved Ravindra Jadeja of what seemed like a spate of morning sickness evils on match days.
Jadeja, once the safest hands, and often entrusted with babysitting players’ children, was now dropping not just catches but sitters. Often off fellow left-arm spinner, Mitchell Santner’s bowling. Santner, another reliable catcher and babysitter, dropped a few off Jadeja’s bowling.
Dhoni had observed how captaincy was messing with Jadeja’s batting and bowling. That he had factored in. But this dip in fielding? Yet Dhoni did not intervene. He wanted Jadeja to take the call. Little did he anticipate, that his teammate was literally sleepwalking through the turbulent last few weeks.
***
Now it is well documented that the door to MS’ room is always open to his teammates, no matter what the time.
At a very odd hour, sometime in the middle of the night, Jadeja emerged from his bed. It’s another thing, he was still sleeping. He stood up and did his routine stretching exercises. After this, he emerged from his bedroom, arms stretched forward and parallel to each other. Oblivious, he knocked at MS’ door. Who opened, not surprised to see Jadeja. It took him an instant to realise Jadeja was sleepwalking.
He let him be, knowing fully well, from experience, how many players had sleepwalked through the IPL, and it was never prudent to wake them up. He would often say in CSK meetings, “There will be a time when you may feel you are on autopilot, just going through the motions, match after match, it will be like sleepwalking but it’s not for me to wake you up. As you know, waking a sleepwalker can be dangerous.” It was based on this thinking that the CSK doctrine of not hurriedly changing players was based; and why they stuck with their core in the recent mega auction.
Jadeja sat at the writing table. Removed a sheet from the hotel writing pad, and started to scribble something. It was evident, even in his sleep, he was struggling. He wrote, “Dear Mahi, thank you for the opp…” But at that, he rolled the paper into a ball and left the room.
Over the next few days, Jadeja continued to emerge, in the middle of the night, often on match day. MS would leave the door slightly ajar with the table lamp on. Each time, Jadeja would scribble a few words but always roll the paper into a ball.
MS could gauge Jadeja’s pain. He saw it on the field. And now here, in his sleepwalking and rolled up paper balls. One day, he decided to write a note alongside the pad. If Jadeja read it, well and good. There were just a few words, “Jaddu, at least you tried”
That night, Jadeja emerged again. Sat at the writing table. MS pretended to sleep. Jadeja did not write anything that day. Instead, he walked away with MS’ words.
At breakfast when MS met Jadeja, he could tell a weight had been lifted off him. The smile was back on his face. Yet, he wanted to be sure. He hurled an apple, well wide of Jadeja. While Jadeja was sitting, immersed in his breakfast, he sprang from his chair and caught the apple single-handed.
MS applauded Jadeja’s efforts with a, “Jaddu, good catch. I’m happy to say, Jaddu the fielder is back. And if that’s the case, Jaddu the batsman and Jaddu the bowler cannot be far behind. Of course, it remains to be seen if this catching is only with the red ball which is what the apple is or with the white ball too…otherwise we will have to practice with white apples.”
Everybody laughed. Jadeja bowed with élan. There was a sense of what was happening, but nobody said a word. MS joined Jadeja at his breakfast table. They didn’t say a word about the note. They didn’t have to. Years of trust and love between the two had made their communication almost instinctive.
During the day, a brief press release stated MS Dhoni’s return to captaincy. The following day, CSK’s openers added 182 off 17.5 overs. Ruturaj Gaikwad made only his second fifty of the IPL, his highest score of 99. In only his second match of the season, Devon Conway made 83*. MS Dhoni promoted himself to three, Jadeja came in at four.
CSK went on to beat SRH by 13 runs. Jadeja bowled 3 overs for 15 runs. Everyone attributed everything good that happened that night to MS Dhoni. Much later that night, Jadeja emerged from his bed and walked to MS’ room. He went straight to the table and scribbled a few words. He did not roll the paper into a ball.
The note said, “Thanx Mahi bhai. xxx Jaddu”
(However plausible this may sound, this is a work of fiction)
First published here
#IPL Dhoni's long, long shadow over CSK
What if we decided not to blame anybody?
Is that
even possible? A World Cup semi-final exit, and not blame anybody? What’s there
to write? How will we exorcise our cricketing demons?
Put
yourself in at 4/1 at the fall of Rohit Sharma’s wicket in the second over. You
were there, weren’t you? Did you not chase that wide one outside off along with
Virat? Were you not breathing heavy after Rohit fell? After the assurance of
those five centuries was snuffed out in four deliveries?
When Trent
Boult was running in like some break dancer in a black hoodie - with those precise moonwalking steps and that
gleeful glint in his eye, he had it all worked out. And Matt Henry, more mid-management
banker than break dancer, what was he doing making the ball dance. Such
deception broke the back of India’s batting. Slip sliding away.
9th
July, 2019 seemed eerily familiar. It could be anywhere in the world. It had the
stamp of Glenn McGrath bowling academy vs India in one of those games you were
hoping to snap out of by now. But it crept up on you. India had no choice but
to sleep on it, what else was there to do?
To
overcompensate, Virat went across. And again. He plays these angles. Seven
balls after Rohit fell, one snuck through, into the pads and out. When Virat is
nervous, he wants to review. When he’s the captain, no non-striker will ask him
not to. It delays things. It keeps him on the field longer. In the hope of the
bowler overstepping, the ball missing, something. At 4/2, why wouldn’t you
review? If nothing, just to stay on the ground a few moments more, to breathe,
to feel alive in the game. If Virat could, he would munch on his protein snacks
during those reviews. What did you do? Stare at the screen? Knowing only too
well, it’s happening. Slip sliding away.
Much as
Virat has a look that defies the slide, KL Rahul often wears one that is
consumed by it. They are just a look and say nothing of what either batsman
will do to push the slide back. But when Rahul fell, his dismissal had the
stamp of slide-sucked-me-in. That’s what slides do, players have their ways to
counter them – not often many succeed. Once in a freefall slide, the batsman is
not on terra firma, instead, he’s being sucked into a whirlpool. Those padded
up, waiting to walk in are waiting to slide through. Sacrificial lambs.
When Virat
fell, did you not slide further. Did it not cross your mind, this could be over
in a jiffy, in say, less than 20 overs? Why did the match not get over on the
first day itself? Was it us who willed it not to go down to a 20 over shootout?
Were we not responsible for the gift of the second day? Had we not asked for
this? Running away from rain and Duckworth Lewis calculations? And here we
were, in a similar 20 over shootout, with six fewer wickets.
So just as
we blame the players, we blame ourselves. Our refusal to expect sport for what
it is. A refusal to expect defeat.
When Kohli
fell, Rishabh Pant walked in, somewhat cheerily, to play his 9th
ODI, his 8th innings, his 4th in this World Cup. By now,
it’s best to forget whose replacement he was, because from where we are now,
that’s too much of a dwell on the past.
By the
fourth over, Dinesh Karthik joined Pant. At 5/3 it appeared even gloomier than
the day before. The Indian innings was not even 20 minutes old.
Were you
still there? Were you mathematically calculating acceptable, face saving
margins of defeat?
For 25
minutes, Karthik put on a defence-ballet class. He defended as you would, your
honour, your cricketing journey, your cricketing life. For, in a way, that is
what he was defending. There he was, wedged in between, the wicket keeping
future and past; looking as India has, for a meaning to its elusive keeping
present.
How do you
play, when each innings challenges you to rewrite your cricketing world? But
here was Karthik, with that chance. It’s another thing, he gave that chance to
Neesham, who accepted single handedly, also wrong handedly with such
brilliance, it reaffirmed the slide to almost mythical proportions.
Perhaps,
Karthik slid into a crack, but nobody was looking. All they saw was Neesham’s
hand that emerged from a crack.
The
Pant-Pandya partnership, although three shy of fifty, and one ball shy of 13
overs, seemed removed from the slide. There was an early Pant chance but there
was bravado too – from 24/4 where else to go? Somewhat fitting, they both made
32, and seemed unfazed by the slide. When Pant fell, though not before hitting four
4s, going for his first 6, he was miffed. The frame captured Pandya’s
expression – it didn’t give anything away. Pandya was as far removed from it as
later, Dhoni would be from balls wide outside off.
What else
is there to do but to remove yourself from the slide?
As for
Jadeja, he was not just removed from the slide, he appeared removed from the
game and himself. He was, by all accounts, having an out of body experience.
It took
India’s 8th match in the World Cup to play Jadeja. This was only his
second match in the tournament. In the warm up match against New Zealand, when
India was 39/4, Jadeja came in at 8, smashing 54(50) that day.
If there
was any pressure, Jadeja had transferred it on to commentary. Reminders of his
First Class triple hundreds were oozing out of the box. FC reminders that
would’ve made Gavaskar proud on his birthday.
From Day 1,
everything Jadeja had done was nothing short of an eloquent cricketing
matrimonial – Attractive fielder, highly qualified bowler and now – changes not
just his complexion but the match’s too.
There was
freedom that was far removed from the situation. Dhoni at the other end was
doing his usual Dhoni things, also far removed from the situation. Slide? What
slide?
Jadeja was
swiveling at the crease, Jadeja was coming down the wicket, Jadeja was making
India dream again. Jadeja had banished the slide.
In the end,
he scored more than anyone, faster than anyone. There was audacity moulded with
thought – there was on display skill, intent, bravado and with it fortune too.
Jadeja made
the match worthy. He raised the semi final. He raised himself, his
swordsmanship. Jadeja had taken his hurt and made it into something compelling.
Jadeja
wanted to be more than a perception. He counter attacked a comment as much as the
Kiwis.
And while
we may not blame anybody, will it be incorrect to thank someone?
If one
man’s counter to a perceived ridicule was such, just imagine what fruit a word
tearing into the other ten would have borne?
First published here
Is it too early to write about Krunal Pandya?
Or to write
him off?
To know Krunal
better, perhaps we could attempt to know India’s Twenty20 cricket better –
Krunal made his T20 international debut a few months back, in November 2018.
He’s played nine games so far.
Dinesh
Karthik, now considered to be India’s T20 finisher has played 30 games. Over 12
years back, he played in India’s first T20 game. That was then the 10th
T20 international being played.
The third
T20 of the New Zealand series on February 10, 2019 was the 738th
game.
Rohit
Sharma, the top T20 run getter, has played 93 games. Rohit did not play in
India’s first T20 game. Tendulkar, Sehwag and Raina did. That’s how long ago it
was.
Dhoni was
the captain then. He would go on to lead India to victory in the first ICC World
Twenty20 in 2007. Neither Tendulkar, Sehwag nor Raina featured in that final.
The
evolution of a T20 team calls for brutal selections.
From that
glorious Indian team of 2007, only Dhoni and Rohit remain.
It’s only
in the last few years that India has balanced its significant ODI diet with
more T20s. In doing this, it has grappled with acknowledging how ODI and T20
cricket are vastly different – and require
different skills and possibly different selections. While the transformation to
picking lean IPL squads has been far swifter, India’s T20 unit has taken long
to shed its excess ODI weight.
Where
patience and building an innings are a virtue in ODIs, they are a luxury few
can ill afford in T20s.
Where in
the longer formats, bits and pieces players are exposed, a few overs of glory,
make headlines and careers out of players.
It is still
early days in Krunal Pandya’s international career. Yet it’s likely, he will
continue to be a T20 selection – as much for his own skills, as for the lack of
overall T20 skills of other candidates.
So, who are
these other candidates?
Ravindra
Jadeja – last played a T20 for India in 2017. In his 40 games, he batted only
18 times. Mostly at 7 and 8, with a strike rate less than 100, an average less
than 10. The sample size is small and it’s possibly Jadeja’s lack of impact as
a bowler as much as Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal’s ascent, that saw him
lose out.
Jadeja’s
economy is just a shade over 7, but it’s his 31 wickets off 40 games at a much higher
strike rate that go against him – 26 to Kuldeep’s 11 and Chahal’s 15.
Kuldeep
Yadav already has 35 wickets from 18 games at an economy of 6.72. Chahal has 45
wickets from 29 (economy 7.9) – while neither Yadav nor Chahal have any batting
skills of note, it’s as much the attacking bowling option as their ODI rise that
has nudged out both Jadeja and Ashwin.
R Ashwin’s
52 wickets from 46 games (economy 6.97) meant he too last played in 2017.
Incidentally, both Ashwin and Jadeja last turned up in a T20I on July 9, 2017 –
both ended wicketless, one went for 39 off his 4, the other 41 off 3.3 overs.
West Indies
chased down 190 with nine wickets and two Indian spinners in hand.
There has
been the brief flirtation with Axar Patel, but he mostly played against
Zimbabwe when the mainstay was rested. 11 games, 9 wickets; batting mostly at 7
and 8, his numbers saw him last turn up for India close to a year ago.
Once upon a
time, there was the Yusuf Pathan option – he too batted lower down, mostly at
6, 7 and 8 and was at best a part-time bowling option – bowling his full quota
in seven of the 17 innings he turned his arm over. Yusuf opened the innings
with Gambhir in that first World T20 Final. That was also his first T20I match.
The last
time he turned up, the rain impacted both the match and his career. He did not
bat, India lost to Duckworth Lewis in 7.1 overs, close to seven years ago.
Which
brings us to Krunal Pandya. Elder brother of chat-show Pandya.
And
significantly, part of a champion IPL team, the Mumbai Indians. (with so many
coaches going, he can only hone his all-round skills)
Krunal
turns 28 next month. He’s played just three First Class games so far. However,
he’s heaved it in 71 T20s. He made his T20 debut six years back.
In the Hamilton
decider, Krunal’s bowling was mauled for 53 runs. It seemed to be predictable
hit-me bowling – but then, whenever any bowling is slaughtered, you don’t ask
if it halal or jhatka. Either way, it’s slaughtered. And appears clueless,
bereft of thought, variations, guile.
Krunal has
a bowling economy of 8.72 rpo (almost identical to Yusuf’s). It’s a small
sample size, but on evidence, his bowling (not unlike Jadeja’s in T20s and
ODIs) does lack imagination – there is a sameness in speed, trajectories,
lengths. Once a batsman has his measure, expect an all-out attack.
Which is
where the wicket-gifts can happen. Just the other day, his 3/28 gifted him the
Man of the match.
Such is the
nature of the format that Krunal will have the occasional good days with the
ball. To expect him to be the 5th bowler though is a bridge too far.
It’s better if he starts as the sixth bowler and splits those four overs with
another part-timer.
India was
145/6 after 15.2 overs when Dhoni fell. Kartik and Krunal, the last of the
hitting ammunition dump. Krunal added 26(13).
Had India
played a bowler instead of Krunal, India’s chase would’ve stopped after Dhoni’s
wicket. Question is, would India’s target have been far less?
While
Krunal has batted in only four innings for India (strike rate 156.81), it’s his
batting numbers in domestic cricket that have pushed him to where he is – here
too, his batting average of 27 and strike rate of 147 is uncannily similar to
that of Yusuf Pathan’s. There are eight years between the two, but both play
for Baroda.
Both are brothers
of more illustrious fast bowling all-rounders; both pegged to be the next Kapil
Dev.
***
Numbers
aside, it’s Krunal Pandya’s obvious hitting ability. It appears to run in the
Pandya blood. As too the cricketing smarts.
Only last
year in Australia, after being walloped for 55 in Brisbane, he plugged it to
just 26 two days later in Melbourne, and helped India square the series with a Man
of the match haul in Sydney.
For now, it
might be best not to underestimate Krunal. If there’s a single to be taken,
take it. The tail starts after him, not with him.
Then again,
this could be a duel best viewed in a KKR vs MI match.
You can bet
it will be hyped no end. Expect Krunal to add little to the hype though. He’s
not much for a chat.
First published here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
