The World Order

A lot seems to have changed since Indian team took field at Lord's as far as the hierarchy in the world cricket is concerned. As Englang already have an invincible 3-0 lead, they are certain to overtake India at top of the ranking table with the position of India being decided on the outcome of the last test. But does this ranking table tell the whole story? For this, we have to understand how this ranking system works and what does it stand for.

The ranking system takes into account the performance of a team over past three years with 100% weightage being given to the last year and 50% each to the two years before that. But is that an indicator enough of a team's ability to play in the different parts of the world against different opponents? If we take a closer look, we can easily find out that winning the ashes in Australia is England's only significant overseas achievement over the specified period. Is this a credential good enough to establish a team's position as the world no 1. They actually played 5 overseas series over that period. They lost in India and West Indies, drew in South Africa and won in Australia and Bangladesh. While playing at home, they won everything. This record looks impressive until we compare this to that of India's . Indians also won everything at home over this period but they didn't lose anything overseas as well. No other teams has such record over this period. South Africa also have just one series loss over the period but they won only one series out of the four they played at home that too coming against Bangladesh. For the record, Australia lost six series over that period. The question that thus arises is that why will India be ranked second (or third depending on the result of the Oval test) despite this being their only series loss in three years. The answer lies in the scheduling of the tours of India and England. As mentioned earlier, ranking system gives maximum weightage to the series played over last one year. England had just one overseas tour in that period while India toured Srilanka, South Africa, West Indies and England in the last one year. England last visited India in 2008-09 with no tour to Srilanka or Pakistan being in the period deemed fit by the ranking system to judge the ability of teams.
Another factor that adversely affects India's cause is the quality of pitches they get at home. They won the three match home series against Newzeland 1-0. We all knew the gap between the quality of teams was wider than that suggested by the result but not much could have been done on the tracks of Nagpur and Hyderabad to affirm that fact. This while entirely being the fault of BCCI and the local cricket associations, can't deprive the team of the quality they have in their ranks. One thing this surely can do and have done is to deprive India of some ranking points.

One good way to look at the ability of a team is to look at how it fared when having to deal with different teams in different situations. Below is the table which shows the result of the series between top five teams the last time they played on their mutual surfaces.

Touring sideà	Aus	Eng	Ind	SA	SL
Aus	***	Eng 3-1(5)	Aus 2-1(4)	SA 2-1(3)	Aus 2-0(2)
Eng	Eng 2-1(5)	***	Eng(4)	SA 2-1(4)	Eng 1-0(3)
Ind	Ind 2-0(2)	Ind 1-0(3)	***	1-1(2)	Ind 2-0(3)
SA	Aus 2-1(3)	1-1(4)	1-1(3)	***	SA 2-0(3)
SL	Aus 3-0(3)	SL 1-0(3)	1-1(3)	SL 2-0(2)	***

Again, India are the only team which hasn't lost at home having three wins and one draw. England also have three series wins but they lost against South Africa. Sri Lanka have a 3-1 record while South Africa surprisingly have a 1-1 record. The status and the no 2 ranking of South Africa can still be justified as they are the best tourists having a 2-1 record overseas. Australia come second in this regard having a 2-2 record while England and India have 1-2 and 0-2 record respectively. Sri Lanka clearly are the worst tourists having lost all the overseas series they played. With home and away records combined, England(4-3), India(3-2) and South Africa(3-2) come out to be at top simultaneously. Australia come next with 4-4 while Sri Lanka come last having win loss record of 2-5. So, we are not left with anything that helps to pick one team that stands head and shoulders above other with a slight edge, if any, remains in favour of South Africa as they are the one amongst the three teams which haven't done well at home and it's always easier to improve at home. Unlike the computer generated rankings, we don't have the compulsion to rank them as one, two and three anyway.

One question that still remained unanswered is why India lost three consecutive tests in the way they did if they are such a good team. The answer is actually simple. This wasn't the same team that has been ranked as No 1 for a while. They didn't play with a settled opening combination and the didn't have their best bowler. This might sound like an excuse especially when India still had Sachin, Dravid and Laxman in their batting order. But the middle order was almost same in the early part of the last decade as well. India weren't no 1 back then. It's only after they got the opening combination right, they started their march to the top. So the only fact that comes out of this series loss is that India don't have good enough replacements for their top players. But the same can be said about England as well. The fact that Ravi Bopara was the most capable replacement for Trott says it all. And one can easily guess the result of a series between India and England being played at India with England playing without Strauss, Cook and Swaan while India being at full strength. England can't claim the no 1 spot to be their own unless they start winning in the subcontinent as India's can't claim the same until they start winning overseas.

Fate Matters

Indian middle order had been so strong in the last decade that nobody was getting a chance to make his debut as a middle order batsman. Last batsman to do so was Yuvraj who did it back in 2003. But suddenly, two batsmen, Subramaniam Badrinath and Wriddhiman Saha are making their debut in the Indian middle order in the ongoing test against South Africa. Have a look at the first class record of these two players:

Player	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	100/50
Badrinath	83	120	6189	58.38	22/26
Saha	24	40	1256	35.88	3/5

For Badrinath, it all started in a Duleep Trophy match against England A when he scored an unbeaten century to chase a target of 501 in the fourth inning against an attack comprising of Simon Jones and Sajid Mahmood. That was way back in 2003-04. He never looked back after that and is the most consistent batsman of Indian domestic cricket since then. At times, he seemed to be better option for the Indian middle order than Yuvraj Singh but never got a chance to prove this. Situation was so frustrating for him that he had to beg to the selectors for one chance to fail. Many times he got selected in the squad but never made it to final eleven. He could have made it had he been there in Bangladesh when Laxman got injured and his Tamil Nadu teammate Murali Vijay, who is basically an opening batsman, played in the middle order. But much to his delight, India’s injury problems continued and finally he is getting a chance against South Africa.

Having seen his journey towards test team, one can imagine how difficult it had been for the players to earn India cap in recent days. But that is not the case for everybody. Certainly not for Wriddhiman Saha. His fortune started to favor him right from the start. He made his debut for Bengal in 2007-08 season only after Deepdas Gupta decided to join ICL. And then he was picked by the Knight Riders under their policy to groom the local talent. He performed just enough to keep his place in both the side but never was a contender for selection in the Indian team. But suddenly he got call from national side. This was a surprise for many reasons. Firstly, Indian selectors rarely used to pick a reserve wicketkeeper for a home series. And there were at least two wicketkeepers, Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel who had better case for selection than Saha. Both of them have better records and performed better in the recently concluded Ranji season as well. The call was so unexpected that even Saha termed it as a pleasant “surprise”. Apart from that, selectors picked two reserve fast bowlers but not a single reserve batsman which finally worked in Saha’s favor. They added Rohit Sharma to the squad once it became clear that Laxman won’t be available but only to injure himself and leave the team management no choice with other than to pick Saha as a specialist batsman.

So finally, as it happened, a wicketkeeper who didn’t deserve a place in Indian team even as a wicketkeeper is playing as a specialist batsman. This is not just a case of a player getting better opportunity, this is frustrating for all those who deserve that place more than him. Being an Indian I really wish that he will leave all this out of his mind and perform to the best of his abilities. But being honest, I can’t see his test career going any further. After all, good fortune must have some limit.

It's advantage PAKISTAN

              So, here’s the big occasion. Pakistan will take on South Africa in the first semifinal of this T20 world cup. A few would have expected Pakistan to be here. But remember, they are the most unpredictable side of world cricket and no one had expected them to play in the Jo’berg final either. But this is it, they are right here to lock horns with South Africans.

               South Africa had entered in this competition with a favorite tag labeled on them and till now, they have lived onto expectations. They are the most balanced side in this tournament. Their batting has been good, their bowling has been brilliant and their fielding has been awesome. Given a cricket match against Pakistan, they are expected to win it. But this is not just a cricket match. This is a world cup semifinal and South Africa had a history of loosing big matches. Be it world cup semifinals against Australia in 1999 and 2007 or champions trophy semifinal against West Indies in 2006, they had ruined their chances everytime. Even in the last T20 world cup, they needed just 126 from 20 overs to reach to the semifinal but they didn’t even get that. So the fact that they had not been able to reach to the final of any world championship will haunt them the most in this match.

                If we look into Pakistan’s prospects, bowling is their main strength. They have some of the best bowlers of T20 in their ranks in the form of Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi. And if South Africa tend to be overcautious against them, they have bowlers like Mohammad Aamer and Sayeed Ajmal who can take advantage of that. Sayeed Ajmal has bowled some very fine spells in this tournament while being unnoticed whereas Mohammad Aamer has all the capabilities to do so.  The inclusion of Abdul Razzak has added some more variety to their attack. The form of their batsmen is a concern for Pakistan but there is one thing from which they can sense some relief. The bowling of South Africa in this tournament is surprisingly based on spin with likes of Merve and Botha doing most of the damage to the opposition. But Pakistan are one of the best sides to play spin bowling and with batsmen like Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Misbah Ul Haq and a in form shahid Afridi in their middle order, they have little to worry about spin. So all Pakistani batsmen have to do is to see off the initial threat of Steyn and Parnell.

              The best thing that Pakistan has in this tournament is that they are playing for the pride of their country. Pakistan is virtually on exile in cricketing terms for the past couple of years. Due to the lack of international cricket, the popularity of cricket in Pakistan is dying. This Pakistan side are on a mission to prove this to the whole world that the political situation in Pakistan man not be that good, the terrorism may have taken the whole country in it’s grasp but when it comes to cricket, they are still one of the best sides of world cricket. So if Pakistan comes out as victorious today, no one should be surprised.

Is it a surprise.......?????

             The defending champion, India are out of the T20 world cup even before they reached the knockout round. They lost two out of two matches in super eight round and even a win against South Africa can just serve as a mere consolation now. Every single expert tipped India to win this event . But all of that was based just on the reputation Indian players, especially batsmen had managed to get during IPL. Now, let's take a look on whether it was a couple of off days for India or it was some sort of an inevitable.    

             So, we start right from squad selection. In batting department, it was more or less justifiable. But in bowling department, those five people led by K. Shrikant had done miracles. They had selected Ishant Sharma. A bowler who even lost his place in the playing eleven of KKR side, a side which finished last in the points table, managed to get into Indian squad and that too ahead of options like Ashish Nehra, one of the bests in the business right now. One might argue and rightly so that Nehra didn't do much good before the selection comity meeting, but there were options like Munaf Patel and L. Balaji too who were far more superior than Ishant for T20. Selectors even got a chance to rectify their mistake, but they ruined it. They could have sent an extra paceman in place of Virendra Sehwag but they sent Dinesh Karthik, a player whose possibility  of making it in the final eleven was negligible as long as Dhoni was there.

              When it came to playing eleven selection selection, things got even worse. They haven't given Praveen Kumar a single appearance. Given his ability to swing the new ball, he could have been more than handful in bowling friendly English conditions. They have dropped Irfan Pathan, one of the key players in this format, for a must win game against England. They have given RP Singh, India's specialist for death overs, a game only when it came to do or die for India and he has shown in that game that if he was there in earlier matches, things could have gone much more smoother for India. What's more, they have given Ishant all four matches.

               India have a captain who is highly overrated. Yes, he is the best available option for India right now but that doesn't make him a good captain. He is the best only because the rest are either too unexperienced or too irresponsible to take the job. His batting form is awful, he shuffles the batting order randomly or probably for his own interests and  his too much faith in Ishant Sharma has cost India dearly. His decision to give Ishant crucial overs has probably cost India both the matches and he did it despite of having better options available on both occasions.

                So, we might be a little bit surprised on finding our team where it is right now, but it was always on the cards. India never had what it takes to win an event like this.