A Wake Up Call For Indians

Well after their T20 world cup debacle, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's words seemed to be too tough on the players for, they had to perform or else perish in the coming one day series against the West Indies. And adding to this was the fact that the services of fellow players like Zaheer Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina would be missed would just add fuel to fire and nothing less. One can remember the last two tours by team India-the previous one being the world cup 2007 where there is nothing to say about team India and prior to that was in 2006 where India lost the ODI series 1-4. However, the test series was won by a margin 1-0.

And in the first ODI of the series, no doubt that a complete batting team effort by the Indian batsmen at Kingston needs some applause. Yuvraj Singh has become a popular name in most of India's victories in ODIs and T20s and also in many close encounters. And the other batsmen were also not too far behind. There was Mahendra Singh Dhoni himself who came back after a series of flops in the IPL and the T20 world cup, in addition with Yousuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Dinesh Karthik. However, the point that is to be noticed is that dsespite scoring a mammoth 339, the team won by just 20 runs as against the expected margin of some 100 runs.

If this was the case, either the pitch is supposed to be a batsman's paradise or else it was a below par performance by the Indian bowlers who let the batsmen score at will. The scoreboard suggests that there was a 44 run eighth wicket partnership between Ramdin and Bernard meaning even the tail end batsmen could score runs freely. If not for Harbhajan Singh, none of remaining 6 of the Indian bowlers had the courage to bowl all their 10 overs. So, it wouldn't be wrong to say that India needs to improve a lot. If this is the bowling what India would be having, another 1-3 loss can said to be on the cards.

For, the West Indies team is packed with batsmen than bowlers. The West Indies team has eight batsmen and any sort of loose bowling from the Indian side would be nothing other than "asking for trouble". Of course..India have an upper hand in winning the series compared to the West Indies' poor run in the last decade. However, keeping all the factors in hand, a decent move by Dhoni would make things easier for India I suppose. An initial loss is not the only wake up call that one can expect. Such close encounters also are referred to wake up calls for, not everytime are the teams so lucky to survive a close call.