Caught Dhoni bowled Nehra

Well though the result of yesterday's match between Afghanistan and India didn't have any takers, the match was fun to see the opening batsman of Afghanistan scoring a half century. However, batsmen who followed didn't have anything to say with their bat going completely dumb. That was Noor Ali Zadran for you who scored 50 runs from 48 balls to see Afghanistan score a total in excess of hundred.

There was nothing to feel surprised about Afghanistan ending their batting with 115 on the board and one has to applaud them for playing their complete quota of 20 overs which most of the lesser known teams don't. If not for the 50 scored by Noor Ali Zadran, the next major score came from the number 5 batsman in Asghar Stanikzai who scored 30 runs together which constituted about 70% of the total of Afghanistan. Going through the scorecard of the match would reveal nothing but only a series of single digit scores if not for those two mentioned above.

It is really tough to write something about such games whose results are well known to one and all even before the match has been started announced. But, once in a while there would be surprises and a little bit of decent performances from batsmen from these teams as well. It was evident from this match regarding the wonderful pair Dhoni and Ashish Nehra make when Dhoni had three consecutive catches off the bowling off Nehra. This was the game where a captain can try experimenting with his players and Dhoni executed this very well by handing the ball to Yuvraj Singh and Yousuf Pathan.

Murali Vijay's knock at the top of the order speaks about Dhoni's use of such games as a platform to bring in new faces on the international arena. With the total being only 115, Dhoni experimenting new talent should be praiseworthy. I wish Ravindra Jadeja should have come in at number 3 instead of Yuvraj, when Yuvraj has a lot to prove in the matches to come. India would be facing South Africa shortly in the next few days by which time players like Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay and Praveen Kumar should be ready to take some evasive actions with the bat in case their team needs it.

Bowling coach needed to silence critics

Just three days before the start of the tri series involving India , Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni comes out shouting regarding the absence of a bowling coach with Venkatest Prasad being sacked after team India's disastrous world T20 and the ICC Champion's trophy that followed last year. All these with the fact that India has been doing well even without the presence of a regular bowling coach. India won the bilateral series against SriLanka last month and also the test series that preceded. Though it is a fact, its necessity is not clear.

There has been bowlers like Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Aashish Nehra and others who have been found doing a fab job for their team in the series mentioned. Though the bowlers mentioned have not been awarded the man of the match award, their service to their team can never be turned down whatsoever. It would not be a tough call for the BCCI to ask some retired bowler to take over from the point where Venkatesh Prasad had left. But, one has to question the BCCI for not doing the same. Does the BCCI doesn't find the necessity of hiring a bowling coach for India?

Whatever may be the case, though team India has been faring well in all the three formats of the game, it should not be forgotten that all these victories have been achieved at home and India has not seen touring any nation. The last time India toured any country was New Zealand way back in April last year which India won by a 3-1 margin. Since then, India has hardly toured any strong cricketing nation and whenever India has toured, they came back empty handed like it happened in the ICC Champions trophy- in South Africa and the World T20 in England.

One need not cite the tour of West Indies which India won by a margin 3-1 with the West Indies being a team solely for Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. However, a loss against the same can make heads crack. Moreover, Dhoni's men would be playing a tri series, the result of which has been bitter at most times. All that team India can do in a tri series is to reach the finals of the same and compromise being the runners up. And this time as well, reaching the finals of a tournament would not be a tough guess with a team like Bangladesh always there to guarantee this to India.