Mood in Indian camp upbeat but there is scope for changes

It may be hard to digest the defeat to New Zealand in the ICC KnockOut Trophy final at Nairobi on Sunday. But there is no denying that the Indians' overall performance was nothing short of heart warming. After all, conventional wisdom had it that they would be eliminated at the quarterfinal stage by Australia. But they not only stunned the World champions, they then went one better in scoring an emphatic victory over hotly fancied South Africa in the penultimate round. For all the mistakes made by the Indians in the final, one must also give full credit to the positive approach of New Zealand, whose triumph was based on a superlative showing by their ace all rounder Chris Cairns.

But there is no doubt that despite the encouraging showing in Nairobi, there are still chinks in the Indian armour which will have to be sealed. The middle order batting has shown a tendency to get bogged down in the crucial middle and end overs, there is scope for improvement in the bowling and the team must learn to keep its nerves in a tense situation. While there is no doubt that Sourav Ganguly deserves his share of the credit for the team's improved show, he is still in the learning process as a captain and there are certain points of strategy that he has to work upon.

Never change a winning squad goes the sporting maxim. Well, the Indians did not exactly win in Nairobi so one supposes that while the selectors have named an unchanged team for the Coca Cola Trophy at Sharjah which commences on Friday, there is still scope for a couple of fresh faces in the playing eleven. The fact remains that new boys Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh and to an extent Vijay Dahiya played a notable part in Nairobi and perhaps the time has come to really ring out the old and ring in the new. Yes, the team management should take the bold decision of dropping Ajit Agarkar and Vinod Kambli and bring in Sridharan Sriram and Hemang Badani. And one more option should be the inclusion of Sunil Joshi, particularly on pitches that are expected to help spin bowlers more than they did in Nairobi.

The mood in the Indian camp is, predictably enough, upbeat. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai just before the team's departure, coach Anshuman Gaekwad reckoned that the Indians had a good chance of winning the trophy. ``If we field like we did in Nairobi and bat and bowl sensibly I don't see why we can't win the trophy,'' he said. ``As I had said before we have got some talented youngsters in the team who can deliver the goods along with the seniors and things can get only better from now on.''

According to Gaekwad, the youngsters were not only talented ``but they are very keen learners and this has helped me to guide them in the right direction.''

Gaekwad was of the view that the pitches at Sharjah would be similar to those at Nairobi except that the ground at Sharjah was bigger and the outfield was not as fast. ``In fact as the tournament progresses, the wickets will get slower and they will start turning as well, which was not the case in Nairobi,'' he added.

Gaekwad said that though the opponents at Sharjah were not as formidable as at Nairobi ``we are not taking the Lankans or for that matter the Zimbabweans lightly. I would like to see my boys win here before I bid goodbye to the coaching assignment,'' he said.

Indeed, the Indians will have no time to relax for they play Sri Lanka in the opening game on Friday. Putting their surprise defeat at the hands of Pakistan in the quarterfinal of the ICC KnockOut tournament in Nairobi behind them, the Lankans will undoubtedly take on India with a new determination. The seriousness of the Lankans towards their task can be gauged by the fact that they arrived in Sharjah as early as October 15 and since then have been having some gruelling practice sessions under the watchful eyes of their coach Dav Whatmore who is keen that his squad quickly erase bad memories of the loss in Nairobi. ``Yes, the loss in Nairobi was disappointing for everyone. But the team has put that defeat behind them and every member is determined to try even harder to win the Coca Cola Cup,'' he is quoted to have said. And when it comes to determination, the Lankans can be pretty hard to beat. The loss at the ICC KnockOut was in fact an aberration for Sri Lanka have been performing very well this year and it would not come as a major surprise if they emerged triumphant on October 29.

Whatmore in fact sounded a warning. According to him, after swallowing the bitter pill of defeat at Nairobi, the Lankan team is confident it will win the Coca Cola Trophy. ``The players, hopefully, have heeded the failure of Nairobi so the loss has not gone to waste," said Whatmore.

Whatmore admitted that the defeat in Nairobi was a "bitter pill to swallow." The coach named the failure of vice-captain Marvan Atapattu as a major reason for his team's failure. "Some of the new members are far from matured," he said. ``Some of the guys in the side are still young and gaining in experience. Once they have been around together for a while, they will build up a very good side," said Whatmore.

Whatmore said his team was unable to put into practice the game plan they had in Nairobi. "It was a wake up call to us," said Whatmore, adding the boys are keen to reflect the lessons they learnt in the defeat.

The Lankans have strengthened their batting by including Kaushalya Weeraratne, the all rounder who captained the Sri Lanka under-19 side on their recent tour of England, and Dilshan Tillekaratne. The latter was picked ahead of Kumara Dharmasena with the selectors convinced that the brittle batting was responsible for the defeat against Pakistan. But there are still two frontline spin bowlers in Muthiah Muralitharan and Upul Chandana with Sanath Jayasuriya as the back up. But even if the batting failed in the game against Pakistan, there is no doubt that Sri Lanka have the kind of players who are capable of exploding on their day. A line up of Jayasuriya, Marvan Attapattu, Russel Arnold, Mahela Jayawardene, Avishka Gunawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Romesh Kaluwitharana and Dilshan Tillekaratne is not one to scoffed at. And the presence of Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa gives their attack a nice balance.

Zimbabwe, like Sri Lanka were defeated in their first match at Nairobi but at least they went down to the ultimate champions New Zealand. That was certainly not a surprise defeat, even if they had got the better of the Kiwis in a three match one day series at home last month. Zimbabwe of course are not the kind of whipping boys they were even until a couple of years ago. Since then, they have made rapid progress and have proved to be opponents who can't be taken lightly. Heath Streak has been retained as captain and in vice captain Guy Whittall, Alistair Campbell, Henry Olonga, Stuart Carlisle, the Flower brothers and the two Strangs they have the nucleus of a fine side. Another of the teams to appoint a foreign coach - in this case former Australian paceman Carl Rackemann - the Zimbabweans can be expected to pull off more than just a surprise or two.

Former South Africa wicketkeeper batsman Denis Lindsay will make his debut as a match referee in the tournament while the ICC has named George Sharp (England), Steve Dunne (New Zealand) and Daryl Harper (Australia) as the umpires.