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World Cup 2011: The Indian cricket team is no threat
India has an overrated batting line up and a weak bowling attack. It seems the trophy is out of their reach.
Do you still think India are amongst the favourites for winning the Cricket World Cup 2011?
While the Indian media presents its team as the world’s best, the truth is that India are not so strong.
India lack fighters, and without them no one can emerge on top in such a big tournament. While I must admit that they have some great players and definitely provide entertainment, I cannot say that they are match winners; their players are only outstanding in favourable circumstances.
Take Sachin Tendulkar as an example. Tendulkar is a god for all the coming generations of batsmen. I am not sure if his records can be broken in even the next 100 years. But can he be called a fighter or match winner? I think not.
He repeatedly proves himself to be an individual performer instead of someone who plays for the team.
Even when he was about to cross the magical figure of 100 runs in India’s group match against South Africa, he stopped playing his natural strokes. He did not maintain the momentum of the scores and used eight deliveries to get his last two runs to complete his 99th international hundred.
I find it strange that a world class batsman who is about to make a century is still greedy for runs but not to win the match. In other words, he plays for himself, not for the team.
His performance in this specific match revolved around his individual score and as soon as he completed his century, he started playing unreasonable strokes.
A legend like Tendulkar should have played till the end of the innings or at least till the end of the Powerplay.
Others like Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh, M S Dhoni are overrated players who couldn’t even survive the whole 50 overs.
Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened as the Indian batting line-up showed the same performance against England. Their mediocre bowling side could not even restrict Bangladesh.
A Pakistan-India face off
On a side note, if Pakistan encounter India in the quarter-final or semi-final, they must remain positive and should know that the Indian batting line up cannot resist their fighters. Indian bowlers are not good enough to restrict a good batting line up below 300 runs on South Asia’s flat tracks. This is especially true under the lights when the ball gets wet after 15 overs and does not create difficulty for defiant batsmen in the second innings.
The Pakistani players need to stay calm and play their natural game. Although they do not have huge names like Tendulkar, they have the world’s best fighters: Afridi, Razzaq, Misbah, Younis, Umar Gul, Umar Akmal and Saeed Ajmal.
The greens must focus on these three points to be on top:
- Play their natural game with the fighting spirit
- Avoid Indian media
- Avoid Indian bookies
They will be the champions - I am sure of it!
For the latest World Cup updates and opinions visit The Express Tribune Cricket.
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