Delay in playing young off-spinner notwithstanding, his fine performance against West Indies on Sunday would have convinced skipper MS Dhoni that he must be included in future games
Delay in playing young off-spinner notwithstanding, his fine performance against West Indies on Sunday would have convinced skipper MS Dhoni that he must be included in future games
With due apologies to Man of the Match Yuvraj Singh, according to me Ravichandran Ashwin's performance in Sunday's win over West Indies was perhaps more significant in the context of the remainder of the tournament.
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| Left: India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin celebrates after taking the final West Indies' wicket of Ravi Rampaul during their World Cup match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. India won by 80 runs with Ashwin finishing with figures of 10-0-41-2. |
This is not to undermine Yuvraj's brilliant century which held the innings together after the cheap dismissals of Tendulkar and Gambhir. Add to this two wickets and there was no debate worth the mention as to who had been the most influential player of this game.
But of Yuvraj's match-winning ability I have had no doubt, so his century did not come as a surprise. With three half-centuries already under his belt, he was in spanking good form, and a three-figure innings looked par for the course if he got enough time in the middle.
In a batting line-up loaded with strokeplayers, I believe Yuvraj is still the best finisher of an innings ufffd either setting a total or chasing one. He has also shown a happy ability to pick up wickets regularly with his left-arm slow stuff, as he did again on Sunday, bagging two towards the end.
Once derogatorily referred to as 'pie-thrower' by Kevin Pietersen because of his ungainly action, Yuvraj has since become integral to Dhoni's bowling plans. At the end of the league phase, he stands out as the leading all-rounder in the tournament and perhaps the player opponents fear most now.
However Ashwin, whom almost the entire country was rooting for, would have been under more pressure to perform than any other Indian player. That he handled this with the ease of a thespian, not like a rookie having the spotlight turned on him for the first time, reveals excellent temperament to go with his talent.
While it is a good feeling to be wanted, this can be a double-edged sword. Everybody expected him to not just take wickets but also keep down the runs; for a fickle fan-following, anything less would have spelt failure.
Perhaps even more significant was the impression Ashwin made on his captain.u00a0 So far Dhoni was either reluctant to play Ashwin because he had got Piyush Chawla into the side ufffd as the conspiracy theorists would have it ufffd or he wanted to spring him as a surprise on unsuspecting opponents, as another school of thought believes.
In either case, the young off-spinner was under harsh scrutiny. Had he failed, he not only would have been castigated by the very people, who had been supporting his inclusion, but would perhaps have compelled a rethink even in the Indian dressing room.
I thought Dhoni was astute too in throwing the gauntlet at Ashwin by asking him to open the bowling. He's done this often enough in the Indian Premier League, and with Chris Gayle not playing, the threat to the young
spinner's confidence was considerably diminished. Yet, Ashwin still had to bowl well to justify the extended
opening spell he got.
He impressed with his nagging control and fine variations which did not allow the batsmen to score as freely as they would have liked despite the outfield being unprotected. Whatever the reasons for the delay in playing him yet, by the end of the day Dhoni would have been convinced that Ashwin must be included in future games.
There was much to commend in India's triumph over the West Indies, not the least Dhoni's captaincy. He read the pitch well, made brisk bowling changes, and kept the team pumped up even when Smith and Sarwan seemed to have taken control of the game.
However, the problem of when to take the batting Power Play and how to approach it persists. Too many wickets were lost yet again after the Yuvraj-Kohli partnership was broken, and the Power Play was once again taken during the last five overs of the innings, by which time mayhem had already set in.
Against a lackadaisical West Indies side this may not have mattered too much. But against Australia there could be a heavy price to pay.
