June 14, 1999
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PAVILION END Ready for Combat Shoaib Akhtar's no threat to the in-form top-order Indian batsmen. By Anshuman Gaekwad
I'm sad for Ajit Agarkar whose rhythm has betrayed him temporarily but I'm pleased for Debashish Mohanty. He tends on occasion to get overexcited, especially when he takes a wicket, but I told him not to try too hard and just let it come naturally. Sachin Tendulkar's position at No. 4 has created much discussion. All I'll say is wait and watch. The decision depends on the wicket. Also we are unable to play Sadagopan Ramesh in any other position except as opener. The England match might be a distant memory now but it shouldn't be forgotten because it showed the Indian team's character. I was quite upset with the Australian umpire Darrell Hair though. On the second morning of the match the covers had been removed and the pitch rolled and mowed. Hair told me the wicket was good and the outfield fine. I then asked him whether there was a problem with the light. He said no. I then enquired why we weren't starting. Hair replied they had delayed the start because rain was expected. I said that's no reason not to start. If it rains, then we'll stop. He had no answer to that, merely saying it was their decision. I was livid. The fact is that the team batting second can be at a disadvantage in such a situation. Well, bad luck for England. We felt that if the umpires started the match later (they eventually got it going at 11.15 a.m. instead of the scheduled 10.45 a.m.) whatever moisture on the pitch would have dried up and we would have lost the advantage. Fortunately for us, despite Hair's decision, the conditions remained the same when we started and our bowlers made good use of them. By the time you read this we would have played Australia and will be preparing for our big match against Pakistan. I'm looking to our batsmen to hit up a good score so that we can put pressure on them. That means we would like to bat first but it is not possible to say that without looking at the pitch. Shoaib Akhtar is their main threat but for us he's not a secret weapon and I think our batsmen, in their current form, are ready for him. We have respect for their bowling but are not intimidated by them. Most importantly, Pakistan almost always manage to pull themselves up from tight situations. To combat them we will have to do that too. There's not much to say about New Zealand. Two points are worth considering though. One, they're not very capable while chasing. And, their best bowler in is the left-arm swing bowler Geoff Allott, who did not play against us in New Zealand. We'll be watching films of him to get a fair idea of what he can do with the new ball. If there are two aspects we need to still improve on it is fielding and running between wickets. One saves runs the other ensures we get more runs. Our batsmen, especially when they hit to fine leg or to third man, tend to look at the ball as they run, which cuts down on their speed and makes it difficult to convert ones into twos and twos into threes. But I'm optimistic. Any team that loses its first two matches and then bounces back to win its next three must be doing a whole lot of things right. (Anshuman Gaekwad, coach of the Indian
cricket team, will be writing a weekly column |
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Two
weeks of the World Cup are over and we have done only a quarter of our work. We have to
win all our three matches in the Super Six to progress to the semi-finals. Due to some odd
combinations winning two matches might be enough but we are taking no chances.
Fortunately, our team has got better and better. The batsmen have applied themselves and
the bowlers have not got carried away. 
