'There will be a few guys under pressure' - Chappell
Greg Chappell, the coach, was candid in his assessment of the gains and losses after yet another Indian campaign overseas ended with the bitter taste of defeat
Dileep Premachandran in Cape town
06-Jan-2007
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Greg Chappell, the coach, was candid in his assessment of the gains and
losses after yet another Indian campaign overseas ended with the bitter
taste of defeat. Chappell addressed India's batting failures in the last
two Tests, while praising the likes of Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan and Sourav
Ganguly for their contributions. And though he didn't say it in so many
words, a few major changes are likely ahead of the eight one-day
internationals at home in January and February.
After having much the better of the first three days, India surrendered
the initiative on the fourth afternoon when they could add only 48 runs
for the loss of four wickets before tea. "We lost momentum during that
middle session," said Chappell. "That certainly didn't help the situation,
and was a significant contribution to not winning the game. I also think
we failed to get as many as we should have got in the first innings [the
last five wickets contributed 19].
"The bowlers have done a pretty good job through the series and to miss
out on the opportunity to win it is a little disappointing. I don't want
to overstate things but I think it's fair to say that our batting was
disappointing in the last two Test matches, having won the first Test."
Asked about the mood in the dressing room after South Africa knocked off
the 211 needed with five wickets still standing, Chappell said: "We are a
little bit flat, disappointed in the fact that we got away to such a good
start and then let it get away from us. You have got to look at the
positives as well. We have won [a Test] for the first time in South Africa
and that in itself is something to be enjoyed. But the edge has been taken
off it a little bit by the disappointing batting in the last two Test
matches."
While South Africa's big-name players came back with a vengeance in the
final two Tests, Graeme Smith leading the way, India's big guns never
boomed. "It's hard to escape, but that's the case," he said. "I don't want
to make too big a point at this stage. It's posed quite a few questions
for us and there are things we are going to discuss over the next week or
so.
"The positive side of it is that some of the young boys performed very
well. They showed they have got some skill, some temperament and good
personalities for international cricket. Sree's bowling has been
outstanding, Zaheer has been very good as well. Kumble has done a pretty
good job for us, I don't think he can be criticised for today. It just
wasn't a wicket that gave any of the bowlers a great deal of assistance
which probably highlights how disappointing our batting was yesterday."
One man whose lack of form has come under most scrutiny is Virender
Sehwag. After dropping down to the middle order in the first innings,
where he scored 40, Sehwag continued his dismal run at the top with a
second-innings failure. "He's certainly a concern but I don't think he is
our only batting concern at the moment," said Chappell. "We are just not
getting enough consistent runs. We seem to be losing wickets in batches,
which is something you try and avoid in international cricket,
particularly in a Test match.
"Looking at the tour as a whole, there are more questions than answers.
Over the next week or so, when we get back to India and have a chance to
digest what's happened and discuss and debrief, we're going to have to
make some decisions on which direction we go. There will be a few guys
under a bit of pressure, there's no doubt."
At the same time, Chappell refused to accept that the decision to open
with Sehwag was the wrong option. "I don't know that you can say that any
decision is a wrong decision," he said. "It was a calculated decision. He
has been an opening batsman, he made 40 in the first innings, and it was a
pretty slow, Indian-type wicket. We felt that if any wicket in South
Africa was going to suit him, this one would. With a lead of 40, if we had
got an hour or so of Virender playing the way he can, all of a sudden that
lead would have been 100, and the whole game would have changed.
"The other thing you have to take into consideration is that Karthik did a
fabulous job in the first innings, and then kept for 130 overs. I don't
think we can ask too much of a young man. We asked a lot of him in the
first innings and he delivered as well as anyone could. But you don't
necessarily expect a stop-gap opener to be able to do the job
continuously."
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Even then, India were still in the game when South Africa went off on the
fourth evening with 156 still needed. But Smith and Shaun Pollock came out
and flayed the bowling, making the most of many gaps in the field and some
atrocious ground-fielding. "What Rahul [Dravid] was trying to do was
minimise the number of boundaries to try and stretch that 211 as far as
possible," said Chappell. "Obviously, we didn't need them to get away with
a string of boundaries early in the day. But to be fair, the wicket didn't
deteriorate like a lot of people expected, including ourselves.
"I'm not sure it changed greatly. There were some targets for the spin
bowlers but it wasn't a minefield by any stretch of the imagination. The
centre areas, the major landing areas, were still pretty good, so I
suppose it makes our batting performance of yesterday that much more
disappointing. There weren't that many gremlins in the wicket, there
weren't that many balls flying around. It wasn't up and down, or staying
down. If you were prepared to get in and not do anything silly, then
batting was not that difficult."
The team management will no doubt attract considerable flak for selecting
Munaf Patel, who bowled just one over in the second innings, ahead of
Harbhajan Singh, though there were no indicators that the pitch would
prove to be so spin-friendly. "It was never a choice between Munaf and
Harbhajan," said Chappell. "We wanted the batting that we had and we
wanted the balance of the bowling that we had. To be fair, Harbhajan
hasn't bowled for a month, so it was going to be a big ask to push him
into the team as well.
"It's very easy to look at things in hindsight and say what if, what if.
We made the choices based on what we saw and what we had. It wasn't a
fitness thing at all."
One of the stories of the tour was the return of Sourav Ganguly, who
turned out to be the senior batsman who acquitted himself best. Ganguly
started with a vital half-century in the Johannesburg win, and was India's
leading scorer in the series with 214 runs. "He has done what he was
chosen to do, which is to get in there and get runs," said Chappell. "I
thought his performance yesterday in the difficult circumstance of having
to be rushed in at the last minute was exceptional."
The same couldn't be said of most of his compatriots. Even as Australia's
version of Dad's Army signed off with an epic Ashes triumph, India's
appears to be on its last legs. Thankfully, the likes of Sreesanth and
Karthik should ensure that the future isn't as grey as the Cape Town skies
were this morning.
Dileep Premachandran is features editor of Cricinfo