It’s the halfway stage in the IPL and already the Royal Challengers are under fire from the King of Good Times. Mallya has been nipping at the heels of the players for sometime now and the sacking of Charu Sharma and the attack on Dravid have added fuel to the fire. The blame games have begun and unfortunately the Wall has been in the midst of it all. But was Dravid wrong in his selection? Lets just reflect on the team selection.
Focus on the bowling dept. first as the bowlers are the ones who are making the mark nowadays. RC definitely have teeth in their attack. The pace and incisiveness of Steyn, the experience of Zaheer and the guile of Kumble – the trio do form a deadly triplet. Add to that the youthful exuberance of Praveen Kumar and the medium pace of Kallis, then you might almost term it as a threatening attack with no lack of variety.
Shifting focus to the batting dept,- well it definitely doesn’t dazzle but has the essential components to make a mark. Mark Boucher and Misbah ul Haq are two of the cleanest strikers of the cricket ball in contemporary cricket. T20 is not always about flash and bang and Dravid and Kallis could play the second fiddle to perfection. Chanderpaul with his prominent shuffling around the wickets could upset the line and length of any bowler ( of course Warne and Mc Grath are exceptions to this ). Add to this the hard hitting capabilities of Praveen Kumar, a cool head in Virat Kohli, the batting looks to be in safe hands though not exactly dynamite.
If everyone had chipped in with their bit, the team could have easily reached a better standing at the points table. But that’s the way the game goes. You cant always win and you cant always explain why you lose. This is the golden rule in cricket and when one loses then scapegoats are searched for and unfortunately it is Rahul this time around.
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