Last Man Standing - Tu Hi To Hai Rah(ul) Jo Sujhaaye

I am absolutely shattered after the debacle in the ODI circus. I believe that from now on when India and Pakistan play ODI cricket it should be called "The Ashes" because what happened the other day at the Kotla is nothing if not the death of Indian Cricket. It should be given a state funeral and the Ashes buried under the Kotla in the hope that generations of young Indian cricketers will someday be inspired to regain them after putting in a performance befitting a cricketer - unlike the meek spineless and cowardly surrender of this team.

Most of these cricketers should be ashamed of calling themselves that. A cricketer embodies virtues of courage, determination and a burning desire to fight it out till the very end. I think the entire team is to be blamed to some degree or the other of abandoning those. Starting with the 2 most useless people at the top - Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar. They should carry a major portion of the blame. I am sick and tired even thinking about the lack of utility of these guys so I'll just not discuss it anymore.

Kaif and Yuvaraj - now here is something more interesting. These two are supposed to lead the batting in the years to come - unfortunately this series was not so great for them, apart from a superb back-to-the wall 78 from Kaif in Kanpur. These two should shoulder part of the blame though much less than the 2 liabilities mentioned above - mainly because they always have their task made really difficult by the failure of the top order. Who would you blame more ?? People who play foolishly at the top to make 50/4 or those who have to react to that situation and crumble under pressure. Yes, it is important that the middle order be able to handle pressure situations but that is no excuse for the top order to make single digit scores in 8 of 10 tries to get the score to 50/4 in the first place. Give them some kind of platform set up and they will fire - see what happened in the Natwest final ?? For those who are so eager to castigate Yuvaraj Singh, let me ask - when in this series did he really have a chance to do something ?? Only in the last 2 games and (maybe Jamshedpur) on all those occasions the top-order had collapsed putting extreme pressure on him. Put him in a situation like Natwest he will get the win for you - does anyone remember what a great innings that 62 against South Africa in the semifinals of the ICC Trophy 2002 was ?? No ?? - Yuvaraj and Kaif need to improve but they need to be provided with encouragement, not harsh criticism.

Now to Dhoni - touted as the find of the season - played one booming knock - became an overnight hero - but what after that ?? His strike rate in the remaining matches is pretty ordinary - why send him at #3 if he is going to play like a batsman anyway ?? Wouldn't it be better if that time was utilized by a genuine batsman to settle ?? Say Laxman or Yuvaraj - someone of genuine class ?? Dhoni is a good find but lets not get carried away - he needs to be reminded that he needs to score at at least over a run a ball if he has to bat at the top - of course with the above mentioned liabilities collapsing all around him - he can be pardoned for tyring to preserve his wicket just a little.

Sehwag - let me make it very clear - as much as I am a supporter of this guy, I will not hesitate to criticize his poor performances. In fact, luckily he himself has admitted that he played really poorly in the last 4 games - but at least he has a couple of match-winning knocks to redeem himself. What do the liabilities have ? Sehwag needs to be blamed, no doubt. But only slightly.

Coming to the bowlers - overall, I would blame the bowlers less than the batsmen, because this was not their game at all. Zaheer Khan was reasonably accurate, Nehra ok in patches, Balaji not so good. Harbhajan, like Zaheer very accurate, but no wickets to show. Harbhajan had the excuse that Ganguly never gave him a field to pick up wickets. Zaheer not so much. As it stands, we all saw how a little bit of reverse swing can work wonders in the middle-overs with Agarkar in the last game - hope we realised what we are missing out by dismissing so lightly a bowler with over 200 wickets. Agarkar should be an integral part of the side. I feel sorry for Pathan - I have no doubt he has superb talent - can't understand what went wrong this time; I think it was a good decision to pull him out of the team than have his confidence shattered - I'm sure he's carrying some niggle - hope he is fully fit for the start of the next season.

Finally, what does that leave us with ?? Isn't all the blame shared so far or is there any left to hand over to Rahul Sharad Dravid ?? Shouldn't he be blamed for not playing a marathon innings in Delhi ?? Shouldn't he be blamed for not successfully carrying out an impossible effort in Jamshedpur ?? Or for not scoring more than 250 in Kanpur ?? Shouldn't he be blamed for not covering up for the mistakes of everyone else ?? For the defeat of the Women's Team in the finals of the World Cup ?? For the Tsunami On Boxing Day ??

The above questions may sound stupid - but I have here friends who were willing to blame Dravid for his captain's knock of 86 in Kanpur. They wanted him to accelerate earlier !! With everyone back in the hut and the innings sure to collapse once he departed. I thought it was one of the best innings of the series coming at the time it did and under such extreme pressure. Go ahead and lambast him for it; I refuse to attribute anything more than 0.01% of blame to Rahul.

He was the one who showed that no matter what happens there is always reason to try again. He was the one one who adjusted his game so well to the differing situations. When the need was for quick runs in Ahmedabad, he scored 19 off 12 balls. When it was required to play a long innings in Kochi and then fire he did that. When there was a need for a gem of an innings in Kanpur he did that. And on a difficult Delhi pitch at least he tried something different, stepping out one ball and playing a horizontal bat four to the other. Admittedly, he got run-out under pressure, but at least he was willing to adapt to the situation. Sachin Tendulkar - are you listening ??? He did not stubbornly refuse to change his game and lose his leg-stump to a bowler of the quality of Rao Iftikar Anjum on a pitch that was slow and low.

They talk about selecting the team first and then choosing the captain from among the 11 players. The other school talks about selecting the captain first and then selecting the team around him. Luckily, we have right now one guy who alone can claim a spot in the team without any questions about his performance. And luckily he is the guy who is the right man to lead. And he has expressed an interest in doing the job. "It is something I like to do independently of whether I am successful at it", he said the other day. He is The Last Man Standing. The one who will guide a new generation of cricketers to recover "The Ashes." I hope the selectors see the light.