While quietly content at the manner in which India had seen off a feebleEnglish challenge in this game, Greg Chappell came out strongly in supportof a couple of his embattled batsmen, Virender Sehwag and Mohammad Kaif

Dileep Premachandran03-Apr-2006

Mohammad Kaif: in a trough © AFP
While quietly content at the manner in which India had seen off a feebleEnglish challenge in this game, Greg Chappell came out strongly in supportof a couple of his embattled batsmen. Virender Sehwag and Mohammad Kaifare both going through a prolonged drought, but Chappell was certain thatboth would emerge from it stronger.”Both Kaif and Sehwag are very experienced,” he said. “Both have theskills to succeed and we will give both as many chances as we possiblycan.” When asked about Kaif in particular – he now has four zeroes and 4in his last five one-day innings – Chappell harked back to his ownhorror-run in 1981-82. “I feel it’s more of a mental thing,” saidChappell. “The focus is not quite right, and the anxiety to succeeddoesn’t help you either.”When Chappell took over as coach last June, Kaif was one of the players tomake an immediate positive impression, with his excellence in the fieldand reputation as a hard worker. He also started the season superbly, andwas easily India’s best batsmen in the tri-series in Zimbabwe. However, ahamstring injury picked up in the Challenger Trophy final caused him tomiss the first five games against Sri Lanka, and he has found run-scoringa struggle since, with not even a half-century to his name.Despite some of his stars misfiring, Chappell ruled out wholesale changesor drastic experimentation with four more matches left to play in theseries. He did admit though that more of the squad players could be givenopportunities to prove their worth. He was especially impressed with theimpact made by Ramesh Powar when given his chance. “I am very happy withhis bowling. He’s a very clever bowler and got us important wickets inFaridabad. He’s fitting into the team very well.”Another to make the most of his fortune has been Suresh Raina, who led thechase in Faridabad, and followed it up with an assured 61 in Goa. Whenasked if Raina had done enough to warrant a move up the order, Chappellsaid: “We’ll have to see if it’s in his best interests. We’ve eased himinto the team, put him in some pressure situations, and he’s done well forus. Maybe he’s ready for more challenges.”The almost-inevitable and now-redundant query about a recall for SouravGanguly was met with a poker-faced “Who knows?” and he was visiblyirritated with yet another query about the pace at which Irfan Pathanbowled. “He’s not a fast bowler, but a swing bowler who has lot ofvariations. He took the wickets today with his change of pace, and we’revery happy with that.”Chappell’s curt response was understandable given how outstanding Pathanhas been in the limited-overs game in recent times. Ineffectual withthe SG ball in Tests, he’s a vastly different proposition when armed withthe white Kookaburra that he appears to swing almost at will. In his lastsix ODIs, he has taken 17 wickets and invariably given the team theperfect start.There was nothing perfect about England’s start, and Andrew Flintoffadmitted that his team had been batted out of the game by Yuvraj andRaina. The pursuit of 295 was further affected by the absence of KevinPietersen, ruled out this morning with a stomach bug. “When you lose aplayer of Kevin’s ability, it’s a big loss,” said Flintoff. “But you’vegot to get on with it.”He smiled wanly when asked about the sweep that caused his downfall, andsaid: “What I was thinking then [with gloved hand clutching helmet grilledin despair] … well, this is an inappropriate time and place to say it.”This is a very good Indian side. But there are four games left, and we’vestill got to believe that we can win it. If we win the next two, we’ll beright back in it. But the team knows that we’ve got a mountain to climb.”Unless he and Pietersen can emulate Yuvraj’s big hitting, and the bowlingimproves drastically, England could find that the rest of the series is asarduous as trying to climb Everest without oxygen.