Asia Cup Review – India prespective

After the deplorable performances in South Africa and New Zealand, a lot was expected from Team India at the Asia Cup as it was being played in the favorable conditions of the sub-continent.

However, two heartbreaking losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan meant that India was eliminated without reaching the final of the tournament. It cannot be said that the team paid poorly, but costly errors at important times in the two games proved to be the difference in the end.

In the game against Sri Lanka, Kumar Sangakkara was dropped on 30 by Dinesh Karthik and he went on to make a match wining ton.  DK was the culprit against Pakistan too as he got out at an inopportune time and he made errors in the field too. DK also missed a critical stumping in the match against Pakistan which proved to be a game changer. The other players didn’t cover themselves with glory too as we witnessed several collisions in the field, Varun Aaron was forcibly removed from the attack and the batsmen could never really get going and the team posted below par scores in both the matches.

In the dead rubber match against Afghanistan an unchanged side was named and this decision met with a lot of criticism, especially from Sunil Gavaskar. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishwar Pandey were not given an opportunity to play and some have called these reserve players as ‘glorified travelers’.

Yet, there are a few positives to take away from the Asia Cup. Most importantly, Virat Kohli proved yet again that he will prove to be a worthy successor to MS Dhoni as captain as he showcased his captaincy skills as India almost defended two   below par scores against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Also, Amit Mishra proved to be lethal as well as economical and his performance adds another dimension to the bowling attack. Shikhar Dhawan cemented his place as first choice opener as he was India’s best batsman in the tournament.

The Asia Cup performance is a wakeup call to all concerned with Indian cricket that if India wishes to do well at the World Cup in 2015, some serious work has to be put in to ensure success in Australia.

PS: The article is contributed by CricBol.com intern Arnav Jain.