Friday 19 July 2019
Thursday 11 July 2019
An Open Letter to Virat Kohli
Dear Virat Kohli,
Ten to fifteen years ago if an Indian team was unable to chase a total of 240, they would have faced hell. That team was not even the best, as yours is now. You had the best bowler and the best batsman in the world.
You have nothing to complain about. You can’t complain of red tapism. You can’t complain of divide in the team. You can’t even complain of a nasty boss, in fact you forced Anil Kumble out for your pal Ravi Shastri. You got everything you wanted, the Board would have arranged even Jawan Rum from Kerala if you wanted. You just needed to ask for it.
Your captaincy however sucked. Your plan for the world cup was 'we score 300 or more if we bat first, we chase down whatever score they throw at us'. Very simple and easy, isn’t it? But your plan didn’t account for the one off day even the world’s best team could face.
So we had Rishab Pant and Dinesh Karthik walk in when India were 5/3, a situation where one should have had a Pujara or a Rahane bat. Basically we had three or four No. 6 batsmen but not a single solid No. 4 batsman.
Sanjay Manjrekar was wrong in saying Ravinder Jadeja was a bits and pieces player, he should have said we are a team made mostly of bits and pieces players. The semifinal proved that.
The worst thing about the team, which no one would openly say, was the swag off the field. It was as if all the other teams were there to give you a walkover. In the middle of the world cup, Ravinder Jadeja had the time and energy to pick up a fight with a commentator, he celebrated his fifty with a swordfight aimed at the commentary box. Everyone is praising him for his 77, but it only gave us an honourable exit, not a ticket to final. He will rue the shot that got him out for the rest of his life. The incomplete knock only proved what Manjrekar said. Jadeja is a bits and pieces player after all, not one who can take the team to victory. He is no Yuvraj so to say.
Mr Kohli, we lost the semifinal not just because of the ‘45 minutes of bad cricket’ as a newspaper headline put it, but because you took a Twenty20 team to win the one-day world cup.
In an environment where we demand accountability from a govt office peon to a Rahul Gandhi, it is a miracle the Indian cricket fan is seeking none from you.
Virat Kohli, we cricket fans have been very kind to you.
Thanks and regards
Jasoos Narayanan Kutty
Ten to fifteen years ago if an Indian team was unable to chase a total of 240, they would have faced hell. That team was not even the best, as yours is now. You had the best bowler and the best batsman in the world.
You have nothing to complain about. You can’t complain of red tapism. You can’t complain of divide in the team. You can’t even complain of a nasty boss, in fact you forced Anil Kumble out for your pal Ravi Shastri. You got everything you wanted, the Board would have arranged even Jawan Rum from Kerala if you wanted. You just needed to ask for it.
Your captaincy however sucked. Your plan for the world cup was 'we score 300 or more if we bat first, we chase down whatever score they throw at us'. Very simple and easy, isn’t it? But your plan didn’t account for the one off day even the world’s best team could face.
So we had Rishab Pant and Dinesh Karthik walk in when India were 5/3, a situation where one should have had a Pujara or a Rahane bat. Basically we had three or four No. 6 batsmen but not a single solid No. 4 batsman.
Sanjay Manjrekar was wrong in saying Ravinder Jadeja was a bits and pieces player, he should have said we are a team made mostly of bits and pieces players. The semifinal proved that.
The worst thing about the team, which no one would openly say, was the swag off the field. It was as if all the other teams were there to give you a walkover. In the middle of the world cup, Ravinder Jadeja had the time and energy to pick up a fight with a commentator, he celebrated his fifty with a swordfight aimed at the commentary box. Everyone is praising him for his 77, but it only gave us an honourable exit, not a ticket to final. He will rue the shot that got him out for the rest of his life. The incomplete knock only proved what Manjrekar said. Jadeja is a bits and pieces player after all, not one who can take the team to victory. He is no Yuvraj so to say.
Mr Kohli, we lost the semifinal not just because of the ‘45 minutes of bad cricket’ as a newspaper headline put it, but because you took a Twenty20 team to win the one-day world cup.
In an environment where we demand accountability from a govt office peon to a Rahul Gandhi, it is a miracle the Indian cricket fan is seeking none from you.
Virat Kohli, we cricket fans have been very kind to you.
Thanks and regards
Jasoos Narayanan Kutty
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