Former West Indian fast bowler Colin Croft says real reason for India's early exit is the inability of their batsmen to cope with the rising ball
Former West Indian fast bowler Colin Croft says real reason for India's early exit is the inability of their batsmen to cope with the rising ball
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni may have a reason for blaming his team's poor show in the ICC World Twenty20 on the late-night Indian Premier League parties. But, former West Indies fast bowler Colin Croft pointed out that the stark reality was that the Indian team paid the price for their batsmens' inability to handle the short, rising deliveries.
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| Opener Gautam Gambhir gets the short treatment during the World Twenty20 Super Eight game against West Indies at the Kensington Oval on May 9. |
Croft, who terrorised batsmen with his pace and awkward bounce in the late 70s and early 80s, said the Indian team was exposed yet again by sheer pace and bounce.
"If they do not know how to hook or pull, both the Indian openers (Gambhir and Murali Vijay) had no business to be here. I wonder how you can become an opener without these two strokes," Croft told MiD DAY while analysing the Indian team's debacle.
India lost all their Super Eight games to bow out of the tournament. Two of the losses were at Barbados' Kensington Oval where the Australian and West Indian pacers wreaked havoc by targeting the Indian batsmen with bouncers.
"The whole gallery at the Kensington Oval was laughing at the plight of the Indian batsmen against the short ball. Over the years we have seen that they (Indians) do not feel comfortable against short-pitched stuff.
Now, it is all the more shocking as the batsmen wear so much protective equipment. In spite of that the Indian batsmen were dismal. It's been a bad advertisement for Indian cricket," said Croft.
"I do not buy the idea that if we don't practice on bouncy tracks at home we cannot handle short stuff. They will have to improve their technique.
"I have seen a couple of good knocks from Gambhir earlier. He should practice hard to erase this problem. I am told he is a very serious cricketer, so why does he allow his critics to point fingers at him for this reason," said Croft, who believed playing fast bowling is about guts.
"Any batsman who has a tentative attitude about facing pace bowling on a bouncy track is bound to get out quickly.
"Indian batsmen should learn to play fire with fire. That is why our countrymen had a lot of respect for players like Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath and Mohinder Amarnath in our time. The wicket had more bounce in that period. The equipment was not that great, yet they played fearlessly," he said.
Croft also blamed the Indian coaching staff for not doing their homework.
"The Indian team did not assess the conditions before coming here. I am shocked to see that they played only two medium pacers in the XI at Kensington Oval against Australia. How could they have misread the wicket when we all know that there is a big difference between the wicket at St Lucia and Barbados," questioned Croft.
"India is a big cricket country with a lot of passion, but they have let their fans down," signed off Croft.
