Yes, India’s woeful showing in overseas Tests needs to be addressed but let us not incite passion in doing so. It is critical that we remain collected as we sit down to find solutions to some problems that the Indian team is so obviously facing now. It is important not to become a part of the cacophony that follows each such defeat.

Let us remember that when the team was picked and when some cricketers left for Australia before the rest of the side to acclamatise themselves with the conditions Down Under, without exception, everyone said that this Indian side had the best chance to win a series in Australia.

Sadly, the team management did not respond to some signs that became obvious in the first two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney. For instance, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag’s inability to provide the team with a good start should have made the tour selectors seek options. VVS Laxman’s failures called for a harsh decision, too.

It may be a good idea to have Ajinkya Rahane or Rahul Dravid open the innings in Adelaide with Gambhir so that Sehwag can bat at No. 5. It will allow not only Sehwag the chance to play an attacking innings after the ball loses its shine but also be the first steps towards building a middle-order that is capable of taking over from giants like Dravid and Laxman.

It is important to let the likes of Rahane and Rohit Sharma gain the experience of playing Test cricket in Australia. Together with Virat Kohli, it can be expected that they will figure in Test cricket for some years now. It may not be the ideal situation for India to have few players with the experience of playing in Australia when it travels there next.

Of course, there has been some stinging criticism of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy, particularly with respect to his field placing. It does appear to his critics that he can’t seem to do anything right at the moment. I am not among those who believe that he has dipped as a tactician. It is just that his batsmen have let him down big time.

How can he be held responsible if the opening batsmen have been unable to accomplish the primary task of seeing the new ball through? How can he be responsible if experienced batsmen like Dravid and Laxman have been done in by late swing that the Australian fast bowlers have obtained?

Let us not get carried away by all the criticism by former players and others on our TV channels. Yes, as fans of Indian cricket, we are hurt, upset and angered by the dismal showing in Australia – in the wake of the disaster in England – but let us not get despondent and start castigating everything about the team and about Indian cricket.

Let me point out to those leading the lament on TV channels now that they have not devoted even two minutes of their time to talk about our top performers in Ranji Trophy, Rajasthan’s Robin Bist (885 runs) and Madhya Pradesh’s TP Sudhindra (40 wickets). Unless all of India – and I include the fans, media and former India cricketers in this – respects the Ranji Trophy again, we can be sure that its fortunes in Test cricket will sink to an all-time low.

And yes, even if Indians are an emotional and sensitive race, let us learn to remain calm at all times and not allow ourselves to be victims of herd mentality. It is time to let our minds overrule our hearts, embrace hope and remain confident that a system that threw up players of the calibre of Dravid and Laxman, Sehwag and Gambhir, Kohli and Dhoni will help us find solutions to the present set of problems too.

Gautam Gambhir was one of the stars of the chase (Photo courtesy: Google Images)

What a night! A night to beat all other nights hollow! A night when the Men in Blue took centre-stage, with a performance none can find flaws in. It was incredible to see a team which was faltering during the World Cup, gain momentum and produce a less than a perfect performance, but still good enough to stun Australia in the quarterfinal, a doddering performance to stamp out Pakistan in the semifinal and come back strongly to reduce Sri Lankan grit to dust in the finals.

The night was incredibly perfect, as the calm, cool and collected captain MS Dhoni received the Man of the Match award and the flamboyant Yuvraj Singh the Man of the Series prize, but I could not help but feel sorry for the man of the moment Gautam Gambhir for not getting a share of the recognition with Dhoni. After all, his innings is what made the huge task look so surmountable in the first place.

And to think that like millions of fans, my quaking heart reduced me to a morose, depressed fan through the day. While my head insisted I overcome my sense of loss and prepare to sing paens to Sri Lanka, looking up each time to see Mahela Jayawardhane hit a four, reducing Indian bowling and fielding to naught. The heart triumphed and I decided to leave office to grieve in private, heart sinking to my knees, darkness enveloping me as Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar fell, even as Lasith Malinga rose to demonic proportions and I prepared for the inevitable.

When I reached home an hour later, Gambhir was still batting and all I could hope for was a decent loss, bracing myself for the crumbling middle-order, which we have all been witness to. Much later, he was still at the crease, raising his bat to acknowledge his fifty. While my heart recovered a little, the head kept saying `Don’t be silly, the target is still a long way off’.

But Gambhir’s 50 and the calm demeanour made my heart believe, maybe there is a miracle waiting to happen here and like a numb, defeated soldier I got up to pray my hardest in years, to beg God to give this incredible team a win. I believed throughout that it truly deserved it and I could possibly not be so wrong.

Though Team India was not performing to potential, it had still managed to tumble its way into the final, triumphing over Australia (when I thought team India was still finding its footing and it seemed too early to face Australia, after all an early knockout a very `real’ possibility) and quelling Pakistan’s rising strength in a thrilling semifinal. On the contray, Sri Lanka had an easy run up to the final, a no result thanks to rain against Australia, beating the West Indies in the quarter finals and then quelling New Zealand a team certainly not worthy of a semifinal place.

Gambhir’s steady and responsible partnership with Virat Kohli pumped my heart back to life, my voice rising in decibels as I cheered him, praying for them to keep going, as the target diminished at an agonizing slow pace of only a run or two off a ball. But what the heck, Gambhir and Kohli knew and the Indian fans knew that it was not a time to hit the big fours…not yet anyways.

And then Kohli fell, to a incredible return catch by Tillekeratne Dilshan and as I watched Dilshan pump himself, my distressed heart nose-dived again. With just 114 on board, the challenge seemed huge. But I am glad Gambhir did not think so and went on stoically. At this point it was a respite to see Mr. Calm himself walk in, instead of the not so bratty now Yuvraj, whose knocks would have lifted the innings but could have also plummeted hopes further.

A miracle still seemed a long way off, as millions of fans sympathised with the captain, as he tried hard to keep the sweat off his eyes, frequenting removing the helmet and adjusting, as he steeled himself to a long innings, which had evaded him through the entire run of the World Cup. I fell in love with the man twice, first when he lay sprawled on the ground, as his physio helped him stretch and release the pain and pressure, only to resume. The second time was when on the last ball, he focused on the ball, his bulging eyes not blinking once, as he hit a massive six to finish off the Sri Lankan challenge. While Yuvraj screamed, the captain simply tucked his bat under his left arm and looked to remove the stumps.

For a second, it seemed so unreal and I switched to victory mode, only when Yuvraj hugged Sachin like a kid and Harbhajan Singh’s tears rolled down, to be soon joined by mine, as an incredible World Cup season ended for me too. A month and a half of making sense of a World Cup, came to an end for me, which has been boring in most parts, only a few games worthy of a World Cup performance, most featuring team India .

If it was Ireland in Bangalore on Sunday, it was the Netherlands that caused creased foreheads in the Indian camp at the Ferozshah Kotla here today. It was up to Yuvraj Singh (51 not out, balls, fours) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni to share an unbeaten 52-run stand and steer India home with 13.3 overs to spare.

After a frenetic start in which Virender Sehwag (39, 26 balls, five fours, two sixes) and Sachin Tendulkar (27, 22 balls, six fours) scored at 9.2 runs an over, India lost its way. The openers gifted their wickets to left-arm spinner Pieter Seelaar while Yusuf Pathan, promoted to No. 3 to give him some time in the middle, offered a return catch after a brief flourish.

With the medium-paced Peter Borren hitting an excellent length unlike his new ball bowlers, Gautam Gambhir (28), who survived a run out chance when he had made just three runs, and Virat Kohli (12) did not last long.

For all that, it will be the Indian bowling that merits more discussion. The attack, especially Harbajan Singh and Piyush Chawla, brought themselves under the scanner as the Netherlands set the home team a190-run target. Neither Harbhajan nor leg-spinner Chawla could claim to be proud of his overall effort, beaten by the sluggish track and determined batsmen.

To be sure, Harbhajan’s bowling will come in for more scrutiny, given his failure to claim wickets in successive matches against Ireland and the Netherlands. He seems to have found a comfort level with restrictive bowling but the team will need its most experienced bowler to find his aggression sooner than later.

To be fair to Chawla, there was one great moment when he got a googly to snake past Scwarczyski’s jabbing blade and hit the wicket. He also picked up a second wicket in his final spell but had to sheepishly hide his face behind an arm when Alexei Kervezee managed to pull a rank long hop powerfully but straight to Harbhajan Singh near the mid-wicket boundary.

Zaheer Khan finished with the best figures for India with three for 20 while Nehra appeared to find his rhythm in bowling a full length. The fifth bowler’s combination of Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan played their part adequately enough, leaving the Indian thinktank to scratch its collective head in search of an answer to the specialist spin bowling conundrum facing it.

Though Mahendra Singh Dhoni said at the toss that Chawla was preferred to Ashwin because he needed more practice, it is a good wager that the leg-spinner played this game only because Munaf Patel reported unwell and because there was an overwhelming desire within the team an the team management to avoid a sameness to the attack.

As he walked into the dressing room for the supper break, Chawla said the two sixes hit by Peter Borren off his last two deliveries spoilt his figures. It was an indication of the defensive thinking that India’s key spinners have embraced. In fact, Yuvraj Singh appeared to have more confidence in his left-arm spin, varying his pace and trajectory unlike the specialists.

Ostensibly, the two teams had different agendas: India wanted an easy win while the Netherlands simply wanted to put India on the backfoot. In the end, the Dutch managed their objective as India huffed and puffed to take little more than the two points from the win. As it heads towards its final league games against South Africa and the West Indies, India left itself with work to do.

Sachin Tendulkar: Does the picture need a caption at all?

The Indian cricket team starts a long season now with a game against New Zealand in the Compaq Cup in Colombo on Friday. And while it will begin without either of the familiar pair of the left-handed Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag walking out to start its innings, there is no real reason to panic.

Sehwag’s recovering from a shoulder surgery while Gambhir aggravated a groin injury at nets and is winging his way back home. A certain Sachin Tendulkar returns to one-day internationals after missing the tour of the West Indies in June-July and will open the innings with Dinesh Karthik, who did duty in the four-game series in the Caribbean.

Tendulkar’s overall career has been too glittering to recount here and it will suffice to say that he has opened the innings in each of the last 41 ODI games he has played and has scored 1837 runs at 47.10 runs an innings – higher than his career average. And, because we tend to forget, the New Zealand attack was savaged for 163 runs in his last knock.

Of course, thanks to the return of pace duo Daryl Tuffey and Shane Bond from the ICL fold, the New Zealand attack can be more competitive than when it hosted India in March. With the quick bowlers hitting the right areas on the sluggish Premadasa Stadium track in the opening game, scoring freely was not an option for the batsmen either.

Mention of the Premadasa Stadium in the Khettarama suburb of Colombo brings back memories of the little big man’s maiden century in ODI cricket in September 1994. He had played 78 games without reaching the milestone. A top-score of 84 featured 17 half-centuries, including four that came at the top of the order in New Zealand and Sharjah.

Another picture that does not need any words to support it

Everyone who knew Tendulkar kept waiting for the big day. When he made 11 not out and 6 in two starts against Sri Lanka in the Singer World Series, it looked as if the slow tracks would prolong the wait. But come September 9, he played a gem to get to the landmark for the first time in ODIs.

It appeared to help that the opposition was Australia. And with men like Craig McDermott, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne in the attack, Tendulkar willed himself to play a superb century that set up a comfortable win for India. It was a night to remember as he hit the ball over the top and through the line in a manner born.

Getting to 50 off just 43 balls, he slowed down a bit as he got closer to the three-figure mark and eventually reached his maiden 100 in ODIs off 110 deliveries when he was hugged by his best buddy, Vinod Kambli. Later, Tendulkar told us how relieved he was to overcome the mental pressure of never having scored an ODI century.

He has got to the milestone 42 times after that memorable night but the first one stands out – even after all these years.

There are some points I would like to make.This is not the first time Sehwag has threatened to leave Delhi and each time he has had a conversation with DDCA President Arun Jaitley, he has taken a step back in compromise. This time he appears a bit more determined to make a point. I am hoping that he does not back off from the chance to cleanse DDCA of muck that drags it down.

Sehwag is not talking about the selection of the key players in the squad. He is clearly talking about the horse-trading that goes on for the 13th to 15th places in the squad. And in some cases for the 13th to the 20th places in a touring party.

DDCA Sports Secretary Sunil Dev admits that this is true, having seen a number of boys wearing the Delhi team uniform slink away when he entered a ground in Visakhapatnam where an age-group tournament.

The incident has also thrown up how a number of former cricketers have joined the chorus. Not a few of them have all held positions in various committees, including any of the selection panels, and in the team management. And nearly all of them have had their sons play age-group cricket in and for Delhi. It reinforces my belief that there are few, if any, saints in the world of cricket.

I was quite amused to see the Government-nominated Directors also join the me-too race and hold a press conference. One of these, Vibhakar Shastri even threatened to have DDCA taken over if it did not set the house in order. To my mind, he does not even understand what Sehwag’s been talking about.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India needs to encourage its affiliates to adopt a model constitution. Only cricket clubs and not individuals must be members of these units. Even then there is no guarantee that persons of mettle will man critical posts that ensure the development of cricket in the right lines everywhere.

He breezed to the fastest ODI hundred by an Indian – he needed just 60 deliveries at the Seddon Park – with a display of clean hitting that is unlikely to be forgotten in a hurry. His opening partner in the 201 run stand, Gautam Gambhir made 63 runs at nearly a run a ball but that seemed so slow against Sehwag’s 125 off 74 balls.

There was one mistimed drive for six off left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori and one edge to the ‘keeper Peter McGlashan but all other strokes were played off the meat of his 1200gm bat. It was a savage innings and, even if it is an oxymoron, there was an aesthetic appeal to his innings. He has entertained before but this one will have to be top of the drawer stuff.

For someone who kept the hook and pull wrapped in cotton wool for ages – to the point that bowlers believed he was weak against the short ball – he has played the two shots at will on the tour. We did get to see a sample in the home series against England but it is almost as if he has undertaken the trip with the sole intent of showing the world how well he can play these strokes.

Before emplaning for New Zealand, Sehwag said the tracks there did not suit his batting style at all. And he was clearly drawing on his 2002-03 experience when the home side laid out seaming pitches and though he managed two hundreds in seven one-day internationals, he also picked up four failures, including three single-digit scores. The two Tests were disastrous too.

The tracks on offer now have surprised not just him but also the team’s whole batting unit – and perhaps shocking the bowlers who would have expected some lively surfaces to bowl on. I can see two reasons for that. India’s pace bowling attack – especially the pair of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma – can be lethal while New Zealand’s own bowling appears thin.

More importantly, I think New Zealand Cricket realises that it is important to roll out tracks that facilitate entertainment (read batting onslaught). There is no doubt that cricket boards around the world want the Indian team to do well on their soil so that the crowds flock to the grounds and the TV audience in India stays glued to the action.

For unabashed Tendulkar fans, it was a day to celebrate the little big man’s maiden one-day international hundred in the land where he opened the innings for the first time in 1994, thanks to a crick in Navjot Singh Sidhu’s neck. The controlled manner in which he crafted his innings was a delightful lesson.

Some years ago, when Tendulkar played one of his trademark innings, you would find it hard to remember much else but Sunday was different. The little big champion paced his innings so well that it was another special knock. Yet, Yuvraj Singh’s clean strikes and Suresh Raina’s clinical demolition claim their own place in our mind space

Raina walked in when Tendulkar retired with five overs left with the score at 338. Raina lost no time in joining the run feast and made 38 runs off 18 deliveries as India added 64 runs in the span of the five overs. This was a perfect example of a batsman understanding his responsibilities and ensuring that the team derived the maximum benefit.

The manner in which he hit Tim Southee for four sixes in two successive overs also spoke about his confidence in his abilities to deliver the big blows almost at will. It is such skill that stops him from being dwarfed in the presence of Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Not too long ago, he was readily cast aside as coach Greg Chappell’s chosen one. But he was back when Dhoni assumed captaincy and he has not let the skipper down. He did not get to play any game in the Commonwealth Bank series in Australia as Rohit Sharma and Robin Uthappa got to play all 10 games that India featured in.

Since the time he has come back to the XI, Raina has played 27 games and he has produced a score of 50-plus once in three games. He has shown that he can adapt, batting fairly well at No. 3, better at No. 4 and as a wonderful finisher lower down the order, taking our minds back to talk of him as the Michael Bevan of the Indian team.

It is not important for us to see Raina as anyone else but as Raina himself, a special talent who has raised the bar and has succeeded thus far. He has known the pain of being out of the side and has worked hard to show that he deserves to be in the one-day squad on the strength of his merit and his consistency alone.

The 22-year-old’s next challenge will be to eliminate the string of early exits that have also punctuated his career in the past eight or nine months. Of course, no batsman can ensure that he succeeds every time but Raina can work to reduce the frequency with which he has got out early.

Two close contests in the T20 format and two successive defeats for Team India at the start of its tour of New Zealand. Yet, unlike many others, I don’t believe the team’s morale will have taken a body blow as it heads into the five match one-day international series against the Black Caps.

Of course, India’s strokeplayers – up against a steady and resilient bowling attack, led by the crafty Daniel Vettori – let the team down in both games. If they learnt any lessons from the seven-wicket loss in Christchurch, it was not in great evidence in Wellington on Friday.

Then again, there are positives that the team can take into the one-day series. The most important thing is that Team India has had a good look at the Black Caps – something that had not happened since September 2005 when the sides played the final of a trination event in Harare. The ICC World T20 in 2007 clash was the only meeting since then.

Virender Sehwag got off to flying starts in both games while Suresh Raina, in the first game, and Yuvraj Singh on Friday picked up half-centuries that will instill confidence in the ranks. Admittedly, the batsmen will have to do a great deal better in the five ODIs if they are to sustain the development of Team India as a competitive unit.

India’s experienced bowlers, paceman Zaheer Khan and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh how found a rhythm that augurs well for the side but yes, there is work to be done as far Zaheer’s bowling partners are concerned. Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan came up a bit short of expectations in the T20s and will have to adapt sooner than later.

There has been a marked reluctance to use Virender Sehwag as a support off-spinner to Harbhajan Singh. I believed that he would have bowled as well as Harbhajan Singh and the rookie left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja. I wonder why Dhoni has kept Sehwag’s bowling under the wraps.

Here’s how the team stacked up in the two T20 games.

Gautam Gambhir: His twin failures should help him learn to wait to assess bounce and movement before playing his strokes. There is no doubt that he has it in him to succeed in the ODIs.

Virender Sehwag: Will need to stretch his good starts into long innings and not gift his wicket away. It is clear that the Black Caps are bowling to a plan, feeding off his strengths.

Suresh Raina: After playing a mature hand in the opening game when he made an unbeaten half-century, the left-hander made things difficult for his team by throwing his wicket in the second match. Will have to be consistent in his approach and performance.

Yuvraj Singh: Has appeared to win a battle with New Zealand captain and left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori when he struck him for two sixes in Wellington after being dismissed second ball in the first match. Can be a big factor in the ODIs.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Has yet to find his timing with the bat, though he made an unbeaten 28 in Wellington. As someone who has shown a remarkable ability to adapt to the situation, he was unable to provide the thrust in the second game.

Rohit Sharma: Will have only himself to blame for losing his place in the XI for the second game after playing an ambitious stroke in Christchurch

Ravindra Jadeja: Did his bit with the bat in the second game when he replaced Rohit Sharma in the XI and was more than a handy left-arm spin bowler as he helped Harbhajan Singh bring India back into the game. Sadly for him, he will return home.

Yusuf Pathan: Despite being foxed by Daniel Vettori in the second T20 contest, he will remain an important finisher in the ODIs but he will have to find the balance between unbridled attack and defence

Irfan Pathan: His inability to generate noticeable swing with the new ball in the second T20 game will be a matter of concern, even if he claimed two wickets off successive balls to infuse life into India’s campaign and make the match exciting.

Harbhajan Singh: Few will believe that the off-spinner is coming off an injury that kept him out of the one-day series in Sri Lanka. He has shown mastery over his craft, tying the Black Caps’ batsmen down in both games. And can be a huge factor in the ODIs.

Zaheer Khan: Has shown that he is an eager and thinking leader of the bowling back and a willingness to give up the honour of bowling the first over to Irfan Pathan in a bit to ensure that the fellow left-arm swing bowler could find his rhthym.

Ishant Sharma: Had a memorable start, picking up Jesse Ryder’s wicket with his first delivery in New Zealand but has done little justice to his talent after his appeal for leg before wicket off the next ball – against Martin Guptill – was turned down in Christchurch. He will have to hit the right length to be effective in New Zealand.

There is no point in telling themselves: “We are like this only.” In the run up to the opening game of the tour, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had talked about adopting an assess-and-adapt strategy but, barring Suresh Raina’s display, the tactic remained on paper and was not in evidence in Christchurch.

Brendon McCullum did offer them a good look at how the innings needed to be structured. The Black Caps’ wicket-keeper curbed his natural instinct for strokes and stayed through the successful chase. It was interesting to note that he termed his own knock ‘ugly’ since he did not get used to the pace of the track.

Gautam Gambhir attempted to swat on the leg-side but the ball was dropped short and kept low enough to hit the top of the middle-stump. In O’Brien’s next over, Virender Sehwag tried to find the short boundary on the leg-side, missed the line and ended up losing his leg-stump. India should have quickly redrawn its approach.

Rohit Sharma flicked Ian Butler for a six over long leg and in trying to repeat the shot – but to a delivery that was kept short and perhaps stopped on him a but – he ended up skying a catch off the leading edge to the gully area, allowing wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum ample time to get under it.

Yuvraj Singh, who had just come to the crease, sought to sweep a ball that was in line with the stumps and was done in by the extra pace of Daniel Vettori’s arm ball. India’s chances of putting up more than fighting total hinged on how well and how long Dhoni could embrace the nip and tuck approach but that was not to be.

It was at this stage that Yusuf Pathan committed hara kiri. Even though his mis-hits clear the ground, he should have been restraining himself after clouting three sixes off successive deliveries from off-spinner Nathan McCullum. It was important that he stayed at the wicket longer since India had lost half the side inside eight overs.

For the second time, New Zealand bowlers had been allowed to bounce back after being struck for three sixes off successive deliveries. It not only showed how the Indian batsmen were intent on unleashing their penchant for the extravagant strokes but also how New Zealand kept its nerve under pressure.

Yes, the ‘rockstars’ will have to learn their lessons quickly.

Dhoni has again reiterated the importance of the assess-and-adapt tactic. “One area we need to improve upon is analysing the situation. One thing for sure is we have learnt a lot from our mistakes. We are a good side that learns very quickly,” he said. “We have youngsters who are willing to learn from the mistakes fortunately, if we don’t commit these mistakes again we have a very good chance.”

India’s fans will hope that Dhoni’s team-mates will not prove him wrong again.