All mine! Harbhajan Singh with coach Gary Kirsten's son, Joshua, during the practice session on the eve of India's World Cup match against the Netherlands at the Ferozeshah Kotla.
New Delhi: The decisive punch should not take too long in coming when heavyweight India takes on lightweight the Netherlands in a World Cup Group B match at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground, here, on Wednesday.
A victory away from ensuring its place in the quarterfinals, the game at the Kotla provides India a valuable opportunity to iron out the chinks before the death-or-glory knockout phase.
And India does have problems, particularly in the bowling department. Spinners can be winners in the sub-continent. However, the specialist Indian spinners have failed to sting so far.
Actually, Yuvraj Singh's five-wicket haul against Ireland saved the regular bowlers the blushes. Ahead of the crunch duels, this is not a healthy situation to be in.
Vital overs
Harbhajan Singh has scalped two from three matches and Piyush Chawla has two from two. Consequently, India has struggled to strike in the vital middle-overs.
To be fair to Harbhajan, his figures of 9-1-29-0 versus Ireland are not the kind to be scoffed at. Spinners operate in pairs and there has been little support for the off-spinning spearhead at the other end.
Chawla has struggled to hone in on the right line, especially when operating at the southpaws. And the flurry of runs conceded has eased pressure from the other end as well.
Teams realise that Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan are the two quality bowlers in the Indian line-up and often consider it wiser to see them off. The Irish batsmen were largely circumspect against Harbhajan.
This said, Harbhajan needs to harness the angles, with variations in speed and length, in a more telling fashion. India's No. 1 spinner has to rise above the compulsions of support and create his own path. Chawla went for 71 runs in his 10 overs against England and 56 in eight versus Ireland.
He has impressed in phases with his wrong 'uns and the fizz off the pitch but has lacked consistency. Chawla has delivered too many boundary balls.
Leg-spinners are essentially confidence bowlers — no other breed of bowlers rely more on the belief of the captain — and perhaps Chawla needs a longer run.
Bowling with control
Yet, without leaving Chawla out of the equation for the rest of the competition, India would do well to give Ravichandran Ashwin a fling.
The off-spinner bowls with control, possesses a few interesting variations and has this ability to operate without being ruffled in the Power Play overs.
Ashwin could combine better with Harbhajan; the two are very different off-spinners and will not cut into each other.
India also has a wonderful opportunity to include left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra. There have been speculations about the level of Nehra's fitness. If India intends to play him in future games, he has to be tried now.
Bowlers returning from injury need to rediscover their rhythm and Nehra deserves a look-in. Munaf Patel or Zaheer could be rested for the purpose.
India's last ODI at the Kotla — against Sri Lanka in late 2009 — had to be abandoned after 23.3 overs on account of the pitch behaving in a dangerous manner. The surface for Wednesday's match should hold no devils though. The pitch is expected to be a slow turner; there could be some assistance for the pacemen early on.
The match presents the Netherlands another chance to showcase its players. The side fought hard against England, displayed plenty of spunk.
In Ryan ten Doeschate it has a fine batsman who uses his feet and possesses a sense of timing. The bowling, though, is mediocre.
The teams (from):
India: M.S. Dhoni (captain), V. Sehwag, S. Tendulkar. G. Gambhir, V. Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, R. Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, A. Nehra, M. Patel, P. Chawla, S. Raina, S. Sreesanth.
The Netherlands: P. Borren (captain), W. Barresi, M. Bukhari, ten Doeschate, A. Buurman, T. Cooper, Tom de Grooth, A. Kervezee, B. Kruger, B. Loots, A. Raja, P. Seelaar, E. Swarczynski, B. Westduk, B. Zuiderent.
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