Can Dhoni prepare a crack team for World T20?

One couldn’t have asked for a more thrilling start to the India vs South Africa “Friendship Series” with the visitors living up to the billing of being a good side while playing overseas.

After a short stay in New Delhi, the team moved to Dharamsala, which over the years has become a popular tourist spot to beat the summer heat.

The stadium was packed and the setting perfect for good instant T20 cricket as JP Duminy showed his value and led the Proteas to a seven-wicket victory. To start with a win straightaway in the shortest format gives the team immense confidence as the cricket caravan moves to Cuttack.

From the Indian point of view, captain MS Dhoni made a few selections in the team ahead of the regulars which offers pointers to what he is thinking vis-a-vis next year’s ICC World T20 at home.

As one who led India to their only world T20 title in South Africa in 2007, Dhoni still will be in the hot seat and used his maturity to good effect. The fielding on view was top class and he picked Sreenath Aravind ahead of Stuart Binny as the general feeling is that the former can bat better.

Then again, picking Axar Patel ahead of two spinners with far superior credentials — Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra — offered an insight into what Dhoni is thinking about for the future.

The Indian side does not have the luxury of playing too many T20 Internationals before next year’s big event, so Dhoni appears to be using the three T20 matches against South Africa to test the younger lot.

Between Harbhajan and Mishra, the two have a wealth of experience in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Franchise cricket’s richest and most exciting form of slam-bang stuff has seen the two spin merchants bowl with skill, guile and a big heart against the most arrogant batsmen.

Trial by fire

Yet, if Dhoni is pressing with Axar Patel it has to be with an eye ahead. Regarding Aravind, picking him for the T20s did raise a few eyebrows but the left-arm medium pacer would have learnt in Dharamsala what it is like to bowl the last over when the pressure is intense.

With the stands packed like sardine cans and the crowd cheering at a high decibel level, to bowl in your first international match is not so easy. That Aravind was to be used for the last over was a decision Dhoni had to take because Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma had earlier paid the price for pitching the ball short against the South African batsmen.

South Africa had wickets in hand and with just ten runs to get in the last over. Aravind wasn’t able to do something out of the world. As South Africa won the match and began the small celebrations on the field, fans in Dharamsala were crestfallen.

They had every reason to feel a bit cheated as Duminy was lucky to survive a very confident leg before shout with Bhuvi unable to hide his disappointment. On television, it looked like a plumb decision but umpire Vineet Kulkarni, in the best position to judge, thought otherwise.

At the post-match conference, the usually composed Dhoni did mention the decision in a diplomatic manner but Twitterverse did not spare Kulkarni as that decision proved to be crucial.

Time for rethink

In a T20 match like this, had Duminy been dismissed in the 17th over, the momentum would have swung India’s way. But then this is the way it is and the Indian cricket management can now scratch their heads again over the acceptability of the DRS (decision review system).

For long, India has baulked at the DRS but this one Kulkarni decision will haunt them for a long time. Bhuvi, a picture of dejection and frustration, did let out a seeming expletive which was not picked up by the microphone.

Logic demands that India says yes to the DRS as it will be used in the World T20 which is an International Cricket Council (ICC) event. In Sri Lanka, too, there were some strange decisions given by the umpires, where DRS could have helped.

With N Srinivasan sidelined in the Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI), and Shashank Manohar and Anurag Thakur at the helm, a change in India’s stance on the DRS seems likely.

That aside, it was interesting to see Virat Kohli bat up the order ahead of Suresh Raina. Kohli’s stand with centurion Rohit Sharma was interesting to watch but both getting dismissed in the same over (15th) was not what India wanted. It would have been good if Rohit would have batted till the end of the innings.

Hopefully, lessons will be learnt as Dhoni attempts to test the fresh talent in the remaining two T20s.