No princely affair
Kotla debut for Dhawan but Kohli’s form and Viru-Gauti’s absence rob second ODI of Delhi flavour.
If you are selling one-day cricket, with Kotla as reference, you’ll probably get fired. Sluggish wicket, low bounce, average score of 240…this is no place for racy plots.
Yet not too long ago this ground would create a distinct connect with us. Like most Delhites, we wanted Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir to spoil us rotten here. In our mind’s eye the score was a given. Probably it would be 90/1 in 12 overs with Viru whistling his away to a 35-ball 50.
The task of retaining the local flavour may have fallen upon a young man with plenty of snap. But these days it’s impossible to discuss Virat Kohli without alluding to his angled bat and frazzled mind. It’s not a warm homecoming for India’s batting mainstay.
So let’s turn to the city’s other son, Shikhar Dhawan, who carries the Delhi badge of aggression without politically incorrect statements or swearwords.
Dhawan, believe it or not, will play his first international game in Delhi. With his heavily tattooed right arm and that proud curl of his moustache, he said it would be a “dream come true” to play in front of the home crowd.
It’s been over a year since he erupted into the Test scene with that Mohali hundred. It wasn’t long before he was made to confront the game’s downside.
Word had spread: he reaches out to the new ball with hard hands, can’t control the pull, and is susceptible to quality spin. “I’m playing spin bowling better and have been practising that aspect of my game. It is not that I don’t get out to spinners now. Earlier I used to get LBW to them and now I get bowled,” he said, eliciting laughter around.
Learning process
Making light of one’s failures is desirable than taking a stressful, academic approach. Dhawan philosophised his recent string of low scores calling them a natural “learning process”.
“I try to enjoy success and failures equally. If I am not going to see failures then I won’t realise the taste of success. It is important to experience failures so that you realise the importance of success better. I am glad if I failed in six innings because I know that those six innings will only help me get 50 good innings. I’m getting better with every game,” he said.
His core game, he insisted, hadn’t changed. “You keep fine tuning your skills. My basics are still the same but you do learn a few things and add them to your game. I’m working on the mental aspect of my game as well and figuring out ways to disturb bowlers. Such things come from experience and maturity. I have not changed the way I play. The same shots that get you runs will also get you out. I used to try and modify that aspect of my game earlier, but now I am mature enough to understand my process.”
That said, the right to ‘fail in six innings’ is not an allowance granted to everybody. It’s a confirmation, if at all one was required, that Dhawan’s slot, regardless of his form, will not be tinkered with for the World Cup. “It is always a good feeling when you have the backing of your captain. If a player knows he has the skipper’s support when he is going through a rough patch, it only helps in lifting his sprit. We are fortunate to have a captain like MS Dhoni who backs his players,” he said.
He confessed to have been around with Kohli, exchanging notes about batting, maybe a gentle attempt to inject confidence in his vexed team-mate. It’s a quality Dhawan’s predecessors Sehwag and Gambhir were known for. In that sense the Delhi spirit is very much alive.
If you are selling one-day cricket, with Kotla as reference, you’ll probably get fired. Sluggish wicket, low bounce, average score of 240…this is no place for racy plots.
Yet not too long ago this ground would create a distinct connect with us. Like most Delhites, we wanted Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir to spoil us rotten here. In our mind’s eye the score was a given. Probably it would be 90/1 in 12 overs with Viru whistling his away to a 35-ball 50.
Neither of the two will be seen against the West Indies in Kotla today, maybe never together in an India match. It’s hard to shake that aching sense of something not there.
The task of retaining the local flavour may have fallen upon a young man with plenty of snap. But these days it’s impossible to discuss Virat Kohli without alluding to his angled bat and frazzled mind. It’s not a warm homecoming for India’s batting mainstay.
So let’s turn to the city’s other son, Shikhar Dhawan, who carries the Delhi badge of aggression without politically incorrect statements or swearwords.
Dhawan, believe it or not, will play his first international game in Delhi. With his heavily tattooed right arm and that proud curl of his moustache, he said it would be a “dream come true” to play in front of the home crowd.
It’s been over a year since he erupted into the Test scene with that Mohali hundred. It wasn’t long before he was made to confront the game’s downside.
Word had spread: he reaches out to the new ball with hard hands, can’t control the pull, and is susceptible to quality spin. “I’m playing spin bowling better and have been practising that aspect of my game. It is not that I don’t get out to spinners now. Earlier I used to get LBW to them and now I get bowled,” he said, eliciting laughter around.
Learning process
Making light of one’s failures is desirable than taking a stressful, academic approach. Dhawan philosophised his recent string of low scores calling them a natural “learning process”.
“I try to enjoy success and failures equally. If I am not going to see failures then I won’t realise the taste of success. It is important to experience failures so that you realise the importance of success better. I am glad if I failed in six innings because I know that those six innings will only help me get 50 good innings. I’m getting better with every game,” he said.
His core game, he insisted, hadn’t changed. “You keep fine tuning your skills. My basics are still the same but you do learn a few things and add them to your game. I’m working on the mental aspect of my game as well and figuring out ways to disturb bowlers. Such things come from experience and maturity. I have not changed the way I play. The same shots that get you runs will also get you out. I used to try and modify that aspect of my game earlier, but now I am mature enough to understand my process.”
That said, the right to ‘fail in six innings’ is not an allowance granted to everybody. It’s a confirmation, if at all one was required, that Dhawan’s slot, regardless of his form, will not be tinkered with for the World Cup. “It is always a good feeling when you have the backing of your captain. If a player knows he has the skipper’s support when he is going through a rough patch, it only helps in lifting his sprit. We are fortunate to have a captain like MS Dhoni who backs his players,” he said.
He confessed to have been around with Kohli, exchanging notes about batting, maybe a gentle attempt to inject confidence in his vexed team-mate. It’s a quality Dhawan’s predecessors Sehwag and Gambhir were known for. In that sense the Delhi spirit is very much alive.
