Flintoff remains hero of the series so far

Now that India have lost their second consecutive one-dayer to England in the NatWest Challenge on Friday, a lot of critics, I am sure, will call for changes in the team. But, in my opinion, the current players form the bedrock of Indian cricket. It would be foolhardy to question the ability of these players. Drastic changes will only spoil the whole effort, which has slowly built up Team India in the last four years.

There cannot be too many things wrong in a team which held the Australians by their collar only last summer in their own backyard and defeated Pakistan fair and square on their home soil. The team is definitely going through a bad patch. It does not really suggest that the quality of Indian batting or bowling has eroded

The shelf life of most of the senior players in the side is definitely more than four years. Rahul Dravid, one of the best batsmen in the world, is not among the runs. But that does not make him a bad player overnight. Virender Sehwag is one batsman whom most bowlers in the world dread to bowl. He too has hit a bad patch. Should that call for dropping him from the team?

Now one has to watch and wait for the players to rediscover their form quickly. The time is ripe for the players to spend few hours with the sports psychologist to get their bearings right. The players, while doing the soul searching, must be getting the feel of the criticism by the cricketing fraternity. Such criticism will sow the seeds of doubts in the minds of the youngsters about their own abilities. They must be counselled to make them realise that they are just a good game away from being a good side.

Look at England. They had an ordinary run for a long time, but are looking a great side at the moment with two consecutive victories. Such is the paradoxical nature of the game. The seasoned campaigners will ignore such ups and downs and move on trying to do their job as perfectly as possible. I am sure Sandy Gordon would have been helpful to the team at the moment.

The desperation to win made the Indian new ball bowlers work very hard. The pressure to perform worked on their fragile mind and they bowled all over the place, thus negating the decision of taking the field after winning the toss. As it is, the bowlers’ job is the hardest and a bowler has to play continuously to be effective. That’s why Ajit Agarkar finds the going tough when he makes a comeback in the final XI.

Balaji once again tried too many things to get wickets and drifted away from his own strength of bowling in the right areas. Harbhajan bowled splendidly to bring the team back into the game. More than the wicket helping him, the immaculate length with which he operated was outstanding.

Promoted in the batting order, Mohammed Kaif also showed his batting quality. The freak run out that dismissed Sourav Ganguly was another testimony of the bad spell that the Indian team is going through at the moment.

But Andrew Flintoff remains the hero of the series. He is the best allrounder in the world and does a neat job for his team even when he plays half the potential he is capable of.

This Indian team is too talented to keep on losing like this. They will certainly make a comeback and will do it very soon.