India not under pressure, but need to press pressure points
After being followed by large packs of fans and playing at storied venues such as the MCG, WACA and Adelaide Oval, India are in Hamilton, a somewhat sleepy New Zealand town where time moves at a leisurely pace and the ratio of people to cars seems somewhat skewed. It is an environment that in a sense suits the nature of Tuesday's fixture from an Indian perspective, while offering MS Dhoni's Indian team a chance to assess themselves differently after winning four out of four in Australia to secure passage to the quarter-final stage of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.
India face Ireland in the low-key surroundings of Seddon Park, a much smaller ground than what they played on in the Australia leg of their campaign. You cannot expect this team, being defending champions and having surprised by bowling and fielding very well so far, to take this match lightly. It's not Dhoni's way.
And yet this match provides him an opportunity to address one area which threatens to undo India in the knock-outs: that of the primary allrounder's slot. Ravindra Jadeja was slotted back into the team after he was passed fit from a shoulder injury that sent him home from the Tests in Australia, meaning that Axar Patel, who was Virat Kohli's go-to slow bowler during the West Indies and Sri Lanka ODIs at home last year, was relegated to the bench as India's World Cup campaign began. Both played in the tri-series leading up to the tournament, but come the opening game against Pakistan there was no room for Axar. He did not do much against England and Australia (two wickets in four games, two ducks) so it was not surprising that Jadeja, who Dhoni rates highly, was selected.
Jadeja has taken six wickets in four World Cup games at a fine average of 23.83 and economy of 4.51, bowling useful spells on generally unsupportive surfaces. Yet as a batsman, he has made 18 runs in three innings. Against Pakistan and South Africa he had no option but to walk in and start hitting with hardly four overs left, but in the West Indies game he entered with India 107 for 5 chasing 183 and made 13 from 23 balls, miscuing a short ball to deep square leg.
Dhoni has preferred Jadeja over Axar Patel predominantly for his experience, but after that hard-fought chase in Perth, the Indian captain broke rank and spoke animatedly about the need for Jadeja to deliver in the allrounder's role. "No, I think he needs to improve," said Dhoni when asked if he was happy with the way Jadeja had applied himself. "He needs to step up really because we have a lot of faith in him, but at the end of the day you can't really play with hope. What you want is actually performance on the field."
Dhoni's blunt analysis of Jadeja the batsman at the World Cup continued. "He has that capability. You don't get three triple hundreds in India just because you know how to bat," he said. "He's definitely talented, but he needs to keep believing in himself. Every batsman is tested in a few areas. They will bowl short deliveries to him. He will have to find a way in which he can tackle it because every batsman tackles it in a different way, so he'll have to find a way. Or the second option will be we try to give him a platform where he doesn't have to worry about that."
You can read into Dhoni's frank assessment as you please, but it was one that he has never publicly made before. Will Axar get a game? Unlikely, considering Dhoni's continuance with a winning combination, but there will be much more expected of Jadeja. Seddon Park's boundaries are short, so his left-arm spin stands to be tested more. If he gets the chance to bat, Jadeja should be keen to improve on his form and give Dhoni less reason to doubt him. By applying pressure on him at that press conference at the WACA last week, Dhoni has set the tone. India are not under pressure now that they are in the quarters, but they have pressure points to press before the real stage of the World Cup begins.
What has been striking about India is the performance of their fast bowlers - the feature of their game that threatened to be their undoing in the tournament after the Test series loss and a winless run during the preceding tri-series. Suddenly they have found lift - literally - and pace to bowl out Pakistan for 224, South Africa for 177, UAE for 102 and West Indies for 182.
The most inexperienced of the quicker bowlers, Mohit Sharma, has excelled in his given role as admitted by Dhoni himself - to maintain pressure. He has six wickets in four games at a superb economy of 3.90 to support Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Against Pakistan, the 26-year-old began with a spell of 5-0-21-0, bowled two overs for seven runs during the middle stage, and then took two tailenders out in his last two-over burst. Against South Africa, apart from the game-shifting run out of AB de Villiers, Mohit dismissed Hashim Amla up front and then removed Faf du Plessis for 55 in his second spell.
Against UAE he took 1 for 16 in five overs after the opposition had lost half their side in 16.4 overs, and versus West Indies he got the dangerous Lendl Simmons when a fightback was on the anvil. Key wickets while keeping runs down, when you don't have much pace, is a huge contribution from Mohit in his first World Cup.
"My role is very simple. When Shami and Umesh create that pressure, I have to maintain that pressure. I have to maintain that pressure for Ashwin and Jadeja too," he said on Monday. "The way Shami and Umesh bhai are bowling has helped me a lot. They have been bowling really well and have been able to exert a lot pressure up front. My job is to maintain that pressure, so that Ashwin and Jadeja are benefitted from it later. So it helps me a lot that the batsmen are under pressure and my job then will be to bowl to my strengths; that I have been doing for the last 10 years. I just have to maintain my line and length and bowl according to the wicket."
Mohit then spoke of India's mindset shifting from bigger grounds in Australia to New Zealand. "There will be a difference in your thinking when you have to play in a small ground after playing in big grounds for a long time," he said. "You will have to change your lines, but we can't keep thinking too much about the size of the ground. It's the same for both teams, what we have to do is concentrate on our strength and try and do the best of our abilities."
India have gone from strength to strength as a bowling outfit in the World Cup, but there are still players who have not hit their best. Dhoni has made that known openly. Against Ireland, and then Zimbabwe in Auckland, Dhoni's team have a two good opportunities to iron out any creases before the real stuff begins. Having exerted so much pressure on opposing teams, they won't want to be put under any in the perform-or-perish stage.
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