India hindered by poor captaincy

To say the least, I am highly disappointed by the way Ganguly led the side when their opponents were rebuilding their innings. He seemed overly confident in Anil Kumble's ability and persisted with Sanjay Bangar at the other end, allowing Hooper and Ramnaresh Sarwan to settle down.

Sourav Ganguly and his boys, when they set off on their tour of the Caribbean, knew one thing for sure - that this was their best opportunity of rewriting the history of the 1971 tour of the West Indies. This Windies team is nowhere near the class and competitive standards of the ones of the yesteryears. Players of the calibre of Sir Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kallicharan, Sir Vivian Richards and Gordon Greenidge are in another league altogether when compared to the present lot.

In the bowling department too, the West Indies do not even have one bowler who could claim to be in the league of Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Curtly Ambrose or even Lance Gibbs. The only players who are of genuine international class in the present team are Brian Lara and the skipper Carl Hooper; their bowling is an apology when compared to the attack that they once possessed.

The Indian fans, thus, would have been heartened as their side got off to a promising start to the Test series by having the West Indies on the mat early on the first day. I thought Javagal Srinath bowled beautifully to pick up three early wickets, including that of Brian Lara. But after that, a story that has been played out often before started to do so again; two vital catches dropped in a short span of time, and Hooper, the biggest beneficiary of such generosity, Hooper, went on to compile a superb innings.

To say the least, I am highly disappointed by the way Ganguly led the side when their opponents were rebuilding their innings. He seemed overly confident in Anil Kumble's ability and persisted with Sanjay Bangar at the other end, allowing Hooper and Ramnaresh Sarwan to settle down. In my opinion, Sarandeep Singh was under-bowled, and Ganguly should have gone for a combination of Srinath and Sarandeep Singh to attack the two new batsmen. It was nothing other than poor captaincy, and poor bowling by Kumble and Bangar, that helped the West Indies get out of jail.

Ganguly captained the side unimaginatively, giving the impression that he was waiting for the match to take its course and allowed things to drift. I am not even sure whether he had a game plan at all. It was baffling to see Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul score runs freely, Ganguly doing nothing to stop the flow.

Harbhajan Singh's absence was felt badly at this stage; I have a strong feeling that Ganguly depends just too much on Harbhajan's ability to get wickets. This may possibly have affected his captaincy; he also failed to set the kind of field required to save the runs. In summing up, therefore, Ganguly looked a totally lost man on the ground.

I always believed that how the Indian opening batsmen deal with the first few overs by the West Indies pacemen would set the trend for the rest of the series. Dillon sorted out Ganguly on a docile wicket with some purposeful fast bowling. I fail to understand the reasoning behind Hooper's decision not to declare at the overnight score and hence refused his fast bowlers an opportunity of using the early morning moisture in the wicket.

Once again the Indian middle-order was exposed, and the onus fell on Sachin Tendulkar to play a crucial knock. The little master played admirably to score a useful 79 runs, inspiring Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman to handle the pace attack much better as well. The two batsmen played with a lot of tenacity and courage, something they also displayed against the Australians in the epic Kolkata Test.

Dravid, in particular, showed tremendous character and determination to play one of his best Test innings that I have seen. Many followers of the game do not accord enough credit to this lad from Karnataka. I have known him for a long time, and it is no secret that he possesses an abundance of natural talent and fighting abilities. His batting in this Test match would make any cricketer proud. If not for the rain playing spoilsport, Dravid may even have gone on to a double hundred.

I must also commend Sarandeep Singh highly for the valuable support he gave to Dravid. It not only helped Dravid reach his century but also helped his side avoid the follow-on. I hope the team management retains Sarandeep for the second Test; they should play three spinners and should have a close look at the utility of Bangar.

As for Deep Dasgupta, it is not the missed catches and stumpings that cause worry; it is the fact that he has trouble in even gathering the ball. He seems to have lost confidence in his own ability and appears to be taking his eyes off the ball before gathering it. I think the coach has an obligation to help players who need technical assistance, and Dasgupta definitely needs it. One can only think, then, that Ajay Ratra would do better behind the stumps than Dasgupta.

From what I have heard, the wicket at the Queen's Park Oval in Portof-Spain is a re-laid one. I think both the teams are currently at the same level, and India enjoy the edge only in the spinning department. If the visitors are to pull off a win, they will have to bowl last so that the spinners can cause maximum damage to the home side.