Srinagar, November 5: It has been two matches that J&K senior cricket team played in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Tournament tournament and in both J&K team looked lost suffering two defeats.
J&K went into the tournament on the back of having done well under former skipper Parvez Rasool last year. It had also gone into the event after having extended preparations both in Srinagar and Jammu. Adding to that this new J&K Cricket Association (JKCA) set up brought in support staff from outside J&K who are being termed as expert and professionals in comparison to our local support staff.
While the preparations were well , but it looked completely different in the middle of the field for J&K as they suffered two defeats in the two matches played so far. While one would not comment much for the first match despite being thrashed by Andhra Pradesh as no one saw what happened in the middle but second match was today live. All the J&K cricket fans watched how J&K performed and what kind of body language they had. They looked lost and new rookie skipper was out of it completely. The professionalism was nowhere seen and only visible thing was lack of intent from top order batsman and lack of quality decision making ability in team management including skipper.
J&K top order batsman in both the matches played so slowly that it left nothing for middle order and hard hitting batsman like Abdul Samad and Manzoor Dar who was dropped for second match.
In first match, J&K bowlers apart from Parvez Rasool were thrashed as Andhra Pradesh posted huge total. In reply J&K top order batted too slow, lacking intent thus putting pressure on incoming batsman during high scoring chase. In that match Parvez remained not out on 22.
In todays match, J&K batting first were unable to post big total on board despite a flat track. Openers and followed by number three batsman lacked intent to score quickly. They wasted new ball and power play to score quick runs. Then instead of sending Abdul Samad early , skipper opted himself and wasted too many balls. The inform batsman Parvez was not even sent to bat.
In bowling , while other bowlers were giving away plenty, skipper gave only two overs to Parvez who had given only 15 in his two overs. Umran Malik even dropped catch of Deepak Hooda on Parvez’s bowling. Deepak scored 50.
The decision of opting Pundir as skipper in T20 format instead of upcoming star Abdul Samad was always questionable and these two matches have only justified those questions. Pundir is talented batsman who has never performed well in T20 format. He bats too slow and his career graph so far is testimony to that. While removing Parvez from captaincy was more of a political statement then cricket decision, Pundir appointed as T20 skipper is more bizarre.
This J&K team has more long format specialists then T20 specialists. While you need one decent batsman in T20 cricket who will give some stability to the batting, J&K has got around four in top order who have below par strike rate for T20 cricket.
Qamran has looked uncomfortable while Vivrant has also not performed well. Ian Chauhan is not known for big hitting and is in side only because this new JKCA set up opting him as wicketkeeper. Shubham Pundir is classic middle order long format batsman who doesn’t belong to where he is currently .
And missing out of Shubham Khajuria and Suryansh Raina during first two matches have only added trouble for J&K.
On Saturday, J&K will be playing against Haryana and one expects lot of changes happening.