Cricket Talk

Mohammed Kaif has been in the Indian squad for a long time now. He makes major contributions to the one day squad through his exuberant fielding. He is one of the few players in the Indian team who can retain his place in the squad through their fielding, the others being Yuvraj and Raina.

Kaif lacks the immense natural talent of Sachin, or flamboyance of Sehwag or technique of Dravid, or strokeplay of Yuvi or immense powerplay of Dhoni. He is essentially a hard working cricketer whose shots are not that attractive and always looks out to score through ones and twos. Despite looking very meek, he has a gutsy character inside him. For the past year or two, he has been sacrificed for the better interest of the team. Though he cemented his spot in the team with a spirited performance in the Natwest Finals in 2003, Kaif has not got enough opportunities to prove his mettle after that. In one dayers, he comes at no 6/7 most of the times, and always have been overshadowed by the flamboyant Yuvraj Singh. He has been retained in the squad, for his fielding.He is the kind of batsman who needs some time out in the crease before delivering, and he always got an opportunity to bat when India is nearing victory, or when the wickets are tumbling and the pressure is building up. Many a times, he got too less a time to spend in the crease or, if he gets enough time, team India will be expecting too much out of him. Still he has come out with some match saving innings for the team, as he did today.

After coming back from the injury, he has had a tough patch, and it was looking as though his position in the team is at stake. With Yuvi through the best phase of his career so far,he always fell short of match practice.This has made him a bit rusty, and his confidence was low.These days when young guns like Raina knocking on the door of the national team through their prolific performances in domestic cricket, a stage had come where Kaif needed a good knock or two in his kitty to eanr his place back in the squad.

But then, Yuvi's injury came as a blessing in disguise for Kaif. He got a chance to play a test match, which will give him enough time to spend in the middle of the crease, and regain some confidence and get himself prepared for the one day series. And he took the full opportunity of the chance he was provided with. He came with a patient match saving knock, which again, was very boring to watch, but very effective from India point of view.

In the future, I feel Kaif should come ahead of Yuvi in one dayers. This is because Yuvi is a natural strokemaker who gets settled in the crease very fast, where as Kaif requires some time before he gets accustomed to the conditions. Keeping him at number 6/7 spot is not only worthless for him, but also for the squad. This does not mean that Kaif doesn't fit into the game plan of the Indian team, but I believe its high time India should hand more responsibilites onto the shoulders of this guy. The team can actually build the innings with Kaif or Dravid playing the anchor rule.That will not only reduce the chances of a batting collapse,but also gives a chance for players like Yuvraj and Dhoni to play their natural game towards the end of the innings. Kaif should be retained in the squad, as a team like India, who has a lot of naturally talented players, always need some hard working guys, who always fight to earn their place in the team. Those guys will deliver at the crisis situation, and more important, will send good message across the masses that cricket is not all about talent, but about hard work as well.

Kaif, has much more years ahead of him, where we can expect him to shoulder much more responsiblities for the team. He falls into the league of a bunch of hard working cricketers in the modern times, like Simon Katich and Justin Langer for Aussies, Graeme Smith and Jacques Rudolf for South Africa, Stephen Fleming and Hamish Marshall for New Zealand, Chanderpaul for West Indies, Younis Khan for Pakistan,Paul Collingwood for England, Russel Arnold, and Marvan Attappattu for Srilanka.Let all of us wish him a bright future.