The disastrous tour of the Indian cricket team to England finally came to an end yesterday. It was more of a relief that anything else to me though it meant that India did not manage to win even a single game on such a long tour, definitely not what we had expected before the tour began.
Overall the tour was marked by a series of injuries and loss of form to key players (I just cannot list them here), inefficient management (the ICC awards fiasco) and pathetic selection (Ravinder Jadeja rushed in as a replacement for Gautam Gambhir, RP Singh recalled from his holiday, no wonder he always looked in holiday mood even when he played and lastly Varun Aaron- supposedly the fastest bowler in India carrying drinks for the team during all the five ODIs ). In nutshell, a rude awakening for the team and fans like me who were still celebrating the WC triumph that came way back in April.
There is no point in talking about what went wrong, most of the things went wrong. However, surprisingly and unbelievably, there were a few positives that emerged from this tour too. India did pretty well in the ODIs and most of the games saw a close finish, albeit in England's favour. However, Indian batting really got better as the series progressed and that is a huge plus (and a relief too). It was refreshing to see Dhoni playing his natural game (helicopter shots emerging every now and then), Kohli getting a hundred in the final game (just when it looked that Kohli would have nothing to talk about when the tour finishes), Raina showing why he should be an automatic selection to the ODI side (also why he should be an automatic rejection in Tests especially when they are not played in the subcontinent) and an exciting prospect in Rhane. Jadeja also seemed to have learnt some batting and Parthiv looked like someone who should be in the team as an opener instead of Dinu Karthik. The bowling continued to disappoint though and it remains to be seen who will be the bowlers for India in the upcoming ODI series against the English team in India. It would also be interesting to see how the English respond to the same set of problems that confronted India since they won't be playing in their own backyard and their key players (atleast a couple in Broad and Morgan) have got injured.
On a much more exciting note, I also witnessed some quite unbelievable or rather heavenly tennis last week during the men's semi-final and the final of the US Open Championship. Novak Djokovic, at the moment, looks like a player from a different planet. He has managed to win three grand slams this year but boy, have I ever seen someone play such tennis ? The manner in which he came back in the semi-finals against Federer was just incredible. However, how do you define the way in which he played the final against Rafa ? I do not know if there is any word in my vocabulary to describe that (perhaps Mr Sidhu will know some). The final game lasted a little over 4 hours and was decided in 4 sets and while it may imply that it was a very closely fought game, this was never the case. Djokovic enjoyed complete dominance over Nadal and I would say, Nadal did quite well to just hang in there. Some of the games, especially when Nadal was serving were closely fought, simply because he had to really work hard to save his serve. When Djokovic served, the game would be wrapped up quite quickly. Reminded me of that background score in Ramayana when Shri Ram and Kumbhakaran were fighting (Jab tak chahe khel kare, jab chahe Ram kare sanhaar).
Djokovic is easily my favorite sportsperson in the world at the moment, remains to be seen if someone can dethrone him (he faces some tough competition from Messi though). Nadal still looks good enough to win a few more French Open championships and has vowed to turn the tables on Djokovic (Six straight loses, for sure that's painful but I'm going to work every day until that changes- Nadal during the post match presentation)
As for Federer- he is still playing some very good tennis, but the way his peers have shifted gears, chances of Grand slam #17 look pretty bleak at the moment. However, as I said, he is still fit and is playing some really cool tennis, so you never know.
So quite contrasting summer for two of my favorite sports. Plenty of disappointment from the Indian cricket team, but lots and lots of exciting moments from the US Open. Not looking forward to any more games though. All I am looking forward to is visiting India at the moment. :)
