Dhoni’s men deserving winners

Mahendra Singh Dhoni keeps adding feathers to his cap.
First, it was the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. This was followed by the notable triumph in the CB Series in Australia. And now comes the latest – an ODI series victory in Sri Lanka for the first time. Knowing how difficult it is to beat Sri Lanka in their own backyard, it must rank as a creditable feat.
Going by past record and present form few would have given the Indians any chance of winning the ODI series.
They had lost the Test series, the Mendis factor was still a perplexing one and it was a young side with two debutants that was taking on a largely experienced outfit playing in all-too-familiar surroundings. Moreover, in bilateral contests between the two teams in Sri Lanka, the home team had yet to be beaten in contests dating back to 1985.
Things seemed to be moving very much according to the script when Sri Lanka wrapped up the first match by eight wickets.
But then came a spirited comeback and by winning three games on the trot, the Indians emerged deserving, if unexpected, winners.
It must not be forgotten that the tourists were without Virender Sehwag for the entire series. His absence meant that the start was always going to be shaky with there being only one recognised opening batsman in Gautam Gambhir.
In the second match, with Gambhir too out with a stiff neck, we had the unusual sight of the innings being opened by Virat Kohli and Irfan Pathan.
Kohli is essentially a No 4 batsman and it is to his credit that by the fourth match he had settled down in his enforced position and made a spirited half century full of strokes all round the wicket.
His was an inspired selection and Dilip Vengsarkar and his team deserve to be congratulated for giving the 19-year-old gifted batsman the break at the right time.
Once Sehwag and Gambhir take their usual places at the top, Kohli will be a key figure in the middle order. The other debutant Subramaniam Badrinath impressed in his maiden ODI. Coming in at a tense situation at 75 for five with a modest victory target of 143 suddenly looking like Mission Impossible, he helped Dhoni add 60 runs for the sixth wicket and was there at the end with an unbeaten 27 that earned him plaudits aplenty most of all for his unflappable temperament.
He certainly is another candidate for the middle order in future and it is good to see so many talented youngsters making a strong bid for places in the batting order.
In fact, if anything, the series has virtually confirmed that the days of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the limited-overs side are over and Sachin Tendulkar himself will be under pressure to retain his place with Suresh Raina having made the most of the opportunity that the series gave him.
The one batting problem lay with Yuvraj Singh who just could not get going. But of course he is too good a player to be discarded and deserves to be given a wider berth. Rohit Sharma, however, will have to do much better if he is to retain his place in the squad particularly with other youngsters waiting in the queue.
The bowling supposedly the weak link proved in fact to be the strong link. This was underlined by the fact that Sri Lanka were dismissed in successive matches for scores as low as 142, 204 and 212.
Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh rose to their responsibilities commendably, but it was Munaf Patel who emerged the surprise packet. Displaying pace, hostility and deceptiveness, he troubled the Lankan batsmen no end.
Praveen Kumar too performed admirably but it was sad to see Pathan being a shadow of the match-winning all rounder he was not too long ago.
It was also good to see the Indian think-tank revert to the seven batsmen, four bowlers policy in the third and fourth ODIs. I have always held the view that save under certain circumstances this is the way the Indians should approach ODIs, and given the additional responsibility of bowling a few overs, Yuvraj Singh and even Rohit Sharma rose to the occasion. An extra batsman is an insurance against a top-order collapse and India benefited from this policy in both the third and fourth ODIs.