Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Asia Cup 2014, Squads should be chosen suiting World Cup 2015
Top 5 teams from subcontinent, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan will be locking horns in Asia Cup tournament launching from Feb 25, 2014 in series of matches, to be played at Fatullah and Mirpur, that will decide who is the best cricket team in the region. Is it so?
The next world cup of cricket is exactly 1 year away and teams are looking for building up squads by identifying players who will be able to adjust to fast and bouncy conditions of Australia and New Zealand, down under.
Asia Cup will be played on slow and docile wickets in conditions that are 180 degree opposite to what players will encounter in ICC biggest ODI tournament. The success in Asia Cup can't be a barometer for predicting sure shot success in Cricket World Cup'15.
It is very important for teams to judge players well. The conditions won't allow that to happen. For example, a player playing a pull shot in upcoming tournament can't be considered as good player of pull shot. This is because the ball will bounce higher and he might top edge the ball playing similar shot in world cup, next year. Same is in case of bowlers. A spinner might be able to fool the batsmen in playing early due to lack of pace in wickets in Asia, some experts might get impressed a bowler defeating a batsmen, but was the flight good enough to work in Australia and New Zealand must be looked into carefully. The conditions will be completely different.
Keeping the conditions in mind teams have taken steps to carefully select the players in the team. At least, Indian selectors have shown that intelligence. Suresh Raina was excluded from India's squad for the Asia Cup which will be played in Bangladesh starting February 25 siting his weakness against short balls out of Asia. Raina had done well in subcontinent, but selectors have taken a call keeping the world cup of cricket in mind.
Subcontinent teams haven't quite done well out of Asia in past. Although, India did won world cup in England and reached finals of 2003 world cup played in South Africa. Sri Lanka has also managed to reach the final stages of ICC tournaments, but haven't been able to conquer the final frontier away from home.
One has to also question if it was really necessary to held the tournament when it is clear that it will not help in preparations of world cup. Worst, it might even end up in giving up false confidence to players as well as teams that they are on right track only to see themselves getting embarrassed come the world cup.
Not only Asia Cup, but every coming ODI tournament that India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan will be playing before world cup starts, teams should be chosen and strategies should be made always keeping world cup in mind.
Of all the teams playing in Asia cup, Indian team and its players have he best chance to update their game to suit the playing conditions in world cup as they will be touring Australia just before the start of the tournament and they have already gathered some experience in their recent tour of New Zealand.
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| Schedule of Asia Cup, 2014 Bangladesh |
The next world cup of cricket is exactly 1 year away and teams are looking for building up squads by identifying players who will be able to adjust to fast and bouncy conditions of Australia and New Zealand, down under.
Asia Cup will be played on slow and docile wickets in conditions that are 180 degree opposite to what players will encounter in ICC biggest ODI tournament. The success in Asia Cup can't be a barometer for predicting sure shot success in Cricket World Cup'15.
It is very important for teams to judge players well. The conditions won't allow that to happen. For example, a player playing a pull shot in upcoming tournament can't be considered as good player of pull shot. This is because the ball will bounce higher and he might top edge the ball playing similar shot in world cup, next year. Same is in case of bowlers. A spinner might be able to fool the batsmen in playing early due to lack of pace in wickets in Asia, some experts might get impressed a bowler defeating a batsmen, but was the flight good enough to work in Australia and New Zealand must be looked into carefully. The conditions will be completely different.
Keeping the conditions in mind teams have taken steps to carefully select the players in the team. At least, Indian selectors have shown that intelligence. Suresh Raina was excluded from India's squad for the Asia Cup which will be played in Bangladesh starting February 25 siting his weakness against short balls out of Asia. Raina had done well in subcontinent, but selectors have taken a call keeping the world cup of cricket in mind.
Subcontinent teams haven't quite done well out of Asia in past. Although, India did won world cup in England and reached finals of 2003 world cup played in South Africa. Sri Lanka has also managed to reach the final stages of ICC tournaments, but haven't been able to conquer the final frontier away from home.
One has to also question if it was really necessary to held the tournament when it is clear that it will not help in preparations of world cup. Worst, it might even end up in giving up false confidence to players as well as teams that they are on right track only to see themselves getting embarrassed come the world cup.
Not only Asia Cup, but every coming ODI tournament that India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan will be playing before world cup starts, teams should be chosen and strategies should be made always keeping world cup in mind.
Of all the teams playing in Asia cup, Indian team and its players have he best chance to update their game to suit the playing conditions in world cup as they will be touring Australia just before the start of the tournament and they have already gathered some experience in their recent tour of New Zealand.
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