Why blame the IPL

If players don't perform to their potential in under pressure situation on tracks that don't go with their comfort zone, is IPL responsible?

Who is to blame when you play only 2 seamers and rest slows bowlers on tracks that suit pace men more. But for Suresh Raina and to an extent Rohit Sharma (for a lost cause) all other batsmen failed in the World Cup. What happened to our Pathans and Yuvrajs and the captain cool himself? All of them failed miserably. Most of them were disappointments even in the IPL except for a couple of knocks here and there in a dozen plus games played by each of them. So did IPL sway them to continue their poor form? Not at all, it gave them a much required chance to have some match practice in fact, that too against the best bowlers from across the world. The same Mallingas, Mathews and the Pollards are the ones whom they played with and against.

If IPL is responsible at all, then have a look at Mahela Jayewardane, no one in their wildest dreams could have ever thought this guy could adapt so well to this format and win games for his team almost every time with brilliant knocks. Now you should also say IPL is responsible for giving him such a nice platform and opportunity to let him tune himself according to the games needs. There are many other players who continued their form from IPL or bettered it in the world cup. If Indians couldn't do it, it’s not for the IPL to take the blame. In fact the top 5 batsmen in this world cup at this moment are all who played in the IPL as well - M Jayewardene, KP Pietersen, C Gayle, J Kallis and S Raina.

But was it not known even before the start that Indians are miserable against short pitch bowling? So why select people who are not time tested with short pitch bowling even if it was the shortest version of the game? The team selection was not to be made based on IPL like conditions for heavens sake, the world cup is being played at the Caribbean land!

The team failed in several departments including poor captaincy by Dhoni, picking wrong sides, choosing to bowl when anyone on earth would have chose to bat, selecting more slow/spin bowlers in the team when the conditions are tailor made for pace men. It couldn’t have got any more worse.

Indians performed miserably on the days when they needed to fire all guns. The crucial thing for a team playing any tournament is its fitness level and the performance of every individual player on the match days, which in India’s case was lackluster and so it lost and that it rightly deserved to say the least.

Let’s stop using the IPL, its money and the late night parties as an excuse for a blunder which the players did on the field.

Today’s Favorite Line – ‘Patience is not much about waiting; it is more about how one behaves while waiting’.

Today’s Favorite Song – Aye Khuda (Paathshaala)