VVS Laxman won a bagful of brownie points when he opted out of icon status, and the consequent million-plus paycheck, in order that his franchise could employ that money to buy big players. The codicil was, he wanted to lead the side.
He got both wishes: the captain's armband, and a team packed with power players. And has since learnt why it pays to be careful what you wish for: despite the presence of arguably the best [on paper] line-up of slam bang artists in a competition that is theoretically tailored for big-hitting, Hyderabad has lost by five wickets in its opening game against Kolkata, and was humiliated by nine wickets by Delhi in the second game.
That puts enormous pressure on the captain; it doesn't help that his brief appearances at the crease thus far have been undistinguished -- it is perhaps not fair to extrapolate on the basis of the 12 deliveries he has faced thus far -- but that awkward tennis forehand that was his get-out shot against Kolkata smacked of the gasp of a fish out of water; if it is indicative of his belief that he has to go outside his skill sets for success, his batting problems will likely get worse in a hurry.
It is not that Hyderabad is a weak team -- you would in theory back Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Rohit Sharma, backed by either Herschelle Gibbs or Shahid Afridi, to belt the living daylights out of any attack in the compressed space of 20 overs. Thing is, though, that it hasn't happened; the only excuse possible is that in Kolkata they were caught out on a pitch that deserved an injection of TNT, and against Delhi came up against arguably the most focused, parsimonious attack in the business. Time is running out, though; ditto excuses -- tonight, Hyderabad has to fire, or run the risk of slipping farther behind on the leader board, and finding the task of catch-up a touch too much for its stellar lineup to handle.
Rajasthan has greater reason for optimism. The team underwhelmed in its first outing against a Delhi without Mohammad Asif, but did considerably better against a Punjab attack featuring Brett Lee, Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, and James Hopes; importantly, in that second game, Yuvraj Singh showed some sign of returning to the T20 form that made him a devastating proposition in the World Cup.
- Also read: Honey, I shrunk the ODI
Reduced to its essence, this outcome of this game will again revolve on one question: how well Rajasthan [which for my money has the better bowling lineup of the two teams] can cope with Hyderabad's hitters. Within that larger war, there are individual items of interest. When people discussed the all-conquering Australians, it was often with the caveat that the Aussie batsmen did not have to face their own bowlers. The other day, two of their best and brightest had to square up to Glenn McGrath; today, Symonds for sure, and Gilchrist possibly, will have to face Shane Warne, and that prospect alone is worth the price of admission. Then there is the question of the Rajasthan opening combo -- Mohammad Kaif did unimpressive duty in the number one slot against Punjab, but Graeme Smith has since joined the side, and it will be interesting to see if the South African dasher joins either Kamran Akmal, or Yusuf Pathan, in the opening slot. Darren Lehmann seems most likely to sit out -- his batting has been rusty, his fielding ordinary. I'm also interested in the team lists for another reason: will Laxman continue to bat three, or will he do the obvious and slip Afridi up the order and hope for a sustained blast? For my money, he could as well go the whole hog, bench Venugopal Rao, and send Afridi out with Gilchrist; if the ploy works and both last even for as much as five overs, even the genius of Warne won't be enough to cope.
Fun and games in the offing, folks -- open message board for the game, take it away.
