Having taken India to World Cup glory in 1983 by his all-round performance, Mohinder Amarnath (in pic) feels the current side lacks "genuine" all-rounders and the bowlers are trying to bowl too quickly instead of focussing on line and length. "In one-day cricket all-rounders make a lot of difference. And in this team I don't see any genuine all-rounders. See when we play in India or the sub-continent then the conditions are to our liking, so probably anybody can bat, it doesn't mean you become a genuine all-rounder," Amarnath said.
"The last genuine all-rounder I can think of is Kapil Dev and after that we have not produced any genuine all-rounder," the former cricketer added. If captain MS Dhoni has banked on Ravindra Jadeja to do the all-rounder's role many a time in ODIs then Stuart Binny's, a middle-order batsman who can double up as a useful medium-pacer, emergence has also helped the Men in Blue.
"Stuart Binny is still new, he is inexperienced when you talk of international cricket but yes he has the potential to become a good player. It's not an easy job when you have to perform in both the departments and usually the all-rounders are either frontline batsmen or frontline bowlers.
‘India know how to win WC’
Despite the pessimism over India's prospects, former coach Gary Kirsten feels the side has a good chance to defend the title as it has "learnt how to win World Cups". "I think there is a lot of pessimism around their opportunities but they have learnt how to win World Cups, so they know how to do it. This World Cup boils down to three games — quarters, semis and finals", he said. "They have been there, so they know how to manage that space. And I think they have a good chance," Kirsten said.
Kirsten feels that the Men in Blue should be wary of arch-rivals Pakistan. "Pakistan has these players who you don't know about but they do something. You look at their team sheet and say who's that and next thing is that he is doing something. So I don't think you can ever write off a Pakistan team. I think it will be very dangerous to do that," said the former South African cricketer.
Pakistan unsure of XI vs india
Karachi: Pakistan selectors face a huge dilemma over picking up the playing XI in the high octane clash against India. "Yes, the playing eleven has become a dilemma because after two weeks in New Zealand and Australia it is clear we have to play four specialist bowlers with Shahid Afridi as the fifth bowler," an official said.
"The problem is if we play four specialist bowlers then we have to play Umar Akmal as a wicketkeeper and that is a risky proposition. If we stick with Sarfaraz Ahmed as keeper, it means we can only play five specialist batsmen and no one in the tour selection committee is comfortable with that," he added. The official, however, stated that the team management was convinced they would get a flat batting track for the match.