'Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Irfan. The bunch that formed the formidable force of Dada's team. Have we seen the last of them?' wonders Abhijit Masih.
The nation wants to know the reason behind the grumpiness of Yuvraj Singh and Praveen Kumar.
The nation demands a fleeting smile across their convulsed faces.
Well, they might have personal performance woes now that the IPL season nears its end, but the expression has been a constant from the first game itself. Even Amitabh Bachchan in Piku didn't look so grumpy. Lighten up guys!
Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Irfan. The bunch that formed the formidable force of Dada's team. Have we seen the last of them?
Even though Zaheer has been impressive in his late return to the playing 11, his fitness level is suspect with the belly outpacing him in his run up to the crease.
Harbhajan has been alright with the ball and the fluke innings of 50 in 19 balls, but nothing else.
The dropped catches and the lack of agility on the field has been a heavy drawback. So is the case with Sehwag. He has been a total failure at the top of the order for Kings XI, which has highlighted what a liability he is in the field. And this is something that was always overlooked by his explosive starts.
Irfan Pathan has been a victim of Captain Cool's 'If ain't broke, don't fix it' philosophy. He may not get a single game for CSK even though Jadeja has been a complete disaster as an all-rounder.
The post-match interviews with the captains have been amusing. While we have the ever eloquent MS, impressive Virat and the smiling Bailey; on the other hand we have aa Rohit aa Sharma aa who aa has aa been aa good aa through aa out.
Then there is Warner advocating the vision sciences. 'Look Warner you are good.' 'Look you can be better.' 'Look', drop that word already. And Gambhir, can't you be a little polite? You emit a sense of arrogance. Don't walk off like you do from an interview. Count till 5 before you do.
Sticking to the topic of interviews, do we really need the staid Test type commentators in the fast paced game of T20? The likes of Rameez Raja, Sunil Gavaskar (yes him too, especially after that question to Virat), Aakash Chopra (seriously!).
The boring diatribe needs to go, replaced with fresh voices and faces. Vote for Isha Guha. We have not seen Harsha or heard him off late. Perhaps he is commentating elsewhere.
The camera guys seem to be from the same school of professional training as the ones chased out of Nepal. Stop panning on girlfriends for reactions every time Virat or Rohit hit a boundary or are spoken about by the commentators. Enough of Preity Zinta and her red flag. Stop staging reactions for your visual shots. Case in point the Vodafone fan clips. They will still be the lucky ones if they don't make a fool of themselves by giving forced reactions.
As we get into the play-offs and the finals, it will be exciting to see a montage of the fairplay instances, both positive and negative. It will also be interesting to see how Mumbai Indians are at the bottom of the table this year with Tendulkar and Kumble as mentors.
Perhaps it's the Aussie attitude brought in by Ponting.
Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli with his actress girlfriend, Anushka Sharma. Photograph: BCCI
