Kaif is back (India still manage to loose).. Review on Mohammed Kaif

What made me write this review

I was recently watching this interview with Krisnamachari Srikkanth, Former Indian opener, on CNN IBN talking about the reasons of failure of India in the tour of West Indies. This topic about Kaif suddenly came up when this guy (Middle aged) suggested that Kaif was the reason that India lost the match because he took too much time to settle down. This caused a shortage of overs for India to hit and score. For this reason Kaif needs to be dropped from ODI's. ''What the hell is this guy saying?'' I thought to myself. I could even visualise Srikkanth dismissing his opinion by saying that it was a bad idea to drop Kaif. Before I could think any further I witnessed a series of most illogical comments by Srikkanth sir. He said that he has the same opinion and also believed that Kaif needs to be dropped.

I was taken aback by these comments. The main reason that Kaif was playing so slowly in these games, I believe, is because the entire team was not performing well and he was stuck at the other end and was in loss of partners to play with. Apart from that his strike rate was not alarmingly slow. Infact during the match the other day he had scored 60 odd with a strike rate close to 75 whereas the entire team excluding Yuvraj had flopped and failed to deliver. Had Kaif not played a decent and conservative knock India would have faced a much bitter defeat than it actually did

This is what prompted me to write this review. So here goes...

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Basic Player Info.

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Full name: Mohammad Kaif

Born in Uttar Pradesh

Current age: 25 years

Position In the team: Batting Fielder.

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Some stats to go with it

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Class Test ODI

Mat 9 116

inns 16 102

runs 398 2599

Hs 91 111

Avg. 26.6 32.9

Sr. 34.9 72.7

100 0 2

50 3 16

cts 12 54

It might seem from the stats that he is not such a great player. But, he, sure has the ability to reach great heights. And it might also show that he is a better ODI player than a test although his ability suggests otherwise. It is obvious that he is a great fielder.

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Kaif And the Indian Team

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Kaif made his debut in the Indian team with India v South Africa test match at Bangalore in 2000. But he was noticed only during his brilliant performance in the Nat-west ODI series in England in 2002.

It is unfortunate that he is not as much supported by the team management. He has never been given a stable position in the Indian team to play at. Its an important thing for a batsman to know his position in the batting line up to be mentally prepared for the game and be confident about his game and his abilities.

He was kept in the sidelines in the Indian test team quiet too often. Although he found himself among the selected 15 players he never got a consistent opportunity to prove his abilities. But given the chance he has always played his role in the team pretty well.

It is evident that Kaif is a No. 3 batsman. and I would like to see him play in that position more often. He wasn't given a chance to play at his favourite position till the WI tour this summer. He went on to prove through out the series (4 Matches played) that the decision to play him in pos. 3 did not go futile.

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Kaif as a Batsman

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Kaif has finally surfed up from a series of poor scores. He was suffering a horror run in the year 2005-06.

His batting style is unique and often reminds me of Md. Azharuddin. Some believe that he has a batting technique error. That error if I am not wrong would be his tendancy to play across to an offside delivery. This causes the outswinging delivery to beat his bat quiet oft.

I would say who doesn't have errors. Even great players like Brain Lara, Sachin, Ganguly, Ponting etc. have batting faults. But instead of finding faults one needs to look at his batting strengths and encourage it. He also needs to improve or sharpen certain abilities that he has got.

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Kaif as a Fielder

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Everyone would agree with me here that Kaif and Yuvraj are among one of the best fielders in the current One Day team. Kaif and Yuvraj fielding combo is rare to see and relish. What more can I say as many as 20 runs per match are saved by this genuine fielder.

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Kaif as a Test and ODI player

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I've always believed that Kaif is a better test player than a ODI player. He has this ability to stay in the crease for a longer period of time and lift up the score of the entire team.

But unfortunately the Indian selection team mistakes him only as a ODI no. 6 specialist which he surely is not!! I've always believed that a good test player is always a good ODI player but a good ODI player need not always be a good test player.

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Kaif as a Captain

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Kaif is a very good leader. He might as well go on to become the future captain of the Indian team. You might be wondering ''What is this nut saying?'' But I have some statistics to prove my point... They are as follows :

1. Kaif led the Indian Under 19 team to a world cup Victory (Which year I don't know) which in itself proves of his ability to captain a very good team.

   
   




2. Kaif led UP to Ranji Trophy win in 2005. which was momentous because UP hadn't won Ranji Trophy for years.

   
   

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Final words

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Good player don't come that often and once they come into action we should not criticize them when they are not playing well but instead we need to give them adequate support.

Any views regarding my review or reagrding India loss in the series or a prediction as to who might win the test series or the Football World cup or even the French open or just to say that you did not have any food yet (Gosh! I am feeling so hungry! Ahhh! do I smell roti and daal!) can be posted in the comments column.

Regards, Shiva