India vs South Africa : Clash of Titans in ICC World Cup 2011

India may have maintained their unbeaten run in the World Cup by defeating the Netherlands on Wednesday, but Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s strategies seem stubborn.

Persevering with an off-colour Piyush Chawla is an attempt to justify his selection in the squad. Although Dhoni has said that the leg-spinner needs confidence, we are getting into the business end of the tourn ment and it’s high time we stopped experimenting. What has been done can’t be undone, so looking forward to the match against South Africa in Nagpur, I would like Dhoni to play three pacers and a lone spinner in Harbhajan Singh.

Not only the bowling line-up, but the batting-order too needs to be stable. None of the top four batsmen have been consistent and changing the order doesn’t help their confidence much.

While Virender Sehwag has categorically said that he would look to play right through the innings, he has failed to do that except for the opening match against Bangladesh. Even Virat Kohli started off impressively, but has failed to build on that. I feel the batsmen have failed to apply themselves.

Looking at the wicket at the Kotla on Wednesday, there was no need for batsmen to go for their shots, but they perished trying to do just that. Better application is a must, now that we are gearing up for the knock-out stages. I was also surprised that Dhoni refused to bowl out Ashish Nehra.

Since he is coming back from injury, one would have expected that Dhoni would test his fitness by getting him to bowl 10 overs.

With conditions in Nagpur favouring swing bowlers, I would expect Nehra to have a big role to play. But we need back-up for both Zaheer Khan and Nehra as both are prone to injuries and if they break down at this stage, it would spell curtains for India going into the knockout stages.

This is where I feel Munaf Patel should come in. With Yuvraj Singh doing really well, I feel Harbhajan as the lone spinner is enough. Frankly, Yuvraj is bowling better than the regular spinners.

While we have talked about how bowling has been our weakness, the batsmen have failed in the last two outings. I think it is time that they play according to the situation rather than getting carried away — especially against South Africa because they are fierce competitors and after the loss against England, they will be coming hard at the Indians. Today’s game is definitely the toughest for India and if they can beat the Proteas, the other teams will sit up and take notice.

South Africa have good pacers as well as spinners. Imran Tahir’s injury it shouldn’t count for much as Indians have been known to play spinners well. I feel even South Africa’s middleorder is pretty dangerous and the Indians will be hoping that their poor form continues.