Overreaction Monday ft. ICCâs WTC rule change, Bored captain Kohli and X-Factor Natarajan
23rd November edition of Overreaction Monday
|SportsCafe
Ah, another week of no cricket and as a result, we have some of the craziest, wittiest and some statements that would clearly leave you in splits, all coming from former cricketers and of-course, the ICC. This week we have some of the biggest and the boldest predictions in world cricket.
ICC had to make World Test Championship worst
Earlier this week, ICC confirmed that the dreaded reports were indeed right - the finalists of the World Test Championship would be decided on the basis of percentage of points earned and not points.
SCâs Take: Oh well talk about a good start, we have the ICC, who just woke up one day and decided that how can we make the World Test Championship worse? Thatâs where they decided to toast their format and change their bread - well thatâs what they did eventually with the new format to decide the finalists of the World Test Championship.Â
Overnight the points table has turned upside down and Australia is leading the table, all because they have more percentage of points than India. Now thatâs not all, the new rule change also presents New Zealand with the perfect opportunity to pip India and make it to the final, despite them losing their series against Australia pathetically. All they have to do now is win their last two series against Pakistan and West Indies at home while India struggle in Australia away from home.Â
The sides who sit at the bottom of the table, well thereâs no chance in the world they can qualify now, so thatâs ICC and their weird-rat radical changes to the WTC. A simple question to them - why canât you just cancel this edition?
âBoredâ skipper Virat Kohli
Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar, on Thursday, opined that Kohli looked bored as a captain for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rohit is ready to take over the captaincy.Â
SCâs Take: Rohit is a great skipper, India really needs him to be the skipper now is a statement that really has taken off in recent times, for the right reasons. But this is just outrageous, to say the least, Shoaib Akhtarâs suggestion that he should be replaced just because he looked bored during the IPL is just nuts. First off, how can you look at someoneâs face and suggest that he was bored leading his side in pursuit of their first-ever IPL trophy? It is a fact that Kohliâs captaincy in the limited-overs format is a big âLâ and he hasnât done anything for India as a skipper in the shorter-formats but where could you see the boredom on his face? Now, this might not be an overreaction but we really need to take Akhtarâs statement with a pinch of salt, salt for you?
Will RCB win without Kohli?
Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra, who in his review of the IPL asked if RCB indeed had the firepower to win the 2020 edition of the IPL if not for Virat Kohliâs captaincy. He also insisted that they qualified because of Kohliâs captaincy
SCâs Take: If Hahahhahahah had a face and walked around, it would be this statement - it has everything over-reactive about it. Did RCB have the firepower to win this yearâs IPL? No, but itâs not just about the firepower they possessed but the way they utilised it. Rollback to their clash against Mumbai Indians, RCB were indeed running away with the game and were clearly the favourites to make the encounter their own but instead what happened was Kohliâs âcleverâ captaincy which led to the match tilting in Mumbaiâs favour.Â
Be it bowling the duo of Yuzvendra Chahal-Adam Zampa in the death overs against Kieron Pollard and Ishan Kishan or be it his decision to put all his faith in Navdeep Saini when he was in the worst form possible. If you are going to talk about the team they had, well it was what they assembled with a keen eye on the IPL title and Kohli was sure that this squad was enough to win the title. And also, he did a lot with the Indian team? Really? In limited-overs, I canât see any record apart from all the losses in semis and finals with the best of Indian teams. So that talks a lot!
Thangarasu âX-Factorâ Natarajan for the win
VVS Laxman considers T Natarajan an âX-factorâ for India in next yearâs World T20 event.Â
SCâs Take: If jumping the gun and forecasting things in 2020 is an art, Indians are the Mozarts of it, the tournament is a year away but VVS Laxman already feels that Natarajan is the âX-factorâ for the Indian team for the 2021 World T20. With all the hype, you would have already assumed that heâs already proven to be a hit in the international scene but hold on, he hasnât yet made his debut for the national team. Thatâs exactly what I mean by jumping the gun. In terms of nailing the yorker, India already has Jasprit Bumrah, who still continues to be the X-factor really.
So in his presence, Natarajan wouldnât offer anything dramatic and with Mohammed Shami and Deepak Chahar in the setup, Natarajan might not even be a sure-shot starter. So letâs hold on, wait for him to make his debut before we hype him down so that much that it spoils his career!
