Mohammad Kaif : The Promise, The Light and The Shadows
Two young shoulders did wonders with their batting skills in the NatWest series of 2002, while one found the stardom and fans love, the other lost the way in-between. Mohammad Kaif with his 87 from just 75 balls sparked an awakening of the new era of Cricket where we had game changers in our team and they were not the legends of the game but the young blood.
With the rules of the game moving fast at a pace where you ought to be quicker to adapt, while a pack of young talent around the bench waiting for a chance to prove themselves would always have been a pressurized situation for anyone. But Kaif at the beginning started doing his pretty well to be in the team as a regular for the shorter format of the game.
But with time, the game moved on, but he didn't. A career that started a big promise when he won the U19 World cup 2000 as a captain, to the brilliant player that never gave up, finally ended in the shadows that never got a call back.
The Live Wire in fielding
He was still lightening quick in the field saving runs with his excellent fielding skills. Sharp in the the 30-yards circle with almost Jonty like diving skills with a almost perfect throws to click run-outs of nowhere. Remember the Nick Knight's run-out, man that was some agility. Along with Yuvi around him, the two of them were the live wires in the game for team India and no one did take a chance against them if they were half hearted.
The Batting Style : The worrying strike rate
To me he was never a hard hitting batsman, he was someone who could be more like Dravid who believed in the quick ones and twos with an odd boundary around but with the change in game when even the legends upwards their strike rates after initial games Kaif was found struggling with that. With a place in the team which was playing in and around number 6 or 7, he lacked the big hitting skills that was needed with the change of game.
He was in his early days was a middle order batsman for the team in U19 but we had a complete set of players who were irreplaceable at that moment of time due to the heights of their career and performances. This effected his game right away. He tried to adapt but failed. The fact that whenever he got a chance up the order he tried to better up his innings, in ODI's he even averages 47.38 at number 3 position which naturally suited him to make his game but he was getting really slow with his striking rate.
Mohammad Kaif was striking at a worrying figure of around 72 with majority of his innings below the average 70 mark, which was a definite no-go for the team in the latter of the mid 2000’s. The game that lacked confidence.
While India was in search of bowling all-rounders for the lower order who could hit big shots to end the innings at a greater note while add to the bowling line up as an extra bowler to help the team in odd situations.
But the question remains why was he lacking confidence when he had such a great domestic record?
Was it the bench pressure or was it something different?
What Went Wrong For Mohammad Kaif?
A promising career that died a premature death. But many facts led to this not only his batting skills. The man who still plays wonder innings in the domestic season was low on confidence in the International scenario, the reason couldn't be only his batting technique or abilities.
Conspiracy theories around Kaif said that he was a victim of dressing room politics while I think the tactical changes made the bigger difference and decreased the confidence of many players in the team.
Conspiracy theories abound. Some say he got caught up in dressing room politics while others blame Greg Chappell. But let us hear what he had to say about his downfall.
I quote the words spoke by Kaif, “When managements change, so do attitudes. The decision makers who followed Sourav Ganguly and John Wright - coach Greg Chappell and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar - didn't have the same confidence in me. I came under pressure, and failed. Looking back, I should've spoken to them more, rather than just focus on making runs. I suffered due to my reserved nature.”
He also went on record saying, “He questioned my fielding technique and it left me so confused that I dropped a catch in the very next game. Chappell created an atmosphere where the players were backbiting about each other rather than focusing on their performances."
The Domestic Regrets
Kaif opened up and said that he also regrets the fact, he was in too much of confused state when he played the domestic season with desperation to make a return, he said, “To make it worse, I started asking everyone what I needed to do to make a comeback. Interestingly, everyone else who was dropped after me made a comeback, except me.”
Gradually his domestic runs increased beyond 10000 runs but at a much slower rate and average of runs. This is what low on confidence can do to a talent like Mohammad Kaif.
The words are crystal clear to provide a meaning but to the world of Indian Cricket changed its views about young blood, Kaif was one prominent reason for it and his contributions ended unceremoniously at a note of disgrace and forgotten among the new generation of blood that had more than just performances in them. Yet he would be a name that would find a place in heart of every single fan of Cricket who saw the budding matches of India as a team.
Even though he never scored big, I will always remember him as a game changer for team India who made fielding an extra batsman for the team by saving much counted important runs from adding to the totals tally, while he would spring onto the field to pull out a stunner through run-outs or half chances of catch which always made him special. A trait that has now a place in every youngster that takes the field for team India.
Cheers to Cricket and the forgotten talent of Mohammad Kaif.