Well at least this is the view expressed by Paddy Upton, the Indian cricket team’s physical and mental trainer. He was reported in the cricket news as saying he was happy with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir’s lean patch in the DLF IPL 2009 so far. According to him every cricket player goes thru a slump and he is happy from the ‘Indian perspective’.

Whatever the aspirations of the DD fans and ambitions of the franchise owners GMR Holdings be, the interests of the national team are rather different, according to Upton. “They are not scoring and it is a good thing from the players’ point of view. They’ll become positive when they regroup and will be ready when they play again for India. Given the option, I would want them to score runs for India. But the franchise owner would want them to score. In reality, every batsman cannot be scoring all the time,” he said.

Upton is someone who has the trust and confidence of the Indian team players; particularly Sehwag who credited the Indian trainer for his encouragement during the marathon innings of 319 against South Africa during the Chennai Test in April last year.

And to be sure the runs do seem to have dried up for Sehwag in particular who, after Delhi’s first match against Kings XI Punjab seems to have made no notable contribution to his team’s good fortunes. He has made 109 runs in 9 matches the last of his scores having been a duck (against Royal Challengers Bangalore last night). Gambhir has fared only somewhat better with his 239 runs in 13 innings.

Now the sights of international cricket are trained on the upcoming T20 World Cup which will commence in June in England. Upton particularly is pleased with the timing of the IPL, which, coming as it does just before the T20 World Cup will prove to be excellent preparation for big event. He and national coach Gary Kirsten are already working out the preparations for the upcoming World Cup event.

Assessing the showing of individuals Upton named some players whose performances were deserving of praise: according to him, Yuvraj Singh’s two hat tricks were reflecting of his bowling skills, as is Rohit Sharma’s fair collection of wickets in the DLF IPL 2009. According to Upton, it is performances such as these that “build the players’ confidence and that is great for Indian cricket”.

According to Upton in T20 cricket one or two performances can prove to be pivotal to a game. “In Test cricket, the best team wins more often. In One-Day Internationals, the best team wins over a period of time. But in T20, it is an individual who turns the game. It is not quite a gamble but comes closest to gambling, he said.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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