No captain in world cricket would give Bumrah two-over opening spell: Gambhir
New Delhi: Former opener Gautam Gambhir feels India skipper Virat Kohli committed a tactical blunder that no other captain would, by giving his premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah just a two-over opening spell in the series-conceding second ODI loss to Australia in Sydney.
Gambhir, who has been pretty critical of Kohli's tactical acumen as captain, felt that the difference between the two sides so far was how Australian captain Aaron Finch handled his most successful pacer Josh Hazlewood in the first two ODIs that the hosts won easily.
"I find it difficult to comprehend that if you have a bowler of Jasprit Bumrah's calibre and you give him only two overs upfront. It's not a tactical mistake but a tactical blunder," Gambhir said in 'ESPNCricinfo's 'Match Day Hindi'.
A five-over spell would have allowed Bumrah and Mohammed Shami to at least try and pick up two wickets upfront.
"...I was expecting Bumrah and Shami to bowl five-over spells each upfront and tried getting a couple of wickets each. So, I don't think there is any captain in world cricket who would give Jasprit Bumrah, two overs with the new ball," Gambhir said as it is.
With all top three Australian batsmen -- Aaron Finch, David Warner, and Steve Smith -- striking form at the same time, Gambhir feels that if any bowler had a chance of getting the trio out, it had to be Bumrah.
"Now Finch, Warner, and Smith, the top three are in prime form and who has the best chance of taking their wicket? It's Jasprit Bumrah
".... and you give him 2 overs and bring him after 10 overs when the ball is a tad old and it gets warmer and you expect him to get wickets in these conditions. He is human too."
He then cited the example of how Finch used Hazlewood in the first two games.
"First game, Finch gave him six-over spell and second game a five-over first spell and six overs when Starc had a bad day. Hazlewood has been the standout bowler."
Gambhir was impressed with how Australia's sixth bowling option (the combination of Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell in first and Moises Henriques and Maxwell in second) controlled the proceedings.
"It happened in the first match as well. In the first match, Marcus Stoinis gave some 25 runs in 6 overs that he bowled and that was done by Henriques in the second game. So that's the difference you had.
"So, if your sixth bowler can give 6 to 7 overs, then you don't need to bowl with a front-liner who is having an off day like Mitchell Starc.
"Imagine had Hardik not bowled those overs, what kind of pressure it would have been on Shami and Navdeep Saini," he said.
While Virat Kohli, with close to 11,500 runs and 43 hundred, has a staggering record, Gambhir feels that Smith for all practical reasons isn't too far behind even if the numbers suggest otherwise.
"I don't think there is a lot of difference between Kohli and Smith. If you go by numbers, Kohli always gave better numbers than Smith but if you look at his (Smith) record, in the previous five or seven ODIs, he has had three hundred, so the difference is not much.
"He has scored 62 ball hundreds back to back. Obviously, you will call Kohli, the greatest ODI player as per numbers but not much difference between him (Smith) and Kohli."
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Crimes against women, sexual violence increased under Modi govt: Report
"Nari Shakti: Myth and Reality" report released by Bahutva Karnataka, Naveddu Nilladiddare Karnataka
Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked “Nari Shakti” during the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ in 2022. Now, Bahutva Karnataka in collaboration with Naveddu Nilladiddare Karnataka, has announced the release of "Nari Shakti: Myth and Reality", a report on the status of women under the Modi government.
"Nari Shakti: Myth and Reality" looks into the status of women in India over the past decade, focusing on five primary areas: violence against women, women’s rights, dignity and agency, economic empowerment, social empowerment, and political representation. Drawing upon credible data, including government sources, the report examines the ground realities faced by women against the backdrop of the prevailing rhetoric.
“The objective of the report is to use this information to hold those in power accountable and to inform public opinion as they make an informed choice in the ongoing general elections. Bahutva Karnataka in collaboration with Naveddu Nilladiddare Karnataka encourages all parties, in power or otherwise, to take note of these report cards and respond to the same,” the report added.
The report notes with concern that crimes against women and sexual violence have increased in the last decade. Analysing fund usage under the Nirbhaya Fund, a critical initiative for improving women’s safety, the report highlights how key schemes have been underfunded, undermining women’s security in India. The report also presents concrete instances of violence against women. Despite its public utterances regarding women’s safety, the Government has not only refrained from condemning the violence, remaining mute spectators as in the case of Manipur, but in many instances, it appears to have condoned the violence, especially when the accused have been political leaders from their own party or the victims have been from minority or Dalit communities.
“Various new laws such as UCC, Triple Talaq, Criminal Laws, Anti-conversion Laws seem to be driven by motives other than that of gender justice and and some of them are becoming tools that can be used to legitimize moral policing by vigilante groups and the State while infantilizing women and depriving them of any agency,” the report notes.
“The performance of the government on the front of “economic empowerment” too has proved to be abysmal the reports states. Analysing data related to female LFPR (Labour Force Participation Rate) and employment generating schemes like MNREGA and NRLM or schemes for financial inclusion like Pradhan Mantri Dhan Jan Yojana and Mudra it seems clear that none of these have led to any substantial degree of economic empowerment for the rural and urban power women. On the other hand it is clear that unorganized/informal work areas dominated by women like that of ASHA workers continues to be devalued and undervalued by casting it within the framework of care work, domestic work and voluntary work,” it added.
The report analyses through the gender lens some of the flagship schemes introduced as part of the BJP’s commitment to “Women’s Empowerment and Welfare”. One primary finding is that the big picture seems to be missing in several of these schemes such as SBA, PMUY, and PMMY where the metrics being quoted as signs of success do not give an honest representation of the scheme’s impact or success. Looking at CAG and other related reports the report concludes that while the media advocacy on the issues have undoubtedly yielded some favourable results in terms of improved sex ratios this seems to have fed more into image building of the government at the cost of long term structural and institutional transformations in the lives of the women who are supposed to be the “beneficiaries” of the schemes.
Finally the report examines the performance of the Government on the issue of political empowerment looking particularly at the Women’s Reservation Bill apart from the ways in which women in politics are treated. The report concludes that while the Women’s Reservation Bill might seek to guarantee women’s equal and fair representation in politics at some imaginary point in the future, what is lacking in the present is the political will to establish institutional arrangements and an inclusive climate that will enable women across communities to act independently without depending on tokenism and patriarchal patronage.
The speakers who responded to the report included: Diana Kh, a concerned activist from Manipur who spoke about what is happening to women from diverse communities in the context of an ongoing conflict and the Centre’s frightening indifference, Nasreen Mithai from the BMMA spoke about how the ruling party projected itself as the savior of Muslim women appropriating their efforts to bring about transformation from within even while it continued to target Muslim women and men; Vijayakumari a former ASHA worker spoke about the immense contribution of the “voluntary” health workers to rural health and especially during the COVID crisis who still continue to struggle for basic education and health for their own children K.S. Vimala from AIDWA, India who spoke about the history of women’s struggle for political empowerment and how they felt totally totally short changed by the Ruling party on the women’s reservation Bill that is problematic at so many different levels.
