Indian tour of England started with a lot of hype around it. Lot of cricket pundits tagged it as the battle of the year with the number one team in tests and the world champions in the 50 over format meeting the only team which it lost during the world cup campaign. Much beyond the battle of ranks, the contest promised a test of character. The lords test begin with even higher expectations with anticipation of Sachin’s tons of tons, The focus of the test series kept swinging between the game and the personal achievement. It’s been over a month since the series got started and we are back to where it all started, with the dismal performance by India, the only interest left in the final test match is to see the maestro gets to the landmark.
There have been dedicated shows on the reasons of the debacle by the Indian team, eminent cricketers have voiced their opinion on what went wrong and media has repeatedly listed down steps to revive Indian cricket. Quite honestly, with 3-0 bashing and fourth test match which is in progress showing a sign of 4-0 quietly asks for such deep investigations and noises. There have been lot written about the number one slot being taken away by England. While I certainly believe that the former issue is of much importance and concern the latter one can be rested for a while because if we focus on the performance, rankings can be taken care of.
To summarise India’s performance in the current series, it would be fair to say that we have been outplayed in all departments. The beginnings to the debacle begin at Lord’s when Zaheer had to pull out just after first session. The already week Indian bowling attack got exposed and since then we have been struggling to get twenty wickets on tracks where Englishmen had run through the team India. However, what pains is our strength on papers bowing out to the seaming conditions repeatedly, session after session. No batsman except Dravid looks like reaching the three figure mark. Even the likes of VVS seem to be struggling and that is not a good sign. Not a 300 plus score in 6 innings now is a wake up call not just for the players but also for the administrators. It is high time that the BCCI wakes up from the deep slumber of money churning through IPL and other events. I have high regards for the selection committee headed by Mr. Srikkanth and I am sure he is as worried as any body at the moment due to the performance of the team chosen by him. The question he needs to answer is that how many youngsters have been introduced to the longer form of the game in the recent past? Raina has been in and out of the test squad and so has been the case with Virat Kohli.
One of the key reasons been debated is the scheduling of matches and hence the lack of preparation time for the team. Though the international calendar is demanding and requires back to back series, the IPL window definitely looks a misfit. The mandate seems clear either play for your country only or don’t let events like IPL affect your performance. Come to think of it, playing IPL within a week of concluding the world cup asks has take its toll and sadly it has now. Lack of practice matches is another area of concern but with the inability of team India to come to terms even after three test matches, this argument doesn’t hold good at the moment though required exposure to the conditions must be there before the first test begins overseas
The issues are endless and so are the number of excuses and time is running out to settle either of them. We know we have a good team in place; all that we need is better management of the same. No team becomes good or bad overnight and we must not give in or give too easily. Test match series has been lost but the upcoming ODI series is to be looked forward to as Team India will be doning the tri colours as champions of that format when they take the field against Strauss’s men. England was the only team against which Team India lost in their World Cup campaign. The most important challenge for the men in blue will be to shrug off the recent bad past and show confidence in their abilities.
Game of cricket is a great leveller and who else other than Team India would know better. Year 2007 saw team India crashing out of the world cup and winning the inaugural T 20 championship six months later. A lot can change in a matter of few months….cut to 2011, A team that won the world cup six months ago is struggling right now…..Hope the bad run finishes with the test series and we get to see the champion team India that lifted the spirits of billions of people along with the world cup..
Posts
