August 4, 2011

My two cents on Indian test side

I was disappointed with the way we lost the two tests against England. I happened to talk about it in a lecture and was invited to comment on a student's comment on FB. So posted this.

Firstly, these couple of defeats per se would have been okay, but the way we lost, I felt, was spineless. There was no fight whatsoever. They did not just win, they out-played us completely. Sure every team can lose a couple of games in a row, but the 'how' is equally important.

Secondly, what is our future looking like? Sure we are statistically at No. 1, but how strong is our side! Be it pace bowling, spin or batting, the bench strength looks very raw. Who is going to replace the likes of Sachin, Dravid and Laxman? If we do not find the answers soon, we will go the Aussie way. Difference being, they cleanly dominated other teams for more than a decade and we would struggle to do it for a couple of years. Even today, India does not look dominating or powerful enough to claim the tag of world-beaters. What has been equally important is that other teams have not been very impressive except England and SAF.

Thirdly, I am tempted to look at the statistics of test matches during the last three years. India has played 33, won 15, lost 6. Out of 15 wins, 6 have been overseas. 2 in Bangladesh, 1 each in NZ, SAF, SL and WI. Out of these NZ, Bang, WI clearly not the benchmarks for us. So it is 2 'real' away test wins. 2 away wins out of 15 wins.

The SAF test win at Durban was a horrible pitch. In a way, spinner friendly Indian track. Dhoni mentioned about it in the post-match conference that the pitch was not of international standards. It was an uneven bounce/spin track and Harbhajan made a killing. The win against SL in Colombo was a Sehwag feast. His better than run-a-ball century won it for us.

Sehwag has been a key for us in the last couple of years. Sans him, we saw what can happen to our batting line up. His blazing start was vital for middle order batsmen to come in and capitalize. I am not sure how a world-beater side is so heavily dependant on 1 batsman. Perhaps pretty much like Hayden for Aussies, but look at the way other batsmen played for them when they were No. 1. There were matches that Gilchrist, Langer or Ponting won for them.

Coming to qualitative factors, Indians on the field looked spineless and lethargic even in Windies. We did not go for the win in the last test against WI!! That is not the sign of a champion. Windies are surely not the most formidable. We gave it up there.

Sure, statistically we are No. 1, and we could even retain it by winning/drawing the next two tests. But I am not going by the ranking. Even a WC victory was not convincing for me (personally) that we are the best. I want to see fear in the opponents when they face our bowlers and their bowlers should be left with shivers when we bat. Only Sehwag has managed that. I want to see our team kill others and win some games so one-sided that opponents must be in awe. Windies did it in 70s and 80s, Auusies in 90s and the last decade. We are not yet there. Sure we may some day, but not yet.

4 comments:

Joamoo said...

Xactly!

rahul bhomia said...

indeed very true !! best part of this post was u mentioning about our day-by-day weakening bench-strength and tht opponents must "FEAR" us while taking the field, if we're actually the no.1 side. and most unfortunately, that's the only thing we're lacking at. Regards :)

shivam said...

i completely agree wid wat sir has written over here..i would like to add 1 mre point ..bowling department..india depends heavily on zk .the aussies teams of 1990s had a very gud back up.if a mcgrath was injured they had the likes of gillespi,kaspo,bichel,macgill...few years ago bhajji was a spinner(i mentioned he was a spinner as bishen singh bedi says spinner is nthin widout loop n rhtym..he has become mre of a dart bowler...
after jumbo retired he was expected to fill into his shoes but he din..mst experts say he needs
a pat on his back regularly n
wicket early in his spell..these are just plain excuses...at international level this is nt expected the gr8 spinners like murli,warnie n our own jumbo were nver like this ..kumble fr example kept bowlin fr hours n hours widout
complainin for anything..another fact that i came across cricinfo is
wat role does dhoni play at number 7..outside the sub-continent he averages 22..wid onli 1 memorable innings way back in 2007 where he saved a test fr india at lords itself..another issue is who plays at number 6? place has been mre or less still vacant after dada retired .raina n yuvi were 1nce again exposed against short stuff..trio of rd,sachin n vvs are nt gng to be forver ..zak is nt gettin younger either..wid rk recalled back into the odi its literalli a slap on the face of youngsters like virat,rohit n raina..who are born n brought on sub continent pitches.mind u even rahul dravid was brought up on these pitches ..there is no commitment frm these youngsters..rahul dravid while preparin for 1999 india tour os SA..played on mated chinnaswany tracks n told the local bowlers at bowl wet tennis balls fr a gr8 height .this was to counter the bowlin of pollock,donald ..the result was a brillant 153 at jo'berg at number 3..this shows tat
if there is commitment nthin is impossible ..surely nt gud signs fr indian cricket ahead

shivam said...

i completely agree wid wat sir has written over here..i would like to add 1 mre point ..bowling department..india depends heavily on zk .the aussies teams of 1990s had a very gud back up.if a mcgrath was injured they had the likes of gillespi,kaspo,bichel,macgill...few years ago bhajji was a spinner(i mentioned he was a spinner as bishen singh bedi says spinner is nthin widout loop n rhtym..he has become mre of a dart bowler...
after jumbo retired he was expected to fill into his shoes but he din..mst experts say he needs
a pat on his back regularly n
wicket early in his spell..these are just plain excuses...at international level this is nt expected the gr8 spinners like murli,warnie n our own jumbo were nver like this ..kumble fr example kept bowlin fr hours n hours widout
complainin for anything..another fact that i came across cricinfo is
wat role does dhoni play at number 7..outside the sub-continent he averages 22..wid onli 1 memorable innings way back in 2007 where he saved a test fr india at lords itself..another issue is who bats at number 6 fr india? this place is still open after dada retired in 2008..raina n yuvi were 1nce again exposed against the short stuff n they failed miserly...wid rahul recalled into the odi side its literalli slap on the face of youngsters like virat,rohit n raina..there is lack of commitment
to overcome these flaws..every1 knows how sachin asked laxman siramakrishan to bowl outside leg stump in the famous 97-98 aussies tour of india (this was to counter warnie)..rahul dravid while preparin fr india tour to SA (1999)
batted on mated pitches at chinnaswammy n told the local bowlers to bowl wet tennis balls at him..this was to counter the likes of pollock n donald..the result was
a brillant 153 at jo'berg..zak is nt gettin ne younger..kumble nt there to bowl out the tail enders..the trio of sachin,rahul n vvs are nt going to be forever ..surely nt gr8 signs for indian cricket ahead