The series is 2-1 at this stage & still one more test remains to be played, at Nagpur. However, at this point/stage it seems to be a lost series. If we draw the next match England wins the series by 2-1. Even if we win, still the series is lost in the minds. We could have played better and the result could have been better. It is obvious to analyse the team's "performance" even before the series officially ends. So here we go:
1) Dhoni: He clearly fell short of ideas, not just here, but overall in the past year or so. His ODI & T20 captaincy has been somewhat good, apart from the shoddy performance in England & Australia. Till the time Indian team was No. 1 in Test rankings & till we won the 50-over World Cup in 2011, all was good & rosy. Suddenly one England tour happened & we started losing matches & we haven't seem to recover. Winning against Sri Lanka, West Indies & New Zealand isn't something to be proud of. Sri Lanka has some new talent which is yet to be tried & tested & their bowling attack is somewhat dented by Murali's retirement. West Indies & New Zealand clearly struggled against our spinners in our home conditions. But we failed to seize opportunities against England in England & here, & against Australia in Australia. The field placements didn't really seem to be impressive either. Time has come, Dhoni hands over the reigns to someone (but who?) and relieves himself of the workload. Sometimes he becomes too defensive these days.
2) Sehwag: It maybe due to his fallout with Dhoni (arguable a imaginative news) or his desire to come down the order or maybe age is catching up fast. But he clearly seemed to be a pale shadow of the Viru we know. The Viru, who smashes the bowlers to all parts of the ground. The Viru, who shows no respect to the conditions, to the names of the bowlers, to the match situation, to the score board, to the pitch, who plays only one way and piles up runs, sometimes faster than in T20. India's winning ways were largely propelled and structured around Viru's smashing centuries & we started winning overseas once Viru established himself and settled as an opener. There is no doubt to that. But here, even in home conditions suitable to his batting, he failed except in the first match.
3) Gambhir: He has been out of form for more than a year, almost like Sachin, scoring runs here and there, but not an opener's innings. He has been seen pushing at deliveries more often than playing them. Moreover, Sehwag's failure didn't help either. He quickly needs to work out a solution to the pushing-mindset.
4) Sachin: The biggest star of the country & probably of the cricketing world failed miserably. I would still say his failure was not due to loss of form or cracks in technique. But he needs to really sort out his mindset. For the past couple of years, in test cricket, he goes into shell too often and that is not helping him. If only he can sort out the mind-demons. Else, time has come to pull the shutter down before it falls down.
5) Lower middle order: We have been left with too big a void by Ganguly & VVS's departure. Yuvi and Raina are still not doing themselves any justice. Often they go into T20 modes or in shell like Sachin; sadly their techniques not good for defensive play. Rohit Sharma loves to not do justice to his immense talent & Tiwary is selected in the team only to pass on the water bottles or bats. Dhoni hasn't been the batsman we know for long in Test arena. So the tail is exposed too early.
6) Spinners: We clearly failed to extract the pitch's help like English spinners did. The bigger reason is that we tried too many experiments. You may have a mystery ball or carrom ball, but it is virtually ineffective if you use it too often or without close-in fielders. We went into defensive mode after seeing lesser score by the batsmen and that meant that close-in fielders were rarer than what we used to have in Kumble-Bhajji era. It didn't help that Ashwin seemed to be more in T20-ODI mode even in bowling, and we never forced them to make mistakes. Only one or two partnerships happened in English team, but they were big ones and we failed to stop them in conditions that were suitable more to our spinners.
7) Pacers: Our pacers, especially Zaheer, lacked the initial sting with the new ball. It is understandable that the focus was more on spinners, more than ever. But our pacers simply didn't work at all. They toiled hard and their counterparts, the English pacers were more effective than ours.
8) Overall Batting: Indians are supposed to be the best players against the spinning ball. Well, it seemed true till the "Fantastic Four" were in operation. But over the past couple of years, we seemed to be "worst" players of spin. Although Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar are good spinners, Swann being the best off-spinner currently, we shouldn't forget that our batsman simply lacked the desire to wait at the wicket. As the old adage goes, "stay at the wicket and runs will come". Sadly, it didn't seem to be the case with us. The pitches weren't as bad as they turned out to be. We could have played session by session. But the current lot of batsman clearly & dearly lack the composure & application of a Dravid or a Laxman or even a old-Tendulkar. Sachin did grind it out in the first innings of Kolkata & showed that he still has the desire to go back to the basics when needed. But overall the entire batting line-up failed on that front. Even in England & Australia, there were only a few partnerships, where their batsmen grinded it out, waited patiently and built their innings. Take those partnerships out and even their teams struggled. Sadly, we never had any such partnerships in these 11 test matches. (4 in England, 4 in Australia & 3 here). The fact that we are performing acceptably in ODI & T20 format, the truth remains that we as a Test batting side are losing heavily. And, sadly, the future is gloomy too.
9) Bench strength: Our bench strength must have become specialist bench-warmers by now. We took Ajinky Rahane out of Mumbai duty and gave him the duty of being a replacement fielder or water bottle transporter. We took Ashok Dinda in the team, and put him on bench on his home ground. We overlooked Manoj Tiwary. Unmukt Chand is still too young to play international matches in Test format. Sadly, the list ends here. There have been numerous domestic talents. But either they are not so good when they come at international level or they look out of sorts because their first aim has become to secure a place in the national side.
After having a look at all that has happened, it is imperative that I want the English team to win. Not because I like that team & support it. Not because I don't have any faith in this Indian team. But because, time has come that we shook ourselves awake and enlighten ourselves on the fact that we are not the side which was a few years back. Because, we need to really go to the basics & have someone who plays Test cricket in Test form & not ODI/T20 form. Because, there are some tough decisions to be taken and a loss here will only strengthen the selection committee to take hard but good decisions. If we win in Nagpur, there is a possibility that the same team might play in future series & same mistakes are committed. A 3-1 result is surely welcome if we are going to learn from it. There is nothing wrong in losing by 4-0 even in home conditions, as long as we put up some strong fight, as long as we are fighting till the last ball of the match. Ofcourse, the Indian team is fighting. Not that they are not. But the way they are doing it, it looks like the desire, the killer instinct, is not there. It looks more of mechanical sorts, just doing it for the sake of it. Something really needs to be done.
From here, post this series, I am hoping for some changes, changes not for the sake of it, but for the sake of Indian cricket.
1) The biggest change expected is to have some Test specialists. In Dravid/Laxman we had named them as Test specialists and they were rightly in those roles. We need to quickly find someone who are in their mould, who are not affected by T20s. Not just in batting, but in bowling too.
2) Push Sehwag down the order, maybe at No. 5 or 6 and get a proper opener. Someone like Rahane or Tiwary can be of good help. We still need Sehwag for his swashbuckling hittings, carefree attack and big centuries.
3) Ashwin has been a good find, a good thinking bowler, but I strongly feel he is more suited to ODI & T20 format than Test. If Bhajji is good enough for Tests, which he is, we more importantly need a good leg-spinner. If we are going to continue with Ojha (he has seemed a far better bowler than Ashwin), we certainly need a leg-spinner with variations. A Piyush Chawla or Amit Mishra can be helpful, they can bat a bit too.
4) I would like to see Zaheer resting and not play Test cricket for some time. He is not unfit, but it is difficult to hide him in the fielding side and his batting is not helping either. We could play him in overseas conditions where the ball swings.
5) Sachin should think of his role. He could continue to play Test cricket, if he is retiring from ODIs. An ODI demands more energy and stamina levels for the day. Test cricket is not that demanding physically, especially when he has 23 years of experience of every ground in the cricketing world. If at he is to retire, then this is the right time. Further extending his pain and expectations, can hurt him more.
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