It is astonishing how the fortunes of the current Indian cricket team have nosedived in 19 days. Just when it appeared that the young team under Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on course to assert themselves following the success in the second Test at Lord’s, they have frittered it away with spineless displays.
The capitulation at Old Trafford on Saturday which saw them lose inside three days, poses serious questions about the team’s Test credentials. What rankles the most is not the defeat but the utter lack of fight and gumption.
Of the 20-odd sessions of play in the two Tests, the Indians did not dominate a single session, which proves how hopeless they were. Their opening combination is in a mess, the top order has failed to fire, the bowlers have lacked in discipline and their slip catching has been atrocious.
It is impossible to win anything with such poor attributes. No wonder, a struggling England team has found a fresh lease of life and are on course to win the series.
So what has led to this downfall? The answer to that lies in their batting which never really took off in the series. The bowling in comparison was relatively better but the moment Ishant Sharma got injured after the Lord’s Test the attack too lost its potency.
England, who had been struggling all along, cashed in on it and raised their game. It has been all downhill for India ever since.
While England have managed to arrest their recent slide, India are in a similar situation as Alastair Cook and Co were three weeks ago.
The bigger concern, however, continues to be India’s overseas performance. It is no good being tigers at home and lambs abroad because both the team and their superstar players’ Test credentials will always be judged on how they perform away from home.
And in the last three years they have not shown any improvement with the defeats at Southampton and Old Trafford proving it in big measure. The Lord’s success seems more of an aberration.
India’s poor away record in recent times is also a stinging indictment of the team’s think-tank headed by the coach Duncan Fletcher and captain Dhoni. Since Fletcher took over in 2011, India have lost 11 of their 18 overseas Tests and won just two.
In the same period, India won 11 out of 15 Test matches at home.
It is obvious the Indians have glossed over their away failures with the successes at home and unless the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) checks this anomaly, they will continue to dish out such pathetic results.
Dhoni and Fletcher have failed miserably in building a strong Test team and it is high time a fresh thought process is injected by either sacking the captain or coach or both. Firing Fletcher appears to be a better option as there are no able candidates at the moment to take the reins from Dhoni with Virat Kohli in a poor run of form.
Old-timers may disagree but the coach in modern cricket plays a crucial role in charting the team’s progress. Look how Darren Lehmann has worked wonders for Australia. Maybe, it is time for the BCCI to dial Gary Kirsten’s number again.
