“This might take half an hour.” When asked to pinpoint the reasons behind India's disappointing series in England, Rahul Dravid's had this to say. By the looks of it, half hour may not be enough.
What constitutes a World No 1 team? An invincibility cloak wrapped around them, with competitors struggling to find loopholes to exploit and inflict damage. An Aura off the field, that transforms into ruthlessness on it. Some great players for whom conjuring Virtuoso performances are just another day’s work. The West Indies team of the 70’s, The Australian Cricket Team of the noughties, Indian hockey team of the grass era, Barcelona in recent times, Liverpool of the old. They all had it. When India rose to the top of the World Test Championships, many questions were raised about their longevity. Some good performances from their side and a lot of ordinary performances from their opponents made sure that it lasted longer than what many would have imagined. When they arrived for the 1st day at Lord’s for the 2000th test, in a series that was most anticipated to be exciting, nobody would have imagined the kind of abject surrender that this Indian team has given their opponents, who looked more like a lion starving for ages. No wonder the 3 lions had a hearty feast.
It’s true that both England played well and India played badly. But a deeper insight will reveal that the problems plaguing India is more off the field it than on it. This series was a reality check more for the management than for the players. Lack of form, bad selection, untimely injuries, mis-management, you can find a number of reasons for the failure but there is no need to press the panic button as yet. You cannot stop BCCI from thinking about making money because that’s what they are best at. But a strategic approach to the following is absolutely needed to make sure that they don’t lose the money making tree in the future.
There is a calling from experts about the opportunities that needs to be given for the younger batsmen to get used to different conditions. Yes, there is a need for opportunity but not at this level. The likes of Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Abhinav Mukund, Murali Vijay, Chateshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Mithun, and Pragyan Ojha to be sent to different conditions like England, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, not on the Senior level but at an A level or the likes of Emerging Players tournaments. All these youngsters are promising but are not quite ready to replace a Sachin or a Dravid or a Laxman or a Zaheer. They have been carrying the team for a long time now and will continue to do so. One bad series do not make them dispensable.
No matter how many times this has been debated, injury management is where the BCCI makes repeated mistakes. Zaheer, Sehwag and Gambhir just didn’t look ready. Just after surgery and pushed straight into a high profile series was a major blunder. And BCCI’s management of fast bowlers has never been any good. We will keep losing promising youngsters unless BCCI changes its attitude.
He has been the frontline spinner for the country for some time now, but Harbhajan Singh seldom showed that responsibility. His line was too defensive and never quite looked like the guy who recently crossed 400 test wickets, where at one point he promised much more at this age. I reckon Harbhajan needs to be dropped, given the treatment that Yuvraj Singh was given pre-world cup. May be Ganguly will do to Bhajji what Sachin did to Yuvraj.
I sympathize with Dhoni. I mean the guy who just won the World cup for India and took CSK to a second successive IPL title cannot be a bad captain overnight. Too brain dead may be? I don’t think so. I think it’s the case of too many things going out of his control but Dhoni the test batsman needs to improve.
The money mongers of the BCCI, for a change need to make some wise decisions about things other than making money. Former captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi said he didn't anticipate too many changes coming into place. "The BCCI is not going to show a great deal of vision," Pataudi said. "Cricket will continue [in India] the way it is, but I sincerely hope that some sense does come in." Will the BCCI respond in kind?
