Time to press the panic button

The adjective ‘worst’ doesn’t carry sufficient weight-age to describe how India has performed in the last 7 away tests. This has been an exceptional abject display of surrender that you could associate with International cricket. Yes India banged into a strong & in-form English side in conditions conducive for the home side, but there would be very little convictive reasons to explain the thrashing down under. India had embarked the tour with probably its best available line-up, and if 0-3 is the outcome then you are justified in questioning the potency of this side. A month ago this series was touted as India’s best chance; very few gave Australia a chance, especially after South Africa & Hobart. 3 tests into the series and the tables have turned, and how! Was India so underprepared to perform so badly? If two weeks weren’t sufficient to acclimatise, then aren’t a couple of tests good enough?

India’s woes in these ‘7’ tests has been its failure to identify & address the real problems; rather than focusing on short-term objectives. When you are confronted to answer: ‘what is worse - batting or the bowling?’ you should realise something is seriously wrong. The bigger picture is very perturbing: has India lost its ability to win away tests? Bad tests can be a one-off affair, collective failures can be temporary but 7 test losses is a huge run to justify these arguments. The batting is looking as fragile as ever, the bowling looking good just in patches, and India’s fielding was never the greatest. Look down the batting line-up are you would flummoxed to find the stats associated with these names in the last 7-8 months. Gambhir has been one of the biggest disappointments to begin with; a lot was expected off the opener who was touted as the ideal opener for the future. Sehwag’s struggle hasn’t flummoxed many, but the frequency of poor scores is too high to be masked with reasons. India’s big 3 were expected to carry the side through the tough conditions in England & Australia; instead they have been the weak link in the side. With age comes experience and rationality but doesn’t help when you aren’t quite performing to the expectations you have set.

Indeed the time has come for Indian cricket to look beyond and rope in young players to carry the baton. Virat Kohli’s couple of knocks appear to be the only ray of hope amidst the turmoil. He is being touted as the ‘next big thing’ in Indian cricket and it would be ideal if a couple of others in the wings are given the space to embrace test cricket. Indian selectors have been found wanting with short-term selections and resistance to take ‘tough’ decisions. So what are those ‘tough’ decisions? Are they exercising wholesale changes, or are they sending out the right signals at the right time? While the theory that ‘losing tests with young players is fine’, might sound very good at the moment, but it doesn’t warrant being called as sensible. India hasn’t found a concrete replacement to Ganguly, since 2008 when he retired. In retrospection the selectors have to ask themselves whether they gave the youngsters enough opportunities at the right moments. For example Virat or Rohit could have been inserted in that middle order to set them up for Australia, but selectors thought otherwise. Visualise Indian cricket a couple of seasons down the line, no Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and probably Zaheer as well. The core of players who featured in a period tagged as the golden era isn’t getting younger, but it is imperative that India doesn’t push them at once. Sensible & planned phase-out could have been ideal, but circumstances and lack of decisions which have led to them are now calling out for eviction of a couple of players at once. Thus whether we like it or not and whether the legends deserve it or not, the results might hasten the retirements.

Often successful test teams have had good bowling line-ups. In India’s case the bowling department is inferior to the famed batting. Yet you cannot discount the bowlers for criticising the test side. You shouldn’t expect whirlwind spells with consistency off a young bowling line-up, but Indian bowling isn’t as young as is being made to look. Zaheer about 4-years ago was a completely different and much tougher proposition for batsmen to face. Ishant appears to lack the ability to lead an attack. Umesh & Ashwin sprung up onto the scene with scintillating starts but you cannot be sure of the success in the long run. To top it all, experts believe Dhoni has been defensive with his field position which has added to the woes of the bowling unit not picking up 20 wickets consistently.

Let us now talk about the most important person in a cricket side: the captain. He has accepted the entire responsibility, but poor run with the bat, scratchy wicket-keeping and a dismal run as a team would be something you wouldn’t have envisaged 10 months ago. Experts claim that he doesn’t deserve a place in the playing XI, that might be correct but is there a replacement keeper & captain? The answer is a vociferous ‘no’! So do we carry on in the same vein? The answer again is a strong ‘no’! The pressure on MS Dhoni is growing by the hour. For starters he now has a game off, to think about the entire scenario, his & the team's future, and also the time to think about the composition of the side.

Tradition suggests absence of big decisions inspite of a long ‘disastrous’ run. For Indian cricket to evolve and come out of this mire, tough decisions are the need of the hour. This does not imply wholesale changes and hara-kiri with the selection but a neat and chalked out way forward. With likes of Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and later Dhoni, Zaheer & probably Sehwag to call it a day within the next 2-3 years, the process of resurrection has to commence as soon as possible. Frankly speaking even TV experts and newspaper editors aren’t very sure of what could be the way out of this situation as what has transpired is a bit way beyond imagination. At the moment what is the bigger worry apart from the results is the lack of intensity on the field & the dent in confidence that these losses have brought about, which are particularly reflecting with the inability to convert the small moments, sessions, momentum to its advantage. With the team down on the mat, lack of inspiration and continuous bashing, atleast the fans can be a bit merciful in their criticism for the team, can’t they?