A highly anticipated, competitive and an intriguing series will
end tomorrow. In what has been an absorbing 4 weeks or so we saw the difference
between the mental approaches of the two sides ultimately translate into which
side directed momentum in its favor at crucial moments. After the experiences
of UAE and Sri Lanka, England finally managed to get things right in terms of
results, as there was never a deviation in the way they shaped themselves up
for each of these testing tours. If you had to be critical of this Cook-led side,
the approach in the last test could be questioned, but then you don’t get too
many opportunities to have a stake at series wins in the sub-continent!
India was expected to come back stronger after the
disastrous away tours, but it turns out that the team wasn’t prepared to face a
determined, disciplined team. Fragment the analysis to realize that there was a
sense of sameness to the mistakes that happened. The batting failed too often,
the bowling was decent in general but lacked the fire and penetration that is
necessary to create opportunities to win test matches. The leadership appeared
jaded, the fielding for most periods lethargic, the vocal chords in the field were
dry and the shoulders dropped too quickly.
Given that the team is going through a transitional phase,
the frequency and the manner of batting collapses can be termed as ‘a matter of
concern’ rather than ‘alarming’. The strong batting line-up (on paper) is
woefully missing a sponge in the middle order to absorb all the pressure and a
pivot to control the innings. Virat and Dhoni tried to provide the spark to the
worn out line-up at Nagpur, but even those brilliant knocks ended at a critical
juncture, eventually discounting the stellar effort on the larger canvas.
There have been too many individual and collective failures
to neglect or not rectify. The scheduling has been a bit of blanket for these
issues to be addressed comprehensively - 0-4 in England was followed by West
Indies at home, 0-4 in Australia was followed the IPL and the New Zealand
series and now 2 poor performances have been followed by a spirited, energetic
display at Nagpur! India has had many set-up moments in all this gloom to sit on and build
something concrete, but somehow most of them have been allowed to disintegrate.
There has been a common pattern to the last year and half -
slightly better performance once pushed to the corner! Does this trend arise
out of lack of greater desire to win test matches? Lack of motivation? We don’t
know how players react mentally to playing different formats, but the greater
glamour associated with limited-overs cricket has somehow leveled ODI & T20
cricket performance ambitions with the desire to excel in test cricket. The
Indian team has a common core for all the three formats and with IPL the
players are on duty for almost the entire year. Perhaps this quantum of
pressure-cricket has a role in players appearing to merely turn-up for test
matches rather than jeed up on the first morning.
Indian cricket was struggling around 1999-00 and the
match-fixing saga rocked it to another level. The inspirational Ganguly was
handed over the mantle to lead an uncertain side with cluttered minds. It
needed day 4 of the Kolkata test of 2001 to turn things around and set the bar
for the following decade! The cycle has encircled and unless there is another
Kolkata 2001 or a Perth 2008 as soon as possible, there is a greater probability
that this slide in results/performances will not cease. The defensive field placings and batting approaches suggest that the players are diffident in the mind and a aggressive opponent have jumped on this weakness; lesser sides haven't had the arsenal to capitalize.
There is no dearth of potential in the players to turn the
tables, but what is missing is the zest and purpose while coming out for a test
match, atleast the body languages suggest so. England was the better team in
this series and they deserved to end winners, but what was disappointing was the
flat attitude of the Indian team which gave a sense that there was only one
team prepared to grind. The vocal endorsement of the liking for turning tracks
suggested that the team was working too hard on the opponent’s weakness rather
than on its strengths and abilities. It is said that there is no shame in
losing, but the way a result is generated shouldn’t be an aspect of
questioning.
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